Crossing the railroad tracks amid a new time in history - CNN.com
source: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/01/12/crossing.railroad.tracks/index.html?iref=werecommend
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- Raven6
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Let me tell you about Mary Dowden, an 80-year-old granddaughter of a slave. She told me that in the late 1960s she owed a local clinic $20. She started to walk through the front door, but it was slammed in her face. A white woman shouted mean, hateful things at her. Dowden wouldn't repeat the words to me, because she's too dignified.
But Dowden was determined to pay off her $20 debt by walking through the front door without breaking down in tears. She tried several times over the years, but each time she started to walk to the clinic the tears would start flowing.
It took four years. But she finally marched through the clinic's front door, her head held high, and paid her bill. There were no tears. That, my friends, is a portrait of courage and pride of an American hero.
But Dowden was determined to pay off her $20 debt by walking through the front door without breaking down in tears. She tried several times over the years, but each time she started to walk to the clinic the tears would start flowing.
It took four years. But she finally marched through the clinic's front door, her head held high, and paid her bill. There were no tears. That, my friends, is a portrait of courage and pride of an American hero.
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barbara3d
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Great story. I was a little girl in the 1950s. But still remember seeing films of the pressure hoses of water against black people and the signs in bathrooms, etc. that were marked "black" "white only". It disturbed me then though too young to really understand. Today, it disturbs me even more that it ever happened and makes a part of me ashamed though I did not participate.
Good for you Mary! I hope I have that kind of courage some day.
- 3 years ago
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barbara3d
