In those days, I was a teenager working as a
waitress in the bus station in Checotah. When African Americans got off a
bus and came up front to the restaurant section of the bus station for
food, I had to tell them, “No.”
They had to eat at a
counter in back, behind the kitchen, near the toilets. Incidentally,
those toilets were labeled “WHITES” and “COLOREDS.”
Because
of the court’s recent action, states legally restricted from doing so
in the past are now free to enact stringent voter ID laws, limit polling
hours, limit polling places and purge voter rolls — all in an effort to
keep minorities (mainly Democrats) from voting.
—Wanda Jo Stapleton, Oklahoma City
