bet356体育投注

“For Use in Colored Schools” was the message stamped inside of Sharon Howell’s textbooks as a child. The books were generally torn and tattered and sometimes had missing pages. As Howell explained to her audience of rapt fourth-graders, this was just part of everyday life in 1960s South Carolina.

“We lived with my father’s parents and they owned a store right next to the house. At this time, everything was segregated so everyone I saw was black. When you were sick and went to the doctor’s office, there were separate waiting rooms for black people and white people. When we went downtown to Belk’s, we had to go in through the back door and there were separate water fountains. It’s just the way things were.”

Craig Whiteford’s students were silent trying to take this all in. Whiteford had asked Howell to share her perspective as part of a unit they were exploring on black history: segregation, 歧视, and how far we’ve come in the last 40 years. From the general air of disbelief rising from the class, it was clear that the life Howell was describing was completely incomprehensible.

Howell didn't know any other kind of childhood. When McDonald’s first opened and Howell was eager to go, her mother said, “Their burgers are dry. If you want a burger, I’ll fix you one.” Summer trips to Myrtle Beach were single-day outings that began at 5 a.m.

“It was a five-hour drive and when we were about an hour away, we’d pull over by the side of the road and change into our bathing suits. When we arrived at the beach we’d play in the water and eat fried chicken that my mom had packed. 在回家的路上, we’d pull over again and wash the sand off with water that my mom had brought in a jar and put our clothes back on. I thought this was the way everyone went to the beach!”

The whole day had to be carefully orchestrated because they were not allowed in gas stations or restaurants along the way and even at Myrtle Beach there was only one section of beach that was open to them: The Black Pearl.

“等! 你在开玩笑吧. 正确的? What if you had to go to the bathroom?一个学生问.

“We’d just pull over by the side of the road,” Howell replied matter-of-factly.

Howell talked about how fortunate she was. 她的父母有一辆车，所以, even though she was aware of the back of the bus policy, it wasn’t one that she ever encountered personally. “Black people couldn’t go to the library, but my great-aunt drove the Bookmobile in our neighborhood. She would discuss books with me and knew which ones I liked. My love of literature was born that way.”

It was not until high school, that Howell became aware of how much her parents had protected her.

“When I did realize, I felt inferior. I actually thought I was less smart because I was black. In college, I was the only black person in my freshman math class. 有一天,, the teacher called on everyone before she called on me and I was the only one with the right answer! After class, a white girl asked if she could study with me and I finally felt smart.”

在温斯洛普学院, Howell became friends with both white and black girls who were activists and began to write. “I’m amazed you weren’t angry all the time,” said Whiteford.

Howell replied, “I had a great support system. 我写了很多. 我抗议.”

One student asked if Howell had ever been threatened. “There was one time when we drove past the KKK. My mother said, “Put your heads down. I don’t know what’s about to happen.什么也没发生, but she remembers being surprised at the fervor with which Halloween is celebrated when she came to McDonogh. “我小的时候, Halloween was a night you stayed home because the KKK would drive through town and frighten the children.”

And the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church Bombing in Birmingham is an event that stands out vividly. “It was on television and one of the girls who was killed was 11 years old, the same age I was. I asked my mom if they would burn us at our church too and I would pray every night, “请神, 别让我死.’”

The earlier silence was broken. The students grew more indignant when they discovered that it was not until May 17, 2000 that all the perpetrators had been brought justice. Said their teacher, “They got away with it for almost 50 years."