gone before dawn: a sundown region,
a sunless world, & the inhumanities within
gone before dawn: a sundown region,
a sunless world, & the inhumanities within
-- Madelyn Eisele --
-- Madelyn Eisele --
Embedded Files
a sunless world, & the inhumanities within
the project:
the project:
I was inflicted with culture shock when first exposed to the Jackson Purchase region. My older siblings, Murray State University alumni, spoke of the region's...unique qualities, but I doubted a region only a four hour drive from Saint Louis, Missouri could be so different. In August of 2016, I shook off the apprehensive curiosity that arose within me after I drove past a Confederate flag proudly hung over western Kentucky's Interstate-24. I was unfazed by the stark contrast between my black Toyota RAV-4 blasting spirited music & the lifted, gas-guzzling trucks speeding past me emblazoned with stickers of Confederate flags, guns, & verbally aggressive phrases.
My freshman year in the Jackson Purchase was a period of atypical adjustments. Kentucky-born friends exposed me to southern phrases, foods, moonshine, hunting seasons, & museums honoring the 'lost cause' Confederacy. I learned to avoid certain counties & annual Hater Tater Day festivities. I uncomfortably laughed off casual racial slurs I heard, ignored white nationalist group recruiters allowed on campus, & pretended it was normal to see people of minority arrive in vans for their weekly trips to the local Walmart in larger numbers than in my own classes. After shock subsided, I was not surprised to hear that a group of students performed in ‘blackface’ at a campus event. I have no regrets of my college choice, but I constantly wondered why entering Kentucky felt like I traveled back in time. There must be a reason it's different, I thought. Never before was I surrounded by a community so proud of a period of history I found so reprehensible -- a history I viewed as hateful, immoral, & unnecessary.
My search for answers began after the 2018 Marshall County school shooting: though not a racial incident, it exhibits the hateful foundations of a county I have heard referred to as 'the best place in the world' & 'the whitest county in America.' The shooting occurred a few months after a western Kentucky white supremacist group’s promotional flyers covered Murray State's campus. Countless instances of hate shrugged off by local society transformed my perceptions of the region & evidenced my initial suspicions. This is certainly not representative of the University's values & this is not to suggest the entire region is racist or dangerous, but there exists a regional, demoralizing propensity to disregard, condone, & normalize such attitudes.
The region seems stuck in the past, a hateful & violent past too often minimized as ‘tradition.’ Many claim it expresses ‘southern heritage.’ That facade of cognitive dissonance is no justification for immoral & unacceptable ideology. A self-proclaimed white supremacist classmate once said I just do not understand it because I am not from the area; while true, four years of vague, avoidant, & confrontational answers to my questions tell me Purchase residents do not understand, either. Evoked either through beliefs or ignorance, 'southern heritage' defenses are inevitably motivated by their racist end; 'tradition' is sufficient for 'southern heritage,' but antiquated racism is a necessary condition.
The Jackson Purchase region is not alone in responsibility for promoting hate, but it is an appropriate launching pad for reform considering a Confederate battle flag was hung on Marshall County government property just last month.
This paper is written in the hope that, while this is Kentucky’s present, their future will enact reform.
the argument:
the argument:
Like British hollywood star Elton John’s pleas were denied in his 1974 song “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me,” African-Americans across the United States pleaded for the sun not to set on them, either -- for after sundown, African-Americans were targets of racial violence & expulsion throughout the twentieth century that bled a ruthless, sadistic, & indefensible legacy across the nation; still today, it has never been sufficiently acknowledged & the sun has never fully risen again for minorities across the world. This persistent problem exists within the prideful history of the Jackson Purchase region pertaining to the unheard voices of the African-Americans who constituted part of this society -- their voices were not lost, but rather silenced at the turn of the twentieth century in racial & violent expulsions upon lives whites considered inferior & expendable. This issue is not only understudied, it is also concealed by white power, tradition, & denial that persistently inhibit global progress.
