That post really explains a story my grandma once told me. During WWII my grandma went down to AL or MS (I don't recall which), to see my grandpa before he shipped off to Europe. (Both from Indiana, which had racial issues of its own) My grandparents were walking the town and were about to enter a store. My grandpa opens the door for his wife just as an "old black man was leaving" (My grandma was 20-21 at the time so the 'old' man could've been as young as 40) My grandma stepped back so the man could exit, as that was proper 'right of way', in her mind. The man deeply bowed his head and kept appologizing profusely as he backed away with his head still bowed. My grandma said she had never seen anything like it. My grandpa then pulled my grandma to the side and told her, "You are going to get us killed. You can't be nice to them here or the white people will go after us, too. They're crazy like that." I hold no illusions that my grandpa wasn't racist, he was, so after hearing that story I always wondered how bad it really was.