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He remembers working at the theater, where he “had a little flashlight directing people to their seats. Even Calvin Summers, who had a job as an usher at a theater, could not avoid this segregation. These places included theaters, where African American patrons would have to sit in the balcony. We were just discriminated against certain places. We could go to the movies, go to, do what we wanted to. So he said he would call, down in the South because the expression was down South, he would call Reading “Up South” because the prejudice and the racism wasn’t…it was very subtle here. Ow we can remember how we were discriminated against here in Reading. Robert Jefferson recalls discussing with a friend about,

Robert Jefferson remembers that, “here was racism here in Reading but not the overt racism.” A sentiment echoed by Ed Morrison, “In Reading, PA there was the covert form of segregation,” and Sarah Ann Stewart said, “Reading as a whole we really didn’t experience all the racism that went on in down South and other places,” and Ollie Carter, “You know in Reading there was a lot of subtle racism.” This “subtle racism” was opposed to the supposed racism of the South. There is a motif repeated by many of the interviewees about the nature of Northern racism, about its subtlety. Rather, racism was part of the national identity, and affected the lives of African Americans regardless of geographic location. Though often attributed to Southern states, it is clear that racism and discrimination were not unique to the South. While events such as these may have also transpired in states like Alabama or Mississippi, the voices heard in this essay are not Southern voices but ones from Pennsylvania, from Reading. Regardless of participation in public displays of activism and levels of political consciousness, it is important to note that all interviewees played an instrumental role in the Civil Rights Movement and overcame adversity despite their circumstance.ĭenial of service from stores and restaurants, segregation or discrimination in schools, heavy Ku Klux Klan activity. Conflicting recollections arose out of the interviews when asked about the level of activism and advocacy present in Reading during the Civil Rights Movement. While the Civil Rights Movement was more prevalent in the South, many aspects were still experienced in the North More specifically, in Reading, PA, many interviewees encountered racism at school, work, and everyday life.