Many southern Negroes never learned reading

Ted Hochstadt
Falls Church, VA

This is approximately what my mother said to me when I asked her why our African-American cleaning woman could not read the word I asked her about from my second grade reader. The conversation with my mother occurred in Brooklyn, NY almost 65 years ago, but I still remember that my mother went on to talk about “Negro” sharecroppers, segregated schools, and the black migration to the north in search of employment opportunities for themselves and educational opportunities for their children.