What was it like to live in the southern U.S. in the 60's-80's?

I (28F) live in the Atlanta suburbs, and I have a 70 something neighbor who is a very kind, generous, and extremely foul-mouthed woman. She's very outspoken on issues, and I've learned a lot from her. Her family moved here when she was young, from Philly. She's made it very clear she was not a fan of the south in the 60's, and even though she's lived here her whole life, still considers herself a yank. She was in high school at the time Martin Luther King was assassinated, and has said to me she's never been more horrified than she was at the reaction of people in the town being happy he was dead, and that she had a genuine fear of shortly being next as she was a Yankee. I imagine it was a very tumultuous time in history, even though everything wasn't technically considered "segregation". I grew up in the south in the 90's-2000's and I remember being called a "nigger lover" for innocently befriending a black girl in my class who never had anybody to play with, as a kindergarten aged child. I'm certainly not equating that to the plight of POC, but my point is I can't imagine it would have been any different decades prior. I know there must be people here who lived through it, and I'm genuinely interested in hearing your thoughts and experiences.