Watching a Big Parade, p.6
Dublin Core
Title
Watching a Big Parade, p.6
Description
"Traveling in Dixie
Birmingham, Ala.- The more I travel in the Southland which, I am happy to report, has in precious little to date, the more convinced I am that Jim Crow exists largely because of interracial co-operation. The “pecks” are mean and lowly enough to heap all forms of indignities on the darker brethren and the latter not only accept it without a whimper, but actually assist in their own humiliation. On the last Fourth of July I made a trip to Savannah, Ga., by train for the express purpose of seeing if all the things I had heard about the land of Doodleum were actually true. I rode in the stuffy Jim Crow cars with their disreputable passengers who delighted in removing their shoes and turning grayish-black bunion-inhabited hoofs out to public view the moment they found themselves comfortably lodged in a seat. I went around to the back doors of hotels and lunchrooms and ate in smelly kitchens because that’s where our folks were supposed to eat. I went in doors labeled “colored” and carefully circumvented those real entrances marked “white.” I washed, if possible, in unkempt wash rooms and went out of my way to taste all of the asinine and idiotic practices that the white degenerates of the Southland heaped upon their neighbors. I made the trip at my leisure, not particularly caring whether I reached my particular point or not. The truth I that I started out for Jacksonville, Fla., tabulating each experience in the cities at which I tarried, but when I got as far as Savannah; I had tasted all I could stand and canceled the rest of my journey. I discovered then that the whites could be just as mean as you would permit them to be.
Another Method
This Fourth of July I went South again, my mission was slightly different. I was to reach a given point at a given time, collect certain facts and forward them to my office with the greatest possible dispatch. With this thought in mind I adopted an entirely different procedure. I forgot about color and was traveling as an American citizen on vital business. I ignored “white” and “colored” signs. I went directly to sections of the stations and airports where first class passengers were entitled to go. I put my requests for meals and railroad accommodations bluntly. I bluffed through on the assumption that if you look a “cracker” straight in the eye you’ve got him going, but do not divert your eye or preface your request with “Can I do this or that.” I had a peculiar experience of having a bus driver, who sold me a ticket without a murmur, send several natives hiking back a block to the bus depot to purchase tickets. “If you haven’t any ticket, get the hell off of here,” he barked and winked at me as they scurried to obey. I felt sorry for the spineless critters, but believed they were getting no worse than they deserved. Perhaps on another trip to the South this same method will get my block knocked off, but I am happy to report that for once it worked. Know what you want, demand it and take it before a “cracker” can get up the nerve to say “No!”
Birmingham, Ala.- The more I travel in the Southland which, I am happy to report, has in precious little to date, the more convinced I am that Jim Crow exists largely because of interracial co-operation. The “pecks” are mean and lowly enough to heap all forms of indignities on the darker brethren and the latter not only accept it without a whimper, but actually assist in their own humiliation. On the last Fourth of July I made a trip to Savannah, Ga., by train for the express purpose of seeing if all the things I had heard about the land of Doodleum were actually true. I rode in the stuffy Jim Crow cars with their disreputable passengers who delighted in removing their shoes and turning grayish-black bunion-inhabited hoofs out to public view the moment they found themselves comfortably lodged in a seat. I went around to the back doors of hotels and lunchrooms and ate in smelly kitchens because that’s where our folks were supposed to eat. I went in doors labeled “colored” and carefully circumvented those real entrances marked “white.” I washed, if possible, in unkempt wash rooms and went out of my way to taste all of the asinine and idiotic practices that the white degenerates of the Southland heaped upon their neighbors. I made the trip at my leisure, not particularly caring whether I reached my particular point or not. The truth I that I started out for Jacksonville, Fla., tabulating each experience in the cities at which I tarried, but when I got as far as Savannah; I had tasted all I could stand and canceled the rest of my journey. I discovered then that the whites could be just as mean as you would permit them to be.
Another Method
This Fourth of July I went South again, my mission was slightly different. I was to reach a given point at a given time, collect certain facts and forward them to my office with the greatest possible dispatch. With this thought in mind I adopted an entirely different procedure. I forgot about color and was traveling as an American citizen on vital business. I ignored “white” and “colored” signs. I went directly to sections of the stations and airports where first class passengers were entitled to go. I put my requests for meals and railroad accommodations bluntly. I bluffed through on the assumption that if you look a “cracker” straight in the eye you’ve got him going, but do not divert your eye or preface your request with “Can I do this or that.” I had a peculiar experience of having a bus driver, who sold me a ticket without a murmur, send several natives hiking back a block to the bus depot to purchase tickets. “If you haven’t any ticket, get the hell off of here,” he barked and winked at me as they scurried to obey. I felt sorry for the spineless critters, but believed they were getting no worse than they deserved. Perhaps on another trip to the South this same method will get my block knocked off, but I am happy to report that for once it worked. Know what you want, demand it and take it before a “cracker” can get up the nerve to say “No!”
Creator
Ralph Matthews
Publisher
Baltimore Afro-American
Date
1933-7-15
Collection
Citation
Ralph Matthews , “Watching a Big Parade, p.6,” African American Fourth of July, accessed April 30, 2024, https://africanamerican4th.omeka.net/items/show/107.