St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1948-08-20

the New York Herald Tribune
The man who tells this ste
iation in the south is Ray Sprigle,
reporter and staff member of the
Pittsburgh Post Gazette and win
ner of the Pulitzer prize.
Sprigle, disguised as colored
man, along with a real Negro
companion selected by Walter
White, NAACP executive secre-
tary, travelled on jimcrow railroad
cars, drank from "colored" water
fountains, used "colored" ent-
RANGES and subjected himself to
all the other inconvenience of
being colored during this period.
He has reported his experiences
in the south in a series of IL copy
righted articles called in the
Land of Jim Crow"
Throughout the tour he was ac-
cepted as a light-skinned Negro.
His race was detected only twice
during this period, both times by
cOIOred persons.
Speaking of the prejudice and
life he encountered in the south,
he said:
For four endless, crawling
weeks l was a Negro in the deep
south. Don't anybody try to tell
me that the north discriminateS
against the Negro, too, and seek
to use that as a defense against
the savage oppression and the
brutal intolerance the black men
encounters in the south.
Difference Between Sections
Discrimination against the Ne
gro in the north is an annoyance
and an injustice. In the south it is
bloodstained tragedy.
In the north the Negro meets
with rebuff and insult when he
seeks service at hotels and res
taurantS. But at least in states
like Pennsylvania and others, he
can take his case to court and he
invariably wins. But in the south,
he is barred by law from white
hotels and restaurants"
Riots, North VS.. South
The Pulitzer prize winner wrote
that in cases of race riots in the
north both races are punished,
but in the south only the black
ones climb the steps to a gallOwS
or serve terms in a cell.
In short, discrimination against
the Negro in the north is usually
in defiance of the law. In the
south it is enforced and main
tanned by the law"
The writer was first indoctrin-
ated into the jimcrow pattern
when he took the segregated
coach on a southern train from
Washington, D. c. He spoke of
the excellent service he received
in the diner in the segregated sec
ton behind the jimcrow curtain
of course.
On the train, however, he
wrote, he began to undergo a
change in thinking. He began to
think like a black man instead
of a white.
Speaking of his change in
thinking, Sprigle wrote:
Already l was in the pattern.
Already l was experiencing the
thing that was to grow upon me
through the succeeding weeks.
These whites already were a peo-
pie entirely alien to me, people
set apart from me and my world.
Already I had begun to dislike
them. It did no good to tell myself
that I was white-or that l would
be white again four weeks hence.
| was beginning to think like a
black man.
ITO tell the truth l doubt if |
ever will regain the satisfied,
superior white psychology that |
took south with me"
Mothers Have Tough Job
In Atlanta he learned early
that the colored mother not only
must teach her child set Of facts
about the world at large, but she
had to teach it about race without
giving it a sense of inferiority.
One of the first things he saw
was the case of a mother having
to break up a young friendship
between her little girl and lit
tie white girl.
1t seems that the two children