Racism existed in area's early days

People of Sandpoint; so you think that Sandpoint didn’t have race problems back in the early days. Guess again.

How many of you remember when Sandpoint had an ordinance forbidding blacks to stay in town overnight? It still may exist as I have never seen a vote to rescind it come up. Do you think I’m kidding? I’m not, in fact back in the ’50s the Sandpoint Bulldogs brought in the Harlem Globetrotters for a exhibition basketball game against the Washington Senators. When the game ended, the Globetrotters were escorted across the bridge to a motel on the Sagle side of the river as not to violate this ordinance.

At that time, after researching the reason for this law’s existence I found out that it was created to protect the blacks from some of Sandpoint’s citizens.

It seems that in the early days, Sandpoint was a very rough logging town with many taverns built on pilings over Sand Creek next to the N.P. Railroad. Occasionally, when blacks would get off the trains on a Friday or Saturday night and go into one for a drink, police would find their bodies floating face-down in Sand Creek the next morning. I never found out if they had done something wrong or if it was just race-hatred, but this law was created and enforced for many years and may still exist. Somebody should check.

ALAN RAINEY

Helena, Mont.