Southern Ruby

For my father, Stan.

Always proud,

Always supportive,

Always there.

L
ike many of my readers, I was brought up to believe that the correct and polite way to refer to American citizens of African ancestry was ‘African-American'. However, when I was in New Orleans researching Southern Ruby I discovered people preferred to use, and be referred to, as ‘Black American' or simply ‘black'. For this reason, I have used that terminology for the modern story in Southern Ruby. The words ‘coloured' and ‘Negro' are not considered correct or polite these days. However in the 1950s and 1960s these were the descriptions used by everyone including Civil Rights supporters and black people themselves. For authenticity, I've adopted these terms in the past story. I hope that no offence will be taken as none is intended.