Atlanta Daily World

A Common-sense Problem

The action of Municipal Court Judge Frank White last Wednesday in granting the motion of Attorney S. S. Robinson to dismiss the charges of disorderly conduct, disturbance and violation of the segregation law, must be commended for what it was — a common sense interpretation of a common sense situation.

The case involved Marcus Thrasher, a 19-year-old Negro youth, who was arrested on a Howell Mill road trolley for sitting beside a white woman. The facts show that the youth occupied a seat in the rear of the bus and that, in his pre-occupation with a person outside the bus, sat beside a person who was later disclosed to be a white woman. In court, the woman witness told the judge that she made no complaint of the incident and had no intentions of doing so, since she had advanced to the front. but that some white man must have informed the motorman, whereupon he halted his bus and summoned Patrolman R. E. Wilson. who arrested Thrasher and placed him under a $1050 bond.

At the request of the father of the youth, the Atlanta chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People entered the case and directed its legal counsel to represent Thrasher. Attorney Robinson proved and the judge agreed, that the motorman failed to discharge his duty in not requesting Thrasher to move, and for that reason, no law had been violated and consequently, no arrest should have been made. Attorney Robinson also established to the satisfaction of Judge White that young Thrasher was not disorderly nor had he created any disturbance.

We think Judge White acted with rare good judgment in throwing the case out without a fine. since the whole episode could have precipitated a long chain of repercussions which could have eventuated into a final test of the segregation statute. Stupid action like this is not only harassing to Negroes, who make up a considerable part of the passengers of the Power Company but can prove embarrassing to the entire city.

We have seen crowded busses. too crowded for any passenger at the front end to advance to the backdoor. yet stupid motormen insist upon Negroes going to the back door on solid or at least predominant, Negro bus lines and with not a single white passenger aboard. It is all too silly to be tolerated, especially in view of the uncouth language some of the conductors and eventually, the policemen, use. The Power Company officials will do well to look into this and give their operators a talk in courtesy to passengers. And the Chief of Police may likewise talk to his men, too many of whom are trigger-happy. Negroes are complaining too much about the treatment they are receiving on some of these busses and soon their patience is going to wear thin.