Lenray Gandy: “The earliest memory I have
is our parents and friends and neighbors teaching
us about what we should do and what we shouldn't
do.
We had to make sure that we behaved in certain
ways and there was a different world, black
and white world where if we walked down the
sidewalk and a white man was coming toward
us we had to look down upon the ground.
And if a white woman walked down that same
sidewalk we would have to walk out in the
street, couldn't walk down the same sidewalk.
We couldn't ride in the front of the buses.
We couldn't use certain facilities, restrooms
and different things around town.
If we wanted to go and buy a pair of shoes
or clothing they could only hold the shoe
up, we couldn't try them on.
We couldn't try on a cap.
I mean, imagine you're living in a society,
somewhere where blacks and whites cannot even
talk to each other, cannot work together and
all of a sudden someone comes to help you,
someone who is white and he treats you like
a human and naturally we just, we just bonded.
