“We weren’t afraid as much of the animals that might attack us; we were afraid of what people would do if they saw us out walking. When we saw a car coming, we would run in the woods.” When my grandmother and her siblings were spotted walking along the road, even if they weren’t subjected to outright physical violence, they were often subjected to verbal and physical harassment. My grandmother told me about how white children—on their own school buses, heading to their own schools—would, upon seeing them, lower their windows and throw things at them, epithets sizzling from their lips. “What
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