 Katie Nordt LaRosa, 2014 x the train rumbling across the overpass shakes down dust on my upturned face xi grieving the loss of something I did not have crescent moon The tiny figure in the landscape pauses on the hillside to watch the train pass. The crescent moon rides low in the night sky. The passenger train is taking people to a different place, maybe a better one. No need to be stuck in Folsom Prison to envy those who are moving on down the line, “eating in a fancy dining car / ... drinking coffee and smoking big cigars.” Plodding along in our own lives, we can admire how, as Emily Dickinson wrote, the train “lap[s] the miles, / And lick[s] the valleys up.” ***** cold night distant train the lazy dog barks from bed the sound of a train over long steel rails clickety cogito clackety sum ***** The Lake Is a Bowl of Fire Over the lake, the moon crouches, its tongue lapping the water. A boat drifts, spotting the surface with a single beam. The longer you wait, the fisherman knows, the longer you have to. The world spills into lake and puddle, and still there's more. In a house on the bank, a girl is dying. Mother has become a beast of prayer, pacing like a panther in its cage. She is counting the moon’s slow steps when she hears a train whistle through the crossing. When day comes, let time stop. Her girl’s dying will leave another hole in the world. The moon will set in the lake, the boat slide from the water, the fisherman turn and squint at the rising sun. The more you look, the less you see. The lake is a bowl of fire. Mouth Work, 2016; Visions International, Fall 2012 ***** sunset mockingbird's wing carries the moon moon spreading its white hair across the pond —inspired by J.P. Seaton’s translation of Li Po (Li Bai) “At Ch'iu-pu Lake” rivers not yet flowing glow in the stillness of moons not yet risen  Cynthia Reeves, “November’s Cutting Edge,” mid-1960s. The lake is a bowl of fire. dipping oars in the moonlit water far from home ***** The Send-off by Wilfred Owen Down the close, darkening lanes they sang their way To the siding-shed, And lined the train with faces grimly gay. Their breasts were stuck all white with wreath and spray As men's are, dead. Dull porters watched them, and a casual tramp Stood staring hard, Sorry to miss them from the upland camp. Then, unmoved, signals nodded, and a lamp Winked to the guard. So secretly, like wrongs hushed-up, they went. They were not ours: We never heard to which front these were sent. Nor there if they yet mock what women meant Who gave them flowers. Shall they return to beatings of great bells In wild trainloads? A few, a few, too few for drums and yells, May creep back, silent, to still village wells Up half-known roads. Written April–May 1918, Ripon. Poems (1920). John Bayley notes the poem’s universality: it ‘seems both to contain and transcend all the muted terrors to which this century has since accustomed us – trains of deportees, hidden outrage, guilt, the desire not to know’ (Spectator, 4 October 1963). Source: Dominic Hibberd, The Winter of the World: Poems of the Great War (Little, Brown Book Group. Kindle Edition.) ***** May the Lord bless [the] land… with the best the sun brings forth and the finest the moon can yield…. —Deuteronomy 33:13 - 14 Posted 24 November 2024
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 Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 3. Later, the paper would concede the good intentions of those who guarded the jail. Previous posts:
Part 1 Part 2 After the testimony was completed on Saturday, August 10, the trial was recessed until Monday. Sunday the 11th was unusually quiet, at least in Salem. Several chapels were undergoing repairs, so no church bells sounded for services that day. (1) But about 9:30 pm, incited by rumors of an imminent attempt to lynch Tuttle, men began gathering near the jail to protect Tuttle. No lynching occurred, but the confrontation between 300 or so armed protectors of Tuttle and local authorities led to a brief street fight. The purpose of this section is to explain the circumstances and events of the riot. In early August 1895, once Tuttle was back in Forsyth County jail for his trial, there were renewed fears for his safety. Winston-Salem’s only known lynching had occurred in 1884 when a white man was taken from jail, tried in a kangaroo court, and hanged for the murder of a white woman. (2) Two years later, the nation reached a terrible turning point: for the first time, “the number of African Americans lynched [in the United States] exceeded that of whites,” possibly because of the large numbers of African Americans migrating to southern cities for work in the newly opened factories. (3) By 1895, the national and state atmosphere was heavy with news and rumors of lynchings, racial and otherwise. That was the year Ida B. Wells first published her famous report, The Red Record. (4) I have not found any reference to her work in the local press, but what one can find in the first seven months of 1895 are frequent stories about lynchings and feared lynchings. From these stories—dealing with white-on-white lynchings, white-on-black lynchings, and one threatened black-on-black lynching—one would not guess that two-thirds of the victims were African American. (5) On the night of Sunday, August 11, rumors of an impending lynching flew through the town, among whites and African Americans. Men and horses from the countryside were rumored to be gathering in the woods in the West End in preparation for an assault on the jail. (6) John Lewis Beard, a justice of the peace, shared the rumor with his wife, Ida. As we will see, one of Arthur Tuttle’s brothers, alarmed by the rumors, asked the congregation of a church (probably the A.M.E. Church) to come to his brother’s aid, and Beard may have conveyed the same message by letter to a minister (VI, 102). (7) Below I discuss some of the patterns evident in other cases of lynching that were at play in Winston-Salem as the citizens of the town reacted to the rumors. Risk of lynching increased when punishment seen as unduly delayed or unlikely. The general opinion of the time in the white community was that failure to administer timely justice was one of the reasons for the prevalence of lynching. Early in the year, in its summary of the Chicago Tribune’s annual report on crime, the Union Republican reported that “the number of [judicial] executions in the year looks ludicrously small in comparison with the number of murders,” a complaint that was widely shared. (8) The fear of lynching in the Tuttle case, and perhaps the risk, were increased by a recent change in North Carolina law. Until 1894, the most severe punishment for second degree murder had been death, but in that year the law was changed to provide for a maximum penalty of thirty years at hard labor. (9) The prosecution pursued conviction of Tuttle for capital murder, but it was in the jury’s power to decide the nature of the crime committed, if any. (10) The fear was that the mob would act on its own to ensure that capital punishment was exacted. Prisoners moved for their protection. Though North Carolina was hardly free from lynching—the North Carolina attorney-general reported eight cases in 1894 (11)—they were somewhat less frequent than in other southern states. (12) It seems to have been the practice in the state to move to a more distant jail any prisoner thought to be in danger of lynching. In 1895, before the Tuttle trial, local papers reported on two prisoners, both white, who had been transferred to prisons outside their home counties—a well-connected prisoner in Lexington, and a young man from Ashe County, both charged with murder. The latter was in the Forsyth County jail at the time of Tuttle’s arrest. (13) On Monday, May 20, Tuttle was moved by train to the jail in Greensboro. Authorities attempted to transfer him in secret, but word got out and a large crowd gathered at the depot. The crowd included “a brother and sister of Arthur Tuttle … but [they] were not permitted to speak to him. The sister appeared to be much affected. She said that the trouble would kill her mother.” (14) Tuttle traveled in a second-class car, apparently alone except for an armed guard at each end of the car. However, because Greensboro was so easily accessible from Winston-Salem by train, Tuttle was soon moved to Charlotte, where he remained until shortly before the trial. (15) African Americans posted as guards to prevent lynching. In Ida’s memoir, she writes that her husband, John Lewis Beard, wrote a letter to an African American minister suggesting that African Americans guard the jail to prevent a lynching (VI, 102). Beard may well have done this, and his letter may have provided important information—a confirmation from the white community that a lynching was feared to be imminent. But the tactic itself—posting sentinels near or around jails to prevent a lynching—was well-known in the African American community. (16) One example occurred in Durham, North Carolina, in February of the same year. Fearing that an African American arrested for aggressively insulting white women in the street would be lynched, a crowd assembled in and around the jail. (17) More to the point, even before the confrontation at the Forsyth county jail in August, this tactic had already been used twice in the Tuttle case: soon after Arthur’s arrest, a large crowd gathered behind the Forsyth County jail to discourage lynching (18); shortly thereafter, when Arthur had been transferred to Greensboro, R. B. Garrett stated in a letter to the Richmond Planet that a large crowd of armed men kept watch over the Guilford County jail for two nights. (19) Although Beard may have sent a letter to a minister, the court was told that the plea to the congregation to protect Arthur came from Robert Tuttle, brother of Arthur and Walter: “During the examination Monday morning the fact was brought out that on the night of the trouble, Bob Tuttle, a brother of Arthur Tuttle (who was then on trial for the murder of Officer Vickers) went to the M. E. colored church and just after service arose near the pulpit and stated that he learned that people from the country were coming that night to lynch his brother and called upon those present for assistance.” (20) The need for African Americans to take up arms to protect themselves: the lack of trust. We almost inevitably see the African Americans in this period as helplessly caught up in the processes leading to the imposition of the Jim Crow regime. But things looked different then. There were, of course, ominous clues as to what might be coming. In 1890 Mississippi was the first southern state to disenfranchise African American voters. This same course was adopted by South Carolina in 1895, the year of the riot in Winston-Salem, and by North Carolina in 1900. (21) Few if any whites supported social equality with blacks, making any alliance between the races unstable and unequal. But not all the clues in 1890 were so threatening: Winston frequently elected African American members to the town council; just four years before, a biracial coalition led by Republicans had taken control of the lower house of the state legislature and would enjoy sometimes remarkable success in the state through 1898. (22) Nevertheless, the lack of trust between the races helped create the confrontation over Arthur Tuttle. The influential editor of the Richmond Planet, John Mitchell, Jr., advocated that African Americans arm themselves for protection. (23) An editorial comment he published around the time of Arthur Tuttle’s confrontation with the police is characteristic: “It should be as much a duty to have a repeating rifle and a revolver as it is to carry an insurance policy. When lawless parties come, have the nerve to pull the trigger, and take the consequences. Let us die game, and as we step into the chilly waters of death, have at least one of our murderers to accompany us. This is the only way out.” (24) In his letter to the Planet, R. B. Garrett acknowledged Mitchell’s role in inspiring the efforts to set armed sentinels to watch over the jail in Greensboro: “You can see then that the readers of the Planet are adhering to your cry for Winchesters for protection.” (25) Garett’s letter was known in Winston-Salem. The Planet was a very influential and widely read paper, one of the men arrested for riot, Samuel Tolliver, later became the local agent for the Planet. (26) The letter evoked a response from Simon G. Atkins, a leading African American citizen of Winston. Atkins agreed that “there may be no objections to a man having a Winchester or a revolver in his house, for self-defense in an emergency,” but he argued that the state of North Carolina “is competent to guarantee to every honest man of every race within its borders ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,’ and to every man charged with crime a fair trial.” (27) Atkins put a lot of hope in an 1893 state law, sponsored by a Winston-Salem citizen, lawyer C. B. Watson, intended to prevent the lynching of prisoners in custody. The law proved inadequate for the task, though that was not immediately evident. (28) Though there may have been no serious attempt to organize a mob to lynch Tuttle, the events of the next few years, in Wilmington and elsewhere, showed how mistaken Atkins was. The African American community in Winston-Salem obviously did not trust the white authorities on this occasion, and, according to Fambrough Brownlee, this came as a surprise to those authorities. (29) There was an ongoing, if often fractious, alliance between white and African American Republicans. From 1880 to around 1898, there was at least one African American alderman on the Winston town council, and members of both races served on temperance committees and in support of other civic and religious activities. But it was not enough. Nor did the white authorities trust the African American community, else they would not have mistaken the motives of the men who surrounded the jail. We can see mistrust at work in the reaction of some in the African American community throughout these events. As noted above, moving prisoners to a safer jail was a standard North Carolina tactic, but R. B. Garrett detected sinister motives in the case of Arthur Tuttle. In a letter to the Richmond Planet dated May 25, Garrett wrote that Tuttle had been moved to Greensboro to escape the protection of the African American community in his hometown. He wrote that, to prevent a lynching, armed African American men kept watch on the Guilford County jail for two nights, after which Tuttle was moved farther away, to Charlotte; he claimed that 380 men were posted as sentinels on the second night. Garret praised the authorities in Guilford County for their vigilance, and he acknowledged that no lynch mob appeared in Greensboro, but he accused Forsyth County authorities of false arrest and of conspiring with the mob to lynch Tuttle; the latter charge was forcefully rebutted in the press by Simon G. Atkins. (30) The mistrust again became evident in the negotiations between authorities and the sentinels around the jail during the tense night of Sunday, August 11. (31) According to newspaper accounts, the crowd of armed men who took on the task of guarding Tuttle began gathering near the jail around 9:30. (32) Around 10:30, Sheriff McArthur, Mayor Gray, and two prominent lawyers—C. B. Watson, author of the state’s anti-lynching law, and his partner, J. C. Buxton, one of the attorneys prosecuting Tuttle—tried to allay the fears of the crowd. (33) Around 1 a.m., Judge Brown of the Superior Court circuit, who was presiding at Tuttle’s trial, also appeared. At the trial of the rioters, Mayor Gray described some of his interactions with the crowd. He discovered that the men “feared that Tuttle would be lynched by people from the country and that they had been informed that a lot of horses were tied in the pine woods in the West End. Whereupon, the Mayor sent the Chief-of-Police with one of the negroes to the West End in order that they might be satisfied that the report was untrue. Even after this, the mob persistently refused to disperse.” (34) The mayor’s efforts may have been hampered by the unusual number of white people in the streets. There were several reports that Friends returning by train from the annual meeting in High Point and walking home from the Depot were mistaken for the gathering of the lynch mob. (35)The tensions of the night must also have been exacerbated by an unknown number of armed white men who came on the scene without being deputized; their presence in the street was likely taken as evidence of an imminent lynching, and the suspicion may very well have been correct. (36) According to his statement to the grand jury, Judge Brown of the Superior Court walked alone into the crowd of African Americans guarding the jail. A native and citizen of Washington, North Carolina, he did not know anyone he