Water Tossing Boulders

by Adrienne Berard

  (28) “Jeu Gong and Katherine married . . .” Certificate of Marriage for Lum Dock Gong and Wong Hang Toy, Marriage Licenses for 1912–1914, First District Court of Bolivar County, Mississippi, p. 414.

  (28) “Although it was June . . .” “Two Hundred Drown in River Flood,” Bismarck (ND) Tribune, April 20, 1912; “Flood at Its Worst,” Manning (SC) Times, May 8, 1912; “Water Covers Branch of Yazoo & Mississippi Railroad,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), February 1, 1913; “River Crest Is Near,” Waco (TX) Morning News, January 29, 1913; “No Breaks Reported in Levees Along Mississippi River,” Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY), January 30, 1913; “Levees Break in Mississippi Damage Great,” Fairbanks (AK) Daily Times, January 26, 1913; “Traitors, He Calls Beulah Levee Men,” Monroe (LA) News-Star, January 30, 1913; “Beulah Crevasse the Worst Spot in Flood Situation,” Tennessean (Nashville), January 29, 1913; Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 201–3.

  (29) “Still, Katherine and Jeu Gong . . .” Eng et al., 2014; Chan and Gee, 1992; Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013.

  (29) “After the floodwaters . . .” Eng and Eng, 2014.

  CHAPTER II

  (30) “Berda was born . . .” Certificate of Birth for Berda Beadel Lum; “Benoit, Mississippi,” 1913, Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. Maps.

  (30) “The construction of her defenses . . .” Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 274. Description per photograph of Lum and Wong family circa 1918, courtesy of Marilyn Joe.

  (30) “Merely a child . . .” Certificate of Birth for Berda Beadel Lum, courtesy of Candy Yee; Application for Status as Permanent Resident for Katherine Toy Lum.

  (30) “They named her Berda . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992; Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 275.

  (31) “On Sundays . . .” Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 273; Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps.

  (31) “Katherine understood . . .” Eng and Eng, 2014.

  (31) “When it came time . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (31) “They would learn English . . .” For more on the second-generation immigrant experience, see Delta State University’s collections of Italian Oral Histories, Chinese Oral Histories, and Jewish Oral Histories, http://www.deltastate.edu/academics/libraries/university-archives-museum/guides-to-the-collections/oral-histories/.

  (31) “The change began . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 111.

  (31) “In 1905 as many as . . .” Ibid., 111.

  (32) “Many immigrants unwittingly . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 34–36.

  (32) “The story of Joseph Callas . . .” Ibid., 35; Callas, “The Meaning of Peonage.”

  (32) “In 1914 twelve . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 34–36.

  (32 “Although they spoke . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 110.

  (32) “Some immigrants . . .” Ibid., 110.

  (33) “In 1907 a plantation . . .” Ibid.

  (33) “It was this failed effort . . .” Ibid., 173.

  (33) “Their enterprise . . .” Ibid.

  (33) “In an act of defiance . . .” Loewen, The Mississippi Chinese, 39.

  (33) “While groceries . . .” Ibid., 51.

  (34) “Saturdays were the busiest . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (34) “As soon as Martha . . .” Ibid.

  (34) “Always, there were the smells . . .” Interviews with Fay and Juanita Dong [OH 228], Kit Gong, Bobbie Gore, Joy Gore, Amy Gore, and Billie Gore [Unnumbered], Penney Cheung Gong [OH 247], Bobby and Laura Jue [OH 231], Dr. Audrey Sidney [OH 238], Delta State University Chinese Oral History Collection, http://www.deltastate.edu/academics/libraries/university-archives-museum/guides-to-the-collections/oral-histories/chinese-oral-histories/; Dickard, Cantonese Recipes.

  (34) “As evening set in . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992; Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013; Quan, Lotus Among the Magnolias, 29; Loewen, The Mississippi Chinese, 60.

  (34) “Both the grocery . . .” Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps, Benoit, 1915.

  (34) “In autumn . . .” Whitaker, On the Laps of Gods, 6.

  (35) “The cotton . . .” Ibid.; Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps.

  (35) “Even with its cutting-edge . . .” Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps.

  (35) “Benoit began life . . .” Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 272.

