Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism (93 page)

8
This “local legend” was still extant in 2002, when I interviewed residents of Zeigler.
9
Allan Patton,
In the Shadow of the Tipple: Zeigler, Illinois
(Zeigler: author, 1994), 28.
10
Cf. Willis D. Weatherford and Charles S. Johnson,
Race Relations
(Boston: D. C. Heath, 1934), 59; Ralph E. Luker,
The Social Gospel in Black and White
(Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991), 237; Mark Odintz, “Slocum, Texas,” in
Handbook of Texas Online,
tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/SS/hls57.html
, 2003; Sitton and Conrad,
Nameless Towns,
108–9.
11
Thornbrough,
The Negro in Indiana,
225.
12
Ferguson quoted in Roberta Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 136; Deepak Madala, Jennifer Jordan, and August Appleton, “Prominent Resident Killed,”
library.thinkquest.org/2986/Killed.html
, 8/2002.
13
Perhaps they were only trying to get a key. Accounts differ.
14
One black barber, Alex Johnson, was allowed back, a pattern we shall encounter frequently.
15
“KKK in Owosso,”
Owosso Press,
10/11/1871; Helen Harrelson, 10/15/2002.
16
John Womack, “Blacks, The First Year[s] in Oklahoma,” typescript, Norman, 1982, 4—7.
17
Bianca White, “The History/Ocoee: Legacy of the Election Day Massacre,”
iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall01/white/2ocoee1.html
, 12/2002; Evan Bennett, e-mail, 2/1998; Edwin Reuter,
The American Race Problem
(New York: Crowell, 1927), 418; cf. Maxine Jones, “The African-American Experience in Twentieth-Century Florida,” in Michael Gannon, ed.,
The New History of Florida
(Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1996).
18
“Drive Out Race After Bloody Tilt,”
Chicago Defender,
9/24/1921; Afi O. Scruggs, e-mail, 9/2002.
19
Male Sheridan native, about 65 years of age, and female native, about 75, 10/2001; professor, Southern Arkansas University, 10/2001.
20
C. K. Bullard quoted in Dorothy Brown, “The Encircled Schools: Park Cities and Wilmington,”
Dallas Times Herald,
11/30/1975; Charles Martin, e-mail, 7/2002.
21
Womack, “Blacks, The First Year[s] in Oklahoma,” 22–24.
22
My web site,
uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundown,lists
these counties.
23
Waalkes goes on to note, “I have also heard that Polk County simply pressured black families to send their children to school in Bradley County.”
24
Mary Waalkes, e-mail, 7/2002; Esther S. Sanderson,
Scott County, Gem of the Cumberlands
(Huntsville, TN: author, 1974), 72.
25
Judith Joy, “Memorial to a Slain Girl Recalls a Violent Episode in Cairo’s History,”
Centralia Sentinel,
1/3/1982, based on 1909 accounts in the
Sentinel.
26
“His Flight to Save Prisoner,”
Carbondale Daily Free Press,
11/13/1909; Judith Joy, “Memorial to a Slain Girl.”
27
“Hang and Burn Negro—White Man Also Lynched,”
Carbondale Daily Press,
11/12/1909.
28
Untitled article datelined “Anna, III., Nov. 13,”
Carbondale Daily Free Press,
11/13/1909; Dexter,
House Divided,
73–75; local historian, 6/10/2003.
29
Donald F. Tingley,
The Structuring of a State: The History of Illinois, 1899 to 1928
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 291–92; James Allen et al.,
Without Sanctuary
(Santa Fe: Twin Palms, 2000), #46, 181–84; “In Memory Of Miss Pelley,”
Carbondale Free Press,
11/17/1909.
30
Two were tried and hanged in Cummins, the county seat.
31
Garland C. Bagley,
History of Forsyth County, Georgia, II
(Greenville, SC: Southern Historical Press, 1985), 614.
32
Philip A. Klinkner and R. M. Smith,
The Unsteady March
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 106–7; Pinckneyville motel owner, 9/2002; LaSalle native, 6/2000.
33
Eulalia N. Wells,
Blazing the Way
(Blanket, TX: author, 1942), 159–61.
