Post · bonfire.cafe

There is a photograph. Chicago’s Polk Street Depot, Sept. 1920—8 figures against a plain wall, 2 battered suitcases between them. Weeks earlier in Paris, TX, 2 sons were lynched, their sisters raped, the family driven out. The image endures as proof: of flight, of what drove it, and of how long the fight for the smallest measure of human decency can take.
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#history #BlackAndWhite #Photography #Texas
Image: The Arthurs at Chicago Polk Street station, Sept. 4, 1920. Source: Chicago Defender.

A black and white photograph of the Arthurs in traveling clothing, suitcases, and coats. They are different ages, from old to younger. They all have a somber look on their faces. No one is smiling. Grief is written across their faces. They stand close together with the men on the outside in the back. A small child is in the middle.

Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco

@Deglassco@mastodon.social replied · last week

Paris, Texas, summer 1920. At the courthouse square stood a Confederate monument—stone proof that the Civil War had ended on paper, not in policy. Streets radiated outward: to the railroad depot, the shops, the fairgrounds, and, beyond, the Black district and sharecropper cabins.
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Image: Confederate Veteran Memorial Statue on the courthouse lawn in Paris,Texas. Photograph by Jim Bell, November 13, 2008. The Portal of Texas History.

A color photograph of a confederate soldier monument standing on a pedestal. The soldier has his arms and legs straight and a solid salute. The statue is dark and the pedestal is light gray. There are green and orange trees in the background. This is the monument to Confederate soldiers in front of the Lamar County Texas courthouse. It was erected by the united daughters of the confederacy in 1907.

Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco

@Deglassco@mastodon.social replied · last week

Herman, 28, had served in France with the U.S. Army engineers. Irving, 17, lived with him in their parents’ cabin on John Hodges’ land. Sharecropping bound them to a cycle of debt, but one custom was clear: no work after Saturday noon, and Sunday was a day of rest.
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Image: Paris Texas in the early 1900s. Source:
City of Paris Texas.
https://selectparistexas.com/live-in-paris/our-history/

A black and white image of downtown Paris, Texas in the early 20th century. There are early 20th century automobiles parked in a parking lot in front of commercial downtown buildings. A man walks down the sidewalk on the right hand side of the photo. Seven cars are in the parking lot and one car is taking off down the side street.

Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco

@Deglassco@mastodon.social replied · last week

Hodges broke the custom—ordered them to work Sunday. The Arthurs refused. Confrontations followed. Hodges and his son came armed; violence escalated. In the final clash, Will Hodges allegedly fired first. The Arthurs returned fire. Both Hodges men were killed.
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Image: A group of black sharecroppers in the early twentieth century. Image courtesy Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin.

A black and white photograph of six black sharecroppers picking cotton in a field. There are two women, a child, and three men in the background. The field is full of cotton plants in bloom. No one is smiling.

Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco

@Deglassco@mastodon.social replied · last week

The brothers fled but were betrayed by a man they knew, arrested in Oklahoma, and brought back. On July 6, 1920, a mob in Paris overpowered the jail. Thousands gathered at the fairgrounds. Herman and Irving were tied to a stake and burned alive. They never cried out.
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Image: A thousand people gathered to watch the lynching of Henry Smith in Paris, Texas, on February 1, 1893. Source: J. L. Mertins/Library of Congress Prints.

A black and white photograph of a lynching. There are four men and the victim standing on a pedestal and people standing on the steps leading up to the pedestal. There are thousands of people standing below the pedestal looking at the doomed man. Clouds are in the sky.

Dr. D. Elisabeth Glassco

@Deglassco@mastodon.social replied · last week

While the fire burned, their sisters—ages 14, 17, and 20—were “held for protection” in the county jail. There, they were beaten, stripped, and raped by 20 white men. No masks. No arrests. In Paris, a white man’s word could erase the law in an instant.
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Image: White men and boys pose beneath the body of Lige Daniels shortly after he was lynched on August 3, 1920, in Center, Texas. Equal Justice Initiative.

A disturbing black-and-white photograph of a lynching. There are men and boys standing below the body of a hanging man. Some are looking up at the man and others are looking into the camera. The mood is jovial.

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