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INTRODUCTION: LAW OF THE LAND
| xii | “all hell broke loose”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980, courtesy of Henry Dan Berry. |
| xvi | “We white people won”: “White Protestors Disrupt ‘Walk for Brotherhood’ in Georgia Town,” New York Times, January 18, 1987. |
| xx | “Girl Murdered by Negro at Cumming,” Augusta Chronicle, September 10, 1912; “Confessed His Deed,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912. |
| xxii | sustained campaign of terror: For an overview of racial cleansing in twentieth-century America, see James W. Loewens’s Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York: New Press, 2013). |
CHAPTER 1: THE SCREAM
1 “at once sounded an alarm”: “Two Companies of Militia Prevent a Serious Race Riot,” Macon Telegraph, September 8, 1912.
1 “a negro man in her bed”: “Troops Rushed to Cumming in Autos to Check Race Riot,” Atlanta Journal, September 7, 1912.
2 “SAWNEE KLAVERN”: Don Shadburn, The Cottonpatch Chronicles (Cumming, GA: Pioneer-Cherokee Heritage Series, 2003), Appendix H, 478–79.
2 The farm in Vickery’s Creek: 1880 U. S. Census, Vickerys Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; roll 147; p. 402C; Enumeration District 075; image 0085; FHL microfilm 1254147.
3 died of meningitis: Forsyth County Heritage Book Committee, Forsyth County, Georgia Heritage, 1832–2011 (Waynesville, NC: County Heritage, Inc., 2011), 222.
3 Lillie, eleven, Jewell, eight: 1910 U. S. Census, Settendown, Forsyth, Georgia; roll T624_188; p. 10B; Enumeration District 0043; FHL microfilm 1374201.
3 declared his candidacy: “County Candidates,” Macon Telegraph, June 21, 1912.
4 men held as accomplices: “More Trouble at Cumming,” Augusta Chronicle, September 12, 1912.
4 Morgan and Harriet Strickland: 1910 U. S. Census, Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; roll T624_188; p. 18A; Enumeration District 0036; FHL microfilm 1374201; Forsyth County Return for Colored Taxpayers, 1912, Big Creek District, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
4 “rounded up suspects”: “Two Companies of Militia Prevent a Serious Race Riot,” Macon Telegraph, September 8, 1912.
4 black men and white women: Roberto Franzosi, Gianluca De Fazio, and Stefania Vicari, “Ways of Measuring Agency: An Application of Quantitative Narrative Analysis to Lynchings in Georgia (1875–1930),” Sociological Methodology 42 (2012), 1–42.
5 “will probably be the victim”: “Threatened Lynching at Cumming Averted,” Atlanta Georgian, September 7, 1912, home edition.
5 “no excitement prevailed”: Ibid.
6 “a determined spirit”: “Threatened Lynching at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 7, 1912, final edition.
6 one of the first “white primary” systems: C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 85.
6 the chaotic war year of 1863: 1880 U. S. Census, Little River, Cherokee, Georgia; roll 140; FHL microfilm 1254140; p. 254B; Enumeration District 026; image 0089.
7 educated black man: 1910 U. S. Census, Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; roll T624_188; p. 16B; Enumeration District 0036; FHL microfilm 1374201.
7 “a sorry white woman”: “Two Companies of Militia Prevent a Serious Race Riot,” Macon Telegraph, September 8, 1912.
7 “the infuriated mob was upon him”: “State Troopers Rescue Negroes at Cumming, Ga.,” Atlanta Constitution, September 8, 1912.
8 burn Grant Smith alive: “Troops Rushed to Cumming in Autos to Check Race Riot,” Atlanta Journal, September 7, 1912.
8 to treat and dress his wounds: “Militia Prevents Clash of Races at Cumming,” Columbus Enquirer-Sun, September 8, 1912.
9 North Georgia Agricultural College: “Alumni Personals,” Delta of Sigma Nu Fraternity, 26.3 (1909), 988.
9 at the University of Georgia: Register of the University of Georgia (Athens, 1906), 112.
9 “stupendous results”: “Railroad Meeting at Cumming, Georgia,” Atlanta Constitution, March 11, 1871.
9 “build a road through the county”: Carroll County Times, January 12, 1872.
9 “the sum of $20,000”: “They Want a Railroad,” Atlanta Constitution, August 29, 1891.
10 Plans for the Atlanta Northeastern: “Petition for Charter,” Marietta Journal, July 9, 1908.
10 “The line which is to be built”: “Trolley for North Georgia,” Atlanta Constitution, January 9, 1910.
10 To many of the county’s wary hill people: For more on the anxiety of change in the new century, see Steven Hahn, The Roots of Southern Populism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 37.
12 largest black-owned property in the county: Forsyth County Return for Colored Taxpayers, 1912, Big Creek District, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
12 Cumming city limits: “Sheriff Sales,” Baptist Leader, January 19, 1893.
12 first and only black member: Garland C. Bagley, History of Forsyth County, vol. 2 (Milledgeville, GA: Boyd Publishing, 1990), 691.
13 “25 cent pieces”: Ibid., 812.
14 “women and children”: “Trouble at Cumming Prevented by Militia,” Atlanta Journal, September 8, 1912.
14 “armed for war”: Ibid.
14 “pitched battle between the races”: “Race Riot, Sheriff Shot,” Macon Telegraph, July 28, 1912.
14 “a plot to burn the town”: “Race Riot Ends, Order Reigns in Plainville,” Macon Telegraph, July 29, 1912.
15 armed black men: “Race War: Whites Clash with Negroes Near Calhoun,” Atlanta Constitution, July 28, 1912.
15 “the battle was maintained”: “Plainville Quiet After Two Days of Excitement,” Macon Telegraph, July 30, 1912.
15 “a band of negroes”: “Shot in Race Riot,” New York Times, July 29, 1912.
CHAPTER 2: RIOT, ROUT, TUMULT
17 [But] “while we were sitting there”: Isabella D. Harris, letter to Max Gilstrap, January 28, 1987, postscript p. 5–6. Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library / University of Georgia Libraries, ms2687(m).
18 “fully 500 white men”: “Threatened Lynching at Cumming Averted,” Atlanta Georgian, September 7, 1912, final edition.
18 “many arms and munitions”: “Troops Rushed to Cumming in Autos to Check Race Riot,” Atlanta Journal, September 7, 1912.
18 “old rifles, shotguns ancient and modern”: “Terror in Cumming, Race Riot Feared,” Atlanta Georgian, September 11, 1912, home edition.
19 “A hundred or more white men”: “Threatened Lynching at Cumming Averted,” Atlanta Georgian, September 7, 1912, final edition.
19 “They accepted the warning”: Columbus Enquirer, September 8, 1912.
19 “We wants nigger for dinner!”: Isabella D. Harris, letter to Max Gilstrap, January 18, 1987, postscript p. 1.
21 “Night Riders are said to have killed”: “Riders Burn 4 Churches,” Washington Post, February 1, 1910, 4.
21 “Terror exists”: “Terror Reign in Georgia,” Washington Post, December 16, 1910.
21 “Owing to the posting of anonymous placards”: Chicago Defender, January 28, 1911.
22 “to apprehend the outbreak”: The Code of the State of Georgia, Adopted August 15th, 1910 (Atlanta: Foot & Davies), 1912, article 2, §6480. §141–42; Acts of 1912.
22 “repealing the powers”: “Hitch in the Law,” Augusta Chronicle, September 14, 1912, 2.
22 safeguard the supply of cheap black labor: For more on the exploitation and reenslavement of African American workers in the twentieth century, see Douglas Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name (New York: Anchor, 2009).
22 “a number of the more rabid”: “Threatened Lynching at Cumming Averted,” Atlanta Georgian, September 7, 1912, final edition.
23 Fifty-two soldiers of the Candler Horse Guards: “Troops Rushed to Cumming in Autos,” Atlanta Journal, September 7, 1912.
23 “When soldiers are called upon”: “Soldiers Who Shot Augustans Acquitted,” News Herald (Lawrenceville, GA), September 24, 1912.
