Through his lens as a "colored" child, "Negro" teenager, "Black" young man, and finally successful African American state official, this education program will reveal how Merritt D. Long was shaped by - and helped to shape - American history. Jim Crow laws, segregation and the civil rights movement are the backdrop to Long's childhood and youth in Alabama in the 1950's and 1960's. As a child, the color of Long's skin dictated what doors he could walk through, where he…