Read the excerpt from The Land by Mildred Taylor.
She said she was there to serve his table, not to sit at
it, though I think she was more concerned about how it
would look to others if she sat at his table. People
hearing that Edward Logan's children of color sat at his
table was one thing. A colored woman with her children
sitting at his table would have been another; that would
have been too bold.
Still, there were times when my mama and daddy did
sit together, though not at meals. Sometimes when my
daddy came into the kitchen, he would sit at the table
and talk to my mama as she worked, and sometimes
she would stop her work and join him.