Listen to Delores Handy’s essay.
Never.
I never expected this in my lifetime.
I’m a product of the Jim Crow south.
I grew up with the white and colored drinking fountains.
The white and colored restrooms.
The whites only restaurants.
I grew up in a city where even those restaurants that catered to people of both races had to have separate dining rooms. Even black owned restaurants had to provide separate facilities for blacks and whites.
And I won’t talk about the differences between the whites only and colored only facilities.
When I was a little girl we would sometimes go to the movies on Sunday afternoons, after church. We had to go to the Gem Theatre on 9th Street. That was the black theater. The Capital, the Center, and the Arkansas were theatres in the heart of downtown, but they were for whites only. What’s interesting is that whites could come to 9th Street and the Gem Theatre, to the black side. Yet, we could not go to whites only venues.
One of my most vivid images of those days is captured in a “No Whites Allowed” sign at the zoo in a book of photos from noted photographer Ernest Withers. That sign was up on the one day of the week that Coloreds could go to the zoo.
I grew up in a time when my parents had to pay a poll tax to vote. The tax was 2-dollars. I knew of people who worked for only 3-dollars a day. Paying two dollars to vote, when election day was months away, was not something many could or would be willing to do.
Even after the Civil Rights Voting Act was signed July 2, 1964, there was the matter of who to vote for. Once you got beyond the top of the ticket, your choices were between the Faubuses and the Cherrys, segregationists trying to out-do each other in their efforts to deny my family full rights as a citizen.
2-4-6-8, we don’t want to integrate. I remember the angry mobs. Grown-ups and their children spewing hate.
It was all so painful and the pain lasted for such a long time. The fallout even continues to this day. I submit to you it’s worth it.
When we were separate, you didn’t know us. We knew you, we cleaned your houses, cooked your meals and cared for your children.
You never saw our homes, you didn’t know how we lived. You marveled at our strength in times of crisis.
Now, for many Americans there is no you and there is no us. Our children play together. We work together. It all began when we started going to school together, getting to know each other, learning to respect and trust each other.
A black man running for president that’s a direct consequence of us knowing each other.
There still are far too many people who look at each other and make judgments about competence, and virtue, based on the melanin in the skin or the tightness of the curl in the hair.
It was disheartening to be down south over the summer and hear people say they were not registered to vote and weren’t going to register. Their explanation–”There’s no point in me voting, they are just going to put who they want in anyway.”
Yet, attitudes have and are changing. While it’s clear they have a long way to go, what we have in this election is something we all prayed for, but never expected to live to see.
We now recognize that acceptance is directly proportional to how much we’ve gotten to know each other.
Our headlines are filled with examples showing just how far we have to go, but this presidential election is testament to how far we’ve come.
As a reporter I feel as though I have had, as one of my friends would say, a box seat on history.
November 5th, 2008 at 8:10 am
Thank you to Delores Handy for her moving, personal and historical perspective. Please, no more them and me, but, us.
November 5th, 2008 at 8:43 am
This piece is one of the most moving that I have heard. Thank you so much for sharing your deepest feelings with us. It’s hard for a white person like me to really know what it is like to be non-white in this country, but you have helped to make it real. Thank you so much.
November 5th, 2008 at 9:57 am
I have tears in my eyes right now. I agree with Alice that it is hard to know what it is REALLY like to be a non-white in this country (and anywhere) for that matter. And that is true even for me, who immigrated to this country not too long ago. This was my first election, and I’ll tell you, voting for the first time here would’ve been personally historical no matter what…but to have had the opportunity to vote for Barack Obama who has already brought real CHANGE just by running and being who he is…and now that he’s won, this moment has become even more sublime. Thank you Delores for your piece. I am more proud than ever to be an American and proud that so many, like you, me (and my 5 month old daughter!), are getting to live such an important (and overdue) moment in our lives.
November 5th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
I lived in Boston most recently for 16 years before moving to San Diego in 2007, and had many opportunities to listen Delores Handy’s inciteful reporting. I am now blessed with a Phillipino son-in-law and a beautiful mixed race grandchild. She will grow up knowing that America really is the land of opportunity to all. We are finally growing up and outgrowing our legacy of bigotry. I am truly, and finally, proud again to be an American.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:23 pm
I am a 60 year old white woman who grew up in a small Massachusetts town which had no people of color during my school years, until the Metco Program started in 1967. We were a Metco host family the first year, and 40 years later, our student is still a loved family member.
