ROSA PARKS Box 18, Folder 11 . Writings, notes & statements Drafts of early writings Circa 1956 undated Autobiographical Hurt, harm and danger The dark closet of my mind So much to remember 1. "I would rather be lynched than live to be mistreated and [not be allowed to] can't say [that] 'I don't like it'." When I was a very little girl, not more than 10 yrs old, I angrily cried these words to my grand mother in answer to a severe scolding [and f] she gave me. I happened to quite casually mention that a white boy had [meddl] met me in the road some [tw] days [ago] before and had [made] said he would hit me, [at the same time balling up his f] He made a threatening gesture with his fist at the same time he spoke. [I] I picked up a small piece of brick and drew back to strike him if he should hit me. I was angry, though he seemed to be half teasing and half bullying me. He went his way without further comment. NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 20 West 40th Street, New York 18, N.Y. LOngacre 3-6890 Official Organ: The Crisis NATIONAL OFFICERS President Arthur B. Spingarn Chairman of the Board Dr. Channing H. Tobias Vice-Chairman of the Board Dr. Robert C. Weaver Vice-Presidents Rabbi Judah Cahn Norman Cousins Grace B. Fenderson Lewis S. Gannett Oscar Hammerstein, II John Hammond Prof. C. L. Harper Dr. John Haynes Holmes Dr. William Lloyd Imes Dr. Allen F. Jackson Hon. Ira W. Jayne Eric Johnston Eugene M. Martin Dr. O. Clay Maxwell L. Pearl Mitchell Hon. Wayne Morse T. G. Nutter A. Philip Randolph Ike Smalls Willard S. Townsend Bishop W. J. Walls Andrew D. Weinberger Samuel Williams Treasurer Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Assistant Treasurer Hon. Theodore Spaulding EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Roy Wilkins Executive Secretary Thurgood Marshall Special Counsel Henry Lee Moon Director, Public Relations Gloster B. Current Director, Branches Edward R. Dudley Special Assistant Robert L. Carter Assistant Special Counsel Lucille Black Membership Secretary Herbert Hill Labor Secretary Ruby Hurley Southeastern Regional Secretary Donald Jones Regional Secretary Madison S. Jones Special Assistant for Housing Franklin H. Williams West Coast Regional Sec'y-Counsel Lester P. Bailey Clarence A. Laws Mildred Bond Charles A. McLean Medgar Evers Tarea H. Pittman John W. Flamer Charles Price Gertrude Gorman Robert W. Saunders E. C. Washington, Jr. Field Secretaries Herbert L. Wright Youth Secretary Clarence Mitchell Director, Washington Bureau James W. Ivy Editor, The Crisis [printer bug 327] February 1, 1956 TO: NAACP Youth and College Units RE: Dates for Civil Rights Mobilization Dear Youth Leader: The NAACP Civil Rights Mobilization, originally scheduled for February 4, 5, & 6th, has been changed to March 3, 4, & 5th. The Mobilization will be held in Washington, D.C. with headquarters at the Willard Hotel. Youth delegates will be housed at the Hotel Martinique and at the Willard. The cost of sending a delegate to the Mobilization will be approximately $40.00 for the entire 3 day session. Additional information about housing facilities and tentative schedule will be sent to you early next week. Please notify all of your members about the change in dates. We regret this inconvenience, but feel certain that it will make our efforts in Washington more effective. Very truly yours, Herbert L Wright Herbert L. Wright Youth Secretary HLW/eb 2. Perhaps he never thought of it again. I don't know why I remembered to mention it later to Grandma sometime later as we were alone in the kitchen. To me she was the most wonderful person alive. I loved her dearly to the end of her life. I always like talking things over with her and told her most everything. I was not at all prepared for her stern reprimand of, "Gal, you had better learn that white folks is white folks and how to talk and not talk to them. You better stop being so "high strung" or you will be lynched before you get grown. I'm mighty scared you won't live to be grown if you don't learn not to talk biggety to white folks." I was stunned, shocked, hurt and angered beyond anything I had ever felt. At that moment, I learned my first and hardest lesson in race relations. I felt that NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 20 West 40th Street, New York 18, N.Y. LOngacre 3-6890 NATIONAL OFFICERS President Arthur B. Spingarn Chairman of the Board Dr. Channing H. Tobias Treasurer Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Assistant Treasurer Theodore Spaulding Executive Officers Roy Wilkins Executive Secretary Thurgood Marshall Special Counsel Henry Lee Moon Director, Public Relations Gloster B. Current Director of Branches Clarence Mitchell Director, Washington Bureau January 13, 1956 To NAACP BRANCH AND YOUTH OFFICERS: Re: Interstate Commerce Commission Ruling By the time you receive this directive you will have had an opportunity to ascertain the manner in which the railroads are carrying out the Interstate Commerce Commission ruling which became effective January 10, 1956 requiring interstate railroad carriers and interstate buses to cease enforcing segregation in railroad coaches, buses and in station waiting rooms. The ruling specifically involved some ten interstate carriers in a suit brought by the NAACP and the Carolina Bus Company. The ICC ruling banned segregation as a violation of the Interstate Commerce Act and Motor Vehicle Carriers Act and the ruling applies to all interstate railroads, buses, and waiting rooms. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? 1. The ruling affects travel (interstate) that crosses state lines. It does not touch travel (intrastate) wholly within one state. 2. Previous decisions have barred segregation in dining and pullman cars of interstate railroads and have barred southern states from requiring the carriers to segregate passengers moving in interstate commerce. 3. The present decision now reaches all aspects of interstate railroad and bus travel and outlaws the segregated waiting rooms, segregated toilets, drinking fountains, ticket windows, coaches, etc. It does not, however, outlaw segregated restaurants in station waiting rooms. 4. Under the present ruling, buses and railroads may segregate passengers who travel within the state but cannot segregate passengers who travel across state lines. Already we have seen some confusion resulting where in a few instances the carriers are attempting to maintain separate waiting rooms, toilets, etc., for intrastate passengers but will permit interstate passengers to use these facilities without segregation in accordance with the ruling of the ICC. We are interested in finding out the exact practice in the area covered by your Branch and are requesting that you ascertain what is happening and inform the National Office. Most of the carriers seem to be complying with the ruling. Official Organ: The Crisis 3. I was completely alone, without a friend. The one I held most dear had become an enemy aligned with the hostile white race against me. I cried bitterly that I would be lynched rather than be run over by them. They could get the rope ready for me any time they wanted to do their lynching. While my neck was spared of the lynch rope and my body was never riddled by bullets or dragged by an auto, I felt that I was lynched many times in mind and spirit. I grew up in a world of white [?] power used most cruelly and cunningly to suppress poor helpless black people. White riches, black poverty. As small children we would chant at play: "White folks in the parlor eat'n cold ice cream. Niggers in the back yard eat'n cold collard greens." - 2 - WHAT YOU CAN DO 1. Advise interstate travelers in your community to insist upon their right to unsegregated use of transportation facilities in the area. When traveling across state lines or buying tickets across state lines, tell them not to use the colored waiting room, not to obey the colored or white signs in the station. Report to us where such signs remain. 2. Tell them to insist on the right to sit where they please in the coaches or buses where seats are unreserved. If seats are reserved and they are given reserved seats, be certain they are not given a reserve seat in a railroad coach where only Negroes are sitting and on the bus be certain that the seats occupied by Negro passengers are not in the rear unless those are the only seats available. 3. NAACP Branch officers are asked to observe whether the law is being obeyed and report any infraction of the ICC ruling to the National Office. The ICC ruling does not cover restaurants. Do not be surprised that restaurants are still segregating Negroes. AIRPORTS The Legal Department is now ready to move against the airlines and airports. Inform air passengers to forward complaints with respect to segregation in the airports immediately to this office. The decisions we have won in transportation will only be effective as our Branches are in enforcing them. We are urging Negroes not to submit to Jim Crow interstate travel and hope that your Branch will notify us of any infractions which come to your attention. Very truly yours, Roy Wilkins Roy Wilkins Executive Secretary RW:mj We toiled in the cotton fields while the boss overseer rode his horse over the plantation to see how his niggers were working to bring in the harvest for his wealth and comfort NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE 20 WEST 40TH STREET, NEW YORK 18, N.Y. LOngacre 3-6890 NATIONAL OFFICERS President Arthur B. Spingarn Chairman of the Board Dr. Channing H. Tobias Treasurer Dr. Allan Knight Chalmers Asssistant Treasurer Theodore Spaulding EXECUTIVE OFFICERS Roy Wilkins Executive Secretary Thurgood Marshall Special Counsel Henry Lee Moon Director, Public Relation Gloster B. Current Director of Branches Clarence Mitchell Director, Washington Bureau January 13, 1956 TO BRANCH AND YOUTH OFFICERS: Very soon the Congress will be debating and acting upon a bill to grant the states Federal aid for the construction of schools. In the past year certain Southern states have defied the ruling of the Supreme Court outlawing segregated schools and have declared they will not obey it. The NAACP position now, as it was last year, is that no Federal funds for schools construction should go to states which do not comply with the Supreme Court ruling. Your branch should write to your Congressmen and Senators asking that the school construction bill contain a clause which says