Page:The Blacker the Berry - Thurman - 1929.djvu/62

 sorority which the colored girls had organized. Emma Lou asked her why.

“Have they pledged you?” was Grace Giles’ answer.

“Why no.”

“And they won’t either.”

“Why?” Emma Lou asked surprised.

“Because you are not a high brown or half-white.”

Emma Lou had thought this too, but she had been loathe to believe it.

“You're silly, Grace. Why—Verne belongs.”

“Yeah,” Grace had sneered, “Verne, a bishop’s daughter with plenty of coin and a big Buick. Why shouldn’t they ask her?”

Emma Lou did not know what to make of this. She did not want to believe that the same color prejudice which existed among the blue veins in Boise also existed among the colored college students. Grace Giles was just hypersensitive. She wasn’t taking into consideration the fact that she was not on the campus regularly and thus could not expect to be treated as if she were. Emma Lou fully believed that had Grace been a regularly enrolled student like herself, she would have found things different, and she was also certain that both she and Grace would be asked to join the sorority in due time.

But they weren’t. Nor did an entire term in the