Yet researchers discovered that what our brains are really determining is whether a stranger is one of “us.” Physical traits are only one part of the story. If someone is wearing clothes similar to ours, our brains react differently than if someone is wearing an item that identifies them as an enemy. Clothing and community emblems were important for humans when they lived in tribes that competed for limited resources. In those early millennia, neighboring tribes shared a common skin color, making that factor irrelevant in determining whether a stranger was a friend or foe.12 We use clothing and adornments to identify one another and rely on generations of experiences.
The power of culture and tradition is clear because people are more likely to act on their bigotry when they feel under pressure or are commanded by an authority figure, or if they think they will win societal approval.13 Oftentimes, this tradition of bigotry is passed on subconsciously.
In the study of white men looking at images of black men, Ohio State researcher William Cunningham found that the amount of activity in the amygdala was directly related to how high the subjects had scored previously on a test for racism, but the reaction was easily mitigated. When shown an image of a black man they recognized, they showed no amygdala reaction. Cunningham also found that the fear and vigilance reaction was most consistently activated when the image of an unfamiliar black man was flashed for only thirty milliseconds, just long enough for the subconscious to register it. When he left the image up long enough for the brain to process it, about 525 milliseconds, the amygdala did not activate and the parts of the brain associated with inhibition and self-control took over.14 The neocortex, home of more advanced thinking, was overriding the instinctive impulses of the amygdala.15 Biological instincts exist, but what activates them is learned and easily overcome.
The brain rewires itself as we learn. For instance, a white American may at first perceive a black man as a threat, until he notices a police uniform. The more a white person sees a black person as a source of security, the less the brain will consider people of that race a threat. As time passes, the amygdala will spark less and the neocortex will require less energy to override it. David Amodio, an assistant professor of psychology at New York University, found that less prejudiced people used their neocortex to regulate their behavior more than racists.16
Social psychologists have found the best way to stop prejudice is to place members of different races on the same team with a common goal, a dynamic LaDainian recognized when playing high school football. In dozens of studies, researchers documented that once people form bonds through team work, they overcome the prejudices they learned as children. This is called the “ingroup identity model.” The more you make people feel part of the same group, or tribe, the less prejudice they feel based on racial, ethnic, or religious differences.17 This theory has special application when it comes to school desegregation.
American children in the twenty-first century are by any measure the least racially bigoted of any generation ever tested, thanks largely to integration. However, 25 percent still report experiencing ethnic or racial bias, 10 percent report being called a bigoted name, and 40 percent have seen bigoted graffiti on campus, according to 2007 federal data. While those statistics indicate a lot remains to be done, only two generations ago southern lawmakers forbade black and white children from attending the same schools. The key to the progress has been genuine, face-to-face cooperation in the classroom. Where children of different races took part in programs that made them feel part of a single group, 94 percent showed no outward signs of bigotry based on race or ethnicity.18 I can attest that my experience in desegregated schools made a difference in my life, and LaDainian has said similar interactions affected him and those around him the same way.
THE HILL
I made my first trip to Tomlinson Hill a few years after LaDainian’s father died. I’ll never forget reaching the tabernacle and seeing for the first time the red tin letters that spell out the name Tomlinson Hill. Exploring the Hill created a tangle of conflicting emotions. I was thrilled to visit my ancestral home but aware of the bad things that had happened there. I was enthralled by the fields, the wildflowers, and the quietness, but ashamed of its original sin. The Hill was where I took the first step on a journey that led me to fascinating people who were generous with their stories.
Currently, no black or white Tomlinson lives on the Hill, though Terry owns what is left of Vincent and Julie’s old home, now uninhabitable. LaDainian told me he is looking to buy a ranch in Falls County but is quick to add that his wife doesn’t share his enthusiasm for country living. I have no desire to live there, and my curiosity about our families’ history is quenched. LaDainian and I both feel more complete knowing our heritage.
Many people have asked whether I felt bad about revealing my ancestors’ dirty laundry. I emphatically tell them no. In South Africa and Rwanda, I learned that the only way a civilization can heal after one community commits a heinous crime against another is to confess and make amends. That was done by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa, and at the Gacaca courts in Rwanda. In that spirit, I offer this unflinching account of the past and its impact on the present. Perhaps if we all were to do the same, we could start the painful but essential conversation about America’s original sin and create a more perfect nation.
ENDNOTES
CHAPTER 1
1. Marjorie Rogers, “Beloved Pioneer and Leader Expires Tuesday,” Marlin Democrat, January 23, 1943.
2. Ibid.
3. Marjorie Rogers, “Obituary for Col. William G. Etheridge,” Dallas Morning News, September 17, 1922.
CHAPTER 2
1. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas 1821–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 55.
2. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1850 Census for Conecuh County, Alabama.
3. Frank Calvert Oltorf, The Marlin Compound: Letters of a Singular Family (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968), 64.
4. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1850 Census for Conecuh County, Alabama.
5. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 42.
6. Ibid., 43.
7. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 61.
8. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 46.
9. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 68.
10. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 47.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid.
13. Ibid.
14. Ibid.
15. Falls County Commissioner’s Court, “Minutes Book 1A,” in County Court Minutes (Falls County, TX, January 1852).
16. Ibid.
17. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 47.
18. Ibid., 48.
19. Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1995 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 18.
20. Ibid.
21. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 134.
22. Barr, Black Texans, 20.
23. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 193.
24. Barr, Black Texans, 18.
25. Ibid., 20.
26. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 62.
27. Ibid., 53.
28. Ibid.
29. Ibid., 65.
30. Lillian Schiller St. Romain, Western Falls County, Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1951), 96.
31. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 58.
32. Barr, Black Texans, 19.
33. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 58.
34. Ibid., 62.
35. Ibid., 58.
36. Ibid., 64.
37. Ibid., 66.
38. Ibid., 65.
39. Ibid., 66.
40. Paul Sniderman and Edward Carmines. “Tangled Politics,” In Racism, ed. Martin Bulmer and John Solomos (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), 401.
41. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 70.
CHAPTER 3
1. Lillian Schiller St. Romain, Western Falls County, Texas (Austin: Texas State Histo
rical Association, 1951), 45.
2. Ibid., 48.
3. Frank Calvert Oltorf, The Marlin Compound: Letters of a Singular Family (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968), 71.
4. Ibid., 75.
5. Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas: A History of the Lone Star State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 216.
6. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 74.
7. Ibid., 100.
8. Ibid., 105.
9. Ibid., 79.
10. Alwyn Barr, Black Texans: A History of African Americans in Texas, 1528–1994 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1996), 20.
11. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas 1821–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 133.
12. Abigail Curlee Holbrook, “A Glimpse of Life on Antebellum Slave Plantations in Texas,” The Southwestern Historical Quarterly 76, (1973): 361–83.
13. Ibid.
14. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1893) 483–485.
15. Ibid.
16. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 79.
17. Barr, Black Texans, 17.
18. Ron Tyler and Lawrence Murphy, eds., The Slave Narratives of Texas (Austin: State House Press, 1997), vii.
19. Federal Writers’ Project, Work Projects Administration, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Vol. 2: Texas Narratives (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1936–1938), 534.
20. Ibid., 8.
21. Ibid., 11.
22. Ibid., 8.
23. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 138.
24. Tyler, Murphy, eds., The Slave Narratives of Texas, 38.
25. Federal Writers’ Project, Work Projects Administration, Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves, Vol. 16: Texas Narratives (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1936–1938). These interviews are available online.
26. Ibid.
27. Barr, Black Texans, 15.
28. Holbrook, “A Glimpse of Life on Antebellum Slave Plantations in Texas.”
29. Barr, Black Texans, 17.
30. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 138.
31. Tyler and Murphy, eds., The Slave Narratives of Texas, 50.
32. Ibid., 37.
33. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas, 882.
34. Ibid.
35. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 75.
36. Ibid., 79.
37. Falls County Probate Court, “Estate of J. K. Tomlinson,” in Minutes, vol. 1 (Falls County, TX, Probate Court, 1865–1867), 149.
38. Marjorie Rogers, “Obituary for Col. William G. Etheridge,” Dallas Morning News, September 17, 1922.
39. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas, 882.
40. “Arrival of the Steamship Matagorda, the Coldest Week on Record,” Galveston Weekly News, December 27, 1859.
41. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas, 882.
42. Rogers, “Obituary for Col. William G. Etheridge.”
43. Effie Cowan, “Interview with Robert E. L. Tomlinson, White Pioneer of Marlin, Texas,” oral history, Federal Writers’ Project (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1936).
44. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Census for Falls County, Texas, film 653–1293, p. 146, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
45. Barr, Black Texans, 22.
46. Federal Writers’ Project, Work Projects Administration, Slave Narratives.
47. Author’s interview with Robert Stem, state district court judge for Falls County, May 2010.
48. Author’s interview with David Tinsley, owner of the Tomlinson Hill homestead in 2010, May 15, 2010.
49. Manford Eugene Jones, “A History of Cotton Culture Along the Brazos” (master’s thesis, University of New Mexico, 1939), 36.