34
Felix Armfield, “Fire on the Prairies,”
Journal of Illinois History
3, 3 (2000); Arna Bontemps and Jack Conroy,
Anyplace but Here
(New York: Hill & Wang, 1966 [1945]); Edwina M. DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” typescript, 1945, in Bacon Library, Wyandotte, MI;
Chesterton Tribune,
7/24/1903.
35
“His Flight to Save Prisoner”; Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot,
158; Roadside Georgia, Forsyth County,
roadsidegeorgia.com/county/forsyth.html
, 1/2004; and Dawson County,
roadsidegeorgia.com/county/dawson.html
, 1/2004.
36
“Hindus Hounded from City,”
Bellingham Herald,
9/5/1907.
37
Bill Kaplin, 4/2002; Kathy Spillman, 12/2000.
38
Lexington Herald,
11/1/1919, and Corbin resident, quoted in Robby Heason,
Trouble Behind
(Cicada Films, 1990); Hank Everman, “Corbin, Kentucky: A Socioeconomic Anomaly,” Department of History, Eastern Kentucky University, 2002, unpaginated.
39
George C. Wright,
A History of Blacks in Kentucky
2 (Lexington: Kentucky Historical Society, 1992), 15; Murray Bishoff, 9/2002.
40
Patrick Huber and Gary Kremer, “A Death in the Heartland,” paper presented at Missouri Conference on History, St. Louis, 3/1994, 12–13; “The Lynchings,” Minnesota Historical Society,
collections.mnhs.org/duluthlynchings/web_assets/icon_arrowback.gif
, 12/2003.
41
Wells,
Blazing the Way,
162; Billy Bob Lightfoot, “The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
56 (1953): 410–13; John Leffler, “Comanche County,”
The Handbook of Texas Online,
6/2002.
42
I have not found any midwestern ordinances, let alone a chain of dated ordinances that would demonstrate their diffusion. Chapter 8 discusses this problem.
43
“June 12, 1992,” Nationalist web site,
nationalist.org/docs/law/supreme.html#Top
, 1/2004; Andrew H. Myers, “Winter Day in Georgia,” typescript, 1997; Oprah Winfrey, “Vintage Oprah: Racial Tension in Georgia,” Harpo Productions, Chicago, 2001 (1987), 7.
44
Smokey Crabtree,
Too Close to the Mirror
(Fouke: Days Creek Production, 2001), 186.
45
But then, some towns whose origin myths do not include black strikebreakers also refused to let African Americans work or shop in them during the day.
46
Apparently he did; I use “allegedly” because there was no trial, hence no proof beyond a reasonable doubt.
47
Wells,
Blazing the Way,
162; Lightfoot, “The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas,” 410–13; Leffler, “Comanche County.”
48
DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” 16.
49
“Race War In Illinois” and “Bitter Race War Threatened,”
New York Times,
6/17/1902.
50
Robyn Williams, e-mail, 9/2002; employee of Southern Illinois University who lived in Eldorado for several years in the early 1990s.
51
“Bitter Race War Threatened.”
52
Peter M. Bergman and Mort N. Bergman,
The Chronological History of the Negro in America
(New York: Mentor, 1969), 444.
53
Thad Sitton and James H. Conrad,
Nameless Towns: Texas Sawmill Communities, 1880–1942
(Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 71–73, 112.
54
John Hay,
The Pike County Ballots
(Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1912 [1871]), 21–24.
55
Miller is quoted in Martha Biondi,
To Stand and Fight
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003), 128; cf. 124–32.
56
I believe that Sayles did not live in Boulder City but commuted from Las Vegas, so he did not violate Boulder City as a sundown town.
57
“Robert Parker discusses Afro-Americans in Boulder City,” transcript of 11/9/1986 interview, Banyan Library, UNLV,
banyan.library.unlv.edu/cgi-bin/htmldesc.exe?CISOROOT=/Hoover_Dam&CISOPTR=56&CISOMODE=1
, 10/2004.
