“We Cleared the Land with Our Own Hands”: Space and Place in African American Community Building and Freedom Struggles in the Missouri Bootheel, 1890-1968
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“WE CLEARED THE LAND WITH OUR OWN HANDS”: SPACE AND PLACE IN AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY BUILDING AND FREEDOM STRUGGLES IN THE MISSOURI BOOTHEEL, 1890-1968 BY HEIDI L. DODSON DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate College of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2016 Urbana, Illinois Doctoral Committee: Professor Clarence E. Lang, Chair Professor Orville Vernon Burton Associate Professor Sundiata Keita Cha-Jua Associate Professor Rebecca Ginsburg Professor David R. Roediger ii ABSTRACT Scholarship on African American community building and Black freedom struggles has demonstrated the centrality of the Black working class to social, political, and economic transformations in the twentieth-century rural South. Yet, our understanding of how African Americans actively engaged in power struggles over space, and the nature of struggle in the Border South, has been under-analyzed. This dissertation looks at the significance of space and place to African American life in the Missouri Bootheel, or Missouri Delta, during the region’s metamorphosis from a sparsely populated region of lowland swamps, to an agricultural “Promised Land” that included vast fields of cotton farmed by sharecroppers. It explores the ways in which African Americans acted as central agents in this transformation through their labor in the forests and fields, their planning visions, politics and their influence on the built environment through institution, neighborhood and town-building. White supremacy was embedded in the region’s social and economic fabric, but its power was not absolute. This dissertation argues that African Americans used the instability of key periods of social and economic change and the relative fluidity and unpredictability of race relations in a Border South region to push for access to rural industrial jobs, public space, land, schools and housing. African Americans’ strategies for community building and activism varied, but their establishment of Black institutions and rural Black towns and enclaves, independent of plantation space, was central to struggles in these arenas. Periods of intense social struggle over space included Black migration during the 1910 and 1920s, the New Deal, and the transition from sharecropping to day labor from the 1930s through the 1950s. iii To friends and family. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Writing this dissertation has been a long, often arduous journey, and I never would have gotten this far if it had not been for the support of many individuals and institutions. First, I would like to thank my parents, brother, and extended family for their encouragement along the way. My parents, Phil and Martha Dodson, have always emphasized the importance of education, although they probably did not anticipate I would be in school this long! As high school teachers who have been tirelessly committed to education in and out of the classroom, they are inspiring examples of how individuals can make a difference in people’s lives. I frequently used their home as a base for my research, and they never complained that I often had my nose in a book. The friendships I formed in graduate school were also invaluable, providing emotional and intellectual sustenance. I enjoyed stimulating intellectual discussions and fun times with Stephanie Seawell-Fortado, Kerry Pimblott, Ashley Howard, Dave Bates, Alonzo Ward, Zach Poppel, David Greenstein, Rachel Koroloff, Jay Jordan, Simon Appleford, Troy Smith, Robin Smith, Derek Attig, and many others. Thanks especially to David, who powered through prelims with me and was the consummate host of many backyard gatherings filled with darts, libations, and delicious grilled food. I was very lucky to have Stephanie Seawell-Fortado as a roommate, and I cannot think of a better person with whom I could have shared books, classes, pancakes, and television murder mysteries. Poker games with Troy and Robin Smith, Ian Hartman, Stephanie, Jay, and Simon also helped preserve my sanity. In Chapel Hill, Anna Krome-Lukens invited me to writing groups and other events, easing the isolation of writing away from my home institution. My decision to pursue a Ph.D. in history was the culmination of years of diverse v professional and personal experiences. My time working as a reference archivist at the Amistad Research Center in New Orleans helped me realize that I wanted to embark on my own project, and that I wanted learn more about history so I could be a better interpreter to the public. When I was a librarian at the University of Virginia, I was fortunate to have two supervisors, Carol Hunter and Carla Lee, who encouraged my professional development and provided scheduling flexibility so I could take two graduate classes in history. The excellent courses I took from Dr. Phyllis Leffler and Dr. Olivier Zunz confirmed my decision to pursue an advanced degree. My education at the University of Illinois would not have been possible without the encouragement of Dr. Vernon Burton. When I contacted him about my interest in the history program, he responded immediately and enthusiastically, which is why I chose the University of Illinois for my graduate career. He has been a wonderful mentor from that point forward. Two other aspects of graduate life at Illinois changed my life in significant ways, expanding my worldview and redefining my values. One was the coursework I took with faculty. In particular, the time I spent in classes taught by Clarence Lang, Sundiata Cha-Jua, Rebecca Ginsburg, and David Roediger challenged and inspired me. My experience organizing with the Graduate Employee Organization (GEO) provided an invaluable education about labor issues. The solidarity I experienced working with other GEO members as we fought for fair working conditions will always stay with me. I was fortunate to receive financial support from many sources, including the History Department, Graduate College, Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities (IPRH), Human Dimensions of Environmental Systems (HDES), Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR), Washington University Special Collections and Archives, University of Illinois Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), Maryland Institute for vi Technology in the Humanities (MITH), and State Historical Society of Missouri. Organizations that provided travel grants for conferences include the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Social Science History Association, and the St. George Tucker Society. In 2012, I received a summer research fellowship that allowed me to participate in Mark Schulz and Adrienne Petty’s oral history project, “Breaking New Ground: A History of African American Farm Owners Since the Civil War.” Conducting interview for that project was the highlight of my time as a graduate student. Staff in the History Department, including Tom Bedwell, Jan Langendorf, Elaine Sampson, and Shannon Croft, have been essential to navigating the murky waters of graduate funding and university bureaucracy. My current employer, Linda Bourne, has always been flexible with regard to my work schedule, so I could take time off to do research and attend conferences. I also could not have completed my research without the assistance of librarians, archivists, historians, and staff at the State Historical Society of Missouri, Missouri State Archives, Southeast Missouri State University Special Collections and Archives, National Archives, Library of Congress, New Madrid Public Library, and courthouses in Pemiscot, New Madrid, Mississippi, Scott, and Stoddard counties. Dr. Gary Kremer at the State Historical Society of Missouri took time to talk to me about my research even before I entered graduate school. Sonya Rooney and Miranda Rectenwald were very helpful when I spent several weeks researching the Delmo Housing Corporation in the University Archives at Washington University in St. Louis. I would especially like to acknowledge the assistance of Dr. Frank Nickell at Southeast Missouri State University. His knowledge of the Bootheel is inexhaustible, and on many occasions he directed me towards important sources and shared contact information for many of the people that I interviewed. vii I cannot express enough gratitude to the individuals who took the time to sit with me and answer my questions about their experiences growing up in the Bootheel. Several people, including Vanessa Frazier, L. H. Brown, Harriet Crenshaw, Jacquelyn Faucette, Adrienne Hunter, and members of the Robinson family took me around the communities they knew and shared memories of different places and spaces. Alex Cooper, Aretha Robinson, Twan Robinson, and Eugene Speller had the patience to let me interview them twice. James Walker invited me to a Wyatt reunion and introduced me to many people. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank my advisor, Clarence Lang, and committee members, Vernon Burton, Sundiata Cha-Jua, Rebecca Ginsburg, and David Roediger. They have taken the time to critically read my writing, make invaluable suggestions for improvement, and encourage me over the course of many years. There are times when I become cynical and a despondent about the direction in which academia is moving, but then I think of the people I have been lucky enough to work with, and learn from, and I remain hopeful for the future. My committee members are role models for the type of historian I aspire to be, for they are not only exceptional scholars, but they