Those of you who are members of the Museum at Keewaydin should have already received the newest edition of The Courier. If so, you have been privy to its cover story pertaining to the experience of racism in the Tri-Cities, and a history of the old Green Bridge and how it was a link to that racism. We feel this reflection of that horrible time is too important to be limited to just our members, and are therefore affording it to others wishing to know in greater detail something you may have little knowledge of.
Katie Barton was one of the sweetest human beings I ever encountered.
You can combine that with being one of the most substantive and astute persons I ever met, whose gracious personality followed her the 92 years of her life even when it could have given way to despair for the inheritance of racism she found along the way.
Why the racism?
Because Katie was black.
For no other reason than she was black.
She was born into conditions of discrimination in a former confederate state. Segregation was real there but to her surprise she found conditions more intolerant when she arrived in a northern state – and a northern community – as a 30-year-old wife.
