from that time period:
1. My husband's sister-in-law was a white first grade public school teacher in a mixed race school in northwestern Pennsylvania. She was a registered Democrat. She often complained about "Black English" and ridiculed their poverty. As the Civil Rights movement progressed, she researched emigration to Australia because she had heard that Australian aboriginal people were segregated and that Australia didn't accept any immigrants of African descent. I had no contact with her after my divorce, but recently looked her up online out of curiosity. She left teaching for a business job (a blessing for her students). She became a Republican, lives in The Villages, strongly supports Second Amendment rights, and is a Trumpist.
2. In 1980, during the Reagan vs. Carter campaign, I was remarried and living in a Cleveland suburb where we had moved for my husband's job. Before taking a full time permanent job, I worked temporary to get to know the area's businesses and options. At one assignment, I opened the boss' mail and sorted it for him. When he received a solicitation letter from Jerry Fallwell's Christian Coalition, I was astounded at the racial and religious code language in the letter. It asked for donations to return the country to its (white) Christian roots. The business was owned by a Jewish family, but there were non Jewish employees, too.
When my boss read the letter, he called some other employees and learned that several had received one, but none of the Jewish employees did. They contacted the owner and had a conference about it.
I never had any illusions about the Reagan supporters and their reasons for supporting him.
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