in effect that grants or funds shall be available only to those states or school districts which promise that they are taking steps to comply with the Supreme Court ruling and are desegregating their school systems. This clause will not deny funds to any state that is law-abiding. It will not "kill" the school aid bill. The people who will "kill" the bill, if it is killed, will be those Senators and Congressmen from some Southern states who are determined to keep segregation even if the rest of the United States does not get any Federal aid for schools. Please say to your Congressmen and Senators that the Federal government must not use its funds to subsidize those states like Mississippi, Georgia, etc., that have openly stated they intend to maintain segregation. If these states want to try to maintain Jim Crow, let them pay for their efforts themselves and not use the tax money from the rest of the United States to cheat Negro children of a decent education and to defy a ruling of the highest court in the land. Remember, our annual convention resolutions for the past several years have directed anti-segregation amendments as a policy of the NAACP. The resolutions of the 1954 and 1955 conventions specifically named Federal aid to school construction bills as those requiring an anti-segregation clause or amendment. This campaign in Congress will be a battle. Don't let up on it for a minute. Pin your Congressmen and Senators down on the issue and keep them pinned down. Keep us advised of their replies. Very sincerely yours, [Roy Wilkins] Roy Wilkins Executive Secretary Official Organ: The Crisis RE:mj Collection: Rosa Parks Papers File: Writing, Notes, and Statements Folder: Drafts of early writing/Autobiographical Item(s): First and second pages of an account of a near rape, undated. Written in pencil on the front and back of an oversized sheet of paper. (See attached photocopy) Transferred to: Oversize [Hand written part] He worked with me all this particular day, leaving in the late after noon I prepared and served dinner. The Mr. & Mrs were off for their night of pleasure. The baby was put to bed by me and he was sleeping. It was a ^typical^ hot, ^ Alabama^ night. All doors & windows were opened wide Only the screen doors of the house were fastened. I was washing dishes The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? This portion of Psalm 27 came in my [my] mind as in answer to my prayer of "Lord what can I do?" when I found myself trapped with a white man with a negro man acting as procuror, without my knowledge or consent. In the late spring of 1931, I was past my 18th birthday. I was out of school before getting the high school diplom because poverty kept me from paying tuition to continue. It was during the depression and I was quite lucky to have a maid of all work job in the home of a couple who paid me $4.00 weekly for 7 days a week and nights for 50 cents extra or a cast off article of the white lady's clothing. The care of a small child, in this home a little boy 1 year old made it necessary for me to be on duty many nights until early morning hours( some times all night). The porter at the place of business also was the cleaning man at the home for heavy spring cleaning. He worked with me all this particular day, leaving in the late after noon. I prepared and served dinner. The Mr and Mrs were off for their night of pleasure. The baby was put to bed by me and he was sleeping. It was a typical hot, Alabama night. all doors and windows were open wide Only the screen doors of the house were fastened. I was washing dishes 2 before going to the living room to read the newspaper or the den to listen to the radio or phonograph records. They had and old fashioned upright hand operated victrola. No electric record player. [Gee whiz] How tired I was. After a long day of cleaning, cooking, baby tending, I really anticipated eagerly getting some rest and relaxion for a part of the night before they came home. A knock at the back door broke my reverie and I hurried to answer. I was not at all alarm to see Sam standing, so I spoke to him at the same time unhooking the screen door and inviting him to enter. He did not come inside, but asked me to look for his coat, he said he had forgotten. I went to a side screened porch where several garments were hanging along the wall. A quick glance revealed no coat. So I looked again more carefully the second time. Sam's coat was no where in sight. On my way back to tell him I could'nt find a coat, I saw Mr. Charlie standing in the kitchen. He smiled as I spoke to him. I asked if he had seen 3 Sam. He said “yes, he is out in my car.” I said, “He did’nt wait for me to try to find his coat. I did’nt see his coat. Maybe he left it somewhere else.” Mr. Charlie poured himself a drink from the whiskey bottle on the table as I went back to my dish washing. He stood near me, sipping the drink, talking about nothing in particular that I can remember. He declined my request that he take the whiskey and be seated in the living room. I said the folks may be coming back soon if he wanted to wait for them. As I put away the last piece of kitchen cutlery, a large, sharp, butcher knife, and was about to leave the kitchen, he said he was there to see me, not the [other folks] Joneses. 