Reflections on Segregation

Segregation. Legally it ended with the signing of the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, which barred discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion or national origin in public accommodations, and 1968, which barred housing discrimination. But the scarring it caused for  generations of African Americans who were forbidden to freely pursue their lives, liberties and happiness, did not heal with the strokes of those pens. To be told as children that they couldn’t drink from this fountain or play at that beach or attend the school in their neighborhood left enduring wounds. Imagine graduating from college with, for example, a degree in biology but being told the only job you need apply for is mopping the lab’s floors? And the only logical reason is the illogic of racism. But many of them pressed on and became successful. Port Folio Weekly talked with three successful leaders in the black community, Cecelia Tucker, Assistant to the President for Community Relations at Old Dominion University, Portsmouth City Councilwoman Marlene Randall, and Imam Vernon M. Fareer, chair of the Virginia Conference of Inclusive Communities, about how they coped and rose above the limits of segregation. The following are edited excerpts from the interviews. View the discussion online at www.portfolioweekly.com

TUCKER:  Everywhere I went, there was a sign to indicate how I was to access that place. If I was going to go to a restroom there was a sign that said ‘colored.’ If there was a water fountain it said ‘colored.’ My parents tried to protect my sister and me. My father would always tell me, ‘We don’t drink colored water, and we’re not going to a colored bathroom.’  So we just did not experience that. We had to see it, but we were not allowed to participate.

RANDALL: We were always given a sense of pride. The church was very much a part of our lives. It was truly a time when the village raised the children. Any neighbor could correct any child along the way. We respected our elders, and we looked up to them…Our parents told us that we were special because they didn’t believe that God would bring us this far and leave us, and we were not junk…One of the most memorable things that stuck in my mind was that once I completed school and decided to apply to a graduate school, I was slapped in the face by the state of Virginia, by saying to me that even though I was an honor student and had done exceptionally well, I could not go to the University of Virginia.  And that was heartbreaking. And I kept applying and others applied. So as a result, the dear state of Virginia, which I loved dearly, paid for me to go to Columbia University. All expense paid, even my travel and a stipend, to get my master’s degree. So out of the pits of what could’ve been very devastating it opened up a door to greater opportunities.

TUCKER: That happened to me, too. I was able to go to the University of Michigan because the state of Virginia would not accept me as a graduate student.

FAREER: I grew up as a Christian, though I’m obviously a Muslim...My parents, they instilled in us and gave us great values…During that time, I remember the principal beating me and then calling my parents and telling them that they beat me, and why they beat me. When I got home I got another one. I got punished and the whole nine yards, so we needed a lot of faith then [laughing].

FAREER: It’s the breakdown of the family structure. That’s where it all begins. In my upbringing, the guys who would hang out on the corner,…if a lady or man was coming down the street and they were older…if somebody was using profanity they would tell that person, ‘Hey man, stop. Don’t you see that lady coming? Stop using that language…’ This was the guy who might break into somebody’s home or might steal something from the store, but they had enough respect that they respected their elders.

TUCKER:  All of the people around me were the persons who were at my back. My father and my mother just knew that I was brilliant and I was going to go on and do this and do the other…They always said you have to do this. You have to be better than this one in order to achieve success…I am not a bitter person. Even though I would not want to go through some of that again, the indignities that I suffered, I still think that I am stronger. I am a strong woman having come through and coped with all that I had to.

RANDALL: I think everything that happened to me was for a purpose. And that purpose was to give me the strength where I could help other young people to endure everything around them and say, ‘I can. No one can make me other than what I can make of myself.’ And as a result of feeling that way, my parents always said, ‘God didn’t make any junk, and we didn’t produce any junk, and don’t you ever let anybody tell you that you are junk. You’re a child of God and you are our children…’  I’d say integration was a plus and it was a negative because people no longer trusted one another. And so children were permitted to get away with things that we would never have in our lifetime. And strange as it may seem for me to say this, some of those times are still here with us. We have to be mindful and cautious of the demons that are still in our midst and work with our children and ensure that they always feel special.