African Americans; United States -- Race relations
It is less promising west of Richmond. A duller economic life prevails,
and conditions are more normal, less affected by the prosperity of war
industrialism. I traveled by train to Lynchburg. As this was my first
experience of trains south of the Mason-Dixon line, I was interested
to observe the Jim Crow arrangements. The Negroes are kept to separate
waiting rooms, and book their tickets at other booking windows, and
they are put into separate carriages in the trains, and not allowed
promiscuously with white people, as in the North. They have not quite
so good accommodation, though they pay the same fare; sometimes there
is less space, sometimes there is no separate smoking compartment.
Drawing-room cars and “sleepers” are generally unavailable. Colored
people consider it a great grievance, but it is probably the insult
implied in their segregation that affects them most. There is not
an enormous disparity in the comfort. Inability to obtain food on
long-distance trains was often mentioned to me as the chief injustice,
but the personal aspect of the matter was always to the fore: “We don’t
want to mix in with white people, or with those who don’t want us. We
can get on very well by ourselves ...” they were always protesting.
In the North, promiscuously seated black and white passengers all seem
quite happy and at ease. Mixing them works well. There is never any
hitch. In the South, however, segregation seems to be for the Negro’s
good. The less personal contact he has with the white man the safer
he is from sudden outbursts of racial feeling. Of course, the railway
companies ought to give the Negro equal accommodation for equal fare,
but that is another matter.
Lynchburg is a beautifully situated little city beside the Blue Ridge
Mountains. It is a great market for dark tobacco. It manufactures iron
pipes, ploughs, boots and shoes, and a number of other articles, and
boasts of “ideal labor conditions and no strikes.” It is named after
the original planter, Charles Lynch, an Irish boy, who ran from home
and married a Quaker. It lapsed from Quakerism to a very sinful state,
and then is said to have been reformed by the Methodists. Now there is
nothing to trouble the mind unpleasantly at Lynchburg.
The public library seemed to have paused sick in 1905. It is called
the Jones Memorial Library, an impressive white building with an array
of white steps leading up to it. Jones himself, who was a business
man and served a very short while in the war of North and South, is
shown in full martial attire drawing his sword, halfway up the stone
steps—as it were in act of driving readers away. A cold cloister-like
air pervaded the building. Negroes were not permitted in, and white
people did not enter much. The librarian, however, was unusually kind
and obliging, and lent me a book without taking a deposit. This lady
said she would rather sit next to a decent black woman in a train than
to the average White.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account