‘It’s how we grew up’: Buffalo’s struggle to escape the shadow of segregation

Residents reflect on poverty and displacement as the city remains among the most racially divided in America

When Darius Pridgen, 47, was a young boy in east Buffalo, his parents sent him to predominantly white Christian schools in the suburbs. They wanted him to have a better education and a childhood.

Pridgen, now president of the city council and a senior pastor at True Bethel Baptist Church, rode multiple buses to get to the private school, entering a whole 'nother world", he said, adding that he didn't recall having known any white children until then.