Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1920-06-05
THE PASSING THRONG

contrary everybody and his brothers and
sisters were lined up on the street to see
the parade no different, mind you, than
the circus parades that Noah drove into
the ark The waiting thrOngs stood with
out comment as the various features of
the circus passed along just as stoicaIy
silent as the gaping crowds. Owing to
the long drawn out condition of the parade,
the crowd was bit uncertain as to the
fnaity of the whole. l too was bit in
doubt to when to quit my watchful wait
ing post, but was completely relieved of
that embarrassment when a white woman
gathered her armfu Of children about her
with "come darlings that's all, for there
comes the niggers'' The colored band was
about passing and what she said was quite
correct. And then l set myself to thinking
and l remembered that in all parades in
which colored folks participated with white
folks they were either at the end of the
procession or dangerously close to it. and
that had become such well established
custom that it was early taught to all white
children Some years ago when colored SOL
ders were stationed at Fort Lawton, on
some holiday occasion the colored soldiers
were to be a feature of the parade, and
when they arrived from the Fort and the
procession was being formed, the marshal
of the day told the commander Of the col
ored soldiers to fall in behind the State
troops, and it so incensed him that he
threatened to order the U. S. soldiers back
to the Fort and to report the insult to the
war department, but the matter was quickly
smoothed over and the necessary apologies
made. TO ''put the niggers last was OF
such common occurrence that the local
authorities were almost willing to offer
an insult to the government to satisfy their
weakness in this particular. 1t is plain to
be seen why the colored citizens lag in
joining any patriotic demonstrations. And
then it occurred to me that the alleged
race problem of this country was more an
effort on the part Of the whites to keep
the blacks behind than it was the blacks
to push ahead.
When | was attending Alorn University
of the State of Mississippi, where there
were some four hundred or more young
men, the most Of whom, like myself hailed
from remote rural districts, where we had
spent our lives working on the farm from
daylight until dark and from Monday morn
ing until Saturday. either noon or night
lust as the exigencies demanded, and had
not had very much opportunity to learn
to observe things without passing an opln-
ion on Them but we did do our duty hoe
ing corn and digging taters, all Of which
was plain to be seen when we went to the
university. But | set out to tell you about
an incident that happened in my student
life that has followed me ever since. On
the campus there lived man, not stu
dent but apparently parasite on the
family that operated the boarding hall. lie
was very intelligent man and talked flu
emily on most subjects of the day. but
tn
subsist The most of us were curious as to
his modus procedure and the most OF us
were sufficiently curious, owing to our own
ignorance, to have hat-footedly asked him
as to how he earned a living, but we re-
mcmbered he was also rather clever with
his fists. and that alone put check on our
tongues One fellow who also used his
fists pretty nftily, could stand the strain
no longer and so in the presence of score
or more fellow students put the question
up to him. ''Woods,' he began, 81 never