Dear Subscribers,
To date, I’ve written 63 newsletters and am steadily gaining new subscribers. WOW!
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As of today, June 11th, I’m officially on break until August 5th.
During my time away, I hope to make the final edits to “The Williams Family History—Volume One.” The title is temporary until I find one that feels right. In the meantime, I wanted to share one last newsletter with you as I leave for break. This newsletter is a peek at one of the changes coming…an occasional “Opinion” piece.
Warmly,
Dr. MMM
*************
AN OPINION: WHAT TO DO ON SEGREGATION?
Southern States respond to Brown v Board
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I have been reading the OTD calendars of EIJ.Org, Blackpast.org, and other similar list of past events that detail what happened on any given day in America, especially in Black/Brown America. These listings are broad in scope but primarily list, hangings, murders, resistance to integration, political and social reaction to laws passed to create better living conditions in all areas of Black/Brown life.
These calendars contribute much to the narrative about my ancestors lived experiences, but also mine. Unraveling their lives in the context of these events—hangings, murders, discrimination, etc.—helps to better understand the world in which my ancestors lived.
They protected me from the harsh reality of “colored only” and “white only” seating and drinking fountains. They shielded me from the harsh reality of the blinding of Issac Woodard and the murder of Emmet Till.
I can relate to Issac Woodward because my family (grandmother, siblings and I) rode the Greyhound bus just as he did.
Just like him, when we boarded in Augusta, we sat near the front at times but knew we might be asked to move if a white person got on and there were no seats available. We knew we’d be asked to give up our seat so the white person could sit. If we didn’t, we’d be removed from the bus and possibly injured just like Mr. Woodard. Maybe even killed like Emmett Till.
Both incidents caused my ancestors to pull my siblings and I closer while they braced daily for fall-out from some Whyte male believing a Whyte woman was molested, insulted, and/or raped by a Black/Brown male.
That my ancestors had these conditions to live under makes me angry and hurts my soul. That I, too, must, in 2024, continue living under this thought umbrella deepens my anger and the pain I feel within. I worry about my nephews, grand nephews, and great grand nephews. I worry about those not born and whom I will never see.
There’s been little change in the racist, inhuman ways in which I and other Black/Brown people continue to live our lives. And yet, I must help my loved ones find a level of peace so that they can move forward with their lives while keeping a side-eye out for the all too trigger happy Whyte law enforcement person or other Whyte person who is determined to halt any human rights gains we, Black/Brown people, have and expect to have based on what we know is the “human rights” truth that others come to America for.
Writing ancestor history made me think about what was happening in my life during some of those time periods my ancestors cared for me. For example,
On June 10, 1954, governors and representatives from 12 Southern states met in Richmond, Virginia, and resolved to defiantly resist the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Released less than a month earlier, the Brown decision struck down racial segregation laws—prevalent in the South—that required separate public schools for Black and white children.
Georgia was one of those states, and it remained segregated. I can testify to that because on June 10, 1954, I was finishing 2nd grade.
My school was segregated. We did not benefit from Brown v Board in Georgia. We were separate but not equal. My mother experience this during her childhood, too. We attended the same elementary school. Her teachers worked with even less material and new books than my teachers.
Like in my mother’s era, my classmates and I did not experience anything close to “equality.” My teachers were qualified, more qualified than most Whyte teachers in that many of them had master’s degrees and a few had doctorates. Integration in Georgia schools did not come until the early 1970s.
Black/Brown people could not try on clothes/shoes in stores. If one wanted to purchase a hat, the head had to be covered with paper or you couldn’t try on the hat. Even then, the hat would not go back on the rack to be made available for a Whyte person. It became a Black/Brown hat.
There was no eating at public restaurants unless they were in the Black/Brown community.
If I wanted to purchase a meal, I’d have to go to the side or back door…and that’s only if they were selling meals to Black/Brown people.
Segregation vs integration. Is one better than the other? I experienced both and am still on the fence as to whether one is better than the other. If equality in America is nonexistent, segregation will remain entrenched in society, perhaps even deeper than during Jim Crow. And integration will continue to be like a balloon—easily inflated and more easily blown to bits.
Northern states will say they’re more open, more integrated than southern states when they’re just as segregated as their Southern counterparts. The Midwest and West haven’t changed much either. Of course, there’s more intermingling on all levels, but still far too much negativity and distrust among and between races and ethnic groups for America to really be “the land of the free and home of the brave.”
We won’t be a free society as long as Black/Brown children get hand-me-down, used books from Whyte schools. We won’t be a free society as long as Black/Brown children are expected to fail rather than succeed. We won’t be a free society as long as Whyte people continue to want to touch Black/Brown hair as though said Black/Brown people were animals to be petted rather than respected as human beings.
Some Whytes use our blackness/brownness as an excuse to remain segregated and deny us/me civil and human rights. Yet, they risk laying out in the sun to tan their skin, often ending up with skin cancer. They want to tan so they have brown skin while continuing to say Black/Brown people are ignorant, unintelligent, unworthy of being treated as humans, as equals.
Their thinking was the equivalent of Whyte women voting against their own interests to suppress/stop Black/Brown progress. They refuse to “do the right thing”—treat everyone as a human being worthy of all the rights that they (Whyte people) enjoy and believe is their right.
WHAT TO DO ON SEGREGATION?
The question was posed in 1954 at a meeting of Southern Governors. It’s 2024 and the question remains unanswered. For, as long as there is racism, inequity, white paternalism, white supremacy are mocking “do the right thing.” Segregation and all the evil it brings will continue to permeate our nation evoking disunity and instability. Democracy will fall to fascists or worse; and, the America we know will no longer exist.
WHAT TO DO ON SEGREGATION?
Be brave. Be honest. Acknowledge that Whyte is not superior to any race or ethnic group. Acknowledge and accept that we all have a chance to grow, to shine, to succeed. Accept that every person is human and deserves respect.
Notes
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-return-of-school-segregation-in-eight-charts/
http://calendar.eji.org/racial-injustice/jun/10
Dr. Mary Marshall, I am a fan of your writing! I appreciate you for sharing your opinions on segregation because I don't believe this perspective is shared enough. I am 33 years old, so I do not have memories that you share. However, I was raised in Greensboro, NC where the sit-in occurred and my adult life has been somewhat dedicated to freeing the minds of black folk. I believe segregation was both helpful and harmful to our culture and I discuss my opinions in a piece I titled, FOMO is the real gag. It's nice to have a safe space on this platform that challenges the mindset of all Americans right now as we see HIS-story repeating itself.
I am fed up to the back teeth with ANY form of segregation.
Being an Aspergian -- and I've written about this -- EVERYBODY to me is "Field Marshal Montgomery," unless I know them very well, or have seen them on TV (e.g., actors and ballplayers).
If you can't treat other people with decency, politeness, and courtesy, respecting abilities, there's something wrong with you, not with the person you're denigrating.
That's the short version.