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Execution of Frankie Silver: This Date in History

  • Thread starter Thread starter donbosco
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I remember harsh segregation - schools of course, but also other public spaces. I remember the ‘Whites Only Waiting Areas’ in the Chatham Hospital and the rooms set-aside for only African Americans. I remember seeing African Americans going to the side-/back door of restaurants to pick up to-go orders only. Worse yet, imagine someone you love dying - bleeding, suffering, and mangled - because the hospital wouldn’t let them in the door.

Historians say “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” For a great many the past is a country where they were seen as foreigners and subhuman beings.

Modern efforts to stem the flow of a fuller telling of history are also part of that sense of things - the flaccid excuse that learning the racial reality of our past will foster guilt rather than compassion and action in students and society at large is just that - an excuse - one designed to maintain a facade long used to perpetuate the status of oppressed people in our past as second-class. Prohibitions against the inclusion of teaching that race has been a factor in shaping public policy, and by extension, society, throughout our national history are exactly that kind of move.

#OTD (June 10) in 1946 former Heavyweight Champ and first African American to hold the title, Jack Johnson, died from injuries (car wreck in Franklinton) in St. Agnes Hospital in Raleigh, the closest facility that would accept AFAMs. The injured Johnson passed by many White-Only Hospitals along the way. Car Accident Claims Jack Johnson, 1946



I posted a version of this reflection in another venue several years ago. The following reply is from my friend Cheryl, an African American woman from Chatham County and in it History comes from her heart straight to yours: “Oh, how I remember being made to feel second class. Back door food, white only laundromat, or the speech teacher at the ‘colored school’ who slapped me because I couldn’t say my ST sounds like “white people” — did she lose her job? Nope…or the books we received for a new term in school — they all had at least 5-6 names in the front sign-in before we got to use them. Then you ask yourself, as we heard so many times, why were those ‘colored kids’ way behind in their learning? One that still bothers me, having to get out of line to allow a white person to get in front of you in grocery or other stores. My dad owned a pool room on Birch Ave — the pool room was vandalized, a white hood was left behind as a symbol of hatred. We as a family were never given help. These are just a few highlights of the daily life of being Black in Siler City. I have learned so much in the last few years. To see how people still support the blind racism, how they accept the code words has made me realize that the fear of the people of color and how they are continuing to grow in our population is still there but I wonder what is this fear? How are we all getting to heaven with hate within our soul? This hate of God’s children as you can see on tv is unbelievable but at least you know what’s in their heart. Sorry I took up some much time…”
 
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#OTD (June 11) in 1988 ‘Bull Durham’ debuted at The Carolina Theater in - Durham. Lots of folks I knew were extras or worked on the film. Baseball makes for pretty good entertainment.
 
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I’ve grown accustomed to bridges. Out our apartment window in #WestHarlem/#Manhattanville I can spy both the George Washington Bridge and the far smaller Henry Hudson Viaduct. When in The City I live amongst islands so the presence of bridges shouldn’t be a surprise. Indeed, in this Homage to Swampy Dutch Inventiveness — New Amsterdam Anyone? Harlem itself is from the Netherlands city of Haarlem. Brooklyn is even derived from Breuckelen, a place in that old country meaning, quite appropriately, “marshy land.”

The first bridge that to become impressively part of my life was the old Swingbridge to #OakIslandNC that gave my parents and the rest of us access to Long Beach over the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway. To watch it in operation as a boy was plenty fascinating. These days the massive G. V. Barbee Bridge has been providing the uninterrupted way ‘over’ since 1975. Remembering the wait for the swingbridge really hits hard as a reminder as to how the pace of our lives has so dramatically quickened. On those1960s and ’70s journeys to “the beach” when we finally made it across, after excitedly (for me) watching whatever big boat had stopped traffic, we went to a little flat-top beach cottage with no phone and a boardwalk where we could ‘get’ exactly 1 TV channel, WECT out of Wilmington.

