The Years Have Changed

by James A. McRae

Long gone are the days of old — the events that happened in the 1960s have paved the way to the future. My mother, Joyce McRae, has painted a picture of the years that she lived and how life have changed.

In 1953, Joyce was born a fourth child of seven of Isabella and Alexander Armstrong. She endured the life of a cotton-picking child, and she had chores that had to be done before any type of recess activities. Washing dishes and washing clothes were among the chores that she had to complete -- washing clothes was a chore in itself.

“You had to scrub the clothes on the washboard to remove any stains and then put them in the washing machine which was located outside. For the spin cycle, the clothes were picked out of the washing machine, one by one and fed through a feeder and then hung out to dry on a clothes line,” she said. “The times have changed a lot because we are used to indoor machine technology and the washing machines and dryers are indoor and everything is done by the machine.”

The schools were integrated when she was in the ninth grade. “People used to look at you weird because you were on their property. Cliques were formed. I was in a class of about one or two blacks. Racism was still prevalent all around,” she said. There was very strict rules for the dress code, and we are still debating the effect of dressing inappropriately in this century. “Boys had to wear undershirts, no hair hanging below the collars, shirts had to be tucked in -- girls had to wear skirts at least three inches below the knee, no exposed skin, no pants, which meant girls froze in the winter,” she said. Times have really changed.

My mother explained how some stores made black people wait in line, and prejudice was prevalent. Signs were put up for “no public restrooms.”  Racism was not as bad here as it was deeper in the South.  “Restaurant waiters and waitresses seemed to overlook a black patron, or it took a long time to be served,” she said. Quotas came into play, and the job market had to be somewhat fair in the hiring process. They had to hire so many blacks to meet a quota.  The service draft was also enacted during this time, and many blacks were called to duty. She said that the black workforce was majorly made up of military personnel, custodians, maids, and service personnel. They did not have access to high paying jobs such as managers or others with high responsibility.

According to my mother, the biggest effect from the March on Washington was that a lot more hate was exposed. The blacks became more outspoken, and they felt like they had the right to many freedoms and values. When James Brown came out with the song, “I’m Black and I’m Proud,” the song was played all of the time by many blacks.  It gave blacks more courage to stand up for themselves, even though they got the evil eye from white people.

This year we celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington. Many blacks say that we have made many advancements over the years, but some black people say that we have not overcome. My mother said, “I think that we have made great strides as I never thought that I would see a black president in my lifetime. But I think progress is trending!”

Work Cited

McRae, Joyce A. Personal interview. 14 Sep. 2013.



Note: James A. McRae of Aberdeen, NC, is a culinary student at Sandhills Community College.