Jim Crow Stories

Narratives

Nobuo Honda

took a seat on the back of the bus he was riding to Atlanta. Coming from Hawaii, he was not

aware of the custom that separated African Americans and whites on public transportation. When asked to move to the front of the bus Honda was confused, but unfamiliar with the South's traditions, he complied without question. Later, when confronted with separate bathrooms for African Americans and whites, Honda saw no door for himself and so went into the white bathrooms. He reflects on how there was also segregation in his home state of Hawaii, but between whites and immigrants. Eventually though, he concludes, the Hawaiian whites began to see the wrongness of discrimination.

Edwilda Isaac

remembers going to college with only five other African Americans. Some students had never

before seen an African American person, so Isaac heard many rumors about how African Americans were animals with tails. There was one girl who would come into her room everyday and stare at her. When Isaac asked why, the girl explained the tales she had been told about African American people. The girl later invited a Isaac and her friend to her home for Thanksgiving, and people lined the streets waiting to see their first African American people. Isaac patiently dispelled every rumor the people had about her.