The Jackson Purchase region is the ideal launching pad for this journey towards progress, for evidence exposes the region’s repressing celebration of a dangerous ‘lost cause’ cult of antiquity under the pretense of nostalgic ‘southern heritage.’ To set straight the historical record, this paper argues that the different instances of violence & expulsion that occurred there were not isolated, but resulted from inflamed individual hatreds & were a collective campaign to rid the entire region & surrounding areas of African-Americans; valorizing a hateful oppression which can be indefensibly equated to ethnic cleansing. This paper shows the Jackson Purchase area perilously avoids conversing about the atrocities of their previous generations for the sake of comfortability -- not unlike any other area around the world where, at one period in time, people viewed as expendable were grimly treated as such.
If the sun is ever to rise again for humanity, the dark legacy of this & every nation’s past must be brought to light.
the background:
the background:
the 'lost cause' Confederacy:
the 'lost cause' Confederacy:
The end of the Civil War signaled freedom to African-Americans while it threatened whites nationwide. Post-war harassment caused many African-Americans to establish local southern ‘all-black’ communities.[1] Later, one million others moved north in the Great Migration after the First World War.[2] The “negro problem” thus became a national psuedo-problem.[3] Desperate to preserve their romanticized society, white southerners salvaged their ego by revising history to valorize the ‘Old South,’ the ‘New South,’ & the ‘lost cause’ Confederacy.[4] White northerners prepared for the oncoming surge of unwanted African-American neighbors.[5] Society cracked along tense lines as racial stereotypes, violence, & mass expulsions ensued nationwide.
The second annual Southern Conference on Quarantine & Immigration in 1906[6] showed a growing consensus of opinion that “inferior” African-Americans were holding the South back from making the land “literally a white man’s country.”[7] Jackson Purchase region whites, particularly, feared the consequences of change & incited violence into the twentieth century in a programme to restore their white utopia.[8] The result -- the region’s answer to the ‘race question’ -- was a collective campaign to rid the entire region & surrounding areas of African-Americans. Instances of violence & expulsion in the Purchase region resulted from indefensible individual hatreds, inflamed since the Civil War, that still exist there today.
[1] Suzanne Marshall, Violence in the Black Patch of Kentucky and Tennessee (University of Missouri, 1994) 54.
[2] James Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York, NY: The New Press, 2018) 58.
[3] Selected Articles on the Negro Problem (New York, NY: H.W. Wilson Co., 1921); Booker T Washington, et al., The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles By Representative American Negroes of Today, version 2005 (J. Pott & Company, 1903), https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15041/15041-h/15041-h.htm.
[4] Marshall, 49.
[5] Loewen, 58.
[6] “The Immigration and Quarantine Conference: The Race Problem,” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 18, No. 364, p4, November 13, 1906 (Murray State University: Pogue Archives) https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/87/.
[7] “The Negro Question,” The Bourbon News, Volume 26, No. 36, p6, Paris, KY, November 20, 1906 (Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University: Digitized Collection) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069873/1906-11-20/ed-1/seq-6/; Jaspin, 89.
[8] Richard Troutman, ed., The Heavens Are Weeping: The Diaries of George R. Browder, 1852-1886, 136; Johanna L. Underwood Nazro, diary, typescript, 64 (Murray State University: Pogue Library and Museum, digitized).
Original picture, sourced: “The Immigration and Quarantine Conference: The Race Problem,” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 18, No. 364, p4, Marshall County, November 13, 1906 (Murray State University: Pogue Archives) https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/87/.
the sundown towns:
the sundown towns:
Race relations systematically worsened between 1890 & 1940.[1] Much attention is rightfully bestowed upon violent & extralegal race relations practices, such as lynchings.[2] Between 1877 & 1934, at least 186 African-Americans were lynched in Kentucky, & 50 killings occurred in the Purchase region alone.[3] Omitted from the historical record in sharp contrast, however, are early twentieth century ‘sundown towns’ where innocent African-Americans were violently forced to flee by the indefensible, bloody hands of small-town whites. Defined as “any organized jurisdiction that for decades kept [most] African-Americans or other groups from living in it,” with limited exceptions, sundown towns were thus ‘all-white’ on purpose.[4] While lynchings have ceased in America, though only declared a federal crime this year,[5] sundown towns & the practice of pressuring out unwanted individuals still continues today.