But on to the rest of the story- #OTD (June 12) in 1806 John Roebling was born in Mühlhausen, Prussia-he designed the Brooklyn Bridge—completed in 1883 as the world’s longest suspension bridge (main span= 1,595.5 ft). The structure’s profile is among the most iconic symbols of NYC-a practical monument. https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/june-12 By the way…Roebling died without having built the bridge. The project was taken up by his son Col. Washington A. Roebling, but as is well-known today, it was actually his partner and wife, Emily Warren Roebling who oversaw, and should be given the credit, for completing that literally monumental task.
 
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#OTD in 1967. Thurgood Marshall was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Johnson said that Marshall "deserves the appointment ... I believe that it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." On August 30 he was confirmed by a 69-11 vote in The Senate. He remained on the court until 1994 - a vital component of The Warren Court which worked hard to advance civil and human rights in The USA.
 
donbosco said:
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#OTD in 1967. Thurgood Marshall was nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court. President Johnson said that Marshall "deserves the appointment ... I believe that it is the right thing to do, the right time to do it, the right man and the right place." On August 30 he was confirmed by a 69-11 vote in The Senate. He remained on the court until 1994 - a vital component of The Warren Court which worked hard to advance civil and human rights in The USA.
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Adding this: The votes of North Carolina’s Boll Weevil Democrat Senators were Sam Ervin ‘No’ and B. Everett Jordan abstained from voting but was present. Ervin had been perhaps the most vocal opponent of Marshall’s appointment. He stated, “Judge Marshall is, by practice and philosophy, a constitutional iconoclast, and his elevation to the Supreme Court at this juncture in our history would make it virtually certain that for years to come, if not forever, the American people will be ruled by the arbitrary notions of the Supreme Court justices rather than by the precepts of the Constitution.” Ervin may have been well-aligned on the criminality of Nixon in the 1970s but in the 1960s he stood firmly on the wrong side of history in regard to Civil Rights. Senator Jordan said, “I didn’t want to vote against it, so I just didn’t vote.” 19 other Senators joined him in fecklessness.
 
donbosco said:
Adding this: The votes of North Carolina’s Boll Weevil Democrat Senators were Sam Ervin ‘No’ and B. Everett Jordan abstained from voting but was present. Ervin had been perhaps the most vocal opponent of Marshall’s appointment. He stated, “Judge Marshall is, by practice and philosophy, a constitutional iconoclast, and his elevation to the Supreme Court at this juncture in our history would make it virtually certain that for years to come, if not forever, the American people will be ruled by the arbitrary notions of the Supreme Court justices rather than by the precepts of the Constitution.” Ervin may have been well-aligned on the criminality of Nixon in the 1970s but in the 1960s he stood firmly on the wrong side of history in regard to Civil Rights. Senator Jordan said, “I didn’t want to vote against it, so I just didn’t vote.” 19 other Senators joined him in fecklessness.
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Some give Senator Sam a pass because of Watergate.

The man was a staunch segregationist and should be excoriated for that. Ditto for Jordan.

Sam Ervin’s opposition to Richard Nixon’s crimes isn’t worthy of praise. He simply did the right thing. Dean Smith had a comment about doing the right thing.
 
In the back of my Deddy’s hardware store stood on old refrigerator. It was full of a variety of ‘drinks’ that his patrons would choose from. They’d stand around, telling tale tales (my Momma called it Lyin’) & sharing farming info while downing a drink & some salted peanuts or some 4-corner Nabs. Pepsi was the favorite with the little Co-Colas a close second. Deddy always said the more frugal among that crowd went with Pepsi because you got an ounce and a half more for your dime. It did seem like he was right about that. #OTD in 1903 Caleb Bradham registered his ‘drink,’ Pepsi-Cola, with the US Patent Office. The name is derived from pepsin & kola nut extract, 2 of the main ingredients. He invented the mix in 1898 at his pharmacy in New Bern.

https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../brads-drink-now-pepsi-cola...
 
