IN A Black Person

’s Head During The Civil Rights Essay, Research Paper

It is the year 1960 and We colored folks want equal rights. My name is Jason

Davis and I am 25 years old and I work with the NAACP and with the non

violent act committee. Here I am marching downtown with 50,000 other

blacks. We are not marching to the capitol though. We are walking to the

lunch counters downtown that only whites can sit at. My legs are loose and

there is butterflies in my stomach. I can tell that the man next to me feels the

same way. Lots of white people are staring at us as we walk by.

We approach the outskirts of the downtown of Jackson. I can see most

people sweating on this hot Mississippi day. I walk by a little hamburger

stand and I can smell the aroma of the hamburgers. ?Those smell good,? a

boy next to me says. I keep walking. It seems to me we will never get there.

At 1:00pm I see a restaurant with a sign that reads: NO COLORED

ALLOWED. A man comes up to me and says, ? Son, I want you to go in the

first wave of men here.? I am tingling inside but say okay and walk in with

the 10 other black men. It goes quiet and I am shaking all over and praying.

We sit down and I Ask for a cup of coffee. The white man at the counter

ignores me and says, ?get out of here ya Negro!!!? I look to the man beside

me and he does not move so I stay put. I hear the door slam and it is a mob of

angry white men. They are saying nasty word and I don?t budge. Then I feel

a slime on my head. One of the men is pouring ketchup on my head and I feel

like slamming him but I keep my cool. The other men are also being harassed

but not budging. I here a bottle break and I see the man next to me go down

hard but I stay.

After about 5 more minutes of this I hear a siren outside. It is the

police. I close my eyes and I start to pray. Men are yelling at me and then all

of a sudden I am grabbed from my chair and handcuffed and I can see the

same thing is happening to the other men. We are dragged through the crowd

of colored folks and they are cheering and I can see that 11 more black

people have sat at our spots and are sitting there. I am thrown into the police

van and the doors close and it is dark. My heart is pounding but I feel like

jumping for joy. As the police are taking me away I think, ?I will be back!!? I

then start laughing for joy and the others break in too.

I wrote it myself