Thousands of sundown towns exist across America with 62 discovered in Kentucky thus far & almost 500 in Illinois alone. It is no surprise -- but not any less alarming -- that towns where racial violence & expulsion occurred are still majority white towns by margins over 75%.[6] This statistic is not one which is boasted about, but is concealed; residents nationwide retain their “naturally all-white” image by avoiding the history of how they achieved it.[7] They erase the violence, though not the racism, from their minds. This is how racism is concealed, can survive through generations, and be violently actualized. Nationwide racism was even reflected on state welcome signs which read some version of, “Ni**er, Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on You in [name of town],”[8] for any African-Americans seen after sundown were at the mercy of whatever local white mobs had in mind.
Power dynamics set the tone for America's hidden history of racism, violence, & expulsion. News of these events spread quickly in newspapers &, like state signs warned African-Americans around residential areas, rumors of recent attacks alerted African-Americans nationwide. Early cases set the precedent for creating desired 'all-white' towns using unmitigated violence, arson, & signage. In cases thereafter, physical violence & warnings were not necessary to make diverse individuals feel unwelcome. Widespread hatreds, unspoken threats, & subtle intimidations that pervaded the atmosphere worked just as well. Nationwide reputations & rumors of the inceptive violence were sufficient to intimidate minorities everywhere. The majority of sundown towns were achieved not through violence, but through the nonverbal power dynamics & attitudes that worked so well to deplete African-American populations.
[1] James Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York, NY: The New Press, 2018) 7.
[2] Ibid., 6.
[3] The Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice, Montgomery, Alabama, 2020, https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial.
[4] Loewen, 4.
[5] Jacey Fortin, “Congress Moves to Make Lynching a Federal Crime After 120 Years of Failure,” New York Times, February 26, 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/politics/anti-lynching-bill.html.
[6] Robert Zangrando, The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909-1950, (Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 1980) 51.
[7] Loewen, 102.
[8] Ibid.,, 72.
the Jackson Purchase: a sundown region
the Jackson Purchase: a sundown region
Marshall County, one of eight counties within the Jackson Purchase region, is home to over 31,000 people, only .5% of whom are African-American.[1] Comparatively, the neighboring town of Murray has had 6% of African-Americans in a steady population of 20,000 for the past two decades.[2] This sharp contrast is not unintentional: if Marshall County had its way a century ago, the percentage of African-Americans there would be nonexistent. Marshall County’s history was unexplored for over a century, so no one questioned how almost 400 African-Americans disappeared entirely between 1900 & the 1920s. It was not that African-Americans did not want to live in the Purchase region, it was that they were "not welcome."[3]
The Black Patch Tobacco War between 1904 & 1909 allowed white residents of the Purchase region to actualize their racial aggression against the backdrop of economic warfare. The Dark Tobacco District Planters’ Protective Association (PPA) raided tobacco farms to protest the American Tobacco Company (ATC).[4] However, their meetings on the economic state transformed into aggressive discussions of the “ni**er problem."[5] Their paramilitary gang of over 10,000 members became known as the ‘Night Riders’[6] as their violence turned into carefully planned nocturnal attacks on African-American farmers & residents.[7] After raiding the Kentucky towns of Princeton, Hopkinsville, Eddyville, Kelsey, Russellville, & the entirety of Crittenden County, the African-American population within the town of Birmingham was a tempting target.[8]
In April 1908, squads cut the town’s telephone lines & patrolled the streets while others raided & burned homes to drive out all African-Americans.[9] More than a dozen were directed towards a nearby river, tortured for almost an hour, & were ordered to “leave Birmingham and remain away.”[10] The pleas of African-American children, begging “Don’t kill us all! Don’t shoot us all!,” were denied.[11] Several victims were murdered. The rule of law in the Purchase region collapsed in the following months as Night Riders, farmers, & townspeople raided town after town throughout the region into the 1920s.[12] Notices were posted ordering out all “ni**ers, or else,” & towns were deserted within hours.[13] By 1909 when the Kentucky State Guard arrived to try restore law & order in the region, African-Americans had been violated & expelled from at least eight towns within four counties surrounding & within the Purchase region; this includes attempts in Murray in Calloway County, Kentucky.[14]
Purchase residents have either suppressed in their memory, never learned of, or simply do not care about the few hundreds of African-Americans who were threatened, torn from their families, dragged from their homes, tortured, & killed after the sun set in 1908. The Marshall County African-American community settled in Birmingham in 1853. The town has since been conveniently buried beneath artificial lake waters near the Kentucky Dam,[15] which was built later by African-Americans in a segregated “Negro Village Site” who were - surprise, surprise - expelled after completion.[16] Several Night Rider perpetrators faced lawful trial & prosecution, but this does not equal moral justice. The judicial process was perfunctory, just going through the motions, & the majority of perpetrators faced no consequences or even societal backlash.[17] The footprints of hatred outlive the community, however, & brand the entire Purchase region a ‘sundown town’ legacy.
