While in high school, she worked as a waitress at a local diner. Most of the population was black, therefore there was little contact with white customers or employees. Margaret feels that she was socially isolated until the 1950s. She was not exposed to white culture; it was foreign to her. She was only exposed to black culture of the time. They were not allowed in certain stores, restaurants, or other places of business. She remembers "white only" restrooms and "black only" fountains. This cultural isolation was oppressive.

Margaret feels that the oppressive attitudes and discrimination that she experienced as a child determined much of how her life proceeded in adulthood. The idea that she could only go so far was ingrained as a child. She never really broke free of this feeling. In her 40s, she moved to upstate New York. Here, she found that many women had succeeded...
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