It is changing, but I lived in North Carolina and now I live in Charlottesville, Virginia, and I find the cities of North Carolina (Chapel Hill, Durham, Charlotte, even Willmington) have a more progressive spirit and are more open to change than the cities in Virginia. Certainly, there seems to be a lot more organizing going on down there than up here.
Still, there is change; last week I went to the local branch of First Union, the bank, to deposit my check. The place was mostly empty, not many customers, only 2 tellers, one working the window, one working the counter. There was a black guy in front of me in the line. He went up to the teller. The teller was a white woman in her late 30s, nicely dressed, a little overweight; she had a cheerful smile. The black guy was, I think, early 40s, dressed in a polo shirt and shorts. They exchanged pleasantries. He pushed some paperwork her way. She asked if he was having a nice day. He said yes but he was hungry. This lead into a conversation about food. The woman said she liked to cook. The guy said he liked to eat. The woman started talking about her boyfriend. Her boyfriend likes the way she cooks. Her boyfriend, it turns out, is black. She said, "My boyfriend says I'm blacker on the inside than he is on the outside. I cook him soul food." The black guy asks her if she cooks it real slow. The woman says yes, she cooks it real slow.
I wasn't around 30 years ago, but I'm pretty sure conversations like this did not happen back then.
--lawrence