Whitey Ford
08-16-2020, 05:46 PM
A rare link to slavery: Dan Smith's American story
https://i.imgur.com/W7zAxiP.png
At 88, Dan Smith has witnessed some of the defining moments in America's fraught battle for racial equality.
He protested in Alabama, marched on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr, and attended the inauguration of the first black president, Barack Obama.
He also represents a living link to the nation's dark past: his father Abram was born a slave, 157 years ago.
As a boy, his elderly father told chilling stories: about the "hanging tree" where slaves were lynched, and the master who forced a slave to lick a wagon wheel. The man lost part of his tongue when it froze to the steel.
Though America has seen much progress, Smith feels that under President Donald Trump, some of it is being lost.
"I'm petrified," he tells AFP in an interview at his home in Washington.
"Everything we did in the civil rights movement... in terms of voting, and fairness and equality, he's trying to undo it."
And, of course, obligatory muh dik white wimmenz bix nood thrown in.
He recalls experiencing plenty of discrimination at school. But he was popular and handsome, and found surreptitious ways to date white girls -- much to the horror of his mother, who feared the worst if their families found out.
"I'd wait for a young lady to call me. She'd say 'Danny, can you give me a ride to the Glee Club?' and that was my cue," he said.
https://archive.is/WA84F
https://i.imgur.com/W7zAxiP.png
At 88, Dan Smith has witnessed some of the defining moments in America's fraught battle for racial equality.
He protested in Alabama, marched on Washington with Martin Luther King Jr, and attended the inauguration of the first black president, Barack Obama.
He also represents a living link to the nation's dark past: his father Abram was born a slave, 157 years ago.
As a boy, his elderly father told chilling stories: about the "hanging tree" where slaves were lynched, and the master who forced a slave to lick a wagon wheel. The man lost part of his tongue when it froze to the steel.
Though America has seen much progress, Smith feels that under President Donald Trump, some of it is being lost.
"I'm petrified," he tells AFP in an interview at his home in Washington.
"Everything we did in the civil rights movement... in terms of voting, and fairness and equality, he's trying to undo it."
And, of course, obligatory muh dik white wimmenz bix nood thrown in.
He recalls experiencing plenty of discrimination at school. But he was popular and handsome, and found surreptitious ways to date white girls -- much to the horror of his mother, who feared the worst if their families found out.
"I'd wait for a young lady to call me. She'd say 'Danny, can you give me a ride to the Glee Club?' and that was my cue," he said.
https://archive.is/WA84F