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Chris Lahr

Who is Chris Lahr

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Good things happening / Feb 22, 07:10 PM

www.timoteofootball.com

This is the third year I have been working with the Timoteo Flag Football League. This is the first year that we have come under the simple way (www.thesimpleway.org). The league is made up of about 200 youth ages 13-18 and about 40 coaches from varying churches in the neighborhood. If you get a chance check us out on the web. The season starts in April and the kids stats will be updated weekly.

We are also looking to get the kids involved in service in their neighborhoods. This past week we ended up joining a rally/ vigil to end gun violence at a local gun shop, where illegal guns have been traced to.

Comment

Evidence of Sundown Actions and Attitudes in Huntington, Ind., History / Feb 21, 08:46 AM

I have been doing research with some other folks at Huntington University to look into Huntington, Indiana’s racial past (my hometown). After reading Loewen’s book, Sundown towns, in which Huntington was mentioned several times, we decided to check into our history ourselves to looks for policies or other pieces of evidence that would point to our town excluding people of color from living there. The following was a few pieces of that information laid out by Kevin Miller, professor of Huntington University. The following bullet points actually have real news articles we found, but they will not show u in the blog posting for some reason. If you would like to see the articles as well, just shoot me an e-mail and I will forward it to you: chris@missionyear.org

• “The Camp Meeting Closed,” The Daily Democrat, August 8, 1892.

African Americans used to live in Huntington and weren’t afraid to congregate here, such as for a camp meeting. This camp meeting report fits the picture sociologist James W. Loewen describes in his book Sundown Towns (2005). The year 1892 marks a point just prior to the rise of sundown town expulsions and policies in the northern states, which lasts until about 1940. Huntington County and City statistics bear this out: In 1890, 21 African Americans were counted as residing in Huntington County, Ind. In 1940, that number has dropped to only one.
I have been really strapped for time the past couple days, but came across this in the book, “Negro in Indiana.” The author talks about how African Americans would celebrate the anniversary of the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies in the beginning of August. An Indianapolis newspaper said, “The First of August is their (African American) Fourth of July— or Independence Day” (Indianapolis Indiana State Journal). The author goes on to writes that African Americans used to hold “conventions” throughout the state to meet at the time of the emancipation celebrations. “These conventions, which were one of the most significant expression of racial consciousness and solidarity… (Thornbrough, Emma; The Negro in Indiana Before 1900; p.144). The “colored campmeeting” in Huntington that we discovered took place at the beginning of August! It sounds like this was a convention of this sort>> a celebration of emancipation, right here in Huntington!!! (Chris Lahr)
1890 21 “negroes” in the county
1910 16 negroes in the county
1920 6 negroes in the county
1930 5 negroes in the county (but “none in the city”)
1940 1 negro in the county
1960 3 negroes in the county
1970 24 black people in the county (18 in the City of Huntington)
1990 52 black people in the county (33 in the city)
2000 69 black people in the county (37 in the city)

This news report on a camp meeting shows that the post-Civil war era of Reconstruction in the South was accompanied by a relatively open attitude toward black people in northern towns and cities. For Huntington to be the site of a camp meeting for “negroes” points to this pre-nadir (low) of 1890-1940 in race relations in the North that Loewen describes. Just yesterday, Aleshia Panbamrung, an African American from Fort Wayne who taught a section of Public Speaking for our department (Communication Dept. at Huntington University) spring semester, told me that when she told others last fall that she had been asked to teach a course here, many raised the cautionary question of whether she “knew about Huntington.” A few years ago, I asked an African American leader from Fort Wayne to speak in one of my classes. When she wouldn’t commit and her reasons for saying no seem contrived, I pressed her on why. She admitted at last that as a black person, she wouldn’t feel safe coming here—“I avoid driving in Huntington.” The reputation that was established in the nadir and after in our town lives on in the African American communities of Marion and Fort Wayne and other cities in northeast Indiana. (Note while it is on my mind: To my knowledge, Huntington University has had no black adjuncts teaching here since I arrived here in 2002 until this past year when Keith Reynolds and Aleshia Panbamrung each taught a section of Public Speaking. I see this as a practical area in which we can—if we are intentional—become more diverse in quickly and relatively easily with Ball State and IPFW and other institutions and professional organizations in the vicinity. They all have experts of color in areas we are offering courses.) An earlier article from the Warren News, June 1, 1882, also shows the amiable climate in Huntington County toward blacks that briefly prevailed prior to about 1900. It reads:
A prominent colored citizen of Lancaster township, named Thomas Chipp, died last week at the age of 76 years. He was born a slave in Kentucky, but while a youth became free by removing with his owner to Shelby county, Ohio. After the death of his old master, he came to this county and purchased a tract of land near Huntington. For a long time he has spent half the year in Ohio and the other half in Indiana. He left neither family nor any known relatives, and died intestate. His estate consists of 80 acres of land and about $3,000 in money. In compliance with his request, no one attended his funeral except the undertaker and assistants.
The narrative that begins to emerge in the accounts below is sketchy but one true to a broader national pattern of race relations in the northern states. There are exceptions to the growing exclusion of blacks from the county—“first cases” of a negro serving on a jury or being allowed to own property or to win a court case in the county. But these stand out as exceptions in the stream of news reports that paint “negroes” and “colored” people as the problem. And the “firsts” don’t have many (or any) “seconds” for decades to follow until the Civil Rights movement begins to reverse certain practices.

• Revised Ordinance of the City of Huntington, 1893.
Here is a pre-1900 case of accommodating black families in the community. Of course, the separate-but-equal logic in it gets the Supreme Court stamp of approval (Plessy v. Ferguson) just three years later in 1896, leading to more than six decades of de facto separate-but-unequal public restrooms, schools, and property lots. This ordinance represents the ambivalence in Huntington toward black residents.

• “A man from Wabash has rented the Flinn house in the north end of town and is boarding the colored men…” Huntington Herald, November 8, 1901.

It is interesting that this is newsworthy—an example of white surveillance of black people that continues to this day in more discrete ways (Kristen Myers, Racetalk, 2005). News reports in this era don’t mention the whiteness of other citizens unless a specific contrast is being made with their difference from “the colored.” Often residents of the black race were tolerated in a sundown town if they were contained or confined in an official institution or company (Huntington University, railroad workers in a noted tenement) or were seen as temporary residents. Later, the Huntington newspaper accounts show how negroes in employment lead to what are called “labor problems,” which all to often become the pretext for threats or violence against negroes, whose employment is seen as stealing jobs from whites.

• “Suppressing Rowdyism,” Huntington News Democrat, July 25, 1902, c 3&4.

W.E.B. Du Bois stated that in one way or the other, whites frame “the negro as the problem” (The Souls of Black Folk, published in 1903, about the same time as this Huntington article). This theme begins to build as the city enters the nadir or race relations. White boys acting badly are not really being themselves (whites are good) but are mimicking negroes whose very blood is contaminated with the genetics of “pugilism.” But white boys are not inherently (biologically) pugilistic—they are simply not fully mature yet and need to grow up.

• With Fists and Feet: Geo. George Jackson (Colored) Pounces Upon Fred Henderson. Former said he would show the Latter “how to Insult a Man’s Wife,” and he Surely Did.”
This is the first article we have found so far that reports explicit expulsion language (in the editorial comment on the arrest). In the news article itself, a black man (George Jackson) who is a worker for a barber in town hits a white man who insults his wife. The white man (Fred Henderson) has the black man charged with assault and arrested. The black man pleads guilty and is jailed when he can’t afford to pay the fine of $20.20. Later, the white barber shop owner who employs the black man pays the fine to get him out of jail. An anonymous letter quoted by an editorial that follows this report contains an expulsion order signed by a “committee.” The editor of the Huntington Herald says the paper supports the fine and sees it as “fully justified.” The editor then dismisses a note the black man’s wife finds on her door the next morning, calling it merely an “annoyance” and discounting it as mere “bluff.” But he notes it could get the missive writer in legal trouble (so he knows it is a serious threat in reality) and almost tongue-in-cheek and in understatement and gives personal advice to the man who sent the note: “It would probably be just as well for the name who wrote it not to make his identity public.” There is no call for a police investigation into the letter or for the man to stop such “bluffs.” This is at a time when a black man addressing a white woman in a way that white people interpret as a slight would be cause for lynching the black man. The editor’s note follows at the end of the article.

• “One Black Girl: All Others Born in County Last Quarter White,” Huntington Herald Weekly, April 12, 1907, p1c2.

Here is another example of surveillance of the black population, and especially now in 1907 as the census figures show the number of black people in Huntington County starting to decline. The descriptor “little pickaninny,” using the nomenclature of the era, connotes otherness in a sense not unlike that used to denote breeds of dogs, thereby objectifying black children as different (less than fully human, as are white infants). This is confirmed by the cartooning and children’s books of the day that narrated and illustrated “pickaninnies” standing nakedly and dumbly before the open mouth of a crocodile or climbing in fear up a palm tree with an open-mouthed alligator at the bottom and the word “Welcome!” as the caption. At the least, the term “pickaninny” commodifies black babies in a way similar to reports on livestock birth tallies.

• “City’s Only Colored Resident Is Arrested,” Morning Times, March 19, 1909, p. 1, c. 1

This news report is less direct in describing sundown activity, but it does show that the editors found removal of the last black person in Huntington was significant and headline news for the white readership of Huntington County. Furthermore, it raises questions of why his wife’s moving to Grant County and later pressing charges against Jacob should be seen as “desertion.” The article goes out of its way to note he wasn’t a bad negro and that whites in the community are surprised by his arrest. Loewen notes that often a sundown town will abide one or several of “their” negroes, about whom they feel a sense of ownership (in both senses of the double entendre here: of pride in, but also possession of, the town’s “negro”). These “exception” blacks usual serve a servant role in the community, as Jacob does in cleaning the houses of the white residents of the Huntington community (as undocumented Mexican immigrants do in Huntington today). The last line of the article, which is hard to read, affirms this: “The request for Davis’s arrest was a surprise to [unclear word] officers as he has been a law-abiding man here.”

