W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 2007 Roses in December: Black life in Hanover County, Virginia during the era of disfranchisement Jody Lynn Allen College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the African History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Allen, Jody Lynn, "Roses in December: Black life in Hanover County, Virginia during the era of disfranchisement" (2007). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539623327. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-5qxx-xq34 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Roses in December Black Life in Hanover County, Virginia During the Era of Disfranchisement Jody Lynn Allen Hampton, Virginia MA, Michigan State University, 1987 BA, University of Delaware, 1980 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the College of William and Mary in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Lyon Gardiner Tyler Department of History The College of William and Mary August 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. COPYRIGHT 2007 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. APPROVAL SHEET This dissertation is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Approved by the Committee, June 2007 Melvin Patrick Ely, Chair Kris E. Lane Leisa D. Meyer Theodore C. DeLaney Washington and Lee University Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT In 1902, Virginia’s revised constitution was proclaimed by the all-male, all-white delegates who had met in Richmond, the state capitol, for over a year. While they reviewed and revised the entire document, their main goal was to disfranchise black males. For the next seven decades, most black men, and, after 1920, black women found it difficult, if not impossible, to participate in the electoral process. This dissertation looks at the effect of this event on blacks living in Hanover County, Virginia. Black Hanoverians steadily chipped away at the walls that enclosed them and limited their opportunities for success. First, they worked to determine their paths to freedom, and in doing so, set patterns of survival for their descendants. When their rights were being eroded, black Hanoverians, along with their compatriots in Richmond, deemphasized political involvement as the path to full citizenship and instead focused on self-help. Third, they responded to Jim Crow by fostering lives that ran parallel to those of whites. Fourth, in spite of the hardships of living in a racist system, black Hanoverians moved to play their part in overcoming the pressures placed on the country by the Depression and war. Finally, African Americans in Hanover drew on various traditions established by their ancestors to regain their civil rights. In the end, black Hanoverians resisted the strictures of their “place” as defined by white people. Following Emancipation, the amendments to the federal Constitution, and the Reconstruction Acts, they had reason to believe that they would finally be accepted as citizens in the United States, a country that they and their ancestors had helped to build. They soon found that this would not be the case. Instead, they would have to seek citizenship via avenues of their own making. In the end, they have taught their descendants that citizenship asserts itself from within, and that it has proved to be something that no one can take away. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Dedication vi Acknowledgements vii The Meaning Roses in December x Prologue 1 Introduction 6 Chapter I. Setting the Stage: When Freedom Came 27 Chapter II. Disfranchisement: The Road to the Constitutional Convention 92 Chapter III. Jim Crow: The First Generation 152 Chapter IV. Depression, New Deal, and War: Stepping Up 217 Chapter V. The Heat of Change: Civil Rights through Education 272 Epilogue 330 Appendix A-List of Oral History Informants 336 Appendix B-Abbreviations 337 Bibliography 338 Vita 347 v Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. DEDICATION I offer this work in memory of my grandmothers, Daisy Wright Tobias and Bessie Fulton Ellis, who began this journey with me, but had to go on ahead, and in memory of my aunt, Gloria Allen Davis, who encouraged me to the end. I also honor my mother, Dorothy Tobias Parker and my aunt, Helen Tobias Walker. These five women have been my role models. VI Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I recently had occasion to read the acknowledgements in Peter Guralnick’s book Sweet Soul Music. He begins by saying that “in writing a book over so long a period, one incurs debts one can never repay.” He goes on to explain that hundreds of people helped him to achieve his goal. Well, I do not know how many years it took Guralnick, but it has taken me twelve years to complete this doctorate, and I too, have hundreds, maybe thousands, of people to thank for helping me to reach my goal. While I am petrified of inadvertently leaving someone out, knowing that I will and regretting that, I must at least try. First and foremost, I thank God and his angels for running interference for me at all times. I have learned a lot of history in the past twelve years, but I have also come to fully understand from whence cometh my help. When I entered the College of William and Mary, I was a very green, budding historian. I came from an academic and professional background totally unrelated to the study of history, and for the first few months I felt, and surely sounded and wrote, like a fish out of water. I even secretly contemplated leaving and getting a job at a fast-food restaurant. Over the years, I became much more comfortable with the help of the faculty and staff of the department including: Melvin Patrick Ely, James Whittenburg, Carol Sheriff, Leisa Meyer, Kimberley Phillips, Scott Nelson, Cindy Hahamovitch, Judith Ewell, Roz Steams, Betty Flanigan, Gail Conners, and the late John Selby. I must now extend my appreciation to those who got me over the “Great Divide” also known as the dissertation. During the 2006-2007 academic year, I was able to focus totally on my dissertation largely because of a dissertation-year fellowship that was awarded by the Southern Regional Education Board. I am thankful not only for the monthly stipend which allowed me to stop working, but also for the support of the SREB staff, including Dr. Ansley Abraham, Bob Belle, and Robbie Oust, and Sandra Jowers, a SREB alum, who took me on as a mentee. Now to my committee-extraordinaire: First, I thank my committee chair, Melvin Patrick Ely, who has read my work on several different continents as well as on various conveyances. We arrived at William and Mary at the same time, and I am thankful to call him teacher, mentor, and friend. Leisa Meyer, my second reader, thank you for your time, patience, and insistence that I expand my point of view even when the sources were not always cooperative. Kris Lane, my non-Americanist, and Theodore DeLaney, my outside reader, thank you both for taking on an unknown scholar. You, too, read my work in distant locations, and managed to give me thoughtful feedback. I appreciate you all for your guidance, feedback, and nudging. I feel that I have produced a better product and have become a better scholar because of you. I promise to pay it forward. Most of my research and second year of writing took place at the Library of Virginia. In fact, I have spent so much time at the LVA that, like “Norm” on Cheers, I am known when I walk through the door. The staff has been phenomenal. They answered my questions, made suggestions, and at times simply brightened my day with a smile. They vii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. will never know how much they helped. This group includes Gregg Kimball, Brent Tarter, Minor Weisiger, Chris Kolbe, Annette Robinson, Vanessa Weaver, Tanja Rhodes, Tina Miller, Tim Roberts, Amy Keown, Joyce Roach Derek Gray, Tom Crew, Virginia Dunn, Sue Miller, Cassandra Farrell, Jennifer McDaid, Patricia Watkinson, James Ray, Kelly Gilbert, Cara Griggs, Amanda Morell, Tricia Noel, Dawn Tinnell, Chris Higgins, the folks in special collections and at the reference desk, and Starling “Stony” King, who is not a member of the library staff but protects us all as we work. I am certainly no less appreciative of those who are unnamed here. I am also grateful to the taxpayers of Virginia for the Library of Virginia which is a fantastic place to sit and write. I have also spent a considerable amount time in the papers of Hanover County and Ashland’s governing bodies, and I thank: Carolyn Barnett, Estelletta E. Davis, Valerie Whiteside, Frank Hargrove, Jr., Robert Ostergren, Carolyn Fletcher, and the staff at the Hanover County Board of Supervisors Office. I also thank Klydie Thomas at the Maggie Walker Historic Site as well as all the wonderful people who shared their stories with me (see Appendix A). While my topic led me away from the Earl Gregg Swem Library at William and Mary, staff there helped me whenever possible.