Five Scenarios
Scenario #1: A black soldier stepped onto the bus, leaned back, and tossed his cigarette butt out the door. When the bus driver closed the door on the soldier’s extended hand, the soldier thought it was deliberate. He accused the bus driver of racism, and soon the two men were fighting. The fight escalated to a point where the bus driver hit the soldier on the head with a gun. The soldier then reached into his pocket. Fearing the man had a gun, the bus driver threatened to kill him. The soldier left the bus.
Scenario #2: A sixteen-year-old black girl waited for the city bus to take her home around 8:00 pm. As she stepped inside the bus, the driver informed her that there was no more room for “colored” passengers. The young girl threw her money at the driver, cursed, and spit on him. She attempted to push her way past him, but he knocked her out of the bus, threw her to the ground, and held her there until the police arrived.
Scenario #3: A white woman and a black woman boarded a bus on a rainy day. The black woman allegedly pushed the white woman out of the way in her hurry to get out of the rain. The two drenched women fought each other with their umbrellas as they moved down the aisle of the bus. A man who had watched this fight approached the now-seated black woman and hit her with his umbrella. She grabbed his umbrella, and it broke in her hand. She hit the man with the handle from his own umbrella. The bus driver separated them, and there was no more trouble.
Scenario #4: As was her usual custom, a white woman boarded the bus and started complaining loudly about blacks. As the bus approached a stop, she vowed that this morning she was not going to let them move the color boards up (giving blacks more room). She moved to the back of the white section to make her point. After a while the angry woman asked the bus driver to make the blacks stop laughing at her. When he said he couldn’t do anything about it, she cursed and complained loudly. When a black young woman commented, the woman started hitting her. The bus driver separated them. The bus driver claimed that this woman causes trouble every morning.
Scenario #5: When a conductor asked a black man to stop cursing on the train, a fight started. The two men shoved each other angrily. The black man pushed the driver into his seat and pulled out a knife. A motorman came to help. He hit the man over the head with a gun and knocked him down. Another black passenger offered to take the first black man off the train. They got off, and the train made a loop. When the train came back, the black man got back on the train, threatening the conductor with his knife. They fought, and the conductor shot the man.
Scenarios adapted from
Kelley, Robin D. G. Race Rebels: Culture, Politics, and the Black Working Class.