Passing Strange
Page 44
63 “Negroes Ask Roosevelt to Act in Race Riot,” New York Times, Oct. 11, 1906, 4.
64 For weeks, local residents of the deeply segregated town had provoked the soldiers, and on a hot mid-August night in 1906 a handful of soldiers allegedly went on a nighttime shooting spree through the town. When the troops refused to identify their guilty comrades, Roosevelt dismissed “without honor” all 167 of the black troops stationed at Fort Brown on the night of the shooting, including six who had received the Medal of Honor. Wetmore argued that Roosevelt had no right to punish the black soldiers without a formal court-martial or trial. See “Negro Soldiers to Sue on Roosevelt’s Order,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 1906, 6; “Col. Bacon Challenges Dismissal of Troops,” New York Times, Jan. 3, 1907, 3; Gerald Astor, The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military (Novato, CA: Presidio Press, 1998), 79-89.
Subsequent investigations cast doubt on the soldiers’ involvement in the nighttime shootings; in 1972 President Richard Nixon directed the army to redress the wrongs by granting retrospective honorable discharges to the men involved and a token payment to the one surviving soldier.
65 Wetmore’s letter to the editor of the Evening Post is reprinted in New York Age, Nov. 15, 1906, 5.
66 See, for example, the ads that ran in the New York Age beginning on May 23, 1907, 5.
67 In 1904 Perry represented the heirs of George T. Downing, a “mulatto” resident of Newport, in a bizarre lawsuit against some of New York’s most formidable public figures. Perry charged that the Adirondack land upon which the Morgans and Vanderbilts had built their summer camps actually belonged to the Downing heirs, who had inherited property deeds given to a group of black beneficiaries in the 1840s by the abolitionist Gerrit Smith. When the state of New York passed a law in 1846 that required all “men of color” to possess $250 in real estate in order to vote, Smith redistributed his own property to enfranchise a group of black New Yorkers. “Negro’s Heirs Claim Vast Game Preserves,” New York Times, Nov. 18, 1904, 6; “Tale of Gerrit Smith behind Adirondack Suit: Downing Heirs’ Story Runs Back to Eccentric Philanthropist,” New York Times, Nov. 19, 1904, 11; “The Rev. Rufus L. Perry Dead,” New York Times, June 20, 1895, 16. The New York State law regarding property qualifications for enfranchisement was repealed in 1868. See Franklin Johnson, The Development of State Legislation Concerning the Free Negro (1919; repr., Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979), 148-49.
68 Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks v. Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (60 Misc. 223, 111 N.Y.S. 1067).
69 Plaintiff’s Trial Memorandum, 181.
70 Winne Deposition (19 Nov. 1931), 2.
71 Johnson, Along This Way, 241.
72 On Wetmore’s real estate career, see “The Real Estate Field,” New York Times, Feb. 21, 1914, 16; “Hotel Langwell Sold to Investors,” New York Times, Feb. 24, 1923, 19; “Latest Dealings in Realty Field,” New York Times, Mar. 11, 1923, RE15; “Big Loft in Trade,” New York Times, June 10, 1924, 35.
73 Johnson, Along This Way, 390.
74 Ibid., 252.
75 “ ‘Doug’ Wetmore, Prominent Lawyer, Commits Suicide by Shooting Self with Revolver at His Summer House,” New York Age, Aug. 2, 1930, 1.
76 1930 U.S. Federal Census, New York City, New York County, NY, SD 22, ED 31-491, sheet 34B, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/print_u.aspx?dbid=6224&iid=NYT626_1559-1038 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007).
77 James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man (1912; repr., Dover thrift ed., New York: Dover, 1995), 90.
78 Ibid., 99-100. Johnson published his book anonymously in 1912. Ada probably did not read it, and neither she nor anyone else would associate the book’s protagonist with Wetmore; scholars working with Johnson’s papers would not discover that connection until more than half a century later.
