Ben Shurett: Immigration issue can tear communities apart (Sand Mountain Reporter)

[struggle4progress]

Posted: Friday, October 14, 2011 4:17 pm
By Ben Shurett | [e-mail] | 3 comments

Now 60 years old, I have lived through some challenging times. Growing up in Tuscaloosa, I watched that city and all of Alabama struggle through desegregation issues at lunch counters, public schools and even drinking fountains ...

It was the law, you know. People hid behind that rationalization as hatred and discrimination was rampant. The law was on their side. That made how they felt right somehow ...

The law was wrong and time has proven that some hearts can be changed. Even Wallace publicly admitted the error of his ways. Several years before his grandstand, he told my father he took his harsh anti-integration stance "because it's the only way I can get elected."

Divided opinions on this topic ripped my hometown apart. Tuscaloosa became stagnant with a fractured community and leadership. It took years, many years, to recover from its history ...

http://www.sandmountainreporter.com/columnists/ben_shurett/article_f5f32136-f6a9-11e0-ab2a-001cc4c03286.html