Original picture, sourced: “Reign of Terror in Calloway,” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.72, p6, Murray, KY, March 24, 1908 (Library of Congress: Chronicling America from Murray State University Digital Archives) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052114/1908 -03-24/ed-1/seq-1/.
Picture & information sourced: Loewen, 72.
Some areas warned African-Americans not to enter by signage. Some used sirens. Most, however, effectively maintained an all-white population through rumor & reputation alone.
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The image of a black mule, most common in the Jackson Purchase region & surrounding areas, signaled African-Americans to "get their black ass" out. Many of these were carved, by whites & African-Americans, & are still extant.
Signs warning African-Americans to stay out of the area were placed on both the east & west sides of the Jackson Purchase region.
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"There was a big sign on the road at the Kentucky state line...to the west [at the Purchase entrance]: "Ni**er, don't let the sun set on your head.' The Negroes rarely ever passed through; if they did, they made haste to get through."
Just outside the east side of the Purchase, in Rockcastle County with an all-white population of almost 15,000, a sundown sign was in place as late as the mid-1990s.
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Then, the Kentucky state line to the east had a sundown in Morgan County.
the white media: a case study
the white media: a case study
Nineteenth & twentieth century American newspaper archives reveal a prejudiced consensus against African-Americans in southern media. Southern newspapers held no hesitations reporting instances of racial violence & expulsions; however, their witnesses & sources were predominantly white. Though reporters appeared to do so impartially, meticulous analysis reveals writers were not equitable or objective. Sociological research acknowledges cognitive inflexibility, in that public reception is swift to question a victim’s judgement rather than a perpetrator’s mindset.[1] This reflects southern media’s examinations of African-American presence in Purchase region towns: media reports focused on the whereabouts of “coloreds” & why they were in town at all rather than assessing the intentions & inducements of the white mob’s activities. Further, detailed accounts reflected white outrage at African-American presence rather than delineations of the hate crimes whites committed.[2] Collectively, southern newspapers reflected that hateful attitudes permeated throughout the entire Jackson Purchase region seemed to be the rule, the norm, & not the exception.
One article [right] entitled “Mob Law: Marshall County Broke Loose Again” exemplifies the aforementioned, detailing a Marshall County expulsion in 1896.[3] The strategic use of resident’s quotes -- like “Well, I’ll have me a ni**er tonight, shure!” -- warns African-Americans & encourages the perpetrators; future events prove this effective. The headline alone implies this event was one within an intentioned series of atrocious & deadly incidents dating back to the 1890s. It states it was an accident that none were killed, reinforcing that the death of African-Americans was the regionally-known purpose. The article focused on the “coloreds” in a most inhumane fashion, for which the purpose of the information seemed more to monitor them rather than benefit their human welfare.[4] The admission that “antipathy to the colored race has existed for the past thirty years… they are not safe after sundown” might as well be the “colored’s” ticket out of town; over a decade later, similar thoughts occurred to the 400 African-Americans who disappeared from the region.[5]
A different newspaper addressed the notices to “leave, or else” posted in Marshall County & read, “only six ni**ers remain…[they] are thoroughly intimidated & it is the rightful general opinion that every colored person in Benton will leave.”[6] Amidst this scare & violence upon African-Americans in the region, the newspaper headlines the next day read, “Quiet at Benton: Everything is peaceful here even despite disquieting rumors….”[7] The same newspaper in an article entitled “Let Us Be Americans” regarded the recent “national pride in achievement & capability,” reporting, “we are a superior race…” & “a great moral wave is sweeping this country...proof of national character…& satisfaction to the American public.”[8] These expressions of American dignity & character -- which, of course, then only applied to whites -- contradict simultaneous white actions; they seized this pride in person-hood from others while the sun set on African-American’s mangled & forgotten lives. These expressions in the media evince the mindsets of the Purchase community & highlight that, ingrained & socially conditioned into the subconscious mind, hateful attitudes & ideas of superiority survive by tradition; namely, in this study, the Jackson Purchase region’s ‘southern heritage.’
