Letter from Shanice: An African American Girl Living in the
United States
Dear Joe,
How are you doing? It has been so long since
I have talked to you. I have good news for you. Mama and I are
moving back to Detroit, because Mama got a job building aircrafts for the
war. I am so excited because this means that we can see each other
again. Living down here in Alabama has been awful compared to when we
lived in Detroit. White people treat us like we are animals.
My other black friends and me have to go to our own schools which are run
down and ready to fall apart, drink out of our own drinking fountains, and
live in separate neighborhoods than white people. Some of my friends’
fathers have even been beaten by white folks for simply walking through a
“white only” park. Some days I am very afraid that I may get beaten
for walking in the wrong area.
Mama had been working in the cotton fields for a white
farmer for five years, but she has been offered a job in a factory in Detroit.
Now that the war has broken out, a lot of men have gone to fight. She
said that she would get paid more money so we will be moving in two weeks.
My Pa was one of the men that have gone to fight, so he will not be coming
with us. He was working in the fields with Mama, but he jumped at
the chance to defend his country when the war broke out. The government
gladly accepted him and other black men from our area because they were trying
to have 10% of the armed forces be made up of blacks. He has been
gone for two years now. Pa is a member of an all black military unit
that has just been sent over to England. Before that, Pa and his unit
were stationed at a military base in North Carolina where they were the
only black unit. Black soldiers and white soldiers are segregated in
the armed forces the same way that blacks and whites are segregated here
in the South. Pa wrote me letters telling me that his unit was never
allowed to do anything important, and that the white soldiers bossed them
around.
Just last month, Pa wrote to tell us that he had arrived
in England, and the English people were very nice. These white people
treated Pa and the other black soldiers as equals and did not boss them around.
Black soldiers in England are even allowed to go in the same movie theatres
as whites. Pa did say that the white American soldiers continued to
treat them poorly though. Mama and I were shocked to read this in
his letter, but it motivated Mama to send for a job in the North. After
reading the letter, we realized how poorly we are treated down here and we
are looking forward to coming to Detroit where things are a little better.
We should be up in Detroit within the next two weeks. I will get a hold of
you when we arrive, and I will tell you more about my experiences in Alabama.
See you soon,
Shanice
Click here to return to process
page
This page created by Kyle Fett