It's a funny thing. My mom was the same way. My parents broke the barriers when I was in high school, and I never even knew it. They took me and my friend, a black singer, to DC for the state Bland Music COntest (she was a vocalist, I am pianist and I also accompanied her)- must have been 64-65. We all shared a room, and it wasn't til years later I found out that my parents had been rather coerced into it by the school, and acted without "community approval". (And that my mother almost died when my friend put baby oil on her hair.)
But to their credit, those wonderful people never ever let on that this was tough for them, that they caused waves in our small town. I am sort of sad that I was part of the civil rights movement and never even knew it!
It was a different kind of generosity, I think, Kate. We had a maid who loved to read, and my parents let her take whatever she liked from our shelves. (this woman raised a bunch of kids, all of whom went to college, and she herself went on to be an executive secretary at W&L.). My parents thought the world of her, and spoke very highly of her intelligence and drive, but she never would have been at out home for social reasons.
OUr moms may have gone as far as was possible within the confines of their world. They truly weren't prejudiced as much as they were restricted by the social structure of the times. |
