Cookie & Me Case

Tallahassee during the civil rights movement was a less than desirable place to be for African Americans. The weight of racism in this southern town affected everyone, even down to the children and their education. It was the south at its worst from outrageous segregation laws, Jim Crow, and bus boycotts. In Ryals' novel "Cookie & Me, Mary Jane Ryals tells a story of two young girls of different races trying to be friends in the midst of a city determined to be segregated, but the girls themselves were also determined. The hardest struggle the girls faced was being able to be friends in public. Everything between them had to be secret if they wanted to stay friends. In this novel the main place they couldn't be friends happened to be school. Cookie was one of two black girls in a then all white school. Throughout the novel Cookie and Rayann's friendship survives a lot of turmoil and Rayann realizes cookie is a true friend no matter what shade of brown she is.

In the 1950's schools were still segregated and this was definitely the limiting factor in Ryals' Cookie & Me. Black children were harassed every day and weren't felt welcome at school, in the novel cookie experienced harsh treatment because of her race, for example cookie wasn't able to ride the bus to school because the white boys wouldn't let her she expressed this to Rayann when she told her that "The older boys. Said they didn't want no niggers riding on their bus" (38). As well as being an outcast from school with only one friend cookie wasn't even allowed to be friends with Rayann outside of their hideout. According to The ride to equality by Julian Pecquet On top of the usual segregation of public places, restaurants and shops, one local ordinance forbade "fraternization" between the races. Cookie and Rayann had no choice but to hide their friendship from everyone else. Although Rayann had it a lot easier than cookie she still struggled with their friendship she knew that if other people knew about their secret relationship she would be considered a nigger lover, as seen in the novel when Rayann wants to sit with cookie but Loretta made a comment saying "You aren't going to sit with that nigger or religious freak are you?" "She continued by saying "Look at them. Table probably stinks" (74). This quote from the book shows how much Rayann struggled with accepting their friendship by not going to sit with Cookie, because she herself didn't want to be considered an outcast.

People in Tallahassee weren't quite ready for integration as seen in The Ride to Equality by Julian Pacquet. The article shows where two candidates Culbreth and Alexander wanted to do something different and integrate the recreational facilities for everyone, it came as no shock when both of these men lost. The integration of schools was a very hard thing for people to accept in Tallahassee. Glenda Alice Rabby further explains this in chapter twelve of her book The Pain and the Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida where she speaks about the first two years of integration at Leon high school and tells the stories of the first four black students to attend. In Ryals' novel cookie was one of the first brave black children to attend the school and she was constantly reminded of her race every day. Although all of the odds were against them Rayann and Cookie still made a way to be friends, they even went on trips together into the city where they were given strict instructions on how to carry themselves while out together. As Rayann and Cookies friendship grew they became a little more careless with their actions and wanted to become more involved in the rallies and race issues of Tallahassee. This proved not to be a very good idea for