by Thomas Healy
Carey had not read … plan and develop his city: “A Proposal for Developing a New Town,” October 18, 1968, McKissick Papers, folder 6595.
5: KLAN COUNTRY
Irvine in Orange County: Campbell, New Towns, 165, 227–28; Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 53–106.
Less dependent on slavery: John Hope Franklin, The Free Negro in North Carolina, 1790–1860 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995), 3–13, 17; Jeffrey J. Crow, Paul D. Escott, and Flora J. Hatley Wadelington, A History of African Americans in North Carolina (Raleigh: North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, 2002), 11, 56.
“relentless forward determination”: V. O. Key, Southern Politics in State and Nation (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1949), 205–28.
“repressed beyond endurance”: Key, Southern Politics, 205–6.
“a living answer to the riddle of race”: Key, Southern Politics, 205–6; Fergus, Liberalism, 2–3, 14–15, 50–53.
Not that racism … poor, uneducated whites: Key, Southern Politics, 207–9; David S. Cecelski and Timothy B. Tyson, eds., Democracy Betrayed: The Wilmington Race Riot of 1898 and Its Legacy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1998), 3–13; David Zucchino, Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy (New York: Atlantic Monthly Press, 2020); William Mabry, The Negro in North Carolina Politics Since Reconstruction (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1970), 30–70; Crow, History of African Americans, 11, 84–95.
“dying gasp of a reign of terror”: Franklin and Moss, From Slavery to Freedom, 345.
racism held a powerful grip: Bass and DeVries, The Transformation of Southern Politics: Social Change and Political Consequence Since 1945 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1995), 218–47; Christopher A. Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts, “Traditionalism and Progressivism in North Carolina,” in The New Politics of North Carolina, edited by Christopher A. Cooper and H. Gibbs Knotts (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2008), 1–10; Elizabeth A. Herbin-Triant, Threatening Property: Race, Class, and Campaigns to Legislate Jim Crow Neighborhoods (New York: Columbia University Press, 2019); Crystal R. Sanders, “North Carolina Justice on Display: Governor Bob Scott and the 1968 Benson Affair,” Journal of Southern History 79, no. 3 (August 2013), 660–61; Karen Kruse Thomas, Deluxe Jim Crow: Civil Rights and American Health Policy, 1935–54 (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2011), 182–207, 229–49.
Aycock was a white supremacist: Key, Southern Politics, 208–9; Cecelski and Tyson, Democracy Betrayed, 3–13.
“their prejudices as well as their allergies”: Paul R. Clancy, Just a Country Lawyer: A Biography of Senator Sam Ervin (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1974), 215; John Hope Franklin and Isidore Starr, eds., The Negro in Twentieth Century America: A Reader on the Struggle for Civil Rights (New York: Vintage Books, 1967), 34–35.
“no picnic ground for its Negro citizens”: Key, Southern Politics, 209.
strong tradition of Black activism … Malcolm X Liberation University: Fergus, Liberalism, 1–12, 54–90; Timothy B. Tyson, Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 121, 262–86, 295–302.
fewer than 20 percent of Asheville’s residents: US Bureau of the Census, “Summary of General Characteristics: 1970,” Table 16, in Census of Population: 1970, vol. I, Characteristics of the Population, part 35, North Carolina, 51.
Theaoseus Theaboyd Clayton … North Carolina politics: “Drake and Clayton Announce for House,” Warren Record (Warrenton, NC), March 20, 1964, 1; T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015; Eva Clayton interview with Kathryn Nasstrom, July 18, 1989, Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 7–11; Luci Weldon, “Longtime Attorney Clayton Dies at 88,” Warren Record (Warrenton, NC), April 9, 2019; email from Gordon Carey to author, July 4, 2017.
As an attorney … nine miles west of Warrenton: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015; “Report on Architectural and Historical Evaluation with Proposal for Adaptive Reuse,” McKissick Papers, folder 2152, 1–3.
designer of the original Confederate flag: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 36.
“Shocco Springs Hotel”: Amanda Shapiro, “Welcome to Soul City,” Oxford American 80 (Spring 2013): 80; Lizzie Wilson Montgomery, Sketches of Old Warrenton: Traditions and Reminiscences of the Town and People Who Made It (Raleigh, NC: Edwards & Broughton Printing Co., 1924), 40, 78.
