thoughts about mlk day and pool

E

evergruven

AzB Silver Member
Silver Member
"There probably wasn’t a safer place in all Seattle for a single girl or multiples, to be unmolested. Same with geeky, gay, black or WHATEVER; nobody at The Fleece would have countenanced the slightest disparagement or bullying of anybody."

excerpt from a link in another thread I just posted- and I think it's a nice idea, a pool table being kind of an equalizer, a neutral/common ground for people to get together, even if just to talk shit and knock balls around..

of course there are many ways of looking at things, and so I'm curious- do y'all have any ideas/stories about (in)justice, (in)equality, uniting, or not, as told via pool?

about that, I also wonder what pool halls were like pre-civil rights..were they segregated like other establishments of the time? north, south, east, west..what was the scene like back then?
 
Pre-civil rights, in regions where Jim Crow laws still operated, integrated play was explicitly defined as illegal. In other regions – mainly in some large cities’ gambling venues (NYC, Chicago, etc.) -- there was moderate integrated play.

Sadly, right up to the early 1960s almost all major pool tournaments disallowed black entries. Cisero Murphy was kind of the Jackie Robinson of billiards, gaining entry to national 14.1 championships after massive protests by Caucasian professionals demanded that he be allowed to enter all the tournaments. To their credit, those professionals stated that if Cisero couldn’t play, they wouldn’t play either.

Here’s an enlightening description of the pool scene for example in Philadelphia in the late 19th century and early decades of the 20th:
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Parallel to the evolution of billiards in exclusive men’s clubs and professional championships was the continuation of billiards as a popular workingman’s game. Although billiards tables could be found in Philadelphia workingman’s clubs such as St. Timothy’s in Manayunk in 1877 and in YMCAs, the more popular venues were neighborhood taverns and saloons. These provided places where single men from Philadelphia’s Irish and Italian immigrant communities could congregate for both social and recreational purposes. Billiards was popular because it provided an opportunity to show skill, to be with friends, and to earn a little money through gambling. By the 1920s billiards tables were as essential to a successful tavern as the bar itself.
For many of the same reasons, billiards also was popular in Philadelphia’s black community, even in the late nineteenth century. W.E.B. Dubois promoted billiards as a respectable game for the black community, and when black YMCAs began to emerge in the 1920s, most included billiards tables. Segregation prevented black players from playing in championships, which led to the creation of the Colored Billiards Players Association in 1914, although little is known of its history. However, as with other minority communities, the primary places for Philadelphia’s black residents to play billiards were taverns and saloons.
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Excerpted from: https://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/billiards-pool/

Arnaldo
 
evergruven said:
"There probably wasn’t a safer place in all Seattle for a single girl or multiples, to be unmolested. Same with geeky, gay, black or WHATEVER; nobody at The Fleece would have countenanced the slightest disparagement or bullying of anybody."

excerpt from a link in another thread I just posted- and I think it's a nice idea, a pool table being kind of an equalizer, a neutral/common ground for people to get together, even if just to talk shit and knock balls around..

of course there are many ways of looking at things, and so I'm curious- do y'all have any ideas/stories about (in)justice, (in)equality, uniting, or not, as told via pool?

about that, I also wonder what pool halls were like pre-civil rights..were they segregated like other establishments of the time? north, south, east, west..what was the scene like back then?
Click to expand...

I haven't heard it directly from Shane but I saw somewhere that he spent so much time at the pool hall as a kid because he wasn't picked on there about his hearing impairment like he was in school.
 
Back in my the day

In the DC area of the 60's one of my friends and I were told we could not play on the same table at Jack and Jill's. He could play there but only with his race.

We could go to guys and dolls with no problems.

I wish I could tell you that I protested or boycotted j and j but I didn't.

Dr. King said (this is a paraphrase) history won't judge us by what bad men did but by the good men that stood by and did nothing.

I admire Dr. King and try to remember what he said. Each day I try and do something however small, against what I see as wrong and/or spread his message. Wrong to anyone is wrong to everyone.

Thanks to the op for this thread, there is certainly nothing wrong about it! But it gives me this opportunity however small to make today's quota.
 
I think it’s a shame so many talk the talk but can’t walk the walk. MLK was before my time but seems to me he was a great man.
 
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Howdy All;

I was in the Coast Guard and stationed at NAS Millington, Tn. to get schooled in Aircraft
repair. Millington is a only few miles North of Memphis. It was April of 1969 and the 1st
anniversary of the Dr.'s death. Word was passed at morning quarters that the gates
would be secured no later then 1630 hrs. (4:30 pm). Everyone was to be restricted to
barracks until the next morning. That gave scant time for us that had classes on the
North side of highway US 51 that split the Base to get back to the South side where the
barracks were let alone get Supper. Well, within 3 or 4 hours there were so many fights
breaking out in the various Barracks that the CO decided to allow us to go to the
Bowling Alley and a few other recreation venues to blow off the steam instead of loading
up each others noggins with 'nickle pump knots'. At first the bowling alley was reluctant
to open the pool hall on the 2ed deck but they did, no fights no problems. Down stairs
there were a few arguments 1 came to blows, but upstairs peaceful, clickity, click,
clickity click add in the sound of balls dropping and rolling along the ramps to end up in
the trough.

hank
 
gae70zet6ub21.jpg
 
Never felt safer than in a Black pool room in the 60’s.

Played all over the US without a single problem.

Was in one in Watts during the riots. No problem.

After the riots in Chicago things changed but they were never as dangerous as some of the White rooms. Especially in the South.

Seems as if your were considered a Yankee you were fair game.

Bill S.
 
This may be rumour, or stuff I simply made up.

MLKJ may or may have been Captain of his league team, and he may or may not given this speech to his teammates. In this post truth world, we may never know.

... And I've seen the Promised Land (Nationals in Las Vegas). I may not get there with you (Travel Assistance doesn't cover spouses. Coretta won't let me go Vegas alone, without her and the kids). But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a team, will get to the Promised Land (money round in Nationals in Las Vegas). So I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any Sandbagging 2 as I travel through the Tri-Cup Valley of death.
 
evergruven said:
"There probably wasn’t a safer place in all Seattle for a single girl or multiples, to be unmolested. Same with geeky, gay, black or WHATEVER; nobody at The Fleece would have countenanced the slightest disparagement or bullying of anybody."

excerpt from a link in another thread I just posted- and I think it's a nice idea, a pool table being kind of an equalizer, a neutral/common ground for people to get together, even if just to talk shit and knock balls around..

of course there are many ways of looking at things, and so I'm curious- do y'all have any ideas/stories about (in)justice, (in)equality, uniting, or not, as told via pool?

about that, I also wonder what pool halls were like pre-civil rights..were they segregated like other establishments of the time? north, south, east, west..what was the scene like back then?
Click to expand...

I really can't relate...didn't go to a real pool hall until the 90's. But my dad did tell me that the Klan was a very powerful political force in Oregon back during the 30's and 40's...and the crazy thing? Klan members were Democrats. So yes, a very racist history here.
 
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