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Yes very haunting photos indeed. In retrospect we can see that the Baby Boom ended the year the Civil Rights Acts were signed. I've always wondered if there was some kind of correlation. Speaking of which, you better watch yourself posting these sorts of things on City-Data. Think about all of those kids up through twentysomethings in these pictures. Although the pictures aren't all dated, it's wholly plausible that many of these younger African Americans are still alive and indelibly shaped by the experiences of their youth.
A large contingent on City-Data will have you believe that discrimination died in the picture of LBJ wielding his pen with MLK looking over his shoulder. A lot of folks on this thread don't like to consider that over 10 million African Americans (or about 1 in 4) are of the age where they were alive during Jim Crow Segregation:
Even taking into account black immigres and those older blacks who were able to live in places in the US prior to the 1970s not impacted Jim Crow, restrictive covenants, discriminatory hiring, discriminatory lending, redlining, urban renewal, etc. you would still have to conservatively estimate that there are still 5-6 million African Americans who are still alive that lived under the worst conditions any industrialized democracy has ever had to offer. And of course LBJ's signing completely changed the hearts of discriminators immediately and they never passed their discriminatory values to their children. So these photos are emblematic of the painful memories and life-altering experiences of so many Baby Boomers Plus and a segment of society many people wish would just evaporate and stop bringing up that history.
I remember when I was 5 (which would have been 1954), my grandparents driving us to Florida (from western NYS) to visit my mother. We got down to either D.C. or Virginia and I almost drank from a "colored" water fountain. My grandmother explained it to me. And I remember asking, "But why?" All these years later I still don't get it.
I remember this from my childhood. So many years later I find it hard to believe there was a time in this country when decent people were diminished and denied basic human rights.
It is important to note here that it wasn't that way in all the US. We all know the region that put all these laws in place. And it is why that region was a pariah in this country for so long. Southerners should never ever forget the brutal history of their states, instead of so many glorifying their Confederate past. It all started with their illegal and traitorous uprising resulting in the Civil War. All those laws of segregation followed from them not getting their way in that war.
There was segregation throughout the US, it was just in the South where it was codified in the legal code. The rest of the country didn't have signs saying "Whites only", but black people knew where they weren't welcome (or found out quickly enough).
Thanks for all the responses (and I will rep you all as soon as I finish this message!).
I think it's important to acknowledge that many things HAVE improved for African-Americans since the days that those photos show, but also important to acknowledge and racism and discrimination are alive and well even in 2016. I think they are often more subtle these days, and more easily overlooked by those who are not the victims.
I am white but for years when I was growing up I had a black stepfather. He was born in 1938 and lived through the Jim Crow era. He lived in Cincinnati (until he joined the Air Force -- that was his way of escaping poverty) so wasn't subject to the codified Jim Crow laws of the south, but things weren't all THAT much better where he lived.
I lived in New Hampshire in the mid to late 1970s when busing became a HUGE issue in Boston. I was a kid in school, and I remember well the horrendous fights over this in South Boston in particular. The news images were as bad as some of the images from the South during Jim Crow.
Incidentally, I DID include one of the photos in my slide show for my class, and it (along with other images I used related to education in particular) sparked a very lively and interesting discussion.
Quote:
Originally Posted by scratchie
Yeah, "funny". Good thing it's all deep in the distant past now, right?
Scratchie, I'm sure he wasn't using "funny" in the sense of being humorous, and I don't think anyone posting in this particular thread believes that racism has been totally eradicated anywhere. Let's give each other the benefit of the doubt, OK?
My bad, I wasn't trying to imply that anyone wasn't taking the subject seriously. I was just being a little too flip myself.
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