Feb. 23 was the first really mild Sunday afternoon in weeks. As is my routine, after completing a workout at the YMCA in downtown Springfield on such a glorious day, I made my way on foot to the nearby Amtrak station with a good book in hand to read before heading home. While at the station, I needed to use the public facility and so asked the attendant if she would kindly unlock the restroom door. She asked if I had either a ticket or wished to purchase one. I replied no, but that I did intend to read for just a bit – no more than 20 or so minutes before heading home. She stated that that wasn’t sufficient, consequently she wouldn’t allow me the use of the restroom.
“Would you rather that I pee on the floor?”
With such a possibility raised, she then consented, telling me that afterwards I was to promptly leave. After buzzing me in, I returned to the window to assure her that my only wish was to read for a few minutes and that I had no intention of loitering but, as a former business law professor, I’m aware that Amtrak stations constitute public spaces. She immediately disagreed. I asked her name and if she had a business card. She stated that her name was Jessie, again instructing me to leave. I answered that I would contact Amtrak and that we’d talk again, whereupon she asked if that was a threat.
“No,” I replied, it was a promise, and then immediately left the building to sit outside on one of several vacant benches and proceeded to read. Be assured that despite our squabble, neither of us raised our voices or in any way indicated that the prospect of violence was in the offing.
Nonetheless, Jessie called the Springfield Police Department to have me removed for RWB (reading while Black) outside. Two officers arrived, one female of slight build, the other, a Black male officer the size of an NFL tight end. (Several years ago, in a casual conversation with an SPD officer, he stated that whenever a Black civilian male was involved in an incident, a Black officer was also to be on the scene. This caused me to presume that Jessie thought it was important that she report that I’m an African American and potentially violent.)
The conversation with SPD was entirely respectful, indeed cordial, on both sides. I explained the occurrence, noting that this was hardly the first time in my 75 years on the planet that I had been treated in such a rude and prejudicial manner. I further noted I once worked as an Amtrak reservations employee in Chicago to help meet expenses as a University of Chicago Divinity School graduate student. Nonetheless, SPD made it clear that Jessie demanded that I leave or face arrest for trespassing.
Considering that my RWB was identical to both my intention and behavior over the past couple of years and that I’d left the building, I’m extremely disappointed by the treatment received by the employee. (Indeed, on a prior occasion, the station attendant on duty even casually approached me to ask if I wished to use the restroom before he locked the door.) As a retired attorney (and PR account executive), I note that Jessie’s conduct was not only clearly inappropriate and unnecessary but also damaging to Amtrak’s hard-fought reputation. Moreover, calling the cops for a guy RWB outside on a public bench on an otherwise glorious day is not only foolish but a misuse of Springfield’s public resources.
John Banks-Brooks is a Springfield resident who previously served as a congressional staffer on Capitol Hill, an attorney for the Securities and Exchange Commission and as a professor of business law. Most recently, he retired as the Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health public affairs and information officer.
This article appears in Spring Guide 2025.
I have been to this Amtrak station multiple times and the bathrooms have only been locked when the facility was getting ready to close for the evening. It makes sense as there is no need to keep an Amtrak building open 24 hours a day if there are no trains coming through. I am highly suspicious of the author assuming racism when there was obviously no blatant racism given. I don’t think this was a good article to post.
I found this article to be quite interesting as a glimpse into the mind of a leftist activist.
The author is being sly when he refers to the Amtrak station as a “public space”. Yes, it’s obviously open to the public, but it’s not a public space in the same way that a library or park is a public space.
At a library or park, loitering for 20 minutes to read a book is expected and encouraged. At best, a train station is a quasi-public space, where there is a good reason for the workers to deter loitering. The lock on the bathroom door didn’t magically appear. At some point in time, Amtrak added a lock on the door to prevent vagrants from turning the train station into a pseudo public shelter. The bathroom is meant for patrons who are waiting for a train.
The author is denied access to the bathroom at the train station because he’s not a customer. After threatening to urinate on the floor of the train station, the author is granted access to the bathroom.
Instead of leaving, the author returns to the employee for a second round of confrontation. He issues additional threats to the employee, this time threatening the employee’s job.
Then, the author pretends that the police were called to remove him because he was an innocent little dove who was “reading while black” and not because he instigated multiple hostile confrontations with the worker over his desire to loiter at the train station.
The entire situation is emblematic of the leftist mindset. Threaten, intimdate, and bully people to get what you want while actively seeking opportunities to claim victimhood.