• “Negro Petition Is Received by Council,” Huntington Herald, Jan. 15, 1919

The hardening attitude against African Americans is here finding formal expression. An article the day before in the Huntington Herald (Jan 14, 1919, p1c4, “Negro Petition Is Referred to Council) gives more detail about the proposal: “The petition asking that negro residents of Huntington, imported to do work, be ordered out of town, was referred to the city council Monday evening by the city board of works. The board said it had no authority of any kind in the matter.” The next article on “Negro Makes a Getaway” from the same year shows this sundown attitude clearly at the end of the article where the news reporting verges into editorial judgment of the place of the negro in Huntington: “Authorities in neighboring cities have been notified of the negro’s escape but local police believe that he has taken to the tall timbers and he probably will never visit this part of the country again. One ventured the guess that Robinson ran ‘until he was black in the face’ in making his getaway.” The very wording of “never visit this part of the country again” echoes the “nigger, don’t let the sun go down upon your head” language literally posted at the perimeters of many sundown towns and cities. The “black in the face” rather than blue in the face rings humorous at a time when minstrel shows used blackface to mock and distortedly exaggerate white perceptions of Negroes.

• “Negro Makes Getaway from Huntington Jail,” The Huntington Herald, July 1919, p. 9 c 4 & 5.

• “First K. K. K. Funeral in County, Sunday” The Huntington Herald, May 14, 1923, p.6 c4.

Part of the nadir of race relations after 1900 was the re-organization and popular support of the modern Klan. This is true in Huntington too. Here the local Klan (calling themselves the Odd Fellows) are by appearance Protestant evangelicals in the community. The question of the United Brethren relationship with the Klan in Huntington County needs to be researched more (perhaps Randy Neuman has done some of this?). But the point for understanding Huntington as a sundown town is that the presence of the Klan and its popular support and its acceptance as not a terrorist group but a “nice” and proper civic group creates a climate of exclusion and white supremacy in Huntington as the nadir deepens and perhaps peaks here in the 1920s (at the same time the 1924 Naturalization Act becomes most racist at the federal level. The next two entries corroborate this—a photo of the Klan as late as 1950 with unmasked faces, and a 1924 visit to encourage an ill white woman that includes such niceties as songs sung by a quartet and “a burning cross at the request of” the ailing woman, Mrs. Ebersole.

• “Many Attend Klan Meeting,” Roanoke Beacon, July 27, 1923, p1c5.

The combination of patriotism, spirituality and prayer, and white supremacy are inextricably intertwined in the recent generational history of Huntington County residents. What does it mean to consider that the sins of our fathers pass on to the third and fourth generation? How much does such syncretistic ideology/theology still influence the thinking of white Huntington residents, even if the grandchildren of these people largely reject the Klan? What is the role of repentance as a community for this corporate sin in our community that had/has its collective affect on African Americans in northeast Indiana? Have even the churches that were part of these stories ever publically repented these very public demonstrations of white Christian supremacy? How has Huntington University as an institution spoken to these rallies over the years? Have we acted prophetically? Or with complicity? We need to research this.

• “Klan Holds Service” Huntington Herald, August 1924, p3c5.

• Klan Hold Meeting, Huntington Herald, Sept. 16, 1924, p8c3.
5000 Klan meet in Huntington….

Little wonder the reputation of Huntington remains what it is among among African Americans. Five thousand!

Comment [1]

Important Dates for Understanding Race Relations in Huntington, Indiana and Beyond… Compiled by Chris Lahr / Feb 19, 06:07 PM

I’ve been doing a lot of research on racism in my own hometown. The research lead to the following timeline….

The following are important dates for understanding race relations in Huntington, IN and beyond. At the time of putting these dates together the city of Huntington had a population consisting of 98% white folk (the 2000 Census states that the United States has a population made up of 75% white folk.). Racism is still alive and well in our society today, and this timeline will help us grasp the power of race in our society. White amnesia also exists in our society today. This is a sickness among white folk who think racism no longer exists and that the disproportionate poverty among people of color is “their fault.” White amnesia also rears its ugly head as (white) people go on in life as if race and racism has nothing to do with them; they never had slaves, they do not hold any bitter feelings towards people of color, etc. Yet this timeline helps us put our own history, the history of race, into perspective. One cannot fully understand Huntington’s race history without knowing the history of Indiana as well as the United States. Throughout the timeline we will look at events and policies that occurred that contributed to the racialized society that we live in today. The document has color coded dates to represent: Blue= event in United States (and beyond); Red= event occurred in Indiana; Black = event occurred in Huntington.

1400s
1442> The Beginning of African Slavery: A Portugese captain captured a couple of Moors of noble birth on the African coast. The Moors offered as a ransom, “ten blacks, male and female. The ransom was accepted, and the Negroes were brought to Lisboa; sold at the market, these legendary ten Negroes represented the beginning of the African slave trade which up till the year 1517 was, based on a Papal grant, monopolized by the Portuguese crown (Peter and Mort Bergman; The Chronological History of the Negro in America; p.1).

1482> The First Slave Post: The Portuguese build the first slave-trading port, Sao Jorge de Mina, on the African Coast (Peter and Mort Bergman; The Chronological History of the Negro in America; p.1).

1492> Columbus’s First Journey: Columbus sails across the Atlantic and arrives at an island in the Bahamas. “According to legend, Pedro Alonzo Nino, one of Columbus’ crew on his first voyage to the West, was a Negro” (Peter and Mort Bergman; The Chronological History of the Negro in America; p.2). Upon reaching the Bahamas, he met the Arawak people, who were very kind to the crew and shared what they had. In response Columbus later wrote in his journal, “They (Arawak’s) would make fine servants… With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.” Columbus actually took some of the natives by force, in order to get the information he needed from them about the area… where is the gold (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, p.1)?

1495>> Columbus’s Second Journey: Columbus took more Spaniards with him and was on a mission to get gold and slaves. He gathered 1,500 Arawak men, women and children and put them in pens. He selected 500 of “the best” of them and loaded them on his boat for Spain. 200 of them died on their way to Spain (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, p.4.). This became a pattern as more Spaniards would come and kill the natives. In fact half of the 250,000 Indians on Haiti were killed through murder, mutilation and suicide (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, p.4).

1500s
1513> North America Explored: Juan Ponce de León explores the Florida coast.
http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=wwwwak-464

1524> Giovanni da Verrazano explores the coast from Carolina north to Nova Scotia, enters New York harbor.
http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=wwwwak-464

1565> St. Augustine, Florida, the first town established by Europeans in the United States, is founded by the Spanish. Later burned by the English in 1586.
http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=wwwwak-464

1600s
1607> The First “white” Settlement in USA: Jamestown, Virginia, the first English settlement in North America, is founded by Captain John Smith
http://www.worldalmanacforkids.com/WAKI-ViewArticle.aspx?pin=wwwwak-464

1616> Pocahontas marries John Rolfe
When the English first arrive in America, neither the colonists nor Indians think of themselves or each other in racial terms. On the contrary, Protestant England’s hated rival is Catholic Spain, while Native Americans see themselves as many nations divided by language, custom and power. When the Powhatan princess Pocahontas marries colonist John Rolfe, the union causes a scandal in the British court, not because Rolfe has married an Indian, but because Pocahontas, a princess, has married a commoner. In 17th-century England, social station is more important than physical differences.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1619> The First Slaves in USA: The first slaves, in the United States, were brought to Jamestown (20 Africans). They actually came as indentured servants and had the freedom to buy land after their term of service. (Peter and Mort Bergman; The Chronological History of the Negro in America; p.10).

Howard Zinn suggests that these Africans were more than indentured servants…“By 1619, a million blacks had already been brought from Africa to South America and the Carribean, to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies, to work as slaves. Fifty years before Columbus, the Portuguese took ten African blacks to Lisbon—this was the start of a regular trade in slaves. African blacks had been stamped as slave labor for a hundred years. So it would be strange if those twenty blacks, forcibly transported to Jamestown, and sold as objects to settlers anxious for a steadfast source of labor, were considered as anything but slaves” (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, p. 25).

Howard Zinn goes on to describe how indentured servants (including white people) were bought and sold like slaves and were often mistreated. After signing the indenture, the immigrant agreed to pay their cost of passage to the new world (an 8-12 week journey). Many people died of starvation on the journey. Servants were also beatened, whipped, and servant women raped (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, pp.43-44). Most indentured servants were white immigrants.

1654>> The first European contact with the Miami (Native Americans) occurred when two French explorers, found them near Green Bay, Wisconsin (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.1).

**1676>> Social identities fluid/ Bacon’s Rebellion
In early colonial America, social identities are fluid and class distinctions trump physical ones. On Virginia plantations, European indentured servants and African slaves mix freely – they work, play, and make love together. In 1676, Bacon’s Rebellion unites poor Africans and Europeans against Indians and wealthy planters. Although the rebellion is short lived, the alliance alarms the colonial elite, who realize the labor system based on indentured servitude is unstable. Coincidentally, captured Africans, perceived as stronger workers by Europeans, become more available at this time. Planters turn increasingly to African slavery for labor, while granting increased freedoms to Europeans.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon’s_Rebellion
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p274.html

Birth of Racism
“Racism was becoming more and more practical. Edmund Morgan, on the basis of his careful study of slavery in Virginia, sees racism not as ‘natural’ to black-white difference, but something coming out of class scorn, a realistic device for control. ‘If freemen with disappointed hopes should make common cause with slaves of desperate hope, the results might be worse than anything Bacon had done. The answer to the problem, obvious if unspoken and only gradually recognized, was racism, to separate dangerous free whites from dangerous black slaves by a screen of racial contempt” (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, pp.56).

Practical Racism: Develop the middle-class
“There was still another control which became handy as the colonies grew, and which had crucial consequences for the continued rule of the elite throughout American history. Along with the very rich and the very poor, there developed a white middle class of small planters, independent farmers, city artisans who, given small rewards for joining forces with merchants and planters, would be a solid buffer against black slaves, frontier Indians, and very poor whites” (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, pp.57).

