The Races: Etched in Stone

Macon, smack in the middle of Georgia, has long been a railroad city. The old train depot downtown, finished just in time for the farewells and homecomings of World War I doughboys, is defunct but still grand. The Georgia Power Co. plans to spend $3 million making its interior a trendy warren of shops and offices. The neoclassical façade is to remain unchanged—almost. Georgia Power wants to cover up the anachronistic inscription—COLORED WAITING ROOM—engraved over one entranceway. Says a company spokesman: “We don’t want to offend any of our black customers.”

Some of Macon’s blacks, however, want to preserve the sign as a reminder of their past struggle. “It’s not offensive,” says State Representative Billy Randall, who was obliged to use the Jim Crow waiting room as recently as 1962.

“It’s a part of history.” Adds the Rev. Henry Ficklin, a black city councilman: “I think it would be a greater slap in the face to think that blacks were so ignorant they couldn’t accept history.”