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Austin / Eating at the Cafe

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Austin: : Well, we knew we couldn't go into places where white people were going. Like if you wanted to go to a café, you couldn't go in the front door. We used what they called the back door and eat in the kitchen. But what always got me about that--if you ate in the kitchen--Have you ever seen one of those big tables they had where you cut meat and stuff? Well, they had those back in the kitchen where the cooks were cutting meat and you could go back there and eat there but at the same price that the white folks were paying up front. That same price--you had to pay it back there in the kitchen. And that made me feel all over, bad. 'Why can't you cut my price if you're going to feed me in the kitchen?' It's like we were dogs or something. But they would charge you the same price.

Interview Interview with Lloyd Austin
Subjects Race Relations › Black-White Race Relations
Discrimination or Segregation › Discrimination or Segregation of Public Accommodations
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Interview date 2013-04-02
Interview source Texas Communities Oral History Project
Interviewees Austin, Lloyd
Interviewers Scott, Madison
Locations Fort Worth, TX
Duration 00:01:00
Citation "Eating at the Cafe," from Lloyd Austin oral history interview with Madison Scott,  April 02, 2013, Fort Worth, TX, Civil Rights in Black and Brown Interview Database, https://crbb.tcu.edu/clips/1/discrimination-and-segregation, accessed November 02, 2024