Practical Racism: Language of Liberty and Equality
“Those upper classes, to rule, needed to make concessions to the middle class, without damage to their own wealth or power, at the expense of slaves, Indians, and poor whites. This bought loyalty. And to bind that loyalty with something more powerful even than material advantage, the ruling group found, in the 1760s and 1770s, a wonderfully usful device. That device was the language of liberty and equality, which could unite just enough whites to fight a Revolution against England, without ending either slavery or inequality” (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, pp.58).

1680>> “White” appears in colonial laws
Early colonial laws refer to Christians or Englishmen, rather than whites. Around the time of Bacon’s Rebellion in 1676, new laws begin to appear, separating Black slaves from European indentured servants. Slavery becomes permanent and heritable for Negroes, and Black people are punished more harshly for crimes. Poor whites are given new rights and opportunities, including as overseers to police slaves. As the importance of slavery grows, white is used almost exclusively, not only in law but other social arenas, and slavery becomes associated exclusively with Blackness.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1700s
1700ish: Miami move to area (Ft Wayne): Various groups of Miami-speaking people moved into the upper Wabash valley and settled (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.24). 1701- 1763 was the French Era in Indiana. The Miami and the French co-existed harmoniously until 1750 because the French had little need to dominate the tribe (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.34). The French and Miami relied on each other (a middle ground) and they even began having children together. The mixed blood people tended to acculturate with white culture (Rafert, p.35).

1705: Virginia slave codes passed
As wealthy planters turn from indentured servitude towards slavery, they begin to write laws making slavery permanent for Africans, and dividing Blacks from whites and slaves from free men. African Americans are punished more harshly for crimes and their rights are increasingly curtailed. Poor whites are given new entitlements and opportunities, including as overseers who police the slave population. Over time, poor whites identify more with wealthy whites and the degradation of slavery is identified with Blackness.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1746: Slaves were recorded living in Indiana. A group of French settlers (40 white men) had five slaves (African Americans) (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p1).

1776: Freedom creates contradiction
Wealthy planter and slaveholder Thomas Jefferson pens the Declaration of Independence establishing a radical new principle: equality and the natural rights of man. Although this document lays the foundation for American democracy, it also creates a moral contradiction: How can a nation built on freedom hold slaves? Previously, slavery has been unquestioned. Rather than abolish slavery, some founding fathers seek justification in the “nature” of slaves. Contempt for slaves begins to harden into an ideology of racial difference and white supremacy. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1780: Miami happenings: Little Turtle (Mishikinakwa), the most famous Miami leader, first became known through his destruction of a small French military force, who was acting on American interests (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.38). As the American population increased in Ohio refugee Indian groups joined the Miami at the Wabash- Maumee portage (p.38). By this time the Miami material culture came to resemble that of the Europeans (p.40).

1781: Jefferson suggests Black inferiority : With Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson becomes the first prominent American to suggest that Africans are innately inferior: “I advance it therefore, as a suspicion only, that blacks…are inferior to the whites in the endowments of body and mind.” His writings help rationalize slavery in a nation otherwise dedicated to equality, and he calls on science to find proof.

1783: They Want Land… The American government developed an Indian policy. “The new American government did not want an Indian war; it wanted Indian land” (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.45). The government proceeded to dictate treaties that were highly disadvantageous to the tribes, such as Treaty of Paris (1783), Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784), Fort McIntosh (1785), Fort Finney (1786), and Fort Harmar (1789) (p.45).

1787: Slavery made illegal in “Indiana” Territory: The Continental Congress adopted the Northwest Ordinance for the government of the territory, which included Article VI>> “There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, whereof the party shall have been duly convicted.” In spite of these words both slavery and involuntary servitude continued for many years in Indiana (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p5). Article VI did not free slaves, it simply prevented the introduction of more slaves after 1787. Therefore, if you owned a slave before the Article you did not have to release them.
For more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Ordinance http://www.earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/ordinance/text.html

1790: US population in the early days… “In 1790, there were 3,900,000 Americans, and most of them lived 50 miles of the Atlantic Ocean. By 1830, there were 13 million Americans, and by 1840, 4,500,000 had crossed the Appalachian Mountains into the Mississippi Valley—that huge expanse of land crisscrossed by rivers flowing into the Mississippi from east to west. In 1820, 120,000 Indians lived east of the Mississippi. By 1844, fewer than 30,000 were left. Most of them had been forced to migrate westward.” Also during this time there were about 500,000 slaves in 1790 and about 4 million in 1860 (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, p. 124, 167)!

1790: The Naturalization Act of 1790: The 1790 Naturalization Act reserves adopted citizenship for whites only. African Americans are not guaranteed citizenship until 1868, when the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified during Reconstruction. Native Americans become citizens through individual treaties or intermarriage and finally, through the 1924 Indian Citizenship Act. Asian immigrants are ineligible for citizenship until the 1954 McCarran-Walter Act removes all racial barriers to naturalization. Without citizenship, nonwhites can’t vote, own property, bring suit, or testify in court – all the basic protections and privileges that whites take for granted.
1795: The Naturalization Act of 1795: repealed and replaced the Naturalization Act of 1790. The 1795 Act differed from the 1790 Act by increasing the period of required residence from two to five years in the United States, by introducing the Declaration of Intention requirement, or “first papers”, which created a two-step naturalization process, and by conferring the status of citizen and not natural born citizen. The Act specified that naturalized citizenship was reserved only for “free white person[s].”
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1795: The Treaty of Greenville was the first major contact between the Miami and American officials (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.59). Greenville set the pattern for the 361 treaties that were to follow between the American government and various tribes from 1795- 1871 (p.60). The treaty recognized Indian right to the land, established a boundary for Indian country while setting aside 16 reservations of land for forts and trading posts. The treaty specified that only the United States could purchase land from Indians, and the government was bound to protect Indians from squatters and was to provide them licensed traders. The Miami were also allowed to hunt in the land peacefully (p.60). The way the treaty was worded, most Indians believed they could occupy most of the Old Northwest as long as they wished.
1798: The Naturalization Act of 1798: The Naturalization Act, passed by Congress on June 18, 1798, increased the amount of time necessary for immigrants to become naturalized citizens in the United States from five to fourteen years. Although it was passed under the guide of protecting national security, most historians conclude it was really intended to decrease the number of voters who disagreed with the Federalist political party.¹ At the time, most immigrants (namely Irish and French) supported Thomas Jefferson and the Democratic-Republicans, the political opponents of the Federalists. This act was repealed in 1802.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

1798: Move to Huntington: About this time most of the Miami moved from Fort Wayne to a series of villages concentrated at the Forks of the Wabash west Huntington and along the lower Mississinewa near Peru (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.63). By moving they were able to isolate themselves from the worst features of the frontier and make better use of subsistence sources (p.63).

1800s
1800: There were 115 African-Americans living in Indiana (28 of them slaves). (http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html)

1800: At the turn of the century bison began to disappear and white settlers were overhunting deer, bear, elk etc. In response the Miami began to turn to the rivers as a protein source (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.65).

1802: Some of the Miami chiefs were becoming strongly pro-American as a result of bribes paid to them by the government (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.68).

1803: Indian Removal Mindset in place… President Thomas Jefferson strongly favored the settlement of the Old Northwest and felt it urgent because Spain had secretly ceded the Louisiana Territory back to France. Jefferson urged land cessions. “Jefferson did not want self-sufficient Indian societies living in American territory. Chiefs should be encouraged to run up large debts among traders, he said, to create massive dependency among Indians so they have to sell land whether they wanted to or not (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.68). “Jefferson suggested that Indians would either incorporate into the American system or move beyond the Mississippi. By incorporation he meant the disappearance of Indian culture and the eventual intermarriage of Indians with whites. The mechanism for Indian removal was in place, although it would be some years before it was used” (p.69).

1803: African Americans not allowed to testify: A law was adopted that prohibited Negroes, mulattoes, and Indians from giving evidence in any case except indictments against Negroes, mulattoes and Indian. The act defined a mulatto as any person having one fourth or more Negro blood (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p22)

1804: Try plow farming… President Jefferson wanted Indian men to start plow farming, so they would not need so much land for hunting, which in turn they would be more willing to sell. A “training farm” was started a few miles west of Huntington. The Miami were shown how to plow with horses and other European- American farming techniques. The training farms ultimately failed because the Miami were not interested (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.70).

1805: Getting Ripped off… The Greenville Treaty was all but dead. By this date the government had persuaded the natives of the Northwest to cede more than 29,000,000 acres or 46,000 square miles to the United States for a few cents an acre (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.70).

1805: Slavery Allowed back in Indiana Territory: A new law was established which allowed slavery in Indiana once more. Under the “Act concerning the Introduction of Negroes and Mulattoes into this Territory.” Stated that any person owning or purchasing slaves outside the Territory might bring them into Indiana and bind then for service. If the slaves were over 15 years of age the “owner” could create a “contract” with them. The contracts could be as long at 90 years>> if the slave did not want to abide by the contract the “owner” had sixty days before he had to send them out. Often the “owner” would take the person back south and sell them. Children born to slaves were to serve the master of the parent until they were 30 years old for males and 28 years old for females (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p9).

1806: Stay Close… An act was created which stated that any slave or servants found 10 miles or more from their master’s home were subject to a public whipping (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p16).

1808: It was made unlawful for anyone to permit 3 or more slaves or servants to congregate on their property “for the purpose of dancing or reveling, either by night, or by day” (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p16).

1809: The Treaty of 1809 gave split Illinois and Indiana in preparation for Indiana statehood (1816). The land cessions from 1803 to 1809 left the northern half of the proposed new state in Indian hands. The 1809 treaty increased tensions between the Miami and the government (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.72).

1810s
1810: There were 630 African Americans living in Indiana (237 were slaves) http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html.

1810: No new slaves allowed: The 1805 law allowing slaves to be brought in was repealed. This did not end the enslavement of people between 1805-1810 (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p13).

1812: Destruction of 3 Miami Tribes in Huntington… The War of 1812 begins and America declares war on Great Britain. During the war, William Henry Harrison, who was a powerful advocate of easy land sales in the old Northwest (Rafert, Stewart; The Miami Indians of Indiana; p.66), “wanted to prevent any grouping of Indians on the Wabash-Maumee (near Ft. Wayne) route that could interfere with his plans to retake Detroit, and so he decided to treat the Miami as a hostile tribe. Harrison ordered the destruction of all Indian villages within a two-day march of Fort Wayne. Thus perished Little Turtle’s village near Columbia City, Indiana and three flourishing Miami villages at the Fork of the Wabash near today’s Huntington. All Miami property and crops were destroyed (pp. 74-75).

