My dear daughter, you seem restless in your life in 1950s suburbia. You talk of the Cold War, poverty, and civil rights as monsters that are lurking outside your bedroom door. I am writing this history so you will know how lucky you are to live in a time of prosperity and peace. Atlanta is a booming town, but our small home is a haven of family and love. Do not become tempted to reverse all of the progress your family has made because our lives were sometimes hard and cruel. In your eyes, I am just a lowly white housewife that spends her days cooking and cleaning but I have lived a whole other life before you came along. The youth of today may criticize the conformity of my generation, but this level of comfort is preferable to the uncertain
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Back in the 1920s our economic situation was similar to yours is today. One of my proudest moments was in 1926 when Daddy drove me to school in his new Model T Ford. (1) Back then a smart man could make a decent living without relying on his wife to work. My momma stayed home with the children and daddy worked at the bank. If we would have known what was to come in the 1930s, we would have saved our money. I am sure you have heard about all of the men that lost all of their money in the stock market crash on 1929, but what you may not know is the bank runs that had people lined up for blocks so they could remove their savings from the bank.(2). My poor father came home from work one night and sold his Model T. He said that because there was no money in the bank, the bank was cutting his pay. We were scared during those years as we saw Daddy’s friends lose their jobs and our friends move away to live with relatives. If the people just left their money in the banks instead of panicking, Daddy would not need to sell his Model T. In the 1940s Daddy went off to war and Momma said she was going to be a Rosie the Riveter (3). Momma would pack my little sisters up every morning and drive to the shipyard to work on an assembly line. It was just shameful that mothers had to work while the children were neglected at the day cares. But Momma …show more content…
Even though he didn’t believe in violence, my father was a proud member of the second Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s (1). He was determined to keep our American way of life away from all of the undesirables from Eastern Europe. The Jews and the Catholics came into our town and stole jobs away from American citizens. They didn’t understand about God and family values the way we do, so Daddy had to teach them what was right. But, keeping our white community strong hasn’t been easy. In 1931, a group of nine teenage boys robbed and raped two white women just one state away from here. These Scottsboro Boys said that these women were lying, but Daddy said that black folks cannot be trusted. (2). After that, many black people faced the hangman’s noose because the government could not be trusted to protect the white people. Unlike today, mobs of angry people would take the law into their own hands while the sheriffs ran for their lives. Last month Ms. Rosa Parks of Montgomery refused to properly give up her bus seat to a white man and now everyone is talking about civil rights. (3). Everyone seems to think Ms. Parks is going to change the world by not riding the bus. Well, from experience I can tell you that these peaceful demonstrations are nothing compared to the violence of my younger years. She is just lucky she didn’t live here in
Back in the 1920s our economic situation was similar to yours is today. One of my proudest moments was in 1926 when Daddy drove me to school in his new Model T Ford. (1) Back then a smart man could make a decent living without relying on his wife to work. My momma stayed home with the children and daddy worked at the bank. If we would have known what was to come in the 1930s, we would have saved our money. I am sure you have heard about all of the men that lost all of their money in the stock market crash on 1929, but what you may not know is the bank runs that had people lined up for blocks so they could remove their savings from the bank.(2). My poor father came home from work one night and sold his Model T. He said that because there was no money in the bank, the bank was cutting his pay. We were scared during those years as we saw Daddy’s friends lose their jobs and our friends move away to live with relatives. If the people just left their money in the banks instead of panicking, Daddy would not need to sell his Model T. In the 1940s Daddy went off to war and Momma said she was going to be a Rosie the Riveter (3). Momma would pack my little sisters up every morning and drive to the shipyard to work on an assembly line. It was just shameful that mothers had to work while the children were neglected at the day cares. But Momma …show more content…
Even though he didn’t believe in violence, my father was a proud member of the second Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s (1). He was determined to keep our American way of life away from all of the undesirables from Eastern Europe. The Jews and the Catholics came into our town and stole jobs away from American citizens. They didn’t understand about God and family values the way we do, so Daddy had to teach them what was right. But, keeping our white community strong hasn’t been easy. In 1931, a group of nine teenage boys robbed and raped two white women just one state away from here. These Scottsboro Boys said that these women were lying, but Daddy said that black folks cannot be trusted. (2). After that, many black people faced the hangman’s noose because the government could not be trusted to protect the white people. Unlike today, mobs of angry people would take the law into their own hands while the sheriffs ran for their lives. Last month Ms. Rosa Parks of Montgomery refused to properly give up her bus seat to a white man and now everyone is talking about civil rights. (3). Everyone seems to think Ms. Parks is going to change the world by not riding the bus. Well, from experience I can tell you that these peaceful demonstrations are nothing compared to the violence of my younger years. She is just lucky she didn’t live here in