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Article Title: The Perils of Passing: The McCarys of Omaha

Full Citation: Willard B Gatewood, Jr, “The Perils of Passing: The McCarys of Omaha,” Nebraska History 71 (1990): 64-70.

URL of article: http://www.nebraskahistory.org/publish/publicat/history/full-text/NH1990McCarys.pdf Date: 12/1/2010

Article Summary: This article presents various aspects of light-skinned black people “passing” for whites by examining the 1919 case of Francis Patrick Dwyer’s suit to annul his marriage to Clara McCary Dwyer after becoming suspicious that their new baby boy had Negro blood. While Dwyer was correct, he failed to win his suit, and his wife was able to divorce him and receive child support in 1923.

Cataloging Information:

Names: Clara McCary Dwyer, Francis Patrick Dwyer, Mattie Juliet Balfour, Douglass P McCary, Thomas A Walsh, Joseph Dwyer, Mattie Balfour, Robert McCary, James McCary, William Johnson, Fitzgerald Family, Barland Family, Winn family, John R Lynch, William McCary, Lavinia Miller, Horace Cayton, Hiram Revels, Wallace McCary, John O Geiser, Franz Boas, A C Troup, John Albert Williams, Nick Chiles, Frederick Douglass

Place Names: Omaha, Nebraska; Washington, D C; Natchez, Mississippi; New Orleans, Louisiana; Cuba; Longview, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Topeka, Kansas; Seattle, Washington

Keywords: negro blood, Jim Crow balcony, Negro ancestry, racial identity, Capital Savings Bank [Washington, DC], Mississippi Railroad Company, blue vein society, Alcorn A&M College, Howard University Law School, Twenty-fifth Infantry, St Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church [Washington, DC], Washington Bee, Columbia University, The Monitor, Topeka Plain-dealer, Cayton’s Weekly, Nebraska Supreme Court, Manasseh Society

Photographs / Images: Douglass P McCary; John R Lynch; Horace Cayton Sr

THE PERILS OF PASSING: THE McCARYS OF OMAHA

By Willard B. Gatewood, Jr.

A strikingly handsome young woman among blacks in the United States. One the risks posed by any legal proceeding and her three-year-old son, both fair­ was temporary or convenience passing which might raise the question of the haired and blue-eyed, were the star by which fair-complexioned Negroes family's racial identity. Dwyer's attractions in a sensational court case occasionally crossed the color line in brother-in-law, Thomas A. Walsh, in Omaha, Nebraska, in the summer of order to secure decent hotel, travel, claimed that McCary and his wife had 1919. Her name was Clara McCary and restaurant accommodations or to visited him shortly after the separation Dwyer, whose husband, Francis Pat­ attend the theater without having to sit of the couple and before the initiation rick Dwyer, had filed suit to have their in the Jim Crow balcony. Another form of the annulment proceedings to obtain marriage annulled on the grounds that was known as "professional passing," his assistance in persuading Dwyer not she had "negro blood in her veins."· where by a person passed for white in to take the matter to court. McCary, Until 1913 Nebraska law prohibited order to hold jobs open only to whites according to Walsh, insisted that his marriage between whites and persons but continued to maintain "a Negro family "could not afford the publicity" possessing one-fourth or more Negro social life." The third form was passing that legal action would attract. McCary blood. In that year the legislature permanently for white, which involved promised that if such action were changed the law to ban marriages be­ blotting out the past and severing all avoided, "everything might be adjust­ tween white persons and those having contacts with the black community. ed." Once Dwyer filed the annulment "one-eighth ormore negro, Japanese or Among other risks was that of suit, McCary took the position that the Chinese blood."2 exposure. Because of the secretive plaintiff should be allowed "to proceed The courtroom drama, which nature of permanent passing, it is as prayed for in his petition" without occurred during the Red summer of impossible to ascertain how many contest. Dwyer and his attorney 1919 when twenty-five race riots black Americans actually passed. assumed, quite incorrectly, that the occurred in the United States, Estimates ranged from a few hundred McCarys would not deny their Negro epitomized the prevailing white to many thousands annually.3 ancestry and hence would not fight attitudes toward race and color. Francis Dwyer, a clerk in a jewelry the annulment. S Throughout the spring and summer of and leather goods store owned by his It is not altogether clear why the that year, the denunciation of blacks as brother-in-law, assumed his wife was McCarys decided upon a different criminals, especially rapists, by the white until the birth of their son in 1916, course. But the decision was appar­ press and trade unions in Omaha when the attending physician, for ently made by Clara Dwyer and her undoubtedly had heightened racial reasons that are unclear, raised the mother. In all probability their main tension in the city that ultimately possibility of Negro ancestry. Once concern was to avoid having the child, erupted in a riot there late in Septem­ Dwyer became suspicious of his wife's Joseph Dwyer, declared illegitimate. ber 1919. A complicating factor in the racial heritage, he apparently refused According to Nebraska law, upon the Dwyer case was that it involved the to live with her and their son. He joined dissolution "by decree or sentence of phenomenon of "passing," a process by the army in 1917 and upon being nullity of any marriage between a white which fair-complexioned people of mustered out of military service, and a Negro, any issue of the marriage Negro ancestry "crossed over the color decided to end the marriage legally on would be deemed to be illegitimate."6 line" into the white world. the grounds that he had been deceived Throughout the trial Clara McCary Several forms of "passing" existed by his wife. Because he was Catholic Dwyer and members of her family, and had been married in the Catholic whatever their reasons, resolutely church, he insisted upon an annulment denied that they possessed any Negro 4 Willard B. Gatewood, Jr. is Alumni Dis­rather than a divorce. ancestry or had ever been identified tinguished Professor ofHistoryat the Univer­Douglass P. McCary, Clara Dwyer's with blacks. Douglass P. McCary tes­ sity ofArkansas, Fayetteville. father, apparently was fully aware of tified under oath in a crowded court­ 64 The McCarys of Omaha

