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Satchmo CDs
Best Of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong /
Louis Armstrong - All-Time Greatest Hits /
The Hot Fives & Sevens
The Definitive Collection /
The Essential Louis Armstrong
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Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans
By Louis Armstrong
Learning Jim Crow
It was my first experience with Jim Crow. I was just five,
and I had never ridden on a street car before. Since I was the
first to get on, I walked right up to the front of the car
without noticing the signs on the back of the seats on both
sides, which read: FOR COLORED PASSENGERS ONLY. Thinking the
woman was following me, I sat down in one of the front seats.
However, she did not join me, and when I turned to see what had
happened there was no lady. Looking all the way to the back of
the car, I saw her waving to me frantically. "Come here,
boy," she cried. "Sit where you belong."
The Humor of Jim Crow
There is something funny about those signs on the street cars
in New Orleans. We colored folks used to get real kicks out of
them when we got on a car at the picnic grounds or at Canal
Street on a Sunday evening when we outnumbered the white folks.
Automatically, we took the whole car over, sitting as far up
front as we wanted to. It felt good to sit up there once in a
while. We felt a little more important than usual. I can't
explain why exactly, but maybe it was because we weren't
supposed to be up there.
Respecting Everything and Everybody
As I grew up around Liberty and Perdido I observed everything
and everybody. I loved all these people and they loved me. The
good ones and the bad ones all thought that Little Louis (as
they called me) was O.K. I stayed in my place. I respected
everybody and I was never rude or sassy. Mayann [his mother] and
grandmother taught me that. of course my father did not have
time to teach me anything; he was too busy chasing chippies.
Learning the People's Language
On the night my mother and I went out cabareting we went
first to Savocas' honky-tonk at Saratoga and Poydras Streets.
This was the headquarters and also the pay office for the men
working on those boats. And many times I went right in to the
gambling table and lost my whole pay. But I didn't care -- I
wanted to be around the older fellows, the good old hustlers,
pimps and musicians. I like their language somehow. Source:
Satchmo: My Life in New Orleans * * *
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updated 28 December 2008 |
