You might hurt the man’s feelings
Paul J. Mercer, Lakewood, NJ These words were from my father in the very early 50s. My Dad and I were watching the world go...
The Hiroshimas were good Americans.
Ken Prestwich, Worcester, MA. The Hiroshima family included my first friends growing up on a small farm just outside of LA (they had one too)...
“Beauty Inside Shines through the Outside”
Matthew Powers, Riverside, CA. “Growing up Irish and being raised by a single mom in the 50’s and 60’s in Omaha I saw racial tension...
Because I’m white, I feel ashamed.
Sadie Petersen Philadelphia, PA As a child, the streets of west Philadelphia were my playground. I loved going to school in the area and wouldn’t...
Neighborhood party we were not invited
Ninfa Pena-Purcell, College Station, TX. This picture of my parents captures a young Mexican American couple with aspirations to live the American dream in the...
Excuse me, are you a Negro?
Jean Pierce Morrow, State College, PA I grew up in a suburb of West Philadelphia in the 1950s. My town had two elementary schools, and...
My mother boiled the girl’s utensils.
Michael Vines, New York, NY. Just want to make sure that you understand “the girl” was how many people in the 50-60’s referred to their...
1950’s – Mother worked for Civil Rights
Anne Elizabeth Wolfe San Rafael, CA My mother grew up in the South . She worked for Civil Rights in the 1950’s and was called...
Little brown girl, white man’s world
Beatriz Mallory Newfoundland, PA My father was one of the first black men to work at IBM in the late 50’s; my mother a Puerto...
Parents gave me Confederate flag: protection
Steve Morris, Seattle, WA. In the mid-1950s my father made a business trip from our home in Connecticut to Florida and back. He decided to...
I saw them in the back
Dennis Jack Higgs Saint Peters, MO I was raised in West Texas in the 50’s and 60’s. Although racism was rampant around us, we were...
“Hush, Child, they’ll take Grandma away!”
Robin Greeley St. Louis, MO This is what my relatives said to me at a family reunion in the 1950s.They were afraid that if it...
Name unpronounceable – never called on
Edvige Kromayer Barrie, Clinton, NY. Growing up in the ’50s, I was unaware that most people had no idea how to pronounce my name and...
Silas couldn’t come to my party!
Nancy Harris Cadwell, Mulvane, KS. As a small child in the early 1950s, I really loved the black man that worked at the local drugstore....
Ladies Needn’t Wear Long Gowns
Susan K. Schmidt, Oklahoma City, OK. It was the mid 50’s in Miami, Florida. It was the time of “white only” and “black only” water...
Avery. Ate on the back porch.
Dee Abbate, Oakwood Hills, IL. Although I was raised in Chicago and my parents “were not racists” they fed our colored handiman leftovers for supper...
A lifetime of challenge, determination, triumph.
Betty J Byrom Sanford, Lansing, MI. I am a child of the 50’s and know full well why we ask for reparation. While I have...
Drank from the wrong fountain: white.
Ty Cooper Arlington, VA I was born (1950) into a family of sharecroppers in eastern NC. We lived one mile from the nearest road. I...