79 I have been unsuccessful in locating any official name change notices for Ada Todd and her children in the New York records.
80 Trow’s Business Directory of the Borough of Queens, City of New York, 1904 (New York: Trow Directory, Printing & Bookbinding, 1904), 42 ; Trow’s Business Directory of the Borough of Queens, City of New York, 1906-7 (New York: Trow Directory, Printing & Bookbinding, 1906), 20.
81 Trow’s Business Directory of the Borough of Queens, City of New York, 1908-9 (New York: Trow Directory, Printing & Bookbinding, 1908), 12.
82 See the entry for Todd Household, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Queens, NY, 34th Ward, SD 2, ED 1290, sheets 8A and 8B, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7884&path=New+York.Queens.Queens+Ward+3.1290.15 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007).
83 Martha Hodes, “Fractions and Fictions,” in Stoler, Haunted by Empire, 264; Goldberg, Racial Subjects, 37.
84 Todd Household, 1910 census.
85 Virgil H. Hite and Ada N. King, Certificate and Record of Marriage, 17 Mar. 1913, certificate no. 6793, New York City Department of Records and Information Services, Municipal Archives; World War I draft registration card, Virgil Hite, Miller County, AR, 5 June 1917, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com /iexec/?htx=View& r=5542 & dbid = 6482 & iid =AR-1530561- 0258&fn=Virgil&ln=Hite&st=r&ssrc=&pid=23882999 (accessed Aug. 18, 2007); see the entry for Virgil Hite, 1910 U.S. Federal Census, Murfreesboro Town, Thompson Township, Pike County, AR, SD 4, ED 96, sheet 1A, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=5542&dbid =7884 & iid = ART624 _ 60-1317& fn =Virgil+A& ln = Hite & st= r& ssrc= & pid =191642392 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007); see the entry for 942 Third Ave., 1910 U.S. Federal Census, New York, NY, 19th Ward, SD 1, ED 1136, sheets 1A and B, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7884&path=New+York.New+York.Manhattan+Ward+19.1136.1 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007); see the entry for 942 Third Ave., 1900 U.S. Federal Census, Manhattan, New York County, NY, SD 1, ED 654, sheet 14A, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=7602&path=New+York.New+York.Manhattan.654.34 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007).
86 James A. Burns and Grace M. King, Certificate and Record of Marriage, 3 Sept. 1913, certificate no. 21886, New York City Department of Records and Information Services, Municipal Archives.
87 Information courtesy of Grace’s granddaughter, Patricia Chacon, personal communication with author, Wilmington, NC, June 20, 2006.
88 Ada Hite said in 1929 that her husband was also a soldier stationed at Fort Totten when she married him in 1913. Either Hite misrepresented his profession and his address on his marriage certificate, or he joined the military soon thereafter. See “Man Shot in Car Mystifies Police,” New York Evening Post, Nov. 14, 1929, 4; “Widow Keeps Hope Burning,” Amsterdam News, Nov. 29, 1933, 1, 3.
89 “Bills Against Intermarriage Being Introduced in Various Legislatures,” New York Age, Jan. 23, 1913, 1.
90 This information on Clarence Burns comes from his application for a Social Security number on Nov. 25, 1936. He identifies his father as James Burns and his mother as Mildred Bergan. He gives his date of birth as June 8, 1910, and identifies his “color” as “white.” See “U. S. Social Security Act, Application for Account Number,” 056-10-1871.
91 Grace Burns, Certificate of Birth, State of NY, no. 5134, filed July 21, 1915.
92 State of New York, Department of Health of the City of New York, Bureau of Records, Standard Certificate of Death for Grace Margaret Burns, record no. 113, 5 Jan. 1916, and Standard Certificate of Death for Grace Margaret Burns, record no. 156, 7 Jan. 1916, New York City Department of Records and Information Services, Municipal Archives. Grace King Burns is buried in plot 532-R in Flushing Cemetery.