  (35) “James was the . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 35–37; US Census Bureau, 1850 Federal Census.

  (35) “Edmund Richardson was not always . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 35–37.

  (35) “The contract struck . . .” Ibid.

  (36) “Through this new system . . .” Ibid.

  (36) “An inveterate gambler . . .” Ibid.; Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 272; Subject File, Benoit, Record Number 35988, Mississippi Department of Archives and History (hereafter MDAH).

  (36) “With hundreds of miles . . .” Cash, The Mind of the South, 32.

  (36) “Until the final decade . . .” Ibid.

  (37) “After the railroads . . .” Ibid., 179–80.

  (37) “With laborers no longer . . .” Ibid.

  (37) “With their hegemony . . .” Ibid., 190.

  (37) “The new mills . . .” Ibid., 198.

  (37) “Still, from Mississippi’s . . .” Ibid., 198–202, 216.

  (37) “They rose before dawn . . .” Ibid., 216.

  (37) “‘I have known . . .’” Edgar Gardner Murphy, Problems of the Present South: A Discussion of Certain of the Educational, Industrial, and Political Issues in the Southern States (New York: Young Reader’s Missionary Movement of the United States and Canada, 1909).

  (38) “Yet with the factories . . .” Ibid., 218.

  (38) “Benoit’s two-room schoolhouse . . .” Subject File, Benoit, Record Number 35988, MDAH; Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 273; Chan and Gee, 1992; Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps.

  (38) “Mr. Bonds, twenty years . . .” US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Federal Census; Subject File: “Private Collections, Art Libraries, Antiques,” Benoit, Record Number 35988, MDAH.

  (38) “Until Martha was old . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (39) “At last, March . . .” Whitaker, On the Laps of the Gods, 5.

  (39) “By early May . . .” Ibid.

  (39) “At the end of spring . . .” Ibid.

  (39) “Again, the men . . .” Ibid., 6.

  (40) “The school was located . . .” Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps; Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 273.

  (40) “Adams, lined with . . .” Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps; Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 120; US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Federal Census, Benoit, Bolivar, MS; Whitaker, On the Laps of the Gods, 4.

  (40) “Richardson ran on a . . .” Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps.

  (40) “The children in these houses . . .” Quotes taken from: Annie Clark Jacobs, “Glimpses of Life on a Cotton Plantation Before the War Between the States,” and Mary Carson Warfield, “The Antebellum Woman,” in Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 110–26.

  (41) “Martha and Berda passed . . .” Sanborn Fire Insurance Co. maps.

  (41) “In the cramped room . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992; Eng et al., 2014; Yee, 2012; Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013.

  CHAPTER III

  (42) “Moonlight leaked through the gaps . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992; Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013; Biscoe birth date learned from “Hamilton Biscoe Lum,” WWII Registration Draft Cards, Records of the Selective Service System, 1926–1975, RG 147, National Archives, Atlanta.

  (42) “Katherine was growing sicker every day . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (42) “Even if Jeu Gong . . .” Ibid.; Ferguson, “The Elaine Race Riot,” 17.

  (43) “January was ‘movin” month . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 108–9.

  (43) “A report by the US Department of Labor . . .” Ibid., 118; Dillard, “Negro Migration.”

  (43) “As immigration plunged . . .” Wi
lkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, 161–63; Cash, The Mind of the South, 254.

  (43) “To fill the jobs left vacant . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 118; Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, 161–63; Cash, The Mind of the South, 254.

  (43) “Such accounts passed . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 283; Grossman, “Blowing the Trumpet,” 90; Hicks, “The Coverage of World War I,” 60.

  (43) “Local white leaders . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 93.

  (44) “Measures were quickly taken . . .” Ibid., 107.

  (44) “Despite the risk . . .” Ibid., 118.

  (44) “The most famous . . .” Evans, “High Water Everywhere,” 59. Note: Evans has a slightly different interpretation of Patton’s “Pea Vine Blues,” which he sees as “merely a precursor” to Patton’s classic “High Water Everywhere.”

  (44) “The railroads, which first fueled . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 115.

  (44) “They vowed to stem . . .” Ibid., 117.

