"Having grown up in a small northern town, Baker didn't understand why they asked him and another black passenger to move to the front car, closer to the noise and exhaust of the locomotive, shortly after the train crossed into Texas. Boarding the empty bus for Camp Wolters, he tossed his bag down and moved into the first seat behind the driver- his first mistake in the segregated South. The driver spun around with words uglier than Baker had ever heard: "Hey, nigger, get up and get to the back of the bus where you belong." Baker's fists clenched as a friendly hand touched him on his arm and led him to the back of the bus. The old man who'd intervened, and possibly saved Baker's life, gave him a quick education in Jim Crow. He'd been close. Stronger men had been lynched for less."