Series: Race Card Project

On June 11, 1963, Gov. George Wallace stood at the University of Alabama to block two black students attempting to cross the color line and register for classes. The event forever associated him with segregation. His daughter, Peggy Wallace Kennedy, 63, is trying to shake that link.

Elysha O'Brien calls herself a "Mexican white girl." Not just because of her ethnically ambiguous appearance, she says, but also because she can't speak Spanish. Fearing their children would experience discrimination if they spoke Spanish, her parents chose not to teach them their native tongue.

While being forced to tick a single box for "race" has never been a problem for George Washington III, who is black, his mixed-race children see it differently. And for Dave Kung, being allowed to check two races on the U.S. Census form for the first time prompted an unexpected outpouring of emotion.

Where are you from? Jessica Hong, a Korean-American, is constantly asked about her heritage, often before people learn anything else about her. Charley Sullivan found himself on the wrong side of the same question when he was 12 years old.