Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor:

"I'm Glad She Still Knows Her Place"

These are the words my mama spoke to me after the lady had left. I asked mom what she meant. Mom replied, “She knew to come in the side door,  not the front door”.

At this time we lived in a limestone home in South Austin overlooking the Capitol and downtown, the same home later occupied by Molly Ivans.

The LADY In question had been the House Keeper for mom’s family when mom’s dad was  Manager of the City of Brian, Texas. And the LADY was black.

Mom had grown up at a time when anyone who was born black soon learned “to know their place”. Thank God mom’s eight children, me being the firstborn, never learned to acknowledge that lesson.

Our dad, born from poor immigrant farmers, managed to work his way through the University of Texas Law School, work under five Attorney Generals and teach law at St Mary’s Law School in San Antonio. He never discussed race or prejudice with us kids and I never heard him discuss race with mom. Dad taught us by his own example and his example was much more powerful than words. We ALL followed his example. I don’t think any of us has a preudiced bone in our body.

As the song goes in South Pacific, “You’ve got to be taught, to be carefully taught, to hate the people your relatives hate”. Thank God dad was our inspiration NOT TO HATE. Instead, he inspired us to accept every human being as our brother and sister.

Comments Always Welcome,

Victoria Taylor