The guardian., 1941-08-23
A SOLDIER WRITES
HOME TO HIS FOLKS
76 Signal Co.,
Camp Robinson, Ark.
A p q No 402

"A. =. u NO. fOS,
Dear Folks:
Well, you wrote me about
sending a picture. Well, here is
my first opportunity to mail
you a picture. This is the group
picture the company had taken
last month.
The company's present loca-
ton is near a small town named
Prescott. AS I am writing This
letter the company-well, most
Of the soldiers are preparing to
go to a dance this evening. The
music is rendered by Boots and
his Buddies, an Arkansas swing
band.
Thi town has a fairly good
sized population. There are
about three or four thousand
colored people in and about.
On a whole it offers very few
recreational facilities for color
ed. FoFr the colored population
here is rather poor and live in
shanties. A few ofth EN- have
nice homes. The colored live
way back off the main section.
This seems to be the rule in
all the small towns in Arkan-
sas. But in spite of the colored
rams poor housing he manages
10 keep up wonderful garden
with hedges that measure up to
anything in Brookline. The soil
is very rich and grass, etc,
grows very easily and rapidly.
The colored people who live
next to our camp have begun to
sell tonic in considerable guam
titles since the soldiers have
moved in and as a result tonic
stands have been jumping up
all over.
There are three or four white
units stationed in the immedi-
ate vicinity of our area. Most
of these white boys are out of
Mimi, H., Mich. and Calf.
and the 10th gets along fine
with them. To date our COM
pany has been using the same
showers and water fountains
they have and the atmosphere
is the same as it would be back
home. For, as you might know
in town, colored people aren't
allowed in the front door Of
most places. I attended a few
shows in town. They have a
side door for colored which
leads you to the balcony. All
articles that you buy in stores
you buy to take out, you drink
and eat nothing on the prem
iSes. In the tavernS the jim
Crow section is kept up in an
awful way. They don't even ap-
pear to attempt to keep the
place half decent. The colored
who go in these back door tav-
erns are pretty crude them
selves. I have found out that
jim Grow isn't felt one-tenth
as badly so long as you are in
one of the large colored Sec
tions, like in Little Rock, where
colored people have something
themselves to offer other col
ored people.
In one instance down here
a boy who is from Nebraska
went into a combination cigar
store, tavern and billiard room
for a package of cigarettes and
the clerk said 1--WE don't sell
colored people anything here"
1t all adds up that Arkansas
isn't the most ideal spot to
build up colored mans pa
triotism in. incidentally, the
boy I mentioned above has not
been into Prescott half doz-
en- times since in the last two
weeks.
I hope to write you once more
before the first of September
For as I understand it now we
are scheduled to move down in
to Louisiana on the sixth Of
that month. Our unit has been
attached to the 50th Signal
Battalion. This unit is mostly
boys from up North also. Crews
from our company work to-
gether with them now. So long
and good luck
Your, son,
Pleasant Hill Baptist Church
GanlnQI II RniIooIy Daasfor