saw. Here is what he told the grand jury that convened on the following day (which was also the last day of Tuttle’s trial): “In the hope of preventing any disturbance, the Court personally, unattended, went among the crowd to ascertain its purpose. The Court found that they were all practically armed and with their weapons in open display. The Court was informed by some of them, whose names the Court was unable to get and doesn’t know, that they anticipated that there would be some injury done to a prisoner who is now on trial. The Court assured the crowd, there assembled, that it would be almost impossible for any injury to be done to his prisoner, that the Court being in session, his trial being proceeded with, was a practical guarantee of his safety. And in order to quell the disturbance the Court directed the sheriff to put a guard around the jail in order to allay the fears of the people who had assembled there. Then they promised to go home peaceably.” (37) The Forsyth Rifles and sheriff’s posse had assembled nearby, on Fifth Street near Main. When the crowd did not quickly disperse, the Forsyth Rifles were summoned and formed a firing line. Someone fired a shot—several newspapers reported that the “mob” fired first—and the Riflemen opened fire, with orders to kill. (38) Though the newspaper does not say so, the crowd included both armed whites and armed African Americans. (39) The testimony of Mayor Gray and the statement of Judge Brown to the grand jury suggest they considered themselves to be acting in good faith to prevent violence. But the crowd did not trust them. The Richmond Planet assessed the situation in a brief article: “The sight of the Mayor of Winston urging these people [gathered to protect Tuttle] to go away was indeed a surprising thing. They were there to maintain the majesty of the law and not to violate it. The officers finally consented to place a guard around the jail to defend the prisoner. The colored people not trusting these continued to linger in the neighborhood of the jail and the Forsyth Riflemen were called out. We must defend prisoners, black or white[,] who are threatened with lynching. The evil must be eradicated. It must go!” (40) A handful of Riflemen were wounded, none seriously; the number of dead and wounded in the crowd was never ascertained—the African American community was thought to have acted in concert to hide the information from the authorities, another sign of the lack of trust. The Union Republican stated, “The reported wounding and death in the ranks of the recent rioters, in this city, is without foundation, so far as we can learn. That some may have been wounded is possible but to find it out would puzzle one of the best representatives of the Scotland Yard detective force.” (41) The Goldsboro Daily Argus was one of the papers that reported deaths; it wrote that three of the rioters “were secretly buried by their friends north of Winston” at night. The community, it wrote, “will reveal nothing regarding the number injured during the trouble.” (42) We do know the name of one wounded man. At the time of their trials for riot, several of the prisoners reported that Frank Robinson had been wounded in the riot and still carried “a buck-shot or pistol ball in his back.” (43) The Aftermath On the day after the riot, shortly after midnight, a Gatling gun arrived in Winston-Salem from Charlotte. It had taken the day for the necessary permissions to be received and for the gun to be shipped by train. Although Ida wrote in her memoir that it was the arrival of this gun that assured the peace—a sentiment likely shared by many of her white neighbors—it seems to have been unnecessary (VI, 101). But the town was on edge. In addition to the Riflemen, one hundred “special policemen” were on duty. Rumors had it that African Americans were gathering at “the big trestle one mile below Salem” to stop the arrival of the Gatling gun, but nothing came of it. After its arrival, the Forsyth Riflemen were called out in the early hours at the report of a gunshot, but it was only Eugene Albea shooting at noisy cats that were disturbing his sleep. (44) The grand jury had met in the morning and begun to issue indictments. Ultimately, it appears that forty-eight citizens of the town, almost certainly all African American, were arrested for participation in the riot. Solicitor Mott was reported to have considered indicting white men who came armed to the scene of the incident without being deputized, but apparently nothing came of it. (45) Fifteen of those arrested were found not guilty; six were discharged without penalty or had their sentences suspended (in two cases for age and infirmity, in one case apparently for assisting the prosecution); and six received monetary penalties (costs and, in a few cases, fines). The most severe punishment was twelve months of hard labor on the county roads, a sentence handed out to three men, including Frank Robinson, the man reported to have been shot in the back. One man was sentenced to six months, eleven to four months, and three received to three months. For three cases, I cannot find the disposition; interestingly, this includes the case of Will Tuttle, a brother of Walter, Robert, and Arthur, who fled town after the riot and was not arrested until November. (46) In a separate study, I hope to provide a group portrait of these men involved in the effort to protect Tuttle. It is hard to discern the effects of the riot on the town. It was reported that many men left town immediately after the riot, leaving the tobacco factories short-handed. (47) This seems to have been a transitory effect. Other effects can be discerned from examples. Micajah (Cager) Watt, almost 50 years of age, was one of the oldest men arrested in the aftermath of the riot; born around 1847/1849, he was old enough to have vivid memories of slavery times. (48) He was considered by the court of having been a ringleader in the riot and was accordingly punished with six months on the county road, the second most severe sentence handed out. (49) In addition, the newspapers suggested that he was whipped in the road camp with the knowledge of, if not at the order of, the camp superintendent. (50) When he was released, he seems to have again taken up his profession as a cook and restaurant owner in town, but not long after, around the turn of the century, he and his family moved to Harlem. (51) In contrast, Frank Carter was “fined fifty dollars and his proportion of the costs; the Judge stated that, in deference to the “unusually good character” given to Carter, presumably by influential white citizens, he imposed “a fine instead of consigning him to the county road.” (52) A few months later, Carter—or another African American with the same name—was elected to the town council. (53) Unlike Watt, he seems to have recovered his position in town following the riot. In formal and informal ways, the white community used forgiveness and intimidation to maintain control. The Later Life of Arthur and Robert Tuttle As we have seen, Arthur Tuttle was sentenced to 25 years at hard labor, with the judge’s promise of release after 17 or 18 years—that is, no earlier than 1912 or 1913—if he conducted himself well in prison. A petition for his pardon was circulated in 1898—a short article in The Union Republican mentioned it only to dismiss its wisdom—while Daniel Russell was governor. (54) Russell, a Republican, was famous at the time for his generosity with pardons. Some thought he abused his power (55); a paper in Wilmington called his practice “the Russell radical pardon-mill.” (56) Fam Brownlee has reported that Arthur was in Winston-Salem in 1908, but I have not found evidence in the newspapers available on newspapers.com. (57) By the 1910 census, however, Arthur was living in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with wife Cora; the census records indicate that he married Cora in 1903, so it is possible that he actually was pardoned by Russell before the end of the governor’s term in 1901, though I have found no newspaper stories of such a pardon. (58) In any case, Arthur Tuttle was in Philadelphia by 1910, and within ten years two of his brothers, Robert and Allie, were also living there. (59) The evidence that the Arthur Tuttle in Philadelphia is the same man as the native of Forsyth County is necessarily circumstantial but, I think, persuasive. In Winston-Salem, Arthur, like his oldest brother Walter and most young African American men, probably worked in a tobacco factory. Philadelphia had a large population of African Americans and a robust tobacco industry, so it would be a logical destination for a black tobacco worker leaving the South. (60) In the 1910 census, Arthur Tuttle was working in Philadelphia as stripper in a cigar factory. His birthplace is given as North Carolina, and his age, 36, is consistent with the age of our Arthur as reported on the 1880 census. The 1910 census shows him as married to Cora (also from North Carolina), with a marriage year of 1903, suggesting (as I noted) an early release from prison. (61) In 1918, we find Arthur Tuttle listed as brother on the draft registration card of Allie Tuttle, while “Ollie” Tuttle is listed as the nearest relative on the draft registration of Arthur Charles Tuttle, “cigar maker.” (62) Charles may have been given him at birth or—as later records, cited below, suggest—he may have borrowed it from his father as an alias. Allie’s death certificate, from May 1930, shows that he was born around 1882 and was not married; the informant is Charles Tuttle. (63) Later documents make clear that this is actually the man we know as Arthur: in 1941, Arthur claimed Social Security benefits under the name of Charles Arthur Tuttle, (64) and on his death certificate, in 1946, his name is listed as “Arthur Tuttle—alias Charles Arthur Tuttle.” (65) He apparently lived in Philadelphia under a slightly disguised name, perhaps to put his past as a convicted murderer behind him. When Arthur died, in 1946, he was living with his brother Robert; Cora had died 21 years earlier, in 1925. (66) In 1914, Robert had married in Winston-Salem, but he and his wife, Alice Jackson, were in Philadelphia by the time of the 1920 census. (67) At that time he was employed as a foreman in a tobacco factory. (68) He died in 1964, at the age of 89. (69) From the little I can gather from the sketchy glimpses into his life, Robert seems to have been an admirable figure, especially regarding the care he took of his younger brother, Arthur. It was probably Robert who, with an unnamed sister, went to the depot to see Arthur sent to the jail in Greensboro by train after his arrest. After Arthur’s return to Forsyth County to stand trial for the killing of policeman Vickers, Robert asked the congregation to guard the jail to protect his brother from the feared lynch mob. There was no lynching, but there was a street battle with wounds and probably deaths. Throughout, his intent seems to have been honorable. Finally, he and his wife took his brother into their home sometime after the death of Arthur’s wife. Notes (1) [no title], Wachovia Moravian, Sep 1895, n.p. (2) “Swinging into eternity…part 3,” Forsyth County Public Library: North Carolina Collection. (3) Paula J. Giddings. Ida: A Sword Among Lions: Ida B. Wells and the Campaign Against Lynching (p. 2). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition. However, the tobacco factories in Winston-Salem were still seasonal employers—the hydroelectric power plant on the Yadkin did not open till 1898—and I have the impression that many workers returned to their nearby rural communities in the off-season or when out of work. For example, in an 1890 trial involving electoral fraud in the sheriff’s election, many voters were questioned on residency and payment of taxes, and the answers showed that many of the witnesses frequently moved in and out of town based on employment opportunities, including seasonal work (“Boyer Against Teague: Further Developments of the Sheriffalty Contest,” Western Sentinel, 23 Jan 1890, 1). Three future participants in the events of August 1895—Sam Tolliver (June 1846 - 15 August 1903; LDPW-D3V), Peter Owens, and John Johnson—were questioned, but these three men appear to have been permanent residents. Interestingly, the mayor of Winston testified that the African American community feared “that Tuttle would be lynched by people from the country” who on the night of the riot were rumored to be gathering “in the pine woods in the West End” in preparation for the lynching (“Trial of the Rioters,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 1). The tobacco workers and tradesmen and small businessmen—all the known participants in protecting Tuttle were men—perhaps feared the communities they had escaped more than the town environment in which they lived. But it was also in the mayor’s interest to place the blame on outsiders. (4) I have consulted Ida B. Wells, The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Red Record, by Ida B. Wells-Barnett (1895; ebook #14977 released 8 Feb 2005). (5) This becomes quite clear, however, as one reads the editorials and examines news stories over a longer period. While no North Carolina newspaper archived in newspapers.com mentioned The Red Record, the Union Republican published an analysis of one of Wells’ main sources, the Chicago Tribune’s annual report on crimes in the US ("Shady Side of 1894. The Devil Finds Some; Work for; Idle Hands to Do," 17 January 1895, 1). The article stressed the impact of the Panic of 1893 and the ensuing depression on the rise in crime—reported murders increased “almost exactly 50 per cent.... The number of legal executions in the year looks ludicrously small in comparison with the number of murders.... It is not encouraging to know that the lynchings exceeded the legal executions by nearly 50 per cent....” The paper conceded that “the colored race furnished the lynchers with more than two-thirds of their victims,” and that the South lynched seven times more victims than the North. Significantly, the article agreed with one of Wells’ main contentions: “Only about one-fifth of the lynchings of colored men was due to the offense [i.e., rape and sexual assault] which has been held up as an excuse for taking summary vengeance on the perpetrator.” (6) “Trial of the Rioters,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 1. (7) “Horrible Affair! How Policeman Vickers Lost His Life,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. (8) “Shady Side of 1894,” 17 January 1895, 1. In July the Western Sentinel published an article from the Frederick (MD) News arguing that lynchings would be discouraged by “prompt execution of the law” (“How to Stop Lynchings,” 25 July 1895, 2). An open defender of lynching, the American Law Review of Boston and St Louis, made similar arguments that were reprinted in the Progressive Farmer, a paper with its roots in Winston-Salem (“The True Remedy for Lynch Law,” 8 January 1895, 1). This article further defended lynch mobs as men who “as a rule … wish ardently to enforce justice,” an assertion that cannot bear the weight of the bloody and vicious examples provided in Wells’ Red Record. (9) Fam Brownlee, “Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors…” (10) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3. (11) “Crimes and Punishments in N. C.,” Western Sentinel, 3 January 1895, 1. (12) In the period 1865-1941, North Carolina ranked “ninth highest [among the states] in terms of the number of lynching victims.” Vann R. Newkirk, Lynching in North Carolina: A History, 1865-1941 (McFarland, 2009), 3. (13) “Tragedy at Lexington,” Western Sentinel, 28 February 1895, 3; “Around the Twin-City,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 3. In 1894, the failure to move a white prisoner from the Ashe County jail resulted in an attack on the jail by fifteen armed men and the lynching of the prisoner. The sheriff was criticized for inaction. One of the lynch mob was wounded and captured and agreed to testify against the rest of the mob. He was then threatened with lynching both by the family of his victim and by his co-conspirators. This time the sheriff acted: he moved the lyncher-turned-witness to the Forsyth County jail. The venue of the trial of the lynch mob was also moved to another county. See “One of the Lynchers: Brought to Winston for Safe Keeping,” Western Sentinel, 8 March 1894, 1; “Lynching Case Postponed,” Western Sentinel, 4 April 1895, 1. (14) The sister could have been Ida (1863 – deceased; G7X2-P65), around 32 years of age in 1895, or Eliza (1877 – Deceased; G7X2-N6C), approximately 18. The mother was Margaret, in her mid-fifties. The brother was likely Robert. Source of names and approximate ages is the 1880 census, downloaded from Ancestry.com. Year: 1880; Census Place: Middle Fork, Forsyth, North Carolina; Roll: 963; Page: 358D; Enumeration District: 079. (15) “Reidsville