MovieChat Forums > Hairspray (1988) Discussion > Confused about the timeline

Confused about the timeline

posted 8 years ago by papatoony-33-670609
4 replies | jump to latest

This movie is supposed to take place in 1962, but hadn't segregation already been outlawed by then?

From what I know and have seen of Baltimore I can imagine segregation was very much well alive in 1962 but perhaps someone from the US and with better knowledge can confirm or shed more light on this.

[–] sororsalsa 7 years ago

I'm from the DC area, and I can tell you that the amusement park depicted in the movie (Glen Echo) closed rather than integrate. So even if technically segregation was against the law, it didn't really make a difference in real life.

[–] fran-veal 7 years ago

I was born in Baltimore in 1963, and I can assure you that even by the late 60's when I started school, the city was desegregated, but race relations were very strained. I remember being very confused by it because, as a child, color just didn't matter to me. We were all just kids.

[–] b-touch 7 years ago

Brown v Board had already happened, but many states and cities - including Baltimore - continued to try and uphold government-sanctioned racism and segregation into the late 1960s. There was a riot in Baltimore following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 that lasted a week.