Remember the past and learn

I SEND this letter to my grandchildren when they turn 13.

Since Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday is being celebrated ... I thought I would write to you about what it was like in South Carolina during the Civil Rights movement.

Grampsie was in the Navy. In 1964 he was transferred to Charleston, S.C. Your mom was 2 months old.

It was the first time I had seen drinking fountains and bathrooms that said Whites only.

The white children went to one school and the blacks to another. They called it separate but equal. Segregation was what it really was. My friend taught in a black school and she said “they may be separate but they are definitely not equal.” They had old books that were falling apart and there were not enough books for all the kids to have one.

The white people had black women take care of their children while they went to work, but they would not let them eat in a restaurant with them.

One day there was a sitdown strike in the Krispy Creme donut store. That meant the blacks would sit there until they were served.

Martin Luther King Jr., with the help of many other people, slowly encouraged people to make changes.

We moved to Los Alamos in 1967. Your mom was 3 years old and Uncle Shaun was 1. There were very few black families here and no Asian families.

When your mom was in second grade she came home and said “I wish I could have my hair like the new girl in my class she has little braids all over her head.”

I was so pleased she never noticed the girl was black.

My granddaughter wrote me the following note. Dear Granny thank you so much for your letter. My class and I loved it. I am glad nobody is treated like that anymore.

She graduates from high school (this year). I know someday she will be sending her grandchildren letters telling them what it was like when she went to school. Between 1999 and 2018 187,000 students attending at least 193 primary or secondary schools had experienced a shooting on campus during school hours.

I’m confident that because of the Parkland generation she will receive a letter from her grandchild saying I’m glad it’s not like that anymore. CAMILLE MORRISON Los Alamos