The Boy Who Beat the Bus

Destination Freedom. Station WMAQ presents Destination Freedom, dramatizations of the great democratic traditions of the Negro people, a part of the pageant of history, and of America's own destination, freedom. Today we tell the story of William H. Hasty, Governor of the Virgin Islands, in the chapter entitled The Boy Who Beat the Bus.

Once upon a time in the town of Knoxville, Tennessee, They lived a boy named William Hasty, who had three miles to go to get to school. And on the first morning, he tried to ride the bus and waited his turn.

Bares please, Bares please. Here, driver. Thank you, ma'am. Hey, where you going, boy? You got my fare? I got your fare, but you're getting in the wrong seat. Wrong seat. Now, you better not be long enough to know better.

You're a marry-hasty boy, ain't you? I am. Forget your eye and sit with a good lord intended for you to sit in the rear. I'd pay the same fare, I'll sit where I'd leave. And if you want to get to school, here where you going?

Hey! I keep getting off. I keep getting right off. And then colored kids is crazy. All set. Here we go. When the bus started, the boy was on the road behind it, running with all his might, trying to beat it to school.

And it was that way each morning, and the passengers watched the uneven race, and the driver would shake his head. Don't stick your necks out of the window, folks. Them colored kids is crazy, plum crazy.

You get tired and get on, you get tired. But the weasewarun and the same boy was running and losing his race with the Jim Crow bus. He's crazy, I told you man. Oh, what's he running for when he can ride?