Original picture, sourced:
"Mob Law: Marshall County Broke Loose Again." The Paducah Daily Sun, Volume 1, No.57. November 17, 1896. Library of Congress: Chronicling America (from Murray State University Digital Archives) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052118/1896-11-17/ed-1/seq-1/.
"Mob Law: Marshall County Broke Loose Again." The Paducah Daily Sun, Volume 1, No.57. November 17, 1896. Library of Congress: Chronicling America (from Murray State University Digital Archives) https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052118/1896-11-17/ed-1/seq-1/.
the global resolutions:
the global resolutions:
Hateful attitudes in the Purchase region connected to violent outbursts in a collective campaign intended to rid the region of lives considered expendable; this was also a nationally interconnected problem that seems globally familiar. Global hatreds & atrocities relate to several historical roots -- from ‘God, Gold, Glory’ to nationalism & eurocentrism, to name a few -- all of which have grimly impacted the globe in unrepairable ways. Hate survives in the idea of difference, the concept of the ‘other;’ along with ambition & capability, it posits global threats because it encourages, as if socially acceptable, viewing certain groups of people as inferior or expendable.
The dangerous glorification of ‘tradition’ and cults of antiquity promote the hatreds & crimes against humanity that still occur today. Therefore, not only does ‘living in the past’ inhibit progress, it detriments any attempt for progression. The Jackson Purchase region seems to struggle with the idea of change; continued traditions exhibit that many residents hold hatreds they minimize as ‘southern heritage’ & have no logical justification for besides ‘tradition.’ Civil War memorabilia many glorify are simply honorary trophies acknowledging participation, a ‘thanks for playing, we’ll take it from here’ medal used as a pretense for hurt ego & racism. ‘Southern heritage’ & ‘tradition’ reflect hidden antiquated racism whether or not it is admitted. Concealing or disregarding the history of racial violence & expulsion just for the sake of comfortability furthers this immoral, unacceptable ideology.
The racial expulsions that occurred across America equate to ethnic cleansing, a crime against humanity & characteristic of genocide. It is defined by the United Nations as “rendering an area ethnically homogenous by using force or intimidation to remove persons of given groups from the area.”[1] Various counties & states surrounding western Kentucky and the Purchase region passed legislation acknowledging & attempting to repair the wrongdoings of their past generations, specifically violence & expulsion.[2] The Jackson Purchase has a serious identity crisis regarding race, however, & has yet to even acknowledge their violent, intentful instances of driving away & killing African-Americans. The region still partakes in hateful practices, as well, which is why it provides an appropriate starting place for this journey.
Like the areas surrounding the region, the Jackson Purchase needs to acknowledge their past socially & legally to start the journey towards global progress. It is imperative that Marshall County be recognized as a ‘sundown town,’ the entire Jackson Purchase region be considered a ‘sundown region,’ & the violent mass expulsion of African-Americans be accounted for as an ethnic cleansing. Then, an active, transcending emphasis on prevention rather than acknowledgement after the fact is necessary to eradicate hate & inhumanity; so the world may progress towards a just & sunshiney future. Otherwise, those viewed as expendable across the world will continue to be treated as such, and the sun that set on African-Americans in the small town of Birmingham will never rise again for persecuted minorities anywhere.
