How We Got Over: Growing up in the Segregated South

Through 24 narratives How We Got Over captures Black life in compelling first-person accounts from childhood and teen years in mid-twentieth century Alexandria Louisiana a town with nearly twice as many enslaved people as whites in 1860. The stories reflect the impact of slavery and the resulting segregation on the contributors lives through their unfiltered accounts of racial social and economic inequities injustices and challenges in the 1950s and 1960s. From the trauma of witnessing a lynched body hanging from a tree at the nearby community center to finding delight in discovering a hidden talent in middle school the contributors share how they survived and thrived despite the obstacles and challenges they encountered. The narratives are written by 24 graduates of the Peabody High School Class of 1968 now in their early 70s: Rosa Ashby Helen Benjamin JoAnn Williams Rose Dempsey Winnifred Edwards Jett Elaine Ford Provost Sherman Fulton Kathlyn Giles Stewart James Goff Phyllis Hamilton Venable Joseph Jett Michael Johnson Dr. Willie James Johnson Rev. Ameal Jones Emma Jones Gray Pearlie Mae Lewis Carter Michael Milton Roderick Newman Doretha Perry Wyatt Freddie Price Sr. Gloria Roberts Rev. Larry Smith Dr. Linda Smith Green and Aubrey Woodley.