Opinion Your Opinion: MLK and critical race theory Dear Editor: My great-grandfather, a white physician in northern Illinois, ran a station on the Underground Railroad helping slaves escape to freedom in Canada. Jul. 10 2021 @ 11:05pm William Steinmeier Dear Editor: My great-grandfather, a white physician in northern Illinois, ran a station on the Underground Railroad helping slaves escape to freedom in Canada. After the Civil War, he moved his practice into the town of Wheaton, where a college had been founded in 1860 by a white Christian abolitionist. My grandmother and my parents all graduated from that school, Wheaton College, which is where I met my wife, as well. My parents, a pastor and his equally devout wife raised me to respect all people of all races. As a teenager, I admired Martin Luther King Jr. and was stunned and saddened by his assassination. Years later, in Atlanta on business, I would take a taxi to Ebenezer Baptist Church which King had pastored. I came home with five cassette tapes of King's "I Have a Dream" speech so I could give one to each of our children.