Selma Movie Blurb by Shale January 9, 2015 This was a very good movie and I have to agree with the 98% of aggregate critics on Rotten Tomatoes (and 86% of audience) who also favored it. This is a telling of our civil rights movement in 1965 and centers on Selma Alabama which was perhaps one of the worst states for racial discrimination and violence (tho I'm sure my family's home state of Mississippi followed closely). The movie touches on certain moments of this racist history, the bombing of the black church in Birmingham that killed four little girls. It was after the Montgomery bus boycott of 1955-56 that finally gave blacks the right to sit in the front of buses and after the Birmingham Police & Fire Dept attacks on protestors that let the whole world see on the evening news the kind of white supremacy apartheid that existed in parts of the U.S. This was one of the final passive resistance demonstrations of the civil rights movement when black Americans were trying to get the right to vote in the racist South. While the laws were being passed against segregation in transportation and schools and even voting, the racist white regime in these backwater states found ways to prevent it, by using poll taxes, vouchers from other registered voters (there were no black ones) and unreasonable tests (that the good-ol-boys couldn't pass but they weren't given the test). As was common any protesters were beaten by the pigs (I reserve the right to call these racists pigs) and arrested. In a nighttime protest, Jimmy Lee Jackson (Keith Stanfield) was killed by the pigs, which led James Bevel (Common) to organize the march to Montgomery. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. brought national attention to Selma in this march. King in Selma Jail The story is fleshed out by the characters of the day, played by David Oyelowo as King and Carmen Ejogo as Coretta Scott King. Martin & Coretta Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon Johnson and Tim Roth as Gov. George Wallace. The movie shows the behind the scenes discord between King and LBJ and between some members of the civil rights movement. King & LBJ Eventually, the march takes place after the first attempt ends in a melee of various pigs and rednecks on foot and horseback beating up the peaceful protesters. (Good thing they didn't have used military equipment or it woulda been used.) King Leading March from Selma to Montgomery AL This movie was an emotional experience, seeing the hatred shown on screen that we saws on black & white TV. It was this "Whole World Watching" that got ppl to take a stand, to join in on the side of justice whether black or white. Got to admit a few tears showed up for this viewing. It is a dreadful history of my country, my state heritage and even my white racist family. Much has changed since these dreadful times ... or has it? At the end credits "Glory" by John Legend and Common played and it seemed quite appropriate.
Having watched the movie "Selma" yesterday, and getting quite emotional about the times, some may ask why. Granted, I am not black but I did live in that era and did see the American Apartheid of the time. Here is an essay I wrote about it. The White Side of Racism by Shale June 19, 2010 These are the collected anecdotes of a white guy who grew up in racist America. While I never actually participated in any of the civil rights struggles of the1950s and '60s I was there, observing and living the day-to-day life in a racially divided nation. I was raised in St. Louis and as a child recall being afraid of black people. Probably picked that up from the attitudes of adults around me. St. Louis was making efforts at dispelling racism even in my childhood and I remember to this day a public service sign on a city bus that read; "ECIDUJERP is Prejudice spelled backward - Either way it doesn't make sense." My grade school education was at Jackson School in North St. Louis and I don't recall any black people there. This was before 1954. In 1955 we moved to St. Ann, one of the postwar 'burbs of St. Louis and I do remember black students in Jr. High and at Ritenour Sr. High School, tho there were no black teachers. We students shared classrooms and got along well but there was not much socializing between the races at recess and the black students would stay in their small group. But, this was interracial exposure and I did make some friends among the black students. Also I remember Ray Thorpe one of our star football players who sat in front of me in one class. I studied his skin and hair, the tight curls that lined up in precise wavy rows and his neck, which was so black it appeared blue. The one black friend that I interacted with was Joe Williams a very talented fellow artist. Looking at my yearbook, there were two black girls who signed it, tho I can vaguely remember them. Overt racism still existed in St. Louis County. A black family moved into our 'burb and their house burned down. I remember my mother being upset about it because everyone seemed to know it was arson but no one would take a stance and make an issue of it. Altho I was primarily raised in St. Louis and the 'burbs, I