  (45) “After the United States . . .” Ibid., 104; Woodruff, American Congo, 59–60.

  (45) “When the black men . . .” Shaw and Rosengarten, All God’s Dangers, 161.

  (45) “In the spring of 1919 . . .” Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns, 145.

  (45) “In the Mississippi Delta . . .” Cobb, The Most Southern Place on Earth, 121; Woodruff, American Congo, 127.

  (46) “The social and economic forces . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 44–45.

  (46) “The Lums and other merchant families . . .” Eng et al., 2014; description based on photographs of Lum family, circa 1920, courtesy of Alvin Gee.

  (46) “As their customer base dwindled . . .” US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Census, Benoit, Bolivar, MS.

  (46) “At the time he made . . .” Ibid.; US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census, Roll: T624_733; Page: 36A; US Bureau of the Census, 1900 Census; US Bureau of the Census, 1880 Census, Roll: 658; Family History Film: 1254658; Page: 380A; Wallace, “I Remember Normal.”

  (47) “In the winter . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (47) “On January 21, 1919 . . .” Deed records courtesy of Michael and Cathy Gee.

  (47) “Jake’s relationship with . . .” Deposition of Don Chuck Tai Wong, Case Number 2244, Chinese Exclusion Acts Case Files, 1895–1943, Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85, National Archives, Seattle.

  (47) “When all of the details . . .” Deed records courtesy of Michael and Cathy Gee; Sperry, “Walter Sillers and His Fifty Years Inside Mississippi Politics”; MDAH, The Official and Statistical Register of the State of Mississippi, 833–35.

  (48) “Sillers had been . . .” Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 391–93.

  (48) “As a ten-year-old . . .” Ibid., 148–53.

  (48) “In March 1919 . . .” Ibid., 273.

  (48) “In keeping with tradition . . .” Oral history with Dr. John Paul Quon, F341.5.M57, vol. 748, pt. 2, Center for Oral History and Cultural Heritage, University of Southern Mississippi; Dong and Dong, 2000; Gong et al., 2000; Quan, Lotus Among the Magnolias, 41.

  (49) “The relatives . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (49) “While many of Katherine’s . . .” US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Census, Benoit, Bolivar, MS; Wong family tree and history courtesy of Dorothy Chow.

  (49) “Gow brought a son . . .” US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Census, Benoit, Bolivar, MS; Yee, 2012; Eng and Eng, 2014; C. L. “Lee” Kow to Martha Lum, July 13, 1933, courtesy of Alvin Gee.

  (49) “The girls called . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992; Eng and Eng, 2014; Quan, Lotus Among the Magnolias, 20.

  (50) “For Berda . . .” Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013.

  (50) “With a little money . . .” Coaching papers for Jeu Gong Lum, courtesy of Alvin Gee, trans. Paul Wong.

  (51) “Over time . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (52) “Whenever Jeu Gong . . .” Ibid.; Lee, 2015.

  (52) “The first floor . . .” Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013; Lee, 2015; description from photograph of Jeu Gong Lum in his garden, courtesy of Candy Yee.

  (52) “Katherine designed . . .” Lee, 2015; Chan and Gee, 1992.

  CHAPTER IV

  (53) “Bruce Street was so alive . . .” Sanborn Map Co. maps for Rosedale, MS, 1918 and 1924; US Bureau of the Census, 1910 Census, Beat 3, Bolivar, MS; Roll: T624_733; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 0009; FHL microfilm: 1374746, Record Group 29; US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Census, Rosedale City, Bolivar, MS; Roll: T625_871; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 6; Image: 6, Record Group 29.

  (53) “The street’s loudest . . .” Lamar, History of Rosedale, 36–38.

  (53) “Whether it was the vibrancy . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (53) “Throughout most of the year . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 23, 26, 149.

  (54) “By September . . .” Description from photograph of third- and fourth-grade class at Rosedale School in Bolivar County, MS, in 1924, courtesy of the Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, MS, Boyd-Walters-Bobo Collection, M100, Box 33, Folder 91; Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (54) “The consolidated school . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 144–46.