News,” Reidsville (NC) Review, 24 May 1895, 3; “Over the State,” Evening Visitor (Raleigh, NC), 23 May 1895, 4. (16) It is one of the techniques mentioned by “Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror,” 3rd edition. (17) “Expected a Lynching: A Body of Durham Negroes Made Themselves Conspicuous,” Western Sentinel, 14 February 1895, 1. (18) “Sent to Guilford Jail: Arthur Tuttle, Who Murdered Policeman Vickers,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. (19) R. B. Garrett, "Meant Business: Colored Men Rally in North Carolina - Tuttle Defended - Manhood Rights Maintained," letter to editor dated 25 May 1895, Richmond Planet, 1 June 1895. (20) “Special Term of Court for the Trial of Those Engaged in the Riot,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 3. (21) Glenda Elizabeth Gilmore. “‘Somewhere’ in the Nadir of African American History, 1890-1920.” Freedom’s Story, TeacherServe©. National Humanities Center. (22) Deborah Becket, Radical Reform: Interracial Politics in Post-Emancipation North Carolina (The American South Series) (ebook), xx. (23) John Mitchell, Jr (11 July 1963 – 3 December 1929; GQB7-DVP). A brief biography is “John Mitchell Jr. (1863–1929),” Encyclopedia Virginia. (24) “Skinned Alive,” Richmond Planet, 25 May 1895, 2. (25) “Meant Business,” Richmond Planet, 1 June 1895, 1. (26) Richmond Planet, 21 Aug 1897, 4. (27) Simon G. Atkins, “Falsehoods Denounced,” Western Sentinel, 13 June 1895, 1. (28) I have not found much about the law in the state press, but one thumbnail article does mention its purpose: “The Sentinel's Kodak,” Western Sentinel, 16 Feb 1893, 3. Its inadequacies are discussed in Vann R. Newkirk, Lynching in North Carolina: A History, 1865-1941 (McFarland, 2009), 4, 20. Atkins (11 June 1863 - 28 June 1934; GQPV-298) was the principal of the Depot Street school for African American children and later founded and led the Slater Industrial Academy, an institution that evolved into Winston-Salem State University. He was an ally and admirer of Booker T. Washington. See L.G. Davis, W.J. Rice, J.H. McLaughlin, African Americans in Winston-Salem / Forsyth County (The Society for the Study of Afro-American History, 1999), 50-52, for a brief biography. (29) Conversation between the writer and Fam Brownlee. (30) “Meant Business. Colored Men Rally in North Carolina. Tuttle Defended—Manhood Rights Maintained,” Richmond (VA) Planet, 1 June 1895, 1; Simon Green Atkins, “Falsehoods Denounced,” Western Sentinel, 13 June 1895, 1. (31) The following account is drawn primarily from these sources: “Sunday Night's Riot,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 3; “An Unfortunate Affair,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3; Fambrough Brownlee, “Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors…”; “Well-Timed Remarks,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 3; “Trial of the Rioters,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 1. (32) It is not clear where the crowd first gathered. Sometime after 1 a.m., when the Forsyth Rifles clashed with the crowd, the crowd was “on Fifth and Church streets, around Masten’s corner” (“Sunday Night's Riot,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 3). At least three of the men arrested for riot lived on or near this corner: Sam Toliver’s grocery store and home were at 447 Church St, on the corner; Peter Owens was co-owner of a snack bar next door, though he lived around the corner, on E. 5th, near another participant, Walter Searcy. Turner’s Winston and Salem City Directory for the Years 1894-1895 (New York). DigitalNC.org, 130, 134, 138. (33) Robert Milton McArthur (4 September 1853 – 11 October 1903; KH89-F59) was an avid Democrat who once, while serving as sheriff, got into a fistfight with the Republican editor of the Union Republican (“The Sheriff Whips an Editor,” Western Sentinel, 8 June 1893, 4). Before becoming sheriff, he ran “livery, sale and exchange stables” located on Church St. between 2nd and 3rd (“R.M. McArthur” [ad], Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 11 April 1893, 4). Eugene Early Gray, Sr (13 September 1855 - 22 November 1940; LVZJ-DD8) was a lawyer, the owner of an insurance agency, and a banker (“The Sentinel's Kodak,” Western Sentinel, 2 February 1893, 3; “Our Banks and Bankers,” Western Sentinel, 26 July 1900, 6). He was well connected—the son of Robert Gray, an early settler of Winston (“Death of Robert Gray Esq.,” Winston Sentinel, 20 January 1881, 3) and the brother of Dr. Robah Gray, who tended Ida and her children, and of James A. Gray, Sr., later President of Wachovia National Bank and father of Bowman Gray, Sr. (“Eugene Early Gray Sr.,” Findagrave.com. (34) “Trial of the Rioters,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 1. (35) “Sunday Night’s Riot. A Large Mob of Negroes at the Jail,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 3; “An Unfortunate Affair. A Threatening Mob Assembles at the Jail,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3. A correspondent from a Raleigh paper heard this explanation from fellow passengers on the train (“From Church to Jail,” News and Observer, 13 August 1895, 1). (36) “Solicitor Mott Criticized,” Western Sentinel, 29 August 1895, 1. (37) “An Unfortunate Affair. A Threatening Mob Assembles at the Jail,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3. (38) “An Unfortunate Affair.” As noted above, the crowd on the street included both white and black men, but the papers tended to ignore the presence of armed white men on the scene. (39) “Solicitor Mott Criticized,” Western Sentinel, 29 August 1895, 1. (40) [no headline], The Richmond Planet, 17 August 1895, 2. (41) “Local News,” Union Republican, 29 August 1895, 3. (42) “Winston’s Riot,” Goldsboro (NC) Argus, 15 August 1895, 1. I have seen no other report of deaths or burials, but they may well have occurred. (43) “‘Has a Ball in His Back,’” Western Sentinel, 29 August 1895, 1. I have not been able to further identify him. In 1894, a man of that name was listed in the Winston city directory as a laborer living on Maple, with no street address. Ben F. Robinson (one can reasonably guess that F. stood for Franklin) was a tobacco roller who lived at 713 Chestnut. C. H. Addison, agent of the Stand Music Company at the corner of Main and 3rd, reported that an unnamed African American in his employ was probably wounded in the riot. Addison was away when it occurred. On his return, he found that his Derby hat and gold-headed cane were smeared with blood and that one of his employees was not to be found. He assumed that the employee had taken the hat and cane to church, participated in the riot where he was wounded, then returned the hat and cane before fleeing the town (“A Bloody Hat,” Western Sentinel, 5 September 1895, 1). (44) “Shooting at Cats,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 3. Eugene Pierce Albea (9 September 1855 – 31 July 1914; KHTC-F4V) was a gregarious traveling salesman and a prominent member of the International Order of the Odd Fellows (“Mr. E.P. Albea Says Taft Gets Frost in the West,” Winston-Salem Journal, 9 October 1909, 5). (45) “Solicitor Mott Criticized,” Western Sentinel, 29 August 1895, 1. (46) The arrests, trials, and sentencing of the rioters were covered in several articles, notably “Special Term of Court for the Trial of Those Engaged in the Riot,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 3. For the arrest of William Tuttle (August 1868 - Deceased; G7X2-5FM), see “Local News,” Union Republican, 28 Nov 1895, 3. (47) “The Rioters in Jail - Fifty Negroes Under Arrest for Sunday Nights’ Trouble,” News and Observer, 16 August 1895, 1; Eddie Hoffman, “Hidden History II: The 1895 Riot.” (48) “United States Census, 1870”, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MW81-LKH: 18 March 2020), Cager Watt in entry for Garland Watt, 1870. (49) Micajah Watt (1847/1849 - 5 May 1905; GS65-YPD), usually called Cager, was also known as Kajah, Cajer, Mc Cager, and possibly Kaziah. For his supposed role as a ringleader, see “Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years and Cunningham 15 Years,” Union Republican, 22 August 1895, 3, and “Special Term of Court,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 3. Three men received a longer sentence than Watt—one year at hard labor on the county roads. It is possible that Watts’ sentence was shorter because of his age. For two of the men, Charles Hauser and Frank Robinson, I have no found no evidence for their age; the third man, Pleas Webster, was somewhere between 27 and 31 years of age (Year: 1880; Census Place: Winston, Forsyth, North Carolina; Roll: 963; Page: 431D; Enumeration District: 085. Source Information: Ancestry.com and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 1880 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2010). (50) My interpretation of what happened to Watt is based on reading between the lines of a short article, “County Convict Camp. Micajah Watts Was Not Whipped,” published on the first page of the Western Sentinel (12 September 1895). Unlike the headline, the story does not say that Watt was not whipped, but that he was not whipped by camp Superintendent Shutt—a nondenial denial, in recent political vernacular; the article perhaps signals its verbal legerdemain by noting that the superintendent—the sole source for the article—is “clever.” The article also suggests that Shutts treated Watts vindictively by not allowing him to act as the camp cook. Finally, the fact that the paper felt it necessary to refute the rumors about Watt’s treatment on page one suggests that he was an important leader of the community and his humiliation an object lesson in racial relations. (51) The 1899 Winston-Salem city directory shows Cager Watt running restaurant at 807 Depot. In 1900, he owned 809 Depot St (“Tax Sale,” Union Republican, 14 June 1900, 10). But in the 1900 census, he and wife Caroline were lodging, with two children (Weldon and Elveta) and nine other people, at West 154 St in Manhattan, where he was working as a cook ("United States Census, 1900," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MSKW-LWZ: accessed 1 December 2020), Cager Watt in household of James Stewart, Borough of Manhattan, Election District 13 New York City Ward 23, New York County, New York, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 616, sheet 3B, family 74, NARA microfilm publication T623 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1972.); FHL microfilm 1,241,108.). West 154th was within the area much later described, by the New York Times, as Greater Harlem (Wikipedia. s.v. “Harlem”; it was not far from St Luke's AME Church on West 153rd opened in the years after the Civil War (Jonathan Gill, Harlem: The Four Hundred Year History, loc 2836). In 1900, there already were, or shortly would be, “all-black buildings on West 125th Street, while West 130th Street was known as ‘Nigger Row’” (Gill, loc 2766). “By the turn of the century tens of thousands of Negroes made their homes uptown” (loc 2778). Watt moved to Harlem about the same time as the 1900 race riots in midtown. Sparked by an incident in the Tenderloin, roving crowds of men (some Irish, some policemen in uniform) roamed midtown attacking anyone who was black—a total of 70 people, including Paul Laurence Dunbar. These attacks spurred many to move uptown (Gill, loc 2731-2742). (52) “The Rioters Sentenced,” Western Sentinel, 29 August 1895, 1. (53) “Newly Elected City Aldermen in Session,” Union Republican, 14 May 1896, 3. (54) “Local News,” Union Republican, 11 August 1898, 8. (55) See, for example, “Abuse of Pardon,” North Carolinian (Raleigh, NC), 20 December 1900, 4, an editorial that originated with the Washington Messenger but was reprinted by several papers. The next Republican governor did not take office until 1973. (56) “The Forty Four,” Semi-Weekly Messenger (Wilmington, NC), 19 November 1897, 2. (57) “Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors…” (58) Year: 1910; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 14, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T624_1390; Page: 5A; Enumeration District: 0193; FHL microfilm: 1375403. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. (59) Allie (24 December 1882 – 5 May 1930; GWT9-GHD) was the youngest documented child in the family. (60) According to W. E. B. Du Bois's 1899 study, The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (Schocken Books, 1967), Philadelphia had the fourth highest population of African Americans in the US, after Washington, New Orleans, and Baltimore (53). He noted that cigar makers belonged to the skilled trades (ftnt, 100-101), and that the Cigar-makers’ Union was “a regular trades union with both white and Negro members. It is the only union in Philadelphia where Negroes are largely represented” (227). (61) In the 1895 Winston-Salem city directory, a Cora Hanes worked as a washer and lived at 708 E. 9th St in Winston. Turner’s Winston and Salem City Directory for the Years 1894-1895 (New York). DigitalNC.org, 118. (62) Registration State: Pennsylvania; Registration County: Philadelphia. Source Information: Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. (63) Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, PA; Pennsylvania (State). Death Certificates, 1906-1968; Certificate Number Range: 045501-048500. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. (64) Ancestry.com. U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. (65) Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, PA; Pennsylvania (State). Death Certificates, 1906-1968; Certificate Number Range: 045501-048500. (66) Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, PA; Pennsylvania (State). Death Certificates, 1906-1968; Certificate Number Range: 048001-051000. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. (67) “North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QP9T-B8JJ: 28 November 2018), Robt Tuttle and Alice Jackson, 21 May 1914; citing Forsyth, North Carolina, United States, North Carolina State Archives Division of Archives and History; FHL microfilm. (68) Year: 1920; Census Place: Philadelphia Ward 34, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Roll: T625_1630; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 1184. Source Information: Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. (69) Pennsylvania Historic and Museum Commission; Harrisburg, PA; Pennsylvania (State). Death Certificates, 1906-1968; Box Number: 2401; Certificate Number Range: 079901-082750. Source Information: Ancestry.com. Pennsylvania, U.S., Death Certificates, 1906-1967 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. Posted 23 November 2024. Please send questions and comments to [email protected]  Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 2024, 3 Part 1
