Ten Toes Dangling
The White Citizens Council was founded in the small Delta community of Indianola, Mississippi. Their motto: “States Rights – Racial Integrity” also known in the black community as “Don’t Come Near My Daughter Or Else!” On May 17, 1954 the Supreme Court abolished legal school segregation in the United States. The landmark decision is known as Brown v. Board of Education. So before Brown v. Board of Education, there was Plessy v. Ferguson which was the law of the land for fifty eight years, when in 1896 it was upheld by the U.S Supreme Court. Plessy v. Ferguson held that as long as the separate facilities for separate races were equal, state segregation did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment, which said something about all of us being equal under the law. So what was the catalyst behind Plessy v. Ferguson beside Louisiana dirty hot swamp racism? Well in 1890 Louisiana passed the Separate Car Act which made it illegal for blacks and whites to ride in the same railway car. Yeah they had to make explicit laws to separate blacks from whites. There was no such thing as legal federal segregation in those days. Anywho, the black folks down there wasn’t digging that shatt and decided to take these segregationist laws to court. They pick a man named Homer Plessy to be their test case. Plessy bought a first class ticket and boarded a “Whites Only” railcar bound for Covington, Louisiana. Now as an aside, the railroads didn’t like the whites only car laws either. To them it represented an additional financial burden in the fact they would have to buy more cars to accommodate the separation. So the railroad had been notified in advance of Plessy’s intention to break the law. In fact they hired a detective and had him deputized so that when Plessy broke the law, he would be arrested for breaking the Separate Car Act and not arrested for raping some white women in the whites only railroad bathroom car…. true story. Well sort of a true story. They were actually making sure he got arrested for the crime they were planning to defend him against. On June 7, 1892, Plessy boarded the “Whites Only” car and set down.
The conductor came down the aisle and said,” Boy are you crazy, there are ropes under every seat on this train! If you want yo neck to remain the same length, den you need to git back there with dem udder Nigras… and if you get back there foh I count to three, then I won’t charge you foh a seat cleaning… now hurry up boy…” Well Plessy just sat there and rolled his eyes at the conductor and looked away saying “#$$@! you.” The conductor looked at Plessy and said. “Now you done gone and did sumpin boy!!” Just as the conductor pulled out his gun, the detective intervened and arrested Plessy. As Plessy was leaving the train, he spat on the floor. The conductor let off a couple… bang.. bang.. The detective pushed Plessy to the ground. ” Hold on Henry Lee… this nigra is under my detention. I’ll hang him at the courthouse… I mean bring him to the courthouse..” The conductor said, “By gawd Tater, I wanna see ten toes dangling and a bunch of nigras protesting by suppa time!! I mean it!!”
So I might have been a little extra in telling the story.. but you never know. By the way, Plessy was classified as 7/8 white. It just took 1/8 black blood for him to be treated the same way as any black person would have been in those days. That’s a picture of Plessy on the left. If that dude had of been as dark as me, you would be reading an entirely different story… about the nigg@ who got his ass shot off when he attempted to board a god fearing white man’s train. Anywho, Plessy was convicted and sentenced to pay a $25 fine. Converted into today’s money, that would be $745.00. Plessy and his backers immediately filed for writ of prohibition. This type of writ is filed to compel the court to desist or show cause why why the directive or judgement should not be made permanent. It is usually handed down to a lower court pending an appeal. The judge presiding over his state court was named John Ferguson, hence Plessy v. Ferguson. He ruled that the state had the right to regulate the railroads while they were within the state’s border. Of course Plessy backers went straight aww hell no on them and took it to the next level, the United States Supreme Court. Unfortunately the Supreme Court said, Aww hell yes and upheld Ferguson’s ruling. The ruling became the basis for all lawful segregation in the United States for the next 58 years until Brown v. Board of Education in 1954. Judge Ferguson died November 12, 1915 at the age of 77. He is buried at Lafayette Cemetery in New Orleans. On February 12, 2009, descendants of Homer Plessy and John Ferguson placed a historical marker at the corner of Press Street and Royal Street, the site of Plessy’s arrest in New Orleans in 1892.
Aww Hell No II
In 1954 Donald Trump was 8 years old, “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man” by Muddy Waters was the top R&B record in the country and a Coca Cola cost just five cents. What does this have to do with our story? Nothing, I’m just practicing my Ken Burns shat.. Anywho… Brown v. Board of Education was the single sole reason that a greater emphasis was placed on Civil Rights by African Americans.. why? We will get to that in a moment, but first some background on the ruling. Like Plessy v. Ferguson, black law scholars approached the case using a tried but not true formula. By that I mean they sent a test case to the lower courts and would appeal to the US Supreme if the lower courts ruled against them. It was not an unsound gambit. The chance of the ruling going against them in a lower court was 100 percent… but the last time they did that and it went to the Supreme Court… well we ended up segregated for over half a century…
Skeeter: Well dey at it again Bill..
