The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-03-22
Unofficial Jim Crow" Laws

waiter, who consented to take an ord.r After taking it he disappearei entireiv from the room. For half an hour lon.a. the colored man and hfs wife sat ma e tended. Then complaint was made to th. head waiter. who simulated great indie- nation and asked to have the waiter who had taken the order pointed out. bnt, as ne mad disappeared, that was impossible. second waiter was called and the or. der repeated He again went out into inc Kitchen and failed to return. Another walt of half an hour followed and final ly the colored couple got up and left the pIace, followed by a sigh of relief on the part of all the attendants.
 In Southern theatres negroes are re- stricted to one of the upper galleries, which is still populariy referred to as "nigger heaven" Here is the way the thing is worked in the North:
 negro applying to the box office of almost any Northern theater will be told that all the parquet seats are sold and will be offered seats in the highest gal lery. It is almost impossible for a colored man to buy for his own use par quet seats in any of the Northern thea ters.
 Occasionally white man is secured to buy them for him. In more than one instance this has been the result:
 When the colored man presents his tickets at the door the coupons are torn 'off by the doorman and presented to the head usher. In readiness for such an emergency the head usher has a couple of seats in the parquet prepared. He leads the way to these seats. turns them down, and waits a, moment fop the colored people to take their seats. They sit down. only to find that the seats give way beneath them. The usher is sur prised and extremely sorry. He cannot understand how such break could have been overlooked. Of course 1t will be im- possible to fix them in time to have them occupied at that performance. If the ticket holder will come to the ticket of fee he will try to exchange the tickets for other equally as good.
 The doorman has already notified the box office of what is going on, and when the usher and the colored. man inquire there they are told. with great regret, that there is not c single parquet seat remaining. The box office will be glad to return the money paid for the seats or 1t will do the best 1t can-furnish couple of seats in the top gallery and return the difference in the price of the seats.
 It is hard to see any great difference
 between this procedure and that employ ed in the South.
 Even the various sporting clubs which are organized for the purpose of giving boxing matches in northern cities prac. tically refuse to put on fights in which negroes are matched against white men And in this case the colored fighters have
 seen fit to threaten retaliatory measures Only a few weeks ago the managers o1 all the important boxing clubs in Chica.
 go received letters from a local firm oi
 coiored attorneys to the following effect At present you are discriminating
 against colored boxers. As you are vel
 aware your shows are in violation of the State law and are only allowed by the city authorities as a concession. This Is to notify you that in case colored boxers are discriminated against in the future 1t would not be surprising if ar
 injunction was asked for restraining you and all other managers guilty of discrimi
 nation from giving boxing matches in the State of Illinois,"
 The managers of the boxing clubs were prompt to answer that they did not draw the color line and would be glad to put or colored boxrs when suitable matches promising profitable results, could be arranged. It now remains to be seen what further action will be taken in the premises, as 1t is not at all likely that the policy of the clubs will be actually
 changed in this respect.