Wend"gM.

Qovwalez

once again a "hate stare', drew ung attention like yv\ag^et. a tt cavne frovn a rvtidd'le-aged-, heavgset, well d.ressed. white y^a^. He sata few gard.s awag' fixing hisegeso^ vne.Nothing candescribe the withering horror of this' You feel lost, sickat heart before suchunmasked. hatred, not so v,nuch because threate^s gou as because showshuyvrans it it in such inhuvnan an light' You seea kind of insanitg,sovnething obscene so the verg obscenitg of it (rather than its threat) terrifies gou. lt wasso new I could. not take vng egesfroun the vnan's face.t felt like saging:What in eod,snayyeare gou d.oing gourself?', to A Negroporter sid'led' over to vneI glimpsed"hiswhite coatand"turned" to hivn. Hisglance met vnineamdcovnvnunicated. the sorrow,the
understand"ing. "Where avw I supposed. go?', t asked"hilvt. to He touched' vvrgarnn in that nnute and reassuring wag of yue^ who stare a vv\on^ent crisis."Qo ahead and around. the of corner of the buitd"ing. Qo

ahead" and around the cor^er of the buird"ing. you,r[find"the rooy'.,, rhe white v^a^ continued'to stare, his vnouthtwisted, with loathing as he turned his head. watch y^e y^ove awag. to ln the colored' waitit'rgroovt, which was motlabeledas such,but rather as C2L)RED CAFE,Presuv^ablg because interstate travel requlations, of I

took the last evwptg seat.The roovnwas crowded" with gluvn faces., faces dead to all emthusiasyn, facesof peoplewaiting. As I becay^e o^e of those"waiting faces",t reachedto vvtg pocket and took out the book I bought earlier frovn the CatholicBook Store. BeforeI eve^got a chanceto glirnpsethrough the book, t heard.the bus beingcalled and I quieklggot up. As t reached, bus I saw the Whiteshad a[readg the gotten the good seatsin the front of the bus.Mang of us Negroesfolkshad just glancedour wagsand.srniledin a to stand. Meanwhite the Whites devilishwag.Suddenlg urge of anger ragedout of vvre, couldn'ttake a^ I how we Negroes were beingsubjected segregation to and inlustice.Whg couldn't Negroes allowedto stand up and fight for their rights as be y^g citizens?BeingWhite, this avgeredvneevenwrorebecause peopb were the omes who were keepingNegroes the placethat theg were.Thegso [n easilgsag:"TheunNiggerslike beingpushedaround and.having us teil thevn what to d"o.Whg if theg wamtedto theg could easilgrise up and get edueated,, excepttheg too duvnbto d.othat." Having this stereotgpical ivnage Negroes what kept us as anfvvrals their rnindsinsteadof actual of is in huvnam beings,which is what we are. As we got towards the town line of New Orleans,the bus vnadea halt to have a svnallbreak. Luckilg the bus driver didn't keep us captive inside like I had previouslgexperiemced. However,we Blaclcs weren't allowed into whites caf6,. had"to walk v^oreto enter the coLoRED 1AFE. I just we could,n'thandle thfs angunore. I was about to enter the COLORED As CAFEt glancedover to where the Whiteswere waiting and enjogingtheir WHtTEg onlg caf6.

I Sovvrehow got all the courage possibleand t walked in to the White caf6.As soon as I walked in however I could feel the "hate stare" o^ ywe. Everg white in that caft was kitting vne with their eAes.How ca^ w\A ow^ people onlg see the cobr of vvr,g skin? How can theg act like I arn lesseronlg vng skin is dark? I was still the savll.e John Howard. Qriffin, onlg beeause old difference was rng skin cobr. I grabbed.an evwptgchair and"the cafd grew as quiet as possible.I ignored evergo^e arou^d vne and gestured at the waitress over. She sivvrplglooked at vne cawe over and said: "\'M sorrg we arem't allowed to sewe Aour kind." And she sffeedfurious[g the vvtenuawag frovrt tng hands before I could eve^ ope^ ft. I felt as the cardboard paper Menu sliced through t'ng fingerS and. rippled drops of blood frorn v'nghand. I

