cotton curtain
n.— «From behind the “cotton curtain” of the Mississippi Delta last week came Dr. Theodore R. (for Roosevelt) Mason Howard.…Rated as Mississippi’s “most hated” Negro leader because of his refusal to buckle under pressure applied by anti-desegregationists, Dr. Howard is described “as a man who lets the chips fall where they may.”» —“Dr. Howard Gives 3-Point Program To Alpha Confab” by George Daniels Chicago Defender (Illinois) Jan. 14, 1956. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A listener named Mark now lives in San Diego, California, but grew up in Chicago, Illinois. There, he recalls, when he and his friends played sandlot baseball, cards, or board games, if an opponent tried to get around the rules and then got called...
David from Matthews, North Carolina, grew up using the term cheese toastie for a type of grilled cheese sandwich. Cheese toasties are familiar in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, particularly around the cities of Decatur and Springfield. In the UK...