I am a product of the 1960s and grew up in a Southern city.
Segregation, separate but equal, we sat upstairs and they sat downstairs at the movies all happened during my early years. However, it didn’t stop us from believing and achieving.
Men with hoods and white robes, German shepherd dogs handled by the police all were a part of my youth. My friends and I didn’t have to watch television because we had an up close and personal view.
I grew up in the East Winston section of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It was rare that we saw people of another race on our side of town, Yes, we as Black people had a “side” of town.
My elementary school was all Black except for the nuns who were our teachers. They were White. In fact, the nuns lived in a convent near the school.
They lived from my perspective, humble lives. I never heard one report about them being harmed in any way.
Now, many years later my friends and I discuss our elementary school experience. Some suggest that the nuns were not totally for us. I didn’t see it and I didn’t feel it.
