Prior to ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, black women focused their activities on the issues that concerned them most: the villainous activities of the Ku Klux Klan and the lynching of black men, the need for safe working environments, the acceptance of blacks' testimony against whites, and the education of black children. After the amendment's ratification, even though black women were still excluded from voting, they influenced the eligible male voters in their community and damned those black men who cast their lot with the Democratic Party for self-serving reasons.14 Throughout the South, black men who had accepted money or clothes in exchange for voting the Democratic ticket sometimes suffered isolation, humiliation, and, in the most extreme cases, death at the hands of those blacks who believed black Democrats were race traitors who intentionally worked against the progress of the race.15 In Lexington, Democrats attempted to appeal to black voters' memories of their slave past, when life was “simpler” for the Negro, or they threatened to take away jobs if blacks did not vote for the white man's party.16 It is unclear to what extent Democrat-supporting blacks were abused by their community, but they likely saw the folly of their decision to endorse those who would reenslave a freedom-loving people.
Meetings to address the political questions of the day were well attended by the black men and women who represented Lexington's colored community. At these gatherings, the city's politically active and politically powerful assembled to express their “gratitude” as well as their “grievances.”17 Reverend Bell, like his fellow pastors serving black congregations, worked hard to keep the faithful focused on the Christian teachings of temperance, humility, and brotherhood. Churches were places where noble examples of muscular Christianity were rewarded with praise and identified as paragons of exceptional virtue. Bell's church provided not only a spiritual home for America and her family but also role models of acceptable male behavior for Isaac.
A Community of Strivers
A year before relocating to the Lower Street enclave, America and Isaac lived at 17 Jordan's Row, near the corner of Short and Upper Streets and across from the county courthouse, also known as Cheapside. Black people had once been sold at Cheapside, but now, in the middle of Reconstruction, the monthly livestock sales were coming under the scrutiny of the more cosmopolitan Lexingtonians, who were interested in creating a less odiferous business district, void of its agrarian and slave past. Within a six-block radius of the residence on Jordan's Row were more than a dozen black businesses, and some of the most prominent members of Lexington's black community lived within walking distance of the Cheapside market.
Blacks were scattered throughout the central part of the city but were becoming exceedingly concentrated in the suburbs of the First, Second, and Third Wards. Sensing the anxious if not altogether paternalistic gaze of whites, whose philanthropy and powerful political connections had lifted some of the barriers to progress, members of the black community who lived near the courthouse were compelled to move from their former rental homes into housing projects built on the periphery of downtown Lexington, beyond the view of the white elite. Still, even as the black community began spreading out east and north of the courthouse, as well as south across the railroad tracks past Vine Street, white men maintained control through surveillance, real estate development, and political manipulation.
Despite a depressed if not outright anemic economy, a few of the 7,215 African American inhabitants were able to establish social, political, and economic footholds in the postbellum city of more than 14,000. Black businesses, many of which had been established before emancipation, gained a new clientele during Reconstruction and were able to take advantage of the growing population, especially on Hunt's Row, or Vine Street—the “black main street.”18 African American businessmen such as Ferdinand Robinson, Isaac Lee, George Tandy, and Henry Scroggins were cornerstones of the black community. Robinson, a mattress manufacturer, provided products and services to all of Lexington. Isaac Lee and George Tandy had a confectioner's shop that sold sweets and bakery items. Henry Scroggins's barbershop on Hunt's Row serviced black men and, quite possibly, white men who were not prejudiced toward the barber's primary clientele. These men were highly regarded for their integrity and sense of purpose—strivers in every sense of the word. Based on their financial success and standing in the community, these four were among the dozen or so black men who formed the community's core leadership, providing advice and direction. Scroggins would be an especially significant contributor to the economic, social, and political development of the community.
