You may be wondering why segregation would be practiced in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. And the answer, put simply, is that there was little choice back in those days. There were laws in place to make it illegal for the races to mix, and there was also the very real threat of violence. In many places, the brothers had good reason to fear that if the two races met together for worship, their Kingdom Hall would be destroyed. Such things did happen. If black Witnesses preached from door to door in a white neighborhood, they would be arrested—and likely beaten up. So in order to get the preaching work done, we obeyed the laws, hoping that things would change for the better.
You may be wondering why segregation would be practiced in congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses. And the answer, put simply, is that there was little choice back in those days. There were laws in place to make it illegal for the races to mix, and there was also the very real threat of violence. In many places, the brothers had good reason to fear that if the two races met together for worship, their Kingdom Hall would be destroyed. Such things did happen. If black Witnesses preached from door to door in a white neighborhood, they would be arrested—and likely beaten up. So in order to get the preaching work done, we obeyed the laws, hoping that things would change for the better.
This is a telling paragraph. Seems like taking the easy way out. If we go by that logic, Witnesses back in the day could salute the flag just to "obey the law".