Many Negro acts considered it a great honor to be asked to play the Sunday shows at the Howard. But others wouldn't work there because of a peculiar box-office rule of the management. For two evening performances and one matinee during the week they would sell tickets only to very light-colored Negroes. At those three performances you could see no black spots at all out front except when the lights were turned down. I thought this snobbish house policy--color discrimination against some of our own people by the dictys--ridiculous and laughable. But I played the Howard that Sunday anyway, being eager to send my Birmingham doctor every dollar I could. Jo hadn't been invited to perform, so I went on alone. I sang "St. Louis Blues" and had to do one encore. << less