Tester of Supreme Court Ruling on Jim Crow Will Speak Here Tonight

Sixteen Negroes and Whites put their lives in jeopardy this summer to take a trip through the Southland testing the effectiveness of the Supreme Court's ban on Jim Crow interstate travel. Their story of arrests and consistent fear of the lynch mob will be told to the College tonight at 8 o'clock by Nathan Wright, a Negro member of the tour, in Reed Hall of the Episcopal Seminary on Brattle Street.

"I'd Rather Sit Here"

Splitting up into racially-mixed pairs or groups of four, the travelers would board busses and sent themselves well towards the front of the ear. The driver's attempt to put the Negroes in the Jim Crow rear seats was always met with a polite, "I'd rather sit here."

Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. In Knoxville, Tennessee, the bus waited half an hour while company officials decided what to do with Wright. He finally kept his set and spent a night with eyes glued to the road, looking for the road blocks that would mean vigilantes and mob violence. Police squad cars met the bus at each rest stop, but no questions were asked.

Released on ball after an arrest in the University town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, several of the men fled to the home of the Presbyterian minister with two carloads of angry cab drivers behind them.

The mob threatened to burn the minister's home if he did not turn the Jim Crow violators over to them, and the Negroes escaped lynching only through the strong action of the minister, whose family was ultimately forced to leave the town for several weeks.