1814: Divide and Conquer the Natives “Jackson’s 1814 treaty with the Creeks (who occupied Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi) started something new and important. It granted Indians individual ownership of land, thus splitting Indian from Indian, breaking up communal landholding, bribing some with land, leaving others out—introducing the competition and conniving that marked the spirit of Western capitalism. It fitted well the old Jeffersonian idea of how to handle the Indians, by bringing them into ‘civilization’” (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, pp.126-7).

1816, December 11: Indiana became a state.

1816: Slavery Outlawed in Indiana: A Bill of Rights was created that outlawed slavery and involuntary servitude in Indiana once again. Change was slow and servanthood continued. People argued that the law did not apply to servants obtained before the Bill (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p23).

1820s
1820: There were 1,420 African Americans living in Indiana (190 were slaves) (http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html)

1825: “Blood” degree measures who is Indian: An early treaty with the Osage tribe introduces land allotment and federal Indian policy based on “blood” degree. These ideas are broadly applied during the 19th century, most notably by the Dawes Commission in its 1887 redistribution of Indian lands. Historically, tribal membership was based on acceptance of tribal language, customs, and authority. Escaped slaves, whites and other Indians could join and be accepted as full members. Although land allotment policies end in the 1930s, the government continues to base program eligibility on blood, leading most tribes to adopt similar requirements for membership by the late 20th century. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1830s
1830: First white settlers came to Huntington (Joel and Champion Helvey (with 2 sisters) from Ohio

1830: There were 3,632 African Americans living in Indiana (3 were slaves) (http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html)

1830: Indians dispossessed of lands: Throughout the 19th century, American Indian lands are taken away and given to white settlers. In 1830, thousands of Native Americans are forcibly relocated from east of the Mississippi River to Oklahoma. Many die en route. The 1862 Homestead Act encourages a flood of squatters to invade Indian lands in the midwest. Already suffering from decimation of the buffalo, nomadic Plains Indian tribes are forced to relocate to government reservations. The 1887 Dawes Act breaks up collectively owned Indian lands and redistributes it to individuals, allowing “surplus” land to be sold to whites. Lewis Cass, Secretary of War under President Jackson, sums up 19th-century Indian policy this way: “The Indians are entitled to the enjoyment of all the rights which do not interfere with the obvious designs of Providence.”
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1831: the Helveys sold land to General John Tipton and Elias Murray.

*1831: Black folks must pay to stay: The General Assembly (Indianapolis) passed a bill (the Black Law) that required “colored persons who came into the state (Indiana) to post bond of five hundred dollars as a guarantee against becoming a public charge and as a pledge of good behavior” (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in Indiana Before 1900; p 58). Even this law was not always enforced, it was a symbol of the racial prejudice of the time.

1832: Murray laid out the town of Huntington (it was named Huntington)

1833: The idea of race strengthens: The American Anti-Slavery Society forms in Philadelphia. By 1835, hundreds of branches exist throughout the free states, and anti-slavery sentiment is on the rise. But as attacks on slavery grow, so do arguments defending it. Slavery advocates turn to scientific and biblical arguments to “prove” that Negroes are distinct and inferior to whites. Slavery is no longer described as a necessary evil but as a positive good. The rationale is so strong that when slavery is finally abolished in 1865, the racial idea lives on. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1838, October 1: Trails of Tears: 17,000 Cherokees were forced to move out west. During the journey 4000 became sick and died. In December of that same year, President Van Buren told Congress, “It affords sincere pleasure to apprise the Congress of the entire removal of the Cherokee Nation of Indians to their new homes west of the Mississippi. The measures authorized by Congress at its last session have had the happiest effects” (Zinn, Howard; A People’s History of the United States, p. 146).

1839 Skulls measured to prove racial hierarchy: Samuel Morton, the first famous American scientist, possesses the largest skull collection in the world. He claims to measure brain capacity through skull size, but makes systematic errors in favor of his biases, concluding: “[Their larger skulls gives Caucasians] decided and unquestioned superiority over all the nations of the earth.” Morton’s findings are later seized upon and popularized by pro-slavery scientists like Josiah Nott and Louis Agassiz. In just 60-70 years, Jefferson’s suggestion of racial difference becomes scientific fact: “Nations and races, like individuals, have each an especial destiny: some are born to rule, and others to be ruled….No two distinctly-marked races can dwell together on equal terms.” -Josiah Nott (1854). http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1840s
1840: There were 7,168 African Americans living in Indiana (3 were slaves). (http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html)

1845: Manifest Destiny/war with Mexico: In a news editorial about the annexation of Texas, John O’Sullivan writes of America’s “manifest destiny to overspread the continent allotted by Providence for the free development of our yearly multiplying millions.” This now-famous phrase is used throughout the late 1800s to justify the U.S.-Mexico War and American territorial expansion. White superiority and innate racial difference have become common sense and are invoked not only against Native Americans, Mexicans, and African Americans, but also to rationalize the taking of overseas territories.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1848: Huntington was declared a town.

1850s
1850: There were 11,262 African Americans living in Indiana (from here on all were “free”) (http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html)

*1850, September 18: The Fugitive Slave Law or Fugitive Slave Act was passed by the United States Congress on September 18, 1850, as part of the Compromise of 1850 between Southern slaveholding interests and Northern Free-Soilers. This was one of the most controversial acts of the 1850 compromise and heightened Northern fears of a ‘slave power conspiracy’. It declared that all runaway slaves be brought back to their masters.

• 1851, August: African Americans not allowed to settle in Indiana: The State Constitution Article XIII was adopted which said that African Americans were absolutely prohibited from coming into the state to settle. In addition, state laws barred Negroes from voting, from serving in the militia, from testifying in court cases in which a white person was a party, and deprived Negro children of the right to attend public schools (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p31). In only 4 counties in Indiana did a majority of voters cast their ballots against Article XIII (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p68).
  >>> what was Huntington Counties vote on this????

1850-51: The constitutional convention decided to purchase land in Liberia (Africa) in order to send African Americans there, instead of settling in Indiana. As immigration increased in Indiana, so did white people’s fear of losing work, etc.

1853: Stricter law against African Americans giving testimony: The state passed a law prohibiting the testimony by a person with one eighth or more Negro blood. The law declared, “No Indian, or person having one-eighth or more of Negro blood, shall be permitted to testify as a witness in any case in which any white person is a party in interest” (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p123).

1857: African Americans denied citizenship: In the Dred Scott decision, the U.S. Supreme Court declares that “Negroes,” whether free or enslaved, are not citizens. As Chief Justice Taney puts it, they have “no rights which any white man is bound to respect.” Free Black people are taxed like whites, but they do not enjoy the same protection and entitlements. African Americans are not granted citizenship until 1868. Meanwhile, centuries of slavery generate wealth for whites only. When slaves in Washington, D.C., are freed in 1862, reparation is paid not to slaves but to slaveowners for their loss of property. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1859: Evolution shapes debate: When Darwin uncovers the mechanism for evolution, it dramatically alters public debate. Evolution provides a new paradigm for comparing group “progress” but it also introduces the concept of competition and possible extinction. Herbert Spencer captures the public’s excitement and anxiety when he coins the phrase “survival of the fittest” in applying Darwin’s ideas to the social realm. Proponents of “social Darwinism” view the hierarchy of races as a product of “nature,” not specific institutions and policies. Consequently, social reform is pointless.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1860s
1860: There were 11,428 African Americans living in Indiana (http://www.ibrc.indiana.edu/ibr/2005/summer/article1.html)

1861- 1865: The Civil War

1862, September 22: Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation.

1863, January 1: a second order signed indicating its (E.P) application to the Confederate states.

1863: The exclusion Article of the state Constitution was declared null and void by the state Supreme Court (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p206).

1864, October 5: Lambdin Milligan arrested in Huntington for being a sympathizer with the South and organizing a rebellion.

**1865- 1890: Reconstruction Period: Between 1865 (when slavery ended) and 1890 there was an anti-racism vibe in the North. It was patriotic to be anti-racist, in fact the Republicans added the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to give the ex-slaves “equal rights.” During this time AAs moved everywhere throughout the North. During this time AAs voted, served in Congress, received some spoils from the Republican Party, worked as barbers, railroad firemen, midwives, mail carriers, and landowning farmers, and played other fully human roles in American society (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p.29).

1865, October: The first postwar African American convention met in Indianapolis. The conventions were organized efforts and appeals to public opinion to exert pressure on lawmakers. A similar convention would be held in Huntington in August, 1892 (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p232).

