PATRIOTISM AND THE COLOUR LINE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 1957, 27 March 1919, Page 3

PATRIOTISM AND THE COLOUR LINE.

“fu a passenger-coach of a, Southern train the other day I espied a veteran of Pershing's Army. Upon an empty sleeve were two six months’ foreign service stripes and a wound chevron, and on his breast a medal of honour,” says a writer in the .New York Nation. “Ac he sat there the conductor of the Jjrlfin came to him, and touching his worn uniform, said, “'You’re in the wrong coach. You ’blong in the Jim Crow car. Get out of here.’ The negro looked him steadily in-the eyes. “Psl slay right here,’ he said, (irmly. ‘You could have talked to me that, way once, but can’t now!’ and he pointed to his sleeve, ‘All right’ said the conductor, ‘l’ll soon-fix you.’ Whereupon he called a burly brakeman, and (hey were about to (brow this one-armed veteran out of the car, when the gorge of (he Southern men who witnessed this humiliating scene rose, the train hands were ordered to desist, and Pershing’s veteran rode on in peace, the sole coloured man in a (airload of whites.

“ ‘Oli, very well/ said the conductor, just before he slammed the door, 'that’s just like you white folks; first you make the laws and then von break-them/

“There are a good many laws that ought to be broken nowadays which affect the coloured people. After th? 150,000 coloured men now in France return from their glorious share in Pershing's victory, shall we continue to Jim-Crow them, disfranchise them, and remind them that though they may be good enough to fight for Uncle Sam they are still to be despised at home?”