5.18.11 Difference

Elizabeth wasn't allowed to sit in the front of the cable car, not allowed to drink out of the water fountain, to eat at the white restaurant.

She glanced around the room; everything was white. Faces were white, food was white, clothes...were white, everything, white. And little Elizabeth stuck out like a sore thumb. Like a plum in a pile of bananas, she hated it.

For years she never dared set a pinky toe in the ready-mart, a “whites only” grocery store, but today was different. She was determined to buy the food the white’s did.

Thoughts in black and white (5.7.11)

They don’t want you there. They don’t want anything to do with us.

Ma’s words are seared in my brain. I know the white folk can hurt me, but I want a good education. I want to be there.

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I get off the bus, with nine other students. White mothers, fathers, children, aunts, uncles, and everyone in-between are shouting, and pressing against the line of police trying to make us leave. I hold my head high and walk into the new school. They can’t stop me any more than they can stop their heart from beating, I’ll get an education.