donbosco said:
In the back of my Deddy’s hardware store stood on old refrigerator. It was full of a variety of ‘drinks’ that his patrons would choose from. They’d stand around, telling tale tales (my Momma called it Lyin’) & sharing farming info while downing a drink & some salted peanuts or some 4-corner Nabs. Pepsi was the favorite with the little Co-Colas a close second. Deddy always said the more frugal among that crowd went with Pepsi because you got an ounce and a half more for your dime. It did seem like he was right about that. #OTD in 1903 Caleb Bradham registered his ‘drink,’ Pepsi-Cola, with the US Patent Office. The name is derived from pepsin & kola nut extract, 2 of the main ingredients. He invented the mix in 1898 at his pharmacy in New Bern.

https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../brads-drink-now-pepsi-cola...
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OK, that all sounds familiar. But while drinking Pepsi or Coke, did they pour the salted peanuts into the bottle and then drink down the soda and peanuts simultaneously? Also, "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot, 12 full ounces, that’s a lot, Twice as much for a nickel too, Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you! Nickel, nickel, nickel, nickle. Trickle, trickle, trickle, trickle."

Also, my grandmother loved Coca Cola and would drink no other soft drink. But not just any Coca Cola, only "short," i.e., 6 oz Cokes. She absolutely refused to drink the 12 oz version of Coke. When asked why, she would look at you like you were stupid and explain that Coca Cola had two parts, the syrup and the carbonated water. The syrup was what drove the price of the beverage and the carbonated water was a trivial cost. Short Cokes and regular Cokes sold for the same price. That meant they had the same amount of Coke syrup in them, i.e., regular Cokes were just watered down versions of short Cokes and she COULD! taste the difference. On this point she would not be moved. And we grandkids learned very early that this was something about which she had absolutely no sense of humor.
 
05C40 said:
OK, that all sounds familiar. But while drinking Pepsi or Coke, did they pour the salted peanuts into the bottle and then drink down the soda and peanuts simultaneously? Also, "Pepsi-Cola hits the spot, 12 full ounces, that’s a lot, Twice as much for a nickel too, Pepsi-Cola is the drink for you! Nickel, nickel, nickel, nickle. Trickle, trickle, trickle, trickle."

Also, my grandmother loved Coca Cola and would drink no other soft drink. But not just any Coca Cola, only "short," i.e., 6 oz Cokes. She absolutely refused to drink the 12 oz version of Coke. When asked why, she would look at you like you were stupid and explain that Coca Cola had two parts, the syrup and the carbonated water. The syrup was what drove the price of the beverage and the carbonated water was a trivial cost. Short Cokes and regular Cokes sold for the same price. That meant they had the same amount of Coke syrup in them, i.e., regular Cokes were just watered down versions of short Cokes and she COULD! taste the difference. On this point she would not be moved. And we grandkids learned very early that this was something about which she had absolutely no sense of humor.
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Hmmm...now you have me thinking about political ideology. How DID grandmother vote anyway?
 
donbosco said:
Hmmm...now you have me thinking about political ideology. How DID grandmother vote anyway?
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Can't answer that question without context. While his particular grandmother was born after Reconstruction had officially ended, her father had been a Confederate soldier. And she told a story of visiting relatives on a July 4th when the patriarch of home they were visiting walked out and found American flags on the family car. And this patriarch alledged proclaimed, "Get those damn yankee flags off my car!" So the short amswer to your question was that she voted for the Democratic candidates. But for the vast majority--if not the entirety--of her life, she voted, in the primary, for the Democratic candidate who today would be a Republican.

ETA: I have in my possession the Oath of Allegiance my g-grandfather signed on September 9, 1865 that restored his right to vote and the permission slip dated April 23, 1865 that gave my g-grandfather, a paroled prisoner, permission to return home. Also, if anyone is doing the math on this and thinking "How the f&$ old is 05C40?", this particular grandfather's first wife died and he remarried after the Civil War. I am a descendant of this second family.
 
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