You grow up in south Alabama
I was at fairhope class of 1975
But that was my only year there
Jackson Prep in mississippi four years prior
I don’t equate segregation as hell
That my opinion....having been raised in it and dealing with blacks as a majority or near majority then and now
I do understand. I was a kid in the 60’s. I really didn’t have a proper clue as to how things really were—at least from an adult perspective.
My mother was for civil rights, my step-father against it. He did not like civil rights for blacks. He was a working man, a truck mechanic. He saw job competition from blacks as unfair to the working man. That’s just the way it was for some folks. He was not a violent man, and knew and was friendly to blacks, but he opposed them politically. He was not KKK.
Ain’t that typically deep Southern? You could love some black people you grew up with, family hired help, etc, but hate them politically, or those who were strangers, as uppity people just looking for offense and trouble. My Dad loved George Wallace and Bull Conner. Thought that most of the troubles then were caused by Commies/Yankee agitators.
My mother, God rest her soul, was a good Christian woman who believed all people were brothers, even black people were human. She used to say, “Would you want to be treated like them?”
I grew up funny. In my teens, I wanted to be black. I even got a white man’s frizzy afro hair perm for a while. This was the time of Shaft, Superfly, Al Green, The Spinners, etc, so I saw it as so damn cool! A few months later I shook that off as fast as dog shakes off water. Joined the USAF right out of high school.
Never treated anyone less equal to me. I really didn’t see segregation, but then I was just a kid during the whole Civil Rights thing. 11 YO when MLK was shot.