room that his family was "pure white," He described his grandfather as a "red headed Irishman" and slave owner and his grandmother as a school teacher from Massachusetts who "went South to teach. " He testified that he had "always considered himself a white man, that no negroes ever entered his house and that his children had never associated with negroes." McCary told the court that he was a native of Natchez, Mississippi, where his father had been a politician after the Civil War. Although his father had died, he declared that his mother, whose maiden name was Mattie Balfour, lived in Washington, D.C.' // When pressed by Dwyer's attorney, / ,' ; McCary admitted that prior to moving to Omaha he had resided in / /i Washington and worked for the Capital ,/ . / /. ., ,//:/ (II I ,. Savings Bank, an institution identified I .' . 1// .' . / " . . I " " . t;' with the Di strict's black community. /, ,///, r' ' J While the bank president was a Negro, , / ' . ( ' j / , .( ') . he testified, its officers and directors I .Jr{;t:...jr included men of both races. Since ,/I ',J- · , McCary had held civil service r appointments in the post office depart­ ment, Dwye r's attorney asked whether he had identified himself as Negro or Caucasian on the civil service applica­ tion. McCary could not remember nor would he consent to being photo­ graphed in the event the case was ap pealed. He also emphatically denied Dwyer's charge that he had attempted to hide his racial identity and had avoided meeting his daughter's fianc e until after the marriage. On the con­ trary, McCary insisted, Dwyer had • been a frequent guest in his home dur­ J ing the courtship of his daughter and Douglass P. McCary. Courtesy of the author. that he had often conversed and played ga mes with him,R father, James McCary, a cabinetmaker. sissippi Railroad Company. His closest While portions of McCary's tes­ Both inherited town lots in Natchez friend was William Johnson, also a free timony about the hi story of his family and received the income from the labor man of color and a barber, whose were essentially correct, his in sistence of two slaves. The executor of James lengthy diary provided a unique view of that all his forebears were white and McCary's will was scrupulous in his antebellum Natchez. The McCarys, had always been so identified was efforts to carry out its provisions, along with the Johnsons, Fitzgeralds, patently erroneous. The McCarys especially in providing for the educa­ Barlands and Winns, made up the aris­ traced their origins to Robert McCary tion of Robert McCary and his sister· tocracy of the free black population of of Natchez, Mississippi, who, born a Robert became a barber in Natchez, the city. Notwithstanding the restric­ slave, was freed, along with his sister, in acquired substantial real estate, owned tions imposed on free blacks, those 1815 by the will of their white owner and slaves, and purchased stock in the Mis­ belonging to the small elite of 65 Nebraska History - Summer 1990