In addition to being secretary of the board of directors of Lexington's Colored Fair Association and the future founder and editor of the American Citizen, Scroggins was an outspoken member of the Republican Party and an advocate for self-reliance and black empowerment. As chairman of the Colored School Committee, he constantly argued for fair and equal funding for Lexington's black schools and pushed his fellow community leaders to defend black children's right to a quality education. In January 1870 the Kentucky Statesman published a letter signed by Scroggins and other black leaders who were dissatisfied with the Lexington School Committee's decision to consider the availability of school aid from other sources before distributing monies from the Negro Fund.19 They wrote:
There is something wrong somewhere. The officers in Louisville certainly ought to know that there [are] 1500 children in this city. If they don't know, they are certainly well paid to know. The Bureau has not given us any information of any change in regard to the sums of money paid last year. If any change has been made, we have had no official report; and if it remains the same, where does it go? If it still remains the same are only 300 children to be benefitted by it, when three times that amount are thrown in the streets, for that one building will not accommodate more than 300 children. We claim a part of that government money for the poor children, for it is theirs. We are determined to stand up for these children. We now ask are you willing to divide your $200 equally of government money with us for our $1.10 tax money—you having 30 children and we having 400, and perhaps in a short time will have double that number. We hope the School Committee will take good care of our money and employ teachers of good moral character and who have stood an examination before the Commissioner; put them under reasonable pay and dismiss them when they deem it necessary; and visit and pay the same attention to our schools as they do to the city schools. Now let our disputing come to an end, and let us try to better understand each other. We must educate, and when educated, we will have different views and different feelings, and knowledge of a higher sphere of things. Let us work for the masses. As for our white teachers, we have the highest regard. We have been with them four years. They come from good families in the North, are highly cultivated both in manners and religion, and are worthy of the best society—some are graduates of the best colleges of the North. They are noble and high-minded, and such friends of mercy we can never forget. We cannot do without them, nor do we want to be without them while we are so poor and dependent upon their noble charities. We are very thankful to the Christian Society that sent them to us, and who pay them, as we are too poor to do more at the present for ourselves.20
Scroggins argued that the five black schools in Lexington served more than 1,500 children, and funding should not be withheld or divided based on a set of rules designed to reward schools favored by the American Missionary Association or the Federal government. Monies intended for all five schools had consistently gone to the one school that was already heavily supported by outside funding. Without their fair share of government funds and county tax funds (from taxes paid by blacks), which altogether would amount to $650, unsupported teachers had to turn away one-third of the community's black children due to a lack of resources. This lack of financial support was unacceptable, given that black men, some of whom did not even have school-aged children, worked hard to make a living and pay their taxes to ensure the education of black children.
Out of necessity, Henry
Scroggins and other local African American leaders became politically active, demanding adequate funding for black schools. They rallied to challenge the cavalier policies of the Lexington School Committee, whose members' children were not directly affected by the irresponsible decision to withhold funding from needy and deserving schools. The father of two school-aged children himself, Scroggins understood that education was the key to their future.
Although we cannot be sure, Isaac Murphy probably attended the Howard School on Church Street, which was only two blocks from his residence on Jordan's Row. The pride of Lexington's black elite, the tuition-free Howard School was sponsored by the American Missionary Association and supported by local benevolent societies. It was considered a model for colored schools throughout the state; only the Ely School in Louisville was thought to be more advanced. Under the direction of new principal John G. Hamilton, the teachers of the Howard School worked to ensure that the children of washerwomen, stable hands, barbers, and farmers were ready to take their place in a world much different from that of their parents. In fact, most of the students' parents were illiterate, but they knew that education and religion were the greatest gifts they could give their children.
Because the community was dependent on the efforts of all its members, Isaac would have known of men such as Henry Scroggins, James Turner, and Henry King—three of the leaders in the fight for education, access to public accommodations, and all the privileges of citizenship. Other important businessmen in Lexington's black community were Lawson Hawkins, who ran a grocery store on Broadway near Main Street, and Nathan Bibbs, whose home-based storefront was located on Upper and Winslow. These businesses provided necessary goods and services, and their proprietors served as examples of success and independence. Isaac and America probably visited all these places of business at one time or another. Like most children, Isaac would have been especially attracted to the sugary sweets made by Lee and Tandy, and he may have convinced his mother he deserved a small piece of candy on their trips down Vine Street to buy the necessities of daily life.
Feeding the spiritual and educational needs of the black community, and still within a six-block radius of the Murphy home, were four of the six active black churches in Lexington: First African Baptist Church on Short and Dewees, led by the the Reverend James Monroe; the First Methodist Episcopal Church on West Upper between Second and Mechanic, led by the Reverend G. H. Graham; Independent Baptist Church on Merino and Main, led by the Reverend Frederick Braxton; and the Christian Church on Fourth Street between Upper and Mulberry, led by the Reverend Alexander Campbell. In addition to the Howard School on Church Street, the Talbott School on Upper between Third and Fourth Streets was within walking distance for Isaac.21 America and Isaac thus had access to everything they needed, except maybe steady employment.
Before moving to Madison County sometime around the spring of 1870, Henry and Laura Britton assisted in expanding the possibilities for blacks in Lexington. A barber who served only white men at his shop near the Broadway Hotel, Britton was able to maintain his family's finances and lifestyle while developing important relationships with some of the most powerful white men in Lexington. He participated in organizing the Howard School, and his involvement in the Colored Fair Association helped garner the support of black community leaders as well as white Republican lawmakers and landowners, who saw the enterprise as a positive initiative. Over time, the Colored Fair Association would become one of the most important endeavors for blacks in and around Lexington, providing numerous opportunities to expand agricultural businesses, services, and leisure activities for the tens of thousands of visitors to the Bluegrass each year.22
The Colored Fair Association was the brainchild of Henry King, a house painter who lived on Mill Street between High and Maxwell Streets. Outspoken, resilient, and an advocate for black self-reliance, King participated in the initial Colored Educational Convention and provided critical leadership in Lexington's development as a stronghold for Republican activism, cementing the community's future as an important place for black progress. His leadership in expanding opportunities for blacks in agricultural and mechanical industries through education, business, and politics was both practical and necessary to stimulate his contemporaries' steadfast pursuit of a full life through good works.
