This is Lee Habib, and this is Our American Stories, and we tell stories about everything here on this show, including your stories.

Send them to OurAmerican Stories.com. That to Our American Stories.com.

That's Our American Stories.com.

And today we're talking to Eric Motley.

We've heard from Eric before about his life.

Eric, you talk about how one of the most pivotal stories

happened while you were at Samford University,

involving your pledging at a fraternity.

It was a moment that displayed both the best and the worst in people.

Tell us about that.

I was too naive to really know what a fraternity was.

I arrived. Samford was predominantly a white university,

and as much as the majority of the students there were people not of color,

maybe there was four or five percent of a colored population, people of color,

and that's minorities, Hispanic and African Americans.

But I was in a wonderful Christian community, and people embraced me,

and they seemed to be interested in me, and as much as I was interested in them.

And for sure, maybe I was a bit eccentric and I was so intense on getting an education that everyone in the university knew that I was the first in the library in the morning and the last to leave the library.

And that became a bit of a joke, but a wonderful joke and an daring joke.

And then there were a group of upperclassmen who became friends,

and they encouraged me to go through Rush because they thought it was a wonderful opportunity

for me to meet more people

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