Horace Greeley … Annie Carter Lee: Robert C. Williams, Horace Greeley: Champion of American Freedom (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 39; Manly Wade Wellman, The County of Warren, North Carolina, 1586–1917 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1959), 143–44, 156; Montgomery, Sketches, 146, 425–26.
By 1968, though … “at least still a gamble”: Dwayne E. Walls, The Chickenbone Special (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1971), 25–86; Nicholas Lemann, Promised Land: The Great Black Migration and How It Changed America (New York: Vintage Books, 1992); Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Vintage Books, 2011).
percent of all Black Americans: Woodson, Century of Negro Migration, 167–92.
almost half of all Blacks lived outside the South: Lemann, Promised Land, 6; Campbell Gibson and Kay Jung, “Historical Census Statistics on Population Totals by Race, 1790 to 1990, and by Hispanic Origin, 1970 to 1990, for the United States, Regions, Divisions, and States,” US Census Bureau, 2002, Table 4.
bottom 10 percent of counties nationwide: Van Deburg, New Day in Babylon, 135; Yvonne Baskin, “Skepticism, Fear of Soul City Abound in Warren County,” Durham (NC) Morning Herald, March 9, 1969.
lacked a proper kitchen … lacked connection to a public sewer: US Bureau of the Census, “Income and Poverty Status in 1969 of the Negro Population for Counties: 1970,” Table 128, in Census of Population: 1970, vol. I, Characteristics of the Population, part 35, North Carolina, 466; US Bureau of the Census, “Occupancy, Utilization, and Plumbing Characteristics of Housing Units with Negro Head of Household, for Counties: 1970,” Table 64, in Census of Housing: 1970, vol. I, Housing Characteristics of States, Cities, and Counties, part 35, North Carolina, 246; US Bureau of the Census, “Structural, Plumbing, Equipment, and Financial Characteristics of Housing Units with Negro Head of Household, for Counties: 1970,” Table 66, in Census of Housing: 1970, vol. I, Housing Characteristics of States, Cities, and Counties, part 35, North Carolina, 257.
“You have to study each shack”: Hank Burchard, “‘Soul City’ Stirs Its Future Neighbors,” Washington Post, January 26, 1969, 35.
The history of the Circle P Ranch … fall of 1968: “Report on Architectural and Historical Evaluation with Proposal for Adaptive Reuse,” 1–3; T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015; Gordon Carey interview with the author, April 23, 2015.
The two men met … “a beautiful golf course”: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015.
After viewing the property … “But you’ll like it”: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015.
And McKissick did … “people who owned slaves”: T. T. Clayton interview with the author, March 6, 2015.
only 178 residents … first Black officer: US Bureau of the Census, 1970 Census of the Population, vol. I, Characteristics of the Population, North Carolina, Part 35, “Educational and Family Characteristics for Counties: 1970,” Table 120, Issued March 1973 (http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1970a_nc.zip); “Harvard University Study,” 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 6573, 1; “Soul City, North Carolina: A Proposal Under Title IV of the 1968 Housing and Urban Development Act to Secure a Guarantee for This New Community,” February 1, 1970, McKissick Papers, folder 6602, 8; Burchard, “‘Soul City’ Stirs Its Future Neighbors.”
fears of a Black uprising had swept the area: Crow, History of African Americans, 44–47.
compared to 1,270 whites
: Mabry, The Negro in North Carolina, 78.
“You Are in the Heart of Klan Country”: Strain, “Soul City,” 61; Burchard, “‘Soul City’ Stirs Its Future Neighbors.”
$1,500 per acre paid by James Rouse: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 114.
attractive to industry: “Soul City: A Pioneering Experiment in New-Town Planning,” Industrial Development and Site Selection Handbook, 1976, McKissick Papers, folder 1762.
more than an hour … line to the entire Southeast: “Soul City: A Pioneering Experiment in New-Town Planning,” Industrial Development and Site Selection Handbook, 1976, McKissick Papers, folder 1762; “A Factual Presentation Relating to Site Selection, Transportation,” McKissick Papers, folder 2130, 4–6; Herbert Ray Burrows, Norlina: Nothing Could Be Finer (Norlina, NC: Burrows, 2005), 3–4, 14, 42.
“fought integration like a tiger”: Wooten, “Integrated City.”
and “Premble, Inc.”: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 114; Charles Haar and Lance Liebman, Property and Law, Second Edition (Boston: Little Brown, 1985), 685.
signed their names to the contract: Documents Relating to Acquisition by McKissick Enterprises, Inc., October 11, 1973, McKissick Papers, folder 6589.
