Some stereotype Alabama — home of the race-baiting Southern Poverty Law Center — as home of a lot of racists? This 80-year-old widow would beg to differ. She was eating along when three young black men arrived at a BBQ restaurant in Oxford, Alabama. One of them noticed her eating alone. “He just came up and he said, ‘I saw you sitting over here alone,’” she recounted. “And he said, ‘Do you mind having some company?’”

“And she said, ‘Go right ahead,’” said the young man. “And then I introduced myself and she introduced herself. And it’s just kind of how it all got started.”

The four of them enjoyed dinner together. “And it was really just a nice, pleasant evening,” said Eleanor. And there have been getting together since – it was the start of a friendship!