A Bus Trip in the South

In 1959, a friend and I decided to move to Miami, Fl for the winter. We boarded a Greyhound bus in Indianapolis, IN. My friend's sister told us that if we wanted to drink, watch for service men sitting at the back of the bus. We saw two sailors go to the back of the bus and so did we!

It didn't take us long to become friendly, share their bottle and pair up. A boy named Chuck on his way home to Georgia with two weeks' leave sat with me and by dark we were cuddling and getting to know each other. A little later our privacy was interrupted by a "colored" man squatting down next to us even though there was a seat available in front of us next to an older "white" woman. We two couples had taken up seats in the back and he wasn't allowed up front. I asked the woman in front of us would it be alright with her if he sat next to her and she said it was fine with her. I'm sure she must have been a northerner or she would not have agreed.

What happened later shocked me to the core! At about daylight, the bus pulled into the next bus stop and the driver walked through the bus counting heads. When he saw the "colored" man sitting next to the "white" woman, he ran the man off the bus, shouting. "You know better than that, nigger, now, get off this bus!" I was outraged! After all, the man had paid the same fare as the rest of us and now he would have to pay again and get on another bus to make it to wherever he was going. Partly that, but mostly the inhumanity of the treatment he received.

So I do understand the tears shed at the Obama celebration election night. What a validation for all people of color that in the USA we have finally gotten past race, at least for one day.

I still don't like Obama's politics, but we'll see. By the way, that boy Chuck and I married 7 days later and had two daughters before divorcing. Until next time----