6: “INTEGRATION BLACKWARDS”
acquired title to over fourteen thousand acres: Forsyth, Reforming Suburbia, 132–33.
Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 45.
cared deeply about issues of poverty … across rural America: David Stout, “Orville Freeman, 84, Dies; 60’s Agriculture Secretary,” New York Times, February 22, 2003, B6; Wakeman, Practicing Utopia, 241.
Monday, January 13, in Freeman’s office: “McKissick Enterprises to Build New Town,” New York Amsterdam News, January 25, 1969, 3.
McKissick dropped a bombshell … “decaying cities”: “Text of Statement by Floyd McKissick,” January 13, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5134.
“adopt the white man’s racism”: “Negroes to Build Their Own ‘New Town’ in North Carolina,” New York Times, January 14, 1969, 39.
“determine their own futures”: Roy Parker Jr., “Negroes to Build Town in Warren,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 14, 1969, 1.
“welcome white people as equals”: Strain, “Soul City,” 57–58.
announcement made a splash: Spencer Rich, “McKissick Is Planning ‘Soul City,’” Washington Post, January 14, 1969, A1; “Negroes to Build Their Own ‘New Town’ in North Carolina,” New York Times; “Negroes to Build ‘Soul City,’” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 14, 1969, 6.
“have looked reality straight in the eye”: “The ‘Soul City’ Dream,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 16, 1969, 4.
against the longest of odds: “‘Soul City’ Faces Formidable Odds,” Charlotte Observer, January 15, 1969, 24.
“All-Negro City Planned”: “All-Negro City Planned for Warren County Site,” Warren Record (Warrenton, NC), January 16, 1969, 1.
an “all-black settlement”: “Black Cities / North Carolina / Alabama #2089,” ABC Evening News, January 13, 1969, video, 5:50, Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
“hopes lie in an integrated society”: “Black Town,” Greensboro Daily News, reprinted in Warren Record (Warrenton, NC), January 23, 1969, 2.
A native of Georgia … Sitton’s articles from beginning to end: Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Vintage, 2007), 186–98, 224–55, 259–69.
Slight of build … find the truth himself: Roberts and Klibanoff, Race Beat, 259–60.
A stickler for the facts … “duck-tail haircuts”: Roberts and Klibanoff, Race Beat, 224; Dennis Hevesi, “Claude Sitton, 89, Acclaimed Civil Rights Reporter, Dies,” New York Times, March 10, 2015, A22.
one of his most chilling reports … slashed with a knife: Roberts and Klibanoff, Race Beat, 263–66.
“interpreting the race story in the South”: Roberts and Klibanoff, Race Beat, 367.
“more dissent on closer examination”: “Among the Recent Letters to the Editor,” New York Times, February 26, 1961, BR 52–53.
Burned out and tired … the Raleigh Times: Claude Sitton interview with Joseph Mosnier, July 12, 2007, 4-5; Roberts and Klibanoff, Race Beat, 367; “Claude Sitton, 89, Acclaimed Civil Rights Reporter, Dies,” New York Times, March 10, 2015, A22; “A Long Career in Black and White,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), October 28, 1990, 1J.
“Soul City’s Plan or Wilkins’ Way?”: Claude Sitton, “Soul City’s Plan or Wilkins’ Way?” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 19, 1969.
“same thing as the Chinese have done”: “McKissick / Soul City #442314,” NBC Evening News, January 13, 1969, video, 2:40, Vanderbilt Television News Archive.
“who years ago moved to the suburbs”: “‘Racism Semantics’ Hit by McKissick,” Durham Morning Herald, May 3, 1969.
“own, control, and develop this city”: Tony Lentz, “Men Named to Guide Soul City Birth,” Durham Morning Herald, January 19, 1969.
“intend to control the new town”: Jim Smith, “McKissick Says Plans Due in 2 Weeks for New City,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), January 19, 1969.
called it “black-inspired”: Cornelia Olive, “N.C. College Aid Pledged to Soul City,” Durham Morning Herald, February 5, 1969; Mike Wolff, “Black ‘Soul City’ Described,” Minneapolis Star, April 24, 1969, 1B.
other times “black-built”: Mixon, Soul City, McKissick Papers, folder 6574, 11.
still others “black-oriented”: “A Proposal for Developing a New Town,” October 18, 1968, McKissick Papers, folder 6595, 3.
rejected the label “integrated”: Baskin, “Skepticism, Fear of Soul City Abound in Warren County,” March 9, 1969.
