1. How was segregation practiced on the street cars and buses in New Orleans? Specifically, what was the race screen? How did the race screen operate?
2. Jerome Smith, a black activist at the forefront of the Civil Rights struggle in New Orleans, describes an incident which occurred in the 1950's while he was riding the bus on St. Claude Avenue: What did Jerome Smith do on the bus to arouse the anger of the bus driver and how did the bus driver respond?
Jerome Smith describes the actions of "an old black woman" on the bus. What was her reaction to the incident?
The black woman described by Jerome Smith handled herself one way on the bus and another way off the bus? Explain.
In your opinion, why did Jerome Smith throw the race screen on the ground?
3. Compare and contrast the two quotations taken from Part II. One is from a white man, the other from a black man.
Quote 1: Joe Giarusso, the white police chief in New Orleans during the late fifties and early sixties, describes segregation this way: "We were not on the losing end, and so we took it for granted."
Quote 2: Llewelyn Soniat, a black man and director of the New Orleans chapter of the NAACP during the Civil Rights struggle, says this about segregation, "We felt that being separated in this fashion was the way it should have been then."
How are the two statements similar?
In your opinion, what does Joe Giarusso mean by his comment?
In what ways do the statements reflect the period in which the two men grew up? Explain.
4. In the documentary, Avery Alexander recalls a situation he observed as a child involving his elderly grandfather and a young white man.
How did each man address the other and why did this perplex the young Avery Alexander?
How did the grandfather answer when Avery Alexander asked him why he called Mr. Ginrich "Mr Ginrich" and why Mr. Ginrich called him "Arthur"? In your opinion, why did he answer this way?
In your opinion, why does Avery Alexander say, "I then realized the difference between white and black"?
In this instance, how did language uphold the rules of segregation?
5. In the documentary, Avery Alexander recounts an incident of police brutality that occurred while a black family was conducting a wake for a deceased relative in the front room of a home.
One police man shot and killed a mourner. Why?
What was the response of the family whose son had been shot and killed at the wake?
What was the purpose of white directed violence in the segregated South?
6. List two examples of segregation which become apparent in Part II of the documentary.