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The Southern Way of Life - History of the Negro People (1965)

Activism

Order your Family History Journal here - https://rootspreserved.com/product/family-journal/ This clip is from The History of the Negro People, a nine-part documentary series hosted by Ossie Davis, produced in 1965 by National Educational Television — the network that became PBS. In this moment, Black Southerners are asked what the "southern way of life" really means to them — and their answers strip away every comfortable myth white Southerners told themselves. For Black women, it meant being called by your first name or "girl" no matter your age. For Black families, it meant your children wore hand-me-downs from white households. It meant buying food from a side entrance or a back door. It meant saying "yes ma'am" and "yes sir" — even if they were a teenager. But then one of the speakers says something that cuts deeper than all of it: you cannot hold down or discriminate against someone else without having the same thing happen to yourself. Segregation didn't just cage Black people — it trapped white people too.

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Comments 13 william_grant: Excellent book idea.