Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension Of American Racism (97 page)
1
Laurel Boeckman, e-mail, 6/2002.
2
See Millie Meyerholtz,
When Hatred and Fear Ruled
(Pana: Pana News, 2001).
3
Elderly Huntington resident as interviewed and reported by his son and by me, 6/2002; Phillip Payne, e-mail, 11/2002.
4
Michael Ebner,
Creating Chicago’s North Shore
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 234; Kenilworth realtor, 10/2002.
5
Virginia Acts of Assembly,
330–31; 1947 Villa Park deed, extant in 1963, sent by Donna Marquart, 8/2002.
6
“Tale of Two Cities,”
Pacific Citizen,
1/4/1947.
7
Jim Clayton, 11/2002; Paul M. Angle,
Bloody Williamson
(New York: Knopf, 1952), 98; Batesville Historical Society member, e-mail, 9/2002.
8
Bob Johnson, e-mail, 1/2003; Mable Bishop Gilmer, paragraph in Edwina M. DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” typescript, 1945, in Bacon Library, Wyandotte, MI, 14.
9
Jodey Bateman, e-mail, 7/2002.
10
Some have not moved out; by 1990 Ephrata had 27 African Americans, including four households, among 12,133 residents.
11
Hilda Feldhake, ed.,
Effingham County Illinois, Past and Present
(Effingham: n.p., 1968), 338; former Miami Beach resident, e-mail, 7/2002; “Since You Asked,” Medford, OR,
Mail Tribune,
1998,
mailtribune.com/news/dailynws.htm
, 2001; Cynthia Marquet, 9/2002; Judy Zimmerman Herr, e-mail, 3/2002; Millersville University student, 3/2002; longtime Pennsylvania resident, e-mail, 4/2002.
12
William E. Wilson,
On the Sunny Side of a One-Way Street
(New York: Norton, 1958), 91, thanks to Wanda L. Griess, letter, 9/2002.
13
Emma Lou Thornbrough,
The Negro in Indiana
(Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Bureau, 1957), 225–27; untitled clipping,
Springdale News,
7/13/1894, in files of Rogers Historical Museum; DeWindt, “Wyandotte History; Negro,” 8, 11.
14
Pearl Roberts,
Glimpses of the Past in Johnston City, Illinois, 1894–1945
(Johnston City: Business & Professional Women’s Club, 1977), 123.
15
“Local attorney” quoted in exhibit on Camp Ellis at Dickson Mounds Museum, 2001; Lachlan Crissey, “Racial Minorities in the Operation of County Government,” in Illinois Inter-racial Commission,
First Annual Report
(Springfield: State of Illinois, 1945), 32.
16
Roger Karns, e-mail, 9/2002; Matt Moline, e-mail, 6/2002; Harold S. Forsythe, e-mail, 7/2002.
18
Parade of Progress: Hamilton County, 1858–1958
(Hamilton: Hamilton Herald-News, 1958), unpaginated; Terry Keller, 6/10/2003.
19
Moira Meltzer-Cohen, e-mail, 9/2002; Jean Messinger,
A Closer Look at Beaver Dam
(Colorado Springs: Cottonwood Press, 1981); Hank Everman, “Corbin, Kentucky: A Socioeconomic Anomaly,” Department of History, Eastern Kentucky University, 2002, unpaginated; Lorenzo J. Greene, Gary Kremer, and Antonio Holland,
Missouri’s Black Heritage
(Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1993), 153; Patrick J. Huber, e-mail, 9/2002.
20
Billy Bob Lightfoot, “The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas,”
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
56 (January 1953): 414.
21
Woman from Greenup at Mattoon, 10/2002; Roberta Senechal,
The Sociogenesis of a Race Riot
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990), 130; “Death of Ambrose Roan,”
Chesterton Tribune,
11/30/1911.
22
Elderly Huntington native interviewed by his son, e-mail, 6/2002.
23
John Winkols, interview by Roger Horowitz c.1990, in “Pete Winkols Interview,” tape 37 side 2, UPWA Oral History Project, State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison.
