When We Were Colored, by Eva Rutledge

[chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com]

A memoir originally published in 1964 about one woman's trials of motherhood for the most part, interspersed with incidents stemming from the Jim Crow laws in the South.

From the title I had expected more about race in particular, and I was a bit disappointed to see that it was mostly 50's era Pollyanna-style anecdotes about mothering, PTA and Girl Scouts. (not a fan of that sort of writing) Only near the ending does she really delve into the racial turmoil she and her family mostly escaped by moving from Alabama to California. But the things she does relate (like her world-traveling husband being advised not to return to the US by people in other countries) made it quite clear how much of an apartheid situation was present at the time in the US.

What really surprised me was how much the author seemed to prefer segregation at first, I guess until she and her family got used to it. She relates a time later on where they joined a segregated club and found it not to their liking at all.

She seems like a good person who raised her kids not to be prejudiced, and it's worth reading, especially if you are younger and don't know the history of the Jim Crow era.

Suggested tags: memoir, African-American, non-fiction, women writers

Comments

[buria-q.livejournal.com]

it's not that surprising. to oversimplify, writer zora neale hurston also wasn't really for integration. what were the writer's reasons? some black people at the time felt that desegregation was a lower priority than other race/class issues and a range of other views on integration. delux_vivens sometimes writes about this.

i think i am clumsily summarizing a range of reactions here from that era and i welcome corrections.

[buria-q.livejournal.com]

*and had a range of other views

[buria-q.livejournal.com]

i think i made the assumption that a lot of people in this comm are white. sorry if i sounded flip.