24 “The suppression of anarchy”: Railway Age and Railway Review 55.2 (1913), 52.
24 “hollow square”: Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Georgia, 1911–1912 (Atlanta: Charles P. Byrd), 1912, appendix 2, 12.
25 “the soldiers formed a double column”: “Trouble at Cumming Prevented by Militia,” Atlanta Journal, September 8, 1912.
25 “Serious Race Riot Averted”: “State Troops Rescue Negroes at Cumming,” Atlanta Constitution, September 8, 1912.
26 “There are many white women in the South”: Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Southern Horrors (pamphlet, 1892), reprinted in Ida B. Wells-Barnett, On Lynchings (Amherst, NY: Humanity Books, 2002), 31.
26 “has not been made public”: “Threatened Lynching at Cumming Averted,” Atlanta Georgian, September 7, 1912, final edition.
27 “The town is perfectly quiet”: “Cumming Girl, Throat Cut, Found in Woods,” Atlanta Georgian, September 9, 1912.
27 Azzie had gone to church that morning: Note dated December 5, 2000, written by Esta Gay Crow Wetherford, sister of Mae Crow, on the reverse side of Mae’s portrait. Courtesy of Debbie Vermaat.
27 The two girls had stood chatting: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980, courtesy of Henry Dan Berry.
28 “several of the searchers”: “Girl, 18, Throat Cut, Found Unconscious in Woods Near Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 9, 1912, home edition.
28 “she had evidently been there”: Ibid.
29 “seething with bitterness”: “Cumming Negro Caught by Posse,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, home edition.
29 “the inflamed state”: “Two Negroes to Hang October 25th,” Atlanta Georgian, October 4, 1912.
CHAPTER 3: THE MISSING GIRL
30 Like most farmers’ children: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 247, n. 1.
31 “one of the most prominent planters”: “Cumming Ga. Girl, Throat Cut, Found in Woods,” Atlanta Georgian, September 9, 1912, final edition.
31 when Mae’s grandfather Isaac walked to Dawsonville: Muster Roll of Company L, 38th Regiment, CSA (ancestry.com); 1860 U. S. Census, Population Schedule. NARA microfilm publication M653, 1,438 rolls. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records. See especially Forsyth County, Georgia, roll M653_121; p. 491; Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850–1880, Census Year: 1870; Chestatee, Forsyth County, Georgia.
31 property-owning yeoman farmer: 1880 U. S. Census, Chestatee, Forsyth, Georgia; roll 147; FHL microfilm 1254147; p. 444B; Enumeration District 078; image 0170. 1900 U. S. Census, Chestatee, Forsyth, Georgia; roll 197; p. 1A; Enumeration District 0033; FHL microfilm 1240197.
31 “no property to dispose”: Indigent Pension Application, Isaac Crow, Forsyth County, 1904, Confederate Pension Applications, RG 58-1-1, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
32 “It is said that 36 percent”: “The Mortgaging of Farm Lands,” Atlanta Constitution, December 9, 1888, 18.
32 The combined effect of all these forces: For more on the downward spiral of property owners like the Crows, see William F. Holmes, “The Southern Farmer’s Alliance: The Georgia Experience,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 72.4 (1988), 628; and C. Van Woodward, Origins of the New South, 1877–1933 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1951), 175–204.
33 sixty-three people: Alan Candler and Clement Evans, eds., Georgia: Sketches, Counties, Towns, Events, Institutions & People, vol. 2 (Atlanta: State Historical Association, 1906), 47.
34 $100 in personal property: Georgia Tax Digests [1875], Forsyth County, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
34 a “total estate” of five dollars: Georgia Tax Digests [1890], Forsyth County, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
34 Buck and Catie had taken in four relatives: 1900 U. S. Census, Wilsons, Hall, Georgia; roll 202; p. 13B; Enumeration District 0077; FHL microfilm 1240202.
35 common-law wife: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
35 “I remember passing these children”: Ibid.
36 “hired man”: 1910 U. S. Census, Chattahoochee, Forsyth, Georgia; roll T624_188; p. 7A; Enumeration District 0041; FHL microfilm 1374201.
37 “I [went] to schoole that morning,” Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
37 whites from both sides of the river: “Cumming, Ga., Girl, Throat Cut, Found in the Woods,” Atlanta Georgian, September 9, 1912, final edition.
38 “Mr. Shackelford identified it”: “Negro Is Rushed in Fast Machine to Fulton Tower,” Atlanta Constitution, September 10, 1912.
38 “The man ask Ern”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
39 “Mock Lynching”: “Mock Lynching Extorts Truth,” News Tribune (Duluth, MN), October 1, 1912, 12.
40 “barefooted, fiendish-looking”: “Troops on Guard,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
40 “eager to unearth a clue”: “Cumming Ga. Girl, Throat Cut, Found in Woods,” Atlanta Georgian, September 9, 1912, final edition.
40 “Mr. Marvin Bell”: “Rapist Brought Here,” Gainesville News, September 11, 1912.
41 most revered statesman: In 1998, the Georgia General Assembly passed a law creating the new Bell-Forsyth Judicial Circuit, named for Hiram Parks Bell, and in 2004 the Historical Society of Forsyth christened its new home the Hiram Parks Bell Research Center.
41 “Colonel Bell”: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774–2005, House Document 108-222.
41 “white over black domination”: Hiram Parks Bell, Men and Things (Atlanta: Foote and Davies, 1907), 135–36.
42 “If the prisoner had not been spirited away”: “Negro Is Rushed in Fast Machine to Fulton Tower,” Atlanta Constitution, September 10, 1912.
42 “On account of the intense feeling”: “Rapist Brought Here,” Gainesville News, September 11, 1912.
43 “wild rumors of lynching”: Ibid.
43 “rumor was passing freely”: “Negro Is Rushed in Fast Machine to Fulton Tower,” Atlanta Constitution, September 10, 1912.
43 “the distance from Gainesville to Atlanta”: Ibid.
44 “more race trouble is feared”: Ibid.
CHAPTER 4: AND THE MOB CAME ON
45 “Those men had raped [Mae] many times”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
46 “went immediately”: “Mob Batters Down Jail Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition.
46 “The country roads”: Ibid.
46 “mob spirit”: “Cumming Jail Stormed,” Atlanta Journal, September 10, 1912.
46 a mob of more than two thousand men: “Mob Lynches Negro,” Watchman and Southron, September 14, 1912.
47 the sheriff “left the jail”: “Mob Batters Down Jail Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition.
47 a future Klansman himself: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, Appendix H, 478.
48 “no excitement among the people”: Daily Constitutionalist, June 11, 1862, 3.
48 “summarily hung”: “Outrages in Georgia,” Chicago Tribune, July 8, 1870, 3.
49 “a jet black, greasy negro”: “Wanted to Lynch Him,” Atlanta Constitution, August 28, 1886, 8.
49 “Gober gave him the limit allowed by law”: “Twenty Year Term,” Macon Telegraph, December 25, 1897.
50 “locked the doors of the jail”: “Mob Batters Down Jail Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition.
50 “the mob came on”: Ibid.
50 “farmers known to all the countryside”: “Mob Batters Down Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition, one star.
51 “but these were soon drowned”: “Mob Batters Down Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition, two stars.
51 “Pistols and rifles cracked”: Ibid.
51 “as soon as the guns”: “Negro Lynched by Mob at Cumming,” Marietta Journal, September 13, 1912.
53 “the mountaineers were threatening”: “Negroes Is Rushed in Fast Machine to Fulton Tower,” Atlanta Constitution, September 11, 1912.
53 “hurrying from the town”: “Mob Batters Down Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition, two stars.
53 “it was not touched”: “Dr. Ansel Strickland Scores Daily Papers,” North Georgian, November 22, 1912.
53 “farmers known to all the countryside”: “Mob Batters Down Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912 final edition, two stars.
54 “parties unknown”: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 209.
54 “The provocation of the people”: “Editorial,” Cherokee Advance, October 4, 1912.