93 Information on James Burns’s profession comes from his granddaughter, Patricia Chacon, personal communication with author, June 20, 2006. On the makeup of Ada’s household in 1910 (Todd) and 1920 (King, where Clarence and Thelma Burns are listed as her grandchildren and members of her household), see the U.S. federal census records for Queens. The census records for 1920 and 1930 variously list the children’s father as born in Michigan and Tennessee.
94 “Man Shot in Auto Dies,” New York Ti
mes, Nov. 15, 1929, 22; “Man Shot in Car Mystifies Police,” New York Evening Post, Nov. 14, 1929, 4 (these accounts of a shooting to which the younger Ada King was a witness make reference to her early marriage and divorce). Ada is back living with her mother and using her maiden name by 1920; see Ada King, 1920 U.S. Federal Census, Flushing, Queens, NY, SD 4, ED 216, sheet 1B, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=6 0 61 & path=New+York.Queens .Queens+Assembly+District+ 4.216.2 & fn =Ada& ln = King& st=r& pid = 48685357& rc= & zp =50 (accessed Aug. 18, 2007).
95 Patricia Chacon, personal communication with author, June 20, 2006.
96 World War I draft registration card, Virgil Hite.
97 Quoted in Gerald Astor, The Right to Fight: A History of African Americans in the Military (Novato, CA: Presidio, 1998), 110.
98 For Sidney King’s military records, see Sidney C. King Military Service Record, New York State Archives, and World War I draft registration card, Sidney King, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=6482&path=New+York.Queens+City.185.K.215&rc=&zp=100 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007). For James Weldon Johnson’s view of the Fifteenth Regiment, see Johnson, Black Manhattan, 231-38. On the terms of Sidney King’s discharge, see Regulations for the Army of the United States 1913 (New York: Military Publishing, [1918]), 37-38. On the Fifteenth Regiment, see also Emmett J. Scott, Scott’s Official History of the Negro in the World War (n.p., 1919), 197-213. Also accessible on Ancestry.com is a copy of the blank form introduced for World War I draft registrations on June 5, 1917, which includes the directions to the draft board registrars about race.
99 World War I draft registration card, Wallace Archer King, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=6482&path=New+York.Queens+City.185.K.216&rc=&zp=100 (accessed Aug. 9, 2007).
100 Astor, The Right to Fight, 110.
101 Wallace A. King, Abstract of World War I Military Service, New York State Archives.
102 W. E. B. DuBois, “Our Special Grievances” and “The Reward” [editorials], The Crisis 16 (Sept. 1918), 217, cited in Ulysses Lee, The Employment of Negro Troops (Washington, DC: Office of the Chief of Military History, United States Army, 1966), 4-5.
103 “Will Rule at West Point,” Washington Post, Aug. 21, 1912, 6 ; “Promotions in Army,” Washington Post, July 4, 1916, [1]; “Army Orders,” Washington Post, Sept. 7, 1917, 6.
104 Ida Clyde Clarke, American Women and the World War (New York: D. Appleton, 1918), chap. 30, http://www.lib.byu.edu/~rdh/wwi/comment/Clarke/Clarke30.htm (accessed Aug. 19, 2007).
105 King family, 1920 U.S. Federal Census.
106 Complaint, King v. Peabody et al.; Sidney King, Incompetent, case 12586-1921, Kings County Clerk’s Office; New York State Department of Health Certificate of Death, 42437, for Sidney C. King (d. 10 July 1942), New York State Department of Health, Vital Records Section, Albany. The death certificate notes that he had suffered from “dementia praecox,” another term for schizophrenia, since approximately 1918. For his profession as a laborer, see the 1920 census records. For the designation of mental patients as “inmates,” see 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Kings Park State Hospital, Smith Town, Village of Kings Park, Suffolk County, NY, ED 109, SD 36, sheet 14A http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=5542&dbid=6224&iid=NYT626_1652-0112&fn=Sydney&ln=King&st=r&ssrc=&pid=46459090 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007).