Natchez's free people of color enjoyed William McCary, whom he described exce ptional privileges. They were as IItwo magnificent specimens of literate, owned property and slaves, genus homo, not quite so fair in com­ and had their marriages officially re­ plexion as most of those present, but corded. In manners and deportment with shapely features and raven black they emulated the white planter aris­ hair that gave them much the tocracy and stood aloof socially from appearance of Spaniards." In 1919 slaves and lower class free blacks. They when Cayton read about the McCalYs viewed with disdain what they con­ of Omaha in connection with the annul­ sidered the uncouth behavior of the ment suit, he recalled the "eventful lower classes, both black and white. blue veined party evening" in Natchez Their keen sense of propriety thirty-three years earlierD prompted them to look upon "darkey The end of Reconstru ction meant a parties" in which slaves and lower class decline in the political fortunes of the free blacks intermingled socially as McCalYs and other blacks in Mi s­ amusements of II low minded sissippi. Like many of "the young men wretches."1U of lhe blue vein society of Natchez," Of Robert McCary's children, the Douglass and Wallace McCary, as well one who achieved the greatest local as their younger brother Michael, prominence was William. In 1851 he " became political proteges of John R. married Lavinia Miller, the niece of Lynch" who, after hi s defeat fol' reelec­ William Johnson and an educated tion to Congress in 1882, secured a SLlC­ member of a well-to-do fre e family of cession of federal appoin tments. The color in New Orleans. During McCalY 's, like Lynch , moved to Reconstruction, William McCalY was Washington. " prominent in Republican politics in John R. LYTl ch. Courtesy ofMississippi Douglass McCa lY immediately Natchez and Adams counties. In suc­ Department o{ Archives and History. enrolled in the Spencerian Business cession he served as city alderman, College in Washington and upon com­ county treasurer, sheriff, and post­ pletion of the course entered Howard master of Natchez. McCary was an States senator, visited Natchez as the Uni versity Law School and ultimately early supporter of a ri sing young black guest of a friend from Alcorn A&M obtained a law degree. His brother politician from Natchez by the name of College, the state-supported black Wallace attended Howard Medical John R. Lynch and was one of the college in Mississippi. In Natchez School but did not graduate. For a time managers of Lynch's successful cam­ Cayton was profoundly impressed by he held a position in the United States paign for Congress in 1872.II the lifestyle and gentility of the elite Pension Office and later selved with Throughout the late nineteenth cen­ black families and much taken with the 1\venty-fifth Infantry, one of the tury the McCarys continued to occupy "four beautiful sisters" of his college four all-black regiments in the regular a place at the top of the social ladder in fliend. His arrival in the city coincided army. The youngest brother, Michael Natchez's black society. T hey be­ with the "most select social function" McCalY, selved as secretary or clerk to longed to what was scornfully referred of its black elite, and he was invit.ed to John R. Lynch and went wit.h Lynch to to by other blacks as "the blue vein attend. For him the occasion was Cuba when President William society." "In Natchez, Mississippi," a marred only by a remark made by a McKinley appointed him Paymaster of knowledgeable black observer later member of Natchez's black elite who, the Armyl' recalled, "quite a majority of the upon seeing Cayton, asked, "Well, [ Of the McCary brothers Douglass society folks among the colored people wonder what the nigger wants here?" became most closely identified with are quadroons and octoroons, a great Though describing himself as "be­ Washington's black community and many ofthem so fair in complexion that tween a mulatto and quadroon" in com­ more particularly with what was known it would keep even a !whitel southerner plexion, Cayton was "the darkest as the "colored 400" of the District. guessing to separate the white folks person in that room." He realized that Two years after his arrival in the capital from the colored folks. "" In 1886 he was "in a strictly blue veined colored city and shortly after his father's death, Horace Cayton, the son of a white society where darker persons were not he married Mattie Juliet Balfour of planter's daughter and a slave, who wanted." It was at this "select social Natchez at St. Augustine's Roman later married the daughter of Hiram function" that he first met Douglass Catholic Church in Washington. The Revels, Mississippi's first black United and Wallace McCary, the sons of local press described her as "one of the 66 The McCarys of Omaha