1865, December 18: slavery continued to have legal status in the US until the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment.
1868: 14th Amendment guarantees equal rights: Passage of the Fourteenth Amendment is a landmark event, not only for African Americans but for all Americans. Conceived during Reconstruction, the amendment extends citizenship to African Americans and attempts to heal Civil War wounds by emphasizing national unity. The amendment defines citizenship for the first time, guarantees all citizens equal protection and due process under the law, and most importantly, grants citizens privileges and immunities that cannot be abridged. Although the amendment’s strength is tested by discriminatory laws and policies throughout the 20th century, the equal protection clause forms the cornerstone of the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision and is the legal basis for all civil rights and anti-discrimination efforts to this day.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

¬1870s
1870: There were 24,560 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)
1875: Law of Equal Rights: A state law was passed that declared all persons within the state were entitled to equal enjoyment of the accommodations of inns, restaurants, barber shops, theaters, public conveyances, and other places of public accommodations “except for reasons applicable alike to all citizens of every race and color, and regardless of color or race. Violators were subject to pay damages not exceeding $100 and also to be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor as well as a 30-day imprisonment” (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900; p260).
1880s
1880: There were 39,228 African Americans living in Indiana (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)
1881, March: Exclusion Law erased: The Old Article XIII dealing with Negro exclusion and the parts of the suffrage article dealt with color were finally erased. (Thornbrough, Emma Lou; The Negro in America Before 1900).
1883: Birth of eugenics: Francis Galton, Charles Darwin’s cousin, coins the term eugenics, meaning “good genes,” to emphasize heredity as the cause of all human behavioral and cultural differences. Eugenicists advocate selective breeding to engineer the “ideal” society. Their writings profoundly influence many aspects of American life – including immigration policy, antimiscegenation laws, involuntary sterilization, and schooling – and find their fruition in Nazi Germany.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1887: Jim Crow segregation begins: Beginning in the late 19th century, southern states codify a system of laws and practices to subordinate African Americans to whites. The “new” social order, reinforced through violence and intimidation, affects schools, public transportation, jobs, housing, private life and voting rights. Cutting across class boundaries, Jim Crow unites poor and wealthy whites, while denying African Americans equality in the courts, freedom of assembly and movement, and full participation as citizens. The federal government adopts segregation under President Wilson in 1913, and is not integrated until the 1960s. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1890s
1890: There were 21 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1890: There were 45,215 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

*1890—The collapse of positive race relations: “In 1890, trying to get the federal government to intervene against violence and fraud in southern elections, the Republican senator from Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, introduced his Federal Elections Bill. It lost just one vote in Senate. After its defeat, when Democrats again tarred Republicans as “nigger lovers,” now the Republicans replied in a new way. Instead of assailing Democrats for denying equal rights to AAs, they backed away from the subject. The Democrats had worn them down. Thus the springtime of race relations during Reconstruction was short, and it was followed not by summer blooms but by the Nadir winter, and not just in South but throughout the country” (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p30-31).

What caused the collapse (of positive race relations)? The three I’s
The idealism immediately after the Civil war was fading. By 1890, only one American in three was old enough to have been alive when it ended, and millions more migrated to the US long after the war’s end and played no role in it (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p31).

The ideology of anti-racism was further strained by three developments>> the three I’s

1) Indian Wars>> The federal government discovered gold and took away and from the Indians that had been promised to them “forever.” If it was OK to take Indian’s land because they weren’t white, wasn’t it OK to deny rights to AAs, who weren’t white either (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p.31)?

2) Immigrants>> Irish, Italian, Polish immigrants tended to vote for the Democrats because of the Republicans intolerance of alcohol and Catholicism. These immigrants learned quickly that it was to their advantage to be “white,” in that AAs were in competition for the available jobs. Perhaps Republicans converted to a more racist position to win ethnic votes. Or perhaps their anti-immigrant thinking, manifesting itself in jokes, slurs, and anti-immigrant cartoons, spilled over into increased racism vis-à-vis AAs (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; pp.31-32).

3) Imperialism>> After 1890, imperialism led the US to dominate Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands, and several other Caribbean and Central American nations. Democrats pointed out the inconsistency of denying self-government to these places on the basis of the alleged racial inferiority, while insisting on the equal rights of AAs. The Republicans had no real answer (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p.32).

In 1890 the Confederate South finally won the war. New laws outlawing interracial marriages, lynchings started happening more frequently, and Jim Crow was in full effect. No AA served in Congress again until 1929, and none from the South until 1973. In 1912, Ohioans made it clear that they wanted black voting to stop (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; pp.33-34). AAs started getting bad press in the newspapers, and AA’s started getting expelled from their occupations. Many AA’s were still at the bottom, and white s began to blame them as the problem (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p.38). Many of the generalization white folks had of AA are still held by those living in predominantly white towns today.

After 1890 towns throughout the North became intentionally all-white. This happened in two waves. “First, an epidemic of attacks against Chinese Americans across the West prompted what I call the ‘Chinese Retreat,’ resulting in the concentration of that minority in Chinatowns in Seattle, San Francisco, LA, and a few other cities. The whites began forcing AA out of towns and rural areas across the North” (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p 47).

August, 1892: 700-800 African Americans held a “convention” (campmeeting) at the fairgrounds (Circle Dr) in Huntington. The following is a reflection on this convention… I have been really strapped for time the past couple days, but came across this in the book, “Negro in Indiana.” The author talks about how African Americans would celebrate the anniversary of the emancipation of the slaves in the West Indies in the beginning of August. An Indianapolis newspaper said, “The First of August is their (African American) Fourth of July— or Independence Day” (Indianapolis Indiana State Journal). The author goes on to writes that African Americans used to hold “conventions” throughout the state to meet at the time of the emancipation celebrations. “These conventions, which were one of the most significant expression of racial consciousness and solidarity… (Thornbrough, Emma; The Negro in Indiana Before 1900; p.144). The “colored campmeeting” in Huntington that we discovered took place at the beginning of August! It sounds like this was a convention of this sort>> a celebration a celebration of emancipation, right here in Huntington!!!
“The Camp Meeting Closed,” The Daily Democrat, August 8, 1892.

1893: Separate but Equal school law in Huntington: The Revised Ordinance of the City of Huntington, 1893 stated that the city had to create separate but equal schools for “colored” children. If a school was not provided, that student could attend with white children if they were properly tested.
1896, May: 1st AA on jury in Huntington: James Croker became the first African American to serve on a jury in Huntington. (Warren Republican, Thursday 28, May 1896, p2 c4)

1899: Indiana passed an anti-lynching law (David J. Bodenhamer, Randall T. Shepard; The History of Indiana Law; pg.50). Between 1882-1930 there were 47 people lynched in Indiana. 14 victims were black and 33 were white (http://faculty.berea.edu/browners/chesnutt/classroom/lynchings_table_state.html).

1899: White Man’s Burden: In February 1899, McClure’s Magazine publishes a poem by Rudyard Kipling, advocating American imperialism in Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines. Picking up where Manifest Destiny leaves off, the White Man’s Burden not only justifies expansion, it presents colonization as noble. Racial superiority has become more than common sense. Whites now have a moral imperative to govern inferior peoples, a mission preordained in the hierarchy of races. Against the backdrop of Jim Crow segregation and mass immigration from Europe and Asia, the concept figures prominently in debates over citizenship and social fitness at home and in the new territories. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1899: Europeans not quite white: After 1889, immigration to the U.S. from southern and eastern Europe swells dramatically. Many new arrivals are “ethnics” employed in undesirable low-wage jobs and living in the urban ghetto. They are deemed inferior, seen as not fully white. Reflecting this view, anthropologist William V. Ripley publishes The Races of Europe, dividing whites into a hierarchy of subraces and sub-subraces. Yet even the degraded Hebrew, Celt and Italian are still legally “white” – they are not denied citizenship or prevented from participating in American society. After WWII, they melt into whiteness as they move into government-subsidized white suburbs and up the economic ladder. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1900s
1900: There were 12 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

• It should be noted that it isn’t until 1907 that the first home was purchased in Huntington by an African American. By 1909 we are told that the last African American living in the city was arrested and sent to Marion.

1900: There were 57,505 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1902, July 12: Threatened to leave Huntington: George Jackson (“the colored man”) fought a man who said some derogatory remarks to his wife. He went to court and was fined $20.20. He did not have the cash so he went to jail. While in jail his wife received a letter written by “we as citizens,” which was put on their door stating they had 12 hours to leave town of a mob would meet them.

*1904: The courthouse was erected by architect, J.W. Gaddis. There is a common story told by many living in Huntington County that the deed for the land, on which the courthouse was built, was given with the stipulation that no African Americans would be allowed to live in Huntington County (see “Women of the Klan” by Kathleen Blee, pg.78)

1905: African Americans demand equal rights: Founded under the leadership of W.E.B. DuBois, the Niagara Movement marks an important turning point in the African American struggle for equality. The group sets an aggressive agenda demanding equal rights and an end to racial discrimination: “We claim for ourselves every single right that belongs to a freeborn American, political, civil and social; and until we get these rights we will never cease to protest and assail the ears of America. The battle we wage is not for ourselves alone but for all true Americans.” The Niagara group gives rise to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1909, whose legal efforts culminate in the watershed Supreme Court decision of Brown v. Board of Education, marking the beginning of the end of Jim Crow and legal segregation.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1906: Samuel Bradshaw won a lawsuit in Huntington for $50 (though he asked for $100) because he was wrongfully deprived his lunch at a restaurant in Ft. Wayne (this was the first case which ever came to trial in Huntington County in which the question of civil rights was involved as in this). (Evening Herald St 24, 1906 p1 c4)

1907: 1st AA to own home in Htgn: G.P. Hervey was the first African American to own his own home in the city of Huntington. The home was located at the corner of Broadway and Sabine St. (Morning Times Wed 4 Sept, 1907 p7 c3)
1909: Last AA to leave Htgn: Jacob Davis was the only African-American living in the city of Huntington when he was arrested and moved to Marion. He was arrested for “wife desertion.” (Morning Times 19, Mar 1909 p1 c1) Take not that it seems Samuel G.P Hervey is know longer living at the house he bought in 1907.

1910s
1910: There were 16 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1910: There were 60,320 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1913: Land laws discriminate against Asians: California passes the first alien land law, prohibiting “aliens ineligible to citizenship” from owning or leasing land. Although the law isn’t explicitly racial, it applies only to Asian immigrants and gives white farmers an unfair advantage by keeping Japanese and other competitors out. Legal loopholes allow Japanese to continue farming until a 1920 ballot initiative bars them altogether. Arizona passes a similar law in 1917, followed by Washington and Louisiana in 1921, and nine other states by 1950. California’s alien land laws are rescinded in 1956. Wyoming and Kansas finally repeal their statutes in 2001 and 2002, while two states, Florida and New Mexico, still have the laws written into their state constitution.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1913- 21: Woodrow Wilson became president (racist). He segregated the Navy for the first time.

