How Far We Have Come

Much is being said about Brown and how far we have come or not come and what may or may not need to be done.

However, as the following from today's Montgomery Advertiser clearly illustrates, we have, thankfully, made some substantial progress.

Attitudes change, but segregation returns

On May 17, 1954, Montgomery Advertiser reporter Jack Freeman stopped by then all-white Sidney Lanier High School with his pad and pen to query students about the news of the day: The U.S. Supreme Court handed down a ruling in Brown v. Board of Education in Topeka, Kan., a decision that banned legal school segregation.

Freeman returned to the newsroom with a notebook full of quotes that nowadays would be considered politically incorrect or to harbor hate.

"They aren't as civilized as we are," one student said.

"Next thing you know, they'll be riding with us on the buses and everything," another one said.

"A lot depends on the first Negroes who come to Lanier. If they have the right kind of humility -- not the shoe-licking kind, but ordinary humility -- there shouldn't be any trouble," noted another. "It's going to be a lot harder for them than it will be for us."

There is still a ways to go in the matter of race relations, but we have come an awfully long way in the last fifty years.

Note: This post is part of the Beltway Traffic Jam.