Part IV - More Recollections from 136th. Street

Neighborhood Map

Our house was 254 East 136th. Street, as indicated on the map.  Down towards the end of the block (street), there was a one way  "alley street" - Calumet. You can see it on the map above.  That "road" ended at the Calumet River.   But right before that, the block of buildings on the right was a company called Black Products.  They made what was known as "Black Diamond Clay Pigeons" for skeet target shooters.  One of our next door neighbors worked there and when he came walking home from work, he was filthy dirty and looked like he was covered in soot. 

Since our neighborhood was an all white, blue-collar area, any black person working at Black Products usually would take a CTA bus which stopped at the corner of 136th. and Indiana Avenue.  They would then walk down our street to get to work.  

As the story was told to me, my sister (three years older than I) was sitting on a blanket in the front yard on a warm sunny day.  As a black man walked past on his way to work, she blurted out, "Hi nigger!".  The man stopped and corrected her while Mom quickly descended and swooped her up and into the house.  

So, here was a young toddler - perhaps four or five years old - who used the "n" word in addressing a black person.  How did she come to learn that term?  How did she associate that word with the color of a person?  The answer is obvious - she heard it at home in reference to people of color, particularly black people.  

Another recollection is when I was told that the history of black people comes from the Bible where Cain, who killed his brother Abel, was condemned and banished.  And to make sure, a mark was put on him as a sign of his being cursed.  And that mark was black skin.  This apparently wasn't an obscure belief among many church denominations.  Ah, the Bible can be used to justify anything - and it has over the several millennia.  

Later on when I was perhaps 9 or 10, I recall my father telling me that all blacks had to be out of the area when the sun went down.  

How did I respond to these racist remarks?   I didn't.  It's how we - and all the others on 136th. Street and so many other streets - were brought up.  It was a given.