The King in Plain Sight

On May 9, 1969, Fred Rogers carried a small plastic wading pool into the yard of his television house. It was a warm day in the Neighborhood. He filled the pool with water, sat down beside it, rolled up his trouser legs and put his bare feet into the water. A little later Officer Clemmons came by. François Clemmons, the classically trained singer who played the neighborhood police officer, was wearing his uniform. Rogers invited him to sit down. Clemmons removed his boots and socks, rolled up his trousers and placed his feet in the same little pool. He and François Clemmons simply sat side by side with their feet in the same water.

The year matters. America in 1969 was demonstrating an extraordinary ability to cross distances. By July, Apollo 11 would carry three astronauts nearly a quarter-million miles from Earth and two of them would walk on the moon. At the same time, more than half a million American troops were serving in…