White Southerner Finds Solution

I was born white and raised in the deep South in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Segregation was written, not only into the law of the land then, but in the hearts of my family and our white neighbors. From youth up, the inferiority of the black race was instilled in us so that it was only natural to believe this. Everybody did. Besides, as we grew up, we saw what appeared to us as proof. For one thing, Negroes are black. No amount of washing can rid them of this evidence that they are of the ‘cursed race,’ our elders pointed out.

When given work to do, there was always a white overseer to tell them what to do and how to do it. ‘They’re too stupid to do anything requiring intelligence,’ was the reason given. ‘Blacks must be somewhere between the apes and humans, really subhuman,’ we were told.

On going to school, the theory of evolution strengthened these thoughts. Often blacks were ridiculed as being no more than “beasts,” only fit to do the simple but hard labor on the farms or to be domestics. Some even said that God had evidently created a race to be servants, not so bright as they were strong and able to do hard work in the hot sun. What matter, then, if occasionally, when he tried to assert himself and get out of his God-assigned place, it became necessary to put a black ‘in his place’ by a tongue-lashing or even blows?

Yes, even the churches encouraged this attitude, as blacks were not allowed to meet with us in worship. They had their own churches, often mere shacks in the middle of a cotton patch. Here we were told that their services were more shouting and singing sessions than meaningful sermons and Sunday-school sessions.

In hushed gossip circles the topic often turned to ‘the way they live​—just a level above the animals.’ Cases of immorality and illegitimate children were pointed to. Nobody cared that a man or a woman did not bother to get a divorce in order to start living with a new partner. It was all part of their mentality, it was said. We weren’t told how, during slavery only a few generations before, black families were broken up and sold to different masters, or how certain slave owners would use a well-built slave to breed his slave women to produce offspring for the slave market.

I remember once pulling a crosscut saw with a young black my age in cutting down a tree. When he got hot, he really smelled! Ah! I thought, this proves what they say about blacks’ having a peculiar body odor. But I didn’t stop to consider that while I had taken a bath that day, he had very meager facilities for bathing in his humble home. Also, lack of early family training in hygiene likely diminished his incentive to take a bath often.

Black Southerner Finds Solution

I was raised in the South in the late 1940’s. My family was very poor, as were most black families. Dad was a field laborer. I was never taught that blacks were inferior to whites, although it was quite evident that whites held this view.

My parents explained to me, and we were also taught in our segregated school, that blacks had been suppressed since coming to America as slaves. They said that even though we are supposed to be free and equal, everything is set up to keep us as secondary citizens, inferior to whites. My father told me that as a boy he wouldn’t dare look a white person in the eye while talking to him. He said that his head must be bowed a little and he would have to answer with a “yessa” or “nossa” for fear of reprisal. He even told me about his going into town and having a white shoot at his feet, and yelling, “Hey nigger, dance!”

So I was prepared for mistreatment and discrimination. Still it hurt. We were required to ride in the back of buses, and often to go to the back door or window of a restaurant to be served. And there were the rest rooms in public places with signs for “white” and “colored,” with the “colored” one, of course, always being of inferior quality. One day in the mid-1960’s, I went to a riding stable and was told, “There is a certain day for you folks.” Plenty of horses were available, but we couldn’t ride with whites.

Particularly frustrating to me was the vicious economic cycle that blacks were held in by whites. In the past, because of slavery and forced segregation, blacks were limited in education and employment opportunities, and thus were unable to improve their economic status or family life. Even in recent times, due to lack of education or discrimination, a black father often would be unable to provide adequately for his family, either materially or educationally.

By the time I started school many blacks had come to the conclusion that the only way to improve themselves was by getting a good education. I remember my teachers emphasizing this, saying: ‘Study, get a good education, so you will not have to work in the fields after completing high school.’ It was not the hard work that was objectionable. No, but it was working from sunup to sundown for meager wages, and ending up with nothing to show for it.

It was the system that discouraged many blacks. Some, who became frustrated because of not being able to find employment, turned to alcohol, drugs and crime to ease their frustrations. This only added support to the thought of whites that blacks are shiftless and lazy. There built up in me a deep sense of resentment for the perpetuation of the unjust and cruel economic system.

I began to wonder: Will a good education really free me from these injustices? Will it change the basic attitudes of whites toward me? These questions caused me much consternation. However, becoming involved in a Bible study with Jehovah’s Witnesses helped me to see the real reason for the racial injustices that are so prevalent. I also learned that the prayer that I was taught as a child offers the only lasting hope for relief​—the kingdom of God.​—Matt. 6:9, 10.