54 “no further trouble”: “Cumming Jail Stormed,” Atlanta Journal, September 11, 1912.
54 “remarkable self-restraint”: “Editorial,” Gainesville Times, September 11, 1912.
CHAPTER 5: A STRAW IN THE WHIRLWIND
55 “the clouds of race war”: “Bloodhounds on Trail of Cumming Firebug,” Atlanta Georgian, September 11, 1912, extra edition.
55 “Rumors that the negroes”: “Terror in Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 11, 1912.
56 when Laura Nelson confronted the white men: “Mother and Son Lynched,” Clinton Mirror (Clinton, IA), May 27, 1911.
57 “stomped to death”: Philip Dray, At the Hands of Persons Unknown (New York: Modern Library, 2003), 246.
58 “Another lynching at Cumming”: “Sheriff Saves Three Negroes,” Atlanta Constitution, September 12, 1912.
58 “The people of Cumming”: “Quiet Reigns in Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 12, 1912, home edition.
59 “lock the doors of the jail”: “Mob Batters Down Jail Door at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 10, 1912, final edition, one star.
60 “I realized it was too late”: “Quiet Reigns in Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 12, 1912, home edition.
61 “when darkness came”: “Trouble Over at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, September 12, 1912, extra edition.
61 “No disorder of any kind”: “Sheriff Saves Three Negroes,” Atlanta Constitution, September 12, 1912.
63 “the police system of the South”: W. E. B. Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007), 178.
63 “lawlessness” after dark: “Forsyth People Ask for Troops,” Augusta Chronicle, October 19, 1912.
63 “Negroes Flee from Forsyth”: Atlanta Constitution, October 13, 1912; “Enraged White People Are Driving Blacks from County,” New York Times, December 26, 1912
64 “a score or more of homes”: “Forsyth People Ask for Troops,” Augusta Chronicle, October 19, 1912.
64 “Take a typical church”: Du Bois, Souls of Black Folk, 92.
65 Faint traces of other black churches: Garland Bagley, History of Forsyth County, vol. 2, 845; Sheltonville Historical Society, “A Report of the Records Committee on the History of Sheltonville and the Sheltonville Community,” April 20, 1962.
65 “the negro’s victim”: “Girl Murdered by Negro at Cumming,” Augusta Chronicle, September 9, 1912.
65 “beat her into unconsciousness”: “Second Outrage Shocks Cumming,” Macon Telegraph, September 10, 1912.
66 “although every effort was made”: “Negro Is Rushed in Fast Machine to Fulton Tower,” Atlanta Constitution, September 10, 1912.
66 “the death of two white women”: “Martial Law in Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, October 2, 1912.
66 “she will likely recover”: Gainesville News, September 9, 1912.
66 “those fiends of hell, negroes”: “Letter from Mr. and Mrs. L. A. Crow,” North Georgian, October 1914, quoted in Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 235–36.
67 “all hell broke loose”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
67 “shooting at any black”: Interview with Susan Berry Roberts, granddaughter of Ruth Jordan, January 6, 2016.
67 twenty-seven acres: Forsyth County, Return of Colored Taxpayers, 1912, New Bridge District, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
67 “to get news of the goings on”: Interview with Susan Berry Roberts, January 6, 2016.
68 “Pa told this man”: Ibid. Records confirm that on October 11, 1912, Garrett Cook sold to a white man named George Olivet for $200. Deed Book 2, p. 101, Forsyth County Courthouse.
68 “until no colored was left”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
68 “the subject was never again brought up”: Interview with Henry Dan Berry, son of Ruth Jordan, January 8, 2016.
68 “They looked ahead of them”: Isabella Harris, letter to Max Gilstrap, January 24, 1987.
69 “Certain men”: Quoted in Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 230.
CHAPTER 6: THE DEVIL’S OWN HORSES
70 “but very few residents”: “Cumming Blacks to Waive Trial,” Atlanta Constitution, September 9, 1912.
70 “the members of the mob”: “Six Blacks Threatened with Lynching,” Atlanta Constitution, September 8, 1912.
70 “The real thing that upsets me”: “Leaders in Georgia County Say Outsiders to Blame for Violence,” Wilmington Morning Star, January 19, 1987, p. 10A
71 the original KKK all but defunct: David M. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1981), 18–19.
71 fellow clansmen to battle: Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake, “Canto III: The Gathering,” lines 1–18.
72 screened at the White House: London Melvin Stokes, D. W. Griffith’s “The Birth of a Nation” (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), 111.
72 “See! My people fill the streets”: D. W. Griffith, The Birth of a Nation, 1915, at 2:48:48.
72 “people of the county”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
72 “with their horrible faces”: Isabella Harris, letter to Max Gilstrap, January 24, 1987.
73 treaty after another was broken: Francis Paul Prucha, The Great Father: The United States Government and the American Indian (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995), 235–42.
74 integrated frontier community: For more on Cherokee families in Forsyth prior to the Indian Removal Act, see Don Shadburn, Unhallowed Intrusion: A History of Cherokee Families in Forsyth County, Georgia (Cumming, GA: Pioneer-Cherokee Heritage Series, 1993).
74 “there was such excitement”: “A Georgia Jaunt,” Atlanta Constitution, July 15, 1894, 2.
74 “Our [white] neighbors”: “New Echota,” Cherokee Phoenix, May 27, 1829, 2
75 “an industrious Indian”: “Atrocious Injustice,” Cherokee Phoenix, May 18, 1833, 3.
76 Two of the largest Cherokee removal forts: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 5.
76 “search out”: David A. Harris, Stories My Grandmother Told Me (Unpublished manuscript in the collection of the Historical Society of Forsyth County, 1964), 14.
76 “the execution of the most brutal order”: Diary of John G. Burnett, quoted in James C. Cobb, Georgia Odyssey (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 5.
77 sixteen thousand native people: Prucha, The Great Father, 235–42.
77 “were worked exclusive of slave labor”: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 192 (emphasis added).
78 The largest slaveholders: Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850–1880, Census Years: 1850 and 1860; District 31, Forsyth, Georgia [database online]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2010.
78 15 percent of all households: Stephen A. West, From Yeoman to Redneck in the South Carolina Upcountry, 1850–1915 (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 2008), 204.
78 Most prominent among them: 1840, 1850, and 1860 U. S. Census—Slave Schedules [database online]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2004.
79 fathered by their white owners: Interview with Deidre Brown-Stewart and Leroy Brown, October 25, 2014.
79 “git me mo’ slaves”: “Ex-Slave Interview: Aunt Carrie Mason, Milledgeville, Georgia,” in The American Slave: A Composite Biography, ed. George Rawick (Greenwood, 1972), vol. 13, 112.
79 “made an honest living”: Hiram Parks Bell, Men and Things (Atlanta: Foote and Davies, 1907), 51.
80 Resentful of their rich white neighbors: Gladys-Marie Fry, Night Riders in Black Folk History (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1975), 82–109.
80 “the slave’s arms were bound”: Rawick, The American Slave, 328.
81 Eliza made repeated attempts to escape: Interview with Anthony Neal, April 2, 2014.
CHAPTER 7: THE MAJESTY OF THE LAW
83 The U.S. Supreme Court: Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587 (1935).
84 “a state of insurrection”: “Martial Law Will Be Declared in Forsyth,” Atlanta Constitution, September 28, 1912.
84 “each one offered an excuse”: “Lawyers Appointed to Defend Negroes,” Atlanta Georgian, October 1, 1912, 2.
84 a partner in the Atlanta Northeastern: Railway Review, 48 (1908), 733.
84 the defense team: “Cumming Is Quiet on Eve of Trial,” Atlanta Constitution, October 3, 1912.
86 “the barefooted, fiendish-looking type”: “Troops on Guard,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
87 “a personal guard”: “Cumming Is Quiet on Eve of Trial,” Atlanta Constitution, October 3, 1912.
