Feb. 20, 2007: Neal Boyd reflects on race and success

Fitting in was hard at first for Sikeston, Mo., native Neal Boyd. Growing up as a boy in Southeast Missouri with a black father and white mother, Boyd didn't conform neatly to traditional racial identification. He was black and white at the same time, which made the inevitable taunts from children much more harsh.

"I had to work on my sense of humor a lot to get through sometimes," said Boyd, who now lives in St. Louis. "I wasn't called some of the best names growing up, but you have to choose to handle your issue through words or walking away, and I did it through humor."

Boyd remembers an incident in which a fellow student on the playground pushed him to the ground and verbally attacked him all because his mother was white, while Boyd's skin was not.

"I asked him why he did it, and he said 'Because your mom's white,'" Boyd remembered. "And I said, 'Isn't everybody's?'"

Boyd made others laugh so he could fit in. But if there are laughs to be had now, they're not at Boyd's expense. It took less than 10 years for the 30-year-old tenor to establish himself as one of the best singers in Missouri. The Southeast Missouri State University alumnus won the National Collegiate Artist Voice Competition in 2000, sang a solo at the memorial service for governor Mel Carnahan in 2000, performed at Carnegie Hall twice and performed at the Kennedy Center. And those are only a few of Boyd's accomplishments.