PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Percentage of the total population living below the poverty threshold in 1959: 22.4%
... of the white population living in poverty in 1959: 18.1%
... of the black population living in poverty in 1959: 55.1%
Median yearly earned income of full-time white male workers in 1949: $3,150
... of full-time white female workers: $2,150
... of full-time black male workers: $1,950
... of full-time black female workers: $1,150
School enrollment rate among white children in 1870: 54.4%
... among non-white children in 1870: 9.9%
Percentage of the white male population with a high school diploma in 1940: 13%
... of the white female population with a high school diploma in 1940: 17.5%
... of the black male population in 1940: 3.8%
... of the black female population in 1940: 5.1%o
My family lived in Birmingham during the civil rights movement, and my parents worked hard to support the movement. I remember the stories of my mother sitting at length at lunch counters in order to be a white person who did not get up and leave when an African American came to sit and attempt to be served. A cross was burned on our yard, and a bullet broke our windshield while my mother was driving the car with me in the passenger seat. My mother said it was a rock that was thrown up into the windshield, and it was only years later that she told me the truth. It wasn't until I grew up that I realized the danger that African Americans faced in their everyday lives.
