January 1, 2014

Watched a movie, The Help, set in the early 60s in Jackson, Mississippi. In the early 60s, I was out picketing Woolworths because of their policies in the South and lobbying Berkeley High School to stop steering minorities away from college prep classes (lest they be disappointed later when their degree wouldn’t get them the career they’d prepared for). Until watching this movie though I didn’t know the extent racism was institutionalized in Mississippi. I’d heard of Jim Crow laws but not that they actually existed as state laws nor what they outlawed. People had outhouses for their maids who weren’t allowed to use the indoor bathrooms even in a raging thunderstorm. There was a law against maids using the same china and silverware the family used. They actually couldn’t speak unless spoken to. Dehumanizing degradation went on for generations after the “end” of slavery and continues today.

When will we ever learn?