Race and War in 1964
In our little town, as in towns across the South, schools had been segregated since the end of the Civil War. Schools for the black kids were on the other side of the railroad tracks. Even Hispanic students spent the first three years in separate schools, ostensibly to learn English. There were segregated bathrooms and water fountains, and black moviegoers sat upstairs in the theatre balcony. Despite the Brown v. Board of Education decision ten years earlier, 1964 was the year our school finally integrated.
