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I
had three strikes against me before I arrived in the south. I was
a college-educated northerner, a woman, and, what's more, a Jew,
living in the south at Fort Campbell, Ky. from 1953 to 1955. The
11th Airborne was stationed there. I saw and learned things,
things that horrified me. Growing up in New York City, I never
knew they existed, and was thoroughly unprepared for my
"education".
When I arrived in Nashville I hailed
a taxi to drive me to Ft. Campbell, Ky. 55 miles away. As we drove
through parts of Nashville, I was appalled at the conditions in
which blacks lived. I'd already seen the separate water fountains,
which I could not comprehend till I asked someone what the signs
meant. My taxi driver had already called me a "Damn Yankee",
with the emphasis on the Damn.
As a trainee's wife I needed
to work because we were maintaining our low rental apartment in
Brooklyn, N.Y. I applied for a job waiting tables at a prominent
steak house outside the gate at the base. In the interview the
highly "intelligent" manager questioned me on why I
needed to work when I wore a "rock" on my finger. He
referred to my diamond engagement ring.
Looking him squarely in
both eyes, I told him the diamond was too hard to bite into at
dinnertime.
But that's neither here nor there. What I want
to relate are different incidents that occurred during my
employment there. I've never ceased to wonder about segregation.
All the kitchen staff was black. Often the N word was used by the
white managers. The questions I have never had Southern whites
answer me are the following:
If the black people were
supposedly so inferior to whites, and sub-human, why did they have
them handle and cook all white food, and wet-nurse all their
beautiful white babies? Weren't they afraid for their health and
the "whiteness" of their own pure babies?
Anyway,
payday was once a month in those days, and that day was a bonanza
for the restaurant. The men from the base would come in for a good
steak dinner and beer. The restaurant had a steak special on its
menu. If someone could eat a 32 oz, steak and all its trimmings,
he could have a second one free. This day I remember, eight young
men walked in, and I seated them. Looking at them made me proud of
the men who served our country. They were eight of our finest
young officers, immaculately groomed from their heads to their
"spit-shined" paratrooper boots, with manners to match.
I chatted with them and took their orders, then turned to walk to
the kitchen. It was a big restaurant that was popular not only
locally, but with tourists heading from Wisconsin down to
Florida.
My manager waylaid me and berated me for seating
the men. When I questioned him as to why, he said, "We don't
serve n___ers in this restaurant." I was stunned. I said I
seated 8 fine officers of our Army." He yelled that two of
them couldn't stay and I should get them out of there. Only then
did I turn around to look at the table in question, and studied
each man. There were two of the eight men who were black. I hadn't
noticed because back where I came from we didn't. I told the
manager I would not throw the two out. He'd have to do it himself.
He stalked over to their table and welcomed the six "white
boys" and told them to enjoy their lunch. Then he said the
other two weren't allowed in his restaurant. Without hesitation,
without a look at each other, the eight men stood as one and left
the table. I was never so proud of white men as I was then. On
their way out they saw how distressed I was and said they knew I
had nothing to do with the situation.
On another day, my
manager rushed over to me and demanded that I get that n___er out
of his bar. I couldn't understand what he was saying. People went
to the bar on their own and the bartender was serving him. He was
in uniform, minding his own business drinking a beer.
I
studied him and told the manager that he wasn't black, he was a
Filipino attached to the base. The manager said, "Well then,
that's different." The man stayed and enjoyed his beer.
I
had many other encounters there and in later years in southern
states. Segregation ended but religious bias never has.
End
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