Get beyond the monuments

I was born and raised in the suburbs of Birmingham, Alabama. I remember my faithful, churchgoing grandmother’s use of the word “niggra,” which I guessed was a slightly cleaned-up version of a word that was more often used. My first remembrance of the word “integration” was one morning as my mom was “carrying” — that’s the way we say it in the South — me to school. As we passed a school, she used the word to describe what it had just done. I could tell she didn’t like it.

The South was on the verge of seeing the abolishment of some longstanding Jim Crow laws which put blacks at what is now an incomprehensible disadvantage. On little more than a rumor of an improper advancement toward a white woman, a black man could be publicly lynched with either the full support, or at least the behind-the-scenes nod, of the local sheriff.

How far we have come. Over 150 years ago, half our nation fought for your freedom and won. Over 50 years ago, our nation took major steps to put you on the equal ground you rightfully deserve. While some have taken advantage of it, others are wasting the opportunity. Now, black or white, we all have the same opportunity.

Tear down all the statues and monuments you want to; but if that is the “opportunity” you wish to take advantage of, you will miss it all.

MIKE JONES, Cape Girardeau