Reply #145: YES . . . I can remember a day, very clearly when I understood the unhappiness involved . . . .

[defendandprotect]

in being either white or someone of color --

I was only a bit over 6 years old and traveling with my beloved grandmother and we had boarded a bus in Florida -- we were New Yorkers.

A woman about the age of my grandmother got on the bus and there was some kind of a a "to-do" about her sitting in front of us and then she moved to the back of the bus.

My grandmother explained to me quietly what was happening --
and I couldn't imagine that these two women were any different in the love they brought to the world and those who loved and cherished them -- and yet some wanted to impose harsh and cruel differences in treatment!!!

It was also later on that trip that I saw the long lines of "darkies" chained together doing road work and what was happening there was also obvious to me.

In NY at that time, "blacks" were uptown and not very visible in our society.
I did begin to become much more aware of racist concepts and comments, however.