(62) “Jeu Gong slid . . .” Information from photograph of Jeu Gong Lum, circa 1920s, courtesy of Carol Hong Chan.
(62) “With the engine . . .” Eng and Eng, 2014; Eng et al., 2014.
(63) “The drone of. . . .” Sanborn Map Co., Clarksdale, MS, 1923.
(63) “Jeu Gong had no way . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.
(63) “So on a September . . .” Ibid.
CHAPTER V
(67) “A wave of fresh cigar smoke . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 11.
(67) “Brewer was a giant . . .” Ibid.
(67) “Every aspect of Brewer’s . . .” Ibid.
(67) “He could no longer keep . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(67) “Due to a steady . . .” Ibid.; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 21.
(68) “If the woman felt . . .” Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013; Eng and Eng, 2014; descriptions based on photographs of Katherine Lum, circa 1920, courtesy of Alvin Gee.
(68) “She introduced herself . . .” Yee, Poon, and Chan, 2013; Eng et al., 2014; descriptions based on photographs of Jeu Gong Lum, circa 1920, courtesy of Alvin Gee.
(69) “‘Nobody in Washington . . . ’” “Battle for 33 Senate Seats Opens Tuesday,” New York Times, March 23, 1924.
(69) “‘It is very unbecoming . . .’” “Harrison and Brewer,” Cleveland (MS) Enterprise, July 10, 1924.
(69) “Even before the final votes . . .” “Harrison’s Victory Conceded by Opponent,” Baltimore Sun, August 20, 1924.
(70) “Dusk was thickening . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 20; author’s multiple site visits to Cassidy Bayou between August 2014 and March 2015.
(70) “Sundown was quitting time . . .” Whitten, To Beulah and Back, 21–22.
(70) “Its furrowed fields . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(70) “Brewer was born . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 1.
(71) “As the eldest son . . .” Ibid., 2–3; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(71) “In the fall . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 2; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(71) “By 1884 . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 3; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(71) “Two years earlier . . .” US Bureau of the Census, Foreign Commerce and Navigation of the United States, 245–48; Williams, “The One They Had in 1882.”
(72) “The brutality of levee work . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Komara, Encyclopedia of the Blues, 596.
(72) “Aderholdt offered Brewer . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(72) “When spring came . . .” Ibid.; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 3.
(72) “In 1893 Brewer opened . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 5
(73) “Realizing the limits . . .” Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 30.
(73) “Brewer’s bold campaign . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 5.
(73) “In 1911 Brewer decided . . .” Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 30; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 11–13; “Earl Brewer Announces Has a Ringing Platform Will Run as a Candidate of the Masses,” Memphis Commercial Appeal, May 28, 1911.
(73) “During his inaugural address . . .” Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 30; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 11–13.
(73) “By the time Brewer took office . . .” Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery, 20–21.
(74) “At the heart of the codes . . .” Ibid., 20–21, 31–32.
(74) “‘In slavery times . . .’” Ibid., 34; Irvin, “Autobiography of Squire Irvin,” 1082.
(74) “Mississippi’s first Negro convicts . . .” Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery, 45.
(74) “It was this state-sponsored . . .” Ibid., 45; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(74) “‘It is not the shame . . .’” W. G. Orr, Okolona, MS, to Governor Robert Lowry, about the evils of convict leasing, 1884, cited in Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery, 31.
(74) “In 1904, shortly after . . .” Ibid., 109–10, 139, 143.
(75) “Vardaman’s farm . . .” Flemming, “Governor Earl Brewer.” Note: According to the Houston Post, “Claims State Lost on Cotton,” January 10, 1914, during the five years between 1909 and 1914, the state lost more than $300,000 worth of cotton profits. At the time, one bale went for about $1,000.
(75) “Once rumors began . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.” Note: Brewer took out loans from his own bank to fund the Legislative Investigative Committee. This information was found in a letter from Earl Brewer to A. C. Anderson, chair of LIC, October 15, 1913, Series 874, Box 1261, MDAH.
(75) “In August 1912 . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 14.
