Social Studies Department2016-2017
Jim Crow Source E
Directions: Using the “Marking the Text” Handout, mark the following sources. If you need to be reminded of the steps, please consult your skills notebook. Please remember that you must annotate in order to receive credit. Annotations are an important step in “Marking the Text.”
I moved to Montgomery to live with my Grandmother in 1953. I had been raised in Texas and California. I had very little experience with "colored" people as they were called then. Montgomery was a rude awakening. The dual water fountains and bathrooms; people in the back of the bus; the pervasive attitude of pseudo-paternalism that masked fears and long ago hatreds. It was all frightening for a young girl of 13.
I had a part-time job selling Fuller Brush door-to-door for a neighbor. I had ridden my bike to an unfamiliar part of town that probably qualified for genteel shabby. In those days, most folks were friendly to Fuller Brush since the sales person came bearing gifts. I knocked on the door of a nice looking home with a big veranda. A very pretty black woman answered the door and invited me in. She had a grand piano in her living room. Now, I had never been in a home that had an actual grand piano in the living room. She had two little girls dressed in organdy and patent leather. And she actually talked to me. She spoke as if I was an adult and I loved it.
We discussed freedom, segregation, nice people, bad people, the Klan and what I would do with my life. She was wonderful. She took me into her world and let me see the ugliness through gentle and loving eyes. We talked for two hours and she changed my life. She made me care and expanded my thinking and my entire universe. I was ready to slay dragons and fight the world when I walked out of her home. But it was 1953 and I was 13 years old and I lived in my Grandfather's house in Montgomery, Alabama.
I had to be satisfied with small victories for several years. I was on the crowded Forest Avenue bus and actually had a seat. An elderly, heavy set black woman got on the bus with an armload of groceries, trying to make it to the back, clinging to the poles as she could. I was midway back. I stood up and let her have my seat. I thought the fat, red-faced woman next to me would have a heart attack. All the folks said what a nice, polite child and let the woman stay. Small victory but what a feeling!
Helen Botello Saint Jo, TX
“Remembering Jim Crow.” American Radio Works. Date Accessed October 21, 2016.