Understanding the South

Having grown up in the South, I have had a preconceived notion that there has always been animosity between all races. While racism shows its ugly face in many different ways and racism may vary by community type, it continues to exist even after the civil rights movement. Mind of the South by W.J. Cash helped me realize that racism did not always exist in the South as it does now. And after reading a portion of Race, Place, and the Law and watching Corridor of Shame, it makes me wonder: Has the progress towards accepting our fellow man been stalled during my lifetime?

Mind of the South really brought the early South to life for me. It made me realize that the South was not comprised of large plantations and the well-off elite were not as well-off as I thought. Nearly everyman that came to the US during colonial times was here to work some land, trade, and become financially stable. Depending on where one settled determined one's ability to succeed in growing crops or hunting game. Men and women from many different countries settled the American frontier, some merely succeeded better than others; therefore, they gained stronger political influence. There was a range in classes, but the majority of the people in the South were poor, lived off the land, and did not have people working in servitude for them. The few, well-off plantation owners with political power are the one's fighting the war to "protect" their state's rights- the right to enslave their fellow man. Cash indicates that the number of wealthy, powerful men was less than a few hundred. A few hundred who were making decisions for the entire South, and setting precedent for the racial injustice that would cloud our nation's policy for over a century.

I never would have considered how housing policy determined segregation until Dr. Farris addressed it in our Human Settlement course last year. I don't know how I lived my life up until this point without considering how suburbs and cities were modeled based on mortgage companies and housing policy. I have to say that this is a result of me growing up in a mainly white community, and just assuming that the historically African-American communities that existed on the fringes of my town existed because that is where there families chose to live once they were given their freedom. This may have occurred, but policy later determined that they had to continue to live within the bounds of their communities because separation would deter conflict as Delaney's Race, Place, and the Law indicates. It makes me wonder what would have happened is segregation had not been mandatory what kind of conflicts would have occurred and where would our nation be today? But we should not dwell on what would have been, we have to dwell on what we can make of the future by what we do today.

After watching Corridor of Shame, I became aware of a situation in my home state that I surprisingly had never considered. I am ashamed that as a South Carolina resident, we are continuing to allow students to live as if they were in the 19th Century. While the the documentary is relying on word-of-mouth to communicate the existing problems in schools along Interstate 95, I wonder if the word is really getting out there. I would say that I keep abreast of issues within my state and within my community, and I am surprised that the state and the national news are not blowing this issue up and shedding light on it. How are our presidential candidates addressing this problem? My best friend is an English teacher and is seeking an additional master's degree to combat urban education problems, and even she has not been exposed to the conditions in rural America. We cannot think that this problem is exclusive to South Carolina- it applies to rural communities nation-wide. We have to overcome this neglect; otherwise, the root of our nation will continue to disintegrate. We shall overcome; we must overcome, even if incrementally, step by step, community by community.