Investigating History 102: Searching For Clues to Provide Context (Patreon)

In this series, I aim to give you guys tips and tricks for studying history. In the first installment, we backtracked a popular black urban legend. In this one, we're exploring how to make the most out of search engines.

Imagine you're writing a short story involving a black family traveling to visit kin down South in 1947. They are traveling from New York to Alabama. To create a rich and accurate narrative detailing the average experience, we have to research. Below is a generated map from the New York Public Library's The Green Book database. You may recall learning about this in Sundown Towns and Black Travel. 

As you can see, there are two places recommended  for black Americans to stay (both in Alabama) and four places to eat. During the journey, a traveler would pass through four states with no hospirable eateries or inns: Delaware, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Using the internet, we're going to gauge which of these five states (counting Georgia, just for shits and giggles) was the most likely to be a dangerous place to travel for a black person in 1947.  I gave myself a three hour time limit to collect pages of contextual notes. Here's how I did it.

1. Take Notes on The Era That Relate To Your Central Topic

Our trip is set for 1947. I chose this year because it was a pivotal time for black people. Let's get a feel for the racial atmosphere of the late 40s. Using timelines, wikipedia, books, or common knowledge, we scribble down events that might have impacted white attitudes, black travel, or black livelihood . Here's what I noted:

There is a resurgence of the KKK from 1915 (the beginning of the Great Migration) into the 40's. There was a sharp increase of KKK memberships in the aftermath of WWII, when Black GI's returned from Europe feeling "entitled" to equal rights

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund is established in 1940 in New York City, setting the tone for the decade of a community ready to organize and challenge laws

The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is founded in 1941

At least 25 black people are murdered during "race riots" in Detroit in 1943

In 1946 South Carolina ruled that segregation on interstate bus travel was unconstitutional

In April 1947, Bayard Rustin and other CORE activists kicked off The Journey of Reconciliation in response to the above ruling (they sought to challenge racist southerners resistant to the change) [Picture above and below]

Cries for anti-lynching legislation were at a fever pitch thanks to the lynchings of two black couples in Georgia in 1946. This movement had been building since the terse racial violence of the post-reconstruction. 

In 1947 W.E.B. Dubois published through NAACP An Appeal To The World, arguing that racism and states like Mississippi were more dangerous than communism or The Soviet Union. It was released to the UN.

On February 16, 1947, a black man in South Carolina named Willie Earle is lynched. 31 white men were acquitted for the murder, by the trial itself showed SC residents that lynch mob justice wouldn't be tolerated for much longer. The incident was reported in news outlets across the country and is widely considered the last racially motivated lynching in SC.

Jackie Robinson integrated baseball (and pissed off whites) in April 1947

1946 was seen as a year with lots of political gains for black people. Blacks who read newspapers like The Pittsburgh Courier (pictured below) went into 1947 with optimism

2. Take Notes on Each State's Racial History

What kind of laws were on the books in these places that might impact black travel? What violent events happened in these states that were excused by residents? What was each state's experience with lynching? What you find will provide context for a roadtrip in 1947. I found:

Delaware

Passed a Jim Crow law in 1875 as a retaliation to the 1875 Civil Rights Act. They didn't repeal the law until 1963

Apart from a well documented incident in 1903, Delaware was not a state known for significant lynching violence. (Read: Permission to Hate: Delaware, Lynching, and the Culture of Violence in America)

North Carolina

NC first implemented black codes to tame freed slaves in 1866. After struggling for political power during reconstruction, from 1895 onward the state passed a series of Jim Crow laws

In 1947, Bayard Rustin was sentenced to 30 days in a North Carolina prison for sitting next to a white man on a bus during  The Journey of Reconciliation

Over 100 documented lynchings occured in NC from 1877-1950, mostly on the Eastern side of the state. According to our map, we're traveling through the Western portion 

Virginia

Virginia passed one of its first black codes, The Vagrancy Law, in 1866. It forced black people who appeared to be unemployed or homeless to work for up to three months. This law stayed on the books until 1904, but by then there were several Jim Crow laws, like the two below.

"Every person... operating... any public hall, theater, opera house, motion picture show or any place of public entertainment or public assemblage which is attended by both white and colored persons, shall separate the white race and the colored race and shall set apart and designate... certain seats therein to be occupied by white persons and a portion thereof, or certain seats therein, to be occupied by colored persons."

"The conductors or managers on all such railroads shall have power, and are hereby required, to assign to each white or colored passenger his or her respective car, coach or compartment. If the passenger fails to disclose his race, the conductor and managers, acting in good faith, shall be the sole judges of his race."

Between 1880 and 1926, at least 90 people were lynched in the state. One cool database placed each lynching on an interactive map, which you can explore here. 

Anti-Lynching legislation was enacted here in 1928. Said historian Dr. John Kneebone,

“Lynch mobs were generally a group composed of poor whites. Elites in the South never favored lynching. But because race was involved, the majority chose not to stand up and oppose lynching. Byrd changed that.” (Source)

Tennessee

From 1877 to 1950, 233 lynchings occured in the state of Tennessee 

A law passed in 1875 allowing Inn Keepers to discriminate stayed on the books until 1955 

Another law? (Read the full list of Jim Crow laws passed by Tennessee here)

All well-behaved persons to be admitted to theaters, parks, shows, or other public amusements, but also declared that proprietors had the right to create separate accommodations for whites and Negroes.