Part 3 Most accounts of the riot fail to understand that it took place during the trial while the court was in recess for Sunday, August 11. The trial was quite rapid. Indictment, trial, and conviction took just a week. Tuttle was brought back to town on Sunday, August 4, and indicted the next day. On Friday, August 9, the jury was selected, the lawyers made their opening statements, and testimony began. On Saturday, the testimony of witnesses wrapped up and closing statements began. The riot took place late Sunday evening into the early hours of Monday, August 12. Later on Monday, the closing statements were completed, the judge issued his charge to the jury, and jury deliberations began. After brief deliberations, the jury returned a verdict the next morning, finding Tuttle guilty of second-degree murder. It was the jury’s responsibility, based on the evidence, to determine the nature of the crime, if there was one, as well as the guilt of the accused. Jury members could have chosen premeditated murder, which carried the death penalty; second degree murder, which as of 1894 was no longer a capital crime in North Carolina but had a maximum sentence of 30 years; manslaughter; or justifiable homicide. The courthouse was small. It did not have a room for trial juries, so the jury may have deliberated on the courthouse green. The courtroom was hot. After selection of the jury, the judge delayed opening statements to allow for the installation of electric fans in the courtroom. The courthouse was noisy because of heavy traffic on the street; earlier in the week, the judge had requested the authorities to require the streetcars and drays to drive slower. Arthur Tuttle benefited from a first-class defense team. Often, African Americans faced serious charges without any representation, but the local churches had contributed $500 for his defense. Three prominent out-of-town lawyers represented Tuttle at the trial, two Republicans and a Democrat. His fourth lawyer was a rising young lawyer in Winston, apparently a Democrat. The white supremacist newspapers stirred up controversy over how the defense funds were raised and the selection of the jury. In-text references are to the chapter and page number of the fifth edition of Ida Beard’s My Own Life. That edition has been published online by Documenting the American South and is the basis of my annotated edition. Indictment. Tuttle was brought back to Winston on Sunday, August 4, and on Monday, as the Union Republican reported, "the Grand Jury returned a true bill for murder.… Monday evening Col. Boyd [the lead defense lawyer] read a lengthy document, the substance of which was that public setiment [sic] here was such that his client could not secure a fair trial and His Honor was asked to remove the case to some other county. The State was given until next day to reply and did so. His Honor after due consideration decided not to remove the case…. " (1) This decision turned out to be a mistake, as the court would acknowledge. (2) The prosecutors and defenders. The state was represented by R. B. Glenn and Clement Manly, partners, and by J. C. Buxton (Buxton’s partner, C. B. Watson, refused to prosecute capital cases) (3); Solicitor Mott was excused to prepare for prosecuting another murder trial scheduled for the same session of court. (4) Tuttle was defended by four white lawyers—James E. Boyd and John N. Staples, both from Greensboro; by Jeff S. Grogan, from Winston; and by Thomas Settle, from Reidsville. The three out-of-town lawyers were prominent, and Grogan was considered a rising man in the profession. On the prosecution team, Robert B. Glenn had moved his practice to Winston in 1885, where he continued to support Democratic causes and candidates. He served in the Forsyth Rifles (1890-1893) and as U.S. attorney for the western district of North Carolina (1893-1897). At the end of the century he spoke widely in favor of disenfranchising black voters, and he later served as governor and avid supporter of Prohibition. He and his partner, along with Buxton and Watson, had successfully defended Officer Hasten from the charge of murdering Walter Tuttle. (5) Clement Manly began his legal career in his hometown, New Bern, but in 1890 he moved to Winston-Salem and entered partnership with R. B. Glenn, a partnership which lasted till Glenn became governor in 1905. A Democrat, Manly never sought public office and only once, in the 1896 presidential campaign, served in an official party position. (6) J. C. Buxton served in many local and state positions—alderman, mayor, chairman of the school board (for twenty-six years), member of the State Senate, president of the Winston Water Works, and banker. (7) Two of the lawyers for the defense were Republicans. Thomas Settle of Reidsville was a sitting member of the House of Representatives at the time of the trial (he lost his bid for reelection in 1896). (8) Col. Boyd of Greensboro had been a member of the General Assembly and the U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina and was elected mayor of Greensboro in 1894. (9) The other two members of the defense team were prominent Democrats. Col. John N. Staples, a veteran of the Civil War, was a prominent lawyer from Greensboro, active in state politics for the Democratic Party and a former member of the State House and Senate; for many years he was chief counsel for the Richmond and Danville (later, Southern) Railway. (10) Jeff Grogan was the most junior lawyer on either side—he had begun practice in 1884—and the only local attorney on the defense team; for that reason, probably, he represented the defense team in selecting the jury. He seems to have been an active Democrat; a year earlier, he had spoken at a meeting of the Winston Democratic Club. (11) At this period he often represented African Americans in court, sometimes those not popular with the white community. (12) As we will see below, his work on the Tuttle trial was criticized by the white supremacists of his own party, but this accusation does not seem to have harmed his career. At least three African American lawyers were practicing in Winston-Salem at the time—John S. Fitts, James S. Lanier, and A. R. Bridges (or Bridgers)—but they were not called on publicly to assist in the case. (13) However, in the trials that followed the riot of Sunday, August 11, Fitts, Lanier, and Bridges represented several of the defendants. (14) Paying for Tuttle’s defense. It was common after Reconstruction for African Americans to face charges in court, even capital charges, without legal representation. It is a mark of the support of Arthur Tuttle in the African American community that the defense could afford such fine representation, though none of them had the local clout of Buxton and Glenn, who prosecuted for the state. (15) The racial politics of the times are evident in the brief controversy that was stoked by the Western Sentinel and the Twin-City Daily Sentinel. It apparently began with a report in the Daily Sentinel: "A respectable colored man gives out that no less than $500 was raised by his color to defend Arthur Tuttle. This money, he says, was raised by giving festivals and soliciting contributions. The cash from the festivals, it was understood at the time, was to go for church work. It is also stated that Col. Boyd is to get $200 of the money for his work—and $100 additional if Tuttle is cleared. The other $200, it appears, is to be divided between Messrs. Settle, Grogan and Staples…." (16) Though intended to delegitimize Tuttle’s right to a defense, the attack provides valuable information. The Union Republican’s response to this attack did not address the particulars, but confirmed the substance of the report and defended the right of African Americans to support the defense of Tuttle: it is not only legitimate but it is the custom, proper and right for friends to contribute of their private funds for attorney fees in cases like Tuttle's. It was done in [the] Shemwald-Payne trial [earlier that summer] and in others. But an Attorney of the highest standing tells us that the City of Winston through her Board of Aldermen had no legal right to appropriate funds from the City Treasury to pay Mr. Glenn or any other attorney to prosecute the case; and, if any citizen were to enjoin the payment of such so appropriated, the courts would sustain the injunction. (17) The charge that African American churches had misused church funds nevertheless seemed to have stung, for two of them—St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church and the First Baptist Church—published notices stating that no church funds had been used to support Tuttle. (18) In raising funds for their buildings, the black churches often looked to their “white friends” for support, so the charge by the newspaper could have seen as threatening the relationship. So far as I can tell from the newspapers at my disposal, none of other churches published similar disclaimers, including the St. James African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, the African Methodist Episcopal Zion (AMEZ) Church (the congregation now called Golers AMEZ), Lloyd Presbyterian Church, Cleveland Avenue Christian Church, Saints Home Methodist Church, or any of the four or five other black Baptist congregations then in existence. (19) Friday, August 9: Selecting the Jury. The trial opened on the morning of Friday, August 9, with selection of the jury. The process for picking the jury was impugned by the article in the Twin-City Daily Sentinel cited above. Jurors were drawn from two venires, the regular traverse jury pool, which provided five of the jurors, and a special venire of 125, which provided the remaining seven. All of those chosen lived outside the city limits of Winston and Salem. So far as I can determine, all were white men. (20) The paper wrote that John Reynolds, the leader of the local Republican party, may have been paid “a fee [by the African American churches] for prompting Mr. Grogan in the selection of a jury”: that is, the process was alleged to be partisan and corrupt. Grogan’s work in selecting the jury also attracted the criticism of Ida Beard. Grogan was, My Own Life demonstrates, a friend and crony of Ida’s husband, John Lewis Beard. Beard was a popular figure around town—a witty and amusing auctioneer, a one-time writer of comic columns in the local newspapers, a sportsman and entrepreneur who kept his name in the papers. At this time he was serving in the office of a justice of the peace and, Ida claims, was involved in the selection of the jury: “for the small sum of $25 [John] swore to a falsehood and selected the jurors in the Tuttle case” (VI, 102). Her accusation is not accurate as stated: as noted above, the jurors were selected in open court from the two jury pools; a total of approximately 92 potential jurors were examined during the selection process. However, it is possible that John offered advice to Grogan; perhaps his wide acquaintance among his fellow citizens gave him insight into those who would weigh the evidence fairly. Beard may have offered much more than advice, for example, by manipulating the pools of jurors to include more Republicans or jurors known to be relatively sympathetic to African Americans. The role of JP changed frequently in the last thirty years of the nineteenth century in North Carolina (there were significant changes in this same year, 1895), but I do not know what role they had in calling jurors from the pool, nor have I found how the pools in this trial (or any trial) would have been constructed. At this point, I can only report Ida’s accusation with my reservations. (21) Once the jury was empaneled, R. B. Glenn read the indictment. Judge G. H. Brown “then instructed the Jury as to the importance of their duty especially so in view of the interest manifested in this case, and that both sides were entitled to a fair and impartial hearing” (22); he told the jury not to discuss the case among themselves “until they had heard the evidence, the speeches of counsel and the charge of the court.” The Western Sentinel added the judge’s statement that “the prisoner is entitled to the same consideration as if he was the most important personage in the State.” (23) Friday, August 9: Opening Statements and Testimony. The court adjourned till 3 p.m., a longer than usual recess to give the Sheriff time to install, on the judge’s order, one or two electric fans to alleviate the intense heat in the small courtroom. The courtroom was also noisy because of “the rumbling of street cars, drays, and vehicles” on Fourth Street. On the Monday before the trial, as the grand jury sat to consider the indictment of Tuttle, Judge Brown had “requested that the Sheriff endeavor to have conveyances move at a moderate gait while passing Fourth Street, north of the Court House,” and this seems to have helped to some extent. (24) This order was presumably still in effect during the trial. Because there was no jury room in the courthouse for trial juries (called traverse juries), the jurors held their deliberations on the courthouse green. (25) It did not rain while the Tuttle jury was out, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning (August 12-13), but apparently rain had affected jury deliberations the previous week. (26) Beyond the fear of lynching, the African American community seemed to have three specific reasons for doubting that Tuttle would be treated fairly. First, many seem to have believed that, when Tuttle was physically moved off the sidewalk, Officer Dean had kicked him or used unnecessary force, and that Tuttle had responded in self-defense; this was also the position taken by the lawyers for the defense. (27) Second, it was rumored that the fatal shots were fired by Deputy Sheriff Martin, a report that seems to have spread almost immediately after the incident. (28) Finally, at least some were certain that no weapon was found on Tuttle at the time of the shooting; this was asserted by R. B. Garrett, a correspondent from Greensboro, in a May 25 letter to a prominent out-of-state African American newspaper, the Richmond (VA) Planet (29), and it may explain the theory of the case argued by Jeff Grogan, a lawyer on the defense team (see below). As we compare accounts of the trial, and newspaper accounts at the time of the shooting, we should keep these concerns in mind. The first witness called by the prosecution was A. Alexander Dean of the Winston police. He testified that he, Policeman Vickers, and Deputy Sheriff Martin had just come from police headquarters following the acquittal of Policeman Hasten for murdering Walter Tuttle. The time was 5:00 or 5:30. In the first accounts of the fight, back in May, both the Union Republican and the Western Sentinel had stated that Vickers was returning from jail after escorting a thief there and that the time was 6:30 or 6:40. Neither Martin nor Dean is mentioned at this point in the original newspaper accounts. All the accounts agree that the streets were crowded as they usually were at that time on Saturdays. Dean now testified as to what happened next: "Vickers called attention [to the crowded sidewalk] and he saw [a white] lady come off [the] sidewalk, which was blocked; Tuttle was in [the] crowd; Dean spoke to [the] crowd, saying we are sworn officers and it is our duty to keep the sidewalks clear and asked [the] crowd to leave [the] pathway open. Tuttle said he’d move when “he damned got ready.” Dean took him by the arm and put him off [the] sidewalk." (30) In the original report of the event on 23 May, the Western Sentinel stated that that crowd in the street was African American and that it was Vickers who “pushed [Tuttle] back” (31); the Union Republican agreed at that time that it was Vickers who had pushed Tuttle off of the sidewalk. (32) In the account of the trial published in the Western Sentinel, Dean continued: "Tuttle turned and put his hand to his pocket and said something not remembered. Dean took hold of Tuttle and pulled him to his arms to see if he was armed; he had no weapon in his back pocket; Tuttle flounced away from him; Vickers took hold of him, he jerked loose and partly fell. Tuttle struck Vickers, knocking him down, and turned towards Dean, who struck him a glancing lick, knocking him on one knee. Dean caught hold of him; Tuttle began to fire; before he [Dean] could grab him he fired again; heard Vickers say, 'Lord, I’m shot.' Respass run up and grabbed the pistol; there was a scuffle; took pistol away from Tuttle. (33) Respass took the pistal [sic]. On the way to jail, Tuttle said, 'What are you taking me to jail for?' Dean replied, 'You don’t know[?]' Tuttle said no more." (34) The Union Republican gave a similar description of Dean’s testimony, with some differences in the details: "Tuttle turned and reached in his hip pocket as if for a pistol. Dean took hold of him again to see if he was armed. . . . Tuttle jerked away and Vickers grabbed him. He struck Vickers and knocked him down, and in turn Dean tumbled Tuttle and gathered him. As Tuttle raised [sic] he fired twice in quick succession. Vickers exclaimed, 'Lord, I’m shot.' Both balls had taken effect. Respass and Martin came up, the [f]ormer took [the] pistol from Tuttle, and he was overpowered and carried to jail. Told Tuttle to come along." (35) Dean provided important information in the cross-examination: “I did not kick him and nobody kicked him that I saw.” (36) Dean’s response seems to confirm the existence of a rumor (and perhaps an accurate observation) that one of the officers had roughed up Tuttle in removing him from the sidewalk. Dean continued: "[I] don’t remember that he said he had done nothing; he didn’t get back on [the] sidewalk after he was put off; he turned on me and made [an] attempt to get a weapon; I didn’t [give] him [the] chance to draw a weapon. Tuttle was trying to get his weapon and to keep us from getting it; it appeared that the weapon was in his right hand front pocket. Vickers never struck Tuttle. I struck him once, a glancing blow. Tuttle struck Vickers with his fist and knocked him down." (37) The next witness was Deputy Sheriff Frank A. Martin. It appears that one purpose of his testimony was to refute reports that Tuttle had been roughly treated; he stated that “Tuttle was put off sidewalk gently; he was not kicked.” As summarized by the newspaper, Martin did not indicate which officer removed Tuttle. “The first time I saw Dean hit” Tuttle, said Martin, was "after Tuttle fired and started to run. Tuttle tried to get away when he found they were about to find a pistol on him. I didn’t pull my pistol until after the firing. I pulled it then, by Ned, to help Vickers. I did not fire. Showed my pistol to Mr. Grogan (now one of the counsel for the defense) and he saw it had not been fired." (38) In this way, the prosecution also endeavored to refute the rumors that Tuttle was not armed and that Martin had fired the fatal shots. But I wonder if anyone in the courtroom believed that Tuttle had been moved “gently.” Another eyewitness—the last called on Friday, August 9—was F. A. Hine, originally from Iredell County: "Hine was clerking at [William] Messick’s [store, in the Municipal Building, on] Saturday afternoon, 18th May. I came out of store to get some cabbage that were on the front. Heard Tuttle say, search me. Saw two policemen searching Tuttle; saw them reach in [his] hip pockets, when they started to [search the] front pockets, Tuttle jerked loose and knocked Vickers across a crate of cabbage. Dean struck Vickers with a billy and knocked him down on his knee. Saw pistol in Tuttle’s hand and soon heard two pistol shots. First shot struck Vickers in the neck. Heard Vickers say, 'Oh, I’m shot.'" (39) The final witness, Captain T. W. Farrish, testified on Saturday morning. (40) Over the objections of the defense, he was allowed to report his recollection of Vickers’ dying statement: "A crowd was standing in the street; ladies passing had to get off the sidewalk; some got off, some remained. Tuttle cut up. [Vickers] went back and told Tuttle that the request was small and if he didn’t stop he would lock him up. He (Vickers) went back and saw Dean trying to lead Tuttle off. When he went back Tuttle struck him (Vickers), knocked him down and shot him twice while he was down." (41) Tuttle did not testify on his own behalf; indeed, the defense called no witnesses. Saturday, August 10, and Monday, August 12. The rest of the trial—on Saturday after 11 a.m. and on Monday, after the Sunday night riot—consisted of the closing arguments of the prosecution and defense. The first argument was made by Col. John N. Staples, for the defense: "He said although the prisoner was from an humble race, unlettered, he had same rights as others before the law. The humbler a man, the harder his chances in any sphere of life. We are born with prejudice. We had rather help out one of our own race.