Walter White's father was a mail carrier in Atlanta and his mother was a housewife.  They ran a very religious household with clear  expectations and strict rules.   Although merely a mail carrier himself two AME bishops and a college president at one time lived on his block. The entire family was light-complexioned and the children were instructed not to deny their Negro-ness if asked, but not to declare it until asked.  Their middle class aspirations and their ability to sometimes avoid the restrictions of the color line shaped young Walter's antipathy toward racial caste.

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