Jackson, 1964 Quotes

“In the early sixties, the notion that racism was not acceptable even in certain regions or certain clubs or certain circumstances—the notion that it could not be treated with moderation—was a notion largely confined to black people.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“No sophisticated study of public opinion is needed to establish the fact that in the United States, North or South, a white life is considered to be of more value than a Negro life.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“Long Island is the single most segregated suburban area in the United States.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“IT WAS CUSTOMARY in the South for outside observers to interpret events in terms of ideology (usually racial ideology) and for local observers to interpret the same events in terms of money (usually graft).”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“According to Harold Fleming, for instance, who was then director of the Southern Regional Council, a small Atlanta hotbed of what he now calls “premature integrationists,” a moderate was “a white man without sidearms.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“The naked statement—a black man has been killed by a white policeman—is such a fearsome divider of the races that the people who preside over a city immediately try to cover it with details.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“Do you think the people you preach to have a feeling of love?” the young man asked. “Well, I’m not talking about weak love,” King explained. “I’m talking about love with justice. Weak love can be sentimental and empty. I’m talking about the love that is strong, so that you love your fellow men enough to lead them to justice.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America

“JACKSON HAS NEVER stood apart from the rest of Mississippi the way Atlanta has stood apart from Georgia, say, or New Orleans from Louisiana.”
― Calvin Trillin, Jackson, 1964: And Other Dispatches from Fifty Years of Reporting on Race in America