50. Ibid., 37.
51. Ibid.
52. Barr, Black Texans, 25.
53. Jones, “A History of Cotton Culture Along the Brazos.”
54. Ibid.
CHAPTER 4
1. U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1860 Census for Falls County, Texas, film M653_1293, p. 8, Family History Library, Salt Lake City, UT.
2. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas 1821–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 274.
3. Effie Cowan, “Interview with Robert E. L. Tomlinson, White Pioneer of Marlin, Texas,” oral history, Federal Writers’ Project (Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress, 1936).
4. Lillian Schiller St. Romain, Western Falls County, Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1951), 51.
5. Ibid., 94.
6. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 224.
7. Frank Calvert Oltorf, The Marlin Compound: Letters of a Singular Family (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968), 105.
8. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 227–30.
9. Ibid.
10. Ibid., 224.
11. Ibid., 225.
12. Ibid., 226.
13. Ibid., 225.
14. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 106.
15. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 227.
16. Ibid., 224.
17. Sam Houston, “Address at the Union Mass Meeting, Austin, Texas, September 22, 1860,” in The Writings of Sam Houston, 1813–1863, Vol. 8, ed. Amelia W. Williams and Eugene C. Barker (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1943), 154–55.
18. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 228.
19. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 74.
20. A Memorial and Biographical History of McLennan, Falls, Bell and Coryell Counties, Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, 1893), 194.
21. Frank Calvert Oltorf, “Under the Confederacy,” in History of Falls County, ed. Roy Eddins (Marlin: Old Settlers and Veterans Associations of Falls County, Texas, 1947), 126.
22. Ibid.
23. “Declaration of Causes,” February 2, 1861, at http://www.tsl.state.tx.us/ref/abouttx/secession/2feb1861.html (accessed December 11, 2012).
24. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery, 230.
25. Marjorie Rogers, “Obituary for Col. William G. Etheridge,” Dallas Morning News, September 17, 1922.
26. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 106.
CHAPTER 5
1. Clayton E. Jewett, Texas in the Confederacy: An Experiment in Nation Building (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002), 65.
2. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988), 333.
3. Ralph A. Wooster, Texas and Texans in the Civil War (Austin, TX: Eakin Press, 1995), 19.
4. Randolph B. Campbell, Gone to Texas: The Lone Star State (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012), 244–245.
5. Ralph A. Wooster, Texas and Texans in the Civil War, 25.
6. Randolph B. Campbell, An Empire for Slavery: The Peculiar Institution in Texas 1821–1865 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1989), 71.
7. Lillian Schiller St. Romain, Western Falls County, Texas (Austin: Texas State Historical Association, 1951), 51.
8. Marjorie Rogers, “More Than the Passing of a Good Man.” Marlin Democrat, January 23, 1943.
9. “Bills of Sale,” Evergreen, Alabama, 1861–1862, Confederate Army Records (“Rebel Archives”), Natural Archives, Washington, D.C.
10. Churchill Jones, “Letter Requesting Assistance in Gaining a Pardon,” Falls on the Brazos, September 21, 1865. “Rebel Archives,” National Archives, Washington, D.C.
11. “Bills of Sale,” Evergreen, Alabama, 1861–1862.
12. David J. Eicher, The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 99.
13. Carl H. Moneyhon, Texas After the Civil War: The Struggle of Reconstruction (Coll
ege Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2004), 8.
14. “Estate of Mary Travis,” Falls County, TX, Probate Court, February 1865.
15. Oltorf, Frank Calvert. The Marlin Compound: Letters of a Singular Family (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1968), 155.
16. “Enlistment Records,” Waco, Texas, 1861–1862, Confederate Army Records (“Rebel Archives”), National Archives, Washington, D.C.
17. Ibid.
18. Campbell, Gone to Texas, 216.
19. Barr, “Texas Coastal Defense, 1861–1865,” 4.
20. “Enlistment Records,” Waco, Texas, 1861–1862.
21. Oltorf, The Marlin Compound, 107.
22. Ibid., 109.
23. William Scurry, letter, Tri-Weekly Telegraph (Houston, TX), April 24, 1863.
24. War of the Rebellion: Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, series 1, vol. 15 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1896), 1064.
25. Barr, “Texas Coastal Defense, 1861–1865,” 10.
26. Wooster, Texas and Texans in the Civil War, 65.
27. Ibid., 63.
28. “Unit Records,” Company K, First Texas Heavy Artillery, Galveston, Texas, 1861–1862, Confederate Army Records (“Rebel Archives”), National Archives, Washington, D.C.
29. Wooster, Texas and Texans in the Civil War, 63.
30. Ibid.
31. Ibid., 64.
32. Frank Moore, ed., The Rebellion Record: A Diary of American Events, vol. 9. (New York: Van Nostrand, 1865), 726.
Tomlinson Hill Page 39
