General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I am an older white woman, a retired teacher. [View all]OldRedneck
(1,397 posts)70 to be exact.
Born 1944 in Wilkinson County, MS, which at that time was about one year removed from slavery. My g-g-granddaddy owned 83 slave. My g-granddaddy was head of the county Klan. Granddaddy owned a grocery store and an old country general store with a cotton gin.
In Granddad's office at the gin he had two pictures on the wall: Jesus and FDR. When he prayed, I was never certain to which of them he was praying.
My parents and grandparents grew up during the Depression, WW I, and WW II. They were thankful every day for the New Deal, something most of the young 'uns commenting on DU never heard of . . . the Rural Electrification Administration put electric lines down the road where we lived, enable Granddad to install an electric separator and electric lights in the barn at his little dairy . . . the WPA built a bridge over a stream that previously my parents and grandparents had to drive through, except when the water was high and they were stranded.
As a college student in Alabama, 1962-1967, I marched behind MLK in Montgomery, was arrested by Bull Conner's cops in Birmingham, and almost thrown out of college by a redneck dean who called me a "damn n****r lover."
My father and two aunts braved the Klan to teach in black schools in the Mississippi Delta.
I raised $250,000 for Obama's re-election and am now raising money for Hillary.
I could go on and on and on . . . but it's past my bedtime.