had exposure to the Deep South. My dad was from Mississippi and each summer we would take the City of New Orleans train down to visit my grandparents in rural Lincoln County outside of Brookhaven. As a child I remember my grandmother getting help with the housework from a "nigra" woman, and paid her a paltry amount of money and used clothing. One summer my aunt was moving to Brookhaven and a huge semi moving van drove up to my grandmother's place. We were putting my aunt's stuff in a little house out back of the main house. Now in the rural South the midday dinner is the important meal of the day and Southern hospitality meant anyone visiting shared this big meal. So the white truck driver sat at our table in the kitchen, while my aunt fixed plates for his two black helpers who ate on the porch. It was the system and everyone seemed satisfied with it - but it did not go unnoticed as strange. In 1958 our family drove down U.S. Hwy 51 to Brookhaven. That is when I saw the segregation in the Deep South. Every gas station had "White" and "Colored" rest rooms. Restaurants had a "White" and "Colored" side and separate was not often equal, sometimes being just a serving window. Strangely, the food for the white side was prepared by black people in the kitchen who could not eat it in that side of the restaurant. When I was a teenager I remember the "White" and "Colored" drinking fountains, side-by-side, at the J.C. Penney store in downtown Brookhaven. The water came from the same pipe. I don't know why, but I drank from the "Colored" fountain - probably just teen rebellion more than any protest. Having two fountains was stupid, just as so many other stupid things of which I was becoming aware, so I defied it. Luckily I wasn't taken out and beaten for doing it as a black person would have been. If anyone saw me, they likely shrugged it off as a stupid Yankee boy who didn't know better. I remember in my late teens reading a book by Carl Rowan (could've been Go South to Sorrow - 1957) in which he mentioned Lamar Smith a black activist who was organizing voters and who was murdered in Brookhaven in August 1955. Wow, sleepy little Brookhaven made national news! I wrote my grandmother and asked her if she knew about it and her reply told me a lot about racism in the South; "We don't talk much about that here." I graduated in 1963 and went into the Air Force, where I lived, slept, showered and ate with black guys. The armed forces had been integrated since 1948 so we were used to it. Once, while travelling by Greyhound in uniform I was asked by an elderly white woman to sit in the empty seat next to her. She was concerned that a black person, perhaps like the black army private I saw in the adjoining seat would sit next to her. I declined and sat with the soldier. My philosophy at that time was the only colors that mattered were the blue or green of our brotherhood. I remember going thru New Orleans by train in 1964 and purposely using the "Colored" rest rooms in Union Station. Again, probably getting a pass from both black and white because I was in uniform (and I wasn't a black guy using the "White" facilities.) I got out of the service in 1967 and by 1968 was working in New Orleans on the Harbor Police Dept. as a beat cop. I was 24, one of the young guys on the force and this old lieutenant was talking to me while we were standing at the Rivergate Convention Center, one of the properties under our jurisdiction. There was a convention in town and the hookers were out on Canal Street. A couple of nice looking black women were working the corner and the Lt. asked me if I had ever gotten any black ass. I told him no but he must've thot I was denying it and assured me that it was OK, every guy did it with black girls. This was just one year after the Loving vs Virginia Supreme Court case made it legal for white guys to do it with black girls in Louisiana, so this cop apparently broke the state law in his youth. I remember while we were reviewing The Louisiana Revised Statutes in cop class that the captain teaching it told us to ignore the miscegenation law that was still in the books. Just a note; on our wall in the Harbor Police dispatch room in 1968 was a large "Wanted" poster of Eldridge Cleaver. I did my police duties with the department for one year and didn't socialize with too many of my fellow officers. One guy that I hit it off with was Charles Toussaint, a black cop from an old New Orleans family. Most noteworthy was when I shook Charles' hand for the first time and being aware of his black hand in my white hand. (This was not the standard handshake but the more expressive one the brothers use, with the hands facing up.) We became friends and hung out together. He visited me in my one-room apartment on Camp Street and I remember he seemed offended by my Rebel Battle Flag on the wall. He didn't make an issue of it, just pointed out it didn't seem to fit me. Well, I did have a great grandfather, Doc Robertson, who was in the CSA as a sawbones. The flag eventually came down. I also went to Charles' home uptown, met his wife and ate real Cajun cooking at their table. Charles was in the army