Reflections on Integration

An excerpt from "Looking for Zora" by Alice Walker [non-fiction]

[Alice speaking]

"Tell me something, Mrs. Moseley," I ask. "Why do you suppose Zora was against integration? I read somewhere that she was against school desegregation because she felt it was an insult to black teachers."

"Oh, one of the [white people] came around asking me about integration. One day I was doing my shopping. I heard 'em over there talking about it in the store, about the schools. And I got on out of the way because I knew if they asked me, the wouldn't like what I was going to tell 'em. But they came up and asked me anyhow. 'What do you think about this integration?' one of them said. I acted like I heard wrong. 'You're asking me what I think about integration?' I said.

'Well, as you can see, I'm just an old colored woman' -- I was seventy-five or seventy-six then -- 'and this is the first time anybody ever asked me about integration. And nobody asked my grandm"other what she thought, either, but her daddy was one of you all.'" Mrs. Moseley seems satisfied with this memore of her rejoindder. She looks at Charlotte. "I have the blood of three races in my veins," she says belligerently, "white, black, and Indian, and nobody asked me anything before."

"Do you think living in Eatonville made intergration less appealing to you?"

"Well, I can tell you this: I have lived in Eatonville all my life, and I've been in the governing of this town. I've been everything but mayor and I've been assistant mayor. Eastonville was and is an all-black town. We have our own police department, post office, and town hall. Our own school and good teachers. Do I need integration?

"They took over Goldsboro, because the black people who lived there never incorporated, like we did. And now I don't even know if any black folks live there. They built big houses up there around the lakes. But we didn't let that happen in Eatonville, and we don't sell land to just anybody. And you see, we're still here."


This passage made me think of integration in a way that I never had before. I look at places in my old neighborhoods here in the bay area, and at places in Arkansas, and see towns that were mostly all black are allowed to get SO bad that people move out, then they white people move in and build it up. Or a town like Eatonville, which stayed all black, but remained a small town... where few people left and fewer still changed. I wonder is that GOOD? It's what all the other races are doing (Vietnamese and Mexicans especially around here). Not that I don't like these races, but they are living their in their own neighborhoods with their own stores and banks and everything... and it's all in their language and culture. But when a black town does it, it's like... a race thing.

I mean... how does this all make you feel? Clearly I am not against integration, but I think it is something to think about.

Also, I think of what's about to happen in New Orleans. Do you think they are going to let it be so black now? Sure it will probably be nicer and safer, but how many of those blacks that were poor and impoverished...literally.. will be able to live there??

Foood for thought.


Beautiful Stranger is a Contributor to HipHopRepublicans.com
she is 21 years old and founder of BlackMinds.
She loves horror films, comedies..
and anything that doesn't include a love story.
Her heroes are Tyler Perry and Alicia Keys