My husband had just returned from a year in Korea. We were headed for his new duty station in Birmingham, AL. I was expecting our 4th child and desperately needed to use a restroom. We were on a two-lane road, not a divided highway. I was really desperate when we saw a gas station where he pulled over and almost before he had stopped, I jumped out---ran towards the ladies' room.
Two young women of color had just come out.
"Ma'am, you can't go in there,"
"Oh dear, is it broken?" I was really desperate.
"Ma'am, it's for coloreds."
Stunned, shocked, and desperate, I used it anyway.
We've come a long way since then, 1963, thanks to Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, and all the Civil Rights people.
During the next three years we lived in AL, this PA Dutch small-town gal learned a lot about racism. Going to the state-run liquor store, I stood in the white's only line. At my obstetrician's office, I used the front entrance, waited in an all-white waiting room aware nonwhites used a back entrance, and had a separate waiting room.
We've come a long way since then, 1963. Unfortunately, this is a time when that long journey so many took has been forgotten.
Sadly what the Civil Rights marchers, movers, and shakers worked so hard for is being overturned by--no, not blacks, not whites but the news media that thrives on bad news.
Do they write about white cops killing white people? Do they write about black people killing black people?
Of course not---that doesn't make the news.
Do they focus on peaceful protests or do they make headlines of riots?
We've come a long way since 1963 and I agree with many that we haven't come far enough.
"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
I have that dream too, Dr. King, I have that dream too.
I'm with you. I was raised in California. I didn't notice this racism in the same way as people in the South did. It was more subtle. Segregation was enforced not by law, but by the real estate association in each community. As a result, except for a few Asians, I rarely saw people of other races when I was growing up. Realtors just didn't sell to them in our town.
ReplyDeleteOf course, that has changed there now.
This is what I have always believed, and I was with those in the Civil Rights Movement in the 60s. I admired Dr. King and his inspiring words. I believed my country could finally learn to know a person, rather than resenting their skin color. I think the killings of JFK MLK and RFK were calculated to bring a halt to the momentum of the movement for equality. And though it didn't seem to at the time, I truly believe that's when those who want to bring our country down began working their evilness. We've slid backwards in time as only a nation could do, if the right grease was applied to do so. We have internal enemies and they aren't going away, but growing stronger every day. Whenever you see the riots, looting and destruction you see the face of the evil permeating America. When people of any race are convinced by constant repetition that they are being "oppressed," they will begin to believe it whether or not it's true. Once they believe, it's a short step to obstructing and undermining those they see as enemies; the United States and its white people. How sad that they cannot see the truth. Thanks for the story, Mary. Always like your writing.
ReplyDeleteThank you Nancy, sorry I didn't see this earlier. I plan to record it for my Grandkids---in my "A Little Bit of Me' recorded texts I send them.
ReplyDelete