(75) “In times of great struggle . . .” Ibid., 31.
(75) “Smith’s eventual conviction . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Earl Brewer to M. A. McKinnon of Coldwater, MS, May 28, 1913, Series 874, Box 1260, MDAH.
(76) “Brewer questioned the legality . . .” Ross A. Collins, Attorney General, to Earl Brewer, April 1, 1913, Biennial Report of the Attorney General of the State of Mississippi, 1913.
(76) “By the summer of 1913 . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(76) “‘It is freely predicted . . .’” “8 Prison Officials Convicted in Mississippi,” North Wilkesboro (NC) Hustler, August 12, 1913.
(77) “On February 12, 1914 . . .” Penitentiary Investigation Transcripts, Vol. 4, Series 1563/Box 7738, RG 49, Department of Corrections Penitentiary Records, MDAH, Jackson, MS, entire volume; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 17.
(77) “The Parchman interviews . . .” Ibid., 55.
(77) “At 3:25 in the afternoon . . .” Ibid., 23; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(77) “Brewer needed to uncover . . .” Penitentiary Investigation Transcripts, 65; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer.”
(77) “As Brewer closed out . . .” Isaiah 1:27.
(78) “During one of his last . . .” Earl Brewer to Mr. Phillip Seigel of Vicksburg, MS, May 14, 1915, Series 874, Box 1264, MDAH; US Bureau of the Census, 1920 Census, Record for “Phillip Segel [sic],” Vicksburg Ward 3, Warren, MS; Roll: T625_897; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 70; Image: 744, NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls.
(79) “As Brewer’s horse slowed . . .” Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 20.
(79) “The collapse of Brewer’s estate . . .” “He Made a Good Fight,” Clarksdale (MS) Register, reprinted in Woman Voter, February 29, 1924.
(80) “Brewer entered his mansion . . .” Description based on photographs of interior of 41 John Street, circa 1920, courtesy of Carnegie Public Library, Clarksdale, MS.
(80) “A wide chiffonier . . .” Ibid.; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 20.
(81) “After decades, Brewer still . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 9; Sanborn Map Company, Clarksdale, MS, 1925; Clarksdale, MS, City Directory, 1927, Ancestry.com; US City Directories, 1822–1995, database online, Provo, UT, Ancestry.com; postcard of Planters Bank Building, Clarksdale, MS, Cooper Forrest Lamar Postcard collection, PI/1992.0001, MDAH, Jackson, MS.
(8
1) “The office was located . . .” “The Alcazar Hotel,” Historic Resource Inventory, 027-CLK-0588, Offices of the Historic Preservation Division, MDAH, Jackson, MS; Williford and Strite, “Unfinished Manuscript for Biography of Earl Brewer”; Weeks, Clarksdale and Coahoma County; Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer.
(81) “The hotel’s marble-clad . . .” “The Alcazar Hotel,” Historic Resource Inventory.
(81) “Stationed at his desk . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer.
(81) “Brewer’s first order . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, U.S. Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law; Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 47, 152; Bond, I Had a Friend, 86.
(82) “Willard Faroe Bond . . .” Bond, I Had a Friend, 78–79, 86.
(82) “Before Bilbo . . .” Hobbs, Bilbo, Brewer, and Bribery; Tindall, The Emergence of the New South, 23–25; Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 87–88, 222–23, 304–5.
(82) “Bond was born . . .” The Talon, Southern Mississippi Alumni Association publication (Fall 2004): 12–13; SF/Bond, Willard Faroe, record no. 44035, MDAH, Jackson, MS.
(82) “One year into the job . . .” Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 152–53.
(83) “Bond, on the other . . .” Bond, I Had a Friend, 78–79, 86.
(83) “Bilbo was facing . . .” Hamilton, Progressive Mississippi, 152–53, 301.
(83) “Brewer was not . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, U.S. Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law.
(83) “Once a writ is filed . . .” Ibid.
(84) “At the opening of the Thirty-Ninth . . .” Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 1st Session; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, March 3, 1866, p. 131, c. 3; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, March 10, 1866, p. 147, c. 4.