I particularly enjoyed the complaint that a black officer responded to the author’s call. The BLM activists have been complaining non-stop for years that the police “don’t look like the communities they serve”, yet somehow the police are also racist when a black officer shows up.
It goes to show that the police are completely wasting their time pandering to racial activists because the racial activists will call the police racist no matter what the police do.
In all likelihood, the responding officers were dispatched because they were closest to the location of the call. It’s a total fantasy in the mind of the author that his racial identity had any connection to the race of the officers who responded to the call.
The author mentions multiple times that he didn’t raise his voice, in order to give a veneer of civility to his bullying. And as a grand finale, writing an opinion piece in the local leftist rag to continue bullying the Amtrak employee a month later.
Leftists will never stop seeking victimhood, even when they are an accomplished lawyer and professor. Because for a leftist, victimhood is the most important status symbol.
The Springfield Amtrak ticket agents are the greatest people in the world. To a person, they are committed to the Amtrak company mission to provide superior service to the traveling public. In achieving that goal daily, each of them extends the warmest direction and assistance to all, without reservation.
The author seems to be confused between “public” facilities and “travelling public” facilities, as well as Amtrak policy regarding that distinction.
To clear up his misconceptions, I suggest he buy a senior discount ticket to the St. Louis MO Gateway Station. Then leave the premises, return at his convenience, book in hand, and take a seat without a currently dated ticket. There will be no need to alarm any ticket agent, because in no time, one of the 24/7 on-duty fully armed security guards will approach and ask to see his pass. Failing to produce this will result in summary eviction from the premises, period. Many of the Security personnel are African American men and women, so the RWB explanation probably won’t fly. Their vigilance derives from the constant attempts by misguided people such as this author who attempt to invade the premises for their own ends, as well as Amtrak’s commitment to providing a secure, relaxing waiting area for valid passengers.
The Springfield ticket agent treated the writer very gently, out of order though he was, as she always has to everyone at her window.
Sorry this happened to you John. I think Amtrak owes you an apology.
My grandfather was an engineer on an iron horse that traveled the rails through Springfield in the 1930’s. My father and uncle would routinely visit the station to enjoy the excitement of the comings and goings of residents and visitors to our fair city. The station was a favorite gathering spot of young and old whether you were traveling or not. But that was in the good old days. The scars of the 1908 race riot were still fresh and Springfield struggled with a difficult past, but the train stations always offered a ticket for at least peace and quiet and your imagination, so said my father and uncle. Perhaps those were better times for people of all races as they did their best to get through life. I wonder why the city and the train station has lost its welcoming glow? Perhaps it was never there. Perhaps we will never get past judging people by the color of their skin.
I suggest that a small town Nebraska boy who focused on corporate law to earn his JD, happily began his career by serving a Republican congressman in fulfilling his House appropriations duties then as a legislative staffer to US Senator of the same party before becoming an SEC attorney with visions of Wall St dancing in his head is hardly the prescription for pursuing a role as a leftist activist. Neither did my stint as the US Government Relations Manager/Lobbyist for the planet’s largest intellectual property trade association or later, as a business law professor at a state university in Oklahoma — hardly a bastion of liberalism — indicate that I was hellbent on burnishing my credentials as either a “leftist” or activist. My move to Springfield to serve as an American Express Executive on Loan to the Governor’s Office of Management & Budget suggests the same.
However, for the sake of argument, let’s say that my recent AMTRAK experience revealed my so called activist passions. To ask to use the restroom and then acknowledging that I intended to read for, at most, half an hour after a strenuous workout at the downtown Y doesn’t impress me as practical activist strategy on an otherwise lazy Sunday afternoon. Indeed, my urgent need to avail myself of the restroom to keep my dignity obviously placed me at the mercy of the station attendant. It’s inconceivable to me that I would make such a request to burnish my so called “activist credentials.” Letting the ticket window know that the outcome of refusing my request to use the AMTRAK restroom wasn’t a threat but a rather an inevitability. But, after all, thanks to Jessie, I was indeed permitted to use the facilities. What I do find egregious is that after doing so and proceeding to sit outside on a vacant bench, not to argue, not to threaten but to read she nonetheless contacted SPD. (If I were an activist, it strikes me that I would have not only brought with me an oversized sign signifying my complaint “loudly” with huge red magic marker letters but additionally, would have wanted to have been arrested during a busy week day for the immediate attention.)