24
Dorothy E. Williams,
The Spirit of West Bend
(Madison: Straus Printing, 1980), 318; Barbara Carpenter, e-mail, 10/2002; Kathleen M. Blee,
Women of the Klan
(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991), 156, based on oral history, c.1987.
25
Carolyn Stephens, e-mail, 11/2001, recounting conversation with George Hendrick; George Hendrick, Helen Howe, and Don Sackrider,
James Jones and the Handy Writers’ Colony
(Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001), 121; Williams,
The Spirit of West Bend,
318; “Only Colored Couple,”
Chesterton Tribune,
8/20/1936, referring to 1/4/1912 story. The 1936 story uses markedly more stereotypical language than the 1912 story quoted earlier, perhaps indicating that Porter County’s attitudes toward African Americans had hardened in the decades since the deaths of its only black couple.
26
Long-term Arab resident, 6/2002.
27
Carolyn Stephens, e-mail, 1/2001.
28
Ralph R. Rea,
Boone County and Its People
(Van Buren, AR: Press-Argus, 1955), 141–42.
29
James DeVries,
Race and Kinship in a Midwestern Town
(Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1984), 58; Blee,
Women of the Klan,
156. Bear in mind that this interview took place around 1987, 23 years after the public accommodations section of the 1964 Civil Rights Act became law.
30
Alice J. Thompson, “Changing Social Values in Brea,” interviewed by Ann Towner, California State University–Fullerton, Oral History #1726, 4/17/1982, 22.
31
Steve Bogira, “Hate, Chicago Style,”
Chicago Reader,
12/5/1986.
32
Cullman native, e-mail, 5/2002.
33
Joycelyn Landrum-Brown quoting her mother, e-mail, 8/2002.
34
Greenup, Illinois, resident, 6/2000; Martinsville, Illinois, resident, 10/2002; Hendrick, Howe, and Sackrider,
James Jones and the Handy Writers’ Colony
115, 121, 133; Carolyn Stephens, e-mail, 2/2001; Stephens, 9/2002.
CHAPTER 11: THE EFFECT OF SUNDOWN TOWNS ON WHITES
2
Like all-white towns, all-white neighborhoods are usually no accident, and residents of sundown neighborhoods show most of the characteristics of residents of sundown towns and suburbs, especially if the neighborhood is large enough to have its own high school.
3
Loewen, “Soclexia,” New England Sociological Society keynote address, 4/1997.
4
Actually, at this time the sign stood at the train station.
5
Lightfoot, “The Negro Exodus from Comanche County, Texas,” 415.
6
Carl Withers,
Plainville, USA
(Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1971 [1945]), 6; Jacob Holdt,
American Pictures
(Copenhagen: American Pictures Foundation, 1987?), 16.
7
Newsweek,
4/1/1957, 42, quoted in J. John Palen,
The Suburbs
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995), 81.
8
Oprah Winfrey, “Vintage Oprah: Racial Tension in Georgia,” Harpo Productions, Chicago, 2001 (1987), 4; Howard Schuman, Charlotte Steeh, and Lawrence Bobo,
Racial Attitudes in America
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985), 60.
9
Herbert Blumer, “Race Prejudice as a Sense of Group Position,”
Pacific Sociological Review
1, 1 (1958): 3–4.
10
Also called “lawn jockeys,” these figures stopped being painted black several decades ago, except in sundown towns. Most manufacturers never bothered to change their molds, however, so the now “Caucasian” coach boys still have thick lips and a broad nose but are painted “white.” Residents of Beaver Dam, a southern Wisconsin sundown town, invented a new form, “black boys in Green Bay Packers garb,” according to former resident Moira Meltzer-Cohen, who sent photos.
11
Hank Everman, “Corbin, Kentucky: A Socioeconomic Anomaly,” Department of History, Eastern Kentucky University, 2002, unpaginated; David M. P. Freund, “Making It Home,” Ph.D. thesis, University of Michigan, 1999, 409; Moira Meltzer-Cohen, e-mail, 9/2002; University of Washington undergraduates, 2/2002.
