I found this booklet handed out by the teacher was interesting. The story that stood out to me though was called Jury. In this story it is about a young black boy writing to an editor of a magazine asking him to in his magazines about what jobs black boys can do. This boy wants to draw up houses and have other people build them. The reason he wants to draw up houses is because he saw a white boy doing it and thought it would be fun. As, he was speaking to the boy the boy laughed at him and said "colored boys don't draw houses."
I was shocked at this remark. I realize that back them racism and prejudice was part of everyday life and for most kids it was engrained in them since birth by their parents, but to laugh at someone just for expressing a desire to draw houses is rediculous. This just really shocked me it was as if they were saying that the only thing that black people can do or know how to do is pick cotton or tend to the houses as well as all the other jobs that went along with slavery. It saddened me in a way that you could actually see how restricted of a life blacks led.
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I agree that some of the things children had to say in the letters to the editor were shocking. Growing up in a diverse, and culturally accepting area in Chicago, it is hard for me to imagine life ever being any different, so sometimes it is hard to wrap my mind around the discrimination that these small, innocent children felt just based on their skin color. It's truly a shame that so many generations were outcast and had to dismiss their dreams.
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