After living in one of St. Louis County's many unique pockets for African Americans, in the 40s into the 60s (Breckenridge Hills, Robertson, Berkeley, Webster Groves, Kirkwood [Meachem Park] Chesterfield, Maryland Heights, Richmond Heights, Kinloch etc.) I expected the rest of America to be set up this way. Pockets of the worst side of town for us and restrictions on going out of these pockets especially at night. I was shocked when as an eighteen year old college student, some other students and myself went to Iowa for summer jobs.
These jobs were sponsored by our school, Lincoln University (Jefferson City, MO) we knew how to get to Muscatine, Iowa but not how to get to the house were we would be staying. So we devised a plan, surely the first African American we saw would know where the Black section of town would be. Sure enough we saw a Black lady and asked her "where is the Black section of town"? She smiled and asked us what address were we looking for, and when we told her she directed us on how to get there.
We got there and were greeted by an elderly Black man, we settled in and proceeded to wait for his wife to get home. I guess anyone who watches TV knows what happened next: Yes, his wife was the same lady we had asked for directions to the Black section of town. They went on to explain that there was no Black section of town, Caucasians and Blacks lived all over right next to each other! I couldn't believe it. This seemed to be going against everything I had ever seen or heard.
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Things do change but every time crime info. is given out, even today, North St. Louis indicates Black 95% of the time and the same for North of Olive U. City 87%. Is it still North vs. South in 2011 and how about the pockets for us in the rest of St. Louis City and County. Will these barriers for true understanding and appreciation of others go away without a breakdown in housing patterns?