re: #236 HappyWarrior

“Well in those days.” blah blah. Motherfucker, Emmett Till was murdered for looking at a white woman wrong. African-American veterans got harassed in uniform. People were deemed national security risks for being gay. Spousal abuse was socially acceptable many places.

Segregation wasn’t limited to the South. Before the Civil Rights Act was passed there was a lot of segregation in Western PA not only involving people of color but religious minorities too.

The JC Penney’s in my home town did not allow Jews or Blacks to shop there. They had to go to the Sears store 2 blocks away.

Our Borough pool “asked” people of color to stay away.

Blacks were not allowed to play on Little League teams.

Other places were “restricted” as well. Sometimes Jews, Catholics, Blacks and Others weren’t allowed to enter these places.

The steel mills had segregated work areas. Blacks were assigned to only work the coke ovens (with the heaviest pollution).

Even Catholic Churches were segregated based on nationality. One church was only for Italians, another for Serbs, another for Germans, another for Irish and you could only go into the church for your nationality.

BTW—our Democratic congressman at the time, Frank Clark, was only one of two Northern Democrats who voted against both the Civil Rights AND Voting Rights act.