Lois Watkins met Dr. Martin Luther King not once, but twice. Her sister went to school with the Little Rock Nine students. As a child, she could not drink water from the public fountain in her hometown of Little Rock, Arkansas. Watkins, 72, grew up as a black child in segregated America.
In her recently published book, “What It Was Like … Short Stories of Childhood Memories of Segregation in America,” Watkins sheds a powerful light on history from her personal experiences of segregation and prejudice in day-to-day life. Watkins will read from her nonfiction book at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 19, at Vashon Bookshop.
Watkins, who has lived on Vashon for the past 13 years, credits the students she taught while working as a substitute in the Seattle school district for inspiring her to write her memories down.
“I happened to mention to a group of students that I’d been in Dr. King’s presence twice,” Watkins said. “I was not prepared for their questions. Life moves on, and you think they know what you know, and then you realize they don’t know anything. Any kid will talk about Dr. King, but they don’t know about day-to-day life.”
Spurred by the students’ questions, she began to look backward, remembering that only two pages were given to slavery in her history textbooks, that it wasn’t until Alex Haley wrote “Roots” in the 1970s that slavery was humanized. She realized few nonfiction books have been written about the experience of living as a black person in America in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. She dedicates the book to the inquisitive minds of her students.
“Even though the South lawfully restricted lives of black Americans, the practice of discrimination in America was nationwide,” she writes in her book. “We were allowed to live only in areas designated for us by whites, to attend all-back schools, and to sit only in areas set aside for us on public transportation, in movie theaters, restaurants, waiting rooms, and even public facilities such as restrooms. Segregation laws were so finely tuned to keep us in our place that we couldn’t share even the same water fountains as whites. To violate the laws of segregation invited a violent response and, potentially death. Even as young children we were fully aware, and always knew to stay in our place.”
The background she describes sets the stage for her personal stories about the pervasive discrimination she not only experienced first hand, but discovered throughout the culture.
In 1955, the heinous mutilation and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till brought home the truth of the country’s deep-seated prejudice.
“The reality of the depths of racial brutality, the horrors of race hatred manifesting itself in a 14-year-old boy who got out of place jolted the black community nationwide,” she writes. “I have never forgotten the moment I first saw the remains of Emmett Till. The feelings have lasted a lifetime. I can close my eyes today and immediately recall every detail of this experience.”
Still, she said, she did not want to write a “get whitey book.” She hoped people would understand that lives were changing, emphasizing the significance of the Civil Rights movement.
“I’m not saying (the past) was right, but if we are to heal, you have to go back there and look through those eyes,” she said. “You can’t condemn and walk away and expect things to heal.”
As for what’s next, the author laughingly answered that other than the great American novel, she seriously would like to continue the “What It Was Like” series.
“This book has motivated me to do the same from the Asian perspective, for the Japanese during World War II, the Hispanics in the Southwest, for a white person who grew up on the other side of segregation,” she said. “This is a gift to children, to take them back to seeing it through other people’s eyes. I want honesty. You’ll never heal if you don’t step into the other person’s shoes.”
