Readers Remember

I was born in the segregated South in the early 1930s. I remember the efforts of survival as a black youngster in a racist society. I remember being forced to attend “colored” schools; drink from “colored” public water fountains; being forced to go to the “colored” waiting rooms at the Greyhound bus stations and then being relegated to sit in the “colored” section of the bus. I remember being denied a motel room on our highways when I was too exhausted from all-day auto travel. I remember serving in a horribly segregated U.S. Army to preserve freedom for white people and being denied the purchase of a hot dog on Main Street in my hometown.

I was an eyewitness to efforts to cease this nonsense as I participated in lunch counter “sit-ins” in Durham, N.C., during the 1950s.

I remember the legacy of all racist members of the U.S. Senate, who with others, continued to pass laws in an effort to keep me as a second-class citizen.

Goodbye and good riddance to the 20th century.

EARL E. RAINES SR.

Altadena

* Singing with the Norman Luboff Chorale during their first U.S. tour in 1963, we were an integrated group--with one black girl, Rosy--traveling in the segregated South. It was at a Southern rest stop where the bathrooms and water fountains were designated “White” and “Colored,” that I unthinkingly accompanied Rosy to the restroom marked “White.” When we exited, there was a row of red-faced angry men lined up against the railing, yelling epithets and insults. And after that, our bus was followed out of town by cars with shotguns sticking out the windows.

BETH TENKIN

North Hollywood