most accomplished ladies of Missis­ $3,000 on hand to cover deposits of tained with certainty, but the cir­ sippi."16 more than $89,000. Lawsuits were cumstances suggest several possibili­ Shortly after completion of the busi­ ultimately instituted against the direc­ ties. First, court decisions relating to ness course McCary became cashier of tors, several of whom declared bank­ the Capital Savings Bank failure ruled the newly organized Capital Savings ruptcy. Although the bank, according that officers and directors were liable Bank, a black-owned and operated to one authority, suffered from mis­ for the losses of the institution's institution, established in 1888. At one management, there was never any depositors, including many benevolent time or another during its fifteen-year charge of dishonesty made against organizations. McCary, who was both existence the bank's officers included a McCary. He publicly denied any re­ an officer and a director, may have sizable segment of Washington's black sponsibility for its failure and claimed reasoned that by moving west and dis­ elite. John R. Lynch, who was on to have suffered personal financial appearing into the white world, he intimate terms with the bank's losses as a result. In fact, of all the would somehow escape the fate of cer­ founders and ultimately became its officers and directors of the bank, tain others connected with the defunct president, may well have assisted McCary appears to have encountered bank. A second possible motive for his McCary in securing the post of the least hostility from depositors decision to move to Omaha and pass for cashier. 17 and creditors.22 white, especially since his name did not McCary was, for all practical pur­ Following the closing of the Capital figure prominently in the litigation over poses, the chief operating officer of the Savings Bank, McCary left Washington the bank, was simply a desire to escape Capital Savings Bank. It prospered in the fall of 1903 and settled in Omaha. the impediments placed upon all those under his direction and successfully Shortly after moving west, he wrote a identified as Negroes everywhere in weathered the Panic of 1893 "without friend that he was "deeply grieved at early twentieth century America, asking quarter from anyone, paying the circumstances" surrounding the regardless of their intelligence, educa­ every obligation in demand."18 The bank's failure butwas powerless to pre­ tion and refinement. The McCarys black press treated the bank as a show­ vent it. No one, he said, could possessed a sufficiently fair complex­ piece of black enterprise attesting to appreciate the "tough proposition I ion - at most no darker than the financial acumen of Negro have had to contend with."23 In Omaha "Spaniards" - to pass for white. They Americans and credited its remarkable McCary opened a law, real estate and undoubtedly appreciated the risks of achievement to McCary's "efficient insurance office in the Prenzer Build­ such a step but felt that they were management, unfailing tact and ing and purchased an interest in the worth taking in order to enjoy the energy." Both the Washington Colored Omaha Progress,24 a black weekly that opportunities and advantages avail­ American and its contemporary, the was apparently in a precarious finan­ able to those classified as white. Washington Bee, agreed that McCary cial condition. But this venture into Regardless of the criticism directed was a model of "the progressive, high­ journalism appears to have been brief. toward fair-complexioned Negroes purposed and capable young Afro­ In fact, the McCarys of Omaha disap­ who allegedly withdrew into color­ American" whose life was "a peared from view in the black com­ conscious "blue vein societies," most symposium of useful and elevating munity. Beginning in 1906 Douglass black Americans fully understood why activities."19 McCary was an employee in the Omaha some chose to "pass," namely to reap Despite such praise, rumors began to post office.25 the benefit of first-class citizenship. circulate in April 1902 that the Capital By 1905 McCary was no longer Although blacks were careful to guard Savings Bank was in serious trouble. designated as "colored" in the Omaha the secret of those who did "pass" and The Washington Bee discounted such city directory. In the census of 1910 he tended to treat such people as dead, rumors and insisted that "no depositor and his family were listed as white.26 In there was always the possibility of will lose a cent" so long as McCary was brief, the McCarys were "passing." exposure and with it humiliation. The in charge.20 From Cuba, John R. Lynch Suddenly in 1919, the family was unwritten rule in the black community expressed grave concern about its threatened with exposure, owing appeared to be thatitwas acceptable to solvency and maintained that if it largely to the suspicions aroused by a "pass" but unacceptable to be caught "must fail, make Doug [McCary] the physician about the racial identity of atit. To be exposed was to risk condem­ receiver."21 Several directors were Douglass McCary's grandson and the nation not only from whites but from deeply in debt to the bank, and many of great-great-grandson of Robert blacks as well. Such were the ironies, its loans were either unsecured or McCary, the mulatto boy freed by his incongruities, and tragedies of racial, or inadequately secured. The institution white father in Natchez, Mississippi, more specifically color, prejudices. suspended operations on November more than a century earlier. Douglass McCary, whose name 21, 1902, and passed into the hands of Why Douglass McCary decided to appeared in the press and in court receivers, who discovered they had "pass" cannot, of course, be ascer­ documents as Douglas McCarry either 67 Nebraska History - Summer 1990