Bill: Wat’s dat Skeeter?
Sketter: Memba dat nigra named Plessa?
Bill: Yep.. a time back he got sassy wid Henry Lee and Henry had to fire off a couple..
Skeeter: Yep.. dey say ole Henry stood in front of dat courthouse wid his pistol for darn near a week..
Bill: All cause some black fellow want to act high and mighty and sit next to gawd fearing white folks…
Skeeter: Yep… dey say we be discimming them.. heck I ain’t’ got no fuss wid no nigras… Dis da way it’s always been…
Bill: Sho is hot out heh.. Must be betta den hunnert degrees..
Skeeter: Now deys hankering to go to the same school house wid white chillun and sit next to white gals… by gawd boy.. you’re right!! It’s hotter den da Klan eaten chitlins in da basement of a black church…
Bill: Did you see dat?
Skeeter: Naw.. wat you be gawking at Bill?
Bill: Dat nigra… he done drunk from dat white man’s fountain!!
Skeeter: Come on Bill!! ( Bill and Skeeter run toward the fountain and Skeeter grabs the man by the neck) “Spit it out!! Spit it out!!”
**********************
Skeeter: “Spit it out!! Spit it out nigg@r!!”
Doctor: Mr Rednick!! Mr Rednick.. (Doctor shakes Skeeter) wake up.. wake up.. you are dreaming…
Skeeter: ( Skeeter comes to and looks up..) You a nigra!! You a nigra!!
Doctor: Mr Rednick do you know where you are at?
Skeeter: Don’t you touch me nigg@r…
Doctor: Mr. Rednick.. you are at the Alt Ritemyass Veterans Hospital in Obama City..
Skeeter: Now boy, I want you to go git yo massa so I can talk to a white man.. and while you at it.. see if Bill is hanging around here somewhere..
Doctor: (The doctor picks up a pad and types something on it..) Okay here he is… William Gott Fukuped… Mr. Rednick, Mr. Fukuped was killed at the Battle of Hisveryaz on Yahoo Hill in 2027. He is buried at the Ray Cyst family Cemetery in Bidentown Mississippi.
Skeeter: Nigg@r I’ma count to three and you bedda have a white man in heh or else… cause if you think Ima believe yo lying black ass den you full of it!!
Doctor: Thats funny… I was just going to say the same thing about you… Nurse prepare the patient for a Class-A Deep Bowel and Spleen Enema…
I always knew that somebody would turn Skeeter around…
Anywho, yeah so the last time they tried that we ended up with segregated water fountains, restaurants, hotels, trains and schools.. any interaction between blacks and whites in public places was banned by Plessy v. Ferguson on the principle of separate but equal. Like I said earlier, the Brown v. Board of Education was a multiyear project. Although Thurgood Marshall is the person hailed as the hero in the Brown case, it was actually the brainchild of Charles Hamilton Houston, who was the Dean of Howard Law School. (Pictured above) Over a period of twenty years his star pupil Thurgood Marshall executed Houston’s plan through a series of court cases which would ultimately end at the Supreme Court. So we think of the Brown case as being one case, but it was actually fives cases. The school districts being sued were in Kansas, South Carolina, Delaware, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia!!! Yes I’m afraid so.. back in the 30’s when Houston began his fight to end segregation, the racist in DC grew to be 15 ft tall and had big red foreheads that glowed at night. Whenever they saw a black and white couple their necks would glow too… that’s where the saying, “Watch out for them rednecks,” came from… well that’s the story that was passed down to me.. anywho.. Thurgood had an A-Team when it came before the court to argue the merits of the cases. He also employed legal scholars such as William Coleman, the first black person to serve as a Supreme Court law clerk. Both black and white lawyers argued Brown v. Board of Education in front of the Supreme Court. In addition they also had historians and psychologist.
