As a young girl, I remember the news of how the "negroes" in the south were marching, and protesting. Because I was so young, I only remember images on the television of people in the streets, fighting and having overall problems.
I had no idea. The weird thing is that no one was talking about blacks being mistreated. The press wasn't hiding it at this point, but they certainly didn't report the lynchings, the abuse and the harassing. But by this time, they weren't able to look away.
Of course it had been going on for years.
We all know that now, in retrospect. Just like in World War 2, no one really knew the extent of the evil that went on Germany. It was only until afterwards did the gory facts of torture in the holocaust come out. Same with the blacks in this country. Although the evil was done in many different ways, it was done.
To this day it is painful for me to hear a black person tell of personal experiences with discrimination. To me, it was a holocaust of the soul; of the spirit. I was watching a documentary where famous people were interviewed and had the opportunity to tell their story. Sidney Poietier was a man of great honor, dignity and respect. Yet because of his color, he was insulted and treated like a dog. He recalled in the interview that at one point in his life he worked for a department store in Florida. He was making a delivery and knocked on the door. The woman opened the door and yelled at him angrily telling him he needed to go to the back door. during the interview when he recalled incidences like these, he stopped, put his head down and teared up. There were other testimonials like this that was terribly difficult to watch.
I hear a lot of people in my generation act as if it's all over, "they" have the right now to be equal. "They" need to sort of pick "themselves" up, so to speak, and move on. You know, take advantage of the opportunities "they" now have. These same people post on holidays greetings and reminders of what the holiday is about and then something relevant to the holiday. Not today, not this celebration. Their lack of recognition yells to me a message of racism even today. Racism is a word that people don't want to hear anymore. But it's still there.
HOWEVER....thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr, who died while on the mission of freedom, our country has come a long way.
Yet it still bothers me to the core. And that's what it takes for me to write...something that touches me deeply. So there you have it.
I'm so happy Martin Luther King was born. Without this Christian man, who knows what would have happened, or how long it would have taken.
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