by error or by his own alteration of it, for divorce on the grounds ofdesertion. sides agreed. Clara Dwyer was, then, obviously decided upon taking the wit­ She also requested custody ofand sup­ authorized by the court to initiate ness stand on July 1, 1919, to swear that port for her child.31 Dwyer's relatives separate divorce proceedings.35 By the he and his family were "pure" white. In claimed that he was willing to support time ofthe appeal, space devoted to the the course of his testimony, therefore, his son but only if the child was "placed annulment case by the press had been he repeatedly provided false informa­ in a Negro institution" and reared "as a preempted by stories of race riots in . tion. While his recitation offacts about Negro, not as white child, in order that Longview, Texas; Washington; and his grandfather being a slave owner and he may never marry a white girl."32 Chicago. The two major white dailies in his father holding various political After hearing all the testimony, Omaha lavished much attention on the offices in Natchez was true, virtually Judge A. C. Troup on JUly 2 refused to Dwyer case, often featuring front-page everything else he said about their grant the annulment. He maintained stories, until mounting racial tensions racial identity was false. His that no evidence had been produced to and the eruption of a riot in that city on grandfather may have had red hair, but prove that Mrs. Dwyer and her son September 28, 1919, captured the he was a Negro, a free man ofcolor, the "were not of white blood." The judge headlines. son of a white man and slave woman. reprimanded Dwyer for bringing Although the city's white dailies con­ He maintained that his mother was a shame upon his wife and child but tained numerous unfavorable refer­ white woman, whose maiden name was reserved his harshest words for the ences to blacks, especially to what was Mattie Balfour, and a resident of physician. In "a voice that shook with interpreted as their criminal activities, Washington. Balfour was, in fact, his emotion," he declared that the doctor's in the first eight months of 1919 and wife's maiden name.27 Nor did the suggestion of Negro ancestry was "a may well have contributed to an officers and directors of the Capital cruel and reprehensible thing" to do, atmosphere that exploded in a race riot Savings Bank, as he declared, include for it sowed the seeds of discord and in September,36 they did not champion both blacks and whites; it was strictly a unhappiness among a family in which Dwyer's cause in the suit against his black institution. Finally, his claim that harmony and contentment had pre­ wife. Convinced that the McCarys were he and his family had "neverassociated vailed. Judge Troup also commented indeed white, the white press tended to with negroes" was patently untrue. that Clara McCary Dwyer exhibited no treat the family with sympathy and McCary's testimony caught Dwyer visible evidences of Negro blood and showed no inclination to disagree with and his attorney, John O. Geiser, that "the child was beautiful."33 Judge Troup's decisions. totally by surprise since they assumed Shortly after Judge Troup's deci­ In contrast, the black newspaper in that he would not deny his Negro sion, Dwyer's attorney moved for a new Omaha, The Monitor, which was usually ancestry.28 Geiser called as a witness trial on the grounds that he quick to comment on racial and inter­ the physician who delivered the possessed racial topics, omitted extensive Dwyer's son and who fIrst raised the newly discovered evidence ...which he could not coverage ofthe Dwyer-McCary case. It with reasonable dilligence Isicl have produced at possibility that the baby had "negro the trial for the reason that the plaintiff did not is likely that the Monitor's editor, John blood." "Ifthe mother has negro blood expect Ithel defendant's father to deny that he Albert Williams, a former pastor of a in her veins," Geiser asked, "would it had negro blood. black Episcopal congregation in be possible for this child to grow up, This new evidence included affIdavits Omaha, knew of the McCarys' racial marry and have a negro child?" The and depositions disputing much of identity.37 In its issue of July 17, 1919, doctor replied in the affIrmative and McCary's testimony abouthis ancestry after the case had been aired declared that the "taint of Negro and his life in Washington. Dwyer's thoroughly in the local white press, the blood" might remain "dormant for 16 attorney claimed to have proof thatone Monitor published a short article generations and then come to active of McCary's brothers lived as a Negro entitled "Douglas B. M'Cary ofOmaha life."29 A letter to the editor of the and had married a black woman in a Denies Negro Blood," in which McCary Omaha Evening World-Herald signed black church. When the motion for a was identified as "former cashier ofthe "Anthropologist" noted that physicians new trial was rejected,34 Dwyer Capital Savings bank of Washington, were notoriously defIcient in know­ appealed Judge Troup's decision to D. C., ofwhich John R. Lynch was pres­ ledge about genetics and urged the the Nebraska Supreme Court. To clear ident." The Monitor also published on court to consult a physical anthropolo­ the way for the appeal to go forward that date a brief editorial entitled gist. Among those the writer suggested without the complication of the cross­ "Ashamed of Blood": was Professor Franz Boas of petition, the judge set aside his deci­ Every man and woman who has African blood in Columbia University.3D sion of July 2 disallowing annulment his veins, and knows it, should be proud of that Clara McCary Dwyer filed an answer and granted Clara Dwyer permission to fact, because it is the blood of one of the noblest races that God has made. What should concern and cross-petition to her husband's file a new answer in which she did not him most is thathe live true to the best traditions annulment suit in which she sued him request divorce. Attorneys for both of that race. The history of the African race is 68 The McCarys of Omaha