1918: Petition for removal of AAs in Htgn: A petition was signed by 328 citizens of Huntington that demanded the removal of all “Negroes” from the city.
http://books.google.com/books?id=VYoBAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA34&dq=negros+in+huntington,+indiana&lr=&ei=JxIeSu2PJ5rczQSsvMD5CQ#PPA34,M1
(Huntington Herald Tues 14 Jan 1919 p1 c4)
(Huntington Herald Wed 15 Jan 1919 p1 c1)

1920s
1920: There were 6 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1920: There were 80,810 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1922: Courts decide who is white: The 1790 Naturalization Act restricts adopted American citizenship to whites. In the early 20th century, many immigrants petition the courts to be legally designated white to gain citizenship. Armenians, known as “Asiatic Turks,” succeed with the help of anthropologist Franz Boas, who testifies as an expert scientific witness. Others are not so fortunate. In 1922, the Supreme Court concludes that Japanese are not legally white because science classifies them as Mongoloid rather than Caucasian. Less than a year later, the court contradicts itself by concluding that Asian Indians are not legally white, even though science classifies them as Caucasian, declaring that whiteness should be based on “the common understanding of the white man.” Racial restrictions on naturalization are not removed until 1954.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1923: KKK Funeral in Roanoke: The first KKK funeral (James Hyser) in Huntington Co>> in Roanoke at the U.B. Church. The masked men were also referred to as the “Odd Fellows” which is fraternal society group in Huntington. (The Huntington Herald,Mon. May 14, 1923).

1923: KKK Rally: About 2,500 people attended the KKK rally at Oak Grove park. The meeting was opened with prayer (by Rev Hughes) and everyone was invited to join in singing “America.” A fiery cross was burned at the close of the meeting at the northwest part of the park. (Roanoke Review Friday 27, July, 1923 p1, c5)

1924: KKK Parade in Htgn:About 250 members of the KKK had their first (unmasked) parade in the city of Huntington and 100s of spectators lined the streets as the procession went down Jefferson St. They then had a meeting at the William Anson farm on Riverside Dr
(Roanoke Review, July 31, 1924 p1 c4)

1924: KKK Rally: The KKK had about 5,000 people attend a meeting at Marvin Richards farm, south of Roanoke. Rev. Wagner gave the address. (Klan Hold Meeting, Huntington Herald, Sept. 16, 1924, p8c3.)
1924: Changing definitions of who is Black: In 1705, Virginia defines any child, grandchild, or great grandchild of a Negro as a mulatto. In 1866, the state decrees that every person having one-fourth or more Negro blood shall be deemed a colored person. In 1910, the percentage is changed to 1/16th. Finally in 1924, the Virginia Racial Purity Act defines Black persons as having any trace of African ancestry – the infamous “one-drop” rule. Practically speaking, most people cannot prove their ancestry and the rule is applied inconsistently. Other states also define Blackness differently. As historian James Horton notes, one could cross a state line and literally, legally change race.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1930:
1930: There were 5 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)
1930: There were 111,982 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)
1930, August 7: Lynching in Marion, IN: A large mob estimated at 2,000 gathered at the city jail where three young black men were held on charges of killing a white man and raping his girlfriend. Before they could be tried, the three, Thomas Shipp, Abram Smith and James Cameron, were dragged from the jail and severely beaten. Shipp and Smith were hanged, but Cameron was released when an unidentified man claimed that he had nothing to do with the crimes. In 1931 he was convicted as an accessory to murder and served four years before being paroled. The event in Marion was notable as the last confirmed lynching of blacks in the Northern United States.⁶ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion,_Indiana#cite_note-5).

• Some Huntington historians point to the fact that Cameron, the surviving victim of the lynching, who was brought to Huntington jail by Huntington detectives as protection of the Marion mob as being the “proof” that Huntington was not a sundown town, or a “racist place.” In the book Our Town, by Cynthia Carr, she writes about this experience that she learned from James Cameron, she writes, “The four white detectives who drove him out of Marion that night—to a jail in nearby Huntington—ordered him to lie on the floor of the backseat the whole way, for safety, while they cracked jokes like, ‘this nigger back here is as white as a sheet.’ Then as soon as he got to Huntington jail, the old white man in the facing cell began apologizing to him. The old man had had a fight with his son because the son wanted in on the lynching. The old man said that, for all he knew, his son had put the rope around Cameron’s neck. ‘I am sorry, son.’ He told Cameron. ‘Sorry to my heart.’ Early the next morning, the detectives drove Cameron back to Marion. He lay down on the floor beneath a mat while they cruised the courthouse, where part of the lynch mob remained on guard. Cameron remembers the cops crowing gleefully that ‘those niggers are still hanging on the tree’ and ‘look how their necks have stretched.’ One detective called out to a newsboy, bought the day’s paper, and pulled the mat back to show Cameron the front page. There he saw for the first time the infamous photograph of his dead companions surrounded by festive white people” (Carr, Cynthia; Our Town; pg 19-20).
  1934: Indians base membership on blood degree: The 1934 Indian Reorganization (Wheeler-Howard) Act ends land allotment and encourages tribal self-government, but it also helps entrench race in tribal membership. Despite their sovereignty and historic openness to others, tribes wanting federal recognition are forced to adopt constitutions following government guidelines, including membership based upon “blood” degree. A 1991 Bureau of Indian Affairs inventory of 155 federally recognized tribes in 48 states shows that 4 out of 5 condition membership on proof of blood, ranging in amount from 1/2 to 1/64th. In recent years, more tribes are basing membership on lineal descent (ancestry without regard to percentage) rather than blood degree, but some have lost federal recognition as a result. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1934: U.S. housing programs benefit whites only: In the 1930s and 1940s, the federal government creates programs that subsidize low-cost loans, opening up home ownership to millions of Americans for the first time. Government underwriters also introduce a national appraisal system that effectively locks nonwhites out of homebuying just as many white Americans are getting in. In post-WWII restricted suburbs, European “ethnics” blend together as whites, while minorities are “marked” by urban poverty. Two legacies of this discrimination are still with us today: segregated communities and a substantial wealth gap between whites and nonwhites.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1940s
1940: There was 1 African American living in Huntington County (according to census)

1940: There were 121,916 African Americans living in Indiana (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1950s
1950: There were ? African Americans (.1%) living in Huntington County (according to census)

1950: There were 174,168 African Americans living in Indiana (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1950: UNESCO publishes Statement on Race: Only when Nazism takes the idea of racial inferiority to a horrifying extreme is race science finally discredited. After the Holocaust, the United Nations issues an official statement declaring that race has no scientific basis and calling for an end to racial thinking in scientific and political thought. Its principal author is Ashley Montagu, a student of Franz Boas. Although important, this shift in scientific thinking has little impact on social policy and ingrained public attitudes about race. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1954: Legal segregation ends: In the wake of the Brown v. Board of Education decision, civil rights advocates led by Martin Luther King, Jr. organize a yearlong boycott of city buses in Montgomery, Alabama, to protest the state’s resistance to school integration. What begins as a struggle over schools spreads to public transportation, voting, and all areas of social life. Despite the violent opposition of some white groups, especially in the Deep South, integration and the freedom struggle continue through the work of whites and nonwhites alike. Students, church groups, workers, and volunteers participate in massive nonviolent protest, civil disobedience, and public education campaigns. Their efforts culminate in the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1960s
1960: There were 3 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1960: There were 269,275 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)
1967: Laws against mixed marriage invalidated: In the 19th century, 38 states have antimiscegenation laws prohibiting interracial marriage. By 1924, 29 states, including Virginia, still ban mixed marriages. The statutes are not outlawed until 1967, when a Virginia couple is tried and convicted, and files a suit challenging the law. Although the state Supreme Court of Appeals upholds their conviction, the U.S. Supreme Court rules unanimously against it, declaring that a person’s individual right to marry cannot be restricted by race. The Loving decision finally reverses the racist policies of Virginia’s 1924 Racial Purity Act and invalidates the laws remaining in 16 other states.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

1970s
1970: There were 24 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1970: There were 357,464 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

Unfair Housing Prices and suburbanism: Loan guarantees by the FHA and VA (Veterans Administration) were the most important single cause of postwar suburbanization, and more than 98% of the millions of home loans guaranteed by the FHA and VA after WW2 were available only to whites” (p. 130). African Americans were thus not only shut out of the suburbs but also kept from participating in Americans’ surest route to wealth accumulation, federally subsidized home ownership. Federal support for home ownership not only included the FHA and VA programs but also the mortgage interest tax deduction, which made home ownership in the burbs cheaper than apartment rental in the cities—for whites. Housing prices then skyrocketed, tripling in the 1970s alone; the appreciation laid the groundwork for the astonishing 1-11 black-to-white wealth ratio that now afflicts African American families” (Loewen, James; Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism; p130).

1980s
1980: There were 40 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1980: There were 414,785 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1990s
1990: There were 52 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

1990: There were 432,092 African Americans living in Indiana. (http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html)

1994: Black-white wealth gap: Centuries of inequality are not remedied overnight. Today, the average white family has eight times the wealth of the average nonwhite family. Even at the same income level, whites have, on average, two to three times as much wealth. Whites are more likely to be segregated that any other group, and 86% of suburban whites still live in places with a Black population of less than 1%. Today, 71% of whites own their own home, compared to 44% of African Americans. Black and Latino mortgage applicants are 60% more likely than whites to be turned down for loans, even after controlling for employment, financial, and neighborhood characteristics.
http://www.pbs.org/race/003_RaceTimeline/003_00-home.htm

2000s
2000: There were 69 African Americans living in Huntington County (according to census)

2000: There were 510, 034 African Americans living in Indiana (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFFacts?_event=&geo_id=04000US18&_geoContext=01000US|04000US18&_street=&_county=&_cityTown=&_state=04000US18&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=040&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=ACS_2007_3YR_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=&_keyword=&_industry=)

2005-2007: There are 36 African Americans living in the city of Huntington. (http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/ACSSAFFFacts?_event=&geo_id=05000US18069&_geoContext=01000US|04000US18|05000US18069&_street=&_county=huntington&_cityTown=huntington&_state=04000US18&_zip=&_lang=en&_sse=on&ActiveGeoDiv=geoSelect&_useEV=&pctxt=fph&pgsl=050&_submenuId=factsheet_1&ds_name=DEC_2000_SAFF&_ci_nbr=null&qr_name=null®=null:null&_keyword=&_industry=)

Comment [1]

Book Review/ Notes: Sundown Towns By James Loewen / Feb 19, 05:55 PM

Chapters 1-2
Sundown town (SDT) is any organized jurisdiction that for decades kept African Americans or other groups from living in it and was thus “all-white on purpose.” (p4)

Between 1890- 1968 white Americans established themselves in SDTs across the USA. (p.4)

Between 1890- 1940s race relations in America grew worse. After the abolishment of slavery steps were being taken to make things better for ex-slaves. Republicans were actively involved in improving their lot shortly after the civil war. Between 1865 (when slavery ended) and 1890 there was an anti-racism vibe in the North. It was patriotic to be anti-racist, in fact the Republicans added the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to give the ex-slaves “equal rights.” During this time AAs moved everywhere throughout the North. During this time AAs voted, served in Congress, received some spoils from the Republican Party, worked as barbers, railroad firemen, midwives, mail carriers, and landowning farmers, and played other fully human roles in American society (p.29).

