“Mostly they discusses us culled folks.”
What Negroes Talk About
The same consuming interest exists among the Negroes. A very large part of their conversation deals with the race question. I had been at the Piedmont Hotel only a day or two when my Negro waiter began to take especially good care of me. He flecked off imaginary crumbs and gave me unnecessary spoons. Finally, when no one was at hand, he leaned over and said:
“I understand you’re down here to study the Negro problem.”
“Yes,” I said, a good deal surprised. “How did you know it?”
“Well, sir,” he replied, “we’ve got ways of knowing things.”
He told me that the Negroes had been much disturbed ever since the riot and that he knew many of them who wanted to go North. “The South,” he said, “is getting to be too dangerous for coloured people.” His language and pronunciation were surprisingly good. I found that he was a college student, and that he expected to study for the ministry.
“Do you talk much about these things among yourselves?” I asked.
“We don’t talk about much else,” he said. “It’s sort of life and death with us.”
Another curious thing happened not long afterward. I was lunching with several fine Southern men, and they talked, as usual, with the greatest freedom in the full hearing of the Negro waiters. Somehow, I could not help watching to see if the Negroes took any notice of what was said. I wondered if they were sensitive. Finally, I put the question to one of my friends: