Rosaleen and Lily had just come from the church where they had stolen some church fans.  As they walked toward town so Rosaleen could registar to vote, three men playing cards at the Esso station saw them coming.  One of them yelled at Rosealeen and asked where they were going.  She tells them she is going to register to vote and they begin to make fun of Rosealeen.  They call her names and mock her.  As she passes by them, she pours saliva and tobacco spit out of her snuff jar on their shoes.  The become angry and then try to make her clean their shoes.  They physically attack Rosealeen and someone inside the Esso station calls the police. 

South Carolina in 1964 was not a great place to be if you were Black.  Rosealeen is not very bright, but she is a very proud black woman and when those three white men begin to taunt her and call her racial names, she retaliates and then they attack her.