4 He offered me a drink of whiskey, which I promptly and vehemently refused. He said I should'nt be afraid to take a drink. Jones would'nt miss it. I told him I did'nt drink whiskey and I did'nt want him there to visit me. He moved nearer to me and put his hand on my waist. I was very frightened by now (or just plain scared nearly to death. At his touch, I jumped away as quickly as an unbridled filly. He was a bit startled and asked me not to be afraid. He would not hurt me. He liked me. He did'nt want me to be lonely and would I be sweet to him. He had money to give me for acepting his attentions. Now, I knew Sam's mission here was not a forgotten coat. I was trapped and helpless. I was hurt, and sickened through with anger and disgust. I [was] had been tricked by 5 one whom I trusted and thought was a friend. I felt filthily and stripped naked of every shred of decency. In a flash of a moment I was no longer a decent, self respecting teenage girl, but a flesh pot, strumpet to be bargained for and parceled as a commodity from Negro to white man. My puny 5 foot 2", 120 lb frame could not possibly be pitted against this tall, heavy set man. He seemed at least 6" tall, weighing possibly 200 pounds. He was young, strikingly handsome, ^with^ very black hair, ^and^ dark, swarthy color of skin. He was fast becoming intoxicated on alchohol and lustful desire for my body. So many frantic thoughts raced through my mind. His strength. My weakness physically. The white man's dominance over the Negro's submissive [2.] 6 subjection throughout the history of chattel slavery - semi-freedom to this moment. I thought of my poor great grandmother who in slavery days could not do more or know more than to be used and abused by the slave owner. She was bred, born and reared to serve no other purpose than that which resulted in the bastard issue to be trampled, mistreated and abused by both Negro slave and white master. It is said she was a rarely beautiful girl, skilled in finest sewing. She died young, leaving three small children - 2 sons - 1 daughter my grandfather was her older son. At this moment the state of Ala was doing everything possible to electrocute 9 young Negro boys, the Scottsboro boys, for the alleged rape of two white women hoboes. I stood still, breathed a prayer, "Lord what can I do?" 7 Out of the shattered wreckage of my being came a sharp, clear and positive thought from the Bible. "The Lord is the strength, of whom shall I be afraid? The Lord is [the] my light and my salvation whom I shall I fear? I knew that no matter what happened I would never yield to this white man's bestiality. I was ready and willing to die, but give any consent, never. Never, never. It [is] was absolutely unthinkable. All my fear had been replaced by a hard as tempered steel determination to stand completely alone against this formidable foe as long as I drew the breath of life. Without the least bit of quaking or quivering of my voice, I talked and talked of every thing I knew about the white man's inhuman treatment of the negro. How I hated all white people, especially him. I said I would 8. never stoop so low as to have anything to do with him. He had quite a sum of money. He asked me to give him a price. When I refused, he tried to give me the wallet to get what I wanted. I turned away and moved out of his reach. Saying I was not for sale and the U.S. Mint wouldn't buy me if he could offer it. I asked him if the white women were not good enough for him, and it was too bad if something was wrong with them. He would get nowhere with me. I taunted him about the supposed white supremacy, The white man's law drawing the color line of segregation. I would stay within the law - on my side of the line. He conceded that he thought I was a nice girl as why he was there to see me and I said "You may think it, but I know it" He asked why I was so particular when Sam had given his approval saying it was alright for him to be there with me. 9. I reminded him that Sam had nothing to do with me or what I [chose] chose to do or not do. He did not own me and could not offer me for sale. I said I hoped to marry and live a decent respectful life rather than be a white man's tramp. He offered to leave and send Sam in to me. He said he could make him divorce his wife and marry me, if I wanted a husband. By now I was really livid with anger, [but] a cold, cruel controlled anger. I said I hated Sam as much as I did him and I would not wipe my foot or spit on either of them. I refused to argue with him further. I had repeatedly asked him to leave me alone throughout the episode. I said there was nothing he could do to get my consent. He couldn't pay me, or fool me, or frighten me. 10. He need not think that because He was a low-down, dirty dog of a white man and I was a poor, defenseless helpless colored girl, that he could run over me. If he wanted to kill me and rape a dead body, he was welcome, that he would have to kill me first, and I would [not] no longer be responsible for myself. But while I lived, I would stand alone in my belief. No matter who [*was against me*] No matter how many Negro men's permission and sanctions he could get, would do no go. "I