"I grew up in an era when the races didn’t come together, a time when people said a black woman ought to know her place. At the movie theater, black people had to sit in the balcony, and we could only go to the zoo on Thursdays. If you went to a department store and bought a hat, you bought it without trying it on. If you didn’t like it, you couldn’t take it back. When my husband, daughter, and I moved onto our street, we were the first black family there. I don’t know what we had, but when we moved in, everybody started selling.
"The whole community helped raise you back then. If you did something wrong, your mama knew about it before you made it home and she’d whip you---if the person who saw you didn’t get you first. Children went to church on Sunday then too. Every Sunday. You didn’t hang out while everyone else was gone to church. If the parents didn’t go, somebody else would take you. "
"The whole community helped raise you back then. If you did something wrong, your mama knew about it before you made it home and she’d whip you---if the person who saw you didn’t get you first. Children went to church on Sunday then too. Every Sunday. You didn’t hang out while everyone else was gone to church. If the parents didn’t go, somebody else would take you. "
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