"Something The Lord Made"

The title of this post is also the title of a movie that stars Mos Def as Vivien Thomas, and Alan Rickman as Dr. Alfred Blaylock. The subject of the movie is the early days of heart surgery, in a time when suspicions about it being the home of the soul and off limits to medicine are still discussed. It also takes place in the 1940's when the dividing line between white and black americans is still as wide and deep as a chasm.
While you can rent the movie and see the amazing and true story it tells, the reason I wanted to post about it is the depiction of the two different worlds in which the two main characters live in the deep south of the time.

One would expect at least some changes between the '40's and the '50's, but I wanted to write that, while growing up in the fifties (I was born in 1952) I observed how the paths crossed and the unspoken demands of expressions of humility by the whites of the blacks was evident everywhere.
There is one scene in the movie, when Vivien Thomas is walking a sidewalk on the teaching hospital campus and having a converstation with another black man. They are dressed as nicely if not moreso that any of the white people in the film. But, when white people are coming down the same sidewalk, these men step aside, and bow their heads to assure they have no intent of making eye contact with these people - especially the women.

Vivien Thomas is the first and only lab assistant ever hired at this school. And allowing him to perform surgery on dogs causes trouble for Dr Blaylock, who is revealed to be a rebel who stands up to all his superiors.

In those days in was unheard of for a white man to defend a black man. The black community was expected to 'know their place' and stay there. And this is 100 years or so following the Emancipation Proclamation.

As a child I saw signs telling blacks that their entrance to a building was in the back.
I saw two water fountains in the JC Penny store where my mother took us to shop. I once asked her why two were needed. Was their water different that ours? Was it dirty? Why did they have to drink dirty water? She just told me to be quiet.

My daddy used to steal eggs from his mama's hens to give to the elderly black woman who lived on their farm. I'm sure she helped, over the years with raising babies, or doing laundry, which was a nice way for her to make some money or be given food from their farm. This was during the Great Depression, afterall. But, even though he got spanked, for some reason, my daddy had a soft place in his heart for her and continued to sneak eggs to her. I love that story, but it was quite unusual for the times. Later in his life his feelings changed and be became a bitter old man, but that's another post.

I cannot imagine having to live the way African American's were expected to live in the south in those days. It's no wonder that entire families uprooted and went north to cities like Chicago, Detroit, and New York.
These days I enjoy films made by people like Spike Lee who told the true story of the 9th Ward in New Orleans. Why? Because, people like him showed me, that we've not made much progress since the 1950's. Only now, the children of the southern African American community are starting to get angry and demand the respect they deserve as citizens of this country.