. My grandmother knew Margaret Mitchell. My grandmother also had a working black maid. My grandfather knew a black man that he took with him hunting and fishing for years in the 1940's to 1960's. My grandfather told my mother that that black man was his best friend. Even so, the black man addressed my grandfather as "mister".
One day my uncle and grandfather were out in the car and came upon the black man on the side of the road. He was dressed in a coat and tie. My uncle and grandfather stopped to see what was wrong. It turned out that he had a flat tire and had donned a coat and tie in the inevitable event that the flat tire would land him in jail. He didn't want to go to jail undressed.
In those days, a Black man in a coat and tie was assumed to be a preacher or an undertaker, and would be shown more respect by the whites than would a laborer.
And, yes, I know that there were Black bankers, insurance company executives, doctors and lawyers in the urban south of those days, but that probably wouldn't have come to mind in a less urbanized area.