St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1944-06-02

1
R. McCormick's "favorite son."
Brown can take one letter from
a Negro soldier who has been
pushed around by bus drivers and
use it to prove that the admins
tration hates and persecutes Ne
groes.
1t does, indeed, seem strange that
this condition has been allowed to
continue - especially when the
Army authorities could remedy the
whole thing in "a hours, as has
been proven in one camp area and
to a lesser degree in another.
OutgrOwth of Jim Crow Laws
The bus situation is, of course,
the outgrowth of the Jim Crow
laws of the Southern States. These
laws provide for segregation of the
Negro and white passengers on
public vehicles. On trains separate
coaches are provided. Somewhat to
my surprise found that in general
the railroads are providing ade-
quate space for Negroes.
Sometimes the Negro cars are
overcrowded and there are empty
seats in the white coaches. More
often it's the other way around. For
instance, as I was going down from
Washington at the start of my
trip there were vacant seats in the
Jim Crow car. At Quantico, Va,
the marine training base, three
white persons came into the car
two marines and a woman.
Jim Crow in Reverse
The Negro porter came in and
told them they would have to leave
that the coach was for Negroes
only. They refused.
"There isn't seat in any other
coach and Pm not going to stand
all the way to Richmond" said one
of the marines.
The porter brought in the con-
ductor.
81 and the Richmond, Fredericks-
burg & Potomac Railroad" he said,
"don't make the laws of this State.
It's the law that Negroes and
whites can't ride in the same coach.
You'll have to get out"
They did.
"Hot dog" said a Negro sailor.
"That's why I love the South. Jim
Crow in reverse"
He laughed. He was a Northern
Negro. In his laugh was bitter
ness and humor and resignation.
The bitterness was there, all right,
but he had taken the discomforts
of Jim Crow cars himself when
they were overcrowded and he
could get little fun out of that
experience-his first of the kind.
Denied Transportation
With buses the situation is such
that even the most tolerant, the
most peace-loving Negro can't con-
tinue to take it with a grin.
A man can be showed off into a
Jim Crow car or a Jim Crow wait
ing room and console himself with
the thought that a law based on
prejudice and race hate forced the
humiliation upon him-and that
some time, through education in
true tolerance, democracy will end
that sort of discrimination.
But when discrimination reaches
the point that man-and a man
in his country's uniform, at that
is forbidden to use public transpor-
tation at all, the breaking point has
been reached. That becomes the
final straw which produces despair
ing letters to the folks back home.
And the folks back home stop buy
ing bonds and supporting the Red
Cross.
Few Seats Reserved"
On buses, the Jim Crow system
reserves" a few back seats for
Negroes.
In Houston, Tex, I found the
division quite rigid. The back 6
seats were for Negroes-room for
IL persons-plus the standing room
in the aisle up to the division line.
In New Orleans there was a NOV
able sign, reading "White" on one
side and "Colored" on the other.
Negroes and white passengers
could move the sign forward or
backward, as the occasion war
ranted.
But in many places the bus rule
was, whites fill from the front,
colored fill from the rear.
Only Transportation Available
That meant that white people
entering the bus took seats from
the front in order, and Negroes did
the same from the rear. The Jim
Crow division thus established it.
self in accordance with the num-
Der of white and Negro passengers.
1t is obvious that as more Ne
groes are taken on the buses of
this type, there is room for fewer
white people.
The bus drivers, whose only
claim to distinction and respect is
that they are white men-don't
want Negro passengers. And they
don't take them.
Bus transportation is virtually