We pay the conductor our fare and look about where we please, but we were still scared. We cannot shake off 300 years of fear in three hours. We ease into a seat and look out of the window at the crowded streets. A white man or woman comes and sits besides us, not even looking at us, as though this was a normal thing to do. The muscles of our bodies tighten.
Indefinable sensations crawl over our skins and our blood tingles.
Out of the corners of our eyes we try to get a glimpse of the strange white face that floats but a few inches from ours. Separation promotes racial harmony. Segregation is not discrimination. Segregation is not a badge of racial inferiority. Segregation is desired and supported by the vast majority of the members of both of the races in the South, who dwell side by side under harmonious conditions.