The St. Louis ShuffleJimmy arrived early for the second leg of his journey—Chicago to Kansas City, where he planned to stay a few days in order to give his letter a chance to arrive in Tulsa before he did. The last few hours of travel to Tulsa would take place in a few days. The train was ready for boarding and Jimmy walked from the front to the back trying to find the car with the greatest number of available seats. As he approached the rear, he realized the last two Pullmans were empty and in a state of disrepair. The placard outside each car read “Colored.”
A railroad employee walked over and said, “Sir, these are for the Blacks, but they can stay up front until we cross over into Missouri. All of the Colored people need to move back as we go deeper into the South.”
Jimmy didn’t know
