For Those Old Enough To Remember...

[bayoubill]

tell us what you remember about day-to-day life in the era of segregation...

and the reaction of your world to desegregation...

 

[bayoubill]

a few things I remember...

my dentist had a separate entrance with a sign that said "Colored"...

the movie theater had an outside stairway that had a sign that said "Colored"... (I remember being jealous of the colored folks 'cause they got to sit in the balcony...)

there were places that had two water fountains, one with a sign that said "White" and one with a sign that said "Colored"... (btw, for those of you who've seen the movie "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman", it was filmed in my mother's home town of St. Francisville, LA, and that water fountain scene at the end was shot at the West Feliciana Parish Courthouse, just a few blocks from my grandmother's house...)

 

[Huey]

in philly we had those signs,but didn't obey them.Even in the prescence of whites we still used the restrooms,drinking fountains,and sat in the front of the bus.whites got indignant but that was all they did.The popo thought it was funny and never did anything.

 

[Amelia]

Well after segregation ended - specifically in the late 70's - my town in Alabama had a run down looking pool for the black kids and a very pleasant "country club" for the white kids. Not an expensive club. I think maybe only a nominal dues. Just understood that only white people should apply.

And every town in the area had a private "academy" which was understood to be for white kids.

At the public high school, the student offices and the homecoming and prom royalty were segregated -- there was a complete set of white officers and royalty, and a complete set of black officers and royalty. Have no idea what they would have done if a Mexican or Native American wanted to run for class president.





I haven't been back to that town aside from one short trip in the 80's so I don't know if/when they ever truly desegregated.

 

[Mr. H.]

Being from a small town with very few black families, I don't remember any such signs or restrictions. This was, for me, late 50's thru the 60's. Maybe my older brothers would remember differently.

I do remember being told how my dad was basically ostracised by his friends for being nice to blacks in our town. He treated them like human beings. I remember him lecturing me to do the same.

I do remember seing a white woman at the pharmacy lunch counter eating a donut with a fork while wearing white gloves. That fucked my head up for years.

 

[Flopper]

I was raised in the deep south during the 50's and 60's. What seems so strange to me was that black people seemed to be hated collectively but as individuals were often treated like members of the family.

I was raised by our black maid. I probably spent more time with her in my early years than I did with my mother. She was in every sense a member of the family. She brought her kids over to our house to play. When her father died we attended the funeral. I think my dad bailed her husband out of jail when he got in a bar fight.

But there were rules that you did not break. When she rode in our car with us, she never rode in the front seat, always in back. When I was very young, she took me downtown on the bus. We both sat together in back of the bus. Everyone seemed to realize that she was our maid taking care of me. But when I was older, I sat in the front of the bus and she sat in the rear. At least once a week in summer, she would take me swimming. She would of course stand outside the fenced area of the pool and wait for me. There was only one swimming pool in town and it was for whites only. I asked once why there was no swimming pool for black people. I was told black people are afraid of the water and building them a pool would be a waste of money. A lot of things were justified in those days by saying blacks wouldn't use it we gave it to them.

When I went off to college, I forgot about her but see did not forget about me. I got a card from her on my birthday for many years. All that was many years ago. Today as I look back, I can say she was one of the most powerful influences on my life.

I've been asked how could you just stand by and do nothing when such obvious injustices were so common. My only excuse is that's the way we were raised. We just assumed that's the way things were suppose to be.

In this post I use the term black people or blacks; In those days, the term was Negro or ******, depending on the context but some times people would use the word colored.

 

[Flopper]

in philly we had those signs,but didn't obey them.Even in the prescence of whites we still used the restrooms,drinking fountains,and sat in the front of the bus.whites got indignant but that was all they did.The popo thought it was funny and never did anything.

In my hometown, it was the duty of the bus drive to see that the laws were obeyed. One reminder to sit in the back of the bus. If you didn't you walked.

 

[Huey]

you have to understand the majority of the bus drivers who drove certain buses were Black,thats how we got away with sitting up front.Philly wasn't hard nosed rascist like down south,mainly because we had a lot of race riots and the white kids lost alot of the time.

 

[Huey]

I saw that colored sign at the movie theater also.But the balcony was great for throwing water balloons at the peeps sitting below us.Sometimes we would put piss in them you should have heard the screams.Also you could sneak in without paying to see a movie.They took that sign down real fast.

 

[laughinReaper]

a few things I remember...

my dentist had a separate entrance with a sign that said "Colored"...

the movie theater had an outside stairway that had a sign that said "Colored"... (I remember being jealous of the colored folks 'cause they got to sit in the balcony...)

there were places that had two water fountains, one with a sign that said "White" and one with a sign that said "Colored"... (btw, for those of you who've seen the movie "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman", it was filmed in my mother's home town of St. Francisville, LA, and that water fountain scene at the end was shot at the West Feliciana Parish Courthouse, just a few blocks from my grandmother's house...)

I don't remember any of that but I live in the North and I was young in the 60's.

 

[High_Gravity]

in philly we had those signs,but didn't obey them.Even in the prescence of whites we still used the restrooms,drinking fountains,and sat in the front of the bus.whites got indignant but that was all they did.The popo thought it was funny and never did anything.