… We all have that feeling, but there are times when this prejudice should be laid aside and justice administered. He wanted the same justice that would be administered to the wisest and best man in the community if indicted of a crime. He argued that the killing of Vickers was not murder in either degree, nor manslaughter, but was self-defense—that there was not premeditation and no malice." (42) J. C. Buxton followed for the prosecution: "As a representative of the State, he wished to say, as far as the race question was concerned, this was no place for this question to be discussed. Newspapers and politicians have that privilege. It was unnecessary for counsel to bring this question to the attention of the jury, because this jury was above anything of that kind when it comes to administering justice. He conceded to the prisoner the same rights accorded any one and required of him the same obedience to the laws of the country. He didn’t ask for any verdict different than if this man’s skin was white. Mr. Buxton proceeded to argue that the killing was murder in the first degree." (43) In his argument to the jury, on Monday morning, lawyer Jeff Grogan proposed a theory of the case to support the self-defense argument: "His theory was that Tuttle did not have the pistol in either his hip or front pocket, but that it was in an inside coat pocket, or in his shirt, and that during the scuffle the pistol fell to the ground; that Dean and Tuttle both were trying to secure it and that both had hold of it when it was fired." (44) Ida Beard believed that her husband, John Beard, helped Grogan with his speech, so perhaps the theory was in part Beard’s, too. Ida also charged John with purloining North Carolina law books from the office of the city prosecutor, L. M. Swink, to provide to the defense (V, 99; VI, 101). She by now believed her husband to be a man of poor character, a deceiver and a liar whose professions of love were meaningless. She idolized her cousin, Major Newton Crumpler, an officer in the Confederate cavalry killed in the Sevens Days Battle, and she would later prove a staunch supporter of the Lost Cause (45); if we can credit her account, her husband mocked her worship of Major Crumpler (III, 54-55), as well as the “white rascals” whom he thought planning to lynch Tuttle (VI, 103). Her marital history and racial ideology did not equip her to credit her husband with laudable motives for assisting in Tuttle’s defense, even if some of his methods were questionable. Like many southern whites at the time, Ida feared being ruled by African Americans. During the trial of Arthur Tuttle, she was angry that her husband was helping the defense: “‘John, you must not forget that you have two boys in this city who may at some future day be trampled upon, and all on account of the doings of you, their father’” (VI, 103). Sunday, August 11: The Riot. See Part 3. Monday, August 13: The Jury Deliberates. The jury received the case between 5 and 5:30 on Monday evening and returned their verdict the following morning at the opening of the court. They probably deliberated on the courthouse green, like other traverse juries in Winston at that time (see above). The sun set a little after 7:30 that evening and rose shortly before 6 the next morning; how long the jury deliberated was not reported in the papers, but it could not have been more than a few hours. (46) The jurors found Tuttle guilty of murder in the second degree. Although Tuttle did not testify on his own behalf, Jailer Ziglar was asked by the prosecution during the sentencing phase to repeat a conversation he had had with Tuttle: "Jailor [sic] Ziglar, being sworn said that when Tuttle was being taken back to jail after the jury had rendered their verdict, Mr. Martin asked him how he liked the verdict. He said he didn’t like it and he asked Martin what he thought of it and Martin said he thought it was light. Tuttle remarked that they didn’t put the officer on the stand that he struck. Said he struck Hasten." (47) Hasten was the officer who had been acquitted of killing Tuttle’s brother, Walter. When Tuttle hit Vickers with his fist, probably in the mouth, it was with such force that the officer fell across a crate of cabbage. Tuttle thought he was striking his brother’s killer. It was a mighty blow against perceived injustice, but it landed on the wrong man and led to another unjust death. (48) The sentence. Tuttle was convicted by the jury of second-degree murder and sentenced by the judge to twenty-five years at hard labor (just five years fewer than the maximum sentence), with the possibility of release in 17 or 18 years for good behavior. In 1913, Tuttle would have been 37 years of age. A few years after the conviction, the black community began a petition drive to obtain his pardon, but nothing seems to have come of it. (49) Following the riot, some acknowledged that the trial should have been held in a different venue: Developments since the case opened indicate that a removal of the [case to another venue] would have been proven the most prudent policy, but at the time His Honor and the Court deemed it best to try the accused in the county in which the tragedy occurred and there has since been general acquiescence. It is not from a belief that justice could not be obtained in Forsyth that the expression of removal is based but in the light of subsequent manifestations which would have been most fortunately avoided. (50) NOTES (1) “Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases – Other Points of Interest,” Union Republican, 8 Aug 1895, 3. (2) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 3. (3) For a brief biography of John Cameron Buxton (30 September 1852 – 26 April 1917; LY4Q-SLZ), see NCPedia, s.v., C. Sylvester Green, “Buxton, John Cameron.” For Cyrus Barksdale Watson (14 January 1844 – 11 November 1916; LTYY-3JG), see NCPedia, s.v., Thomas H. Johnson, Jr., “Watson, Cyrus Barksdale.” See below for his role in passing an anti-lynching law in North Carolina. (4) Marshall Lockhart Mott (28 May 1860 – 10 March 1936; L23P-ZFN) was elected solicitor for the judicial district in the last five years or so of the 19th-century. Although he did not prosecute the case against Tuttle, he did prosecute the rioters. His membership in the Republican Party was well-known; the Durham Sun blamed him for the many acquittals and reduced or suspended sentences for the rioters, a story reprinted by the Western Sentinel (29 Aug 1895, 2). Perhaps because of his sensitivity to the rights of minorities, Mott later became a lawyer for the Creek Nation in the Indian Territory. See “Solicitor Mott at Taylorsville,” Union Republican, 31 Jan 1895, 2; “Died,” Union Republican, 10 Sept 1908, 7; “Governor Haskell Wants Marshall Mott Removed,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 27 May 1909, 6. (5) For a brief biography of Robert Brodnax Glenn (11 August 1854 - 16 May 1920; 9XP8-PVZ), see NCPedia, s.v. Michael Hill, “Robert Brodnax Glenn.” (6) Clement Manly (15 March 1853 – 26 November 1928; 93LQ-YFH). See “Clement Manly Dies at Age of 75,” News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), 27 Nov 1928, 2. (7) For a biographical sketch, see NCPedia, s.v. C. Sylvester Green, “Buxton, John Cameron.” (8) For a brief biography of Thomas A. Settle (10 March 1865 – 20 January 1919; KHTF-M97), Wikipedia, s.v. “Thomas Settle (North Carolina, 53rd-54th Congress).” (9) NCPedia, s.v. Horace Alexander Hester, “Boyd, James Edmund.” (10) For a sketch of the life of John Norman Staples (13 June 1846 – 13 December 1920; 9795-3MH), see his obituary, “Guilford Bar Honors Memory of Col. John Norman Staples,” Greensboro (NC) Daily News, 2 May 1921, 7. (11) “Winston Democracy,” Western Sentinel, 25 Oct 1894, 1. Grogan was from Rockingham County but came to Winston-Salem with his family around 1876 (“Death of Mr. J.S. Grogan; Funeral Today," Western Sentinel, 22 Dec 1911, 1; "Death Comes to Mr. Grogan,” Winston-Salem Journal, 21 December 1911, 1). His father’s service in Forsyth County as a justice of the peace perhaps gave Grogan a taste for the law (“List of Magistrates for Forsyth County,” Western Sentinel, 15 Mar 1877, 3). He received his license to practice from the state Supreme Court early in 1884 (“Young Lawyers,” The Winston Leader, 12 Feb 1884, 3). Grogan was also a businessman, engaging in several minor ventures with Ida’s husband, John Lewis Beard (“Local News,” Union Republican, 9 May 1895, 3). For a brief biography, see “Jefferson Scales ‘Jeff’ Grogan,” Findagrave.com. (12) For example, he represented several men charged in association with the riot (“Trial of the Rioters,” Western Sentinel, 22 Aug 1895, 1). Grogan later defended Arthur’s brother, Will, when he was accused of assault and robbery (“Bound Over to Court,” Western Sentinel, 25 Nov 1897, 3). I have not found evidence that Grogan ever represented Walter Tuttle. He successfully defended Sim Brannon for his part in the attack on a white farmer, Mack Nelson (Walter was convicted for his role), but Brannon was an outspoken Democrat and popular with the Western Sentinel (“That Cutting Affair. The Parties to the Affair Bound Over to Court this Morning,” Western Sentinel, 19 May 1892, 3; “Sim, the Faithful, is Dead,” Union Republican, 22 April 1897, 1). (13) Immediately after the Tuttle trial, Fitts and Lanier were the prosecuting attorneys in the trial of Bud Cunningham, accused of murdering Leonora Hailey. This was a less fraught case. Both Cunningham and Hailey were African Americans, and the newspapers reported that Cunningham was thought to be guilty by the African American community. “Trial of Cunningham,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 3. (14) “Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years and Cunningham 15 Years,” Union Republican, 22 August 1895, 3. Lanier (16 Se1ptember 1870 – 11 February 1960) worked in a tobacco factory in the summers to pay his way through Shaw University and Lincoln University; he received his LL.B. in 1895 from Shaw. He became a teacher at Winston’s Depot St. School for African Americans and received his license to practice law in February 1895 (“Local News,” Union Republican, 7 Feb 1895, 3; A. B. Caldwell, ed. History of the American Negro, 1921; North Carolina edition; Illustrated; Volume IV, 160-2). See also “James Sanders Lanier,” Findagrave.com. Fitts (16 December 1864 - 7 July 1938; LYNF-Y69) was politically ambitious at this period; in 1892, for example, he broke with the white Republicans to run a slate of black candidates at the local level (“The Negroes Pull Out: The White Republicans Refuse to Recognize Them—Two County Tickets Nominated,” Western Sentinel, 22 September 1892, 2). But once the Red Shirt campaigns and constitutional changes at the end of the century made a political career impossible for African Americans, he became a businessman, notably as the first president of the Winston Industrial Association, later the Winston Mutual Insurance Company (“Historic Marker Program: Winston Mutual Life Insurance Company.”) See also “John Shepherd Fitts,” Findagrave.com. Aaron R. Bridgers, Jr., also known as A. R. Bridges (1856 - 21 December 1929; G3ZC-M6N), was born in Edgecombe County, NC; before coming to Winston-Salem to practice law, he taught in the Colored Teachers Institute in Tarboro, in Edgecombe County (“Colored Institute,” The (Tarboro, NC) Farmer's Advocate, 29 June 1892, 3). In 1890, he was named as a census enumerator in Tarboro, along with other African Americans, appointments that aroused the ire of the local white supremacist newspaper editor (“Outrageous,” The Tarborough (NC) Southerner, 5 June 1890, 3). In 1895, Bridgers represented some of the men arrested for participation in the August riot. He may have been newly arrived in town, since the newspaper writers did not know his given name (“Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years,” Union Republican, 22 Aug 1895, 3). In 1898, his office was located at 317 Main Street in Winston, and in that year he was one of three prosecuting attorneys who assisted Solicitor Mott in the prosecution of Robert Stevens for the murder of Isom Harris (“Superior Court,” Winston Weekly Journal, 3 Dec 1898, 1). (15) However, many of the African Americans tried for riot at the jail on the night of Sunday, August 11, had no legal representation at their trial (“Forsyth Court. Tuttle Gets 25 Years and Cunningham 15 Years,” Union Republican, 22 Aug 1895, 3). (16) Qtd. in “How Money Was Raised,” Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 2. (17) “How Money Was Raised,” Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 2. (18) “St. Paul Raised No Money for Tuttle,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 3; “Around the Twin-City,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 3. (19) St. James AME Church, under the direction of Pastor W. E. Walker, held fundraisers in May to help pay off his congregation’s debt. Every African American church in town was said to have participated, and the Rev. Walker invited “white friends” to attend the sessions at Brown’s Opera House (“Religious Rally by the Colored People,” Union Republican, 9 May 1895, 3). (20) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3. In 1881, the first African American alderman in Winston, Israel Clements (about 1848 - 2 April 1882; LJK9-L8W), organized an effort to seek more African American representation on juries (“Public Meeting,” Union Republican, 2 March 1882, 3; “Commissioner Court Briefs,” Winston Leader, 14 March 1882, 3). I have not been able to find what came of that effort, but I have the impression that African Americans were rarely selected as jurors during this period. In addition to the jurors, judge, and lawyers, another official present was Prof. T. E. Whitaker, of Oak Ridge. He was hired by the County Commissioners to “take the evidence of the witnesses in short hand” (“Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases – Other Points of Interest,” Union Republican, 8 August 1895, 3); at the end of trial, just before the judge’s charge, he reread all the testimony to the jury (“Superior Court. The Tuttle Murder Case,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3). So far as I know, Whitaker’s record does not survive. (21) James W. Narron, Esq. and John R. Hess, “A Brief History of Judicial Reform and the District Court in North Carolina,” 3-5. We know from the history of Jim Crow that jury pools were often tampered with, usually to exclude African Americans, and this was certainly true in Winston-Salem. See United States Commission on Civil Rights. North Carolina Advisory Committee. Equal Protection of the Laws In North Carolina: Report of the North Carolina Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Washington, D.C.: U.S. G.P.O., 1962, 55-56. See also Rob Christensen, The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics: The Personalities, Elections, and Events that Shaped Modern North Carolina (UNC, 2008), 10-11. UPDATE (16 Nov 2024): Further reading suggests that the names of those in the