Back Then

Being a young black girl in 1934

Wasn’t glamorous,

It was the complete opposite.

I was born Alma Joyce Lewis

On a Friday at Jackson Hospital

Montgomery, Alabama,

USA —

A place where

White children lived and black children just existed.

I was born 20 miles from the field where my ancestors

Picked cotton

From dusk to dawn

Being whipped

Hung, burned,

And sold

Like items in a store

Some years later

Slavery is over

But the racism still stands

My life

Is unfair and broken to pieces

I live with my mom, my grandmother and my 2 brothers, Raymond and Richard,

Momma always told us

People only dislike you because

Of the beautiful

And soft brown skin

God gave you

We don’t have nice schools

Like our white counterparts

Just chairs and a chalkboard

In an abandoned shed

Dust in our eyes

As I walk to school

They throw rocks

And call me a Negro

Saying

You don’t belong here!

Get out!

I’ve never disliked the life I live

No matter how hard it is

We don’t have the privileges that the white people have

The big fancy house

With fancy cars in the driveway

Sending our kids to fancy schools

And never having to worry about getting arrested

A quiet Saturday morning was the only time we didn’t have to worry

We all would walk to downtown Selma

Where there are restaurants, clothing stores

And gift shops

But we aren’t allowed in those

There is a certain sign on those doors

Stating “WHITES ONLY”

The only place where we are comfortable

Is a tiny shack on the corner of Pine and Alton

A white woman owns it

It is very rare to meet a non-racist white woman

But it’s certainly possible

The woman gives my grandma her usual colors

We are going with different colors today.

Red and yellow to be exact.

She grabs the roll for my grandmother

They discuss texture and shade options

In here, we are not colored

Or Negro. We are not thieves or delinquents

In here with these people, were people just like them

I was walking to school the next Monday

A girl was sitting by a tree reading

One of my favorite books

I walked up to her

I love that book!

The girl said

Me too!

We had a whole conversation just about the book

I just made my first non-black friend

Lucy

She gives me a friendship bracelet

We hang out a few more times that week

But little did I know our friendship wouldn’t last

The next day

I walked past her and her friends

They started calling me names and spraying water at me

But it was mostly Lucy

She was acting completely different then

She was earlier in the week

And that’s when I realized that she wasn’t my friend at all

I threw the bracelet down the sewer

And kept walking

That day I learned

You can’t trust everybody with your heart

Because some people deserve it and

Some people don’t need to be anywhere near it