The Bathroom
By Derek Deputy
"Mommy, I gotta use the bathroom," little Joey said. He was age 5 and at the age where if you have to do anything, you have to do it NOW.
"Just a second," Julie, the boy's mother said. The year was 1959. The day was the fourth of July. Joey's father had to work that day and couldn't come to see the fireworks with them. Julie and Joey walked up to the bathroom building. It was a huge building in the middle of the fair grounds.
"I think your old enough to use the bathroom by yourself," Julie said.
"Okay Mommy," and Joey went up to the building. He saw four doors. Two had the girl's room sign and two had the boy's room sign. "I guess there's an enterance and an exit," Joey said, "Now which one is the enterance." He finally decided that there was one way to decide this problem. He covered his eyes. "Eenny Meeny, Miny Mo," he said and his finger was pointing at the enterance at the right. He walked in and there were thee white men using the bathroom.
"What are you doing in here Negro," one white man asked.
"I need to use the bathroom," Joey said and started to walk up to one of the stalls.
"Not this one you aren't," and the white man grabbed Joey's hand and dragged him out of the room.
"Leave me alone," Joey shouted, but it was useless. Finally, Julie saw the white man and her son.
"What's going on here!?!" she shouted at the man.
"Get off me Negro," he yelled and back hand slapped her in the face. She fell to the ground crying. "I don't know why they even let things like you in," the man said and slammed Joey against the wall. It was the most pain he's ever felt, especialy against his back. He yelled for help and a police officer came up.
"What's going on here," he asked.
"These Negros are bothering me," the man said to the police officer. The police officer grabbed Julie and brought her to her feet, handcuffing her on the way up.
"You know your spot in society," he said and dragged her out of the fair. Joey went to find a pay phone to call his day after the white man walked off.
"What's wrong?" his father said as he answered the phone and heard his son crying. Joey explained to his father what had happened.
"I'm leaving work right away to take care of this problem," he said and got in the car and left. He arrived at the fair 15 minutes later and found his son by the pay phone. He picked him up and put him in the car and drove to the police station.
When they got there, a man behind the counter asked, "What can I help you two with?" and the father explained what was going on. "That's terrible," he said, "I do happen to know who your talking about though," and he went in back, and brought out Julie.
"Ron!" she yelled as she ran up and hugged Joey's dad.
"Bail is $5," the officer said. Ron quickly paid it and they left on their way home. Joey never again had to figure out which bathroom he needed to use and from then on, always used the one for African Americans. Joey also never forgot that day, and 30 years later, he founded the Black College company, a company dedicated to getting African American's scholarships so that they could go to college.