Quote:
Originally Posted by barryem
I was in my 20s before water fountains and restrooms were allowed to all.
I'm not sure it's true that Whites didn't think about it. I thought about it. My father had a Black janitor and he and I had a lot of conversations about that before things began to change. I was always mystified that he would accept things as they were.
This was a guy with a masters degree, I don't recall in what, working as a janitor. I don't recall specifically why. Probably something to do with the subject of his degree but I'm just guessing. I knew back then.
Years before that my dad, who was a flight instructor and managed a flying school, had a black janitor and he wanted to take flying lessons. So my dad made him a deal for lessons to be paid for by washing airplanes and other assorted jobs. He got his license and my Dad used him occasionally to ferry airplanes and that helped him build up time and eventually he got his instructor's rating. However, my dad wasn't willing to let him teach his students so he found other Blacks who wanted to fly and brought them in. Little by little he built up enough students to keep him busy and in time he began to substitute with White students as well.
I was probably about 9 or 10 at the time and I was always working on weekends there and all summer long and I went flying with him a lot. Anyway when we moved to another town my dad suggested the owner make him manager, which he did. A few years later he came to visit. He was the new owner of the school and they still had mostly white students.
This story is worth telling in this discussion because it was such a rare thing. Most Blacks didn't get chances like that and very few Whites were willing to give them, usually out of fear of reprisal from other Whites more than because they were racists. Whites did think about this sort of thing and talk about it among friends, but never openly.
Barry
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My great-grandfather owned a service station in east Texas. He had a black guy working for him. Many people were horrified that the black man was allowed to help the oldest grandchild cross the street. That was very rare especially in that neck of the woods.