Probably the best thing for me about the 60's would be the Civil Rights Movement, which removed so many of the ways that Black people were isolated from the rest of society.
As an example of how things have changed, my grandfather told me about a friend of his who grew up in Houston, Texas. He was born at the beginning of World War II. His family lived in a housing project across the street from the land that after the War became Texas Southern University.
The father worked as a porter on a railroad. It was a good job for a black man, something like teaching and nursing for women.
After the war, the family went to the movies, and they saw Johnny Weissmuller as Tarzan. It was the first time that the friend had seen white people.
A little later, a man, woman, and child (white people just like Tarzan) came to the land, which is now TSU. The friend thought they were Tarzan, Jane, and Boy; the characters from the movie; but they were really people involved in building the University.
My grandfather's friend had lived in an isolated-parallel universe in which white people did not exist.
Dec 12, 2018 @ 20:36:23