You are a fucking liar, if you didn't follow the rules back than the cops would crack your skull with a baton.

 

[High_Gravity]

you have to understand the majority of the bus drivers who drove certain buses were Black,thats how we got away with sitting up front.Philly wasn't hard nosed rascist like down south,mainly because we had a lot of race riots and the white kids lost alot of the time.

I don't believe you, I doubt you were even alive during segregation and you are just typing all of this to sound like a bad ass.

 

[chikenwing]

a few things I remember...

my dentist had a separate entrance with a sign that said "Colored"...

the movie theater had an outside stairway that had a sign that said "Colored"... (I remember being jealous of the colored folks 'cause they got to sit in the balcony...)

there were places that had two water fountains, one with a sign that said "White" and one with a sign that said "Colored"... (btw, for those of you who've seen the movie "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman", it was filmed in my mother's home town of St. Francisville, LA, and that water fountain scene at the end was shot at the West Feliciana Parish Courthouse, just a few blocks from my grandmother's house...)

I don't remember any of that but I live in the North and I was young in the 60's.

Small town in upstate NY we had non of that,saw it on TV news,racism was kept under wraps publicly,private was different.

 

[High_Gravity]

I was raised in the deep south during the 50's and 60's. What seems so strange to me was that black people seemed to be hated collectively but as individuals were often treated like members of the family.

I was raised by our black maid. I probably spent more time with her in my early years than I did with my mother. She was in every sense a member of the family. She brought her kids over to our house to play. When her father died we attended the funeral. I think my dad bailed her husband out of jail when he got in a bar fight.

But there were rules that you did not break. When she rode in our car with us, she never rode in the front seat, always in back. When I was very young, she took me downtown on the bus. We both sat together in back of the bus. Everyone seemed to realize that she was our maid taking care of me. But when I was older, I sat in the front of the bus and she sat in the rear. At least once a week in summer, she would take me swimming. She would of course stand outside the fenced area of the pool and wait for me. There was only one swimming pool in town and it was for whites only. I asked once why there was no swimming pool for black people. I was told black people are afraid of the water and building them a pool would be a waste of money. A lot of things were justified in those days by saying blacks wouldn't use it we gave it to them.

When I went off to college, I forgot about her but see did not forget about me. I got a card from her on my birthday for many years. All that was many years ago. Today as I look back, I can say she was one of the most powerful influences on my life.

I've been asked how could you just stand by and do nothing when such obvious injustices were so common. My only excuse is that's the way we were raised. We just assumed that's the way things were suppose to be.

In this post I use the term black people or blacks; In those days, the term was Negro or ******, depending on the context but some times people would use the word colored.

You know I watched that movie The Help and I always wanted to ask a white person from that era why there was so much hatred and animosity towards Blacks but blacks were trusted to cook their food and raise their children, which are big responsibilites that require alot of trust. I never understood that. Thats almost like Israelis hiring Palestinian cooks and maids to watch their kids.

 

[Caroljo]

I still live in the town i did growning up in the 50's & 60's. Back then i don't believe there was even 1 black family living here, although we're close to some pretty big cities....the blacks, i heard, would go out of their way not to drive through our town! I don't remember seeing signs like that around here. But my parents never raised me to be prejiduce about anyone...so when i grew up and moved away, i never thought anything of it to be friends with anyone no matter what their color was. Actually, I was pretty excited to become friends with them!!

Today there are quite a few black families living in our town, many drive here from the cities to work.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I'm not old enough to have seen segregation. I wasn't born until the 50's.

 

[strollingbones]

military brat.....never knew segregation until i was in the 8th grade or so....then they combined our white high school with a black high school...forced integration...the police were on the campus in force for 3 years....

 

[Huey]

you have to understand the majority of the bus drivers who drove certain buses were Black,thats how we got away with sitting up front.Philly wasn't hard nosed rascist like down south,mainly because we had a lot of race riots and the white kids lost alot of the time.

I don't believe you, I doubt you were even alive during segregation and you are just typing all of this to sound like a bad ass.

well babe I'm 72 born in 1940 so I was around when this BS was going on in other cities.Now mind you some of it was going on in Philly,but it was basically ignored in the Black neighborhoods as we were a majority and white folks stayed away.

 

[Huey]

in philly we had those signs,but didn't obey them.Even in the prescence of whites we still used the restrooms,drinking fountains,and sat in the front of the bus.whites got indignant but that was all they did.The popo thought it was funny and never did anything.

You are a fucking liar, if you didn't follow the rules back than the cops would crack your skull with a baton.

You are fulla it yourself.Sometime they did in the white neighborhoods only,but they tip toed in the Black neighborhoods.

 

[NLT]

military brat.....never knew segregation until i was in the 8th grade or so....then they combined our white high school with a black high school...forced integration...the police were on the campus in force for 3 years....

In SC they intergrated us in 73 (6th grade). Serious riots and such, within 3 yrs we had a black coach, black guys on the football and basketball team and nobody cared any more.