MUFTIC FORUM BLOG

The making of a Southern liberal and how it happened.

The incident with racial chants at the University of Oklahoma and more violence in Ferguson flashed my memory back to my younger days growing up in eastern Oklahoma in Muskogee. The mid sized town of 35,000 was populated by African Americans, many refugees from the Tulsa 1920's and'30's  Ku Klux Klan, and Whites and Native Americans with Southern US roots.  I also was and am an alum  member of a sorority and still keep  up with my local chapter at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois. I understand the group think and pressure for conformity such bands of sisters experience.  Most of my sorority sisters were from the north and I never heard such racism expressed as I heard now from  that OU fraternity.

  Back in the 50's what I do recall is that the university was rumored to have a quota of Jews (as was whispered to me by close Jewish friends)  and there were enough African American women admitted to give social opportunity for the African American football players.  My sorority had just begun admitting Catholics ( still no Jews, no Blacks).   My reaction was to be active in the Model United Nations that respected other countries'viewpoints...I was co-secretary general.  In 1960, I led  the Draft (Adlai) Stevenson group in the Mock Political Convention in 1960..  The North Shore parents of my sorority sisters( our sorority house  was the leader of the Stevenson group) were appalled, especially when we almost beat the Richard Nixon forces. Stevenson, a Democrat,  at that time was governor of Illinois.  In short, I was a not so laid back  rebel working within the system. I  have attended a few reunions and let me say both sorority membership and the entire campus is happily very diverse these days.

For those who puzzle at what shaped me coming from Oklahoma as I did in the 50's  there  were several factors:a)  Parents who were not from Oklahoma..Dad from the Fort Morgan, Colorado area a University of Colorado graduate  and a mother from Missouri and educated in Illinois, b) My parents  told me  the cleaning help  and my African American nanny were as well educated as they were  and deserved total respect and if I ever used the N word, my mouth would be washed out with soap; c) My own reading of the Bible...even as a Presbyterian, churches were strictly segregated and I dared ask why since I thought Christ taught otherwise. The answer from church elders: "'They' prefer to go to  their own church".   This was a Southern Baptist Bible belt town and even Presbyterians shared social attitudes. (The Presbyterian Church became one of the most tolerant and welcoming  of "others" much later). However, Presbyterians, Episcopals, Catholics,  and Jews were the "others" and I felt a kindship with them in being a member of "a minority".

 1950's Muskogee observed separate but equal education, separate drinking fountains and restrooms, back of the bus, and no integrated neighborhoods whatsoever. Blacks "who knew their place" were appreciated and those who did not were called with disdain  "uppity N...s".  I remember feeling sorry for "colored people" who had to conform with the segregation rules.  It did not seem fair.  I had a piano teacher who tried to convince me Black people..called Negroes or colored people when being  polite..were directly descended from monkeys and the two races should never mix.  I politely listened. I must have been 12 then and I never believed a word since I knew otherwise from my own experience.

 It was not until my senior year in 1956 that integration began to a limited extent .and we could   compete in debate meets and  to get to know our African American counterparts.  They were  impressive, too.  Keeping up with some of my high school classmates, I have found  many of them are still frozen in the times and attitudes of 1956. Others are not and evolved much like me..

There are two movies with which I personally relate.  To" Kill a Mockingbird " describes my neighborhood, attitudes, and characters I knew. The Harper Lee  book version is perhaps even better than the movie to get a feel of my life in the 50's.  "The Help" takes life from a different perspective and the main white young woman  character was particularly descriptive of feelings and situations I experienced  in the 1950's  and even later as a young adult.

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