in 'Nam and had actually seen combat. He was also fed up with the police dept and was planning on leaving. That upset me as he was the only one from work that I really related to and I tried to get him to stay. One night, while I was off duty I went down to Charles' beat and hung out with him for a while talking. This was seen by the Sergeant who reported it and I was called in by the Capt. and told that I was not supposed to be on a public wharf while off duty. I got a reprimand for that but it wasn't mentioned that the Captain also said, "It 's bad enuf that we have to work with them but we don't have to socialize with them." Like Charles, my days in the department were numbered. After I quit the police department I sorta dropped out. Like so many of my generation got into sex, drugs and rock and roll. Also, experienced alternative lifestyles and living arrangements where blacks and whites were intimate. This was the new age, the dawning of Aquarius and we were throwing off the old prejudices of our parents' generation and for some of us there was no going back to the racist past. While working at the French Market Corporation in 1973 I went in on an apartment in the Quarter with Eli my black co-worker and his white girlfriend Patsy. This was the new norm and Eli and Patsy were accepted as a couple in this old Southern City. However, speaking of Old Southern Traditions, when Eli and I would go for lunch there was a very popular Po Boy shop in the French Market. It had a larger airy section out front and a smaller more cramped section in the back, a remnant from the segregation days - and yet, all my black co-workers continued to eat there. Hence, once again I was using the "colored" facilities. By 1980 I met Brenda, a black co-worker at a boys' home outside of New Orleans and we became lovers and long term companions, eventually marrying. Her family accepted me (there was history of whites in her family) but my mom reacted badly when I sent her a picture of Brenda. She sent it back with a scathing letter asking, "What makes you think I want a picture of your black woman." Wow! I didn't communicate with mom for a couple of years after that. She finally came around and apologized to Brenda and we visited her in St. Peters Mo. Years later my black grandson was also welcomed into her home on a couple of occasions as we traveled around the country. That pretty much concludes my experiences during time of institutionalized racism in America. Brenda and I never had any real problems being an interracial couple - altho sometimes when looking for apartments I would check it out alone, saying my wife was at work and make sure it was actually available before Brenda would be seen. I have had black friends illegally denied apartments in Hialeah in the '70s. There was one terrifying moment that Brenda and I had in South Carolina in 1981 while traveling thru on I-95 in a VW Bug. Some white guys in a pickup truck started playing with us, pulling in front and slowing to make us pass, then pulling in front again. This was the most frightening experience of my life because of the history of racial violence in this part of the country. I finally found a well lit service station and pulled off. The truck followed us but left and we later continued without incident. This was just an isolated incident when we left the urban area of South Florida and ventured into the Deep South. Imagine living there under the constant threats of the Ku Klux Klan and other terrorists.
There's not enough attention given to race. There needs to be more attention given to it. That will bring people together. I love it when white people go out of their way to show people how "not racist" they are.
Good story, Shale. Our people "owned human machinery" in Missouri back in the day and the racism continued unabated as I was growing up. Such as " don't let your step father kiss you on the cheek--it'll leave a black mark." =father regarding Mexican step father. "I love it when white people go out of their way to prove how "not racist they are." I haven't seen you "love" anything around here except booze. You may be the most cynical human I have ever had the displeasure of seeing post or speak. Don't like the stories---tough shit.
I was born in 1960 and I remember my elementary school becoming non-segregated in the late 1960's. I think I was in 3rd grade. First they informed us that black children would start attending our school. Then, they had a day where the black children came and visited with us for the day. Some weeks later those children began attending our school. I can barely imagine what it felt like to be paraded past the white children on that visiting day. It must've been terrible to stand before the classroom and introduce yourself. I lived close to the area where the black children lived so they all rode my bus. It was during that time that we all became friends. I'm thankful for that experience and for being the right age to really get what was happening. I was happy to be helpful and friendly during the transition. I'll probably eventually see this movie. I like knowing what the adults were doing when I was a child.
