Jim Crow Stories: Narratives

Edwilda Issac

Nobuo Honda

T.R. Davidson

Edwilda attended college which only six African Americans. Most of the people who were at her school had never seen blacks before. Many whites at her school only heard false stories about blacks. Edwilda met with a friend of hers on Thanksgiving who was very curious about her. This girl told Edwilda of all the false stories she heard about blacks. Edwilda spent a lot of time educating her friend about her differences, and how they were all the same.

Nobuo Honda was a soldier in the U.S. Army infantry school. He was traveling on a train to the South when he was told to move to the front of the bus. The bus driver said that the back of the bus was made for the blacks. Nobuo said that this was the first time he saw discrimination in the South. In Hawaii, where Nobuo used to live, there were many races. These different races were separated into groups. When different colors mixed, people would hate them. White people had the special privileges.

Davidson was born in York, South Carolina in 1926. As he was growing up, he knew a lot about Jim Crow. Davidson's dream was to build an airplane and fly. The owner of the store he worked for encouraged him to do well in school and do the best he could. Davidson's parents told him that he wouldn't be able to build or fly an airplane because he was black. He used these put downs as motivation to fulfill his dreams.