The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

In the 1960’s I lived in Dallas Texas. Segregation was a part of the culture. In those days in the south blacks [they where called Negros] lived in what today we would consider barbaric conditions. They were not slaves but they were very close to it. President Lincoln signed the emancipation proclamation. Dr. King and President Lyndon Johnson abolished slavery.

If we disregard the accepted meaning of slavery and look at the conditions of a slave, we can better understand the meaning of slavery. It’s like war, if you haven’t seen it up close and personal you can’t understand what it means. My having grown up in a pronominally Black Country in Central America it was difficult for me to accept segregation. I had a wife and a young daughter being a civil rights advocate wasn’t in my best interests especially in the neighborhood I lived in. The best I was able to offer when the subject of segregation came up I would explain the evils of the practice and hope I had made a difference, and hope I hadn’t alienated myself to my friends.

The things I remember about segregation are the simple everyday indignities Blacks suffered. Separate drinking fountains clearly marked black and white only. Blacks seated in the back of public transportation. Blacks made to go the rear of the theater and climb the stairway to the balcony after buying a ticket. Blacks driving on country roads at 35 miles an hour to keep from being ticketed by the police. Blacks not allowed to enter many restaurants and coffee shops. I remember these and other indignities suffered by blacks.

In the South, both whites and blacks honored the line separating cultural differences. A grudging respect on the part of both kept the peace. It wasn’t so clear cut in the North. All facilities were open to blacks; there were no limitations on access. Hostility and rhetoric were much harsher. Fear seemed to be the factor between the races. Northern Blacks were no better off than those in the South even with their so-called freedom.

Dr. Martin Luther King’s death changed all of that. The majority of White America finally realized the price of segregation was too much for the country to continue to bear. The nation was growing up. It was time for us to allow all the little children to play together to be educated together to be Americans together. It was in the words of Dr. King. “ Free at last, free at last, God almighty free at last”. The road up the mountain of equality took 400 nearly years, the road down the other side has taken scarily forty years.

There’s still a road ahead but it’s up to both sides to set aside differences and travel that road together. The burden of interrogation can no longer be born by one group.

Dr. King was a very controversial figure, perhaps less Saint than sinner.

There is no question he moved the conscience of a nation. He was a King in more than name. His death made us look within and change.

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Mr. Hughes is not only a reader of BlackInformant.com, but he frequently writes for the following websites:

www.us-news.net & www.useless-knowledge.com.

Please go and check out more of his work!!!