Shadows of St. Louis (18 page)

Reflection

Emma Lynn rose with the sun in order to start her day. The house continued to sleep as she made her way to the kitchen to begin what would be several hours of cooking, cleaning, and caring for her family. So much had changed yet so much had stayed the same.

The government estimated that 8 whites and 39 Negroes were killed that night. But Emma Lynn knew it was so much more. She could name nearly 50 Negros she knew personally that had been killed. It was the worst day of her life. Sometimes, she wasn’t sure how she survived it. She never knew she was that strong.

Charles’ body was found two days after the riots. An unidentifiably mutilated corpse was found nearby which they all assumed to be Clarence.

Rebecca Jane never recovered. She spent three weeks crying for them and blaming
herself
for everything. After the hysterical crying came the quiet tears. She would sit silently in a rocking chair as tears streamed down her face while she didn't make a sound.

Suddenly one day she stopped crying altogether. She asked Emma Lynn to fix her a meal of ham, potatoes, and collard greens. She said it was Clarence's favorite.

With her appetite returning for the first time in weeks, both Henry and Emma Lynn thought she was on the road to recovery. But shortly after that meal, Rebecca Jane went for a walk and never returned. The next day, her body was found floating in the Mississippi River.

Her last will and testament was simple. Everything went to Emma Lynn.

Through letters to her old schoolmates, Emma Lynn kept up with the goings on in East St. Louis. Over the years Emma Lynn had heard that her only surviving sibling, Mary Anna, still resided in East St. Louis, childless and unhappy. When her husband, Samuel, found out she couldn't have children, he was of course disappointed but wanted to make the marriage work anyway. When he found out that she had in fact been pregnant several times and had terminated the pregnancies, he divorced her and left her with nothing. Mary Anna moved back home with George and Elizabeth. No one ever found out the Goodwin's true identity but living with their secret hadn't afforded them any happiness.

Somehow Emma Lynn was even able to get in contact with little
Tumpie
or Josephine Baker as she now preferred to be called. Just like she had stated that night,
Tumpie
was on her way to becoming a world famous singer. But, unfortunately, her idol, Becky, never got to see her success.

Emma Lynn often drafted letters to George and Elizabeth. Just little notes to let them know that she was still alive and well. But every time she quickly burned them and never sent them off. She thought about that curtain she saw move in the window the night of the riot. For so long she pretended she hadn't seen it. She pretended that her own mother hadn't left her outside to die at the hands of a mob rather than accept her race. After living with the rejection of her parents all her life, she didn't want to have to face it again. She didn't want to open her mailbox one day and see the letter returned unopened. Instead, she chose to accept that her only family was Henry and Jesse. That was enough for her.

Emma Lynn remembered threatening Elizabeth Goodwin with some sort of revenge, but she honestly found that the best revenge was her own happiness.

Henry and Emma Lynn used the money Rebecca Jane had left them in order to build a life together. At first, they continued to live in a
house  just
across the river in St. Louis, Missouri. Their plan worked perfectly for a while. The neighbors assumed that Emma Lynn was his live in maid and that Jesse was her son. But soon they figured out that she was something more than a maid and the persecution began. They moved from house to house and from state to state until they were able to find a location where they could live in peace.

After moving eleven times in three years, they settled on Martha's Vineyard where many upper class blacks lived. It was more than they could afford, but they made the sacrifice in order to be able to live in peace.

Henry pursued his dream of becoming a doctor. Several times he had to stop and restart his education due to the moving. He said he didn't mind. According to him, it was a small price to pay to be with his Emma. Now every morning he woke at 5 a.m. and rode the ferry to the mainland in order to attend classes. Emma Lynn made sure Jesse got to school then spent the day cleaning houses and selling her baked goods around the island in order to support them all. Henry promised her that one day it would be her turn to get an education. She knew he would keep his promise.