"I dreamed about a culture of belonging. I still dream that dream. I contemplate what our lives will be like if we knew how to cultivate awareness, to live mindfully, peacefully; if we learned habits of being that would bring us closer together, that would help us build beloved communities. I like that dream." - Bell Hooks, an African-American female writer born in the Jackson Purchase region of western Kentucky
(Quoted in: William Michael Hamm, "Destination Goree: A Dialogic Analysis of the Dialectic of Un-Belonging and Belonging as Rehearsed and Performed Through Diasporic Tourism," University of California Los Angeles, Dissertation, p113, 2015, eScholarship Open Access Publications UCLA, https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1251d4mn.)
the recommendations:
the recommendations:
The Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Montgomery, Alabama. 2020. https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial.
Articles
Whatever your reaction to my experience in the Jackson Purchase, check out this Kentuckian's article: "A Black Girls History with Southern Frat Racism."
"Kentucky Lake's Underwater Ghost Town."
"When "Heritage" Means "Hate."
"'I'm From the South' Isn't a Reason to be Racist."
"I'm a Black Man who Moved to the South. Here's What I've Learned About Race."
"Black People on Display: The Forgotten History of Human Zoos."
"Sundown Towns: A History of Resisting Desegregation."
"Without Fear or Shame: Lynching, Capital Punishment, and the Subculture of Violence in the American South," James Clarke, British Journal of Political Science, 1998.
Kentucky is scientifically the most stressed state.
Books
Elton John, Me (autobiography), 2019.
Ralph Ginzburg, 100 Years of Lynchings, 1996.
Patrick Phillips, Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America, 2016.
Douglas A. Blackmon, Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II (on neoslavery), 2009.
Harriet A. Washington, Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present, 2008.
Ben Kiernan, Blood and Soil: A World History of Genocide and Extermination from Sparta to Darfur, 2007.
Cameron McWhirter, Red Summer: Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America (on riots and lynching), 2012.
David Goldfield, Still Fighting the Civil War: The American South and Southern History.
Mark Mathabane, Kaffir Boy, 1986.
Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, 2018.
Marion Lucas, A History of Blacks in Kentucky: From Slavery to Segregation, 1760-1891, 1992.
Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, 2017.
Carol Anderson, White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide, 2017.
Movies
American History X, 1998. BlacKkKlansman, 2018. Green Book, 2018. Cry Freedom, 1987. Final Solution, 2001. The Power of One, 1992.
Cited Works
“Another Strike, Farmer and Family Killed after Dark,” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No. 72, p6, Calloway County, KY. March 24, 1908. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University: Digitized Collection.
https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052114/1908-03- 24/ed-1/seq-1/.
“Fear at Benton.” The Bee, Volume 19, No.13, Earlington, KY. March 26, 1908. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University Digital Archives. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87060004/1908-03-26/ed-1/seq-6/.
Fortin, Jacey. “Congress Moves to Make Lynching a Federal Crime After 120 Years of Failure.” New York Times. February 26, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/26/us/politics/anti-lynching-bill.html.
Hamm, William Michael. "Destination Goree: A Dialogic Analysis of the Dialectic of Un-Belonging and Belonging as Rehearsed and Performed Through Diasporic Tourism." University of California Los Angeles. Dissertation. 2015. EScholarship Open Access Publications UCLA. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1251d4mn.
Jaspin, Elliot. Buried in the Bitter Waters: The Hidden History of Racial Cleansing in America. Basic Books, New York, NY. 2007.
“Let Us Be Americans.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.73. March 29, 1908. Murray State University: Pogue Library Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/619/.
Loewen, James. Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. The New Press, New York, NY. 2018.
Lyle Jr., Eugene P. “They That Ride By Night.” Hampton’s Magazine, Volume 23, No. 2. March, 1909. Google Books.
Marshall, Suzanne. Violence in the Black Patch of Kentucky and Tennessee. University of Missouri, 1994.