r*g the kindlg at the waitressand e[osed hawd. blood wouldm'tfall. t looked, I said: "l do not vneanto stir troubb or caused.isturbances.would onQ llke coffeethen l'll be on MA wag)' She lookedat to bug a pieceof pie amdsovvre vnereadg ta throw the vnemu vnebut then this vvruscular at twentg sovnething Aear old vnancawv frovn behindthe counter. He stood arws " folded in front of me and said.: Niggertgou heard.the ladg.Your K|ND rsn't sewedhere." I stood up and saw about ao Me^ or so cov^ecbser with bats. t felt fear, would theg actuallg attack vv\e eve^ if I didn't attack first. Just then I saw Sterling Williarnswalk in. l didn't know if to feel relivedor to feel worried. Sterling Williavws came over to where I was standing and.whispered: don't start trouble " Mr. Qrfffin, what are gou doing? I told gou we Negroes or elsewe'{ljust give the Whitesa reasonto keep us where theg have beem, [n the bottovvt, the chaim".I loweredvng face and said: "Sterlfmgtlou of passive, didn't Mea^ to start trouble. But I was duvnbfounded I at know I'vw

the routinelg presence racial inlustice".Sterling just grabbed vvrg of arvn beforeI could'sag or do angthing elseand led vneoutsideto the front of the caf6." l didn't v^ea^to get gou wrapped. in that sterling, t guess up the Negroin rnejust couldn't stag quiet ang longet'' I said to sterling. I womdered what would havehappened. Sterling did.n'tgrab yneand we if left, and' what would have beenof vvre alone insidethe Whitescaf6.Terror shockthrough vvre electricitg, Mg hairs stood up at the irnages being like of beat up bg all those Whites. I shookthe ivnages of rng head and {ooked out through the window insid'ethe caf6.Theg were laughingand,talkivygalynostlike a sneeringv,nock. It was tirvre for a change;t knew t had,to do sovvrething or mever.t had. ^ow to take the next step into erasingracia( injusticetowards B{aeks. knew this t evemt that I was about to do would.be a great step towards achievingit. Well, at least I hoped" would.be. it I stepped' closernear the window of the whites' caf6 and put vng fist in the air and.starting chanting:"The Night Cornes Tend"erlg, Black like Me,,. Of courset knew I wasn't reallg black but I was feeling closer this race to that I ever did. I stavted'chantirg louder while throwing ung fist in the air and.soon I saw Sterling Williavnsdoing the savnething right there mextto vne.unitg, that's it. what we needed,that's what whites kept us frovn. Whites cavlr.e outsidetrging to shoous awag as lf we were not huvnanbeings but as anivwals. Within a coupleof vrnornents \ater, I sawy^ore Negroes join us. Ernergedwith us were: Mem,wov^An,kids, gou^g and evenold..We were Btackjoined, Black like the Night. More NeEroes kept joining chanting outside the white's caf6.The whites iv,sid.e were getting rebntbss at shoofng

us awag, so theg just watched us. I thought of the irong that t ungseff was a White yv.an starting a riot for Negroes with Negroes. Howeverthe law enforcevnent showedup shortlg after. Thegstarting trglng to chainus and drag us awaAget we h.c[dpower cver !As, held.pcvuerover ourselves. we It was like a rush of adrenalinegave us mot onlg valor but wil[power too. Nothing would stop us. we were taklng a stand finallg and we werem't afraid'. 9ad{g we got arrested.for rioting get v.tewere pbased that tb,e whites now kmewwe weren't going to stand and watch our ow^ race getting pushed. around and subjected injustice.This was just the start of to what would become part of the Negro revolution;of Negroes over a{l struggling for having their place in this mation. gave ^ever up. We were strong amdwe were going to show it this tivne. Whites didn't