nothing t.o be ashamed of. True, much of its his­ been in progress since 1620 when a (ory is unknown to the average reader, hut the Dutch vessel landed twenty Africans in more t.ruth comes to light the greater becomes lhe reason for pride in one's African ancestry. Virginia. "God works in mysterious Only a shaltow brain or an apostate will be ways," Cayton concluded, "and He ashamed of his bloo d. J~ seems to have adopted the Douglaslsl This editorial comment may well have McCary way to work out his color been directed at the McCarys. scheme in the United States."40 One of the earli est and most unusual The Nebraska Supreme Court responses by the black press outside ultimately refused Dwyer's appeal of Omaha was that by the Topeka Plain­ Judge Troup's decision, but a local dealer, whose editor and publisher, court in Omaha granted Clara Dwyer a Nick Chiles, assumed that the divorce on March 6, 1923. The grounds McCalYs were wh ite and that Dwyer's were "extreme cruelty" and deser­ charge about hi s wife possessing Negro tion" When the court ordered Dwyer ancestry was merely a ploy to rid him­ to pay twenty dollars a month for the self of the responsibilities of an un­ support of their son, who was eight wanted family. The editor claimed that years old by that date, he immediately Dwyer, like numerous other white filed a protest, claiming that the Americans, was "seeking cover through divorce decree had been "irregularly the color question." Chil es used the obtained" and that the amount was occasion to deliver a lengthy commen­ exorbitant and "beyond his means" to tary on "race-mixing" in America, Horace Cayton, Sr. Courtesy of Spe­ pay. The court denied his motion to claiming thaI whites had "been mixing cial Col/ections Division, University of reduce the amount of child suppor!." with the co lored race so long that you Wa shington Libraries, Negat.ive Num­ In the opening decades of the twen­ ber 419. can hardly tell to what race any tieth centUlY an increasingly virulent American belongs," rt was this infusion Jim Cl'owism tolerated fewer and fewer of white blood, according to Chiles, "were entirely too white to be black," so breaches of the color line. If blacks that had caused some blacks to become they "began to scatter and seek other exhibited extraordinary sympathy and climinals and vagabond s. He suggested places to cast their lots, where they even support for those who chose to that Dwyer, upon investigation into his could throw off their color handicaps." pass for wh ites, they, no less than own family background, might well find They moved to Washington, Chicago, whites, viewed interracial marriage some admixture of Negro blood. But and various cities in the West and Mid­ with hostility. When, for example, Chiles's mostsevere criticism of Dwyer west where, like the McCarys in Frederick Douglass married a white concerned the anguish and pain he had Omaha, "they turned white." Cayton woman in 1884, the reaction of many brought upon his own wife and claimed that he knew ofat least "a hun­ blacks was as negative as that of child]'! dred or more families ... who in the whites.4J So ostracized were interracial Perhaps the most thorough analysis South and East were designated as couples by both blacks and whites that of the McCarys' troubles was a lengthy colored," but who lived as whites in they created their own organization, piece by Horace Cayton, an old Seattle. In his opinion any Afro­ the Manasseh Society, in the early acquaintance of the family, who was American who was "so white that it 1890s in various midwestern cities.44 As editor of Cayton's Weekly in Seattle. requires an expert to tell whether he or ofl93J, twenty-nine states had statutes The piece was reprinted, without she is colored," imposed on "colored prohibiting the marriage of whi tes to editorial comment, by the Washington folks when he or she says, 'I am Negroes "or with individuals of other Bee, a newspaper that mentioned colored.'" Di sclaiming any "sinister races."" In 1963 Nebraska repealed its McCary often and favorably through­ motives" in writing in such detail about prohibition against "racially mixed out hi s residence in Washington. the McCarys and their decision to marriages."" While the Nebraska Cayton recalled his encounter with "pass," Cayton maintained that his courts never legally established the Natchez's "blue vein society" to which purpose was merely to inform the racial id entity ofthe McCarys "as other the McCarys belonged and commented public of how widespread and general than whi te," the case demonstrated the on the extent to which such fair­ the "mixture of white and colored risks incurred by fair-complexioned complexioned Negroes had crossed the bloods" was in America. The blacks who attempted permanent color line into white society. Many of amalgamation of the races, he passing. From a strictly legal "those white colored folks" of Natchez, declared, would be the ultimate out­ standpoint, the McCarys were more he explained, came to realize that they come of the "human juggling" that had fortunate than others47 whose racial 69 Nebraska History - Summer 1990

