Separate Pasts Analysis

In Melton A. McLaurin’s “Separate Pasts; Growing Up White in the Segregated South,” segregation is the obvious theme for the whole book. In the 1950s south, segregation was not uncommon and seen as normal. The 1950’s though, were on the verge of change. Change meaning the civil rights movement and the fight for the walls of segregation to be knocked down. However, McLaurin gives powerful insight to segregation in his hometown of Wade, North Carolina, where it “existed unchallenged and nearly unquestioned in the rural south” in the early 1950s. McLaurin portrays segregation as a normal way of life from a white viewpoint, which I believe he does effectively through memories of his childhood.
In McLaurin’s hometown of Wade, North Carolina, segregation was obvious and everywhere in daily routines of life. Segregation was often meant to mean that blacks had separate facilities from whites, yet equal. However, this was often not the case. In fact, it was quite opposite. Many times, a public restroom for white was well kept, nice, and clean, whereas if it was for a black, it was dirty and rundown. A good example of the difference in facilities for whites and blacks were the elementary schools McLaurin described. The black elementary school was a one-story frame building, had no lunch program, no indoor plumbing, poor sports equipment, and hardly a playground. The white elementary school however, was a two-story brick building, “a large auditorium and stage, indoor plumbing and modern restrooms, a well-equipped kitchen, and a large dining room in which hot lunches were served daily (23).” It is clear when the two schools are compared against one another, that there is a vast difference in facilities which are for blacks, and those that a...

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...much of the South at the time. I believe that McLaurin does an effective job describing segregation in his hometown by giving actual examples that he experienced growing up. He was there, he saw it, and he experienced it. Therefore, I believe that the book has much historical value. This book gives insight from a young boy’s point of view of growing up with segregation in the south. Usually, you hear the black’s point of view and how horrible it was, but it is interesting to hear it from the other side because as a young boy, he really didn’t see it as wrong, but that it was just the way they lived. Through McLaurin’s memories, the book gives not just a boring textbook read about segregation, but stories and experiences with it, making it an interesting and more enjoyable read. I believe that this book gives valuable historical insight to segregation in the south.