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Article: A Sharecropper Reaps What She Sowed; She Planted Hope for Equality. It Grew.
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- May 16, 1996
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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For some people, respect is not an issue. There's no need to
demand it -- their actions command it. What they've got can't be
taken, can't be bought. If we're lucky it will be learned or taught.
Mae Bertha Carter, 73, a former cotton picker from Sunflower
County, Miss., is like that. Mother of 13. Matriarch of a family
that single-handedly integrated its local school system. Member of
the NAACP since 1955, a dark year when the smallest mention of that
organization was considered a sin against the South.
A minister who was moving around the state, discreetly,
"writing up" people for membership, was turned away by most
sharecropping families. When he reached Carter's cabin, however, ...