  (54) “Mrs. Walter Sillers Sr. . . .” Ibid.; Mrs. Walter Sillers Sr., “Community Farms for Americans Proposed,” Bolivar County Daughters of the American Revolution, c. 1920s, Walter Sillers Sr. Papers, Box 3, Sillers Family Papers, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, MS.

  (54) “Immediately following the school’s . . .” Biennial Report and Recommendations of the State Superintendent of Public Education to the Legislature of Mississippi, 1921–1923, Call Number: Miss L 166.B1, Special Collections, McCain Library and Archives, University of Southern Mississippi, pp. 14–16.

  (55) “Seeing as the school . . .” Walter Sillers Jr. Collection, Box 34, Folder 115, Sillers Family Papers, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, MS.

  (55) “On April 16, 1924 . . .” Description from photograph of third- and fourth-grade class at Rosedale School in Bolivar County, MS, in 1924.

  (56) “The two men wanted . . .” Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, 79–90.

  (56) “Congressman Johnson . . .” US Congress, The Eugenical Aspects of Deportation: Hearings Before the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization House of Representatives, Seventieth Congress, First Session February 21, 1928, statement of Dr. Harry H. Laughlin, Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1928), Government Documents Collection Y 4.Im 6/1:D 44/10, Ellis Library, University of Missouri; Harry Hamilton Laughlin, A Report of the Special Committee on Immigration and Alien Insane Submitting a Study on Immigration Control (New York: Chamber of Commerce of the State of New York, 1934), Depository 325.73 L368r, University of Missouri; Jacobson, Whiteness of a Different Color, 79–90.

  (57) “At noon on Wednesday . . .” US Congress, Congressional Record, 6449.

  (57) “‘Mr. President,’ Senator . . .” Ibid., 6465–66.

  (57) “Described by those . . .” Meriwether, Jim Reed, 38, 51, 143.

  (58) “James was the only . . .” US Congress, Congressional Record, 6467–71.

  (58) “Before the end of the session . . .” US Congress, Congressional Record, Sess. 1, ch. 190, 43 Stat. 153.

  (59) “The act proved . . .” Koven and Götzke, American Immigration Policy, 133.

  (59) “The three women . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (59) “For the past several weeks . . .” Ibid.; Minute Book, Board of Supervisors, Bolivar County, June 1, 1924, Book H, pp. 367–72, First District Court of Bolivar County, Rosedale, MS.

  (59) “She knew all too well . . .” Woodruff, American Congo, 131–32; Walter Sillers Jr. Collection, Box 34, Folder 65, Sillers Family Papers, Delta State University Archives, Cleveland, MS.

  (60) “Still, if Katherine . . .” Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013; Eng et al., 2014.

  (60) “Jeu Gong was uneasy . . .” Chao, In Search of Your Asian Roots
, 116–17; Bi Gan Trust, “The Origins of the Lin Family Name.” Note: For the names, I used Chao’s Cantonese versions because that is how Jeu Gong would have known them. The Mandarin names are Bi Gan [Pi-Kan], who was the son of Wen Ding [T’ai Ting] and the uncle of the cruel king Chou-hsin [Zhou Xin]. The Cantonese-speaking community uses “Lam” or “Lum” for the Mandarin word lin or lim, meaning trees or forest.

  (61) “The two girls returned . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (61) “As to whether or not . . .” September 13, 1924, response from query from W. F. Bond, Superintendent of Education of Mississippi, to Attorney General Rush Knox, from Attorney General’s Biennial Report, 1923–1925, MDAH, 246–47. Note: The same conclusion was made in regard to Chinese children in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1920: “The conclusion seems to be inescapable,” said Frank Roberson, Mississippi attorney general, February 13, 1920. “The Chinese child should be excluded by the trustees from attending a white school because such child is not a member of the white or Caucasian race but is a member of the yellow, or Mongolian race.” Frank Roberson, Mississippi attorney general, February 13, 1920, queried by the assistant Superintendent of Education, J. W. Broom, cited in the Biennial Report of the Attorney General 1919–1921, Archival Reading Room, MDAH, pp. 57–58.

  (61) “The girls were confused . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.

  (62) “In a desperate attempt . . .” Bing, “To Stand Alone,” 12.

  (62) “For Katherine to send . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992; Eng et al., 2014; Eng and Eng, 2014.