Don’t know if you heard of Kenneth Clark, but his contribution to the case was the now famous “Doll Experiment.” Kenneth along with his wife Mamie, (the experiment grew out of a masters thesis Mamie was writing,) postulated the effects segregation had on black children in New York, which did not have segregated schools, against black children in Washington DC, which did have segregated schools. The following is a description of their study about the effects of segregation presented to the Supreme Court
The Doll Experiment involved a child being presented with two dolls. Both of these dolls were completely identical except for the skin and hair color. One doll was white with yellow hair, while the other was brown with black hair. The child was then asked questions inquiring as to which one is the doll they would play with, which one is the nice doll, which one looks bad, which one has the nicer color, etc. The experiment showed a clear preference for the white doll among all children in the study. One of the conclusions from the study is that a Black child by the age of five is aware that to be “colored in … American society is a mark of inferior status.” These findings exposed internalized racism in African-American children, self-hatred that was more acute among children attending segregated schools. – Journal Of Negro Education – 1940
A lot of us are old enough to remember a time when there were no black dolls sold in stores. As a matter of fact the first black doll didn’t show up until 1967. Her name was Francine. Now I’m going to give Mattel an “A” for effort, but an “F” for execution. Francine was made from the same mold as Barbie and looked just like her except her skin tone was a shade darker. That’s her in the picture. Mattel put out a doll in 1980 that was actually called “Black Barbie,” but it still had European features. It wasn’t until 1990 that Mattel after hosting a focus group with black parents and children, created a black doll which had black facial features, skin tones and hair texture. I guess they had never seen a negro before and wanted to get it right.. In 2016, Mattel expanded this line to include seven skin tones, twenty-two eye colors, and twenty-four hairstyles.
Now we all heard of the saying, “no good deed goes unpunished.” Well a prime example of that was when Mattel entered a promotion with Oreo cookies. Oreo Fun Barbie was marketed as someone whom young girls could play with after class and share “America’s favorite cookie.” Now on face value, there is nothing wrong with that… until they made a “black” version.. and as they say.. that’s when the fight started. Yep they made a Black Oreo doll. Someone didn’t get the memo that being an Oreo in the black community was not something black parents ascribed to for their children. The doll failed miserably and Mattel recalled it. Both Francine and the Black Oreo Doll are now collectors items commanding hundreds of dollars for enthusiast. Okay.. so where was I… oh yeah.. So armed with these titans of the legal profession and stalwarts of the social disciplines, Thurgood Marshall completed the decades old plan of Charles Hamilton Houston. By proving the detrimental effects that segregation had on children in the African American educational system, the legal doctrine of separate but equal was proven to be unconstitutional under the 14th Amendment. Brown v. Board Of Education abolished segregation in the United States forever.
Nurse: Doctor.. Mr. Rednick has regained consciousness..
Doctor: Mr. Rednick.. what do you remember?
Skeeter: Well suh.. I acted unkindly to you.. and I want to apologize..
Doctor: That’s fine… you can address me as “Massa.”
Skeeter: Yes Massa..
Doctor: Lets not get too informal… It’s Massa suh..
Skeeter: Yes Massa suh..
Doctor: (Doctor picks up a pad and types something into it.) I see here where it says you once belonged to a white citizen council.
Skeeter: Yes Massa suh.. but I renounce the white citizens council !! I renounce the KKK !! I renounce my parents for having me… I don’t want to be white no more.. give me dem black boots ma’am… (Skeeter ties the boots around his neck.) See Massa suh.. I’m black now too!!
Intercom: Paging Doctor Black.. Doctor Rill Black please report to the Caucasian Emergency Room in the sub-basement by the broom closet.
Skeeter: Massa suh!! I’ve learned today… I’ve learned today!!
Doctor Black: Naw Mfer!!
Black Farmers in Stem North Carolina (1940)
Things don’t look good for Skeeter…. Anyway, so we took the scenic route to get to where we was going. That being the explanation for the Brown v. Board of Education case as being the single most important event in the birth of the Civil Rights protest of the 50’s and 60’s. But before we go on, I want to explain a historical reference I used when Skeeter tied the black boots around his neck. As a child growing up in the late fifties and early sixties, I often heard African Americans referring to other African Americans as “boots.” An example might be.. “I saw a boot in the white folks store yesterday.” “Really!! What was he buying?” “He wasn’t buying anything.. he was taking out the trash..” So yeah.. that was that our generation’s version of “nigg@” Anywho.. after the Brown case, shatt started to get real. So in the spirit of being transparent, the “White Citizens Council (WCC),” was only know as the “White Citizens Council“ by it detractors. Their official name was “Citizens Council.” Now it wasn’t entirely wrong to refer to the organization as the “White Citizens Council” being that only white folks could be members and that their primary objective was the disenfranchisement of every “boot” in the country… especially those in the heart of the former confederacy, Mississippi and Alabama. The first meeting of the WCC happened in Indianola, Mississippi in 1954. It’s founder, Robert Patterson organized the group as a direct response to the Brown case. Now you may find it hard to believe, but as a child Patterson’s best friend was a black child named Aaron Henry. I mean these cats were ride or die type buddies. Aaron Henry would grow up to be the founder of the NAACP in Mississippi, The Regional Council Of Negro Leadership, and the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party. “So Ima tell you right now… that boy done gone and did sumpin when he’s boss of an organization with the words Mississippi and Freedom in the title… Go git my pistol!! Yahoo!!” So yeah, even so, they were good friends as kids. The primary thrust for the WCC was to mobilize around the civil right struggle and minimize its impact on integration. They mostly accomplished this through economic sanctions against uppity nigra’s that didn’t know they place. The councils were made up of local businessman, professionals, and governmental officials. It wasn’t unusual for them to have the local newspapers to print out a list of African Americans who had signed petitions in favor de-segregation, voting rights or fair wages. These individuals were then targeted for firing, mortgage refusal or bank loan refusals. The latter was extremely effective because of the large number of black farmers in Mississippi and Alabama. Now once in a while they would come across a hard headed nigra and would have to show him the rope and the burning cross, but that was only used as a last resort. Although their membership did include people who belonged to the KKK, the WCC generally thought of the KKK as a “low class,” or as not being on the same level as a real god fearing, red blooded, American white man. Simply put the white trash of the KKK was a necessary evil that they would have to put up with in case somebody black started to feel some kinda way.