don't care if you line them up, pile them or stack them. My answer is still "No" He said the color of a person didn't matter to him if he liked the person. I said it [may] would not matter to me if there was no color line and all people could be respected equally. I would not be intimate with a man that the law did not permit me to be married to and respected by. At this he proposed that I marry Sam [*Articles of Agreement*] 11. At long last Mr. Charlie got the idea that I meant "No, very definitely, No." He said he would not bother me any further. All this time we were standing and walking around the living room. A large piece of furniture between us most of the time. I was so tired and spent physically that I sat in the large upholstered chair with an ottoman. He wantd to sit on the ottoman, so I moved it away from the chair and told him I would rather he leave but I did'nt care what he did as long as he did'nt bother me. I did'nt want to see him. [The] It made me sick to look at him I picked up the newspaper, opened it wide, holding it where I could'nt see him and started reading. ARTICLES OF AGREEMENT Is it worth while to reveal the intimacies of the past life? Would the [public] people be sympathetic or disillusioned when the facts of my life are told? Would they be interested or indifferent? Would the results be harmful or good? Should the story go back to great grand parents or begin with my life? Including the race mixing during slavery, and [its] its discontinuation since immancipation. Event of Dec 1 Beginning of frustration. early childhood 1. Early childhood in rural Alabama. Life of extreme poverty because father left mother when I was 2 1/2 years old, and before my brother's birth. Semi- invalid + ill grandparents (mother's parents) tried to care for us while mother worked as a rural school teacher as sole support of the family. The meager income [from] supplemented by working small farm and hired for day work [in] on other people's [field] farms, at .50 to .75 and very rarely $1.00 per day. Early morning until night. Early Childhood Incidents and experiences Deserted by my father at 2 1/2 years, shortly before brother's birth. Mother was with her semi-invalid parents. Great grandfather's playing with my brother and me. He was an ex-slave of Scotch-Irish desent, African ancestry either remote or non-existent. He died when I was six years old. Mother taught school in the rural community where we lived. KKK moved through the country, burning negro churches, schools, flogging and killing. Grandfather stayed up to wait for them to come to our house. He kept his shotgun within [reach] hand reach at all times. My aunt, a widow, and her five small children came to our house at night. We could not undress and go to bed at night. The doors and windows were boarded and nailed tight from the inside. I stayed awake many 2 nights, keeping vigil with Grandpa. I wanted to see him kill a Ku Kluxer. He declared the first to invade our home would surely die. This when I was six or seven. None came in our house. My mother was a very beautiful woman and a good mother to us, also a devoted daughter of her own parents. She was attractive to [crossed out] men and there was one, I was so fond of that I wanted him for my father. He was a tall, handsome bachelor who was found murdered mysteriously. Though I don't know what their relationship was or might have been, his death was a great loss to me. As Grandpa, already crippled and hardly able to walk, become more feeble, I stayed near [with] him more than ever. I washed his feet at night, soaking his rheumatism twisted toes and stiff legs & ankles in Mullen water and various concoctions. 3 and remedies that people said were good for the rheumatism. This was my special duty and I was always ready with the basin to make sure no one else would do the foot washing. He was tall, thin and very caucasian in appearance. He had long, very straight, thickly growing white hair that I liked to comb. He taught me to plant corn, chop and plow cotton, milk cows etc. I learned to cook, by observing my grandmother and could prepare a simple meal almost as soon as I was tall enought to see the stove top. I learned to sew by piecing quilts. Made the first one when I was six. Mother was away from home much of the time working. I adored my brother and never wanted him to get a whipping for being naughty. Being a normal boy, he was inclined to be playfully mischievous at times. He was spoiled and often really naughty. It seemed that I received more whippings for not "telling on him" than for doing things myself that may have provoked punishment. Once when he was just 1 year old, Grandmother was going to spank "Brother". I pleaded with her to leave him be, for "he was only a little baby who had no mama and no papa." (Mother was away working and my father [was still away] never returned to live with us. She spared him that time. Grandpa was especially devoted to my brother and Brother was equally fond of him. He was not afraid of grandpa as [we] as the rest of [us] the grand children, my cousins and I. He had a loud voice and could speak roughly when angry. Grandpa talked with Brother as man to man. Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.