I remember when my school was integrated and how cruel my fifth grade teacher was to the 3 black children that were put in our class. She made them sit apart and called them names. My mother told me to stay away from them. I'm not even going to say that this was done out of ignorance. It was evil pure and simple. Of course, my mother telling me to stay away from something only made it seem more enticing. I made friends the first day.

I remember (as a little kid) living in Philadelphia and being really, really scared that the black people would come and slaughter us all.

I remember my mother and the neighbors being furious at the idea of school integration. The predominant emotions: fear, anger, defiance.

I remember some of the friends who graced my life, despite the fact that I was forbidden to associate with them (might ruin my mother's image in the white community).

I remember when Tony Johnson found me after my mother had thrown me into the street for the night. I had no place to sleep. He took me to his home, we went to his bedroom, and throughout the entire night, we talked. He shared his regrets about dropping out of school, and gave me to understand the real meaning of 'loving to learn'. He acknowledged my mother's cruelty, her indifference and warned me how I could be placed in a juvenile facility. Damn, he LISTENED to me and gave validity to my concerns. In the morning, we went downstairs to his disapproving family (although he had never touched me.) They were very poor. Tony made me a slice of toast and walked me to school. Then he spoke with my best friend Robbie, who would go on to care for me in later days. I remember being told that this man was 'unfit' to be my friend. Imagine that? Imagine that.

JackieRodzinski

TheInquiringEye

This such an excellent idea -- I wonder if you would consider posting it as a Discussion, so everyone could join in.

Hi, Ann, I thought that is what i had done. Unless you mean start a group about it and in that case - I think maybe it belongs here under the 60s group, although I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. I don't think it would sustain a long going discussion - but there are many Boomers heree in this group who might find the topic discussable

I opened a thread on General Discussion about MLK a long time ago and only one person responded

http://www.tbd.com/content/post/109636

I entitled it Salute to MLK.

Was that too subtle?

Hi, Britscot, I'm so new here that I don't understand how things work. I'm not sure what general discussion is, but I'll follow the link and find out!

Yep! Britscot, many of us are Americans. You have to throw a brick at us. TheInquiringEye