“neither integration nor segregation”: Wolff, “Black ‘Soul City’ Described,” April 24, 1969.
He made a similar point … “American as apple pie”: Conversations Between The Rouse Company and Floyd B. McKissick Enterprises, Chapter II, McKissick Papers, folder 6583, 19–23.
“we black folks make the plans”: Henry H. Parker to FM, January 14, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5523.
“do not intend to fail”: FM to Henry H. Parker, January 15, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5523.
If the mainstream press … “different results in Soul City”: Elizabeth Tornquist, “Black Capitalism and Soul City, North Carolina,” North Carolina Anvil, April 19, 1969.
McKissick had an answer … “several companies show interest in this”: Roy Parker Jr., “McKissick Outlines Soul City Financing,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), February 13, 1969; Jean M. White, “‘Soul City’ Backers Need $500,000,” Washington Post, February 13, 1969, A3.
“halfway between almost socialism”: Geoffrey Gould, “Soul City: Black Leader’s ‘Magnificent Obsession,’” Charlotte Observer, May 9, 1971.
“may be known as McKissick’s folly”: Elizabeth Tornquist, “Puppet Capital in the Black South,” Hard Times, May 26–June 2, 1969.
Black press covered the story closely: “‘Soul Town’ Planned to Relieve Ghetto Dwellers,” Chicago Daily Defender, January 14, 1969; “McKissick Enterprises to Build New Town,” Los Angeles Sentinel, January 16, 1969; “Black Architects to Design Soul City,” Chicago Daily Defender, January 20, 1969, 8; “Floyd B. McKissick Plans ‘Soul City’ in N. Carolina,” New Pittsburgh Courier, January 25, 1969, 1; “McKissick Enterprises to Build New Town,” New York Amsterdam News, January 25, 1969, 3; “‘Soul City’ Big Topic in N.C. Area,” Baltimore Afro-American, January 25, 1969, 1; “4 Firms Interested in Soul City Plan,” Chicago Daily Defender, February 1, 1969, 7; “Soul City Makes Go Go Boy of McKissick,” New York Amsterdam News, February 1, 1969, 3; Guy Olson, “Soul City Foundation to Aid Black Equality,” Chicago Daily Defender, February 6, 1969, 5.
The editors of the Carolina Times … “set out to achieve”: “The Soul City Project of Warren County,” Carolina Times, January 25, 1969, 2A.
A few days after … longed to return home: Rick Nichols, “Present at the Creation,” News & Observer (Raleigh, NC), November 4, 1973, 1; Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 46–47.
In cities throughout the North … the worst apartments: Franklin and Moss, From Slavery to Freedom, 524, 542–43; Walls, Chickenbone Special, 22–23; Lemann, Promised Land, 225–306; Wilkerson, Warmth of Other Suns, 242–50.
“ain’t human up there”: Walls, Chickenbone Special, 23.
Many Black transplants were homesick … to return home: Walls, Chickenbone Special, 113–14; Wilkerson, Warmth of Other Suns, 238–41.
he was inundated with letters: General Correspondence, 1967–1980 and undated, McKissick Papers, folders 5523–688; Contacts for Soul City: Letters of Inquiry, 1969–1973, McKissick Papers, folders 5806–9.
Some, such as F. N. Kurtz … “take part in the overall planning”: F. N. Kurtz to Orville Freeman, January 15, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5806; Robert E. Martin to FM, January 26, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5806.
“gone to live in peace and harmonie”: John Council and Tody Foster letters in “Soul City Contacts,” January 21, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5806; Ronnie Collins to FM, received February 12, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5555.
Not all the letters … grading work for the project: Waved Ruffin to FM, January 14, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5806; Isaac B. Markham to FM, August 25, 1969, McKissick Papers, folder 5806.
Could Turner pull some strings?: Rhee, “Visions, Illusions, and Perceptions,” 46.
“on the basis of the letters we’ve received”: Parker, “McKissick Outlines Soul City Financing,” February 13, 1969.
In early January … could “play a major part”: FM to Whitney Young, January 8, 1969, Whitney M. Young Papers, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, box 21.
“cannot get excited about starting another one”: Whitney Young to FM, January 13, 1969, Whitney M. Young Papers, Columbia University, Rare Book and Manuscript Library, box 21.