jury pool were placed in a box; members of a jury were drawn at random from the box. The sheriff was in charge of drawing the names. I have not discovered the process for creating the jury pool. (22) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 1. (23) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” (24) “Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases,” Union Republican, 8 August 1895, 3. George H. Brown, Jr. (3 May 1850 – 16 March 1926; LH8C-BD7) was born in Washington, NC; he was appointed as a judge of Superior Court in 1889 and won election as Associate Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court in 1904. For a biographical sketch, see “George Hubbard Brown: Associate Justice - NC Supreme Court” (https://www.carolana.com/NC/Courts/ghbrown.html). (25) “Forsyth Superior Court: A Big Docket to be Disposed of – Charge of Judge Brown, The Two Murder Cases,” Union Republican, 8 Aug 1895, 3. (26) [no headline], Western Sentinel (22 Aug 1895, 2). A new courthouse was erected in 1897 (Reynoldstown Historic District). (27) Aurelius Alexander Dean, known as A. A. or Alex (9 June 1851 – 21 June 1919; KFKR-1PM), later retired from the police and became a “transfer man,” that is, a hack owner and driver. “Death and Funeral of Mr. A. A. Dean,” Western Sentinel, 24 June 1919, 7. (28) “Two Fatal Bullets: Policeman M. M. Vickers Loses His Life While in the Performance of His Duties,” Union Republican, 23 May 1895, 3. Martin was Frank Agustus Martin, Sr. (27 March 1854 - 24 March 1918; GSBP-X55). He served at various times as deputy sheriff, policeman, and sanitary policeman (“Mr. F. A. Martin Died Yesterday,” Winston-Salem Journal, 25 March 1918, 3). Martin was an obvious target of suspicion because of the fear he aroused in the African American community, as demonstrated by an article published eleven years later: “Mr. Martin is a ‘holy terror’ to most the Negroes of this town. He knows everyone by name….” His name was used by mothers, the article says, to frighten their children into behaving. (“Notes and Comments,” Western Sentinel, 4 Oct 1906, 4). He could also be brutal on occasion with whites: on election day in 1896, Martin struck the editor-in-chief of the Union Republican with a cane and pistol, possibly because of a one-sentence editorial the paper had published in October: “Vote for Sheriff McArthur and keep cousin Frank Martin in a job” (“Editorial Paragraphs,” Union Republican, 15 Oct 1896, 2). (29) “Meant Business: Colored Men Rally in North Carolina. Tuttle Defended—Manhood Rights Maintained,” Richmond Planet, 1 June 1895, 1. I have been unable to find any biographical information on R. B. Garrett. (30) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1. (31) “Horrible Affair! How Policeman Vickers Lost His Life,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. (32) “Two Fatal Bullets: Policeman M. M. Vickers Loses His Life While in the Performance of His Duties,” Union Republican, 23 May 1895, 3. (33) Jerry Respass (15 September 1867 - 4 August 1947; LD3D-HSH) was, according to Fam Brownlee, superintendent of the city water works (“Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors”). Later, he seemed to have worked primarily as a surveyor. He surveyed the route of many railways in North Carolina, timberlands in Surry and Wilkes counties, and the Methodist Colony in Black Mountain, NC. See “The Mooresville and Mocksville,” Western Sentinel, 4 August 1898, 1; “New Railroad Projected,” Winston-Salem Journal, 26 May 1907, 3); “Surveying Timber Lands,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 4 April 1913, 10; “Methodist Colony at Black Mountain,” Western Sentinel, 30 December 1913, 7. (34) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1. (35) “Superior Court. The Tuttle Murder Case,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3. (36) “Tuttle Murder Trial: Report of Evidence as Given by the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1. (37) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” (38) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” (39) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” I have been unable to find any other information on Hine. (40) Thomas William Farish (14 January 1843 - 27 August 1929; KHSM-4Z7) was listed in the 1895 city directory as an employee of R. L. Chandler & Co., a tobacco manufacturer. He was a Democrat who for years, in the late 19th-century and early 20th-century, served as a registrar and judge in Winston elections (“Registrars and Judges for City Election,” Union Republican, 12 March 1896, 3; “An Ordinance,” Winston-Salem Journal, 28 July 1907, 6; “Ordinance Adopted at a Meeting of the Board of Aldermen,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 19 February 1913, 7). One can reasonably assume that, after 1900, he was actively involved in the effort to limit the franchise of poor whites and disenfranchise most African Americans. (41) “Tuttle Murder Trial,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895, 1. (42) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” (43) “Tuttle Murder Trial.” (44) “Argument Concluded: Judge Brown Charging Jury in Tuttle Case,” Western Sentinel, 15 August 1895 3. (45) In 1910, Ida conducted, largely by letter, an intense romance with William H. Maybin, a staunch supporter of James K. Vardaman, the populist, white supremacist governor and US senator from Mississippi; the story is told in her second book, The Mississippi Lawyer or, Was It All a Dream? (1911). After the turn of the century, Ida performed readings at Confederate reunions and wrote Confederate battle poems (“Wearing 18 Garments, She Calls on Governor: Mrs. Ida Beard, of Winston-Salem, Drops in on South Carolina Executive,” News and Observer (Raleigh, NC), 3 May 1931, 31, reprinted from Columbia State; “Wears 17 Garments in Name of Modesty: Then, When Winter Comes, Mrs. Ida M. Beard Adds 10 More Garments – Has Own Opinion of ‘Young Things’ Who Doll Themselves Up in ‘Garment and a Half,’” Statesville (NC) Record and Landmark, 26 Jun 1930, 3, reprinted from Lenoir (NC) News-Topic. (46) The times for sunrise and sunset in August 1895 in Winston-Salem were calculated using Planetcalc on 1 March 2021. (47) “Tuttle Gets 25 Years for the Murder of Policeman Vickers,” Western Sentinel, 22 August 1895, 1. (48) That Tuttle struck Vickers in the mouth was reported in May in “Horrible Affair! How Policeman Vickers Lost His Life,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. (49) “Local News,” Union Republican, 11 August 1898, 8. It is possible that Tuttle was released as early as 1903, just eight years into his sentence; see below. (50) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest,” Union Republican, 15 August 1895, 3. Posted 23 November 2024. Send comments and questions to [email protected]  The Western Sentinel’s dramatic headline on 23 May 1895 (left; on the right, I have created a more legible version). The newspaper supported secession in the run up to the Civil War and was a consistent and explicit supporter of Democrats and “the Democracy”—rule by white men. Part 1
Part 2 Late on a Sunday evening in August 1895 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, approximately 300 armed men gathered near the Forsyth County jail to prevent the rumored lynching of Arthur Tuttle, a young African American on trial for killing a police officer, Michael Vickers, in May. Newspaper accounts name almost fifty of the men, all African American. I am engaged in a project to learn all I can about these fifty men—who they were and why they acted. This post is the beginning of a three-part essay to describe Tuttle’s family background, the circumstances that led to the killing of the officer, Tuttle’s trial, and the riot that resulted when deputy sheriffs, the local militia, and unauthorized white men confronted Tuttle’s protectors. The riot was a small affair, certainly in contrast with the Wilmington coup three years later, and for that reason it has attracted mostly the interest of local historians. My account here is, I believe, the most complete published to date. The following essay has been adapted from Appendix C of my annotated edition of Ida Beard’s memoir, My Own Life, or A Deserted Wife, first published in 1898. Beard describes the riot in Chapter VI of her memoir. Hers is a decidedly prejudiced account but is useful in providing insights into the fears and attitudes of the white community. Her main purpose in that chapter, as in the book as a whole, is to demonize her husband, John Lewis Beard. Much to her disgust, he assisted in the defense of Arthur Tuttle and, according to Ida, he wrote a letter to an African American minister warning of the impending lynch mob. He worked in the office of a Justice of the Peace. When the riot broke out, he hid from the authorities that sought his help in suppressing the riot and processing arrests. His role is not discussed in detail here, but it can be found in Chapter VI and Appendix A of my annotated edition of My Own Life. Introduction My narrative follows in the main the outline of events portrayed in the essay by Fambrough Brownlee, but is supplemented, and in some cases corrected, by details from contemporary sources. (1) Nearly all the sources cited here are newspapers published by and primarily for the white community. But some other voices will become apparent in the account, including that of an influential African American paper, the Richmond Planet, and a correspondent to the Planet named R. B. Garrett. The specific circumstances that led to the riot are fairly simple. In May 1895, Arthur Tuttle refused the orders from two policemen to move from the sidewalk to let others (probably white women) pass; one of the policemen moved him from the sidewalk—it is not clear how much force he used. (2) Tuttle was already distressed and angry, for earlier that day a white jury had acquitted the killer of his older brother, Walter. The killer was a white policeman, J. R. Hasten. (3) In the struggle that followed, Tuttle fought with the two policemen, Michael Vickers and Alex Dean. After several blows were exchanged, Tuttle grabbed a pistol and shot officer Vickers twice. Vickers died the next evening. Tuttle was arrested on the spot and shortly thereafter was moved to Greensboro and then farther away, to Charlotte, to prevent his lynching. He returned to face trial in early August. On Sunday August 11, while the trial was in recess, rumors spread through the African American and white communities that an attempt to lynch Tuttle was imminent. On Sunday night, as many as 300 armed African American men guarded the jail and refused to disperse when the authorities on two separate occasions tried to persuade them. The Forsyth Rifles were called out and formed a firing line; someone fired a shot—no one took the credit for it, though the newspapers said it was someone in the crowd—and the firing became general. The protectors scattered. A few of the Riflemen received minor injuries from birdshot; no one knows how many of Tuttle’s protectors were wounded—we have the name of only one wounded man—or how many were killed, if indeed there were deaths. Many of those arrested were tried and convicted and received penalties ranging from fines to hard labor on the county roads (some sentences were suspended, for example, for those in bad health). Two days after the riot, Tuttle was convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years at hard labor, with the possibility of release for good behavior after 17 or 18 years. Background The background of the story is, to some extent, the story of the Tuttle family. We can begin it with Walter Tuttle, Arthur’s oldest brother, a talented tobacco roller but (as at least the white community saw him) a difficult, antagonistic personality. His first mention in the papers came in 1890, for fighting; he was convicted of “affray” and sentenced to four months of hard labor on the public roads. (4) He was back in court, on two charges of fighting, in December 1891, and again in January 1892, after a fight in which his opponent was reported to have nearly severed Walter’s left hand with an axe. (5) So far as I can determine from the newspapers, the turning point in his life may have been an incident in March 1892, when he and Sim Brannon (or Branson) accepted a job from a drunken white man, Bob Willey (or Wiley), to attack Mack Nelson, a white farmer from Rockingham, at a local tobacco warehouse. Though opposed by three men, the farmer gave better than he got; Walter and Willey were seriously wounded by Nelson’s knife, and for a while it was feared that they would die. Sheriff John W. Bradford and Sim Brannon attended their wounds all night. (6) Walter then fled town to avoid another stint of hard labor. (7) He was not apprehended until December. (8) Later, when Walter assaulted Bradford and initiated the chain of events that led to his death and the death of Michael Vickers, the Western Sentinel wondered whether past mistreatment by Bradford had provoked that assault. (9) I suspect that, if Walter held a grudge against the sheriff, it dated back to their extended interactions over the fight with farmer Nelson. In March 1893, Walter was tried for his involvement in several fights, and for one of them he was sentenced to twelve months on the public roads. (10) He then disappeared from the newspapers for 18 months. On July 21, 1894, he assaulted Bradford (no longer the sheriff), possibly in revenge for some old wrong, as noted above; when he was arrested, he unsuccessfully tried to escape—this had become a definite pattern. Walter was convicted in the Mayor’s Court and sentenced to pay a fine or again serve hard time on the county roads. Officer Hasten accompanied Walter on a quest to find someone who would pay his fine and help him avoid a third stint at hard labor; but his employer, tobacco manufacturer T. L. Vaughn, turned him down. (11) Unable to obtain help, Walter again tried to escape and, in the ensuing struggle on the grounds of Vaughn’s factory, he was fatally shot by policeman Hasten. Hasten claimed that Tuttle had tried to grab his weapon, but eyewitness disagreed. In a surprising turn of events, the officer was indicted for murder. (12) Hasten’s acquittal on May 18, 1895, however, was not surprising. (13) Walter was just 26 years old at the time of his death. (14) He was the third child born to Charles and Margaret Tuttle, listed in the 1880 census as a farmer and homemaker in Middle Fork Township of Forsyth County. Three of his younger brothers are involved in the rest of story—Robert, who turned 24 in 1895; Arthur, who turned 20 that year; and Allie, born after the 1880 census and just twelve years of age at the time of Walter’s death. Arthur Tuttle Shoots Police Officer Vickers On the day of Hasten’s acquittal, Arthur was part of the large crowd on the sidewalk near the courthouse. It was the usual Saturday crowd, according to the newspapers. Eyewitnesses told the Western Sentinel that, on their way back to City Hall from the jail, Officers Vickers and Dean “called upon the colored people to clear the side-walk…. Tuttle refused to obey instructions, whereupon Mr. Vickers pushed him back.” (15) In trial testimony, Officer Dean testified that Vickers gave his order so that a white lady could pass down the street and that it was he, not Vickers, who “put [Tuttle] off the sidewalk.” Vickers’ “dying declaration” was allowed at the trial; he was quoted as stating that it was Dean who tried to “lead” Tuttle from the sidewalk. (16) Fam Brownlee, a leading authority on the history of Winston-Salem, believes that the officers acted rashly: they must have known Arthur Tuttle and they must have known that he was under deep emotional stress at that moment. A set of tragedies might have been avoided had they acted with discretion. (17) Brownlee’s understanding is supported by what we know of Tuttle’s state of mind on that Saturday afternoon. After Tuttle was pushed, he “struck at the officer.” In testimony delivered after the jury had convicted Tuttle of second-degree murder, but before the judge passed sentence, jailer Ziglar told the court that Tuttle had confided that he thought he had struck Officer Hasten and he wondered why Hasten had not testified at the trial. In other words, he mistakenly thought he had slugged the policeman who had killed his brother, Walter. (18) Had this evidence come out during the trial, there might have been a stronger case for first-degree murder. It is not known whether this testimony affected the judge’s sentence, though the judge did commend the jury for its decision to convict Tuttle of second-degree rather than first-degree murder. (19) The eyewitness account compiled by the Western Sentinel continues: “Policeman Dean ran up and caught hold of one arm of Tuttle. A scuffle followed when [Tuttle] tripped Mr. Vickers, causing him to fall. Mr. Dean was also pulled down [the] street