Men like Britton, King, Robinson, and Scroggins were examples to black boys like Isaac Murphy. They illustrated what black men were capable of achieving in business and in the community, and they demonstrated the importance of giving back to the community by providing opportunities for others. Indeed, for those men and women poised to claim “freedom, literacy, and political and economic independence,” their faith and hope could carry them only so far.23 To be successful during this period in African American history, one had to be tough, determined, and resilient.
Isaac and the many other young men and boys who witnessed the measured success of their community's elders were not the exclusive beneficiaries of black men's striving for independence. Black women also wanted a better future and strove to improve life's possibilities. America Murphy's work as a washerwoman and domestic servant kept food on the table and Isaac in suitable clothing. We will never know the actual details of how America dealt with the daily realities of nineteenth-century Lexington, but it is safe to assume that some of her experiences were universal among black women in her situation. However, unlike Laura Britton and the wives of Henry Scroggins and James Turner, who were protected from the abuses experienced by black domestic servants and washerwomen, America had to negotiate life in the former slave state where, to a majority of whites, blacks were still considered insignificant yet necessary.
By December 1870, America seems to have parted ways with Simon Williams. Tax records indicate that America Burns (her married name) purchased a lot, valued at $570.50, in the city's First Ward in the Lower Street cluster of homes near Cedar and Broadway, not far from her previous address.24 The deed book reads:
And at the Special terms of December 1870, an order was entered directing the undersigned to make and execute a Deed of conveyance for said property to America Burns by consent of the said Ferdinand Robinson. Now therefore, this indenture, made and entered into this 3rd day of December 1870 between John Toll (et al.) and the Master Commissioner by Barack G. Thomas Master Commissioner of the Fayette Circuit Court of the first part and America Burns of the City of Lexington and State of Kentucky of the Second part. [Illegible] that for and in consideration of the promises and full payment of the purchase price aforesaid, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged this [part] of the first part has granted, bargained, and sold to the part of the second part and her heirs and [illegible] as alone described the following described property to wit; commencing at the corner of an alley on Cedar Street moving North said street in a North westerly direction forty-seven feet to Matilda Wheeler's line, hence at right angles with said Wheeler's line one hundred feet. Hence in the Southeasterly direction forty-seven feet to said alley hence with said alley to the beginning, being the same property that was consigned to Mary Masterson by Jeremiah Murphy by deed dated May 6th 1865.25
How America knew Ferdinand Robinson, the Lexington mattress maker, and how he was involved in the property acquisition are intriguing questions.26 There is a good chance that Robinson was part of her kinship network—those relationships African Americans maintained throughout slavery and beyond.
Property ownership was an accomplishment for any nineteenth-century woman; for a black woman, it was a progressive milestone. America was one of only a few African American women in Fayette County to hold a deed to a city lot. Looking ahead, America recognized that property ownership could create additional opportunities for her son and herself, so she invested her hard-earned money, as well as the money she received from her husband's pension,27 in their future. Her purpose seems to have been greater than just a desire to live comfortably. America may have been hoping to accrue the kind of family wealth that would allow her son to own h
is own labor and be his own man.
Historian Patricia Hill Collins describes black women like America as “outsiders within,” or “people who no longer belong to any one group.”28 This position allows them to occupy a void in the continuity of societal interactions. According to Collins, black women during Reconstruction occupied this particular space: they lacked both the patriarchal power of males and the empowered femininity of white females. African American women were both seen and unseen, used and abused by their own men and by the white men who preyed on them outside of the protection of their community. Yet these women retained important roles in terms of gaining access to information, given their close proximity to whites in the course of their work as domestic servants. In other words, they used their “invisibility” to their advantage.
Like most black women who worked for the white elite, America was well aware that she needed to work hard, save her money, and invest in the future. In the antebellum period, during interactions at church, picnics, and other social gatherings, freeborn blacks would counsel former slaves about the importance of saving for the future, and there is no doubt that they listened to their freeborn contemporaries and benefited from their experience. Although savings accounts and real estate investments were reserved for a limited few with the necessary resources, land became more affordable during Reconstruction, and some black families were able to pool their money and acquire city lots or small farms with the help of white employers or trusted members of the community.
The Prince of Jockeys Page 18