87 stop for lunch: A. M. Light later submitted a reimbursement request for “wagon transportation furnished [to] troops en-route to Cumming”; Alice Mashburn received $28.75 for “meals furnished troops on duty”; and the proprietors of the Merchant’s Hotel at Buford requested compensation for meals totaling $65.50. Correspondence Files of the Adjutant General’s Office, October 1912, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
87 a camp perimeter: “Cumming Is Quiet on Eve of Trial,” Atlanta Constitution, October 3, 1912.
87 “the mountaineers of north Georgia”: “Troops Off to Cumming with Six Negroes,” Atlanta Georgian, October 2, 1912, extra edition.
88 “came to the camp”: “Cumming Is Quiet on Eve of Trial,” Atlanta Constitution, October 3, 1912.
89 “a fourteen-karat son of a bitch”: Steve Oney, And the Dead Shall Rise (New York: Vintage, 2004), 522.
89 “the will of the people”: “Letter to the Editor” by Ansel Strickland, North Georgian, November 22, 1912.
89 “Little time will be required”: “Trials at Cumming,” Gainesville Times, October 2, 1912.
91 “turned State’s evidence”: Royal Freeman Nash, “The Cherokee Fires,” The Crisis 11.1 (1915), 266.
91 “crowded as never before”: “Bayonets Guard Blacks as Trial at Cumming Begins,” Atlanta Journal, October 3, 1912.
91 “mountaineers [who had] been gathering weapons”: “Martial Law in Cumming as Blacks Are Tried,” Atlanta Georgian, October 2, 1912, extra edition.
91 “ordered to discard”: “Martial Law in Cumming as Blacks Are Tried,” Atlanta Georgian, October 2, 1912.
92 “any disorder”: “Troops Uphold Law,” Atlanta Constitution, October 2, 1912.
92 “their minds were not clearly unbiased”: “Troops Guard Negroes’ Trial at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, October 3, 1912, home edition, 5.
92 “a watchman”: Ibid.
92 E. S. Garrett and William Hammond: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 478–79.
92 “expedite the trial”: “Troops Guard Negroes’ Trial at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, October 3, 1912, home edition, 5.
93 “was compelled to repeat the pathetic story”: “Troops on Guard as Two Rapists Are Convicted,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
94 “they borrowed a lantern”: “Troops Guard Negroes’ Trial at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, October 3, 1912, home edition, 5.
96 “one of the most revolting rape cases”: “Troops on Guard as Two Rapists Are Convicted,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
CHAPTER 8: FASTENING THE NOOSE
97 “should it be en-route”: “Troops Guard Negroes’ Trial at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, October 3, 1912, home edition, 5.
98 “enough determined men”: Ibid.
98 “at a safe distance”: “Troops on Guard,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
98 “Major Catron has 24 men”: “Troops Guard Negroes’ Trial at Cumming,” Atlanta Georgian, October 3, 1912, home edition, 5.
98 “a few prominent citizens”: Ibid.
99 $1.2 million: “Contracts to Let,” Steam Shovel and Dredge, 12 (1908), 764.
100 “If any one of the six”: “Bayonets Guard Blacks as Trial at Cumming Begin,” Atlanta Journal, October 3, 1912.
100 The subpoena list: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, Appendix K, 489.
100 “Jane Daniel was a complete surprise”: “Troops on Guard as Rapists Are Convicted,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
101 “she was left for dead”: Ibid.
102 “the negroes satisfied”: Ibid.
102 “from Cumming to hell”: “Letter to the Editor” by Ansel Strickland, North Georgian, November 22, 1912.
103 “We the jury”: Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 217.
103 “the choice tenors of the regiment”: “Troops on Guard,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1912.
104 “a shade more human-looking”: Ibid.
104 “We the jury”: Don Shadburn, Cottonpatch Chronicles, 217.
105 “All things changed at midnight”: “Troops on Guard,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1914.
106 “It speaks well for the citizens”: “Governor Is Pleased with Militia,” Atlanta Constitution, October 6, 1912.
106 “I want to thank both officers and men”: “Troops on Guard,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1914.
106 “worn and bedraggled”: “Troops Return from Forsyth,” Atlanta Constitution, October 5, 1912.
106 “make a run for it”: Ibid.
107 “the absence of witnesses”: “Two Negroes to Hang Oct. 25,” Atlanta Georgian, October 4, 1912.
CHAPTER 9: WE CONDEMN THIS CONDUCT
108 “The anti-negro movement”: “Georgia in Terror of Night Riders,” New York Times, December 25, 1912.
109 “Every so often”: “Tears Flowed Years After Forced Exodus,” Gainesville Times, January 22, 1987.
110 “turn back to look for them”: Ibid.
111 “Recently warnings have been sent”: “Georgia in Terror of Night Riders,” New York Times, December 25, 1912.
111 “Three wagon loads”: “Cumming Negroes to Hang Oct. 25th,” Cherokee Advance, October 11, 1912.
111 “anonymous letters”: “Gainesville Invaded by Negroes,” Savannah Tribune, October 19, 1912.
112 “My Dear Gov”: A. J. Julian to Joseph Mackey Brown, February 22, 1913. Joseph Mackey Brown Papers, MSS41, box 4, folder 3, Atlanta History Center.
113 “deplore[d] the action”: Joseph Mackey Brown to A. J. Julian, February 25, 1913. Joseph Mackey Brown Papers, MSS41, box 4, folder 3, Atlanta History Center.
114 “They drove out a cook”: Royal Freeman Nash, “The Cherokee Fires,” The Crisis 11.1 (1915), 268.
115 “effort on the part of some unknown persons”: “Resolution Adopted by Mass Meeting of the Citizens of the Town of Cumming at Court House of Forsyth County, Wednesday, October 16, 1912.” Correspondence of Governor Joseph Mackey Brown, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
115 “Quite a number of black churches”: “To His Excellency, Joseph M. Brown, Governor,” letter from Charles L. Harris, October 17, 1912. Correspondence of Governor Joseph Mackey Brown, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
115 “We condemn this conduct”: “Resolution Adopted by Mass Meeting of the Citizens of the Town of Cumming at Court House of Forsyth County, Wednesday, October 16, 1912.” Correspondence of Governor Joseph Mackey Brown, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
116 “We pledge ourselves”: Ibid..
116 “investigate these depredations”: “Ask Aid to End Crime in Forsyth,” Atlanta Constitution, October 18, 1912.
116 “I am in receipt of your letter”: “Mssrs. C. L. Harris & J. F. Echols,” October 21, 1912, Correspondence of Governor Joseph Mackey Brown, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
117 one of the earliest Prohibition laws: David M. Fahey, “Temperance Movement,” New Georgia Encyclopedia; http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/history-archaeology/temperance-movement, accessed October 1, 2015.
117 Judge Newman’s Northern District court: Minute Book of the United States Court, Northern District, Judge William T. Newman, 1912–1913. National Archives, Morrow, GA.
119 “Old Man Roper”: Royal Freeman Nash, “The Cherokee Fires,” The Crisis 11.1 (1915), 266.
119 “A gentleman of Forsyth County”: Dahlonega Nugget, October 18, 1912.
CHAPTER 10: CRUSH THE THING IN ITS INFANCY
120 “the influx of negoes”: “Trouble Brewing in Hill Country,” Atlanta Constitution, October 14, 1912.
120 “a crowd variously estimated”: “Drove Negroes Off Gaines Building,” Gainesville Times, October 16, 1912.
121 “a mob of whites appeared”: “Trouble Brewing in Hill Country,” Atlanta Constitution, October 14, 1912.
121 “Not only has the entire section”: Ibid.
122 “Cursing the negro”: Ibid.
123 “The men alleged”: “Nightriders Arrested That Shot Up House Near Flowery Branch,” Gainesville News, October 16, 1912.
123 “Bud Martin”: Ibid.
124 “We don’t need any military”: “Arrest Is Made in Race Trouble,” Atlanta Constitution, January 31, 1921, 9.
124 “Horace Smith”: “Five Men Arrested for Running Negroes Off Gaines Building Last Thursday,” Gainesville Times, October 16, 1912.
124 “If we could have gotten”: Royal Freeman Nash, “The Cherokee Fires,” Crisis 11.1 (1915), 267.
