Hazel Scott by Karen Chilton

Author:Karen Chilton [Chilton, Karen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Michigan Press

Chapter Eleven

Black and Red

During the late 1940s, postwar America found itself grappling with major social and political issues that left the country divided. Democracy was worthy of battle overseas, but at home it remained an elusive ideal for many of America’s citizens.

On a trip to Panama in 1949, Adam Powell, accompanied by his wife and son, addressed the Panamanian National Assembly regarding the building of the canal, and in particular about the working conditions and treatment of the workers. This subject eventually led to a discourse on the poor state of race relations in the United States. “We are living today in one world, and whether we be Jew or Gentile, Protestant or Catholic, black or white, Americans or Panamanians, we are all equals in today’s society. Unfortunately, there are some people of my nation who are ignorant. They think that they are better than anyone else. I wish to assure you that those people do not represent the majority thinking of the American public.”1

As unemployment, overcrowding in urban areas, and poverty plagued northern cities and southern blacks became more resistant to “Jim Crow” segregation, racial tensions across the country escalated. Following a string of successful concerts in South America, Hazel returned to the United States and the widespread hostility and discrimination of which her husband spoke.

Touring Canada, where she presumed she’d have no problems, Hazel was forced off a train. It was reported in the black press, but details surrounding the incident were vague. Apparently, blacks were not allowed to travel on this particular railroad line. With ticket in hand, Hazel had been asked to exit the train. She went straight to her husband with the news. Although Adam threatened to make noise about it in Congress, telling Assistant Secretary of State Edward Miller, “If this happens again, I intend to air it with a full speech on the floor before the House,” this did not ease Hazel’s frustration nor did it prevent similar incidents from happening.

Arriving in Austin for a scheduled appearance at the University of Texas in the Gregory Gymnasium, Hazel was surprised to find all seventy-five hundred seats entirely segregated, divided by a red carpet down the middle of the aisle. Without hesitation, she turned around and left the theater, canceling the show. Her agents had failed to make her standing request for an integrated audience known to the concert organizers. “Why would anyone come to hear me, a Negro, and refuse to sit beside someone just like me?” she commented in Time.2 Hazel made no apologies before leaving town. She dared the school officials to sue her.

After his mother returned to New York, Adam III overheard his parents discussing the matter. “One Saturday morning, I heard my father saying, ‘Oh don’t tell the boy.’ And she said, ‘Well, he should know that his mother was escorted out of Austin, Texas by the Texas Rangers last night.’”3

Months later, on her way to Spokane, Washington, Hazel’s train was stuck in a drift for three days due to heavy snowstorms across the western plains.

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