Interview+with+Charles+Epps

__**Interview with Charles Epps**__ From the book, __Oh, Freedom!__ by Casey King and Linda Barret Osborne.


 * Q:** Where did you grow up, Mr. Epps?
 * A:** In a small town: Windsor, North Carolina.


 * Q:** Was there segregation when you were growing up?
 * A:** Yes, there was. Theh schools were segregated. And the restrooms at the courthouse were segregated, white and black. If I wanted to use the bathroom, I owuld have to use the "colored" restroom. And in the movie theaters, we sat upstairs in what they called the crow's nest, while the white kids sat downstairs.


 * Q:** Is it true that you could not go into restaurants with white people back then?
 * A:** That is correct. I remember this little place near the bus station that sold the best hot dogs I ever ate. If you were a white person, you could just go in, sit down, and enjoy your hot dog. But if you were black, you had to go around back. There was a little hole, about twelve inches by twelve inches, and you put your money through that opening. They would pass you a hot dog through the hole.


 * Q:** What was going through your head when you saw segregation happening to you like that?
 * A:** You felt something bad when you saw folks inside the restaurant sitting down eating all together in a family, and you had to have the food pushed through a little opening. it was very dehumanizing.


 * Q:** What do you mean "dehumanizing"?
 * A:** I mean that you are treated as if somehow you were less than human. You weren't treated like a decent person.


 * Q:** Is it like making a person into an object, like the way they sold slaves?
 * A:** Absolutely. And when you're treated like that, you begin to question your worth as a human being. But I always remember what Martin Luther King Jr. said - that who you are should be determined not by how you look but by what you stand for.