Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America (42 page)

219
  
“I had watched my best buddies tortured”
: Christopher M. Richardson and Ralph E. Luker,
Historical Dictionary of the Civil Rights Movement
, 495.

219
  
“my wild man, my Castro”
: Taylor Branch,
Pillar of Fire: America in the King Years, 1963–65
(New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998), 124.

219
  
charges of drunk driving
: “Civil Rights Veteran Hosea Williams Faces Battle to Keep His Credibility,”
Los Angeles Times
, September 1, 1991.

220
  
“it persuaded no one”
: Elliot Jaspin,
Buried in the Bitter Waters
(New York: Basic Books, 2007), 142.

221
  
“I think I have to go back”
: “Walk,”
Forsyth County News
, January 18, 1987, 3A.

221
  
“I’ve been in many such situations”
: “White Protestors Disrupt ‘Walk for Brotherhood’ in Georgia Town,”
New York Times
, January 18, 1987, 24.

221
  
“The vast majority of the citizens”
: “Second ‘Freedom March’ Set for Saturday,”
Forsyth County News
, January 21, 2012.

221
  
“I don’t think what we saw was indicative”
: “County Leaders Denounce Violence,”
Forsyth County News
, January 18, 1987, 2A.

221
  
“If they would let us alone”
: “Georgia County Haunted by 1912 Incident,”
Gainesville Sun
, January 23, 1987.

222
  
“I figure they could pick a better place”
: “Police Admit: ‘We Lost Control,’ ”
Gainesville Times
, January 18, 1987, 2B.

222
  
“most people here don’t want them”
: “Rights Groups May Pursue Effort in White County,”
New York Times
, January 19, 1987, A15.

222
  
“They ought to have printed up . . . targets”
: “Police Admit: ‘We Lost Control,’ ”
Gainesville Times
, January 18, 1987, 2B.

222
  
“I am tired Governor Harris”
: Correspondence of Governor Joe Frank Harris, Forsyth County Folder, March 5, 1987. Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.

223
  
“We the people of Forsyth County have been used”
: Ibid., January 28, 1987.

223
  
“Most of those arrested were not natives”
: Ibid., January 29, 1987.

CHAPTER 18: SILENCE IS CONSENT

224
  
“even if it takes 300 state troopers”
: “Carter Vows Return to Forsyth,”
Gainesville Times
, January 19, 1987.

224
  
“We’re going to march”
: “Williams: March Birth of a New Struggle,”
Gainesville Times, January 23
, 1987, 9A.

225
  
350 State Troopers
: John McKay,
It Happened in Atlanta
(Globe Pequot, 2011), 151.

225
  
“a great coming together”
: “Forsyth at a Glance,”
Gainesville Times
, January 22, 1987, 7A.

225
  
“Seven years ago”
: “Black Man Shot in Forsyth Plans to Return,” Associated Press, January 24, 1987.

225
  
“to live a life of decency”
: Tyler Bridges,
The Rise of David Duke
(Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1994), 128.

228
  
“When all these people finish”
: “Calm and Quiet Returns to Cumming,”
Gainesville Times
, February 1, 1987, 11A.

228
  
“Whites don’t want the blacks”
: “Leave Forsyth Like It Is Now,”
Gainesville Times
, January 18, 1987, 4A.

229
  
“Do you think this is a free ride?”
: “Forsyth Has Too Much Class,”
Gainesville Times
, February 1, 1987, 2F.

229
  
an “all-white” affair
: Hosea Williams and other march leaders picketed the broadcast for barring blacks from the audience and were arrested by Forsyth sheriff Wesley Walraven for “unlawful assembly.” Oprah told reporters she was “very, very sorry” about the arrest and said, “I have nothing but respect for Hosea Williams.” “Talk Show Pickets Busted in Georgia,”
Hour
(Norwalk, CT), February 10, 1987, 2

230
  
“a lot of white people are afraid”
: “Talk Show Pickets Busted in Georgia,”
Hour
(Norwalk, CT), February 10, 1987, 2.

230
  
“We agree that the majority of the citizens”
: Hosea Williams to Roger Crow, January 30, 1987. Historical Society of Forsyth County, Cumming, GA.

231
  
“persons whose land [was] unlawfully seized”
: Ibid.

232
  
“leaders of the black community”
: Cumming Mayor H. Ford Gravitt, et al., to Hosea Williams, February 2, 1987. Historical Society of Forsyth County, Cumming, GA.

