Commentary

Recall the days of Jim Crow, and you'll see the progress we've made

by Rip Stauffer

Former President Jimmy Carter made news this fall when he declared that an "overwhelming portion" of the vitriol aimed at President Obama was due to the president's race. Several pundits suggested that Carter's upbringing in the South lent him extra credibility or sensitivity to the issue.

Obama countered that, although race is always with us, he thought his opponents were motivated by ideology centered on big government and its hand in the economy.

As another older white person who, like Carter, grew up in the South, I want to offer my own perspective on how far we have come.

I was born in Maine, and had lived mostly in Northern states until 1962, when we moved to Huntsville, Ala. My father worked for GE as an aerospace engineer and was working on test cells for rocket engines. So we were in Alabama when Martin Luther King was marching in Selma and other places; Jim Crow was all around us.

Then, because John Stennis of Mississippi was a very powerful senator, many of America's rocket scientists ended up in or around Pass Christian, Miss., for several years. I was again exposed to the Deep South of the 1960s -- a period of sometimes violent opposition to the transition that was taking place.

Racism was blatant and public in those days; it was a matter of pride. My parents, raised in Michigan and New Jersey, were among a few couples who did not stand at high school games when the band played "Dixie." Hard and cold were the stares of those around them.

Driving through the southern countryside in those days, we saw full-sized billboards on public highways depicting Martin Luther King in a classroom setting, with the caption "Martin Luther King at a Communist Training School."

Walking right through town, you might find a handbill from the KKK about human "hybrids" posted on all the telephone poles, and offensive posters, flyers and signs on the front of a restaurant.

There were many subtle signs, too. My father, registering to vote in 1966, took the "literacy test" given at that time in Mississippi. The kind people at the polling place called him back later that day, asking him to come down and review his test.

When he got there, they told him that he had made a little mistake, and asked him if he wanted to change his answer. It seems that, when asked the three branches of government, he had answered, "Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary."

The correct answer, according to the Mississippi board of elections? "President, Congress, and Supreme Court." He changed his answer, and so was allowed to vote in that mid-term election.

Some have said that Barack Obama's election, one year ago this week, signals the beginning of a post-racial era -- or at least a post-racism era. I hope so.

I was on the mall for his inauguration. It was easy on that day to be swept away by the moment, to let my emotions go and hope that what I had seen during my childhood was truly in the past.

True, there were stories of race-based hate speech directed at Obama during the campaign. True, there are still African-Americans who are fearful when they spot police cars on the freeway.

There are still measurable, undeniable gaps in access, and some fringe white supremacist groups still meet, some still wearing hoods and robes.

Fortunately, though, these stories are few and far between. We may have some way to go, but from my viewpoint, it is a long way we have come.

----

Rip Stauffer, of Carver, Minn., is a quality consultant.