According to Fox 59, Eugene Britton Carter, a black man, received an unexpected surprise in the mail recently: a letter from a man he hadn't talked to in decades.

The letter was written by Tom Owens, a white man and former teammate of Carter. They played together on a high school basketball team nearly 60 years ago.

What did the letter contain?

A heartwarming apology from Owens on behalf of himself and the other white members of their high school team for the racism Carter and the team's other black athletes were forced to endure.

"I was kind of shocked when I read it because I hadn't seen or heard from Tom since 1961 and then he wrote me a letter apologizing to me for something I almost forgot about," Carter said.

Owens' letter specifically apologized for a particular incident: when the black members of the team weren't allowed to participate in a basketball tournament in Georgia because the opposing coach refused to have them.

In a portion of the letter shared by The Indy Channel, Owens wrote:

"Our apology does not excuse what happened and we ask forgiveness for our behavior due to the extreme ignorance and poor judgment. It is important, however, that you know that we realize what a horrible experience this must have been for you guys and your families and we regret very much that it happened."

Owens added that he regretted not being braver in his youth. "It doesn't matter if we left one behind, or we left 10 behind, it was wrong. I wish I had the courage and intestinal fortitude to stand up to my parents, coach, school administrators to say ‘I'm not going. We all go, or nobody goes.'"

Although Carter "almost forgot about" the incident, it has haunted Owens ever since. When Carter met up with a few of his former teammates at a recent high school reunion, he had to bring it up. They all agreed that the least they could do was to apologize.

Owens said, "I have been thinking about the right thing to say and all and finally about a month ago I finally got the letter written and sent it off to him and was so pleasantly surprised when he immediately called me back to say how much he appreciated it."

Carter, though grateful for his apology, was used to incidents such as the one with the team, and sadly, never thought twice about it. "But it bothers me a little bit he's been carrying that weight on his shoulder for 56 years now how he really felt about it. I never knew because when they came back from Georgia as a team we went on as nothing ever happened," Carter said.

Still, Carter would not be opposed to reconnecting with Owens after all of these decades."I wish I could see him. I don't know if I would recognize him now or not. Time has a way of making you old, so I would like to see him."

Both Carter and Owens have been in contact by phone with each other since the letter.

And Carter, as well as Owens, hope to use the letter to spread a positive message:

"It took a lot of heart for him to do that after all these years, but he said it has been bothering him since it happened,” Carter said. "Get along. We are all one. There is no difference between everybody. There is no sense of hatred or bigotry. We need to get by that. Treat everybody the way you want to be treated."

Owens said, "It's never too late to say I'm sorry and to apologize and also it's never too late to do the right thing."