I take it this was a novel and not a "documentary."
I grew up in the "separate but equal" south. I know it is hard to understand and I admit a may try a tad too hard to say that my parents were "segregationists" and not "racists." I think they truly believed we had separate but equal blah, blah....
I had my awakening at a very young age because damn I could see "there weren't no equal in the s.b.e. cocktail.
The African American School that I was bussed past every day to the "white" school was a
Rosenwald School . I would love to dig into the history of that particular school. I would also like to see their graduating class of the same year as our "white" one. I would like to meet these that would have been my classmates. I would like to talk to them.
I asked the mother of my foster child who grew up black in Silicauga Al what she thought about my seeking those from the Rosenwald School, and she said she didn't think it was a good idea.
In fact here direct quote was, "Why do you think they would want to talk to YOU, Kathy?" That was a hard time for her and her opinion was to let it alone.
Lexington, SC did try to keep up the facade. The Rosenwald School was newer than the elementary school where the little white children went. It was a community center. And they did get the new band uniforms for the high school and the white school did not.
It was a facade. Integration went very smoothly when it happened in Lexington. Heck, the people had been working side-by-side, eating at each other's tables. (We didn't have cooks and maids when we all worked in the fields and mills.) I have no idea how race relations are now so many years later.
I'm sorry this is not a book to be recommended. I like the study of that era.