It was a relatively peaceful night and Emma Lynn felt quite rested. Jesse hadn't woken up with nightmares or screaming for his father. She wondered if his little mind would ever be able to reconcile what he'd seen that night. Emma Lynn was far older and more mature and yet sometimes she couldn't get the images out of her head either. She could only hope that one day Jesse would forget. But was forgetting the answer? If everyone grew up forgetting the wrongs of the past, would things ever change? Would history be doomed to repeat itself?

It's not like Emma Lynn even wanted equality for the Negro.  She didn't know if that would ever be possible. Emma Lynn just wanted the ability to feel worthwhile, to be treated like a human being, to not have to fear for her life at the hand of a white man.

As she dug her hands into a bowl of flour, kneading it into the desired consistency, she stared at how her fingers changed from a soft tinted brown to a stark white. Yes, if she needed to, she could pass for white.

"What are you doing up so early?" a voice said into her ear as arms wrapped around her waist.

Emma Lynn twisted around and stared into the eyes of her beloved Henry.

"You know I like to have a hot breakfast prepared for my family every morning."

Henry nuzzled her neck and said, "I will happily go hungry if it means twenty more minutes next to you in bed." He kissed her passionately as he did every morning. He kissed her as if every kiss could be their last.

Yes, in the shadows of the night, she could pass for white, but wrapped in the light of Henry's love, she didn't have to.

Author’s Note

In the early years of the 20
^th
century, black Americans fled poverty and oppression in the South in search of jobs in the major industrial areas in the North and Midwest. Supplying necessities to the European soldiers heavily involved in World War I led to an increase in the need of workers. Huge manufacturing companies sought out cheap labor in order to fill this need. Agents from factories in East St. Louis, Illinois, actively recruited laborers from the South.

On July 1, 1917, a Ford car driven by whites fired shots into black homes along Market Street, near Seventeenth. The next time the Ford passed through the neighborhood, the black residents returned the fire, striking the automobile as it disappeared in the night.

The police chief was alerted of the shooting and dispatched a car of detectives and uniformed officers to the area. Reporter Roy Albertson stood on the running board. Albertson’s account of the event helped to incite the East St. Louis riot the following day.

According to Albertson’s report of the incident, which was published in the morning paper, the police car “turned into Bond Avenue from Tenth, meeting more than 200 rioting [armed] negroes… [who] without a word or warning opened fire.’” Albertson later admitted under oath in the Congressional investigation of the riot that the fatalities he so righteously attributed to callous blacks intent on premeditated murder could have been a case of mistaken identity of the same white Ford car, which had earlier shot into black people’s homes, returning to the neighborhood to do more harm.

The bullet-riddled car was parked in front of the police station in downtown East St. Louis on the morning of July 2, 1917 for all to see. After reading Albertson’s account, the white citizens of East St. Louis formed mobs and sought revenge.

The major causes of the 1917 riots in East St. Louis included this influx of blacks into the city as well as conflict between the Democratic and Republican parties, conflict between labor leaders (representing whites) and industrialists (needing cheap labor), and misleading reports by journalists about a shooting of two plainclothes police officers by blacks trying to protect their families on Sunday, July 1
^st
. These events lead to the violence on Monday July 2
^nd
.

In
Shadows of St. Louis
, I chose to condense the events of July 1
^st
and 2
^nd
into one day.

Source: SEMP Inc.

Leslie
DuBois
lives in Charleston, South Carolina with her husband and two children. She currently attends the Medical University where she’s earning her PhD in Biostatistics. Leslie enjoys writing stories and novels that integrate races. Her other novels include
Ain’t
No Sunshine
,
Guardian of Eden
,
Nobody Girl
,
The Queen Bee of Bridgeton
,
The Devil of
DiRisio
and
Nothing Else Matters
.  She also writes as Sybil Nelson. Visit her at www.LeslieDuBois.com to learn more.

 
Ain’t

 
The Queen Bee of Bridgeton

The Devil of
DiRisio

 
Guardian of Eden

Nobody Girl

Nothing Else Matters

Visit her
website
to learn more.

Ain’t
No Sunshine