The “Black Table” Is Still There
Lawrence Otis Graham born in 1962 was lucky enough to be one of the few African-American families living in an upper-middle-class community in Westchester County near New York City. In the essay, The “Black Table” Is Still There Graham casts light on the causes of why the blacks are segregated in American society despite the attempt of the United States government since the 1950s to integrate all public schools there. Graham — a graduate of Princeton University and Harward Law School — works as an attorney in Manhattan and teaches at Fordham University. The Supreme Court in 1954 found segregation of public schools an unconstitutional act. Once again in 1971, the Supreme Court upheld the court order to achieve integration. After fourteen years, Graham returns to his old junior high school and he still finds that . . . Read More
When he was in his junior high school, he never sat with the black kids: he used to sit with the white ones. He was perhaps afraid of losing his white friends if he sat at the black table. Being at the black table, he thought that he would be making a racist, anti-white statement and would not support integration. From his position, he thought that it was his heroic action to be integrated with white ones. He used to be angry with . . . Read More
