Like Tamar, I've been trying to stay out of this thread, but I have some experience to comment on, having lived in both the north and the south...

I went to elementary school in Oak Park (first village west of Chicago) in the early to mid 70's. There were a few non-whites, but not many. Looking back, the ones I remember lived on the dividing between Oak Park and Chicago. When we moved to a suburb further west in 1974, my parents were angered at the realtor who refused to sell our house to a black family. I've never seen my parents so upset! I couldn't understand what the big deal was...heck, they want the house, why couldn't they buy it? (I was 12).

Then we moved to another neighborhood (Hinsdale). There was *one* black family. I heard them described by other residents like this: "The mom teaches at the Jr. High, so it's OK for them to be here." Again, I couldn't understand what compelled a person to say such a thing...after all, I thought *anybody* could live *anywhere* (boy, was I sheltered!).

Then we moved to Durham, NC, in 1976. The high school was 30% black--supposedly a "huge change" for me, but I guess I was too naive (make that, SMART) to let skin color bother me. I noticed a big difference in the South. First, there were LOTS more black people. And I saw interracial couples -- lots of them -- for the first time. Yes, I ran into bigots...heck I ran into them in Chicago. The worst were some of the black kids on the bus. My brothers and I were almost the only white family on the semi-rural route, and we happened to be the last stop picked up, and the first stop dropped off (we were the closest stop to the school). Sitting three to a seat, the two people in the middle always had a "cheek" hanging off...and a couple of the black kids would stick straight pins into our butts, saying "That's 'cuz your daddy owned my daddy!" I never understood that one, either, since nobody had owned anybody in over 100 years, and their daddy's were SURELY younger than that! But most people co-existed peacefully--at least most people weren't openly bigoted.

I hung around Durham for college, then moved to Dayton, OH after that. After quickly learning that saying "y'all" knocks 50 points off one's IQ, I then learned more about race relations. Mind you, it was 1985, and most everyone in the South seemed to be co-existing, why couldn't these people in Dayton? I found far more people who were prejudiced in Dayton than I did in the South!

Moving to Knoxville TN in '94, I didn't notice as many prejudiced whites. Sure, there were some stereotypical "good ol' boys" -- and they were predictably prejudiced, but they were ignored. But on the whole, racial issues were better than Dayton (though not perfect).

Now I'm back in Raleigh-Durham. Boy things have changed! It is multi-cultural around here. It's a major metro area, so the "southern" thing has been diluted by all the newcomers. And many of those newcomers are Hispanic and Asian. Sure, everything can still get better, but it's better than the other places I've lived!

In looking back over my childhood and alternating living in the north and south, *my personal experience* concurs with MLK--I saw more prejudice in the north than in the south.

One of my majors was history, and I did an independent study that required me to look at slave owner's records of slaves. I found that most slaves were treated as good or better than the slave owner's family. One of the reasons is that you don't want to abuse your property. But in *many* cases, the slave owner cared very much for their slaves--almost like family (though socially, that wasn't allowed). MOST slave owners had a small farm (10-50 acres), and owned only one *family* of slaves. The two families worked the land together. After the slaves were freed, many slaves stayed on with their former owners, as they knew how to work together--both families needed each other to make a living. Huge plantations and "Gone with the Wind" sagas were VERY rare.

My theory on why the south seems to have better relations is that, historically, many southern families have already lived in bi-racial communities, and have simply had to adjust to the equality of blacks and whites. In the north, like people group together (hence Chinatown, Little Italy, and other groups)--it wasn't until many more years later that people began to mingle. The greatest fear is the fear of the unknown.

Lest anyone read something in here that I didn't mean: Slavery was HORRIBLE, and there were many abused slaves, and many slaves wanted to escape. "Separate but Equal" is bad. There are bigots everywhere. There are also kind, wonderful people everywhere. Everyone has had different experiences. *MY* experience is different than yours.

That's much more than my $0.02...and now I *really* have to get back to programming! Big deadlines loom, so I may or may not be back in touch today. Just thought I'd share another POV.

- della