identity was exposed in legal pro­ University of Chicago Press, 1970),57-102; John 1910. Douglas County, Nebraska, Enumeration R. Lynch, "Historical Errors of James Ford District 90, page SA. ceedings involving divorce and Rhodes," Journal of Negro History, II (October 27 Washington Bee, August 3, 1889. annulment. 1917), 356-57; The Semi-Weekly Louisianian 18Motion for New Trial, undated, Dwyer v. (New Orleans), November 26, 187!. Dwyer. 12Horace R. Cayton, "They Turned White," 290maha Daily Bee, June 27, 1919. Cayton's Weekly (Seattle), August 2, 1919; for a 300maha Evening World-Herald, July 3, 1919. similar, but earlier, description of Natchez's 31Answer and Cross-Petition, July I, 1919, "blue vein" society by Cayton, see ibid., January Dwyer v. Dwyer. 14, 1919; on Cayton see his son's autobiography, J2Topeka Plaindealer, July 4, 1919. NOTES Horace R. Cayton, Long Old Road (New York: 33Decree, July 8, 1919, Dwyer v. Dwyer; Omaha IDivorce Petition, May 9, 1918, Dwyerv. Dwyer, Trident Press, 1965), especially pp. 2-3. Evening World-Herald, July 2, 1919; Omaha Daily Document 158, Number 311, District Court, I3Cayton's Weekly, August 2, 1919. Bee, July 3, 1919. Douglas County, Omaha, Nebraska; all refer­ 14Ibid. 34Motion for a New Trial, Dwyer v. Dwyer. ences hereafter will read Dwyer v. Dwyer with an ISFor a biographical sketch of Douglass B. 3sOmaha Evening World-Herald, July 8, 1919. indication of the particular document involved. McCary, see Andrew F. Hilyer, comp., The Twen­ 36Arthur I. Waskow, From Race Riot to Sit-In: 2Pauli Murray, ed., States' Laws on Race and tieth Century Union League Directory (Washing­ 1919 and the 1960's (Garden City, New York: Color (Cincinnati: Women's Division of Christian ton: Union League, 1901), 24; on his brothers see Doubleday and Co., 1966), 110; Michael L. Law­ Service, Methodist Church, 1952),263; Albert A. Colored American (Washington), August 19,1899; son, "Omaha, A City in Ferment: Summer of Jenks, uThe Legal Status of Negro-White Daniel Smith Lamb, Howard University Medical 1919," Nebraska History, LVIII (Fall 1977),395­ Amalgamation in the United States," American Department (Freeport, New York: Books for Li­ 417; Orville D. Menard, "Tom Dennison, The Journal ofSociology, XXI (March 1916),668,676; braries Press, 1971), 253. Omaha Bee and the 1919 Omaha Race Riot," for background and earlier opposition to the 16Washington Bee, August 3, 1889. ibid., LXVIII (Winter 1987), 162·63. Nebraska law on "mixed marriages" see The 17Ibid., October 27, November 3,1888; Abram 17WiIliams, born in Canada and reared in De· Afro-American Sentinel (Omaha), March 13,20, L. Harris, The Negro As Capitalist: A Study of troit, graduated from the Seaburg Divinity 27; April 10, May 1, 1897. Banking and Business Among American Negroes School in Minnesota and became the first rector 30n "passing" see William M. Kephart, "The (philadelphia: American Academy of Political of the Saint Philip the Deacon Protestant Epis­ 'Passing' Question," Phylon, X (Fourth Quarter, and Social Science, 1936), 104-7; Hilyer, Twen­ copal Church in 1893; see The Enterprise 1948), 336-40; Gunnar Myrdal, An American tieth Century Union League Directory, 16,22,24­ (Omaha), April 4, 1896. Dilemma: The Negro Problem and Modem 26,115; M. Sammye Miller, "An Early Venture in :lRThe Monitor (Omaha), July 17, 1919. Democracy (New York: Harper and Brothers, Black Capitalism: The Capital Savings Bank in 39Topeka Plaindealer, July 4, 1919. 