She pressed on. So was he saying the lunch counters should be desegregated? Well yes, he guessed he was. That was it. The mayor had spoken and he was on their side.
Now here's the best part: there was no spin. None of the mayor's spokespersons came out to tell everybody what the mayor meant to say. In fact, Mayor West said, now that he'd thought about it, that was exactly what he meant to say, and by golly, he'd say it again.
Nashville had one of the smoother desegregation experiences. The student leaders went on to become major forces in the Civil Rights movement. Some became doctors and ministers. John Lewis is a Congressman and recipient of the 2001 Profile in Courage Award. Marion Barry was mayor of Washington D.C. The children did right well for themselves and I’m grateful to them for what they did.
The summer before I started college and about twelve years after Nashville desegregated, I took a job as a waitress in The Iris Room at Cain-Sloan Department Store. I was told that whenever I was in uniform I was not to enter through the front door of the store but to come in through the parking garage. I was not to wear the white apron of my uniform outside the dining room and my hair was always to be two inches above my collar. Under no circumstances was I to use the customer's restroom but rather the employees' restroom on another floor. It seemed a bit much, but I needed the job.
One day, on break, I went to the designated restroom and I happened to notice that the word "Women" on the restroom door looked a bit cattywampus. I looked closer and discovered that someone had taken a paintbrush and swiped over the word "Colored."
Somehow, it seemed fitting.
Nelda Hill lives in Knoxville, Tennessee. Besides writing she occasionally plays a mean mountain dulcimer in a bluegrass band.
