tar baby, i'm taking it back.
Go Randall!
I too grew up largely in the South with my Mother's family southern. We all knew and enjoyed the Uncle Remus stories and I have never heard a tar baby equated with a black person. Many other words mind you, but not that one. We reads that story in school blacks and whites.
But you would not hear those words from my family though; my grandmother would slap you if you disrespected other people, regardless of color that were good people. Although they both used the term nigra even in front of blacks who had no problem. Go figure.