Skeeter: Massa suh, I have learned today!! I have learned today!! I’m black now!!
Bill: (Bill grabs Skeeter by his shoulders and shakes him!!) Skeeter wake up!! Skeeter… wake up!!
Skeeter: Massa… (Skeeter slowly shakes his head from side to side..) Bill is that you? (Skeeter starts crying…) Bill!! Bill!! It’s you!! It’s you!!
Bill: (Bill helped Skeeter to his feet.) I thought you was a goner.. That nigra had the biggest hands I’d eva seen!! When you got a hold of him.. he broke loose and smacked the beard right off yo face.. It’s ova der on dat window sill… I thought for a moment both of yo ears was on the same side… he looked at me and I ran to go get the sheriff. I told him you was laid out cold by the wada fountain an det dat nigra had laid hands on you…he said to fetch him when you is come to… Dis ain’t da fust time.. He smacked Slick Roy last week.. you know da one with the slick black hair… Well now they call him Curly Roy!! Lots of folks wants to see that boy Black get his.. yessiree… Yahoo!!
Skeeter: What you say his name?
Bill: Dat boy be named Black… Rill Black..
Skeeter: Skeeter looks at Bill and the runs to the window sill.. grabs his beard and stuffs it in his pants pocket… He looks at Bill again and yells “Yahoo!! Yahoo!!” Skeeter then takes off running again. Bill watches him as Skeeter runs into the General Store… Bill runs to the store..
Bill: Skeeter I’d thought we was going to fetch the sheriff.. whatcha doing in heh??
Skeeter: Well I figure if dat nigra gets thirsty again.. He can drink out this glass I’m getting ready to buy him…
See…there is hope for Skeeter yet…
The main legacy of the WCC was not in their tactics for inhibiting civil rights. Although at the height of their popularity their number were estimated to be around 80,000 and their influence was felt at every level of government and business, their lasting legacy is the continuation of segregation in the school system of the deep south. Unable to defeat the growing sympathy for the plight of African Americans and the African Americans growing political clout with the passing of the 1965 Voting Rights Bill, the WCC started to put its resources into maintaining segregation through the use of private schools. Remember when I told you that Brown v. Board Of Education was actually five cases? Well one of those cases, outlawed segregation in graduate and professional schools in the South. WCC knew it would only be a matter of time before desegregation reached the public school level. The exodus from public schools began in the 1940s, when private school enrollment in the 15 states of the South rose by more than 125,000 students—roughly 43 percent. From 1950 to 1965 private school enrollment grew at unprecedented rates all over the nation, with the South having the largest growth.- A History of Private Schools & Race in the American South.
By the 70’s southerners had had a change of heart concerning segregation… well not so much as a change of heart as that they had began to accept there was little they could do in the face of new Federal, State and Local laws. Its wasn’t like the old days any longer. Violations of the civil rights laws meant you could be liable for severe criminal charges that could put you behind bars for decades. In 2017, the founder of the White Citizens Council, Robert “Tut” Patterson, died at the age 95 in Carrollton, Mississippi.
It was the passing of an age and not a good one. – Charles Sallis, author of “Mississippi: Conflict & Change.”
Last But Not Least..
JFK tells George Wallace to get the @!## out of the door way or else!! This happened June 11, 1963 at the University of Alabama. A few years later George Wallace was shot in the ass in Laurel Maryland on May 15, 1972 by Arthur Bremer. Bremer was released from prison on November 9, 2007 after serving 35 years of a 53 year sentence. George Wallace died September 13, 1998. Before dying Wallace had renounced racism.
Additional Reading:
PBS White Citizens Council
Mississippi Civil Right Project
History News Network
5 Trackbacks / Pingbacks