58
Although most Humboldt County sources state—some even brag—that all other Chinese Americans were expelled from the county, apparently some Chinese miners survived in Orleans, a mining hamlet in the remote northeastern corner of the county, sheltered by whites and perhaps using European names. See Philip Sanders and Laura Sanders, “The Quiet Rebellion,”
Humboldt Historian,
1998, cited by Keith Easthouse, “The Chinese Expulsion,”
North Coast Journal Weekly,
northcoastjournal.com/022703/cover0227.html
, 2/2004.
59
Easthouse, “The Chinese Expulsion”; Lynwood Carranco, “Chinese Expulsion from Humboldt County,” in Roger Daniels, ed.,
Anti-Chinese Violence in North America
(New York: Arno Press, 1978), 336–37; Laurinda Joenks, “Roughness of Citizens Blamed on Lean Times,”
The Morning News,
5/7/2000.
60
Again, I use “allegedly” because there was no trial.
61
Audree Webb Pratt, “Unicoi County Court: 1876–1918,” M.A. thesis, East Tennessee State University, 1960, 27–29; “Erwin Mob Shoots and Burns Body of Negro Who Attacked Girl,”
Bristol Herald,
5/21/1918; “Triple Tragedy at Erwin on Sunday When Negro Runs Wild,”
Johnson City Daily,
5/20/1918; cf. Charles Edward Price Papers, Box 1, Folder 6, “Blacks in Unicoi County, Tennessee,” undated, “Blacks: Tom Devert,” Hoskins Library, University of Tennessee.
CHAPTER 8: HIDDEN IN PLAIN VIEW
 
1
Rogers Chamber of Commerce Publicity and Public Relations Committee, “Committee Report,” 1/29/1962, in Rogers Historical Museum files.
2
Comment on presentation, 1/2003, via James Onderdonk Jr., e-mail, 2/2003.
3
The squirrels may not be true albinos.
4
Ray Elliott, e-mail, 7/2002, citing conversation with Olney resident; Gregory Dorr, e-mail, 7/2002.
5
“Yvonne Dorset,” e-mail via
Classmates.com
, 12/2002; a 1952 graduate of the high school in Buffalo writes that some African Americans did live just north of Buffalo, outside the village limits.
6
About a year later, an African American family moved into Sheridan.
7
James Loewen,
Lies Across America
(New York: New Press, 1999), 198–99.
8
Terrie Epstein, “History and Racial Identity in an Urban High School,”
AHA Perspectives,
12/2001, 26; Maya Angelou,
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
(New York: Random House, 1969), 47; Tennessee Williams,
Orpheus Descending
(Peter Hall, dir., 1990); William Burroughs,
Naked Lunch
(New York: Grove, 1962 [1959]); Malcolm Ross,
All Manner of Men
(New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1948), 66; Jerrold Packard,
American Nightmare, The History of Jim Crow
(New York: St. Martin’s, 2002), 108, my italics.
9
The Fugitive Kind
derives from Tennessee Williams’s play
Orpheus Descending,
from which it takes these lines.
10
This would be
Gentleman’s Agreement,
Elia Kazan’s 1948 movie adaptation of Laura Hobson’s novel, a sensitive portrayal of anti-Semitism in Darien, Connecticut, although it makes no mention of Darien’s exclusion of African Americans. Also, Lorraine Hansberry’s play
A Raisin in the Sun
—about a black family that encounters opposition, rejects a buyout offer, and finally moves into a sundown neighborhood—was filmed.
11
Longtime southern Indiana resident, 10/2002; Evansville cheerleader, 12/2004. Jasper was the site of the 1954 regional tournament fictionally depicted in the movie. Milan, the town on which Hollywood’s fictional Hickory was based, was also an all-white town, probably sundown.
12
Marian Anderson,
My Lord, What a Morning
(Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1992 [1956]), 239–40, 267–68; “Einstein” exhibit label, American Museum of Natural History, 12/2002; Scott L. Malcomson,
One Drop of Blood
(New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2000), 383. Of course, the Civil Rights Movement also targeted the South because conditions were worse there than in much of the North (sundown towns excepted). Most important, the movement was largely born in southern black churches and colleges.

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