This is going to be long. I apologize. I didn’t want there to be any ambiguity in my comments.
Okay, thank you. I’m sure from your perspective, you did see a different angle than what was conveyed in the media. Does that mean that your angle was the only angle, and that none of what was portrayed in the media was true?
I’m not sure of your precise age at the time. As a young person you may or may not have been able to discern if your school was on a par with other schools. I’m not entirely sure what evaluations were made at the time. Were you aware of them in real time? I’m not trying to be insulting, but I’m not sure kids really do understand the nuances of situations like what existed in those days.
It would seem to me that you and your friends were probably happy in your classes. I’m sure it did seem like an unnecessary inconvenience for kids to be moved to another school. I’m sure it did seem like a lot of commotion over nothing. On the other hand, if ten schools were integrated and there were three that weren’t, does that make it okay for the three to be segregated?
I don’t doubt that some kids were somewhat bewildered by what was going on. None the less, there was a problem. Schools were ordered to allow all local students access. Two separate governors refused to allow it.
That being the case, there was going to be push-back.
At the time, these schools weren’t the only facilities with problems. Civil rights were being denied throughout the region. It needed to be addressed.
As far as presidential politics had gone, the South was a solid lock for the Democrats in these days.
It was and still is my premise that Senator Byrd was an organizer and chapter leader of the Klu Klux Klan. From his earliest political days, he was a Democrat.
Is that something that wasn’t about race or politics?
I don’t want to bother looking up Faubus’ actions in Little Rock too, but I do know what the case was with Wallace and his attempts to block Black kids access to White schools.
Wallace was a firm believer in segregation. Whatever your experiences were in school, or what you thought all Black kids wanted or didn’t want to do, Black kids did want to attend the school Wallace sought to block them from entering. I suspect kids wanted to enter the segregated school in Little Rock too. If there weren’t other problems in the region, perhaps this wouldn’t have been addressed with the fervor it was.
Yes, it certainly was John F. Kennedy and his Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who forced Wallace to allow those kids to enter that school. And while the Kennedy’s were obviously Democrats, the two men that stood up to stop Black kids in the South from entering two schools, were obviously not Republicans. In 1957, it was Dwight Eisenhower(R) who used the National Guard to force Faubus to allow Black students in.
And lest we miss the point of Wallace’s intent, here is what he said twenty years after the event.
“Change of positions”
“In the late 1970s, Wallace announced that he was a born-again Christian and apologized to black civil rights leaders for his past actions as a segregationist. He said that while he had once sought power and glory, he realized he needed to seek love and forgiveness. In 1979, Wallace said of his stand in the schoolhouse door: “I was wrong. Those days are over, and they ought to be over.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace#cite_note-over-3
Wiki isn’t the best reference, but this is a fairly well known quote. It has been out there for decades. In Wallace’s later years, he mellowed considerably. In fact, I believe he was favorable to seeing Blacks treated fairly.
Okay, Wallace says his actions were as a result of being a Segregationist. Doesn’t that reveal to you that in the instance involving Wallace at least, there was a problem?
If the children in classes with you didn’t want to change schools because they already had established friendships, does that mean there wasn’t a problem? I don’t believe it does.
The media probably did make it look like most schools in the region were refusing to integrate. I can certainly see why that would tweak you. I don’t blame you. My comments being overly broad, probably did upset you too. For that I am sorry. I may even be saying things in this post that seem insensitive to you. I’m not trying to tweak you.
During the day, there were segregated businesses, restrooms, schools..., and blacks were being demanded to ride in the back of the bus. Access for Blacks was clearly inferior.
In the late 1960s, I returned to Southern California. At the time, Blacks were essentially treated like anyone else. I’m not going to say there weren’t any problems, but the problems in the South weren’t present there in anything like the same level.
The North East, the North, and the West were different than the South in that respect. That’s not just my take on things.
Does that mean that every person in the South treated Blacks terribly? I don’t think so at all. I do think a lot of people looked the other way though.
If you still believe these are unfair characterizations, I would like to hear your thoughts on it.
I am particularly interested in how old you were at the time, and whether you feel that you were old enough to understand all the nuances of what was taking place.
Sorry to make this long of a post on the subject.
Take care.
Yes...that is a very long reply, with quite a bit of innuendo and a lot of assumptions.
First and foremost,
“In the late 1960s, I returned to Southern California.”
Returned...from where?
“The North East, the North, and the West were different than the South in that respect. That’s not just my take on things.”
You’re right about that! Just look at Boston, for example.
I wasn’t in a “big city”. I was in a small city.
When I said that the black population was repulsed by the feds, it had to do with the fact that we already had integrated schools. We had Freedom of Choice. There were black families who didn’t want their kids in the desegregated school system.
Unannounced, during the Christmas break in ‘69, the feds closed the black school system...then and there. There was a lot of anger in the black community, and I don’t blame them whatsoever.
“If you still believe these are unfair characterizations”
Yes...given that I was never a supporter of Gov. Wallace, and given that his name was brought up, not by me, but you...you were and are very unfair to me, and to this forum.
You have prejudices that I can’t even begin to fathom.
BTW, I was in high school, and college, during this time.