107 “Queens Contractor Shot,” New York Times, Nov. 14, 1929, 34; “Man, Shot in Auto, Dies,” New York Times, Nov. 15, 1929, 22; “Sought in Queens Killing,” New York Times, Nov. 16, 1929, 10; “Woman Held in Queens Murder,” New York Times, Nov. 17, 1929, 20; “Man Shot in Car Mystifies Police,” New York Evening Post, Nov. 14, 1929, 4; “In Mystery Shooting” [photo], New York Daily News, Nov. 15, 1929, front page, pink ed.
108 “Widow Keeps Hope Burning,” Amsterdam News, Nov. 29, 1933, 1-2.
109 See the entry for the King family, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Flushing, Queens, NY, SD 34, ED 40-1090, sheet 2A, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/Browse/view.aspx?dbid=6224&path=New+York.Queens.Queens+(Districts+1001-1250).1095.3 (accessed Aug. 9, 2007).
110 Ibid.; Goldberg, Racial Subjects, 35-36.
111 Kings Park State Hospital, 1930 U.S. Federal Census.
112 Patricia Chacon, personal communication with author, June 20, 2006, and e-mail communication to author, June 27, 2006.
113 Patricia Chacon, personal communication with author, June 20, 2006, and phone call to author, Sept. 21, 2005.
114 “National Affairs,” Time, Apr. 6, 1925, http://time-proxy.yaga.com/time/archive/printout/0,23657,720125,00.html; Napoleon Hill, The Law of Success in Sixteen Lessons (Meriden, CT: Ralston University Press, 1928), 64.
115 “M. W. Littleton Sr. Lawyer, Dies at 62,” New York Times, Dec. 20, 1934, 1, 23.
116 “Many Candidates Admitted to Bar,” New York Times, Apr. 13, 1924, E22; “Raid Nassau Speakeasies,” New York Times, Sept. 14, 1929, 37. The only reference to Littleton serving as Ada King’s attorney is in Wynne Response, King v. Peabody et al.
117 Plaintiff’s Trial Memorandum, Brief No. 2, 24.
CHAPTER 10: THE TRIAL
1 “The Weather,” New York Times, Nov. 21, 1933, 41.
2 “Negro Woman Sues,” 2; “White Scientist’s Love Letters,” sec. 1, 5.
3 “Widow Tells of Ceremony and Children,” 1-2.
4 “Old Negress Suing Estate, Reveals Love,” New York Daily Mirror, Nov. 21, 1933, 3, 8.
5 “ ‘Bloods’ Hid Scion’s Love,” 3.
6 “Widow Keeps Hope Burning,” 1.
7 “Colored Woman Sues as Widow of Society Man,” New York Daily News, Nov. 20, 1933, Manhattan ed., 3; “Mammy Bares Life,” 3; “Old Negress,” 3.
8 “ ‘Bloods’ Hid Scion’s Love,” 3.
9 “Widow Tells of Ceremony and Children,” 1-2; “New York Woman in Court Fight to Recover $80,000,” Chicago Defender, Nov. 25, 1933, national ed., 1.
10 “Court Hears Suit for $80,000 against White Man’s Estate,” New York Age, Nov. 25, 1933, 1.
11 “New Capitol Bronzes,” Washington Post, May 3, 1908, R2.
12 Robert Dudley French, The Memorial Quadrangle: A Book about Yale (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1929), 389. Thanks to Adam Sandweiss Horowitz and to Judith Schiff, chief research archivist, Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.
13 “Court Hears Suit for $80,000,” 1; “Widow Tells of Ceremony and Children,” 1; “Colored Woman Sues,” 3.
14 Otto D. Tolischus, “Marriage Rate Up, Delighting Nazis,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 1933, 7.
15 “Roosevelt Is Asked to Intervene to Protect Scottsboro Negroes,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 1933, 1.