(84) “Congressman John Bingham . . .” Gerard N. Magliocca, “The Father of the 14th Amendment,” New York Times, September 17, 2013.
(85) “In the end . . .” Congressional Globe, 39th Congress, 1st Session; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, March 3, 1866, p. 131, c. 3; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, March 10, 1866, p. 147, c. 4.
(85) “On May 10 . . .” Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, May 26, 1866, p. 323, c. 4; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, June 23, 1866, p. 387, c. 3; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, June 30, 1866, p. 403, c. 4; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, July 7, 1866, p. 419, c. 4, and p. 418, c. 4, to p. 419, c. 1, “The President and the Amendment.”
(85) “Scarcely had Howard . . .” B. F. Pershing, “Senator Edgar Cowan,” read before the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, May 31, 1921; Congressional Globe, 39th Congress 1st Session, No. 182, Vol. 36, p. 2890; Boucher, Edgar Cowan.
(85) “According to one of . . .” Pershing, “Senator Edgar Cowan.”
(86) “Despite widespread . . .” Ibid.
(86) “‘The honorable . . .’” Congressional Globe, 39th Congress 1st Session.
(86) “Cowan’s quandary . . .” Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, May 26, 1866, p. 323, c. 4; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, June 16, 1866, p. 371, c. 4; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, June 23, 1866, p. 387, c. 3; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, June 30, 1866, p. 403, c. 4; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, July 7, 1866, p. 419, c. 4; Domestic Intelligence, Harper’s Weekly, July 7, 1866, p. 418, c. 4, to p. 419, c. 1, “The President and the Amendment”; Congress, Harper’s Weekly, June 16, 1866.
(87) “Earl Brewer poured . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 31.
(87) “Sometimes when Brewer . . .” Ibid.
(87) “The case, he decided, should begin . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, US Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law.
(87) “Brewer’s long stride . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer, 32–33; author’s multiple site visits to cemetery.
(88) “A lifetime had passed . . .” Dumenil, The Modern Temper, 7–9, 23, 135, 235–36. Note: For a full account of the lives of Brewer’s daughters, see the uncatalogued Dorothy Shawhan Collection at Delta State University Archives and the entire archive of the Woman Voter, a newspaper edited and published by Minnie Elizabeth Brewer, Carnegie Public Library, Clarksdale, MS.
(88) “In the fall of 1924 . . .” Ibid., 244–48.
(88) “She is advised . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, US Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law.
(88) “This case, unlike . . .” Westlaw database search, cases of “Earl Brewer,” http://campus.westlaw.com; White, “The Lost Episode,” 197.
(89) “Said consolidated high . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, US Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law.
(89) “Now that the scaffolding . . .” Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 343–45.
(89) “Carrying five . . .” Author’s multiple visits to fully restored Rosedale courthouse.
(90) “Brewer walked down . . .” Sillers and Williams, History of Bolivar County, 274.
(90) “The clerk collected . . .” Author’s multiple site visits to Rosedale courthouse, held original docket book.
(90) “When Brewer’s daughters . . .” “Dad’s Prayers” and “Governor Brewer’s Stories,” Earl Brewer Manuscript Collection, Z348.005 Box 1, MDAH.
(90) “During the middle of the . . .” Paul, The Scots Peerage, 205–52.
(91) “It was said . . .” James Graham, Marquess of Montrose, “My Dear and Only Love,” in English Poetry I: From Chaucer to Gray, vol. 40, The Harvard Classics (New York: P. F. Collier & Son, 1909–14), also Bartleby.com, 2001, www.bartleby.com/40/.
CHAPTER VI
(92) “Earl Brewer thumbed . . .” Strite, Biography of Earl LeRoy Brewer.
(92) “About halfway through . . .” “Chinese Barred from Rosedale Schools,” Bolivar Democrat, Rosedale, MS, October 4, 1924.
(93) “On Monday . . .” G. P. Rice and I. J. Brocato, “Chinese Barred From Rosedale School: Governor Brewer Attacked and Defended for Taking Up Case,” Clarksdale (MS) Register, October 13, 1924.
