Catherine

I met Andy through his parents, who live in Charlottesville and are in the same retirement community as I am. After reading Andy’s story and that of his father, I decided to take part in Andy’s project because I want readers to know that the lives of people I knew in the South were not like scenes from Civil Rights newsreels.

Chapter 5 · p. 183

While in Thomasville, I entered first grade in 1927. Schools were segregated, as were churches, trains, movie theaters, and everything else, really. So much so that I hardly noticed the segregation because it was all around me. I do remember that Blacks sat in the balcony at the movie theater. They must have had their own water fountain and restrooms, which I never saw because I never went upstairs. I do remember “White” and “Colored” signs on water fountains and restrooms in gas stations. I doubt I ever noticed how the quality of their water fountains compared to ours. I cannot compare the restrooms because I never saw inside any restrooms except those for White women.

Chapter 5 · Thomasville · p. 187

The train stations in Thomasville and Jacksonville had separate restrooms, accessible from separate waiting rooms for Black and White passengers. The Jacksonville station had separate covered walkways from each waiting room to the concrete concourse beside the tracks. However, Blacks and Whites brushed against each other on the concourse at boarding time as they made their way to separate lines at the doors of segregated (separate) cars.

Chapter 5 · Thomasville · p. 188

Most people in Thomasville recognized four social classes: the wealthy (Whites), the middle class (Whites), poor Whites, and Blacks. Members of our social class (middle class) were not the majority of the population, but it felt like we were (to me) because we seldom saw the wealthy and never associated with Blacks except for the two or three who worked for us over the years. People referred to a group of poor, uneducated Whites who seldom bathed as “White Trash.” The poor Whites looked very much the way they are portrayed in To Kill a Mockingbird.

Chapter 5 · Thomasville · p. 189

Thomasville had more Blacks than Whites, but I did not see Blacks except those who worked in my neighborhood, unless I went downtown. I saw Blacks there, but I did not really notice them because seeing them downtown was normal. Blacks lived in a Colored section of town, probably within the city limits. Everyone I knew called the area “N-word (pronounced nig’ gah) Town” on the rare occasions when the subject came up, but I do not think they meant anything negative. I probably knew where the Black section was at the time, but I don’t remember now because I never had any reason to go there. (Now I realize that Thomasville could have had more than one Colored section, each referred to as “N-word Town”, without me knowing about the others. It seems remarkable now that I knew so little about where half the people of the town lived.)

Chapter 5 · Thomasville · p. 189

I knew that Blacks and Whites went to separate schools, but I never thought of this as segregation. To the extent I thought about separate schools at all, I must have figured that they were simply a part of life without wondering why. I think my attitude toward segregation was like that of everyone I knew. We could not see much of the unfairness around us and accepted what little we saw as the way things were. I know this is hard for modern readers to understand because things are so different today.

Chapter 5 · Jacksonville · p. 194

I think Blacks could attend weddings and funerals of White families that Blacks were close to. Blacks who attended would have sat in the back, probably because they would have felt uncomfortable anywhere else. I saw Black janitors and maids around churches, but do not remember seeing a Black at a worship service of any kind before coming to Charlottesville in 1992. (We have one Black family in the church I attend now, and several young Black people attend our youth group because they like the activities.)

Chapter 5 · Jacksonville · p. 195

Passenger trains were segregated. Black passengers rode in the first coach car, immediately behind the last baggage car, and were not allowed in any other car. Both Black and White passengers could buy box lunches on the train or at station counters to eat in their seats. Most Blacks brought food from home because most could not afford box lunches, and those who could afford to eat in the dining car were not allowed inside. Porters in black uniforms stood at the steps of each car to help passengers on and off and to carry their luggage. Conductors collected tickets, directed people to their seats, and helped passengers with non-routine questions and problems. Conductors were White; porters and waiters were Black. Pullman cars had their own porters and conductors.

Chapter 5 · Jacksonville · p. 197

We sent our son to a private school in Bethesda and sent our daughters to public schools. I assumed the children’s schools were all White, but I found out last week (April 2011) from one of our daughters that two or three Blacks had attended her school of about 1200 students. I would not have been concerned if I had known about the Black students then because busing and the violence associated with it had not yet begun. I do not know if Blacks were allowed in our son’s school or whether any had wanted to attend.

Chapter 5 · Marriage · p. 201

Andy prompted me with the names and dates of major civil rights events and asked how I remembered feeling about them. I was interested in news about Brown v. Board of Education (1954) because I had always thought we needed to better educate Blacks. My first experience with integrated schools was when we were living in Cuba in 1954, where our kids attended the Navy school system. I accepted the Navy’s integrated system as naturally as I had accepted segregated schools in the South. I think Blacks in the United States took more of an interest in educating their kids after the court decision because of the publicity surrounding it, long before many schools were integrated.

Chapter 5 · Marriage · p. 203