The only thing I can say to you Anne is, "you go to your church and I'll go
to mine". End of discussion.

Bill



----- Original Message -----
From: "Anne Pemberton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2001 12:27 PM
Subject: Re: Sherman etc.


> Douglas,
>
>          I grew up in Reading, PA, and moved to Richmond in the
> mid-sixties, (hubby found a better paying job and we needed space from
> families) a bit more than a year before you left. In Reading, all schools
> were integrated, all public facilities were integrated, and when we
> gathered after school at the local soda shop, there was no problem getting
> service for everyone in the group. We could not have done that had I gone
> to school in Richmond. Yes, there was discrimination in housing, which is
> why so many of the race riots over housing took place in Northern
> states.  When I was taking 12th grade government and getting all
> enthusiastic about the rights and responsibilities of being an American,
> the tv news showed people turning fire hoses on those who asked for this
to
> be. In  my adolescent logic, I just dismissed it as not "really" happening
> in America ... Then I ended up in Virginia, and the reality was in my
face!
> I have had to make hard choices about my own values, and what I would and
> would not change along with the change in latitude and climate. It may be
> just my perception, but it seems it's been easier to maintain and practice
> those values since I moved from Richmond to a rural setting.  But it may
> just be coincidence.
>
>          The first year I worked with the little ones after years as a
high
> school teacher, I was delighted at the complete lack of racial identity
> until mid winter when Martin Luther King's birthday was celebrated and it
> seemed the kids' eyes were suddenly opened to their "nakedness" ... I
> didn't have words to console them .... but I was ready for it this past
> year ... I had made some web pages for the kids to use on holidays in the
> computer lab, and I made one for M. L. King's birthday ....
> http://www.geocities.com/apembert45/holidays/king.html with a wonderful
> animation as it opens with the background music "We Shall Overcome" ...
the
> kids loved the page, and each class found a pair of girls that could
almost
> look like the ones in the graphic, and it led to discussing that Dr. King
> would have been delighted to see today's children, as he once dreamed,
> sitting next to each other in schools, restaurants, and sporting events.
> They still asked why, and I still don't have an answer to that question.
>
>          There is a great deal of difference between discrimination that
is
> de jure and that which is de facto. By law denies any recourse in the
> courts. Justice is denied.
>
>                                                  Anne
>
> At 09:35 AM 8/16/01 -0400, Douglas Deal wrote:
> >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
> >[log in to unmask]
> >
> >To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
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>
> Anne Pemberton
> [log in to unmask]
>
> http://www.erols.com/stevepem
> http://www.geocities.com/apembert45
>
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> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>

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