I remember hearing stories of people in some of the old shanty towns around here being mixed race marriage or being the product of a mixed race marriage.
I believe it was a part of the Creole culture and no one really questioned it. It just was. Some of the tolerence may have been because of the mix of people due to the many flags we belonged to and having a lot of industry and the port. There was always work and when people had slaves, they could lease them out to the US Government to build forts.
I do not remember ever hearing of the Klan until I was in high school. They were not the type of thing anyone had any liking for at all. While we probably had some who belonged, we just didn't hear of anything happening. Now, all we read about in the history of the South is slavery or the Klan. When people watch some movies like To Kill A Mockingbird or Driving Miss Daisy most of them miss the real important parts of those stories. It was the acceptance of others including their differences and of some real deep friendships that could have happened in the real world. The visits I made with an Aunt who took me on her route (she was a Welfare worker) brought me into contact with some of the most wonderful people. Miss Lilly whitewashed the tree trunks in her yard and swept it with a broom. She always had fresh lemonade and no one cared if it was in a jelly jar or if we were in a colored persons home. Maybe there were issues in other places, but we were pretty laid back with it here. Our Sunday School teacher walked us two blocks one Sunday so we could attend a service at the Black Baptist Church. Our parents had no problem with it but some of us wanted to go back. They acted like they were having fun and didn't act at all like it was strange that we were there. They just took us in.
I forget the name of that movie with Sissy Spacek and Whoopie but it was about the early 60's in Montgomery, I think, and Whoopie was the maid. We always had maids and so did my Grandmother and Aunts. It was not considered demeaning work. It was a way to earn a wage. My parents paid into the Social Security account for the last two. Back then it wasn't easy for a white woman to work outside the home either. Ours were family. My first formal dance (when I was in Rainbow Girls) our maid wouldn't go home until she got me dressed and she could see me all 'primped up'. Primped, not pimped. She cried and said I was growing up too fast for her. Now, does that sound like someone who is working at a job they don't like? We helped her do her work cause we liked to talk to her. If the 'real' world had not gotten to the crazy part with all of the terrible press and no allowance for anything good to be said, things may have gone a bit smoother in those later years. I do know that when a certain civil rights leader who has a street named after him in every town tried to get off a bus her with his followers to have a rally to 'bring the message to the people' they were met at the bus station and told to go on to another place. There was no problem here. It wasn't white people who met that bus, it was local blacks.
There is a lot of the real story that hasn't been told or allowed to be told. It would not further the agenda for some groups. It's the same as learning the truth about the Southern cause because it isn't what they want to hear.
Yes, Mobile was like us in that respect. It's hard to make a case of racism if they can't find anyone who is claiming it's happening. The real troubles came later, after Montgomery and Selma.
Google General Daniel "Chappie" James. He's one of our own. Born and raised here. We all mourned his passing.
Pam