[Colin] Powell felt the sting of southern racism firsthand after he received orders to leave Birmingham and report once again to Fort Benning. One day, when he was trying to find a house in the area so his wife and son could join him in Georgia, he stopped at a restaurant for a hamburger. The waitress asked if Powell was a student from Africa. When Powell told her no, the woman asked him, "A Puerto Rican?"
"No," Powell answered.
"You're a Negro?" she asked.
"That's right."
"Well," the waitress responded, "I can't bring out a hamburger. You'll have to go to the back door."
Schraff, Anne. Colin Powell: Soldier and Patriot (African-American Biographies). Enslow Pub Inc, 1997.
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