several feet. As soon as Mr. Vickers could recover he arose and went to assist his brother officer.” Tuttle struck Vickers in the mouth with his fist and knocked him down—across a crate of cabbage, according to trial testimony. (20) Dean then struck Tuttle in the head with his billy club, but Tuttle pulled out a pistol and “fired twice in quick succession,” striking Vickers in the neck and in the lower part of the abdomen. Dean and others subdued Tuttle and took him to jail. Vickers was taken to the Rierson boarding house, at the corner of Fourth and Church streets, where he died after 7 on Sunday evening, leaving behind a wife and two sons. (21) The killing of Vickers exacerbated tensions in the town. As some of the first newspaper reports noted, “For some time after the shooting it looked like serious trouble would follow. A large crowd congregated on Main Street, at the City Hall Building, where the crime was committed, and it required the efforts of several officers to get the surging crowd back and cause it to disperse.” There were two fears—that attempts would be made by members of the white community to lynch Tuttle and that members of the African American community would try to break him from prison. Neither was attempted, and the Western Sentinel published an editorial praising the “spirit of moderation” that had prevailed in the white community over the desire for immediate revenge, though it thought “the circumstances attending [the killing of Vickers] were of a very aggravating nature.” (22) The national and especially southern climate made the possibility of lynching seem all too real: the newspapers were full of stories about actual and feared incidents of lynching, which often began with the mob seizing a prisoner from jail; staging a jail-break was one possible way to enable a prisoner to escape extrajudicial murder, though I do not think a single example was reported in the Winston-Salem papers in the first seven months of 1895. (23) Tuttle was quickly moved to the Guilford County jail in Greensboro and, after a few days, to the more distant Mecklenburg County jail in Charlotte. (24) He was held there till the week of the trial in August. NOTES (1) Fambrough Brownlee, “Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors…” I have noted one difference in the chronology: in Brownlee’s account, the riot took place after the trial. However, the trial opened on Friday, August 9. Closing arguments concluded on the following Monday, and the jury returned their verdict on Tuesday, April 13. The riot took place while the court was in recess for Sunday. It began on the evening of Sunday, August 11, and continued into early Monday morning. (2) In the 1880 census, Arthur Tuttle (25 December 1875 – 11 December 1946; G7X2-5M2) was the sixth child of Charles Tuttle (1827 – Deceased; G7X2-MDN) and Margaret Tuttle (1841 – Deceased; G7X2-QSZ). Unless otherwise indicated, the birth and death dates and unique identifiers in this study are from FamilySearch.org, a crowd-sourced, document-based family history database. Also playing parts in the events recounted here were his older brothers Walter (1867 – 1894; G7X2-MD8), William (1868 – deceased; G7X2-5FM), and Robert (1871 – 1964; G7X2-NMR). See "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MC65-ZWK: 19 February 2021), Arthur Tuttle in household of Charles Tuttle, Middle Fork, Forsyth, North Carolina, United States; citing enumeration district ED 79, sheet 358D, NARA microfilm publication T9 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.), FHL microfilm 1,254,963. (3) “Tuttle Gets 25 Years for the Murder of Policeman Vickers,” Western Sentinel, 22 Aug 1895, 1. Unless otherwise indicated, the newspapers cited in the notes were published in Winston-Salem, NC, and were found in Newspapers.com. (4) Affray is a type of disorderly conduct generally understood to mean a fight between “two or more persons in a public place that disturbs others” (“Affray,” The Free Dictionary. The local papers have numerous accounts of arrests for affray. (5) “Local Items,” People’s Press, 28 Jan 1892, 3. Even if the paper exaggerated the extent of his injury, this wound must have affected Walter’s ability to roll cigars and cigarettes, but no source comments on this. (6) “Nelson Used His Knife. Bob Willey and Walter Tuttle Feel the Cold Steel. A Bloody Affray at the Piedmont Warehouse – Farmer Mack Nelson Defends Himself from the Toughs That Tried to Lick Him – Both Men Dangerously Hurt,” Western Sentinel, 31 Mar 1892, 3. (7) “That Cutting Affair. The Parties to the Affair Bound Over to Court this Morning,” Western Sentinel, 19 May 1892, 3. (8) “Walter Tuttle Arrested. The Officer Had to Knock Him Down Before he [sic] Gave Up. Tuttle Somewhat of a Desperado,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 7 Dec 1892, 1. He was captured by Deputy Sherriff J. E. Ziglar, who served as the jailer in 1895 when Arthur Tuttle was held in the Forsyth County jail. (9) “Shot by a Policeman. Walter Tuttle, Colored, Seriously Wounded,” Western Sentinel, 26 July 1894, 3. Bradford had a reputation for being rough. In 1897, when he was no longer sheriff, Bradford was arrested by policemen White and Frazier on a warrant for theft. When Bradford complained of cruel treatment—the policemen had put chains around his wrists when he refused to leave a bar to go with them to jail—White replied, “D― you, you have treated many a man worse than this for less offences” (“Policemen Cleared,” Western Sentinel, 9 Dec 1897, 1). (10) “Superior Court,” Western Sentinel, 6 March 1893, 3. (11) Fam Brownlee, “Murder, Rumors of Murder and Even More Rumors…” (12) According to Fam Brownlee, it was “‘the first time in the history of Winston [that] a white police officer was indicted by an all-white grand jury for murdering a black man.’” Cited by Eddie Huffman, “Hidden History II: The 1895 Riot.” (13) Verdict of Not Guilty in the Case of the State Vs. J.R. Hasten,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. John Raymond Hasten, also known as Hastings (21 January 1857 - 8 May 1926; L6RD-X73) was born in Kernersville. In Winston, after serving as policeman till 1906, he was appointed deputy sheriff by Sheriff J. E. Ziglar (“County Board Held Meeting,” Winston-Salem Journal, 4 Dec 1906, 1). (14) Walter Tuttle (1867 – 8 July 1894; G7X2-MD8) married Susie Bynum (1870 - Deceased; G7X2-MGY) in 1888 and left behind at least one child, Leona, a three-year-old at the time of his death. Evidence for their connection is Leona’s death certificate ("North Carolina Deaths, 1906-1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:F3XL-BV2: 16 August 2019), Leona Smith, 11 Feb 1922; citing Greensboro, Guilford, North Carolina, reference fn 673 cn 794 217, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh; FHL microfilm 1,892,803.) (15) “Superior Court. Two Murder Cases the Center of Interest," Union Republican, 15 Aug 1895, 3. (16) “Tuttle Murder Trial. Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 1. (17) Conversation between the writer and Fam Brownlee, 16 November 2018, in the North Carolina Room of the Forsyth Country Central Library. (18) “Tuttle Gets 25 Years for the Murder of Policeman Vickers,” Western Sentinel, 22 Aug 1895, 1. James Edward Ziglar (18 January 1855 – 25 October 1911; KT3B-QGL) became deputy sheriff and jailer in December 1892. Because of Ziglar’s interactions with Walter, he and Arthur Tuttle may already have been acquainted. Shortly after his appointment as deputy sheriff, Ziglar arrested Walter Tuttle in Stokes County; Tuttle had been on the lam for months after his conviction for stabbing Mack Nelson (“Walter Tuttle Arrested,” Twin-City Daily Sentinel, 7 December 1892, 1). When Officer Hasten was tried for murdering Walter, Ziglar testified for the prosecution (“Verdict of Not Guilty,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1). (19) “Tuttle Gets 25 Years for the Murder of Policeman Vickers," Western Sentinel, 22 Aug 1895, 1. (20) “Tuttle Murder Trial. Report of Evidence as Given for the State,” Western Sentinel, 15 Aug 1895, 1. (21) The eyewitness account is reported in “Horrible Affair! How Policeman Vickers Lost His Life,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. John Lewis Beard told his wife that he and Jeff Grogan feared the defense would lose “their case on account of the d---- little Vickers children, who sat sniveling in the court-room” (My Own Life, chapter VI, page 103 in the fifth edition; further references to My Own Life will cite only chapter number and fifth edition page number). (22) “The Proper Course,” Western Sentinel, 23 May 1895, 1. (23) Interestingly, in her account of the trial and riot, Ida wrote that African American prisoners escaped from the prison during the riot (VI, 103). The statement is inaccurate, but that she thought it true suggests how rumors and fears can congeal into the memory of an event that did not happen. (24) “Two Fatal Bullets: Policeman M. M. Vickers Loses His Life While in the Performance of His Duties,” Union Republican, 23 May 1895, 3; “Reidsville News,” Reidsville (NC) Review, 24 May 1895, 3; “Over the State,” Evening Visitor (Raleigh, NC), 23 May 1895, 4. Posted 22 November 2024  Cynthia Reeves, “Seasons of Change,” 1971-2 ix
abandoned bike in the helmet an old wren's nest From the handlebars of an abandoned bicycle hangs a helmet, and in the helmet a wren built a nest. I have seen nests on the top of mopheads propped in the corner of a porch to dry out but then temporarily forgotten. Nests in light fixtures by rarely used doors. A goose nest on a deck in the leaves that should have been swept away in the fall. You leave it, says Nature, and I will take it. ***** small but unconfined the bird singing on an under branch the door ajar the bird keeps hopping just out of the light Keep a green tree in your heart and perhaps a singing bird will come.—said to be a Chinese proverb that moment when the bird sings very close to the music of what happens.—Seamus Heaney moon on the water inseparable the shadows of flying birds the blue shade of the pines swallows the blue jay In times of profound change, the learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.—Eric Hoffer The living? You pass them on the road. The dead? They're home already. —Li Po (Li Bai), translated by J.P. Seaton, Bright Moon, White Clouds alone I dream of things that will never happen raking leaves-- at the last we can see the robin's nest  The Union Republican (Thu, 15 Aug 1895, 3). The article does not acknowledge that the rumors of a lynching swept both the white and African American communities. John Beard, husband of Ida Beard, worked in the office of the Justice of the Peace. He warned Ida to stay inside on Sunday evening. John Mitchell, Jr., editor of the Richmond Planet, praised the Black citizens of Winston-Salem for “maintain[ing] the majesty of the law” (The Richmond (VA) Planet. Sat, 17 Aug 1895, 2). As some readers of the blog may remember, I have slowly been creating a group biography of fifty men who, in August 1895, surrounded the county jail in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to prevent the lynching of a young black man, Arthur Tuttle.
In May, Tuttle had killed a white policeman among a crowd of witnesses. He was immediately arrested and sent away, first to Greensboro and then to Charlotte, to prevent his lynching. In August, he was brought back for the trial. After the trial had recessed on Saturday, rumors of a lynching spread in both the white and African American communities, peaking on Sunday after evening church services. As many as 300 people gathered near the jail to prevent the lynching. We know the names of almost fifty of them—all men, all African American—because they were arrested, for riot and other charges, and some of their trials were reported in the newspapers. (An interview more than 70 years later stated that Arthur Tuttle’s sister, Ida, was also present, but she appears not to have been arrested.) There was no lynching, but there was a “riot”: deputy’s sheriff’s and the local militia, the Forsyth Rifles, were called out to prevent a jail break by the men gathered to protect Tuttle. Efforts to defuse the situation failed, someone fired a shot, and general shooting broke out. A few deputies and riflemen were wounded, none seriously; the number of protectors who were wounded and killed is unknown. The African American community effectively hid it from the authorities. Arthur Tuttle was convicted by a white jury of second-degree murder and sentenced to 25 years in prison at hard labor, with the possibility of release in 17 or 18 years for good behavior. After his release, he moved to Philadelphia where two of his brothers had also moved. The date of his release is uncertain, but he was in Philadelphia during the 1910 census; some evidence suggests he was released as early as 1903. If that’s true, it’s possible that he was pardoned by Republican Governor Daniel Russell, whose term ended in 1901. (The next Republican governor was not elected until 1972.) The study has proceeded haltingly—I set it aside for almost a year to write a memoir of my father and to pursue several poetry projects—and by serendipity rather than by plan. My interest was sparked by Ida Beard’s memoir, My Own Life or, A Deserted Wife, self-published in 1898. She describes her husband’s role in the riot, reports the rumors that swept the white community at the time, and unfortunately reflects white racial attitudes. (My extensively annotated edition of her memoirs is available from me or Amazon in paperback or from Amazon in Kindle format.) Beard’s book led me to research contemporary newspapers and later accounts for information on the Tuttles, the riot, and the trial, and that led me to wonder about the lives and characters of the men who acted to protect Tuttle. I came to consider the political and racial context of the times. In my research I stumbled across two lengthy letters to the editor by an anonymous writer in Ruffin, NC, who provides a prescient and perceptive perspective on the practices and ideology of the Democratic party. Writing in August and September 1898, he predicted that the party would use violence to further its electoral purposes. He did not specifically predict the Wilmington coup, but it verifies his analysis. (He had his limits; for example, he was blind or at least silent regarding the problems with the Republican-Populist fusion.) The blogposts I've published so far are listed (with URLs) and brief descriptions here: https://www.jsabsherpoetry.com/pluck-enough.html#/ Posted 16 November 2024. updated 20 November 2024  Cynthia Reeves, “Trying to Break Through,” 1984 winter grass all that's left of summer dreams imitation of Basho He didn't know if he was Chuang Tzu who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly dreaming he was Chuang Tzu. Chuang Tzu Here we are all, by day; by night we are hurled By dreames, each one, into a sev'rall world. Robert Herrick the world dreams in us Gaston Bachelard, L’air et les songes We are asleep, but sometimes we wake up just long enough to realize we are dreaming. Wittgenstein This tendency to dream inventions clung to him all his life. J.B. McClure, Thomas A. Edison and His Inventions, 1879 Descartes’ Dream: Skepticism, the Denial of the Other, and the Book of Numbers On November 10, 1619, Descartes had three dreams. He was twenty-three years old, a soldier in the Thirty Years War spending the winter in Germany. He had spent the day shut up alone in a warm room. Earlier that day, “the thought appears to have flashed upon him … that the mathematical method … might be extended to other studies. The thought dominated his mind like a divine revelation. Three dreams followed. In the first he appeared to be lame, and forced by a tempest to seek shelter in a church. In the second dream he heard the sound of thunder and saw sparks of fire about him. In the third he opened at random the poetry of Ausonius, and his eyes fell on the words Quid vitae sectabor iter? (What way of life shall I follow?) The whole experience made such a deep impression on him that he vowed a pilgrimage to our Lady of Loretto. Whatever psychoanalytic interpretation one may put on the whole episode, there is no doubt of its profound effect on Descartes. He saw light.” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1948, VII: 245)  René Descartes After Frans Hals - André Hatala [e.a.] (1997) De eeuw van Rembrandt, Bruxelles: Crédit communal de Belgique. Public domain.  In 1934, William Temple—then Archbishop of York, later Archbishop of Canterbury—wrote: “If I were asked what was the most disastrous moment in the history of Europe I should be strongly tempted to answer that it was that period of leisure when René Descartes, having no claims to meet, remained for a whole day ‘shut up alone in a stove’” (From Nature, Man, and God, quoted by Russell W. Howell, “Inerrancy: A Cartesian Faux-Pas?”)
