Racism's Hidden Legacy

Last week, the historian John Hope Franklin died. His obituaries have told the story of a man well deserving of fame, an African-American historian whose ground-breaking work documented the history of slavery in the United States, and the impact of racism on American life. He grew up in an era when his library research in small towns throughout the South subjected him to indifference, to being relegated away from "whites only" tables at the libraries, not being able to be helped by a white female librarian, a litany of indignities that might have broken the spirit of a lesser scholar. But Franklin persisted, living to see his work recognized, to serve as a professor at some of the country's most distinguished universities, to help shape the Supreme Court arguments that ended school segregation, and ultimately to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Blessed with a long life, he witnessed, at age 94, the election of An African-American president.
It had been a long journey. A year before his death, Franklin recalled a chilldhood incident in an interview with his father as part of NPR's Story Corps. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102401101&ft=1&f=1003
Growing up in Tulsa, Oklahoma, he had been an ardent and eager boy scout and took very seriously the the scout's mission to do a good deed everyday. Spotting a frail blind woman with a cane needing help crossing the street, he rushed to her aid. Gallantly offering her his harm, he guided her across the street, as the two exchanged pleasantries. Suddenly, the woman's tone changed and she asked him whether he was white or black. When Franklin told her, she immediately told him, "take your filthy hands off me."
As cruel as this anecdote was, all I can imagine is what could have happened. What if after leaving the woman in the middle of the street, she was struck by a car, and Franklin had been blamed for tricking her and causing her death? What if an all-white jury sentenced him to years in juvenile detention? What if that spirit and talent had been crushed before it ever bloomed?
That's the thing about racism. We know the people who prevailed despite all the obstacles. What we will never know is the people who never got the chance to fulfill their destinies and fulfill their promise because racism blighted them as completely and permanently as an insidious worm can burrow into a seedling and rot it from the inside.