Black and White
As a longtime colleague (and admirer) of Professor Charles Dew ’58, who has taken a post-retirement job at the University of Mississippi, I was delighted to read that he and Professor Leslie Brown are engaged in a dialogue with their students about the cruelties of the segregated South (“The South in Black and White,” spring 2014). However, the powerful narratives of these two professors would not be complete without some consideration of events in the North. When I was young, anti-Catholic prejudice was very strong. “Jew” was an insulting verb, at least for older folks, and “spic” referred to Italian immigrants, apparently because they “no spica-da-English.” The prejudices, fear and cruelty that Professors Dew and Brown discuss also existed (if less violently) in the North. Much work in all parts of the U.S. remains to be done.
—Peter K. Frost ’58, Oxford, Miss.
Loved “The South in Black and White.” I would have loved to have taken the course.”
—Paula Butturini ’73, Paris, France