My great-grandparents on my mother's side came from Georgia to Detroit in 1942 to work in the factories. Blacks were not allowed to serve in the military, and with all the white men gone

In the book Eric was found dead in the river one day. They never found out who killed him. The black community felt that not enough effort was made to find out what had happened to him. They felt that if Eric had been white, the murderer would have been found. He was only 17 years old and not tough or street smart. He went to St. Joseph to a club for teenagers and slow-danced with a white girl. He had dated a white girl for a few weeks too. Most black people in Benton Harbor believed that was what his death was about. Maybe the girl's brothers or boyfriend did it, or just some white guys that couldn't stand to see a white girl dancing with a black guy.

The white community in St. Joseph believed Eric's death was an accident-that Eric fell in the river and drowned, or jumped in intending to swim to other side, and race had nothing to do with it. The black community in Benton Harbor thought there was a cover-up, that it was a racially motivated murder. There were a lot of unanswered questions. The autopsy, for instance, was not a thorough one, so they never knew if he was beaten or strangled before he went into the river. Probably, the black community would not have been so suspicious, except for all the other racial troubles that came before. Only a year or so before Eric died, a black youth was shot by a white policeman.

My cousin from Port Huron (now in Southfield) married a white woman. His mother, my aunt, was quite upset about it at the time and didn't approve. Eventually, she got over it and accepted Jim's wife. His wife's white parents were cool with it (that's a switch). But her folks live up in the northern part of the state. There are lots of people up there who hate African-Americans and moved there "to get away from the niggers." So his wife goes alone to visit her mother, or her mother comes to Detroit to visit them. Jim thinks it's best for him to stay away, and his mother-in-law agrees with him. She thinks he wouldn't be safe up there. She says most of the people would be okay with it, maybe wouldn't care one way or another, but there are still a few old timers who get all riled up with they see a mixed couple.

People from Benton Harbor were made to feel unwelcome in St. Joseph. If a black person went into a store in St. Joseph to shop, he or she was followed around closely by the help who believed all black people to be thieves. A few black people, like Eric's mother, felt integrated and friendly with white people in St. Joseph, but it was usually because of their work, which caused them to get to know each other. Eric's mother had told him many times that people would treat him the way he treated them. She didn't believe racial discrimination really existed-at least, she had never experienced it herself. So Eric apparently felt comfortable about flirting with white girls. He didn't understand that it was a dangerous thing to do around some people.

My cousin's white wife told me that her mother and father marched to show support for Martin Luther King, Jr. out in Des Moines, Iowa in the 1960s. Her father was in school there. Her father carried a

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2106
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)