In MY LIFETIME, blacks weren't allowed to drink from the same water fountain as me.

[Atman]

I talked to my 73 year old mom today. She had to hang up after a few minutes...she was still crying. She said she's been crying since last night, she's so thrilled. My mom and dad were civil rights activists in the sixties (mostly dad, though), so this really hit home with her.

We talked about how much has happened, how far we've come as a nation. It was very moving. You younguns...bless you. Thank you. Everyone who voted for Obama...thank you. Now call my mom and make her stop crying!


.

[mrcheerful]

1. Yeah the good old days the cons are always talking about

I remember as a kid mom took us to a park in michigan, we live here still, and she caught me playing with some black kids, beat my ass and told me to stay with my own "kind". Stuff like this not even being in a coma because of a head injury isn't wiped out, though everything else was.

[Why Syzygy]

7. That's sad.

I grew up in the 60s. We weren't racist at my house. My dad was a protestant minister, and was into helping people and not judging or hurting them. A gentle soul. We took a trip from TX to GA to see relatives, and that's where we saw the racism. My family sat at a table in a cafe and discussed how it was not fair that blacks could work in the kitchen, but not be seated with us in the dining room.

It wasn't that bad in TX. My mother hired a black woman to help with ironing. We ironed everything. I rode with her to take the lady home, which was on the other side of the RR tracks. We gave them food and clothes sometimes. My first puppy was adopted from the newspaper. Her name was "Rastus" when I got her. My mother said we had to change her name. I had to ask what did Rastus mean. We were at the service station and a black man was cleaning our windshield. She shh'd me so as not to embarrass him. I named her Prissy.

We were never racist. We lived in West Texas during part of my high school years. Our next door neighbors were black. I babysat for them. I was shocked to hear the kids all calling each other n*. One day I was walking home from school with some friends, telling them about the kids, and just said they say n*, n*, n*. Immediately we all realized that one of our friends walking with us was a black girl. She was a good friend. I just completely forgot she was black.

My home was not prejudiced, but, when I was in college in my granddad's home town, he found out I had a black friend. He did sit me down and give me a lecture about that. He was a minister too. I was already a young adult and just saw hypocrisy.

I'm really sorry your memory is so sad. That was a survival message, that "those" people were dangerous. It makes sense that it would be something not easily forgotten.

[TomInTib]

2. Same here. Theaters and filling stations, as well.

Rural Texas, in the '50s.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

12. segregated lunch counters, bars, restaurants, motels, movie theaters

I was a little kid living in the south for two years during the 1950s (Texas and Arkansas). My mother would always take me by the hand when we got on a bus and walk to the rear where the black people were segregated, over the protests of the driver and the white people sitting up front.

[knowbody0]

3. I remember

the "no dogs or indians allowed" signs at the fruit stands all over eastern Washington

[Cleita]

4. I remember one memorable day in New Orleans in 1948 when I was eight years old

when my mom got into a fight with the street car conductor because she and I had taken seats in what was called the Jim Crow car. Being residents of California and my mother was a foreigner, she didn't understand what that was about. It was a segregated section for African Americans to ride in back then. Well the conductor told her that white people sat up front. My mother retorted that there was no seats in the white car but plenty in the back. Well, words flew and he finally left in a huff muttering what sounded like N-lover. After we got back to the hotel, my father explained segregation to her. She was truly horrified that human beings were treated like a sub-species because of their skin color. She told my father that she never wanted to come to the South ever again until those laws changed.

[csziggy]

5. 1957 Palatka, Florida movie theatre had a "Coloreds Only" balcony

I wanted to sit in that balcony - in my home town the balcony in the theatre had been condemned and was not allowed to be used, so I thought it would be neat to sit up there. I didn't think it was fair that just because we were white, we were not allowed to use the balcony.

I was five and that was the first time I remember seeing something like that. I know it had to exist at places I had been - we visited Mom's parents and relatives in Selma, Alabama most summers but I suspect my parents just did not take us to places where we would see those signs when we were in my home town. They worked hard to overcome the attitudes they were raised with, even though they were never anything but conservative.

