Today In American His-story

September 7, 1954 - Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, Md., public schools integrated.

Today:

We have a public school system in Washington, D.C. that is
84.6% Black and 4.5% White/non-Hispanic. In Baltimore the numbers are similar.

Baltimore City:

87.5% Black
10.8% White/non-Hispanic

Intergration? Am I missing something?

source: National Center For Education Statistics
photo: Suprememe Court Bldg in Washington, D.C. / by: S Bess
Model: Thomas Bess

Negro National Anthem: Lift Every Voice

James Weldon Johnson & J. Rosamond Johnson

Written in 1900

Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring Ring
with the harmonies of Liberty;
let our rejoicing rise, high as the list'ning skies, let it resound loud as the rolling sea
sing a song
full of faith that the dark past has taught us,
sing a song
full of the hope that the present has brought us;
facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on till victory is won.

Stony the road we trod, bitter the chast'ning rod,
felt in the day that hope unborn had died;
yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet,
come to the place on witch our fathers sighed?
we have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
we have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last where the white gleam of our star is cast.

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
thou who has by thy might, led us into the light,
keep us forever in the path, we pray lest our feet stray from the places, our God,
where we met thee, least our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world,
we forget thee, shadowed beneath the hand,
may we forever stand, true to our God, True to our native land.

The New South

I remember getting fountain cherry cokes from Clark's Pharmacy on Saturday mornings on Main Street in Williamston. I think you can still get them there (cherry or vanilla). It was what we did on Saturday mornings in that sleepy town nestled on the Roanoke river. Williamston, North Carolina was a perfectly quiet and segregated town when I was a teenager in the early 1980's. The Jim Crow signs were down by then, but the sentiment still lingered. There were still at least two segregated lunch counters and other places that were "understood" as off limits. The town has changed some since then. The lunch counters and other establishments are now all fully integrated.

Is it safe now? Well, It is no longer the safe haven from the city that my parents knew when they sent me there at the age of 12. It's still safer than a larger city, but it has lost its "innocence." Dope and cocaine can now be found within it's crevices and street corners. As a matter of fact, there are parts of town that have become so urban that they have changed the name of the street. For instance, Sycamore Street has now become Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive. Unfortunately, that's usually a clear indication that the Ghetto has arrived.

Martin Luther King, Jr., God bless your soul