Professors discuss both sides of growing up during the Civil Rights struggle

Students who gathered in the Think Tank at the Tyler Haynes Commons on Friday afternoon heard stories about the absurdity, pain and sheer terror of growing up in Birmingham, Ala., at the height of the Civil Rights movement from two professors who witnessed it first-hand.

Gill Hickman, Jepson professor of leadership studies, and Ladelle McWhorter, professor of philosophy and women's studies, grew up on different sides of the color line that divided Birmingham in the 1960s. Both professors remember suffering because of intimidation from the Ku Klux Klan and resistance to the changing social structures in the South.

"Everyone who expressed any sympathy for the movement was threatened," McWhorter said.

During her childhood, she attended a socially liberal white Methodist Church that supported integration. She relayed memories of leaving church and realizing no one from the congregation could go home because the Klan had slashed their cars' tires.

"I remember crosses burning on our front lawn and death threats to my father regularly," McWhorter said. "I remember my father sitting in the garage all night with a shotgun and keys in the ignition just in case something happened."

Both Hickman and McWhorter recalled the shock and fear that everyone felt after the Klan bombing of 16th St .Baptist Church, during which four young girls were killed.

"The saying was that, 'If they would kill little girls, they'll do anything,'" McWhorter said. "That's what it's like to live with terrorism."

About 45 people, mostly students, attended the talk, which was accompanied by a slide show that displayed images from the epoch of Jim Crow laws. Grainy black and white photos displayed familiar images of two fountains and waiting rooms, some labeled "White" and others labeled "Colored."

"People went to extreme lengths to show that black was inferior," Hickman said, pointing to a photo showing a pristine porcelain water fountain for whites next to a rusted metal fountain for blacks.

Both Hickman and McWhorter had childhood memories of segregation. Hickman recounted being chased away from a lunch counter because she climbed up on a chair without knowing better. McWhorter said that she had been snatched up for stumbling into the black waiting room at the doctor's office.

"I always thought that separate waiting rooms was a funny idea," Hickman said, responding to McWhorter's story, "Since everybody was there to see the same doctor."

Hickman said that some of her most vivid memories were of the segregated school system.

"When they would open a school in the black neighborhood it would be a building with desks, a blackboard and chalk," Hickman said. "That was it. All the books and anything the school needed had to be paid for by parents. There were local fundraisers all the time for the school."

McWhorter said it was important to note that everyone paid the price for segregation. "Alabama was 49 out of 50 in education in the United States," she said. "Maybe if they spent more money on education and less on segregation it would have been better."

Students who attended the presentation said that it was interesting to hear two sides of life in Birmingham amidst the Civil Rights struggle.

"Growing up it was always presented from the black perspective," Junior Michael Coleman said. "It was enlightening to hear about the Civil Rights movement from a white person, as well."

Freshman Geoff Weathersby, a Bonner Scholar who regularly attended talks in the Think Tank, agreed and said that hearing both a white and a black perspective was an unusual opportunity.

The presentation was part of the university's commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and came just four days before the inauguration of first black U.S. president. After the presentation, Hickman and McWhorter reflected on Obama's victory just 44 years after the end of Jim Crow.

"I knew about two weeks ahead of time that Barack Obama stood a good chance of winning," McWhorter said. "But knowing in your head and seeing it happen are two different things.

"I watched the election results at a party at a friend's house with mostly African Americans and most of them under 35. When the networks called the election for Obama most of them were overjoyed, but for me it was all I could do not to cry. It was a deeply affective moment ... For us older people it was a release of grief."

McWhorter warned against an attitude of complacency in the wake of Obama's election.

"I worry that people will think, 'It's all over now,'" she said. "It's not; there are still a lot of race issues in this country."

Hickman said: "My 18-year-old grandson just cast his first vote for Barack Obama. My 85-year-old grandmother is traveling to Washington to attend the inauguration. She said, 'I'm two generations removed from slavery, I've got to see this.'"

Hickman said that she saw hope in Obama that the nation might be able to start dealing with the lingering legacy of slavery and segregation. She said that Obama's landmark speech on race and politics in America opened the door for mature conversation about the racial stalemate in the country.

"I think what that speech did was not necessarily heal any racial divisions, but it allowed us to now talk about and deal with issues of race in a mature and constructive way," Hickman said.

Contact staff writer David Larter at david.larter@richmond.edu