125 “When the crackers in Hall County”: Ibid., 268.
CHAPTER 11: THE SCAFFOLD
126 “Now what is the law?”: “Letter to the Editor” by Ansel Strickland, North Georgian, November 22, 1912.
126 “within one mile”: Minute Book of the Forsyth County Superior Court, October 4, 1912. Forsyth County Courthouse.
126 a “temptation to mob violence”: “Reform in Legal Hangings,” Atlanta Constitution, October 26, 1912.
127 When Morris learned: “Thousands Cheer at Hanging,” Keowee Courier, October 30, 1912.
129 “The weather was ideal”: Report of the Adjutant General of the State of Georgia, 1911–1912 (Atlanta: Charles P. Byrd, 1912), Appendix 2, 22.
129 “a heap of charred embers”: “Thousands Cheer at Hanging,” Keowee Courier, October 30, 1912.
130 the sound of a hammer: Interview with Don Shadburn, February 24, 2014.
131 “the side of the mob”: Report of the Adjutant General, Appendix 2, 20.
131 “The ground selected”: Ibid., Appendix 2, 23.
131 “a few relatives of the Sheriff”: Ibid., Appendix 2, 21.
132 “He was boisterous”: Ibid., Appendix 2, 20–22.
132 “took up their position”: “Knox and Daniel Hung Last Friday,” Forsyth County News, October 31, 1912.
132 “Most of these people”: Report of the Adjutant General, Appendix 2, 21.
133 “shortly before his death”: “Knox and Daniel Hung Last Friday,” Forsyth County News, October 31, 1912.
133 “neither negro had a word to say”: “Fence Was Burned to See a Hanging,” Augusta Chronicle, October 26, 1912.
133 a story passed down in the Crow family: Interview with Debbie Vermaat, January 20, 2015.
135 “The heavy rope”: “Murderer Snell Dies on Gallows,” Atlanta Constitution, June 30, 1900.
136 “table of drops”: The English system of calculating drops (“divide the weight of the patient in pounds into 2240, and the quotient will give the length of the long drop in feet”) was widely adopted in the United States. See Hugo Adam Bedau, ed., The Death Penalty in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982).
136 “the noose about their necks”: “Knox and Daniel Hung Last Friday,” Forsyth County News, October 31, 1912.
137 “cut the rope trigger with a hatchet”: Ibid.
138 “The trap was sprung”: Report of the Adjutant General, Appendix 2, 23.
138 eleven minutes: For more on the procedures of early-twentieth-century hangings, see http://capitalpunishment.uk.org/hangings (accessed December 1, 2015).
138 “ringside seats”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
139 piece of old hemp rope: Interview with Don Shadburn, February 24, 2014.
139 “they would be burned”: Report of the Adjutant General, Appendix 2, 20–21.
139 “called Dr. Selman”: Ibid., Appendix 2, 23.
CHAPTER 12: WHEN THEY WERE SLAVES
142 a white merchant named George Kellogg: Interview with Anthony Neal, April 2, 2014.
142 By 1870: Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850–1880, Census Year: 1870; District 31, Forsyth, Georgia [database online]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2010.
143 “Qualified Voters”: Georgia, Office of the Governor. Returns of Qualified Voters Under the Reconstruction Act, 1867. Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
143 ratified the Fourteenth Amendment: Christopher C. Meyers, ed., The Empire State of the South: Georgia History in Documents and Essays (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008), 172.
144 the day of Joseph and Eliza’s wedding: Records of Marriages, Book D, 1868–1877, 154. Forsyth County Courthouse.
144 the bill Lincoln signed into law: H.R. Exec. Doc. 11, 39th Congress, 1st Session, 1865, 45 (Serial 1255); reprint Circular No. 5, May 30, 1865.
145 “power delegated to these resident white appointees”: H.R. Exec. Doc. 1, 40th Cong., 2nd sess., 1867, 673–74 (Serial 1324).
145 Major William J. Bryan: Order of Col. Caleb Sibley; W. J. Bryan, letter to O. O. Howard, Washington, DC. Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, Cumming Office section, National Archives at Washington, DC, M1903, roll 45.
147 “All this in Forsyth County”: W. J. Bryan, report to Col. Caleb Sibley, May 1968. Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, Marietta Office section, National Archives at Washington, DC, M1903, roll 58.
147 John A. Armstrong: Records of Binding Cases, Probate Court Records of the Forsyth County Courthouse, box 40, “Colored.”
147 “ideas inherited from slavery”: Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: Harper, 2014), 59.
148 “Thomas . . . binds himself”: “Binding Agreement: H. W. Strickland and Thomas Strickland, Free Boy of Color,” March 1866, Records of Binding Cases, Probate Court Records of the Forsyth County Courthouse, box 40, “Colored.”
148 “now holds without consent”: Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, Cumming Office section, National Archives at Washington, DC, M1903, roll 45.
148 Thomas Riley: Quoted in Jonathan Dean Sarris, A Separate Civil War (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012), 148.
148 “I am fully satisfied”: Records of the Field Offices for the State of Georgia, Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, 1865–1872, Cumming Office section, National Archives at Washington, DC, M1903, roll 45, 112.
149 “affairs are in a worse condition”: Letter from W. J. Bryan to Major Mosebach, October 31, 1868. Marietta Office section, National Archives at Washington, DC, M1903, roll 58.
149 “Until the freedmen are protected”: Letter from W. J. Bryan to Major Mosebach, August 27, 1868. Marietta Office section, National Archives at Washington, DC, M1903, roll 58.
150 ceased all operations: For authoritative studies of the Freedmen’s Bureau in Georgia, see Paul A. Cimbala, Under the Guardianship of the Nation: The Freedmen’s Bureau and the Reconstruction of Georgia, 1865–1870 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1997), and Sara Rappaport, “The Freedmen’s Bureau as a Legal Agent for Black Men and Women in Georgia,” Georgia Historical Quarterly 73.1 (1989), 26–53.
150 “terrorized [Forsyth] just after the War”: George Harris Bell recollections, originally in the Gainesville News, September 26, 1906. Excerpt reprinted in “Days of Long Ago,” Gainesville Times, May 16, 1976.
150 “a number of citizens”: Ibid.
151 “Atlanta Compromise” speech: Booker T. Washington, Speech before the Cotton States and International Exposition in Atlanta, September 18, 1895. From a version of the speech recorded in 1906, Columbia Gramophone Company, G. Robert Vincent Voice Library, Michigan State University, DB 191.
151 “the Negro . . . should make himself”: Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (New York: Doubleday, 1901), 202.
152 Joseph Kellogg had inherited: Selected U.S. Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850–1880, Census Years: 1880; District 879, Forsyth, Georgia [database online]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2010.
152 an additional fifty acres: Georgia, Property Tax Digests, 1793–1892, Militia District 879, Post Office: Cumming, Year: 1890 [database online]. Provo, UT: Ancestry.com, 2011.
152 “the Kelloggs were themselves landlords”: 1900 U. S. Census, Cumming, Forsyth, Georgia; roll 197; p. 2B; Enumeration District 0036; FHL microfilm 1240197.
152 in April of 1910: 1910 U. S. Census, Cumming, Forsyth, Georgia; roll T624_188; p. 6A; Enumeration District 0039; FHL microfilm 1374201.
CHAPTER 13: DRIVEN TO THE COOK STOVES
153 “After going all the way”: “Obear Censures Public Hanging,” Atlanta Constitution, October 16, 1912.
154 “An official may compromise”: “A Disgrace to Georgia,” editorial, Atlanta Constitution, November 7, 1912.
154 “a wealthy farmer of Forsyth county”: “Assassins Wound Forsyth Farmer,” Atlanta Constitution, October 30, 1912, dateline October 29, 1912.
155 “Deputy Sheriff Lummus”: Ibid.
156 People of color: Ann Short Chirhart, “‘Gardens of Education’: Beulah Rucker and African-American Culture in the Twentieth-Century Georgia Upcountry,” Georgia Historical Quarterly, Winter 1998, 834.
