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perfected accents and the crash course in Syrian that they had learned from the grocer's son, they somehow convinced the young lady behind the ticket window that they were foreign exchange students from the university and would like very much to see an American movie.

To the amazement of their friends sitting up in the balcony the pair successfully purchased tickets and were escorted by the usher to choice seats on the main floor!

When they returned to school on Monday they proudly recounted how they had "fooled those white folks" and pulled off the ultimate prank. As far as Mom and Dad can recall, the two were never found out, but also never tried the stunt again. They simply went back to sitting in the balcony where they and all people of color would remain until the Civil Rights Act finally made segregated seating in public places illegal some 18 years later.

But what would have happened had they shared the story, with a sympathetic newspaper reporter, perhaps? I often wonder if the story had come to light in some very public way, would more people have begun to question the practice of segregated seating much sooner. Surely some white person in authority would have sought to examine why it was OK for dark skinned people with foreign accents to sit next to whites in the theater, but not OK for the black people that bagged their groceries, cleaned their homes or cooked their meals to share these public spaces.

Granted, the racial problems that society faces today are far more complex than movie theater seating arrangements. However, the practice of showing preference for or bias against any group of people for things as superficial as skin color, clothing or the presence or absence of a foreign accent makes no more sense today than it did on that Saturday afternoon more than 60 years ago.

Learn more about this author, Robin Landry.
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