It was a shock to see the March on Selma at the bridge where we turned to visit my great-aunts and -uncles - their house was on the river not far from that infamous bridge. Later, I recognized the racism and bigotry in the places we visited in the South.

I was proud when my Mom told me she voted for Obama - raised in central Alabama in the 20s and 30s, that was a major choice for her to make!

[KSDiva]

6. Luckily I don't remember them

and to me the crazy separate but equal stuff is the stuff of legend or almost a bad fairy tale. I know it was very real and I intellectually see the struggles that took place -- don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to downplay any feelings or what folks went through. It's hard to articulate.

To me, all of the laws that were before the Civil Rights movement, to me are ridiculous. When I look at my black coworkers or biracial close girlfriend, it --- it just seems ridiculous that at any point in time they were considered "less" than anyone else. I can't emotionally, really fathom it. And it hit me today. That maybe, just maybe, when my eldest daughter is my age...she'll look back on this election and see that not only did African-American's take another leap forward, but maybe all the other groups that are treated badly or denied rights because they are different will have taken a step forward too. Today.

Maybe when she's my age, she'll look back at the discrimination leveled against GBLT community (of which her loving godmother and my best friend is a part of) and think -- "how ridiculous that anyone could ever think they were 'less' a person than anyone else."

Anyway, not to thread hijack. As a white American, I have to admit, I voted for Barack because I was inspired by him and completely taken with his intelligence and abilities. I recognized he was biracial and identifies black (is that the right term?) but it didn't really hit me until I saw my friends reactions last night and the reactions on TV of so many people. So, I've been thinking a lot today, not necessarily coherently. But thanks for the space to try to put it to words.

[deaniac21]

8. It's hard to hold the tears back when you know that the planet

is beginning to heal.

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. 1964, driving thru the South , from the Pac. NW for the first time.

Just married, just out of high school, 21 y/o hubby was going to be based at Ft.Rucker, Al.
( Anniston) to be trained as an "adviser" then on to 'Nam. ( Yeah, the gov was lying about the war in 63).

We stop at a drive-in, it was Jan. with 2 inches of snow on the ground, really cold, and I saw a black man eating a hamburger outside, leaning on a pickup, shivering. Had no clue why he was outside instead of inside.
Until I went to the bathrooms and saw the signs. I was shocked into stunned silence for 50 miles.

Later some white neighbors tried to "helpfully" talk to me about why I should not "visit with" the black woman who lived across the street from me.
These white neighbors ran a falling down "store" that sold cigarettes by the each, to black customers who came around to the back of the store.

It's 44 years later, the soldier husband never got past my anti-war activity which coincided with the birth of our 2nd son, he's many years gone, the kids are grown, pacifists, and
I just retired after years of being a social worker in the rural South.

I have lived here in the South for over 20 years, and when I voted yesterday the image of the man eating the hamburger in the cold suddenly came to mind, and I couldn't stop crying.




edited: spelling

[Why Syzygy]

10. kick

[Wiley50]

11. Same here. When they were forced to integrate the schools in my home town in TN

They closed the public pool rather than having to integrate it too.

After a few years private public pools were built "by membership only" and only whites were accepted to these "pool clubs".

In between only the richest kids had access to a pool because their parents were members of the country club which had a pool.

As late as the mid '90's a young black man was pulled over in his truck (probably by either a police impersonator or a real one)
and shotgunned to death through the rear window of his pick up. Everyone seemed to know that it was because he ran with white girls.
His dad put a wreath on the spot on every anniversary until he passed away.

Tennessee, of course, the majority voted Repuke again this year

[roody]

13. My family went to visit an aunt in Decatur, AL, around 1960.

We were crossing a river on a ferry boat. I was sitting on a mint green bench across from another mint green bench that said "colored." I was puzzled. The bench I was on said "white," but they were both mint green. There were a bunch of kids drinking at the water fountain close to me, so I got up and drank from the fountain across the aisle. A big man came out and started yelling at me. I started crying and my mom appeared and gave that man hell! That was my introduction to segregation.