156 “Gainesville is being invaded”: “Trouble Brewing in Hill Country,” Atlanta Constitution October 14, 1912.
156 electric streetlamps: William L. Norton, Jr., Historic Gainesville and Hall County: An Illustrated History (San Antonio, TX: Historic Publishing Network, 2001), 29–30.
157 State Industrial and High School: For more on Byrd Oliver and Beulah Rucker Oliver, see Beulah Rucker Oliver, The Rugged Pathway (n.p.: 1953), and Ann Short Chirhart, “ ‘Gardens of Education’: Beulah Rucker and African-American Culture in the Twentieth-Century Georgia Upcountry,” Georgia Historical Quarterly, Winter 1998.
158 the two were married: Marriage license of William Butler and Jane Daniel, February 5, 1914, Hall County, in Georgia, Marriage Records from Select Counties, 1828–1978 (ancestry.com); 1920 U. S. Census, Gainesville Ward 2, Hall, Georgia; roll T625_261; p. 5B.
158 George Collins: Kathleen Thompson, “Racial Violence in North Georgia, 1900–1930,” Pickens County Progress, October 13, 2011.
158 the two hundred acres: Forsyth County Return for Colored Tax Payers, 1912, Cumming District, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA. For more on Joseph Kellogg’s land transactions, see Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 135.
160 “exchange for negro property”: “A Bargain” (classified advertisement), Atlanta Constitution, March 22, 1914, A10.
160 “If something is not done”: “Georgia Negroes in Terror,” Keowee Courier, December 25, 1912.
161 “I am reliably informed”: Journal of the Senate of the State of Georgia, Regular Session, June 15, 1913, 21.
161 “show an excess of negro”: “White Man Predominates in Culture of Cotton,” Atlanta Constitution, December 8, 1914.
162 “The extraordinary Heats here”: Thomas Stephens, The Hard Case of the Distressed People (London: 1742), quoted in Jeffrey Robert Young, ed., Pro Slavery and Sectional Thought in the Early South, 1740–1829 (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2006), 63.
163 “the black labor of the past”: “White Man Predominates in Culture of Cotton,” Atlanta Constitution, December 8, 1914.
164 “a day of pleasure to the ladies”: “Dr. A. Strickland on the Wash Tub,” undated letter to the editor, North Georgian, reproduced in Garland C. Bagley, History of Forsyth County, vol. 2 (Milledgeville, GA: Boyd), 1990, 622.
164 twenty-one million horses: Emily R. Kilby, “The Demographics of the U.S. Equine Population,” in The State of the Animals IV (Washington, DC: Humane Society Press, 2007), 176.
165 the Model T of the agricultural world: William White, “Economic History of Tractors in the United States,” Economic History Association, March 26, 2008; https://eh.net/encyclopedia/economic-history-of-tractors-in-the-united-states, accessed October 1, 2015.
166 “altogether inadvisable”: “At Princeton, Woodrow Wilson, a Heralded Alum, Is Recast as an Intolerant One,” New York Times, November 22, 2015.
166 “absolute fair dealing”: Quoted in Cleveland M. Green, “Prejudices and Empty Promises: Woodrow Wilson’s Betrayal of the Negro, 1910–1919,” The Crisis 87.9 (November 1980), 380.
167 “Your inauguration”: “An Open Letter to Woodrow Wilson,” The Crisis 5.5 (March 1913), 236–37.
168 “Your manner offends me”: “Mr. Trotter and Mr. Wilson,” The Crisis 9.3 (January 1915), 119–20.
168 Department of the Treasury and the U.S. Postal Service: Ibid.
168 “the votes of ignorant negroes”: Woodrow Wilson, A History of the American People, vol. 9 (Harper & Brothers, 1918), 58.
168 “A Negro’s place is in the cornfield”: Quoted in Cleveland M. Green, “Prejudices and Empty Promises: Woodrow Wilson’s Betrayal of the Negro, 1910–1919,” The Crisis 87.9 (November 1980), 383.
169 Ophelia Blake: Don Shadburn, Pioneer History of Forsyth County, Georgia (Milledgeville, GA: Boyd), 1981, 287; 1910 U. S. Census, Cumming, Forsyth, Georgia; roll T624_188; p. 1A; Enumeration District 0039; FHL microfilm 1374201.
170 “aroused practically the entire town”: “Dynamite Exploded Under Negro Houses in Cumming,” Atlanta Constitution, March 20, 1913.
170 “Dr. John”: “Dr. John H. Hockenhull,” Forsyth County News, November 23, 1922.
171 Will Phillips: “Negro Who Is Charged with Robbing Stores in Cumming Is Arrested,” Atlanta Constitution, April 9, 1914.
172 forty years on the Georgia chain gang: Georgia’s Central Register of Convicts, 1817–1976, Series 21/3/27. Georgia State Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
172 “Sheriff W. W. Reid”: “Governor Harris Asks Return of Negro Now in Florida,” Atlanta Constitution, October 19, 1915, 7.
CHAPTER 14: EXILE, 1915–1920
173 “Every family was run out”: “A County Without a Negro in It,” Daily Times-Enterprise (Thomasville, GA), October 7, 1915, 4.
174 “rushed them out of the county”: “County Bars Colored Men,” Appeal (St. Paul, MN), September 14, 1915.
174 The list of participants: “Stoddard to Lead Tourists,” Atlanta Constitution, September 3, 1915.
176 “The good farmers of Hall county”: “Ms. Martin Insists Trouble Was Serious,” Macon Telegraph, October 9, 1915.
176 “Mr. McCullough and his guests”: “State Tourists Come To-night to Atlanta,” Atlanta Georgian, October 5, 1915.
177 “rocks hurled at the cars”: “Georgia Tourists Are Greeted with ‘Irish Confetti,’ ” Atlanta Constitution, October 5, 1915.
177 “most cordial”: Ibid.
178 “was quite pale”: “Ms. Martin Insists Trouble Was Serious,” Macon Telegraph, October 9, 1915.
178 “A sense of duty”: “Seeing Georgia Tourists Stoned,” Macon Telegraph, October 5, 1915.
179 “bury its fangs in the body politic”: Ibid.
179 “the wonders of this section”: “Tourists Find Motoring in Georgia Like a Trip in Enchanted Land,” Atlanta Constitution, October 4, 1915.
180 “Georgia Crackers”: “Georgia Crackers Rock Negro Chauffeurs,” New York Age, October 14, 1915; “Negro Chauffeurs Are Stoned by Georgia Mob,” Huntingdon Press (IN), October 5, 1915.
180 “an interurban line”: Railway Age Gazette, 60 (1916), 377.
180 In 1919, Harris decided to take the plunge: “Among Cordele Leaders Who Plan Section’s Growth,” Macon Telegraph, September 23, 1920.
181 He would never again live in Forsyth County: Forsyth County, Georgia Heritage 1832–2011 (Waynesville, NC: County Heritage, Inc., 2011), 222. According to his granddaughter, one day Lummus went to Atlanta “and never came home . . . he was never seen again” in Forsyth.
181 The room Lummus rented: 1920 U. S. Census, Atlanta Ward 6, Fulton, Georgia; roll T625_252; p. 3B; Enumeration District 114; image 1101.
CHAPTER 15: ERASURE, 1920–1970
183 “and each sale tells a tale”: Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 136.
184 “there is no record”: Ibid.
184 “continuously, openly, and notoriously”: “Adverse Possession,” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School, https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex, accessed August 6, 2015.
184 “must not have orginated in fraud”: Park’s Annotated Code of the State of Georgia, 1914, Embracing the Code of 1910 (Atlanta: Harrison Company, 1915), §4164 “Adverse Possession,” 2341.
185 “There was land for the taking”: Jaspin, Buried, 136.
185 “run out all the negroes”: “Let’s Stop Advertising,” Macon Telegraph, January 28, 1921.
185 “a little church and school”: “Serious Race Trouble in North Georgia,” Norfolk Journal and Guide, January 22, 1921.