Last night I was remarking to my oldest son that it has been only 44 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed, and NOW we have a black president. A huge way to have come in such a short time.
My other thought is that Americans, we have great opportunity because of the diversity of our country and people. Most countrys are quite homogenous – same race, religion, ethnic group. Everyone is the same. We are lucky to be so diverse. And remember that ‘white’ is a minority in the world. Most of the world population are people of color, asians and other ethnicities. President Obama is now the face of our nation, which can only improve our relationships and standing in the world.
I am proud of our country for having the courage of this moment in history, and very proud to be an American.
November 5th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Please pass on to Delores NOT FOR PUBLICATION
Dear Delores Handy,
I overslept this morning — surprise — and didn’t hear your piece on BUR. fortunately my office mate told me about it because I too am a native of Little Rock, but surely older than you. Born in 1937, graduated from Little Rock Central High School in 1955 — two years before integration, the first year it was called “Central”. Your recollections are all too true, and at the time shamesfully unquestioned. I don’t think
I even recall the Gem on 9th St., though my grandmama lived on 9th and Rock — the old folks part of town then. Fortunately, I got out of LR after high school and came east to school — so literally away during the troubls. Then back to LR, then got out again to work for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during the Kennedy administration. Married a foreigner, who speaks the same language. Loved my family, but little left now. Your writing is so eloquent and heartfelt. I never went to our cleaning woman’s house, though she did bring her son with her and we’d play together untilsorry andregretful. Anyway, this is just past sharing, and I regret my childish “entitlement.” Love to meet you sometime — take you to lunch! I’m at the A.R.T. with my English actor husband so if you find yourself in or near Harvard Square, let me know.
All best and thank you,
Jan Geidt
November 5th, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Delores, I too thank you for these recollections that get to the heart of the matter and build a bridge that others can use to understand the experience of inequality.
In the wake of this election, I’ve been having flashbacks about the bad old “separate but equal” days. In 1957, my family moved from San Francisco to Texas, where I saw my first “Colored Only” signs which made my flesh crawl. When my family cleared out my parents’ house they unearthed my grade school pictures from the mid ’50s. In my mind I had lived in an all-white world, but as I looked over the pictures of my elementary school I saw that one out of five children was African American. It’s not that there were no African Americans in my world, but that I, as a child, did not see the ones who were there as Other. Shortly thereafter I would register our society’s blighting messages about racial difference, but I would also embrace the cause of civil rights.
Thanks again for your recollections that remind us of how segregation and inequality in this country have intimately affected daily life.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
I turned on the radio as I was driving to work this morning, and came in on the middle of Ms. Handy’s commentary. I was so moved by it, and so appreciated her words. I feel so inspired by the election results and by the hope that Barack Obama will help us all to bring our country to a better place than it has been in the past. Thank you very much for sharing such a moving essay, and for printing it so I could read the part I missed hearing this morning.
November 5th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Today, finally, we are one.
November 6th, 2008 at 8:34 am
I am so so so so proud to be here at this time in America. One moment I feel like I am dreaming, the next moment I am in tears still. I see flags on cars, and yes I too, for the first time hung a big flag on the door of my home, not because I am unpatriotic all these years, but I now feel included. I now feel this is my home, my flag, my country too.
November 6th, 2008 at 3:44 pm
Delores
While you enjoy your box seat on history you should know you have made a bit of that history yourself. I worked with you at the old Channel 7 many years ago and to this day you remain one of the most personable, talented and professional journalists I have ever had the pleasure of working with. And I worked at stations in Boston, Houston, Portland and Tucson with many talented people including an old friend of yours, Felicia Jeter formerly of CBS news. I hope recent events will spotlight the accomplishments of even more talented people like you. Best Wishes
November 6th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
Dear Delores,
Please know that as you were being subjected to hatred, I (lilly white skinned) fought for civil rights from the age of seven. “Deep in my heart, I know that, I do believe, that we shall overcome some day” has lived in my heart since 1963. I have cried with happiness every day since Obama’s nomination, hoping and praying for this outcome. I know there is more work to be done, more accomplishments to come. The song lives on in my heart, encouraged by the proof of Obama’s election. Bless you and yours. Bless us all for this victory!
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:33 am
How you think when the economic crisis will end? I wish to make statistics of independent opinions!