Thread: His dream, our reality

decaturdaily.com
By Sheryl Marsh
1/16/12

Residents share own stories of injustice that inspired King’s fight for equality


Clockwise from lower left: Etta Freeman, Betty Jackson and Peggy Allen Towns recall personal experiences of discrimination while the civil rights movement swept across the South. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spearheaded the movement, seeking freedom for all Americans.

More than 10 years after Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus to a white man, Betty Jackson was asked not to come back for lunch at a restaurant in Decatur.

Like Parks, she was tough and didn’t heed the instruction.

The restaurant was The Savoy. The year was 1966.

“I had been there many times with co-workers, and we didn’t have any problems, but one morning the owner called me at work,” Jackson recalled. “He asked me not to come back for lunch there. I told him: ‘It’s 11:30 a.m. now, and I’ll be eating lunch at your place at 12 o’clock.’ ”

She went, she was served and she ate that day, but days later, when she went back, a waitress refused to serve her.

Jackson’s experience in Decatur mirrored those others were having throughout the country at that time. During the same time period, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was at the helm of the civil rights movement, seeking freedom for all who were oppressed by racism.

Today, America celebrates King’s legacy, his work and his dream — that everyone, despite the color of their skin, would be treated equally.

Forty-six years after her experience at the restaurant, which was at Bank and Vine streets, Jackson, 77, gave a full account of the incident as if it just happened.

She was 31 and worked as an assistant bookkeeper at Meadow Gold Dairies. She was the only black working there but enjoyed a good work environment.

“At first I used to ask my co-workers to bring me something back,” she said. “It was right across the street, and they had good food. Then, one day I decided I was going to eat there. We didn’t think anything about it. When he called, he told me it wasn’t him, but his customers were upset about me being there. So, I went back. They served us the first day and the second day, but on the third day the owner called.”

“The lady said, ‘I’m sorry, I can’t serve you.’ I told her I couldn’t hear her, and she said it again. Then, she became hysterical, threw the spoon in the food and ran out.”

Jackson left and called the U.S. Justice Department and reported the denial of service.

“By then, the justice department would fine restaurants so much for each day they denied service to customers because of their race,” she said. “I told an agent with the department what had happened, and they eventually sent someone to investigate, but until then they told me not to go there. They sent someone, and my husband and about four other black men went there several times, and they refused to serve them.”

After that, Jackson said an agent told her it was OK to go back and eat there because the issue had been resolved.

“I started going back, and I would take two other black ladies with me,” she said. “We didn’t have any trouble, but about two weeks later the restaurant burned. We went to work one Monday morning, and it was gone.”

A tile slab remains in the place where the restaurant stood.

Historian and author Peggy Allen Towns, who was a teenager during the civil rights movement, described local scenes of segregation in Decatur.

“When we went to the theater, we had to go stand in a certain line to get tickets, and then go up to the balcony,” Towns said. “There were colored/white signs for restrooms and water fountains. When we went to a couple of the restaurants for food, we had to go to a side window or door to get the order.”

Towns experienced the desegregation of schools.

“I’m a product of integration,” she said. “The good thing about that was that we were afforded the opportunity to choose where we wanted to attend school,” Towns said of “freedom of choice,” an early component of integration. “The bad thing about it was that it broke the community spirit because we had a sense of helping one another, particularly in education.”

“When you talk about Dr. King’s dream, it should not only inspire, but it should prompt us to re-focus and reflect on education, voting and helping one another to break down barriers we face today and some that we faced yesterday,” Towns added.

Towns and Jackson both said race relations have improved in Decatur, but that there’s still room for improvement.

Jackson said the state’s new illegal immigration law, co-sponsored by Rep. Micky Hammon, R-Decatur, is a setback.

“Look at how they’re doing the immigrants,” she said. “I know what it feels like to be mistreated, and I don’t want anybody treated that way. That’s why I go to the Hispanic rallies every chance I get. You should hear some of these people’s stories; it’s just not fair.”

Several lawmakers have vowed to revise the legislation.

Regardless of the past and the immigration law, Jackson, mother of Decatur City Councilman Billy Jackson, said her hometown is good.

“I was born in Decatur, went to school in Decatur and was treated unfairly in Decatur,” she said. “But this has been my home all my life. I have lived in other states, but I always came back. It’s not a bad place.”

Meanwhile, nearby at the Turner-Surles Community Resource Center in Jackson’s Northwest neighborhood, black and white senior citizens sit together at tables playing cards, having a good time — part of King’s dream that has become reality.

Etta Freeman, 94, and Blanche Ryan, 80, who know well the struggles of segregation, enjoyed a game of Uno on Friday with some of their friends, who happen to be white.

“We’ve come a long way,” Freeman said. “This is what Dr. King wanted, but he didn’t get to see it come to pass.”

“I think he would be well pleased to see this day,” Ryan said.

Added Judy Little: “I think he would say we have overcome.”

His dream, our reality - Decaturdaily.com

We'll see hoe fair she thinks it is when they move her out and moved 15 or 20 of the illegal aliens into her living room. My Grandmother and the people like her are living on verrrry little SSI $$ but they get everything they want all because these corrupt politicians want their vote because they can longer get ours. We will fix this.