Tag Archives: Segregation

Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday: A Reflection

Posted on July 4, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

On July 4, 2026, America marks its 250th birthday, reflecting on its Declaration of Independence and the historical complexities surrounding its authors, notably Thomas Jefferson’s legacy as a slave owner. The piece underscores the contributions of Black Americans throughout history and critiques the current leadership dynamic, advocating for new, younger voices in governance. Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Politics & Public Affairs | Tagged america, America's Birthday, American Revolution, Black History Month, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, Declaration of Independence, Fred Hampton, George Washington, history, Independence Day, John F. Kennedy, Korean War, Leadership, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., patriotism, politics, Samuel Yette, Segregation, Slavery, The Revolutionary War, Thomas Jefferson, Vietnam War, World War I, World War II | Leave a comment

Journey Through Crime, Justice & Literature – The Series

Posted on February 17, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

In this series, I trace how a teenage brush with homicide headlines became a lifelong interrogation of justice. From police tape and tabloid “if it bleeds, it leads” narratives to courtrooms, prisons, and the literature that wrestles with guilt, I ask what truth survives punishment. Along the way, I revisit forgotten voices, personal losses, and hard-earned lessons—seeking a language that honors victims, confronts systems, and insists on humanity, story at a time, without flinching. Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Genealogy, Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Streets of Rage | Tagged being a teenager, Black History Month, Growing Up, juveniles, life sentences, Martin Luther King Jr., murder, Parole, raising black boys, remorse, Segregation, Slavery, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, The Black Blood of Poetry, urban decay | Leave a comment

One Hundred Years of Black History

Posted on February 16, 2026 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

My father was born the same month Negro History Week was announced, timed to Lincoln’s February 12 and Douglass’s February 14 birthdays. Nearing his centennial, he embodied Black history: North Carolina segregation, a segregated WWII Army, then migration to New York. He rarely spoke of it, but history and literature helped me understand. Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Association for the Study of Negro Life and History, Bard College, Bicentennial, Black Arts Movement, Black History Month, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Carter G. Woodson, Decisive Decade, Family, fathers, Fourth of July, Frederic, Frederick Douglass, Gerald Ford, Growing Up, Kent State, Martin Luther King Jr., Negro History Week, North Carolina, raising black boys, Samuel Yette, Segregation, The Black Blood of Poetry, The Ethics of Living Jim Crow: An Autobiographical Sketch | Leave a comment

Rereading Richard Wright’s Black Boy

Posted on July 12, 2024 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

When I first read Richard Wright’s Black Boy more than 40 years ago when I was a teenager, little that I knew about literature, I thought the writing was superb. I was doing a little writing then and thought Wright … Continue reading →

Posted in Literature & Cultural Criticism | Tagged being a teenager, Black Boy, Black Patriotism, Confederacy, Confederate flag, Family, fathers, Growing Up, Nashville TN, New South, North Carolina, raising black boys, Relationships, Richard Wright, Segregation, Slavery, Strange Fruit, Virginia, World War II | 1 Comment

Virginia on My Mind

Posted on August 19, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

There is something that keeps drawing me back to Virginia. Although my father was born in North Carolina, he grew up in Virginia and returned there in 1946 after he was discharged from the segregated U.S. Army. He was drafted … Continue reading →

Posted in Family, Memory & Personal Essays, Genealogy | Tagged 1960s, Bath County, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Decisive Decade, Family, fathers, Growing Up, Native Southern Sons, North Carolina, Red Summer, Segregation, Slavery, Virginia, World War I, World War II | 1 Comment

Remembering My Father as I Remember Maceo Snipes, Black Veteran, Shot to Death After Voting in Georgia Primary — July 18, 1946

Posted on July 19, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

As a teenager my father, a Native Southern Son (NC and VA), was drafted to serve in the segregated U.S. Army during World War II. Shortly after he was honorably discharged from the Army in 1946, he moved to Brooklyn, … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society | Tagged Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Family, fathers, Growing Up, Maceo Snipes, murder, raising black boys, Relationships, Segregation, The Black Vote, World War II | Leave a comment

The Pledge of Allegiance, Little White Lies, and All that Jazz!

Posted on March 7, 2023 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

It has been more than 50 years since I was in elementary school in the New York City public school system, yet I remember, word for word, the “Pledge of Allegiance.” At this time, I thought nothing of it, but … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged 13th Amendment, Atomic Bomb, Black Codes, Black Power, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Camelot, Confederate States of America, Critical Race Theory, Culture Wars, Great Society, Growing Up, Hiroshima, internment of Japanese Americans, James Brown, John F. Kennedy, Little White Lies, Lyndon B. Johnson, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Nagasaki, patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, raising black boys, Richard Nixon, Robert F. Kennedy, Segregation, Slave Codes, Slavery, urban decay, war on crime, World War II | Leave a comment

The Three Pillars of American Society: Slavery, Segregation, and Hyperincarceration

Posted on March 1, 2022 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

America stands on three pillars: slavery, segregation, and hyperincarceration (incorrectly referred to as “mass incarceration”). These “pillars” implicate and impact mostly Black people, but also all people living in America or dreaming about coming to America. In fact, the U.S. … Continue reading →

Posted in Justice Chronicles, Politics & Public Affairs, Race, History & American Society, Streets of Rage | Tagged Angela Davis, Are prisons obsolete?, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Brown v. Board of Education, Charles E. Silberman, Confederacy, Criminal Violence Criminal Justice, Declaration of Independence, George Jackson, George Wallace, hyperincarceration, Jessica Mitford, Kind & Usual Punishment: The Prison Business, life sentences, Loic Wacquant, Mario Cuomo, Plessy v. Ferguson, Segregation, Slavery, Sometimes Blue Knights Wear Black Hats, Southland | Leave a comment

A Brief History of How “Black History” is Seen

Posted on September 6, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

What is called “Black History” in the United States of America is American history. In categorizing and cataloging “Black History” as such, and relegating it not only to one month of the year, February, but also the shortest month of … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching, Race, History & American Society | Tagged American Revolutionary War, Black history, Black Patriotism, Black Shadows and Through the White Looking Glass, Civil War, Confederacy, Confederate iconography, hyperincarceration, immigration, patriotism, racial reckoning, Segregation, Slavery, treason, W. E. B. Du Bois | 1 Comment

Dear Daddy: A Love Letter to Your Beloved South

Posted on July 15, 2020 by William Eric Waters, aka Easy Waters

July 15, 2020 Dear Daddy, Last night I dreamt of you for the first time since your death. I woke up with tears in my eyes. Although you have been dead for a little more than 38 years, in the … Continue reading →

Posted in Education & Teaching | Tagged being a teenager, Benin & Togo, Cameroon, Civil War, Confederate memorials, Confederate Monuments, Confederate statues, Congo, discrimination, Ellis Island, Emmett Till, Family, fathers, Four White Men Kidnap and Rape Black Girl in Tylertown MS, Ghana, Growing Up, NC, Nigeria, racial reckoning, Segregation, slave ships, Southern Bantu peoples, the South, Township of Bath, Virginia, white supremacy, World War I, World War II, Yeatesville | 1 Comment

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