Gordon Parks, the poet, composer, filmmaker and photographer, wasn't able to sit with whites when he was growing up in Fort Scott, Kan. The town has made it up to him with a celebration of his life.

In the Liberty Theater where, as a boy, Parks had to sit in the balcony with other blacks, he ate dinner next to the governor of Kansas. Down front.

"Gordon, welcome to the front row," Gov. Kathleen Sebelius told Parks.

The banquet capped the town's first Gordon Parks Celebration of Culture and Diversity. More than 200 people attended four days of lectures, panel discussions, movie screenings and reminiscing.

"I have a strange feeling back here," Parks said. "It's a strange mixture of the tragedies and the good things that happened here."