tato wrote:
First of all, I'm a 69 year old black man. Never on welfare of any type, B.S. and M.S. degrees.
In 1955 we moved from a small town in Mass. to Phoenix, AZ. My parents both worked for the Federal government and we had a middle class income, but were forced to live a house in one of three "colored" sections.
In June 1961 we bought a house in a "nice" section. My parents would go through the paper looking for home in our price range. There were three ways to buy a home outside the "colored" section. One, know a wealthy white person who would buy the house, and then sign it over. Two, find a sympathetic white who would sell privately. And three, run across a disgruntled homeowner who wanted revenge on one or more of his neighbors.
We ended up, after 100's of calls, found a guy who hated his neighbors and was happy to sell his 4 bdr, 2 bath house to us. We paid cash.
The second day we were there, a lady came to our door, and had a casserole dish of lasagna. She was a 31 year old Italian lady, very short and stout. She stated that the neighbors were so glad we moved in and the previous owner moved out.
I was between my junior and senior years, and hated to leave my old school, and enter a all white school. On the other hand I was looking forward to rocks through the window, spray painted house. Except for someone knocking our mailbox down, nothing happened.
First of all, I'm a 69 year old black man. Never o... (
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I grew up in the North and did not know of first hand segregation. When I took a job in the South, after driving down, needed to do laundry. When I went to the laundromat, the machines were labeled colored and white. I never saw that before, thought they were refering to the clothes, so I washed the whites on one side, and the colored clothes on the other.