What Can We Do?

Each day I read where some lawful person is kidnapped by masked ICE men and carried off to jail. Today it was an American citizen, not an illegal criminal, who was dropped off at her work and was suddenly surrounded by ICE agents. 

I put myself in this innocent woman's place and feel her terror as she is handcuffed and dragged to jail. Innocent of any crime, she was held for three days. They gave her no water and she was told she had to pay for food. Of course, she had no money. Her purse had been taken from her. 

I wish every American citizen who votes would stop and put themselves in the position of this woman who was simply on the way to work  like she had done many, many times.

When did our country become such a place? Why is this happening? I hear that the ICE police are required to arrrest a certain number of people, innocent or not, so they grab Citizens of the USA, not for what they did, but because of how they look, and fabricate crimes that did not happen. 

It must be frightening for anyone with a dark complexion to walk on the streets of our large cities. When I see people I went to high school with praising this administration for this cruel behavior, I wonder how they became so evil and mean-spirited. I'll bet if the situation was reversed and their white daughter was kidnapped like that, these men I know would be ranting and raving, going down to the governor's office and their congressman's office to demand this kind of illegal behavior end right now. They would never again vote for a president who did such awful things to innocent people. 

But I am sorry to say, racism is still rampant in the deep south. My homeland is not what I thought it had become. Now I hear that this president plans to strip the  museums of things that make slavery look bad.  

...Smithsonian that its museums would be required to adjust any content that the administration finds problematic in “tone, historical framing and alignment with American ideals” within 120 days. 

Slavery didn't just look bad, it was terrible and the aftermath was horrible, too. When I was a child, black people were being lynched in nearby counties in south Georgia. And the Sheriff was involved in the hanging. When authoritarian racism overpowers other chambers of government, we are in a terrible state. We must elect people who will not stand for this dictator to destroy us.

But I cannot give more money. I wish they would not keep sending me requests for funds. My small income does not provide extra to support a political party. I might not even be in this world when this administration leaves office. All I can do is use my voice to speak about injustice and cruelty and hope someone out there listens.

What about you, my friends? What can you do? What more can I do?

Charlayne Hunter-Gault and UGA history

Today I watched Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates on Public TV and Charlayne Hunter- Gault was one of the guests. As she traced her family history back to slavery time and beyond, I remembered when I was a junior at the University of Georgia and my sister was a freshman. Charlayne entered that year and she was the first black woman admitted to the college.She and a young man who had attended her high school in Atlanta, Hamilton Holmes, wanted to go to the best school for journalism so they applied to the University of Georgia. They were turned down. Still they would not give up. When they were backed by civil rights organizations they had clout behind them. A judge ruled that they were qualified and had the right to attend this school.

Looking at her tonight on this show and thinking about taunts, the horrible words said to her and all she endured to break the racial barriers of discrimination back in the sixties, I am glad I experienced the turmoil, was there to see first hand how people reacted.

The first night she stayed on campus, people from the town of Athens and elsewhere came and rioted around the freshman dorm where my sister also lived. I was so scared for all the girls in that dorm. I don't think Charlayne was still there as the windows were pelted with rocks and bottles. I imagine she had been whisked away and taken back to her home in Atlanta. What an ugly part of history that was!

"Hunter and Holmes arrived on the UGA campus on January 9, 1961, to register for classes. The new students were met with taunts and racial epithets. Two days later, after a basketball game, a crowd gathered outside Hunter's dormitory, smashing windows with bottles and bricks. The mob was finally dispersed by Athens police armed with tear gas. That night the Georgia State Patrol escorted the students back to their homes in Atlanta, and the University of Georgia suspended both Hunter and Holmes, supposedly for their own safety.

Hunter and Holmes at UGA

Days later, after a new court order was issued, the students returned to campus and resumed their classes. As the writer Calvin Trillin noted in his account of their experience, Hunter "attracted much more attention than Hamilton," who lived off campus and went home on weekends. Hunter was sometimes met with animosity from students who jeered at her while she crossed campus, but she formed several friendships, including one with Walter Stovall, a fellow journalism student. They married in 1961, had a daughter, and divorced a few years later."

I have a good friend who knew Walter Stovall and his family. She told me that his family disowned him when he married Charlayne Hunter. He was from a small town in South Georgia, like me, and his family must have been shocked and dismayed that he married a black girl. If they had not disowned him, they would have been ostracized by the community or maybe worse. Racism was huge in the area back then, and I am sorry to say, it still raises its ugly head today. My sister and I heard from the narrow minded people in our town simply because of an innocent comment made by my sister to a newspaper man who twisted her words when he printed what she said in answer to his question about Hunter going to school there.

I was young and never thought about what the future held for this brave young pioneer of the civil rights movement, but Charlayne was intelligent and proved herself even in high school. She evidently knew what she wanted for her career and went after it. I am happy that she has been successful as a journalist in this country and abroad. It was wrong to try to bar her from an education at the university. I think most people in the south realize that today. 

In spite of her difficulties at UGA, in 1988, she was the first black person to give a commencement address at the school.

You can read more about Charlayne Hunter-Gault and her accomplishments in life here. 

Other similar topics: The Movie 42, I Finally Saw It

The Movie 42 - I finally saw it.

Growing up near where Jackie Robinson was born in Cairo, GA, I heard some horrific stories from my father about treatment of black people in the rural areas. Those stories have stayed with me all my life. I write about them in my memoir.

I'm glad the movie, 42, was uplifting. What a brave young man Robinson was to take on the entire world of baseball, to take on the verbal abuse from the players and the fans.

I was happy the movie portrayed a southern team mate, Pee Wee Reese, as one who put his arm around Jackie and faced the fans to let them know where he stood. That was also a brave man. 

In my book, I'll tell about my sister and how she had to defend herself while in college, from racist remarks of hometown students who had read in a newspaper that she was on the welcoming committee for Charlene Hunter, first of two black students at UGA. The article was untrue, but the meanness and accusations were not.

The movie, 42, made me feel good about how far this country has come although we have so much further to go. I think racism has just gone underground, at least in the south, because people tell me that a heavy racist population prospers right here in our mountains. I am fortunate to know and be able to socialize with open-minded intelligent and informed people. Most of them I have met through writing. 

We have more good people than bad, I believe, and I'm glad good people, after a long time of blindness, saw the wrong being done by ignorant people, and changed our laws. Sadly laws can't change the prejudiced hearts and minds of others. They have to obey law, but still, inside they hate.