@ctuckerprof Cynthia, this piece was is so important. Thank you for writing it, and I am so glad those elderly black folk were willing to share their memories. I grew up witnessing inequalities in Monroe County that as a small child, I could believe what I was seeing. Yes, you and I are -
@ctuckerprof - same age. But I witness these from the perspective of a white kid. There is no way I could feel the true impact, but even as a kid I saw the behaviors as justly unequal. I grew up in Mobile, but spent much time in Monroe County where my dad’s family was from. In Mobile I saw -
@ctuckerprof - obvious inequality. Just looking at the Greyhouse Bus Station on Government Street I could see the “White” and “Colored” waiting rooms and the difference in quality and comfort of furniture was apparent, I saw many labeled drinking fountains where the difference in the -
@ctuckerprof - fixtures was evident. By the time I was a school child I realized separate but equal was a falsify. But, even in the 60s the humiliating treatment of black people in Monroe County was something that just left me flabbergasted. My grandparents lived in Frisco City, then it was-
@ctuckerprof a vibrant farm town, everyone went to the Baptist or Methodist Church, everyone went out of their way to kind, neighborly, but I was astonished by the unwritten (to my knowledge) color barrier. It was a one street town of vibrant store fronts, sidewalks lining both sides -
@ctuckerprof and those sidewalks were filled with people - only white people, at least in the first half of the 60s. Blacks were not permitted to use the sidewalks or front doors to the stores. They were required to use the back door (delivery entrance). This humiliation is burned in my head.
@ctuckerprof I remember as a kid instantly realizing this was wrong and in my head I thought this was all just a mistake because these people were all so nice, they just didn’t realize how this looked. I think I was in 1st grade, that Sunday I went to the Baptist Church and my grandmother -
@ctuckerprof - was so happy I was going to Sunday School at her church. The kids were asking me about Mobile and I explained that the biggest difference I saw was that we have a lot more sidewalks and we are able to let everyone walk on them. Black and white. In my mind that was the only -
@ctuckerprof - way I could rationalize this inequality, there was just too many people and fratricidal control was needed. I became so transfixed I started studying the sidewalk on my grandmother’s street and I realized only the whites walked on any sidewalks, the blacks walked in the street
@ctuckerprof Even my younger sister and brother do not remember these practices. I can’t get them out of my head. When I tell my nieces and nephews these stories they are in shock that these behaviors happened in my lifetime. It’s important that these stories not be forgotten, we see how -
@ctuckerprof -easily all progress is at risk of retreating, nothing should be taken for granted and nothing should be forgotten. Your piece was a timely & vsiabke reminder. BTW, I’ve enjoyed your work since or fellow undergrad days when you wrote for The Plainsman. Thanks again & War Eagle!
