Man!! I was born in Charleston SC in 1956 and I swear, except for that time a white boy from the segregated Bishop England High School downtown spat on my little plaid jumper (required wearing at our segregated Black Catholic School downtown) -- most of my growing up experiences mirrored yours exactly!!

Even though I'm now married to a society-identified, white guy (who hates that shit, and says he's Italian-American not white!) for 42 years, I've always felt that culturally, integration was the worst thing that could've ever happened to us (no cognitive dissonance there right??😆😆).

I lived that life you described until the fight for integration took hold, yet I can't say we didn't deserve the access, better pay and opportunities it brought my family. Now that I'm an old broad, I can look back at it critically, understanding better how and where we went wrong. It's some heavy-lifting to say the least.

Thanks for the memories, Brother...