This is a transcript of an excerpt of Bessie Stewart’s words about discrimination against blacks in Idaho. The complete audio cassette and transcript are available at the Idaho State Historical Library.

Mrs. Stewart: We had trouble at the stores.

Interviewer: At the stores huh?

Mrs. Stewart: Because sometimes they wouldn’t want to wait on you.

Interviewer: Grocery stores or…..?

Mrs. Stewart: No

Interviewer: Any kind of stores.

Mrs. Stewart: I got a lady fired at Pennys. I didn’t mean to, but she was white—I didn’t do it. You know, when the commodities were so scarce, materials, you know….

Interviewer: During the war maybe?

Mrs. Stewart: Uh-huh. We went to the store, we said “Hurry if you see a line, get in this line, because there’s something going on at the end of this line.” You know, like you’d buy something that you couldn’t get. So my sister and I came in from the country out there, when we lived out there, and we came down the street there at Pennys, we said “What’s all the people lined up here at Pennys for?” So we went and they said “They got a lot of new material.” You know, different print materials and different materials and it was clear stacked up and they had hired this girl, different people to help out because there would be a little rush on. So we joined the line, said “Well I’d like a little piece of material, three or four yards, whatever you can get.” So we joined the line and when it got to us, this girl just talked and talked to another girl there, she just wouldn’t look at us, she would not wait on us at her counter where we were standing—we just stood there, and we’re going to give her a chance. She would not wait on us. And we had noticed someone had told the head lady up on the balcony there at Penneys at that time, Penneys had a balcony, we noticed, just kind of looked around, there was a woman standing there. She was just standing there with her arms folded, just looking at the girl, she was just looking at her. We’d look at her, we’d look at the girl, and the girl never seen her. She just kept talking to another girl that was at another counter there. The girl kept looking at her and she knew she should be waiting on us, but she just kept folding the material and putting it back. Finally she didn’t have nothing else to do, she just stood there. This lady said “Do you ladies want something?” We said “We’d thought we’d get some of that material if we can get waited on.” She said “I thought so.” So she got after the girl and the girl “I didn’t know they wanted anything.” Well, they stood right there, they were standing right there.” And she just ignored us. She simply ignored us. But we seen a lot of that.

Interviewer: Oh, is that right?

Mrs. Stewart: Yeah, we seen a lot of that. Then we went to the bus station and they wouldn’t serve us there. I hadn’t had much chance to go to there, because as I say, I was living in the country and we’d come in and you’d be hurrying trying to catch a bus. You know, I was trying to catch a bus out in the country. But I never wanted to eat, but I seen others. But even came in on a bus, and they would not serve.

Interviewer: Still wouldn’t serve—even though they was riding the bus, company.