#the wall between

[midwestisolation]

Either you find a way to oppose the evil, or the evil becomes part of you and you are a part of it, and it winds itself around your soul like the arms of an octopus ... if I did not oppose it, I was ... responsible for its sins. There was no middle ground.

Anne Braden The Wall Between

[theyearofselfeducation]

I have a strange feeling about guns. I was horrified at the thought. I had never owned a gun, had never shot one. I felt that I would die if I had to fire a shot. I presumed that I could aim at a prowler's feet - but suppose by some quirk I fired in such a way as to hit him where it would kill him. I felt I could not live with myself for the rest of my life feeling that I had killed a person - no matter who it was, and even if he had intended to kill me. I found that one of those things I had always believed in the abstract I still believed in the concrete: that if someone planned to kill me I would rather be killed myself than be the one who killed.

Anne Braden (The Wall Between)

[theyearofselfeducation]

As it became obvious that the cause was not really popular and that victory was not certain, when it became obvious that the few whites who were supporting the Wades were people without prestige or influence, then the personality conflicts which so often develop under the pressure of frustration began to strain the unity of the Wade Defense Committee...Not many people want to be martyrs to what appears to be a losing cause.

Anne Braden (The Wall Between)

[theyearofselfeducation]

I have been told that the intensity of my feeling about segregation is neurotic. I have never denied that this may be so. I grew up in a sick society, and a sick society makes neurotics - of one kind or another, on one side or another. It makes people like those who could take pleasure in killing and mutilating Emmett Till, and it makes people like me.

Anne Braden (The Wall Between)