On Thu, 16 Aug 2001, Anne Pemberton wrote:

> Last year I taught fourth grade in summer school, including fourth grade
> history, the history of Virginia, and was shocked to learn that although
> the kids had learned about the Jim Crow laws, they had NOT been told that
> these laws were in force only in southern states, and were NOT the law in
> most of the country. Even with the little ones I usually work with
> (Kindergarten to 2nd grade) I find myself correcting what the kids have
> learned, to understand that some of the evils overturned with Civil and
> Human Rights movements, existed only in the South.
>

I grew up in Tidewater Virginia (a bike ride away from the Fergusons, one
of whom was a high school classmate of mine) but left for college in 1967
and have since then lived in Massachusetts and New York. The Virginia I
was leaving was still segregated in most respects, changes in the law
notwithstanding. I mention this in order to offer a correction of Anne
Pemberton's corrections (see above). Segregation and racial discrimination
were common in much of the North, even though they had no basis in the
statutory law of the northern states. The equal treatment laws (e.g., for
public accommodations & transportation) that *were* passed in many
northern states were rarely enforced. De facto, if not de jure, blacks
were kept out of white neighborhoods, white schools, and the better jobs.
In short, racial discrimination and injustice were (and are) national
problems, not just southern ones.

Doug Deal
History/SUNY-Oswego
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