 "Photo: paterson.k12.nj.us")
When the month of February comes around each year, the first thing that comes to mind is Black History Month and all of the accomplishments that African Americans have made to be where they are today.
It’s hard to fathom that 41 years ago, people were still living in segregated neighborhoods, going to segregated schools, and using separate bathrooms across America, and people lived this way for most of their lives.
Charles Davis,72, was born and raised in Florida and currently lives in Los Angeles. Davis said, “It was segregated in L.A.; I went to an all-black school, and there were places that we couldn’t go, such as parks, and if we went there we were harassed. I couldn’t work where I wanted to work, I couldn’t live where I wanted to live, and if we were walking down the street with four people or more, the police would stop us and harass us because they thought we were trouble.”
Davis continued, “When I was five or six years old, I was living in Florida, and one night we heard a lot of noise outside and my mother grabbed my sister and I and told us to get under the bed and to keep quiet. I said, ‘What’s wrong, momma?’ and she said they were the night riders, and they were lynching a man about half a mile away from our house because he spoke up to a white man.”
We often think that every African American who grew up during the Civil Rights Era from 1955-1968 faced racism and saw it on a daily basis; that wasn’t always the case, especially if they lived in the North.
Cathey Ray, a 54 year-old woman born in California, raised in Newark N.J., who currently resides in Pennsylvania with her family said, “I wasn’t aware of racism because my world was black, and I didn’t really see white people besides my teachers growing up,” said Ray.
Ray continued, “The first time I experienced racism that I can remember was when I was seven -years-old. I was on a bus with my grandpa from California to New Jersey, and we stopped in the South at a bus station. My grandfather gave me money for a soda, and when I reached the counter to place my order, the waitress waited on everyone else around me. I kept saying excuse me and I thought she couldn’t see me because I was little, but now I realize it was a racist act.”
The Civil Rights Act was first signed in 1964 by John F. Kennedy, and then again in 1968 by Lyndon Johnson. Both acts banished segregation from schools, the work place and public areas, and allowed African American to live where they wanted to live, or so they thought.
“I came into a lot more racism when I got married in 1972 to my husband who is white, and race mixing was still frowned upon at that time. We lived in my husband’s apartment and no one knew he got married. The landlord found out he was married to a black woman and kicked us out. It changed me for years, but it has also made me stronger as a person,” said Ray.
Racism still exists to this very day in America, and is uncertain if it will ever cease. Americans continue to blend with each other in the work place and in schools, with friendships and as lovers.
We are making America a place where race isn’t an issue any longer; we should try to keep it that way.
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