"Soul Sister" by Grace Halsell

What is it like being black in the United States of America? It was January, 1968 at a Plans for Progress reception at the State House that caused Grace Halsell to seriously ponder that question. The reception was held for roughly 2,000 executives "who had 'pledged' to treat Negro employees as fairly as whites". Ms. Halsell briefly mentions her history of world travels, growing up in Texas, "a descendant of slave-holders and Civil War Veterans". She did not regard "Negroes as a part" of her "society", had "no particular feelings about them" and considered them as "a part of the landscape." Published in 1969, "Soul Sister" by Gloria Halsell is "The Journal of a white woman who turned herself black and went to live and work in Harlem and Mississippi."

When Ms. Halsell asked one of those executives what caused him to become interested in Plans for Progress, he told her it was after he read, "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin. Halsell got a copy of the book and became intrigued with the idea of doing what Griffin did. His story was the process of turning his skin black using medication to walk in the shoes of a black man in the USA. She contacted Griffin and he encouraged her to pursue her idea to do likewise to experience life through the eyes of a black woman as Civil Rights protesters were making strides for fair treatment of the desendants of slaves in the USA. At the end of her experiment she says:

"...And why do I say I couldn't do it again? Because now I know what it cost me, psychologically, to bear, for one minute in time, what every black American bears all his life: discrimination, segregation, injustice."

"Soul Sister" is divided in three parts: The Beginning, Harlem and The South with a Prologue and Epilogue. The 3 page prologue recounts a continuing nightmare and Halsell's months of seclusion as the effects of medication wore off and her skin returned to it's normal shade. When she ventured out to the Watergate Health Club, the director was concerned saying "...and you look at least ten years older. And if you tell me you've been in prison, and brutally beaten...whatever horrible tale you tell me, I can believe you." "Soul Sister" is that tale.

Almost 40 years have passed since the White House had "Plans for Progress" and today, some of those implemented plans, such as Affirmative Action and forced segregation of schools are on their way out. Times have changed and yet, it seems that the average white joe or jane is just as clueless as to what it is like to be black in the United States of America in the supposed new and improved environment. A school librarian, Barbara Murphy, in Jena, Louisiana said in September 2006, that she did not even know what those three nooses hanging from a "Whites Only" tree on school property meant. Huh? She never heard of lynchings that were still going on as the White House was planning for progress?

Perhaps someone should send a copy of Grace Halsell's book, "Soul Sister" to Ms. Murphy, to read and make available for students in Jena. There is nothing new in "Soul Sister" for me, and I may have read it all those years ago. The only thing I recall from "Black Like Me" was that a Shoe Shine man almost blew Mr. Griffin's cover. He remembered the shoes and was surprised to see a regular white customer suddenly turned black. The book jacket for "Soul Sister" has photos of Halsell's face as a white and a black woman. The book itself does not have any pictures.

Without empathy for another's plight in life, there can be no understanding and thus no compassion. Ms. Halsell's brief life in the skin of another taught her: "Nature can kill and maim, but lacks the capacity for psychic, malice, for scarring the mind and spirit, that humans have." Her experience brought her to confusion about being white, because she started to hate white people on account of her mistreatment by white people when she appeared to be black. There are a lot of good stories in "Soul Sister". My favorite was when Ms. Halsell and her new friends tried to go to a white church in the South.

The pastor was so agitated by their presence he became flustered and started a sermon asking God to tell him how to deal with the evil in the first pew. The young ladies and Ms. Halsell became so uncomfortable they left only to have church members rush outside after them. "We've called the police", they were told. 17 year old Pearl asked the police "You gonna lock us up for going to church?" and complained, "A white man, he can go to any black church, anywhere. No one calls the police". Such was the ways of the South in USA of 1968.

Imagine, if you will, that some of the teens going to school in Jena were raised by parents or grandparents who had to live through such nonsense. Would not the appearance of nooses hanging on a tree in a school yard cause you quite a bit of consternation? Would you not become agitated and upset when adults around you considered it a "harmless prank"?

Another poignant story was told when Ms. Halsell found housing in a black family's home in the South. A pregnant woman was shot by the Ku Klux Klan who were angry because the family gave shelter to white civil-rights workers. On the same night that the young woman was rushed to the hospital to deliver a pre-mature baby, her husband was wounded "...in his leg, in his knee, and in his chest. The bullet in his chest is near his heart and will remain there for as long as he lives". Her husband was stationed in Cambodia during service in the USA military at that time.Mr. Winslow tells Halsell at the end of his narrative: "I'll let anyone decide within himself how he feels about his country that he was defending, how he feels about the country his son will grow up in."

Charles Evers, brother of slain Medgar, tells Halsell his mother "...said, 'Son, I want you to learn to love, not to hate,' and this somehow got through to us, her message that you can't win anything by hating, that one killing only leads to another and another." Reading "Soul Sister" by Gloria Halsell will give you insight into the generations that raised today's generations. Like Mr. Winslow, I leave you to ponder what it is like to be black in the United States of America 40 years after executives pledged fear treatment of Negroes.

Resource:
Amy Goodman, "Two Races, Two Systems of Justice in Louisiana", CommonDreams.org News Center