The Coffee Cup

Because this merits a response.

The Coffee Cup incident happened.

Here’s what Charlie Scott told me in November 1998 when we met for the old book in Atlanta:

In the fall of ’65, on a visit to Davidson with his coach from Laurinburg and his coach’s wife, Scott stopped in at the basketball office. Terry was there. Terry said Lefty was over at the Coffee Cup.

The Coffee Cup was where Jasper’s is now, on Depot Street, by the Davidson Inn. There was a counter in the middle of the restaurant, as I understand it, and whites sat on one side and blacks sat on the other.

“I knew this restaurant was segregated,” Scott told me back in ’98, “so I knew we were going to have problems.”

But as long as he and his coach and his coach’s wife didn’t order anything, and if they were sitting with Lefty, Scott thought at the time, maybe they could get away with it, and get out of there without any trouble.

According to Scott, though, his coach’s wife said to Lefty: “Man, those black-eyed peas look good.”

To which Lefty said: “Why don’t you order some?”

More from Scott: “So he called the owner’s wife over and she took the order. The owner came over shortly thereafter and said, ‘I’m sorry, Lefty, but my wife won’t serve n---ers on this side.’”

“That,” Scott said, “was the beginning of the end.

“I was all set, going to Davidson,” he said. “I wanted to sign early, but my coach wouldn’t let me, and after that he started taking me up to North Carolina and pushing me toward Carolina.”

In ’98, in Atlanta, Scott told me he didn’t think the deal at the Coffee Cup was Lefty’s fault.

But he also said this: “Coach Smith would not have been eating there. Lefty was eating there.”

Lefty’s response?

When we talked, in December ’98, also in Atlanta, he called it “the unfortunate incident downtown.”

“It was probably my fault for eating in there,” he said. “I never thought much about it. I guess I should have.”