We weren't taught about the history of segregation, and it shows.
I'm in my late 60's, white, college educated, raised in the Northeast. I discovered in the last few months that I know NOTHING about the history of segregation in the South.
My awakening came about because my wife and I moved to a VERY small town in a rural Tennessee county. One of the first townspeople to befriend us was a black gentleman about the same age I am. I'll call him 'Daniel' for the sake of anonymity. Daniel is proficient in an absurd variety of skills, and will drop anything he's doing for a chance to help a neighbor. Which I am very thankful for, because I'm an inept but determined do-it-yourself'er.
I noticed a poor, decrepit little wooden building next to a small cemetery on the outskirts of the town proper, that looked like an old one-room schoolhouse. There was even a wooden outhouse still standing in the woods behind the school. I assumed that the schoolhouse was a relic from the depression era, that just by chance was still standing. So I asked Daniel about it.
It turns out, it WAS a one-room schoolhouse, built in the 1920's, for the local black children grades 1-8. And, DANIEL WENT TO THAT SCHOOL!
Up until 1965, while the local white children went to a nice, brightly lit school, where there was a lunchroom, a gymnasium, a teacher for each age group, and indoor plumbing, my friend Daniel went to a school just two streets over, that had 30-35 children ages 6-14 taught by ONE teacher, two out-houses (one for girls, one for boys), and books that were hand-me-downs from the white school.
Desegregation came just in time for Daniel to start high school in the white school. But I learned that the black TEACHERS were not integrated; it would have upset the racial hierarchy too much to have white students taught by a black teacher.
God forgive me, I honestly thought that before desegregation, that the schools were somewhat EQUAL! Why wasn't I taught about that?
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