Let’s talk St Louis and public spaces. I’ve only had two experiences — coming and going — using that city’s rail station in order to catch a RT flight via the St. Louis airport. Having next to no knowledge of that city, upon my return, I proceeded directly to the AMTRAK station even though I would have to wait there several hours before boarding a train back to Springfield. Since I already had my ticket in hand, it never occurred to me to show it to the ticket window. I sat and I read. If I was under suspicion of loitering, no one, station attendant or security, advised me of such.
As for public space, let’s use Chicago’s Union Station as as example. As an AMEX employee (usually in jeans when commuting ) I routinely traveled between Springfield and the Windy City on AMTRAK. Just as routinely I was among a crowd of long distance travelers, commuters, “fast foodies” and the homeless. And who knows, maybe even another soul or two, who on a break strolled over to buy a paper and also sit and read for a bit. There, as in many other cities, it’s understood that, as a public space, it will be frequented by non-AMTRAK passengers. Indeed as another example, in Manhattan, a vast number of office towers, have public spaces that to accommodate individuals having no business purpose whatsoever for being in the building.
Activism just isn’t my thing. Neither is threatening individuals who earn their living working for commercial, business, government or nonprofit entities. That neither fits my character nor personality. What I do find beyond the pale are those who use their authority to both denigrate and dismiss those who they cavalierly deem of lesser (human) value. My indignation of that type of behavior isn’t a matter of left or right but simply the way my Bible quoting grandma raised me to be. Consequently, I have no hesitation in speaking against such callous treatment of my fellow humans — no matter what their views. I ask the same treatment for myself. However, If you believe that contacting AMTRAK HQ and The Illinois Times is a matter of leftist activism then I’m guilty as charged.
John Banks-Brooks
I first want to thank Mr. Banks-Brooks and The Illinois Times for this article. These situations are common and there is value in bringing them into a public forum for comment.
In this situation there are no winners or losers. The best dialogues involve mutual respect, seeing both sides and recognizing where each person is coming from. Most rules have exceptions. What guides us in deciding these exceptions? What assumptions are we making about the other person? There are opportunities in difficult situations to see a better way. We humans are, without exception, works in progress. Each of us makes a difference. We live. We learn. We forgive. We do better
Michael Leonard
Hi John Banks-Brooks,
You wrote, “Activism just isn’t my thing. Neither is threatening individuals…”
Yet, here we are!
Perhaps one of the phrases your grandmother taught you was “Actions speak louder than words”?
I found the first paragraph of your response to be very interesting. I can tell by your writing that you are indeed a lawyer, because the first paragraph reads like a defense attorney offering mitigating evidence for his client that he knows is guilty of behaving like a democrat.
If you are a republican, I believe you would have simply written “I am a republican”.
Was it Trump derangement syndrome that turned you into a leftist? Or did you join the democrats before Trump came along?
Or are you the exceedingly rare republican who behaves like a democrat – crying racism any time you experience a minor inconvenience?
You mention again that you weren’t hooting and hollering, or waving a sign, and therefore you weren’t participating in leftist activism. As I said before, a calm demeanor gives a veneer of civility to your bullying of this poor worker.
The reason that typical activists scream and shout and wave signs is because they are as dumb as a bag of rocks. When dumb people get angry, they shout.
You are a lawyer. Lawyers are smart, and lawyers reflexively maintain decorum because it’s essential to your profession. But you know perfectly well that lawyers can eviscerate a person while remaining perfectly calm. It happens every day inside of courtrooms. Lawyers are experts at using words as knives, which is what you have done to this poor little worker. “It’s not a threat, it’s a promise”. “It’s not a threat, it’s an inevitability”.
No, sir. It’s a threat. You threatened this poor little worker twice, and then you carried out your threat by attempting to get them fired and by attacking them publicly via op-ed.
You owe poor Jessie a public apology.
This is nonsense and is based on presumption as he states in the article. At least it’s in the opinion section. .
Welcome to the United States of Communism. A place where a citizen cannot use a restroom in a government train station. A place where no public restrooms exist, because why should anyone pay for a person to urinate or dedicate while out on a walk or run? A place where no one allowed to sit in an historic building to enjoy a book in quiet. Why, what if everyone wanted to do this? Read peacefully, use a restroom and enjoy their surroundings?
This country will cease to exist very very soon because of the pettiness and paranoia of some of its citizens. The comments here scream of the classism created by the Republican Party and the Felon currently running it into the ground.
It’s completely okay to allow billionaires to steal out of your pockets while you concern yourselves with who is reading a book and where.
Of particular pettiness was the comment by Obese Burger Addict, or whatever its name is. The rage and selfishness was emanating from the page. Why? Bitter about not getting a job and convinced yourself DEI was the problem and not you?
