Photograph by Stephanie Ely
This essay is a part of a collection—we requested 17 Atlantans to inform us how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 has affected their lives in honor of its sixtieth anniversary. Learn all of the articles right here.
The best way you acknowledge that you’ve reached greatness is while you uncover that you could clearly recall occasions that occurred 50 or 60 years in the past. These are occasions that at the moment are seen as of “historic significance”, though looking back they could have appeared much less so within the second you lived by them in actual time. This will surely be the case for me as a younger man heading to Howard College from my house in Detroit. It was the summer season of 1966, and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was solely two years outdated.
Earlier than that journey, I had by no means been outdoors the state of Michigan, so the indignities of automotive journey the place black vacationers have been routinely denied entry to inns, eating places, and public loos have been unknown to me, as have been segregated Jim Crow automobiles on passenger trains. going south When it was time for me to go to high school within the nation’s capital metropolis, my father purchased me first-class lodging, tipped the sleeping automotive attendant upfront and requested him to take care of me. The attendant, a distinguished black gentleman, assured my father that he would, and he did. He even let my pal Billy, who was driving the identical prepare coach, be a part of me in my personal room so we might share rigorously wrapped fried rooster, home made brownies, and a vivid pink Michigan apple that his grandmother had packed for him. his journey
We ate and talked and shared our hopes for this new journey, till the ever-attentive attendant knocked gently on my door and led my pal again to his seat, earlier than returning to decrease my mattress and guarantee me that he Will wake me up loads. Breakfast time. Too excited to sleep, I lay there for a very long time, watching America roll by outdoors my window, dreaming of my 17-year-old self and never as soon as excited about how far it will be to the subsequent “coloured” rest room and the place I might lay my head, till I lastly fell asleep.
That is what the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to me then. freedom from worry It meant I received to concentrate on simply being an American lady, leaving the whole lot she knew and stepping out into the world to try to form her femininity. joyful assured fearless
Pearl Clay An artist-in-residence on the Alliance Theatre. His new play, One thing Transferring: A Meditation on MaynardIt can have its Atlanta premiere this fall.
This text appeared in our June 2024 situation.
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