Atlanta Daily World

REVIEWING THE NEWS
By WILLIAM GORDON
Managing Editor

The Humiliation of Separate But Equal

"Daddy why do we have to drink from separate water fountains when we go shopping?" This question is perhaps familiar to every parent, living in the land of"separate but equal." It is also one of the most difficult questions to give an adequate answer, unless however, you can become content with telling your child how different he is from other people, and that because of this difference, he must lead a different role in life from that of other human beings. You must also be very careful when you tell him about his difference for fear of branding him with a feeling of inferiority. There is simply no vantage point from which one can give a real answer, for the whole practice is irrational, void of logic and certainly has no place in modern democratic society. But how can you explain this to your youngsters? The same difficulty is present when you try to explain conditions of a similar nature.

There is the story of the white woman who stood at the head of the line waiting to be served in a dining car. She was holding a small child. The complete story of disgust could be read through her eyes for her face revealed the rigors of pain and humiliation.
There were two available tables. I occupied one of them. A large curtain separated these tables from the rest of the dining car. There I sat, "a prize customer," sitting and eating while women and children of a different color stood in line. I know some of these children must have asked the same question. "Mother why can't we sit at one of those tables?"

Then there is the story of the woman passenger who tried to purchase a ticket at the bus station in Atlanta. She almost missed the bus because clerks were slow in giving her a ticket. When she pleaded with the cashier to let her have a ticket because her bus was leaving in five minutes, she receiveda reply that, buses are always leaving." There was no apology made for the filthy surroundings at the terminal, the long waiting line and smoke-filled waiting room for Negro patrons, Many of these patrons, even though they paid the same rate of fare, would have to stand back and wait for bus to be filled to a certain portion before being told to enter.

You can never explain to your child why you have to stand in line at railroad stations waiting to buy your ticket through an iron cage.
The premises here are just as deplorable. Rest rooms and food counters are disgusting to observe. It seems fantastic that the health department would allow these places to operate.
In light of sanitation conditions, these places are a menace to health and a focus of infection to all the people.

We could go on and on relating incident after incident growing out of conditions based on the theory of separate but equal.
There is a saying however, that if water falls on a rock long enough the rock will eventually disappear. In light of this, we should have started our fight against the separate but equal theory generations ago.