Word: southerns
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...first lesson in Southern life came two weeks into the summer, in Selma. I had come to Selma to see Ted Dibble, a friend of mine from California who was spending the summer working for a welfare rights project in the Black Belt. On my way through Selma, I stopped at the Silver Moon Cafe to get some coffee...
...classier joints. Its clientele consists of truck drivers and farmers, and the conversation runs to items like "Ah dam near runned over a nigger on the way into Mobile last week." I had come there to soak up the seamy atmosphere and tuck it away into my group of Southern Observations. So the men sat and talked, I sat and tucked, and eventually I left with no overt threats hanging over my head...
Those who deny the Southern intelligence have never considered the amazing ability of a Southern town to recognize Outsiders. Student-age people are instantly suspect, especially if they are wearing the standard-issue Civil Rights Worker uniform (blue jeans, t-shirt) and have "hippie communist" hair (i.e., long enough so the scalp doesn't show). When one of these creatures appears in town, locals gather quickly. If he speaks in strange and foreign tongues, he becomes the target of a public drive to oust him. And if he commits the ultimate heresy of talking to or LIVIN' WITH NIGGERS...
Ironically, my brushes with Southern terrorism came at the times when I was threatening Southern life the least. Nothing happened when I was working on a news story, trying to expose some flagrant abuse or discrimination. Perhaps it is too much to demand logic from the terrorists; but it made it even more chilling to find that violence often had no relation to the potential danger I posed...
...problems started in Meridian. Meridian is a sprawling, ugly town. The major reason for its existence seems to be that it graphically proves that towns need neither culture nor beauty to exist. Meridian also provides a showcase for some of the raunchiest elements of Southern culture, and for that, perhaps, it is worth-while...