12
Teams from New Palestine High School in Indiana had been “Redbirds.” In the 1920s, when the KKK craze hit, they too became “Dragons,” according to a professor at DePauw University, 10/2001. According to Chris Meno (e-mail, 10/2002), who has family connections in the town, oral tradition in New Palestine and at the high school holds that the Klan donated land for the high school with the stipulation the mascot was to be a dragon. Although New Palestine is less than 10 miles from Indianapolis, it was still all-white in 2000. Meno tells that a black woman moved to New Palestine somewhere between 1992 and 1995 and “lasted two days. Blacks don’t even drive through.”
13
Rick Baker, “Pekin Students Veto ‘Chinks’ Name Change,” 11/28/1974, clipping in Pekin library, name of newspaper omitted; Rose M. Hasler,
Pekin, Illinois: A Pictorial History
(St. Louis: Bradley, 1998), 42; “KKK Holds Local Recruiting Session,”
Pekin Times,
11/29/1999; Karen McDonald, “KKK Recruiting Local Teen-agers,”
Peoria Journal Star,
11/29/1999.
14
Ted Boyer, letter,
Decatur Herald and Review,
11/13/2001; Dianna Adams, 10/2000 e-mail to
Classmates.com
bulletin board.
15
This “we” includes African Americans as well as European Americans, because many Redskin players and fans are black. Native Americans and their supporters launched a legal challenge to the Washington Redskins logo, since it is illegal for the government to grant trademarks for racial slurs. They won initially, were reversed, and are now appealing. If the suit succeeds, the team might change its nickname rather than face competition for T-shirt and souvenir sales.
16
Peoria resident, 2/2001; male undergraduate, University of Illinois–Chicago, 9/2001; Randy Whitman, e-mail via
Classmates.com
, 6/2004.
17
Circa 1993 Meadowbrook graduate, 12/2002.
18
Hominy, Oklahoma, native, e-mail, 11/2001.
19
Western Shore teacher, e-mail, 11/2002; Kaye Collins, e-mail, 6/2002; social studies teacher, Great Lakes National Council for the Social Sciences (NCSS), 4/2001; Robby Heason,
Trouble Behind
(Cicada Films, 1990).
20
David Marniss and Neil Henry, “Race ‘War’ in Cairo,”
Washington Post,
3/22/1987.
21
Indiana teacher, e-mail, 10/2004; undergraduate, University of Illinois–Urbana, 4/2000; Missouri resident, e-mail, 6/2000.
22
Paul Zielbauer, “After Game, Aftertaste of Racial Slurs Lingers,”
New York Times,
12/14/1999.
24
Darla Craft, email via
Classmates.com
, 10/2002; Pinckneyville native, e-mail, 6/2001.
25
Longtime Sheridan resident, Grant County Musuem, Sheridan, AR, 10/2001; University of Illinois–Urbana undergraduate from Highland, 10/2002.
26
Ralph R. Rea,
Boone County and Its People
(Van Buren, AR: Press-Argus, 1955), 141–42.
27
Kathy Cosseboom,
Grosse Pointe, Michigan: Race Against Race
(East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1972), 52.
28
Kathy Spillman, 12/2000; Roger Horowitz, 9/2000; “Williams Sisters Will Skip Indian Wells Again,”
USA Today,
3/6/2003; “Williams Recounts Racist Taunts,”
International Herald Tribune,
3/27/2001.
31
Ramelle MaCoy, e-mail to Ken Lawrence, 3/2003.
32
Grant County Museum volunteer, 10/2001.
33
John D. Baskerville, e-mail, 7/2003.
34
Actually the Williams family, unlike the usual African American in such a situation, had some resources, notably their own eminence. They have boycotted the Pacific Life Open since 2001. In 2003 the tournament director called the incident “unfortunate” and said “he understands why the Williamses are staying away” but went on to claim “the event will do just fine without them.”
36
Roger Karns, e-mail, 5/2002.
38
Pete Danko, “Hemet Team Uses Racial Slurs, Rivals Say,”
Riverside County Press Enterprise,
11/19/1989.