1944), 683-88. the District of Columbia, 1882-1902," Records of 411Cayton's Weekly, August 2, 1919 (reprinted in 40maha Evening World Herald, June 26, the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, the Washington Bee, August 16, 1919). 1919; Omaha Daily Bee, June 27, 1919; Divorce D. C., L (1980), 359-66. 41Divorce Decree, March 6, 1923, Du'yer v. Petition, May 9, 1918, Dwyer v. Dwyer. 18W. E. Burghardt Du Boise, ed., Economic Co­ Dwyer. sThomas A. Walsh, Affidavit, October II, 1919, operation Among Negro Americans IProceedings 42Motion, August 22, 1923, Dwyer v. Dwyer. Dwyer v. Dwyer. ofthe Twelfth Conference for the Study of Negro 43Benjamin Quarles, Frederick Douglass (New 6Jenks, "Legal Status of Negro-White Problemsl. (Atlanta: Atlanta University Press, York: Atheneum, 1968),299-300; see also John G. Amalgamation," 676. 1907), 137. Mencke, Mulattoes and Race Mixture: American 'Omaha Evening World-Herald, July 1, 1919; 19Washington Colored American, August 17, Attitudes and Images, 1865-1918 (N.P.: UMI Omaha Daily Bee, July 2, 1919. 1901; Washington Bee, August 3, 1889, November Research Press, 1979), 107-23. 8Ibid. 25,1902. "On the Manasseh Society and similar 9'J'erry L. Alford, "Some Manumissions Re­ 2°Washington Bee, November 25, 1902. organizations of later origins, see Reverdy C. corded in Adams County Deed Books in 21John R. Lynch to Whitefield McKinlay, Ransom, The Pilgrimage ofHarriet Ransom's Son Chancery Clerk's Office, Natchez, Mississippi; November 14, 1902, Whitefield McKinlay Papers (Nashville: Sunday School Union, N.D.), 91-93; 1795-1835," Journal ofMississippi History, XXX­ in Carter Woodson Collection, Manuscript Divi­ Plaindealer (Detroit), April 8, 1892; Cleveland III (February, 1971),44; William Ransom Hogan sion, Library of Congress. Gazette, April 9, 1892; Indianapolis World, April and Edwin Adams Davis, eds., William Johnson 's 22Abrams, The Negro as Capitalist, 106-7; 16, 1892; Ernest Porterfield, Black and White Natchez: The Antebellum Diary of a Free Negro Washington Bee, January 10,31; February 7, 1903; Mixed Marriages (Chicago: Nelson-Hall Pub­ (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University, 1951), March 12, 19, 1904; December 30, 1905; July lishers, 1978), 42-43. 43,257. 21,1906. 4sEdward B. Reuter, Race Mixture: Studies in IOHogan and Davis, William Johnson's 23Douglass B. McCary to Whitefield McKinlay, Intermarriage and Miscegenation (New York: Natchez, 11,41-43; see also Edwin A. Davis and October 31, 1903, McKinlay Papers. McGraw-Hili Book Co., 1931),82. William R. Hogan, The Barber ofNatchez (Baton 24Washington Bee, December 5, 1903. 410Laws Passed By the Legislature ofthe State of Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973), 2SMcCary appears as a postal employee in Nebraska, Seventy-Third Session, 1963, 736. chapter 20. Omaha in the Official Register of the United 47See, for example, the case ofMrs. Arthur Lit· IIHogan and Davis, William Johnson's States, first in 1907 (II, p. 296) earning $800 per tle of Detroit in which the anthropologist Franz Natchez, 755, 769; John Hope Franklin, ed., year. Boas was called in as a consultant; New York Age, Reminiscences of an Active Life: The 26United States Department of Commerce and December 31, 1917. Autobiography of John Roy Lynch (Chicago: Labor, Thirteenth Census of the United States,

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