Separate Pasts: Growing Up White in the Segregated South

189 Pages·1998·8.63 MB·English

by  Melton McLaurin

Separate Pasts
Growing Up White in the Segregated South
Separate Pasts
Melton A. McLaurin
Brown Thrasher Books
The University of Georgia Press
Athens and London
Growing Up White
in the Segregated South
Second Edition
With a New Afterword by the Author
© 1987, 1998 by the University of Georgia Press
Athens, Georgia 30602
All rights reserved
Designed by Sandra Strother Hudson
Set in 10 on 13 Century Old Style
The paper in this book meets the guidelines for
permanence and durability of the Committee on
Production Guidelines for Book Longevity
of the Council on Library Resources.
Printed in Canada
Second Edition
14 13 12 11 10 P 10 9 8 7 6
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McLaurin, Melton Alonza
Separate pasts : growing up white
in the segregated South / with a new afterword
by the author, Melton A. McLaurin.—2nd ed.
176 p. : ill., map ; 22 cm.
ISBN 0-8203-2047-1 (pbk. : alk. paper)
“Brown thrasher books.”
1. McLaurin, Melton Alonza—Childhood and youth.
2. North Carolina—Race relations.
3. Wade (N.C.)—Race relations. I. Title.
E185.93.N6 M35 1998
305.8'009756—dc21 98-015522
ISBN-13: 978-0-8203-2047-2
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
On the title page: The author’s grandfather
standing in front of his first store, circa 1951.
ISBN for this digital edition: 978-0-8203-4012-8
To Megan, with hope

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
The Village 3
Bobo 27
Street 42
Betty Jo 65
Sam 89
Granddaddy and Viny Love 111
Jerry and Miss Carrie 133
Epilogue 158
Afterword 165

Acknowledgments
Idiscovered soon after beginning this book that writing from expe-
rience is not an easy task. Trained as a historian, I longed for the
sense of security that the research data contained in my file cards
had always provided. I also missed the protection that research
notes furnished, allowing me to write with relative objectivity, as the
observer removed in both time and space. I now found myself draw-
ing upon memory, the most subjective of all sources. All my recollec-
tions of the past, both painful and pleasant, were, I realized, an
inseparable part of my most fundamental concepts of self.
Under these circumstances, I found my colleagues' comments
about the manuscript invaluable. Mavis Bryant, formerly of the
University of Tennessee Press, graciously agreed to read an early
draft. Her thorough and perceptive review was much appreciated.
Without it, the work would never have been completed. Barbara
Klein, my sister-in-law, helped persuade me that others might find
my personal experiences with and responses to segregation in-
teresting and enlightening. The critiques of colleagues at the
University of North Carolina at Wilmington, especially those of
John Haley and Carole Fink of the Department of History and
Sylvia Polgar of the Department of Sociology, were extremely
helpful. Finally, the suggestions, comments, and encouragement of
Dr. Hubert Eaton, who devoted much of his life to transforming the
segregated South, helped persuade me that memory, although sub-
jective, remains a valuable source of both fact and truth, even for
the historian.