(93) “There was an irony . . .” General Docket, Civil Cases for 1924, First District Court, Bolivar County, MS, Case 6122, p. 73.
(93) “Setting the date . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, US Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law. Minutes of the Circuit Court, 1924, Bolivar County, MS, Case 6122, pp. 35 and 46.
(94) “Born Williams Aristides Alcorn Jr. . . .” US Bureau of the Census, 1870 Census, Friars Point, Coahoma, MS, population schedules, NARA microfilm publication M593, Roll 1761.
(94) “William’s father . . .” Weeks, Clarksdale and Coahoma County, 112–16.
(95) “In 1844 Lusk . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 183.
(95) “On the April day . . .” Act of Sale, “Mollie,” April 12, 1861, accessed on Ancestry.com, http://mv.ancestry.com/viewer/6d468b76–8018–4652-a5c8-fcf33d60b755/48593762/12909786885; US Bureau of the Census, 1880 Federal Census, Beat 3, Coahoma, MS; Roll: 645; Family History Film: 1254645; Page: 419B; Enumeration District: 099; Image: 0261; United States Bureau of the Census, 1900 Federal Census, Beat 3, Coahoma, MS; Roll: 805; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0024; FHL microfilm: 1240805; US Bureau of the Census, 1870 Federal census, population schedules, Coahoma, MS; Roll: M593_727; Page: 39B; Image: 82; Family History Library Film: 552226, NARA microfilm publication T132, 13 rolls.
(95) “The two young . . .” Hamilton, Trials of the Earth, 47.
(95) “Its thick woods . . .” Ibid., 47; Weeks, Clarksdale and Coahoma County, 112.
(96) “‘The soldiers . . .’” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 69.
(96) “After Appomattox . . .” Newton, The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, 24.
(96) “The war had tested . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn,
70; James Lusk Alcorn 1865 diary from private collection of Mrs. V. A. Hain, entry on “Memoranda” page.
(96) “In the spring of . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 70–71.
(97) “A politically ambitious . . .” Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery, 22.
(97) “James Lusk’s reinvention . . .” Newton, The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, 24.
(97) “George feared . . .” Ibid., 24; Trelease, White Terror, 124.
(97) “But Lusk did not . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 101.
(97) “Despite threats . . .” Ibid.; Montgomery, Reminiscences of a Mississippian, 283.
(98) “James Lusk won . . .” Newton, The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, 25; Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 102.
(98) “Throughout his time . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 120; Newton, The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, 31. Note: Before the Civil War, Mississippi had no public education system, and the only funds set aside strictly for education came from a small budget to build schools for Native Americans.
(98) “In developing the state’s . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 123
(98) “The Alcorn system . . .” Newton, The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, 31, 37; Horn, Invisible Empire, 149.
(98) “Before the end of 1870 . . .” Newton, The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, 31, 37.
(98) “In 1878 a devastating . . .” Oshinsky, Worse Than Slavery, 112.
(99) “With no father in his life . . .” Pereyra, James Lusk Alcorn, 183–85; Miriam Dabbs, “The Sage of Eagle’s Nest,” This Is Clarksdale, City of Clarksdale, 1972, 6–12.
(99) “Just four days . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, US Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law.
(99) “Had any other judge . . .” Ibid.
(100) “Judge Alcorn gave . . .” Chan and Gee, 1992.
(100) “On December 5 . . .” Transcript of Record with Supporting Pleadings, Gong Lum v. Rice, US Supreme Court, 275 US 78, The Making of Modern Law.
(100) “The doors of the birdcage . . .” Author’s multiple site visits to restored Capitol building in Jackson, MS; Minute book of the Mississippi Supreme Court, April 6, 1925, Archival Reading Room, State Government Records, Series 2467/Box 26250 1924–1926: Book A-A, MDAH; History Resources Inventory, Record Number 049-JAC-0002-NHL-ML, Historic Preservation Division, MDAH.
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