October 10, 1957, as recounted in Time magazine:
Two Negroes dressed in business suits strolled into a Howard Johnson restaurant near Dover, Del. one evening last week, went up to the counter and ordered two 30¢ glasses of orange juice. As they were handed the juice in containers, wrapped up to take outside, a waitress explained that they could not sit down inside because “colored people are not allowed to eat in here.”
At this point one of the Negroes protested to the manager, produced an identity card to introduce himself as Komla Agbeli Gbedemah, Finance Minister of the new ‘African nation of Ghana; his companion was his U.S. Negro secretary. But the manager explained that rules were rules and Gbedemah and secretary paid for their orange juice, left it on the counter and walked out. “If the Vice President of the U.S. can have a meal in my house when he is in Ghana,” said Gbedemah, who had entertained Vice President Nixon during his tour of Africa last spring, “then I cannot understand why I must receive this treatment at a roadside restaurant in America.”
VP Nixon’s boss, President Eisenhower, apologized, as did the Howard Johnson folks.
Fast forward five decades . . .
Archbishop Charles G. Palmer-Buckle of Accra, Ghana, was ecstatic and “overwhelmed that (Obama) won the Nobel Peace Prize,” he told journalists Oct. 9.
“I would like the world to look at it as an encouragement, a motivation” to recognize the talents and potential of Africans and people of African descent, he said.
“Blacks are as talented as anyone else … and I think the world is now coming face to face with the fact that if we are appreciated, we can give still more,” said Archbishop Palmer-Buckle.
The archbishop told CNS that Obama “definitely deserves” the prize and that the U.S. leader is an inspiration.
He recalled Obama’s visit to Ghana in July and how much he was moved by the president’s encouragement for people to take destiny into their own hands.
“He told the youths, don’t look to Europe, don’t look to America for solutions to your problems. You can, yes, you can. And I think we’ve taken it up … and we are going to do it,” he said.
Ghana was the first African nation visited by President Obama and he had quite the stay there last July.
My, how things change.
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Hey Christy if you are watching, we love and miss you.
Laws change but attitude changing is lagging here in the states. We still have racism and racial profile and some of it is institutionalized. We’ve come some distance, but unless you are black and tried to hail a cab in NYC you might not know we have a long ways to go.
Talk is cheap, can Obama Dance like this …
Wow.. I was born in 1966 a white male in a suburban/rural area outside Pittsburgh. I really never “got” the race discrimination factor. After seeing how some people treat our own President it still overwhelms me. Please excuse me for being ignorant. Good for Obama. I think the world is more proud of him than some of our own citizens.. Shocking. It seems odd to even see the word “Negroes” written in Time magazine. I feel somewhat ashamed of our history.. past and present. The good news is we have come a long way! (some of us)
Peterr !
{{{ Christy & Family }}}
Christy’s been over at her place responding to comments that had been left.
Thanks Elliott, going there now.
That was unkind.
“red and yellow, black and white, they are pleasant in His sight”
Everyone is beautiful. We have made strides toward that idea and need to push to make sure it happens.
Gentile or Jew, Servant or Free, Woman or Man, no more. One bread, one body…
Mocking Dubya is unkind ? I didn’t get the memo … *g*
Evolution of thought.
Thanks for this, Peterr.
This is just the sort of thing we need to remind us that positive change is not only possible, but is already happening. Too many people are looking for reasons not to act, and their favorite excuse/reason is that “nothing changes no matter what we do”. This shows that they’re wrong.
When Africa becomes the superpower a hundred years from now, when China and India have run their courses, they’ll look back on this moment as the time when it all began.