I just received an e-mail from Richard, a friend in Miami who is a bit older than me and was here a couple decades before I got here - meaning in the racist days of the '50s and '60s. It is a good historical perspective of this typical Southern city of that time and the much more tolerant international city today. And for the sarcastic cynics reading this, Richard is also white. He went so far out of his way to show ppl how not racist he was that he, like me, married a black woman. Follows is my experience in the Miami-Dade County courthouse in 1962. I moved to Miami in 1959. I had to leave twice for two work assignments. I returned in the Fall of 1962 and at time I registered to vote. At the courthouse, in the line in front of me was an elderly married Black couple. They wanted to register as Democrats. The clerk told them they could not register as Democrats, they could only register as Republicans*. The couple insisted that they were not Republicans and wanted to register as Democrats. The clerk registered them as Republicans and told them take the cards and leave or she will tear them up and call the deputy over to take them away. When it was my turn to register I questioned the clerks authority to do what she did. She stated that she was following the county's rules. When I asked her why she was registering them as Republicans, this was her reply. The elections are decided in the Democratic Party Primary. Blacks are registered as Republicans so they cannot vote in the Democratic Party Primary. There was no Republican Party candidates that ran for office during that time. At that time, Miami was very much a southern town. It was a segregated community. The court house had Colored water fountains and rest rooms. Also, White only rest rooms. I do not know what a person from India would do. Although some have black skin they are racially classified as Caucasian. I bought my house in Little Coral Gables. Coral Gables had its own bus system. I commented to my attorney that was a great feature. He told me that the bus system was for the black house help. To get them to work and out of the city by sundown. That was why the bus service stop at sundown. I was told that if a Black house worker stayed at a home after dark, the homeowner had to report that to the police and inform the police how they were going to get the black person out of the city after dark. A black person could not walk on the sidewalks after sundown. They would get arrested or escorted to the city line. The resident had to either contact a Black cab company or drive them out of the city. The black person could not sit in the front seat of the car. Sometimes the C.G police would provide a police car to escort your car to the city limits. My house had a small toilet (no bathtub or shower) in the garage, off the laundry room. I thought that was strange place for a toilet. I learned that was for the Black maids. The realtor informed me that most of the houses built in Coral Gables, Miami Shores and Miami Beach, where it was expected the owners would have Black help, they had a toilet in the garage area for the Black help. How consider it! I 1964 I started work at the Florida Gas Co,'s Miami Division as Sales manager. Overtown and Liberty City and Brownsville were in our franchised area. I became friends with three black police officers who wore suits and ties. I thought they were successful officers that worked themselves up to detective rank In a discussion I had with them, I learned that they were street patrolmen assigned to the Black neighborhoods and were not allowed to wear a policeman's uniform, because they were Black. They also would eat lunch at the Biscayne Cafeteria at 17th Street and Biscayne Blvd. One day when they were in there when I was there, a white customer complained to Howard Zeman, the owner, about the "Blacks eating in the restaurant. Howard told the white man to leave the restaurant and if he continued to feel that way, not to come back. White cops would not eat in Biscayne Cafeteria because they would have to arrest the Black officers for being there. At that time, no blacks could eat south of 5th Street in downtown Miami or outside of Overtown.i . Some restaurant would serve Blacks at the back door and Royal Castle had a side window to serve Blacks on the sidewalk. My first weekend in Miami (February 1959), my wife and I headed for Haulover Beach. While on the beach, a Black couple with two children appeared about 50 feet north of us a sat on the beach. With in a few minutes two deputies were on the beach and told them that it was a White only beach and they would have to leave. They were told there was a beach for Colored people. My wife, Lorraine went over and asked the police why they made the people leave the beach. When was told it was because they were Black. She started informing the police that they were well behaved and there was no reason for them to be kicked off the beach. When she was told, again, it was because they were Black she started to argue with the police, She was told they were enforcing the law and for her to shut up and sit down or she would be cited or arrested. The couple and children left the beach Within the next few years I was witness to many incidents that violated the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It was during these times that I realized that these Southern Fried Brains did not recognize those documents. If I was Black, most likely I would have joined the Black Panthers. [SIZE=12.5pt] Welcome to the South.