I was on the bus to Camp Wolters, and I put my duffel down and went to take a seat and the bus driver said, Get out of that seat, nigger, and get in the back where you belong ! Now, if it had gone to fisticuffs, which it could have, I probably would have gotten killed. They probably would have hanged me — I mean, Texas was pretty bad then.
But I kept my temper in check. It wasn’t easy at the time, but I remember something else my grandfather told me : Don’t hate, because if you hate, hate will destroy you.
After basic I was sent to Fort Huachuca, Ariz., where because I could read, write, spell and operate a typewriter, I was made a company clerk. Then sometime in ‘42, a white officer, I don’t recall his name, told me to sign up for officer candidates’ school, so I did.
I was commissioned a second lieutenant on Jan 11 1943. See, what was happening was, they were organizing an all-black division, the 92/ID. It was the Buffalo Division, and we were Buffalo Soldiers, a name given to black units during the Indian wars because our black skin and nappy hair made them think we were buffaloes.
This is June or July of ‘43 and the division had come together at Fort Huachuca, and on this particular day all the officers were called up to headquarters. At the time when you went to headquarters and you were black, even if you were an officer, you went in the back door. You don’t walk in the front door at division headquarters.
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Feb
19
2009
Category : Archive Stories, Colored MOH
