Many of us are familiar with “the talk.” I have in mind the African American version in which we outline for our kids how to engage with law enforcement. This is not an instruction on the nuances of legal rights. Instead, Black children receive tools to survive the moment.
But there is another talk that exists largely in the states of the former Confederacy. It’s a lesson in Southern geography.
I knew two maps as a teenager. One revealed the quickest way from, say, Huntsville, Ala., where I lived, to Jackson, Miss., where I sometimes…
