The Enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 192?-1930, 1926-10-08

| met Jne tyfanJ alone III the WoouS
and the tyrant trembled-for which
the tyrant never forgave Tell. But
to my genuine surprise few weeks
later, when | was in New York, |
received letter from Mrs. Pickens,
saying: "Well! A----sen the
money."-He never apologized nor
explained. But | was to understand
by receipt of that money, chat the
only reason why was allowed to
continue my life on earth, was that
this white man had decided that |
was right.
So much for the peril of everyday
life. In the next chapter we shall
relate an incident illustrative of the
perils of travel.
XIII-Arkansas Traveller
| was to journey back from New
| York to Texas. In the East | had
! spoken twenty times in two weeks.
| was very tired. hired Pullman
| berth to st. Louis and travelled with
out incident. Out of Difference to
| the color prejudice of the South
took this northerly route from New
York to Texas. ! also aimed to
leave New York City on an early
enough train to reach st. Louis next
morning in time to take daylight
ride in Jim Crow from there to Lit
tie Rock, Arkansas, where | could
stay overnight with my father and
then take another daylight ride to
Marshall. Most prejudiced white
people will never know how many
sincere efforts intelligent colored
people make to avoid disturbing and
irritating contacts, even when the
colored people would be entirely
within their legal and just rights.
But the Republican Club of New
York, before which my last address
was made, kept me so late that |
could only catch train that brought
me to st. Louis next afternoon.
That left me one choice among three
evil alternatives: to stay that night
in st. Louis and the next night in
Little Rock, thereby losing another
twenty-four hours from school and
family; or to sit up night and
day in the unspeakable torture of
the Jim Crow car; or to get a Pull
man ticket for the night to Little
Rock, and so run the risk of trouble
with insane prejudiced people. Hav-
ing been absent from family and pu-
pills, decided to risk the last named
evil.
How could | get Pullman ticket
to a southern point out of St. Louis,
where they try to refuse colored
people such accommodations even
into other parts of Missouri and to-
ward the north? | decided to take
Pullman for only the sleeping hour.
to Little Rock, where early next
morning ! would enter Jim Crow
for the rest of the journey. The
| problem of getting the tickets was
easily solved; | simply went into
the colored section of st. Louis and
got white Negro friend to pur-
chase it. For lust as we have ex-
hibited at worlds fairs the phenom-
enon of white black-birds. so have
we in the United States the verbal
contradiction of white black-people,
many of them being one hundred
per cent black, if you please, in
their consciousness. But my success
in providing myself with this simple
human necessity for sleeping and
bodily salvation brought me an ex-
perience on that train which | shall
describe for the information of the
| incredulous.
AS | entered the Pullman car, the
| conductor took my tickets, looked at
them, and jerked them back into
my hand with nervous ostentation
which clearly indicated that it was
! his opinion that | had no right to
such accommodations. Then the. col
ored porter took my bags, with hu-
morous smile playing on his fea-
lures, and conducted me to my sec
ton. The porter was walking on
air, seemed tickled to death, and
was saying by his actions: "Well,
/ brother, and how on earth did you
manage to put it over on them?"
My ticket was secured late and
could get only an upper, so that
! knew / had section mate. | there
| fore boarded the train early, so as
| to be first in the section and avoid
the appearance of being the agrees
sor in the scene that was probable.
| have noticed that when white peo-
/ pic VI Nht 0Oubh NuLu SOluC VI llc
North) encounter black man on a
Pullman car leaving, say, st. Louis
for Chicago, they behave lawfully,
even if unkindly, toward him; but
when the same white people en-
counter black person on Pullman
leaving st. Louis for Arkansas, Gin
cinati for Alabama, or Washington
for Georgia, they sometimes make
an unlawful and an awful scene. So
| planned to "get there first" in the
section, and not seem to be the ac-
tive cause of this likely scene.
deposited my luggage in the section
and busted myself reading book.
Later l decided to deposit my lug
gage on my seat, and to sit for the
time being in another yet unoccu-
pied section toward the rear, from
which vantage point could observe
| and SEQ what manner of narson