186 “a far-famed county”: “Forsyth Makes Advances,” Atlanta Constitution, October 28, 1923.
186 records confirm: 1920 U. S. Census, Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; Roll: T625_257; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 49; Image: 592.
186 James had been born a slave: 1880 U. S. Census; Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; Roll: 147; FHL 1254147; Page: 408D; Enumeration District: 076; Image: 0098.
186 signed his oath of allegiance: Georgia, Office of the Governor. Returns of qualified voters under the Reconstruction Act, 1867. Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
186 But James Strickland stayed in Forsyth: 1900 U. S. Census; Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; Roll: 197; Page: 11A; Enumeration District: 0030; FHL microfilm: 1240197.
186 By 1910: 1910 U. S. Census; Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; Roll: T624_188; Page: 16B; Enumeration District: 0036; FHL microfilm: 1374201. James Strickland’s 80 acre farm was on land lots 2-1-990 and 2-1-1000. Forsyth County Returns for Colored Taxpayers, 1912, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA. According to Forsyth genealogist Donna Parrish the Will Strickland property was sold by his heirs on February 5th, 1943. http://www.donnaparrish.com/forsyth/1912/strickland_james.html, accessed 8/14/2011.
187 Ed Moon filled out a WWI draft card: World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918 [database online]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com, 2005. Registration State: Georgia; Registration County: Jackson; Roll: 1557077.
188 sixteen in the census of 1930: 1930 U. S. Census, Big Creek, Forsyth, Georgia; Roll: 357; Enumeration District: 0001; FHL microfilm: 2340092.
188 Great Migration: For more on the history of northern migration, see Isabel Wilkerson’s The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage, 2011).
188 By the early 1930s: Interview with Mattie Daniel, February 23, 2014; Directory of the City of Detroit, 1930, U.S. City Directories, 1821–1989, Ancestry .com, accessed November 13, 2015; 1940 U. S. Census, Detroit, Wayne, Michigan; roll T627_1839; p. 9B; Enumeration District 84-25.
189 “the sound of a hammer”: Kenneth Stahl, “The Great Rebellion: A Socioeconomic Analysis of the 1967 Detroit Riot,” http://www.detroits-greatrebellion.com/The-Road-to-67-.html, accessed October 1, 2015.
189 “like sleeping on a volcano”: Laura Arnold, as quoted in Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore, Gender and Jim Crow: Women and the Politics of White Supremacy in North Carolina, 1896–1920 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1996), 132.
190 “ever talked too much about”: Interview with Mattie Daniel, February 23, 2014.
190 The African American population of the city: Campbell Gibson, Population of the 100 Largest Cities and Other Urban Places in the United States: 1790 to 1990 (Washington: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Division, Working Paper 27, 1998).
191 168 black families: “The 1943 Detroit Race Riots,” Detroit News online, February 10, 1999, http://blogs.detroitnews.com/history/1999/02/10/the-1943-detroit-race-riots/; accessed February 27, 2015.
192 “I’d rather see Hitler”: Ibid.
192 “the Belle Isle Bridge”: Ibid.
192 thirty-four confirmed killings: Ibid.
193 “We hope for better things”: Ibid.
193 “Klan-ridden regime”: Gilbert King, Devil in the Grove (Harper, 2013), 262.
193 “Before God, friend”: Rome News-Tribune (GA), August 2, 1942.
193 “I was told stories”: Interview with Helen Matthews Lewis by Jessie Wilkerson, May 28 2010 (U-0490). Southern Oral History Program Collection 4007, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
194 “My father came home”: Ibid.
194 “When I was in school”: Ibid.
195 “used them for flagstones”: Ibid.
196 “we don’t allow niggers”: “Cumming Deplores Racial Harassment,” Atlanta Constitution, May 8, 1968, 3.
196 “Wait until the night comes!”: Stephen Tuck, Beyond Atlanta: The Struggle for Racial Equality in Georgia (Athens: University of Georgia, 2003), 242.
196 “sorry to read of it”: “Cumming Deplores Racial Harassment,” Atlanta Constitution, May 8, 1968, 3.
197 “in traveling over the county”: Garland C. Bagley, History of Forsyth County, vol. 2 (Milledgeville, GA: Boyd Publishing, 1990), 614.
197 “people of the county”: Ruth Mae Jordan Berry, handwritten account, November 1980.
197 “As they grew older”: Bagley, History, 614.
CHAPTER 16: THE ATTEMPTED MURDER OF MIGUEL MARCELLI
198 since they were children: Interview with Deidre Brown-Stewart, October 25, 2014.
200 Sophisticated Data Research: “Gunshot Victim Returns for March,” Gainesville Times, January 23, 1987, 10A.
201 “spent much of Saturday drinking”: “Trial Hears 2nd Witness in Forsyth,” Gainesville Times, November 18, 1980, 12A.
202 “We talked about shooting”: “Forsyth Jury Convicts Crowe in Shooting Here,” Forsyth County News, November 25, 1980.
202 “looking at me with a mean face”: “Forsyth Shooting Trial in Third Day,” Gainesville Times, November 19, 1980, 14A.
203 “I felt a great weakness”: Ibid.
203 “a group of men”: “Gunshot Victim Returns for March,” Gainesville Times, January 23, 1987, 10A.
203 “an extremely distraught black woman”: “Trial Hears 2nd Witness in Forsyth,” Gainesville Times, November 18, 1980, 12A.
203 “Would you help me?”: Ibid.
203 “There’s nothing more I can do here”: “Forsyth Shooting Trial in Third Day,” Gainesville Times, November 19, 1980, 14A.
204 “I think I killed the black son of a bitch”: Ibid.
204 “I’m not telling”: Ibid.
204 “I’ll get burned out”: Ibid.
205 “I was scared”: “Forsyth Jury Finds Man Guilty of Assaulting Black,” Gainesville Times, November 20, 1980.
205 “a .38 caliber bullet”: “Trial Hears 2nd Witness in Forsyth,” Gainesville Times, November 18, 1980, 12A.
206 “Twelve men and women”: “A Myth Exploded in Forsyth County,” Gainesville Times, November 21, 1980, 4A.
206 “it is simply a happenstance”: “Lily-White Forsyth Looks Ahead—Racial Change Is Blowing in the Wind,” Atlanta Journal, November 8, 1977.
CHAPTER 17: THE BROTHERHOOD MARCH, 1987
207 A twenty-three-year-old African American man: “A Racial Attack That, Years Later, Is Still Being Felt,” New York Times, December 18, 2011.
207 “Overcoming fear”: “March,” Gainesville Times, January 15, 1987, 10A.
208 “only one minister”: “Proposed ‘Walk for Brotherhood’ Is Cancelled,” Forsyth County News, January 11, 1987.
209 “Chuck was talking about”: “Couple Hopes to Revive March,” Forsyth County News, January 14, 1987.
209 “I got a thirty-aught-six bullet”: “Racist Threats Fail to Break Efforts for a Freedom March,” New York Times, January 11, 1987.
209 “the threats . . . were much more violent”: “Proposed ‘Walk for Brotherhood’ Is Cancelled,” Forsyth County News, January 11, 1987.
210 “After Saturday . . . you’re dead”: “Racist Threats Fail to Break Efforts for a Freedom March,”New York Times, January 11, 1987.
210 “five Mexican construction workers”: “Racists Rout Brotherhood March,” Bangor News, January 19, 1987, 11.
210 “By the time this newspaper is printed”: “Let’s Get on to Better Things,” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987.
211 “We do not condone needless efforts”: “The Right to Demonstrate,” Gainesville Times, January 16, 1987.
212 “We are protesting against racemixers”: Plaintiff’s Exhibit 61, Hosea Williams v. Southern White Nights of the Ku Klux Klan, District Court of the Northern Division of Georgia, March 24, 1987.
212 more than twenty-five hundred whites gathered: “Mob of 2,500 Racists Attacks 75 Marchers,” Gainesville Times, January 18, 1987.