16 “Court Hears Suit for $80,000,” 1.
17 The long and complicated paper trail for the proceedings is found in Ada King et al. v. George Foster Peabody et al. (file no. 26821-1931, Records of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County Clerk’s Office). All legal citations in this chapter are to King v. Peabody et al. unless otherwise noted.
18 See entry for Morris Bell, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, Bronx, NY, SD 25, ED 3-224, sheet 7A, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx= View&r=5542&dbid=6224&iid=NYT 626_1470-0270&fn=Morris&ln=Bell&st=r&ssrc=&pid=31248902(accessed Aug. 9, 2007).
19 “Plaintiff’s Complaint” (19 Nov. 1931).
20 Ibid., 3.
21 William G. Winne, Amended Answer to Complaint (19 Nov. 1931).
22 The heirs named in the complaint were Florence Gardiner Hall, Margaret D. Fayerweather, Doane Gardiner, Elizabeth G. Gardiner, Anne G. Pier, Benjamin W. Frazier, and the Philadelphia Trust Company (executors of the will of Mary S. Frazier). Neither Florence Gardiner Hall nor Doane Gardiner employed Henry W. Jessup as counsel. William Pier, Gardiner’s grandson, recalled for King biographer James Gregory Moore his mother’s “irritation” with Ada King’s lawsuit. James Gregory Moore, e-mail communication to author, May 30, 2006.
23 See the entry for Henry W. Jessup, 1930 U.S. Federal Census, N
ew York, NY, SD 22, ED 31-54a, sheet 21B, http://content.ancestrylibrary.com/iexec/?htx=View&r=5542&dbid=6224&iid=NYT626_1566-0616&fn=Henry+W&ln=Jessup&st=r&ssrc=&pid= 42626296 (accessed Aug. 19, 2007); Henry Harris Jessup Papers, http://history.pcusa.org/finding/phs%20183.xml (accessed Aug. 19, 2007). Jessup’s many publications include three novels (several of which hinge on legal themes) and at least six nonfiction titles, including Professional Ideals of the Lawyer, Law for Wives and Daughters, The Bill of Rights and Its Destruction, and History of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church. See also “Club Members Pay Tribute to Hallman,” New York Times, Mar. 20, 1934, 24, and “H. W. Jessup Dead; Noted as Lawyer,” New York Times, Dec. 10, 1934, 21.
24 Morris Bell, 1930 U.S. Federal Census. On Bell’s work agreement with the Kings, see Morris Pottish Deposition to the Court, 8 Feb. 1934.
25 “John S. Melcher: Lawyer Headed Society to Aid Ruptured and Crippled,” New York Times, July 29, 1945, 39; “Miss Gardiner Married,” New York Times, Aug. 25, 1901, 3.
26 “Seth S. Terry Dead; Long Lawyer Here,” New York Times, Dec. 19, 1932, 15.
27 “Secret ‘Union’ of Pair Unearthed by Struggle in Court,” Amsterdam News, Dec. 30, 1932, 1.
28 David O’Donald Cullen, “George Foster Peabody,” American National Biography Online, http://www.anb.org/articles/15/15-00539.html (accessed Aug. 19, 2007); Louise Ware, “George Foster Peabody,” Dictionary of American Biography (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1958), 23:520- 21; “Roosevelt Drives Own Car at Warm Springs; Takes Two Trips as He Begins His Holiday,” New York Times, Nov. 20, 1933, 2.
29 Winne, Amended Answer to Complaint.
30 Bell filed a petition for financial redress by requesting a lien on Ada King’s house on 30 Jan. 1934. See Morris Pottish Deposition to the Court, 8 Feb. 1934: “Both Mr. Bell and I advised against bringing this action for just that reason that the result of the action might probably be the very result which has been attained. It was only under constant and determined pressure from the plaintiffs and against the advice of Mr. Bell that this action was commenced.”