A lot of ink has been spilled about Descartes’ stove. The following translation of Descartes’ account indicates he was shut up in a room with stove rather than inside the stove (but other translations put him in the stove): “The onset of winter held me up in quarters in which, finding no company to distract me, and having, fortunately, no cares or passions to disturb me, I spent the whole day shut up in a room heated by an enclosed stove, where I had complete leisure to meditate on my own thoughts” (quoted by Gil Bailie, “The Imitative Self: The Contribution of René Girard,” http://www.isi. org/books/content/386chap1.pdf. The link no longer works). The imagery—being “shut up” alone in hot room heated by an enclosed stove—is suggestive of a fundamental problem with his approach. The problem is revealed explicitly by Gill Bailie: Descartes was in search of certainty based on “unmediated knowledge, knowledge that one acquires by eliminating the mimetic influence of others, avoiding (or trying to) the epistemological corruption such an influence might have.” But “mimetic desire is what makes humanity what it is, a creature made in the image and likeness of an Other and endowed with a deep-seated and irrevocable desire to fulfill itself by falling under the influence of another. One could as well live without oxygen as eliminate the mediating influence of others, and Descartes’ efforts to do so anticipate the desperate self-referentiality of the modern self and its wistful efforts to experience its own ever-elusive authenticity.” The kind of certainty Descartes sought depends on the erasure, temporarily at least, of others—in solitude, without responsibilities for others, in an artificial environment. This kind of certainty is skeptical of the value of others’ opinions, emotions, examples, their lives even. They are like a virus to be avoided. Nature is excluded, God is excluded. Descartes’ self-imposed isolation and skepticism remind me of Avivah Gottlieb Zornberg’s treatment of skepticism in her study of the fourth book of the Torah, the Book of Numbers (see Bewilderments: Reflections on the Book of Numbers, Shocken Books, 2015). Zornberg notes (p. 14) that Numbers is “haunted” by skepticism: “We hear in the people's voice a persistent tone that is variously called massah, merivah, telunah, hit'onnenut—complaint, quarreling, bewailing, a querulous ground bass—that, beyond its specific targets, speaks of a failure to fully know their own experience and speak it for themselves.” I see parallels with Laman and Lemuel (skeptical figures in the Book of Mormon) who have “spiritual experiences”—or, better more accurately, encounter spiritual experiences generated by others, including an angel's intervention—that they do not acknowledge as their own; so far as I can remember, they never voluntarily “speak [about these experiences] for themselves.” “[I]n the wilderness experience,” Zornberg writes (p. 16) “the people cannot, perhaps will not, trust the basis on which they might acknowledge the Other, who is God, and who is at the same time all others. It is as though they can see or know nothing for themselves. In commanding a census, God asks them to account for the many others, to acknowledge that they count, to note their presences and absences. This is to take place in the wilderness, where skepticism undermines experience. The camp, numbered and ordered and bannered in tribal units surrounding God's Tabernacle, is to move through the wilderness as a gesture, precisely, of trust, of an almost flamboyant constancy and coherence.” Stanley Cavell (Philosophy the Day After Tomorrow, quoted by Zornberg, 15-16) describes the moral effects of skepticism: “I call skepticism my denial or annihilation of the other .... ‘How can I trust the basis upon which I grant the existence of the other?'... In the everyday ways in which denial occurs in my life with the other--in a momentary irritation, or a recurrent grudge... in a fear of engulfment, in a fantasy of solitude or of self-destruction—the problem is to recognize myself as denying another, to understand that I carry chaos in myself. Here is the scandal of skepticism with respect to the existence of others; I am the scandal.” I contrast the accounts of Descartes’ dreams and of his self-isolated ego--only the skeptic (the doubter) exists, which is a way of erasing the existence of others—with the life of faith in a covenant community (the church), where members bear each other's burdens and share each other’s suffering. Christian faith is deeply personal, but (writes Bailie) “it is emphatically not individualistic.” It is covenantal—a covenant between the person and God that places the person in a community of faith. To be individualistic is to risk shutting yourself in the stove of yourself. Cartesian Individualism and Lyric Poetry A long time ago, from some long-forgotten source, I picked up a definition of lyric poetry: the words of a solitary individual thinking aloud but overheard by readers. More recently, David Yezzi wrote, “[T]he lyric has become the go-to mode” in our age: “One finds, collected in book after book, an ever-expanding universe of short poems, typically by a solitary speaker, ruminating remotely on individual experience. Perhaps the brevity and pith of the lyric mode holds a special fascination for the information age: it’s Twitter-brief, a terse announcement of the personal, full of news that may, but more likely will not, stay news” (“The Dramatic Element,” The New Criterion, March 2010). A poem by Allen Grossman, the title poem of Descartes’ Loneliness (New Directions, 2007), has led me to consider how Cartesian individualism and skepticism provide the context—the intellectual and moral matrix—for the contemporary lyric poem as described by Yezzi. For copyright reasons, I won’t copy Grossman’s entire poem here. Below I paraphrase and summarize it, at the great risk of flattening and simplifying it. Please read it before proceeding. The liminal twilight tells the poet-as-Descartes, “Be assured! You are not alone.” But he is “not / convinced there is any other except myself / to whom existence necessarily pertains.” Like the historical Descartes, he interrogates himself about his own existence, but with a different result: he doesn’t even know whether “I myself possess any power” to “bring it out that I / who now am shall exist another moment.” This is going Descartes’ cogito one better: I think now, therefore I am now, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be here two minutes from now. But there may be a solution: since he has the idea of his continued existence but cannot find in himself the power of conceiving that idea, it must have come from “some other.” (This line of reasoning resembles traditional arguments for the existence of God.) But if “no such other can be / found toward evening,” then “do I really have / sufficient assurance of the existence / of any other being at all”? Further, though he doesn’t say so, does he have the assurance of his own continued existence? The ending is cryptic but it suggests the role of the imagination in conceiving our being, an imagination that requires others—the workman, the scaffold, the sign, the mark: I have been unable to discover the ground of that conviction—unless it be imagined a lonely workman on a dizzy scaffold unfolds a sign at evening and puts his mark to it. Grossman’s Descartes responds to the evening, but dismisses its assurance that he is not alone. What if this version of Descartes began to talk to the evening? A “Dialogue of Self and Twilight” might change the dynamic. Yezzi believes the lyric would be enriched by adding dramatic elements—opposing energies and points of view—to escape the solipsism (my term) of the lyric. Admittedly, Yezzi is interested in extending the range of the lyric, not in these philosophical considerations. The lyric is quiet and contemplative, “but the world is a loud and boisterous place, especially in urban settings. City-dwellers are less likely to notice the film fluttering in the grate [as in Coleridge’s “Frost at Midnight”] than the subway rumbling beneath their feet or a cheer emanating from the sports bar on the corner. City-scenes are populous not private, social not personal, polyvocal not interior. What is contemplative poetry’s answer to the voluble argument, the casual exchange, the marketplace, the mingling of the solitary ‘I’ with a crowd of others? If you are Keats, the answer is simply withdrawal” (Yezzi). As an example of what he means, Yezzi cites the reality addressed by the British Movement poets, described by Kingsley Amis as “realistic . . . close to the interests of the novel; man and women among their fellows, seen as members of a group or class in a way that emphasizes manners, social forms, amusements, fashion….” (quoted by Yezzi) I am not attacking the contemplative lyric, but I am wondering what the poetry of a people bound by covenant looks like. Not the poetry of the poet sitting on his back porch watching the evening fade on his lawn, but the poetry of the homeowner dickering with the landscaper, the husband and wife in tense discussion, the bishop (the LDS equivalent to pastor or priest) counseling with a troubled family, an angry and disappointed believer accusing God in prayer, and God’s response. I should like to write lyric poetry that understands the self in capacious ways, as described by J. Gerald Janzen in his commentary on Job (Job: Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching, 46). Presbyterian Publishing Corporation. Kindle Edition. I have added paragraph breaks to facilitate reading on screen): “we do not exist in clear independence of our bodies; nor does our embodied awareness end with our epidermis. Our embodied self, which enters most intimately into our awareness in the form of visceral feelings, and which localizes itself in the form of pains and pleasures specific to regions of the body, also extends itself beyond the epidermis through our sensory impressions, beginning with that extended skin called our home, our ‘house’ (both our own family or ‘flesh and blood’, and our artificially fabricated skin, the dwelling which shelters us), and extends even to our personal possessions. “The artificiality of any absolute distinction between one’s body and ‘all that one has’ is disclosed in such experiences as the physical as well as inner existential shock of the death of a loved one. Our bodies feel that they have suffered a grievous wound. “The same sense of our extended embodiment is disclosed in such experiences as the theft of an engagement ring, which leaves one feeling physically assaulted and stripped; the accidental loss or malicious destruction of a longused fountain pen or other favorite tool leaving one with a sense of amputation; or the sudden alteration of a landscape through the razing of familiar buildings and the clearing of frequented woods, leaving one quite disoriented and denuded. “The hedge—the complex structure of reality comprising valued materials and material embodiments of value, within which life arises and is sustained and has particular meanings along with a pervading undertone of worthwhileness—exists at many levels, or rather in concentric circles, reaching from the microcosm of one’s own body through all manner of natural and social and symbolic orders to find its macrocosmic counterpart in that ‘firmament’ which in material fact or symbolic conception is the outermost bound of our lived world.” In other words, shutting ourselves up in a world limited to our minds as narrowly conceived by Descartes is a destructive skepticism that erases not just the “other,” but most of the self we are trying to understand. We are made of spirit incorporated into flesh—this combination is our soul, not the spirit without the body (Doctrine and Covenants 88:15)—and we are the children of God. All other humans are our siblings. Our sense of self includes the covenant community with other believers and our bonds with those outside the covenant community. It includes all creation not as a congeries of serviceable, manipulable, disposable objects, but as a gift from God. We are our best when we are open to others and to creation. According to philosopher William Desmond, “We are not self-contained subjects sealed off from the world ‘out there.’ We internalize, and we are drawn out of ourselves. We are, as Desmond says, ‘porous’” (Steven E. Knepper, Wonder Strikes: Approaching Aesthetics and Literature with William Desmond (p. 27). State University of New York Press. Kindle Edition). ***** Yezzi cites Hardy’s poem below as an example of a dramatic lyric. It consists entirely of dialogue; neither speaker is the poet. Thomas Hardy’s “Ah, Are You Digging on My Grave?” “Ah, are you digging on my grave, My loved one? — planting rue?” — “No: yesterday he went to wed One of the brightest wealth has bred. ‘It cannot hurt her now,’ he said, ‘That I should not be true.’” “Then who is digging on my grave, My nearest dearest kin?” — “Ah, no: they sit and think, ‘What use! What good will planting flowers produce? No tendance of her mound can loose Her spirit from Death's gin.’” “But someone digs upon my grave? My enemy? — prodding sly?” — “Nay: when she heard you had passed the Gate That shuts on all flesh soon or late, She thought you no more worth her hate, And cares not where you lie. “Then, who is digging on my grave? Say — since I have not guessed!” — “O it is I, my mistress dear, Your little dog , who still lives near, And much I hope my movements here Have not disturbed your rest?” “Ah yes! You dig upon my grave… Why flashed it not to me That one true heart was left behind! What feeling do we ever find To equal among human kind A dog's fidelity!” “Mistress, I dug upon your grave To bury a bone, in case I should be hungry near this spot When passing on my daily trot. I am sorry, but I quite forgot It was your resting place.” Posted 9 November 2024  Cynthia Reeves, “Hope,” 1979 viii
leaves falling the brightness we long for circles the moon ***** Sometimes the brightness we want in our lives seems as far away as the rings around the moon. Sometimes it descends, as it seems to be doing in Reeves’ painting, to meet our hopes as they rise to meet it. Without faith there cannot be hope, or so says the prophet Mormon (Moroni 7:42). He means it theologically—“hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection, to be raised unto life eternal, and this because of [our] faith in him according to the promise” (verse 41). But I believe it is also generally true: without faith in something or reliance on something or someone, it is hard to maintain hope in difficult times. Fall does not seem like the season for hope—“my way of life / Is fallen into the sere, the yellow leaf” laments MacBeth—but it is a season in which to hope. Loss and disappointments are inevitable, but loss precedes renewal. I am writing in the next-to-last week in October; early voting is underway. The polls have shifted but no clear outcome has been forecast. Win or lose, I intend to maintain hope and to refuse the temptation of anger and bitterness or triumphalism. Grace in defeat, magnanimity in victory. wading the Eno watching the upward fall of leaves lost loves leaves of the river birch falling falling blow of an ax yellow leaves fall ahead of the frost If we do not hope for what cannot be hoped for, we shall not recognize it. —Heraclitus, in Clement, Stromata; cited by Henri de Lubac how hot these autumn days the river blooming with yellow leaves yellow leaves carpet the road going north, going south —Inspired by Buson Posted 6 November 2024, the day after election day. I had intended to post next Sunday or Monday, but today seems a good time to do so.  Katie Nordt LaRosa, 2010 vii in the riprap cold saplings burning red I don’t recall now where I saw some red-leaved saplings growing in a bank of riprap. I believe it was near the sea or by the Chesapeake. I didn’t convey clearly to Katie what I saw. She has depicted little flames sprouting from gray rocks—life burning as the season of dormancy approaches. The fire will be back in the spring, with the blood red of new growth. ***** parting from friends-- yellow and brown the falling leaves raking leaves-- the white-throated sparrow is singing for us raking leaves-- at last we can see the robin's nest wanting for nothing I float on the river an empty leaf November-- the last ripe tomato hiding in the weeds Posted 4 November 2024  driving home on asphalt hot with brake lights ***** Picture by Katie Nordt LaRosa, 2010 Rainy Night and Day
first shower an inch of puddle holding the sky the rain stops the leaves keep on falling dawn fog lifts the fallen rain as high as the tree tops the morning after street a long canal of light red leaves scattered over the ground will I find them in spring? ***** The English quarter days are: Lady Day (25 March, the Feast of the Annunciation) Midsummer Day (24 June, the Nativity of St John the Baptist) Michaelmas (29 September, the Feast of St Michael and All Angels) Christmas (25 December) The first edition of Night Weather assigned poems to weeks, not days, so there were no specific poems for the quarter days. But when I was creating the second edition, I had come to realize that there are also cross-quarter days, and that I'd written one poem ("Winter Beeches") set on the quarter day in winter. I decided to add cross-quarter poems to the collection. The cross-quarter days are: Candlemas (2 February), May Day (1 May), Lammas (1 August), and All Hallows (All Saints) (1 November). When I was in France, on Toussaint day in 1973 my missionary companion and I went with an older French woman to lay flowers on one or more graves—whose, I don’t remember. It was cloudy but not rainy, like today. In northwestern North Carolina, where my parents are from, churches hold Decoration Day on a Sunday in August (different churches pick different days). Earlier this week, on the day after the funeral, we laid flowers on the tiny grave of a stillborn child—a spray of fresh flowers and a saddle of silk flowers. Posted 1 Nov 2024. |
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