Swimming upstream

Thomas Milam and Dr. Marie Milam tell the history of Centenary United Methodist Church and relate their own experiences in the Jim Crow South

Our focus invites us to recognize that no how bad life gets, human beings have a tremendous capacity for resiliency. This capacity reveals itself in individuals and communities. At the individual level, it might look like this – a young black woman chooses to enroll in Memphis State University instead of the local black college. Once there, this woman, Marie, learns that swimming is a required subject and that she is not permitted in the pool. She is told to take a form to the Dean of Women to collect a signature that will exempt her for the swimming requirement. Does the young woman cry? Scream in frustration? Get angry about this Catch 22? No, she signs the Dean’s signature herself and turns in the form.
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-- by Mary Alm