The “Fusion” Period, 1877-1890
“With the increasing tenacity and Ku Klux Klan violence, Democrats fought the interracial Republican coalitions for control of each southern state (p.30). The Democrats had control of the southern states, more or less. AAs still voted during this time, though not freely.

“In 1890, trying to get the federal government to intervene against violence and fraud in southern elections, the Republican senator from Massachusetts, Henry Cabot Lodge, introduced his Federal Elections Bill. It lost just one vote in Senate. After its defeat, when Democrats again tarred Republicans as “nigger lovers,” now the Republicans replied in a new way. Instead of assailing Democrats for denying equal rights to AAs, they backed away from the subject. The Democrats had worn them down. Thus the springtime of race relations during Reconstruction was short, and it was followed not by summer blooms but by the Nadir winter, and not just in South but throughout the country (p30-31).”

What caused the collapse (of positive race relations)? The three I’s
The idealism immediately after the Civil war was fading. By 1890, only one American in three was old enough to have been alive when it ended, and millions more migrated to the US long after the war’s end and played no role in it (p31). The ideology of anti-racism was further strained by three developments>> the three i’s

1) Indian Wars>> The federal government discovered gold and took away and from the Indians that had been promised to them “forever.” If it was OK to take Indian’s land because they weren’t white, wasn’t it OK to deny rights to AAs, who weren’t white either (p.31)?

2) Immigrants>> Irish, Italian, Polish immigrants tended to vote for the Democrats because of the Republicans intolerance of alcohol and Catholicism. These immigrants learned quickly that it was to their advantage to be “white,” in that AAs were in competition for the available jobs. Perhaps Republicans converted to a more racist position to win ethnic votes. Or perhaps their anti-immigrant thinking, manifesting itself in jokes, slurs, and anti-immigrant cartoons, spilled over into increased racism vis-à-vis AAs (pp.31-32).

3) Imperialism>> After 1890, imperialism led the US to dominate Hawaii, Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines, Nicaragua, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands, and several other Caribbean and Central American nations. Democrats pointed out the inconsistency of denying self-government to these places on the basis of the alleged racial inferiority, while insisting on the equal rights of AAs. The Republicans had no real answer (p.32).

Other factors causing the decline of Republican anti-racism…

1) The “Gilded Age”>> capitalist amassed huge fortunes>> many Republicans made this a goal which made it hard to reconcile with the party’s former talk of social justice.
2) Decay of Idealism>> the times were changing, the civil war was in the past.

• ultimately, racism has its foundation in slavery.

In 1890 the Confederate South finally won the war. New laws outlawing interracial marriages, lynchings started happening more frequently, and Jim Crow was in full effect. No AA served in Congress again until 1929, and none from the South until 1973. In 1912, Ohioans made it clear that they wanted black voting to stop (pp.33-34). AAs started getting bad press in the newspapers, and AA’s started getting expelled from their occupations. Many AA’s were still at the bottom, and white s began to blame them as the problem (p.38). Many of the generalization white folks had of AA are still held by those living in predominantly white towns today.

From 1913-21 Woodrow Wilson became president (racist). He segregated the Navy for the first time.
______________________________________

“Residential exclusion is bad for our nation. In fact, residential segregation is one reason race continues to be such a problem in America. But race really isn’t the problem. Exclusion is the problem. The ghetto—with all of its pathologies—isn’t the problem; the elite sundown suburb—seemingly devoid of social difficulties—is the problem. As soon as we realize the problem is white supremacy, rather than black existence or black inferiority, then it becomes clear the sundown towns and suburbs are an intensification of the problem, not a solution to it. So long as racial inequality is encoded in the most basic single fact in our society—where one can live—the US will face continuing racial tension, if not overt conflict” (p17).
Chapter 3: The Great Retreat
After 1890 towns throughout the North became intentionally all-white. This happened in two waves. “First, an epidemic of attacks against Chinese Americans across the West prompted what I call the ‘Chinese Retreat,’ resulting in the concentration of that minority in Chinatowns in Seattle, San Francisco, LA, and a few other cities. The whites began forcing AA out of towns and rural areas across the North” (p 47).

“Nevertheless, by 1940 amnesia set in, and Americans forgot completely that in the 19th century, Chinese had lived in towns and hamlets throughout the West, while blacks had moved to little towns and rural areas across the North. Americans also repressed the memory of the expulsions and ordinances that created SDTs. Now Amerocans typecast AA as residents of places as Harlem and the South Side of Chicago, and Chinese Americans as Chinatown dwellers. In reality, white evictions and prohibitions provided the most important single reason for these retreats to large cities” (p54)

There were very few SDTs in the South>> they saw AAs as people to be exploited; the North did not want anything to do with them. (p70)

Chapter 4-5:
SDTs were created by violence (such as lynching, rise of KKK, the threat of violence, SDT ordinances, buyouts (some independent SDT bought out their Aas to achieve all-white status p.108).

Sundown Suburbs were created (ie. Levittown). Between 1950-70 the suburban population doubled from 36 million to 74 million as 83% of the nations pop growth took place in the burbs. By 1970, more people lived in burb than in central cities and rural areas for the first time. People moved to the burbs because it seems to be the proper way to raise the kids and it showed and secured social status (rather than a move away from African-Americans)(p.119). Many AAs moved into the suburbs initially.

Between 1947- 67 more towns were established on a whites-only basis than ever before (p127). Levitt and sons were the largest home builder corp. after WW2. They publicly would not sell to minorities.

The FHA (Federal Housing Administration) helped create SD suburbs. This was set up after the depression to help people buy homes. In 1938 they stated, “If a neighborhood is to retain stability, it is necessary that its properties shall continue to be occupied by the same social and racial classes” (p129).

Loan guarantees by the FHA and VA (Veterans Administration) wree the most important single cause of postwar suburbanization, and more than 98% of the millions of home loans guaranteed by the FHA and VA after WW2 were available only to whites” (p. 130). African Americans were thus not only shut out of the suburbs but also kept from participating in Americans’ surest route to wealth accumulation, federally subsidized home ownership. Federal support for home ownership not only included the FHA and VA programs but also the mortgage interest tax deduction, which made home ownership in the burbs cheaper than apartment rental in the cities—for whites. Housing prices then skyrocketed, tripling in the 1970s alone; the appreciation laid the groundwork for the astonishing 1-11 black-to-white wealth ratio that now afflicts African American families” (p130).

1968 the federal government switched sides with the passing f the Fair Housing Act. This law prohibited racial discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. Discrimination went underground. “It was understood, there was a gentleman’s agreement, so no one had to say a word. Steering, lying, stalling, special requirements imposed on blacks, missed appointments, wrong addresses—all were used to shut out AA would be home buyers (p131).

Chapter 6: Underlying Causes
European Americans systematically subjugated 3 groups: Native Americans, Mexican Americans, and African Americans, taking the land of the first two and the labor of the third. Slavery lasted from 1619-1863 in USA (p.138).

Myths leading to SDTs:
1) Myth of lack of jobs( p141)
2) Myth of social isolation (p142)>> lack of AAs was “natural”
3) Myth of class (p143)>> For all-white suburbs to result from classism is seen as defensible, because classism is ok, since we all presumably have a reasonable if not equal chance to get into the upper class. Segregation is an important part of suburbanization.
4) Nonsensical causes (p145)>> myth of weather (AAs don’t like the cold…); myth of “backwater town> no one would want to live here

Chapter 7-14
Look at further causes, how SDTs are a hidden phenomena; how they were enforced; exceptions to the rule>> when AAs were allowed in town to live.

Three great chapters looking at the effects of SDTs on whites, blacks, and the social system. He also looks at SDTs today.

Chapter 15: The Remedy
1) Investigation>> most white Americans do not see racism as a problem in their neighborhood. We need to know about SDTs to do something about them.

“Awareness of unfairness undercuts unfairness. People who perceive that the scoail system discriminates against racial minorities are more likely to support policies to reduce that discrimination. Racists know this. That’s why denial of racism is a time-honored tactic” (p. 422)

2) Publicize>> Publicizing a town’s racist actions can bring shame upon the community, but recalling and admitting them is the first step in redressing them (p.424).
3) Apology>> preferably by an official of the SDT
4) Reparations>> paying back families that were driven out. ( p.426ff for examples)
5) Local institutions>> “Every SDT or county should announce officially that it intends to become more diverse and should set up a human relations commission to accomplish that end. The town should then send a letter to every real estate agent in its area informing them that housing in the town is open without regard to race, requiring them to state their intent to show, rent, and sell property to all, and inviting them to contact the human relations commission in case of any problem. Schools and city departments should also state their intent to welcome and hire nonwhite employees to overcome their town’s history of exclusion and should drop any requirement that prospective employees must live within their boundaries before employment” (p431).
6) White families can dismantle SDTs:
a. Move to a diverse neighborhood
b. If stay in white neighborhood>> challenge the paradox of exclusivity by asking “why.” Begin to reverse the status hierarchy>> “But don’t you hate to send your children to such an overwhelmingly white school system?” (p.435)
c. Move your town towards diversity.>> ie. Persuade the school system that it cannot be competent without a seriously interracial faculty…
d. Sometime you need a good ol’ fashion protest

7) African American Challenges to SDTs:
a. Even well-meaning whites cannot desegregate a SDT without the help of black households (p.436).
b. Move in… this is very difficult if they are the first AA family. Historically there have been AA folks who have done so and have been pioneers in bringing change to a SDT.

