Well, within weeks of each other. The Cordie Cheek lynching may be
coming—you can check it—in October. The president
came in early November. So we had these two things going. The curious
thing about it is the Nashville citizens could not imagine that the
President of the United States would come to Nashville to see a bunch of
"niggers," you know
[Laughter]
. I remember even the radio that morning, describing his tour of
the city, did not include Fisk in it, although he had announced that he
was coming to Fisk, and the people knew he was coming. We had made
arrangements, the choir would be on the steps of Jubilee Hall. I have
pictures of that. And there would be bleachers all around where citizens
could come and sit and see the president when he and Mrs. Roosevelt came
up around there. And as big man on the campus, I'm right around
everything. I remember a white man coming up to me and he said,
"Where do the white people sit?" "Oh, you sit
anywhere. We don't have any special place for you to sit." He
said, "You mean to tell me, we don't have any place where white
people can sit and not black people?" I said, "No, no,
no, we don't have, there's no
Page 5 segregation at Fisk at
all. Just make yourself at home." And he sounded, he was so
upset, not angry with me, by the way, but upset. And he told me, as
though I were his friend, he said, "You know, I have voted the
Democratic ticket every time of every election since I was old enough to
vote, but if the President of the United States comes here and speaks to
a group of people and there's no special place for white people, I will
never vote the Democratic ticket again."
[Laughter]