It wasn’t easy for Ida Mae Gladney and her family to leave the Jim Crow South whatsoever. During their days in Mississippi Ida Mae and her family were faced with segregated bathrooms, drinking fountains, buses and even separate Bibles to swear on in court; the Jim Crow South controlled every aspect of life in the South. Trying to get out of a toxic atmosphere is hard, especially in Ida Mae’s case because although they have the desire to leave Mississippi they didn’t make enough in the cotton fields to buy their way out of the South. She and her family were subjected to harsh treatments by the plantation owner, Mr. Edd, and the rest of the white people in the area during her times working in the cotton fields in Mississippi, but what makes Ida …show more content…
When her schoolteacher Mr. Kirk thought she was acting up wrongfully, he made some boys go out to get a switch so the teacher could whip Ida Mae with them. One of the earliest feelings Ida Mae has that day after she was whipped by her teacher was that she was “hurt to be singled out that day” (Wilkerson 26) and that “the whipping was uncalled for” (Wilkerson). In those days, it was considered unthinkable for a black person to speak out, especially against a white man. Ida Mae told Mr. Kirk that he probably wouldn’t have whipped her if she had a father figure in her life. Thus, she never received corporal punishment from her teacher ever again. This was the start of a chain of events that would shape Ida Mae into the person she became as her story …show more content…
They were working jobs that paid significantly more, they could vote and overall they were living in paradise compared to when they were at Mississippi. Although segregation wasn’t widespread like it was in the South, racism was more complex. “New arrivals often paid twice the rent charged the whites they had just replaced for worm-out and ill-kept housing” (Wilkerson 270). Another example of new racial problems was George trying to find a new job. Companies up North didn’t hire blacks but they were for more complex reasons from when they were in Mississippi. “In the North, companies and unions said that, however much they might want to hire colored people, their white workers just wouldn’t stand for it. And, for the sake of morale, the companies and unions weren’t going to force the issue” (Wilkerson 316). It was brave of Ida Mae and George to start their new life in an environment that they had no idea what it would be