Tennessee is the birthplace of the KKK

Georgia

Over 450 lynchings reported in Georgia from from 1882-1930. There were no lynchings in 1947, but two black couples were lynched in July of 1946

The Georgia Historical Society has three folders of KKK membership apps completed between 1947 and 1948 (Source)

Whites expelled blacks from Forsyth County in 1912, and it continues to be a "sudown town". In fact, there are currently 15 cities or counties in Georgia considered to be sundown towns according to sociologist James Loewen. (Source)

In November 1947, Haiti's Secretary of Agriculture was denied service at an Atlanta hotel he had a reservation for (Source)

(Map Source) 

3. Search Newspapers in Each Selected State From 1946-1947

There are four main databases I use to find newspaper clippings. New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, newspapers.com, and Google Books. Here's what you're looking for:

Each state's name with the following terms: Ku Klux Klan, Lynching, Lynch, Journey of Reconciliation, Bayard Rustin, or Negro

Events that re-defined or upset the time period you are researching

Attitudes and tones from the writers covering said events

The passage of new laws

Instances of Lynching

Pair what you know about the era with what you discover in newspapers and other publications. Also be careful to check and see if the newspaper was/is black owned or white owned to gauge bias.

Delaware

Delaware's mildly disapproving affiliation with the KKK is revealed in clippings from the News Journal and The Morning News. On July 24, 1946 The Morning News reported that a cross set on fire in the style of the KKK near Newark was actually the work of "college pranksters". It was placed a quarter of a mile from a "negro settlement." A later edition found "All investigation in recent months has failed to disclose any existence of the hooded order in the state." A July 30th edition of the News Journal recalled when the KKK was active in the state in 1921, and implied doubt that the KKK was involved in the 1946 incident. A May 20th editorial in The Morning News expresses disgust at the KKK's resurgence in other states. 

North Carolina

An analyzation of 121 newspaper clippings from 1946-1947 found general disgust for the Willie Earle lynching, along with lukewarm interest in other lynchings

On May 1st, 1947, The Daily Tar Heel, a publication of UNC, ran a letter to the editor from a man sympathizing with Bayard Rustin and the Journey of Reconciliation. He sensed that change was afoot and urged his fellow whites to "re-examine ourselves and our conventions." That a popular newspaper (especially one with a middle-upper class target audience) would publish such a letter is a sign of a changing attitude in North Carolina

And yet, the Statesville Daily Record and other papers reported violence and arrests surrounding "troublemaking" negroes and vengeful whites, showing that the atmosphere was far from peaceful. The below clipping is from April 18th, 1947. 

Virginia

An analyzation of 104 matches for "Lynching" in three Virginia newspapers showed a lot of anti-lynching discourse, however I could not find any reports on Bayard Rustin or the Journey of Reconciliation. 

Tennessee 

Multiple newspapers ran editorials expressing their disgust with the KKK, but these same papers reported on KKK meetings with neutral tones. Below is a clipping from the May 13th, 1946 edition of the Kingsport News.

Georgia

In July 1947, five black convicts were killed when 27 attempted to escape from a Glynn County prison

On June 13th, 1947, Virginia's The Bee reported that the Ku Klux Klan surrendered it's charter, and was told by the Attorney General Eugene Cook (who believed the NAACP was a communist organization) that they could continue operating as a national organization "under the constitutional rights of free assembly." If you're asking why they had to surrender their charter, it's not because of racism or violence. It's because they were profiting off of it. 

4. Synthesize What You've Got

People in these states were beginning to show weariness of the KKK. They also were beginning to see that lynch mobs were barbaric and unnecessary. But these attitudes wouldn't blossom into anything resembling comfort for black people traveling in this era. It was still dangerous to travel through America. When looking at the number of lynchings per state along with racial events from the era, I have decided to arrange the states by danger level thusly: Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia, and Delaware. Georgia had the most lynchings, significant KKK activity, and an anti-black attitude. Tennessee came in a close second for similar reasons. 

 Do you agree or disagree? Also, is there a significant event from the 1940s that you think I should have included in my analysis? I'd love to hear in the comments! 

*Bonus: Taking Research Further (And/Or Offline)

All of this information was retrieved on the internet in a little over three hours. However, if I had weeks or months to research along with access to archives (at the Georgia Historical Society, the National Archives, university housed archives etc), there are ways I could push these clues into something more. They include:

Finding speeches, journal entries, interviews, or essays by KKK members or KKK affiliated politicians in each of the five states

Finding speeches, journal entries, interviews, or essays by notable black people in each of the five states (or nationwide) that reveal more about the black travel experience

Finding more editorials from black ran newspapers describing travel experiences or the racial atmosphere

Analyzing popular music lyrics from 1946 & 1947 that might reveal prevailing opinions on race and/or the KKK

Searching through popular black magazines (Ebony was established in 1945) for any mention of black travel, the KKK, or lynching

Upgrading my newspapers.com membership so that I can access a plethora of regional newspapers not available anywhere else for mention of racial events and discourse

Checking various case studies for racially motivated lawsuits (regarding travel) filed from 1945-1947

Searching regional church records for recorded racially motivated events

Widening my search of newspapers for incidents of racially motivated violence/destruction that didn't end in death (assaults, theft, etc)

Considering ways other than KKK and lynching that these states might be dangerous. For example, researching the prevalence of convict leasing and/or wrongful arrests that led to imprisonment. That would be a pretty interesting angle to work.

Making a timeline of significant events (like World War I, The Great Depression, etc) from 1900-1945, and analyzing newspaper coverage of lynchings/the KKK before and after each so that I could compare them to press coverage in 1946 and 1947. It would allow me to identify shifts in attitude towards both lynch justice and the KKK.

The options for painting a fuller picture of the danger of mid-twentieth century black southern travel are truly limitless. Again, this is what makes studying and researching history fun! The more creative you are with your information-gathering, the better story you'll be able to tell. 

Bonus Sources: 

Flip the Pages of A Real 1947 Green Book 

Mapping The Second Ku Klux Klan (1915-1940)