We had maids when I was growing up, first in Griffin GA, where I lived from age 4-7, and then in Atlanta, where I grew up.
I don't know why, but I came home from first grade in Griffin one day and a thought occurred to me. I asked Annie Grace, didn't Negro (the word used at the time) children go to school? She said, "Of course, what you ask me that". I said, "because there are no Negro children at school". She said they went to different schools. I have no idea why this occurred to be at such a young age, but I said with mortified gasped, "au... we make them go to worse schools".
She looked at me hard and said, "don't you ever let me hear you talk like that again!" I asked why and she said because it was dangerous kind of talk and "don't you ever let a white person hear you say that. You hear me!" It was 1958.
But I did. In 1960, we moved to Atlanta. I was playing outside with three friends that summer and a bus came by to pick up the maids in the neighborhood. I said, "Doesn't it strike you as odd that we deny Negroes access to a decent education and deny them access to decent jobs and then we have the nerve to hate them for their poverty and lack of education."
My friends gasped. One said, "Of course we never thought of that. We are just children! What's wrong with you?" Another one said, "Yeah Phyllis, don't you have any idea how different you are? Even our parents never thought of that!"
But all three of them are still my friends today. And ultimately, they all agreed. In Atlanta, our beloved maid was Bernice. Growing up, I discussed it with her a lot. She ate with us and shared our bathroom... and did not discourage me at all from discussing it.
I read the book, then saw the movie. Needless to say, I loved both and wept hardily.
Last edited by Pturner; 11-01-2011 at 09:57 AM.
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