You all need to get a life.
Hi Trump4Prison,
You wrote,
“Of particular pettiness was the comment by Obese Burger Addict, or whatever its name is. The rage and selfishness was emanating from the page.”
Wow! I can’t believe you just attempted to body shame me. I’ve been informed by your woke comrades the pronoun pals that morbidly obese men are beautiful, ESPECIALLY when they put on a dress and wear makeup. That makes them extra beautiful. You owe me an apology, which I will accept in the form of hamburgers.
You also wrote,
“Why? Bitter about not getting a job and convinced yourself DEI was the problem and not you?”
I’ve got something called morals. I know the difference between right and wrong. For example, it’s wrong to try to ruin some random worker’s life because they enforced their job’s corporate policy in a ham-fisted way.
You, on the other hand, are infected with Trump Derangement Syndrome. People who are infected with TDS lose their grip on reality, so they become unable to discern right from wrong, which is why you think that my posts are bad.
If you knew the difference between right and wrong, you would think that my posts are great. I hope this helps clear up your confusion.
The Burger Addict was quickly triggered by my intentional use of obese. Sorry snowflake but you are not the victim here.
Gretchen, please stop trying to make TDS a thing.
When someone has to angrily tell, the world they have more vale’s and morales and only they make the right decisions, what that person is really telling us is that they are a narcissist and suffer from self grandiose personality disorder.
You are more upset about your perceived slight than you are that a Black man with basic human needs was denied a restroom and a place to read a book.
You further ranted that the left will take to the streets and demonstrate against this. So what? It’s a constitutional right.
Stay Woke.
Hi Trump4Prison,
You wrote,
“Gretchen, please stop trying to make TDS a thing.”
I’m not “trying to make” TDS a thing. Trump Derangement Syndrome has very much been a thing since 2016. It’s as real as cancer or diabetes.
Look at your screen name! You have an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome.
I’m struggling to respond to the rest of your post because it’s obvious that you are bordering on illiterate and don’t understand what I have written. Reading and writing isn’t for everyone. You are better suited for waving a misspelled sign in the street and shouting at the clouds.
Trump4Prison,
I don’t think you have any idea what “communism” means. “Communism” is not being barred from using public restrooms, or public spaces in general. In fact, the idea of needing to pay to use bathrooms is a thoroughly Capitalistic idea- as you can see from most restaurants and gas stations requiring a purchase to use their bathroom.
Are you just calling whatever you don’t like “Communism”? Embarrassingly ignorant.
The Amtrak station obviously has had alot of issues with non-customers using their bathrooms, loitering and otherwise just camping out. This makes an employee’s job difficult, as they have to balance the needs of the customers, the putative rights of non-customers, and the functioning of a relatively busy rail station- all while managing boarding, ticketing, customer service, and facility maintenance. They will therefore reflexively ask non-customers to leave.
And sitting inside a quasi-public space like a train station is not protected by the first amendment- and would obviously fall under a valid “time, manner, place” restriction.
Nothing bars anyone from being nice. Had the worker in this case just been a tiny bit compassionate, this would not be a discussion. Maybe she could have even asked what book John was reading.
@Mary Harris. You are the embarrassment. You and the other red hat/white robe.
If you are so disengaged by what is happening in this country, you cannot be helped.
Your faux second hand embarrassment via your Karen vibes would be funny were the situation not so serious.
A Black man wanted to use a restroom then sit and read a book. Dont you need to get back to Target to rail on the help for not having your lip hair removal in stock?
A few weeks ago I had the honor and privilege to meet and hear a talk by Mr. Fred Gray Esq.. Mr. Gray was the attorney for Ms. Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the survivors of the horrendous Tuskegee Syphilis “experiment”, and many, many others whose basic rights had been denied. Mr. Gray is a quiet man, dignified, intelligent, and reflective, with a marvelous sense of humor. He was introduced as a “troublemaker of the highest order”, at which he smiled.
Mr. Banks-Brooks article is clearly not about restrooms. It is not about making trouble. It is about being perceived as a “problem” for a simple disagreement about a public transportation company’s policies and procedures, such that police involvement and the threat of arrest were deemed necessary. Mr. Banks-Brooks was reading a book. He could have been driving a car, riding a bus, or bird-watching…normal everyday activities we in the United States should expect to enjoy without being threatened by arrest
The quickness to identify a verbal disagreement about policy as a problem, the speed to engage the police, and the knee-jerk response evidenced by one reader that the author is a “troublemaker”…these are the issues which raise the question…”Why…why this person?”