213 “most of the demonstrators”: “Klan Supporters Hold Own ‘March.’ ” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987, 3
213 “Go home, niggers!”: “White Protestors Disrupt ‘Walk for Brotherhood’ in Georgia Town,” New York Times, January 18, 1987, 24.
213 the 1958 bombing of Bethel Baptist Church: Diane McWhorter, Carry Me Home: Birmingham, Alabama; The Climactic Battle of the Civil Rights Revolution (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 133–35.
214 “we don’t want niggers”: “Klan Supporters Hold Own ‘March,’ ” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987.
214 the parking lot of Jim Wallace’s gas station: “Klan Supporters Hold Own ‘March,’ ” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987.
215 “as the thing began to swell”: “Terror in Forsyth,” Gainesville Times, January 18, 1987, 2B.
216 “People from Forsyth”: “Walk,” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987, 3A.
218 had only seventy men: Hosea Williams v. Southern White Nights of the Ku Klux Klan, District Court of the Northern Division of Georgia, March 24, 1987, Civil Action C87-565A.
218 Only a few hundred yards: “Police Admit We Lost Control,” Gainesville Times, January 18, 1987, 2B.
218 “a friendly white neighbor”: Peter Levy, ed., The Civil Rights Movement in America (Santa Barbara: Greenwood / ABL-CLIO, 2015), 338.
219 “I had watched my best buddies tortured”: Christopher M. Richardson and Ralph E. Luker, Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement, 495.
219 “my wild man, my Castro”: Taylor Branch, Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 124.
219 charges of drunk driving: “Civil Rights Veteran Hosea Williams Faces Battle to Keep His Credibility,” Los Angeles Times, September 1, 1991.
220 “it persuaded no one”: Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 142.
221 “I think I have to go back”: “Walk,” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987, 3A.
221 “I’ve been in many such situations”: “White Protestors Disrupt ‘Walk for Brotherhood’ in Georgia Town,” New York Times, January 18, 1987, 24.
221 “The vast majority of the citizens”: “Second ‘Freedom March’ Set for Saturday,” Forsyth County News, January 21, 2012.
221 “I don’t think what we saw was indicative”: “County Leaders Denounce Violence,” Forsyth County News, January 18, 1987, 2A.
221 “If they would let us alone”: “Georgia County Haunted by 1912 Incident,” Gainesville Sun, January 23, 1987.
222 “I figure they could pick a better place”: “Police Admit: ‘We Lost Control,’ ” Gainesville Times, January 18, 1987, 2B.
222 “most people here don’t want them”: “Rights Groups May Pursue Effort in White County,” New York Times, January 19, 1987, A15.
222 “They ought to have printed up . . . targets”: “Police Admit: ‘We Lost Control,’ ” Gainesville Times, January 18, 1987, 2B.
222 “I am tired Governor Harris”: Correspondence of Governor Joe Frank Harris, Forsyth County Folder, March 5, 1987. Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
223 “We the people of Forsyth County have been used”: Ibid., January 28, 1987.
223 “Most of those arrested were not natives”: Ibid., January 29, 1987.
CHAPTER 18: SILENCE IS CONSENT
224 “even if it takes 300 state troopers”: “Carter Vows Return to Forsyth,” Gainesville Times, January 19, 1987.
224 “We’re going to march”: “Williams: March Birth of a New Struggle,” Gainesville Times, January 23, 1987, 9A.
225 350 State Troopers: John McKay, It Happened in Atlanta (Globe Pequot, 2011), 151.
225 “a great coming together”: “Forsyth at a Glance,” Gainesville Times, January 22, 1987, 7A.
225 “Seven years ago”: “Black Man Shot in Forsyth Plans to Return,” Associated Press, January 24, 1987.
225 “to live a life of decency”: Tyler Bridges, The Rise of David Duke (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994), 128.
228 “When all these people finish”: “Calm and Quiet Returns to Cumming,” Gainesville Times, February 1, 1987, 11A.
228 “Whites don’t want the blacks”: “Leave Forsyth Like It Is Now,” Gainesville Times, January 18, 1987, 4A.
229 “Do you think this is a free ride?”: “Forsyth Has Too Much Class,” Gainesville Times, February 1, 1987, 2F.
229 an “all-white” affair: Hosea Williams and other march leaders picketed the broadcast for barring blacks from the audience and were arrested by Forsyth sheriff Wesley Walraven for “unlawful assembly.” Oprah told reporters she was “very, very sorry” about the arrest and said, “I have nothing but respect for Hosea Williams.” “Talk Show Pickets Busted in Georgia,” Hour (Norwalk, CT), February 10, 1987, 2
230 “a lot of white people are afraid”: “Talk Show Pickets Busted in Georgia,” Hour (Norwalk, CT), February 10, 1987, 2.
230 “We agree that the majority of the citizens”: Hosea Williams to Roger Crow, January 30, 1987. Historical Society of Forsyth County, Cumming, GA.
231 “persons whose land [was] unlawfully seized”: Ibid.
232 “leaders of the black community”: Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, et al., to Hosea Williams, February 2, 1987. Historical Society of Forsyth County, Cumming, GA.
232 “The primary responsibility”: Hosea Williams to Roger Crow, February 4, 1987. Historical Society of Forsyth County, Cumming, GA.
234 “racial incidents . . . allegedly drove”: Report of the Cumming/Forsyth County Biracial Committee, December 22, 1987, 2.5–2.6. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.
234 the first boll weevil: P. B. Haney, W. J. Lewis, and W. R. Lambert, “Cotton Production and the Boll Weevil in Georgia: History, Cost of Control, and Benefits of Eradication,” Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations Research Bulletin, March 2009, 2.
234 quietly absorbed into the property of their former white neighbors: Elliot Jaspin, Buried in the Bitter Waters (New York: Basic Books, 2007), 135–36.
234 “the charge of unlawfully taken land”: Report of the Cumming/Forsyth County Biracial Committee, December 22, 1987, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, 2.8.
235 top twenty-five wealthiest counties: American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau; http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/summary-file.html, accessed August 5, 2015.
235 “an ever-pointing finger of blame”: Report of the Cumming/Forsyth County Biracial Committee, December 22, 1987, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, 2.9; 2.23; 2.1.
235 “cast aside confrontational tactics”: Ibid., 2.23.
236 “There seems to be a prevailing philosophy”: Ibid., 3.17.
236 “work closely with law enforcement”: Ibid., 3.21.
237 “People’s attitudes are already changing”: “Georgia, It’s a Diverse State,” USA Today, August 31, 1987, 11A.
238 “It doesn’t bother me”: “Anniversary March Peaceful in Forsyth,” Item (Sumter, SC), January 17, 1988, 6A.
238 a million dollars in damages: McKinney v. Southern White Knights, et al., United States District Court for the Northern District, Civil Action Number 1:87-cv-565-CAM, October 25, 1988.
238 “Forsyth has a negative connotation”: “Many See Their Future in County with a Past,” New York Times, April 8, 1999, A18.
239 “the whitest of the country’s 600 most populous counties”: Ibid.
239 “684 black Georgians”: U.S. Census Bureau. Population data for Forsyth County, Georgia. Prepared by Social Explorer (accessed February 20, 2014).
240 “died a natural death”: “Forsyth County Overcomes Racist Reputation with Population Boom,” Savannah Morning News, March 14, 1999, 11A.
240 “banks [and] eateries”: “Painful Past, Prosperous Future,” Gainesville Times, January 17, 2007.
240 “I am the treasurer of the PTA”: “Georgia County Draws Minorities,” Bloomberg Business, March 18, 2011.
EPILOGUE: A PACK OF WILD DOGS
242 “this attempted social revolution”: Hiram Parks Bell, Men and Things (Atlanta: Foote and Davies, 1907), 135–36.
244 thirteen acres of farmland: Forsyth County Return for Colored Tax Payers, 1912, Cumming District, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.
244 “They were just so happy”: Kathleen Anderson, taped interview, 1987. Forsyth County Box, King Center Archives, Atlanta, GA.
245 “I just remember her coming in crying”: Ibid.
245 “a pack of wild dogs”: Ibid.