Raphael Montgomery was born in 1973 in Baytown. He came of age in the African-American Cedar Bayou neighborhood where there was a vibrant African-American business community and residents created a village setting. His parents raised him with the idea that he had to work harder and smarter due to racial discrimination. After graduating from Ross S. Sterling High School, Montgomery attended Prairie View A&M briefly before enrolling at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. At Fisk University, he gained a deeper awareness of the Civil Rights Movement and African-American history that he did not receive in public school. The knowledge he gleaned from African-American texts and African-American Studies courses instilled a sense of pride and the ability to perservere. During these college years, Montgomery received the call to become a minister and to later return to Baytown to preach at his childhood church, Mount Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. He talks about racial profiling by the police, growing up in the church and his father's role as a preacher, the benefits of attending a HBCU, and his position as a special education teacher for Goose Creek Independent School District. He also describes his unity and inclusion work in Baytown through his church …