All hell broke loose around 11:30, after those kids from Tougaloo College began their sit-down or whatever you call it, their protest. I was getting used to the protests out in the street. Kids with their picket signs down by J. C. Penney's, hardly any Negroes had been buying food from me, or any other store down town for that matter. They were boycotting us, and I guess I wouldn't blame them. I'm not calling myself a sympathizer, I'm just saying they have the right, you know? Well, I was getting used to all that, I think everyone was. It was just kids from up-north who thought they could change things. They don't see us running up there to change their policies. I say we do things separately; we do our own thing and they do theirs. Separate, how the law says it should be.
So these three Negro kids come into the store, through the back like they're supposed to and they sit down at the front counter. We don't serve Negroes at Woolworth's. Sure we feed them, but they can't sit down in the front. They got to take the food and eat it in the back. The folk around here know that and they're fine with it. I've had no problems with their kind until these kids from New York and Pennsylvania started coming down here. Now I've got a problem. All my waitresses come running for me in my office, informing me that these Negro kids are causing trouble. The first thing that comes to my mind is, "Who's serving my paying customers if ya'll are in here?!"
So I come out, while my waitresses cower in my office, saying fights have started up. I really hoped they wouldn't, these are kids doing this. They're dumb kids, that's all. Sure, shove them out of my store, I didn't want any of this in the first place, but don't rough them up too bad.
When I get out there, half of my customers have left. The students are completely covered in condiments and food, and I mean covered! I won't even mention the shape my store is in, 'cause it wasn't good. They're all being jostled and ripped at by my customers; my friends. People I've known since I grew up here. I was disturbed, really disturbed by all this commotion. So I asked them all to leave; had to beg and plead actually. And nobody, I mean nobody left. The cops were right outside my shop too, around ninety or so of them, but none of them came in. Then the president of that school comes running in and gets the three kids to leave. Good thing too, cause then all my customers flocked out, still throwing crap from my store at them. And I'm thinking, "They better come right back in here and pay for that!" None of them ever did.
Some sick people we got here in Mississippi, but I ain't gonna start up nothing, I'm smart. I keep to my own and keep to my rules. My store is segregated and it's probably gonna stay that way; I don't see no kids changing that. You just got to learn to deal with such things as segregation, 'cause it's the way we're used to living and will keep living. No kids are gonna change that.