232
  
“The primary responsibility”
: Hosea Williams to Roger Crow, February 4, 1987. Historical Society of Forsyth County, Cumming, GA.

234
  
“racial incidents . .
. allegedly
drove”
:
Report of the Cumming/Forsyth County Biracial Committee
, December 22, 1987, 2.5–2.6. Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.

234
  
the first boll weevil
: P. B. Haney, W. J. Lewis, and W. R. Lambert, “Cotton Production and the Boll Weevil in Georgia: History, Cost of Control, and Benefits of Eradication,”
Georgia Agricultural Experiment Stations Research Bulletin
, March 2009, 2.

234
  
quietly absorbed into the property of their former white neighbors
: Elliot Jaspin,
Buried in the Bitter Waters
(New York: Basic Books, 2007), 135–36.

234
  
“the charge of unlawfully taken land”
:
Report of the Cumming/Forsyth County Biracial Committee
, December 22, 1987, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, 2.8.

235
  
top twenty-five wealthiest counties
: American Community Survey, U.S. Census Bureau; http://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/acs/data/summary-file.html, accessed August 5, 2015.

235
  
“an ever-pointing finger of blame”
:
Report of the Cumming/Forsyth County Biracial Committee
, December 22, 1987, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library, University of Georgia, 2.9; 2.23; 2.1.

235
  
“cast aside confrontational tactics”
: Ibid., 2.23.

236
  
“There seems to be a prevailing philosophy”
: Ibid., 3.17.

236
  
“work closely with law enforcement”
: Ibid., 3.21.

237
  
“People’s attitudes are already changing”
: “Georgia, It’s a Diverse State,”
USA Today
, August 31, 1987, 11A.

238
  
“It doesn’t bother me”
: “Anniversary March Peaceful in Forsyth,”
Item
(Sumter, SC), January 17, 1988, 6A.

238
  
a million dollars in damages
:
McKinney v. Southern White Knights, et al
., United States District Court for the Northern District, Civil Action Number 1:87-cv-565-CAM, October 25, 1988.

238
  
“Forsyth has a negative connotation”
: “Many See Their Future in County with a Past,”
New York Times
, April 8, 1999, A18.

239
  
“the whitest of the country’s 600 most populous counties”
: Ibid.

239
  
“684 black Georgians”
: U.S. Census Bureau. Population data for Forsyth County, Georgia. Prepared by Social Explorer (accessed February 20, 2014).

240
  
“died a natural death”
: “Forsyth County Overcomes Racist Reputation with Population Boom,”
Savannah Morning News
, March 14, 1999, 11A.

240
  
“banks [and] eateries”
: “Painful Past, Prosperous Future,”
Gainesville Times
, January 17, 2007.

240
  
“I am the treasurer of the PTA”
: “Georgia County Draws Minorities,” Bloomberg Business, March 18, 2011.

EPILOGUE: A PACK OF WILD DOGS

242
  
“this attempted social revolution”
: Hiram Parks Bell,
Men and Things
(Atlanta: Foote and Davies, 1907), 135–36.

244
  
thirteen acres of farmland
: Forsyth County Return for Colored Tax Payers, 1912, Cumming District, Georgia Archives, Morrow, GA.

244
  
“They were just so happy”
: Kathleen Anderson, taped interview, 1987. Forsyth County Box, King Center Archives, Atlanta, GA.

245
  
“I just remember her coming in crying”
: Ibid.

245
  
“a pack of wild dogs”
: Ibid.

CREDITS

TEXT

Epigraph:
Strange Fruit
By Lewis Allan Copyright © 1939 (Renewed) Used by Permission of Music Sales Corporation and Edward B. Marks Music Co. International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved

Quotes from Isabella D. Harris Letter to Max Gilstrap, 1987. Courtesy of the Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library / University of Georgia Libraries

Quotes from Ruth Mae Jordan Berry Letter to L. H. Berry, 1980. Courtesy of Henry D. Berry

IMAGES

xvii
  
Cumming, Georgia, January 17, 1987
. Photo ©Molly Read Woo.

xxi
   “Militia Guards Negroes During Trial,”
Atlanta Constitution
, October 4, 1912.

3
      
Sheriff Bill Reid c. 1908, with wife, Martha, and sons William and Robert
. Photo by C. W. Motes, Atlanta, Georgia.

5
      
Sheriff Bill Reid and Deputy Gay Lummus, c. 1912
. Photo by C. W. Motes, Atlanta, Georgia.