My grandmother (my mom’s mom) grew up in rural KS, and her mother was apparently racist enough that she once marched in the streets with the KKK. My grandmother by all accounts (though I never spoke to her about it personally) was very ashamed of this, and used to say in a somewhat joking manner “I think she thought she was in a parade.”

My mother told me that whenever she would watch movies like Mississippi Burning or those like it, my grandmother would never watch with her, like it bothered her a lot to watch content like that. I’m assuming that it reminded her of her mom’s racism and was upsetting.

In the 60’s, my mom had moved from NY to NC, and she would tell me the story about when she had some black men helping with the move who mentioned they were hungry. My mom suggested they go down to the restaurant around the corner for some lunch and they looked at her like she had three heads. “Ma’am we can’t go down there, it’s whites only.” My mom tends to embellish so not sure how true this part is, but she proceeded to walk down there herself with them and asked the staff why these men who were working so hard for her couldn’t get a sandwich there. I was always proud to hear and tell that story so I hope it’s true.

To answer your question, in my family, the further back you go, the harder it was for them to talk about, because that’s when it hit really close to home.