“America should not have white neighborhoods or black neighborhoods. It should have just neighborhoods” (p450). We must strive for beloved community.

Check out this link. Dag my home town of Huntington, IN is a historic sundown town… http://www.uvm.edu/~jloewen/sundowntowns.php

How To Confirm Sundown Towns

What we seek is information confirming that a given town did keep blacks out [if it did!], either through the use of restrictive covenants throughout the town, violence or threats of same, bad behavior by white individuals, an ordinance, realtor steering, bank redlining, or other formal or informal policies.

While we are only interested in exclusion, such exclusion need not be total. The book, Sundown Towns, has a chapter telling how a town may have driven out its blacks, even posted the traditional sundown town sign, yet allowed one family to remain. Larger cities have even allowed more than one, in a way. Cicero, IL, for example, when burning out a would-be black apartment renter, had some 40 blacks in town — probably as servants in white households, in such institutions as jails, hospitals, colleges, etc., or as renters in large apartment houses not really located in residential neighborhoods and hence below the radar of whites. Since Cicero defined itself as all-white and took steps to keep out the next black would-be household, it certainly qualifies. Therefore, while doing census research, take care to notice non-household blacks. Their existence does not take a town off the roll of suspected sundown communities. Also, although in the past many sundown towns kept out other groups, such as Mexicans, Asian Americans, Jews, etc., today most sundown towns have accepted all but blacks. However, we are still interested in them because they kept out (and may still keep out) blacks. Finally, some towns have given up being sundown, usually between 1970 and today, yet we are still interested in them owing to their past.

Census research

A first step, then, is to look up the census information on racial composition in various years. Data at census.gov provide the racial proportions of every town in the country with more than a few hundred inhabitants for 1990 and 2000. Included is information as to age and sex in the black population and number of households with black adult householders. This information is particularly useful because it allows us to avoid misattributing residential status to African Americans living in institutions such as colleges or prisons or within white households as servants. For 1860-1980, the racial composition of your town will be in the printed census in the bound volumes of the census, probably at your local library and certainly at your nearest university library. Get the actual census figures, decade after decade. They are also online at census.gov/prod/www/abs/decennial/index.htm. However, in some years breakdowns by race are provided only for towns larger than 2,500 and in one decade only for towns larger than 4,000. For smaller towns, you can count the number of blacks listed in the “manuscript census,” described in the next paragraph, for 1930 and prior decades. For small towns, the census in many years, especially before 1940, does not list population by race, but you can amass it yourself from the “manuscript census” for any decade between 1860 and 1930 inclusive (except 1890, most of which was destroyed by fire). This is the raw data of the census; much of it is on the web at various sites, usually by state. Large libraries and genealogical collections also have it on microfilm. You may find sharp drops in black population, which are of course suspicious. If you only find low numbers of blacks, decade after decade, that too is suspicious, especially if blacks are hardly absent from nearby towns and counties or if the town’s total population is increasing. A website at the University of Virginia, fisher.lib.virginia.edu/census/, provides the racial proportions of every county from 1790 through 1960. Local histories, newspapers Then go to the local libraries (in person) and read (skim) any local history books, such as centennial histories and county histories. Usually the local library has a local history room (or local history shelf, in small libraries). Probably you will find NOTHING about blacks, but sometimes there are surprises. If there are notes on file from the WPA Federal Writers Project (c.1935-40), skim those. Also, see if there are vertical files (newspaper clippings) on “blacks,” “Negroes,” “segregation,” “Ku Klux Klan,” or other related topics. Then you can scan local newspapers for the decade between two adjacent censuses that show a sharp decline in black population, to see if it describes any actions whites took to cause the decline. Sometimes the nearest newspaper outside the town in question will be more forthcoming. Oral history Then ask the librarian in charge of the local history collection if s/he knows anything about the absence of blacks. Has s/he ever heard it might have been on purpose? Does s/he know of any stories (oral history) about anything bad that happened to a black family that tried to move into the town in the 1920s, 1970s, or any other decade? Follow up by asking the librarian, “Who knows the most about the history of the town?” Every town has an expert. Then interview (in person) that person or persons. Ask, “who else should I talk with?” Is there a genealogical society? If so, attend its next meeting, after talking with its leader. Begin softly, maybe by asking what the town’s major employers used to be. Eventually ask, “Have you ever heard that [name of town] used to keep out blacks?” Maybe mention that some nearby towns (by name) used to keep out blacks, and follow by asking if this community had the same policy. If folks say yes, then ask how they heard it, from whom, about when (year), etc. Oral history is fine, so long as it is solid. Thus, if a person says “Blacks were not allowed…” then s/he should be asked, “How do you know that?” Also, seek details: “Did you ever hear of any family that moved in, then left?” etc. Do also seek written sources, such as some ordinance about keeping out blacks (or another group). The “ordinance,” however, may be nothing more than a motion voted on in a city council meeting on a Tuesday evening in 1911, perhaps not even noted in the minutes of that meeting, and certainly almost impossible to find now. Repeat this process with the City Clerk and the head of the local historical society. Bear in mind, however, particularly with a local history society, that this usually does not work UNLESS you are there in person. Usually these folks just don’t want to say anything bad about their town if they can help it. In person, however, they don’t want to lie. And of course, you flatter them by telling them (correctly) that they are the expert on the town’s history. Another good idea: go to the local nursing home, or to places where seniors live or hang out (community center, SRO hotel). Interview elderly people. Take good notes, including “quote notes” (with “”) when you actually capture the phrase verbatim. Old folks love to hold forth on the long-ago past. Also talk with long-time realtors, minority group members in nearby towns, and other likely sources. Always we must recall that a community’s overwhelming whiteness might be an accident, that perhaps no African Americans ever happened to go there. We cannot classify an “all-white town” as a “sundown town” unless we have evidence about its racial policies. Moreover, one must use common sense and historical and sociological knowledge in this work. Lemhi County, in northern Idaho, all-white in 1930, appears less suspicious than Garrett County, in western Maryland, which had 24 African Americans in that year, because 13 other Idaho counties also had no African Americans, while other Maryland counties all had more than 1,000. But then, a historian whose parents were born and raised in Lemhi County wrote that according to her relatives, “Black people were ‘run off’ in some distant past.” Meanwhile, several sources, including Henry Louis Gates Jr., confirmed that Garrett was a sundown county. So, suspicion is appropriate in both cases, and additional sources have solidly confirmed Garrett.

Comment

Book Review/ Notes: Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s Inside View of White Christianity By Edward Gilbreath / Feb 19, 05:53 PM

I really enjoyed reading this book. In many ways I am trying to gain a clearer picture of what it means to be an evangelical Christian. I feel that Gilbreath addresses several issues found in evangelicalism that I have been thinking about recently. Growing up in an evangelical church, one aspect that I cannot ignore is the emphasis on individualism. Though I have gained a lot from knowing that Jesus wants a “personal relationship” with us, I have learned that many evangelicals push this point at the expense of being socially aware (or concerned) of what is going on in our world. I now like to talk about an “intimate relationship” with Jesus. I believe in a personal God who desires to walk in intimacy with His creation. An intimate relationship is not an individualistic relationship, but rather it includes both times of solitude as well as times of community. Jesus said that we need to love both God and our neighbor. Racism is thus one of the social concerns that many (white) evangelicals just simply do not care to address. In a world where many think that “white is right,” or at least “normal,” many evangelicals just simply do not want to “stir the pot” of controversy. But wrong is wrong, and the (evangelical) Church must wake up and can no longer afford to not “stir the pot.” This book is a must read for the white evangelical. Here are some insights from the book.

Chapter one: The author paints a picture of his history of often being the only African American in a sea of white folk and some of the challenges he faced doing so.

Chapter two: A look at evangelicalism…
The word itself comes from “evangelion” which is Greek for declaration of good news (p37). This term grew out of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th century. Today the word, “evangelical,” has become interchangeable with terms like Christian right and right wing conservatives. “These names say a lot about morality, politics and maybe even religion, but very little about Jesus’ good news” (p.37).

I like the fact that evangelicals discuss an “encounter with God,” and the fact that they hold the Bible as central to living a life of faith. The problem is that the expression of their faith is often little more than “preaching” at people and getting people to “say a sinner’s prayer.” Following Jesus and proclaiming the good news goes much further than this. In a society of racism and countless injustices, the evangelical church should be at the forefront of speaking and living good news into these situations.

Chapter three: A good discussion on racism and the dangers on being silent.
“You might say, ‘I am not racist. I have not done anything to anyone personally.’ But the problem with racism is that we have to be careful that we d not enjoy the benefits of it. When we silently enjoy the benefits of racism; when we do not protest injustice to those who are poor, powerless and oppressed; when we decide it’s not our problem and go on enjoying the fruits fo a racist system, then we too are racist” (p.49).

Chapter four: A look at Tom Skinner

Chapter five: Discusses the impact of being the “first black in various sectors of society.

Chapter six: Discusses “when blacks quit evangelical institutions.”
“When so many otherwise successful African-American Christians still express frustration and disappointment over the state of race relations in the church, as my research indicates, something is not right. We need to listen and learn” (p.89).

“To me, the proof of racial reconciliation is when the culture of an organization allows for different styles of leadership and self-expression s that people from all cultural backgrounds can be considered competent without hiding their cultural distinctives from others” (p.91)

Chapter seven: A look at MLK Jr.
“The church once changed society. It was a thermostat of society. But today I feel that too much of the church is merely a thermometer, which measures rather tan molds popular opinion” (p.108).

Chapter eight: A Look at Jesse Jackson

Chapter nine: A very important look at politics!
“In many ways, olitical bigotry is America’s new racism.” (p.133)
>> many evangelicals believe that “non-republican opinion” somehw indicates they they are lesser Christian. (p.135).
>> Being a Christian does not mean that you have to be conservative or republical, or American>> they are not equated.

Chapter ten: A look at racism beyond the black and white issue A look at immigration.
“In America today, we are all faced with the choice beween creating life together on the basis of hate for other cultures, languages, and ethnic groups, or working hard to become a free union of many.” (p.148)

Chapter eleven and twelve: A look at singing and preaching and creating a multi-cultural church>> you must be intentional.

A very good book.

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