[/SIZE] [SIZE=12.5pt]I hope a lot of people see the movie Selma. Maybe those who missed that era will develop a better understanding of the countries history.[/SIZE] He sent another e-mall of when he first got to the city. During my second week in Miami during February 1959, I reported to Peoples Gas System building in the 600 block of NE 125th Street in the city of North Miami. My first day, It was recommended to eat lunch at the Royal Castle which was across the street on the corner. It was mid-afternoon and the place was empty. I received my order and sat down to eat at a table. A men walked into the restaurant and as he went to order his meal he was told they could not serve him inside, that he would have to go outside to the window or the backdoor. I noticed that the man was Black. I asked the cook why he was not serving him. He stated that they did not serve nigroes inside the restaurant. (I spelled it as her pronounced it) I asked the Black man if he was an American citizen. He said yes, he was from New Jersey and this was his first day in Miami. I asked him if he was a veteran. He stated yes he had been in the US Army during the Korean War and had served in Korea. I then told the counter cook to serve the man. That he had to serve the man by law. Unbeknownst to me there was a second cook in the back kitchen of the restaurant. He had called the police. As I continued my discussion with the cook about the law, two police officers came in the front door. The cook who was in the back room came out and stated that he had called the police because 'That man" pointing at me was trying to get them to serve the nigroe. Up to now, everything had been calm and polite. One cop asked me who I was. I said a customer. When I tried to inform him what was going on, he told me to shut up and sit down in a command and control voice. That type of voice never went over too good with me. After all I am a US Citizen. When I tried to tell the cop I did not like to be spoken to that way, he ordered me to shut up or he was going to arrest me. The cop escalated the atmosphere. I sat down. They then asked the cook what was going on. Once they found that out, they asked the Black man why he refused to go outside. He explained he did not refuse but did not understand the why. The police officer then explained it was the law. Restaurants don't serve negroes. The Black man acted puzzled and went outside. The cop then wanted to know who I was and what I was doing in North Miami. I explained all that. He then told me that I was creating problems by encouraging the Black man to break the law and in fact I was breaking the law and I could be arrested. I explained to him where I was from and I was aware that the law required a business to serve customers where I was from. He then stated that under Florida law a business has the right to refuse service to anyone they choose . That he did not have to serve anyone. I started talking to him about the US Constitution and Equal Rights. The cop stated that this was Florida and they went by Florida Law. They left, I finished eating and just felt like the two Royal Castle customers were lied too and bullied by two men with guns. I also felt my Constitutional Rights had been abused. [SIZE=12pt]Richard[/SIZE]
Hell, it was '84 when I was in Florida and was talking to a laborer that worked where I was installing the roofing, when he said--" joel, it was only a couple of years ago we would have BOTH been beaten up for standing here talking." My daughter went south some months back with a black man friend. I was very worried. Wrong place, wrong rednecks------
A little further back in St Louis history, and aftermath racial tension. The East St Louis riots 1917.. On July 1, 1917, a rumor spread claiming that a white man had been killed by a black man, and tensions boiled over. The next day, the city of East St. Louis exploded in the worst racial rioting the country had seen. Most of the violence -- drive-by shootings, beatings, and arson -- targeted the African American community. The riots raged for nearly a week, leaving nine whites and hundreds of African Americans dead, and property damage estimated at close to $400,000. More than six thousand black citizens, fearing for their lives, fled the city.. http://teachinghistory.org/history-content/ask-a-historian/24297 On July 2, 1917, the violence resumed. Men, women, and children were beaten and shot to death. Around six o’ clock that evening, white mobs began to set fire to the homes of black residents. Residents had to choose between burning alive in their homes, or run out of the burning houses, only to be met by gunfire. In other parts of the city, white mobs began to lynch African Americans against the backdrop of burning buildings. As darkness came and the National Guard returned, the violence began to wane, but did not come to a complete stop. - See more at: http://www.blackpast.org/aah/east-st-louis-race-riot-july-2-1917#sthash.wV6ny4VQ.dpuf
I read somewhere, the blacks there were somewhat wealthy, or at least doing very well for themselves due to the employment they had gained.. This also lead the underprivileged whites to attack them.