“Mob Law: Marshall County Broke Loose Again.” The Paducah Daily Sun, Volume 1, No.57. November 17, 1896. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University Digital Archives. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052118/1896-11-17/ed-1/seq-1/.
Nazro, Johanna L. Underwood. Diary, p64, typescript. Murray State University: Pogue Library, digitized.
“Negroes Leaving.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.72. March 28, 1908. Murray State University: Pogue Library Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/618/.
“Negro Village Site (Marshall County, KY).” Notable Kentucky African Americans Database. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://nkaa.uky.edu/nkaa/items/show/996.
"Night Riders Indicted." The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.73. March 25, 1908. Murray State University: Pogue Library Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/619.
“Night Riders Shoot Negro: He Did Not Run Fast Enough.” The Bee, Volume 19, No. 13, Hopkinsville, KY. March 26, 1908. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University Digital Archives. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87060004/1908-03-26/ed-1/seq-6/.
“Night Riders Shoot Seven Blacks at Birmingham, Marshall County, & Whip Others in that Town.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.60. March 10, 1908. Murray State University: Pogue Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/606.
“Quiet at Benton.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.73. March 29, 1908. Murray State University: Pogue Library Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/619/.
“Reign of Terror in Calloway.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No.72, p6, Murray, KY. March 24, 1908. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University Digital Archives. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85052114/1908-03-24/ed-1/seq-1/.
“Remembering an Underwater Town in Marshall County, Kentucky.” WPSD Local News 6. October 31, 2015. https://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/remembering-an-underwater-town-in-marshall-county-kentucky/article_447297fb-ac22-5443-92c2 b7268d30a783.html.
Selected Articles on the Negro Problem. New York, NY. H.W. Wilson Co., 1921.
“The Immigration and Quarantine Conference: The Race Problem.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 18, No. 364, p4. November 13, 1906. Murray State University: Pogue Library Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/87/.
The Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice. Montgomery, Alabama. 2020. https://museumandmemorial.eji.org/memorial.
“The Negro Question.” The Bourbon News, Volume 26, No. 36, p6, Paris, KY. November 20, 1906. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University: Digitized Collection. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069873/1906-11-20/ed-1/seq-6/.
“Tobacco Growers Warned.” The Paducah Evening Sun, Volume 23, No. 60, Mayfield, KY. March 10, 1908. Murray State University: Pogue Library Digital Archives. https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/pes/606/.
Troutman, Richard ed. The Heavens Are Weeping: The Diaries of George R. Browder, 1852-1886. Zondervan, 1987.
“United Nations Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect.” United Nations. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://www.un.org/en/genocideprevention/ethnic-cleansing.shtml.
United States Census Bureau: Marshall County, Kentucky. United States Government. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/marshallcountykentucky.
United States Census Bureau: Murray, Kentucky. United States Government. Accessed April 20, 2020. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/murraykentucky.
“Violence Again Prominent in Marshall County.” The Bee, Volume 19, No.13, Earlington, KY. March 26, 1908. Library of Congress: Chronicling America, from Murray State University Digital Archives. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87060004/1908-03-26/ed-1/seq-6/.
Waldrep, Christopher. Night Riders, Defending Community in the Black Patch, 1890-1915. Duke University Press, Durham, N.C. 1993.
Washington, Booker T., et al. The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles By Representative American Negroes of Today, version 2005. J. Pott & Company, 1903. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15041/15041-h/15041-h.htm.
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Zangrando, Robert. The NAACP Crusade Against Lynching, 1909-1950. Temple University Press, Philadelphia, PA. 1980.
"Don't discard me just because you think I mean you harm...
Losing everything is like the sun going down on me"
Elton John, 1974
the author
the author
Madelyn Eisele | meisele@murraystate.edu
Madelyn Eisele | meisele@murraystate.edu
is a student of history & philosophy excited to graduate in May 2020 from Murray State University. She has been exploring the Jackson Purchase since her culture shock exposure to the region in 2016.
She enjoys spending long nights drinking wine & reprimanding injustices, is known to smile & dance spontaneously, & can make a fabulous salad.
Her future holds more research & endless adventures.
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