[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.It is common gossip around Shubuta that the murder was commit-ted by a white man who had a grudge against Johnson and whofelt he could safely kill the dentist and have blame fall on theNegro.At any rate, after subjecting the boy to extreme torture,a confession was secured from Major that he had committed themurder.At this, preparations for the lynching began.Major andAndrew Clark, Maggie and Alma Howze had all been arrested.After Major s confession they were taken to Shubuta for trial andplaced in a little jail there.The mob secured the keys of the jailfrom the deputy sheriff in charge of the place without trouble,took out the prisoners and drove them to the place chosen fortheir execution, a little covered bridge over the ChickasawhayRiver.Four ropes were produced and four ends were tied tothe girder on the underside of the bridge, while the other fourends were made into nooses and fastened securely around thenecks of the four Negroes, who were standing on the bridge.Up until the last moment the Negroes protested their innocenceand begged the mob not to be killed.Maggie Howze screamedand fought crying out,  I ain t guilty of killing the doctor andyou oughtn t to kill me. In order to silence her cries one of themembers of the mob seized a monkey wrench and struck herin the mouth with it, knocking her teeth out.She was also hitacross the head with the same instrument, cutting a long gash.The four Negroes, when the ropes had been securely fastenedabout their necks, were taken bodily by the mob and thrownover the bridge.The younger girl and the two boys were killedinstantly.Maggie Howze, however, who was a strong and vigor-ous woman, twice caught herself on the side of the bridge, thusnecessitating her being thrown over the bridge three times.Intown the next day, members of the mob told laughingly of howhard it had been to kill  that big black Jersey woman. Theolder girl of twenty was to become a mother in four months,while the younger was to have given birth to a child in twoweeks.The sixteen-year-old prospective mother was killed on SHUBUTA, MISSISSIPPI: HOME OF THE RED ARTESIAN WELL 29Friday night and at the time of her burial on Sunday afternoonher unborn baby had not died.One could detect its movementsin her womb.78It is interesting that the report of this gruesome incident appearedin Cincinnati s newspaper, the Union.Perhaps this article waspublished in the Ohio paper to assure newly settled migrants thatthey made the correct choice in leaving the South.It is also possible,and probably more likely, that the article was published in northernAfrican American papers to publicize the brutality of racist whitesin the South and garner northern support against such acts.The 1918 lynchings were not the only time the  hangingbridge in Shubuta was used.In 1942, two fourteen-year-old blackboys were hanged after being accused of an attempted rape of athirteen-year-old white girl.Again the suspects were taken fromtheir jail cells and brought to the bridge.79 Another bridge, locatedone mile upriver from the Shubuta bridge, was the site of at leastsix similar lynchings.80Discrimination, poor crop returns, dishonest landlords, pooreducational opportunities, low wages, lynching, and segregationcontributed to African Americans desire to leave Mississippi duringthe Great Migration.Several families from Shubuta migrated toAlbany.Many felt that Albany, and the North in general, was anasylum from southern racism.Upon arrival in the North, Shubutaresidents were surprised to learn that conditions were not perfect.Albany had its own set of racial biases and discrimination. This page intentionally left blank. CHAPTER 2 God Led Me to AlbanyThe Albany that Louis W.Parson discovered upon his arrival fromthe Deep South was a city on the move.The 1930 census placed thestate capital s population at 127,412, with 98 percent white and 86percent native born.1 About half, 52 percent, of all white familieslived in nuclear households while 17 percent lived in extendedhouseholds, 12 percent lived in augmented households, 3 percentlived in extended and augmented households, and 7.4 percent livedin one-parent households.2The late 1920s found Albany s infrastructure modernizingand its population dispersing beyond the traditional neighborhoods.A new City Planning Commission was established in 1927 topurchase new land for proper highways, extend city streets intodeveloping neighborhoods, and install modern traffic lights andcontrols.Buses were quickly replacing trolleys as the chief modeof transporting workers from home to job.With an increasing population and improvements intransportation, city planners and private developers beganaddressing housing needs.By the late 1920s, the borders of thecity began pushing further westward, away from the HudsonRiver and original core of settlement.This era found rows of flatsdeveloping for working-class families along Delaware and NewScotland avenues.These double-family structures offered a homeand rental income for their owners, often members of the extendedfamily pooling resources.Albany s wealthy continued to build out31 32 SOUTHERN LIFE, NORTHERN CITYWestern Avenue, extending the Pine Hills neighborhood.3 Familyfarms and pine barrens could be found beyond all of Albany snewest neighborhoods.Roughly 60 percent of white families inAlbany rented their homes, while 38 percent owned their homes.4Furthermore, 39 percent of the white population had no children,25 percent had one child, 19 [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

  • zanotowane.pl
  • doc.pisz.pl
  • pdf.pisz.pl
  • funlifepok.htw.pl

    •