Title: Dark Journey: Black Mississippians in the Age of Jim Crow

Author: Neil R. McMillen

Year of Publication: 1989

Thesis:

For students looking into the nuance of structure and agency, this is one of the better books attempting to describe the imposition of violent white supremacy on African Americans in Mississippi and their push for autonomy and citizenship from Reconstruction to World War I. McMillen takes more of a thematic approach, but describes the development of Mississippi's racial caste system and those who would oppose it in three general phases: Black republicanism culminating in a failed 1904 bus boycott, accommodationism a la Booker T. Washington, and a more militant stance heading into The Great Migration. The combinations of segregated and impoverished education, unevenly applied criminal law, sharecropping and debt peonage created a racial caste system that was leveraged by disfranchisement and backed by the constant threat of violence. Despite McMillen's claim that Black folk in Mississippi never mounted a "sustained" attack on white supremacy, he is careful about putting a close eye on ways African Americans resisted these impositions and carved space and meaning for themselves.

Time: 1890-1940

Geography: Mississippi

Organization:

List of Tables

Preface

- Struggle for autonomy and citizenship

- Top down & bottom-up approach (elements of "new" social history)

- Attempts to balance imposition and autonomy

- African Americans as both subjects and objects

- Topical vs. chronological

- WWI not as pivotal as one might imagine in Mississippi

PART I - The Black Place

CHAPTER 1 - Jim Crow and the Limits of Freedom, 1890-1940

- Jim Crow is strong even DURING Reconstruction

- White nostalgia, agricultural depression, fear of populism, ideas of Social Darwinism

- Segregation rampant (but Black servants & barbershops were acceptable)

- ***** Mississippi had fewer laws, not more

- MORE segregated housing in post-bellum vs. slavery

- Sexual relations between white men & Black women acceptable but not for Black men & white women

- Elite African Americans often white & Black heritage, with accompanying colorism in the Black community

- Jim Crow was mostly about behavior vs. space (and enforced by violence)

- No Foolish Consistency Here

- The Logical Extreme

- "Blood Will Tell"

- The Etiquette of Race

- The Instrument in Reserve

PART II - Separate and Unequal

CHAPTER 2 - The Politics of the Disfranchised

- Nothing new about "race neutral" language (43)

- White people delude themselves in thinking Black people did not want to vote (48)

- Theme here is blaming the victim

- Racism and racist violence lead to loss of vote and high profile jobs for African Americans (63)

- *****White supremacists actually prefer to have Republicans in office to demonize the party

- Legitimate Interlude

- "We Came Here to Exclude the Negro"

- My People Cannot Vote Down Here"

- Blacks and Tans

- Expecting Little, Getting Less

CHAPTER 3 - Education: The "Mere Faint Gesture"

- Main argument: Black people pay taxes and bet low-quality (or no) education. Without political aspirations, they are more easily disfranchised

- Of Burdens White and Black

- Professor Hopkins's Schools

- "Educate a Nigguh"

Higher Eudcation in the Emergency Period"

PART III - Working and Striving

CHAPTER 4 - Farmers without Land

- Rungs on the Ladder

- The New Servitude

- Outdoing of Ol' Mostah

- "Returning us to Slavery"

- Postscript to the Cotton Patch

CHAPTER 5 - Black Labor/Black Capital

- "N* Work"

- The Artisans

- The Professionals

- The Entrepreneurs

- The Mound Bayou Proposition

- Notes this as a failure of separation & "the group economy." I wonder if it is not because white businesses were supported by racist capitalists & a system that would help them succeed.

- Notes it is not only a small-town phenomenon, but also the issues of undercapitalization, racial targetting, economic dependency, etc.

- Severe class divisions between elite & poor Black folk (194)

- "racial self-doubt" (194) - internalized white supremacy/devaluing of African American products (and yet, who produced that stuff?)

- Epitaph for the Group Economy

PART IV - Under White Law

CHAPTER 6 - Jim Crow's Courts

- Trial by Ordeal

- "Negro Law"

- The Mob in the Court Room

- On Appeal: Between Caste and Law

CHAPTER 7 - Judge Lynch's Court

- White Death

- First on th eRoll

- "Negro Barbecues"

- Popular Justice

- "Unknown Causes"

- Going Underground

PART V - A Resistant Spirit

Chapter 8 - "Northboun'": Mississippi's Black Diaspora

- Prewar Patterns

- "Many Thousand Go"

- The Distant Magnet

- A Curse and a Blessing

- No Threat Intended

CHAPTER 9 - The Gathering Challenge

- Intimacy w/Black people did not mean knowledge of them by white people

- Reform efforts but no "sustained" resistance

- This goes through the litany of attempts to increase autonomy & citizenship

- Challenge to segregated trains results in extention of this model to all social arenas

- On railroads - "Whatever their strategies, blacks failed to win meaningful concessions." (293)

- Strong representation by Black folks in military attributed to drive for citizenship (303)

- Backlash against Black servicemen precedes end of war (303-4)

- "Quiet reformers" - emphasizes role of women-organized groups - plan to build school for blind African American children, for example (308-309)

- NAACP has plenty of trouble gaining traction - this reminds me of Anne Moody's story & describing her parents' generation vs. hers.

- Behind the Mask

- Feasible Limits

- Dark Journey: Stage One

- New Realities: Stage Two

- The Resistant Spirit: Stage Three

- The Impending Revolution

Notes

Index

Jim Crow's Likeness: A Photo Essay, following p.194

Type:

Social history

Methods:

- Organized by topic

- Describes development of racial caste system and response to it

Sources:

WPA interviews, newspapers, legal documents

Historiography:

Keywords:

- The new servitude (123)

- "blue vein" (22) - Black folks with higher social standing

Themes: Double consciousness & connection to hegemony

Critiques:

"Isolated lynching." (29) - is there such a thing?

Questions:

Quotes:

"Although race loyalty no doubt influenced the buying habits of many, the fact remains that impoverished field hands could not afford to pay a premium for the satisfaction of trading with their own kind." (192) - said another way, they could only afford to pay the subsidized prices established by white vendors with usurious borrowing rates... (see p.193)

Notes:

Domestic wages same in 1865 as in 1940 (see photo essay w/laundresses carrying laundry)