The Alabama Experience; The Wayfaring Stranger

You You You The importance of understanding what happened at cross planes has to do with our concept of humanity

How we think about people who have different ideas and we have practice a different religion Who bring different ideas social ideas into our communities and try to practice them. That's the value of cross planes It was one of those things that happened best forgotten and I think the people of the community once they got over the Shock of this wanted to go on as though it never happened. I'm just trying to understand this from a very personal perspective Because if I had been there I might have in my heart resisted any notion of any one else foreigner Yankee, Scalawag, Carpet Bagger I don't want my life changed. I want it the way I I want it The civil war was over but there was no peace

Reconstruction the north's attempt to remake southern society was a hopeful time for southern blacks who now gained their long anticipated freedom But for many southern whites It was a time of frustration and incredible bitterness They had lost the war and were now being coerced to accept ideas which threatened their traditional way of life One of the fundamental rights granted the freed slaves was one of the most threatening to many whites access to education In the country village of Talladega, Alabama blacks and northern whites opened one of the first colleges for freed slaves William Savry, a former slave himself, helped raise funds and organize the college Savry and the other founders welcomed Reverend Henry Brown fresh from Ohio as the first president Among the new staff Brown recruited was a Canadian, a teacher and minister William Luke

During his single year in Alabama Luke would be assailed as a fanatic, a liar and worse Yet friends tell me his courage and strength of character were remarkable to the point of calling him a martyr The first and last time I met William Luke was in cross planes the night of July 11th So you want to know how I ended up in Alabama and didn't this fix Well, that's quite a story You see in the years prior to the Civil War, Negroes had fled the Canada through what was then known as the Underground Railroad Over 20,000 slaves found a safe haven just a few miles from my home in the Ontario province

They told amazing stories of their hardships and how they'd escaped most arrived with practically nothing Anyway after the war I got wind of the plight of the southern freedmen and I talked it over with Fanny That's my wife. We have six children She writes that our youngest is just now beginning to walk You see we wanted to minister where we could do the most good So with my family's blessings I set south with a full intention of having them join me here just as soon as I'd settled in Oh, it was all so very exciting Yes, yes, how remembered like it was yesterday There I was in Cincinnati recruiting teachers for my new college in Talladega I was in the offices of the American Missionary Association When in walks William There was something about him You know

We were looking for a staff that were fired with a missionary zeal and with a deep concern for these newly freed people of the south Will Luke Irish born Canadian bread and full of motivation he fit the bill perfectly This incredible man William Savry and I hit it off right away and became fast friends I say incredible because of all the things he's gone through When William was a slave in the 1850s he helped to build a school for the white children and the well-to-do Talladega Baptist Well, he laughs now saying he would have built it even better had he known his children would have ended up going to school there After the war most folks were in financial trouble Savry and his friends found out the owners were selling the Baptist school building and some 34 acres They persuaded General Swain of the Friedman's Bureau to pitch the idea of a Negro institution in Talladega to the American Missionary Association It worked

Despite all the odds the college opened its doors in 1867 to train and educate teachers who could build Negro schools across the south Talladega College was truly an amazing place You see for over a hundred miles in any direction this was the only school for Negroes of any age Most of these men and women were former slaves who had been made ignorant by law to teach them had been a crime Sometimes it was like I was dreaming I would rub my eyes and try to wake myself When my boys and girls started coming home with they alters Greek and Latin books I says to myself are these my children that were slaves a few years ago counted no more than cattle It is not a dream now Now it's the blessed truth I tell you this is a social revolution and I am smack in the middle of it

I mean here it is it's 1870 the civil war is over Slavery is dead and for the first time in our history Negroes are boating and actually holding office I tell you it is the end of the old order in the south I enjoyed Mr. Luke's company but as always kneeling him about being such an innocent Like the old song goes away fairing strange I mean he'd be trying to learn the ways of the south and that aid easy One day after making a delivery in town he came to me and said he heard some men referring to him as an inn tea Now he had no idea what an inn tea was I think he was embarrassed when I told him it meant nigger teacher When it came to educating the Negro public opinion did not change with the laws

No one wants to be on the bottom rail of society And so these poor uneducated whites are struggling for the respect they feel they deserve its white men These men are convinced of the impossibility of blacks and whites co-existing without complete white control and complete black submission So it wasn't long before our teachers were shut out from the Talladega community Our lovely college on the hill was an island onto itself We couldn't even get local food for our students and staff We had to ship it in from our friends from around the country But that wasn't the worst of it The clan had come to town For some reason the founders of this strange organization called themselves the Ku Klux clan

One original member said it made him think of bones rattling together Founded in Polasky Tennessee by a few Confederates The clan galloped across the countryside like the ghosts of the Confederacy Wearing outlandish disguises to terrorize Negro folk and whites Especially Republicans who got out of line The famed and Nathan Bedford forest became the grand wizard and with forest behind the clan It spread like wildfire with the ultimate goal of restoring white supremacy and serving the democratic party Despite the killings and beatings in 1870 prominent politicians such as Alabama's governor denied the very existence of the Ku Klux clan The evidence, of course, was overwhelming to the contrary One night the clan decided to storm Talladega College Our school was quite a sitting target Local Negroes, savoury and others threatened to burn the town down if the school was invaded

Finally town leaders helped talk the clan out of the raid I'm not a big fan of these cluxers, but you have to understand the resentment to change Uneducated Negroes and ill-bred northerners have taken over the state house corruption is incredible The clan's growth is just a reflection of the contempt we have for this so-called moral crusade by the north This reconstruction of the south At the college we tried to ignore the clan and get on with our lives Our challenge was already daunting You know these students young and old had been stripped of any sense of self-worth Trying to instill self-esteem build character Well, it's just as important as learning math and spelling But there was such a climate of mistrust of violence So when the railroad came calling I listened

Yes, I really listened Perhaps they could help us survive Just north of Talladega Calhoun County, Alabama included a scattering of tiny villages and quiet farms along the foothills of the Appalachians But at the intersection of two main roads Cross planes had built a tough reputation as a town with many more saloons than churches In 1870 towns people were excited about a plan by the Selma Rome and Dalton Railroad The state's largest railroad was going to locate its headquarters nearby and build a model community they called Patona New York investors led by the prominent Astor family hired large crews of workers to complete the line to Georgia Where it would intersect with rails extending all the way to New York City They were building giant machine shops, a main depot, and hotels There was a commitment of millions I thought the Patona and cross planes area would be a great community a metropolis someday

And so I met with Captain Barney of the Selma Dalton line He laid out quite a plan You see he wanted to start a school for Negroes in Patona That would prepare them for Talladega College And upon graduating from Talladega College they would be guaranteed a job with the railroad Will he met with Luke and then we both agreed that he was the perfect choice to work in Patona and help develop the first Friedman school I was thrilled to work for the railroad it meant starting a school from scratch And I could even hold prayer meetings Oh I got to work right away I rented a room with the new Patona hotel But a few days later a couple of the locals told the owner that I was a niggered teacher for the railroad And he kicked me out I went to the rail depot to visit Will And some men there told me that nobody by that name worked for the railroad

So I continued to ask around and was finally directed to the home of a Negro family where Will was staying Frankly, I was beginning to be concerned But he insisted that everything was going to be all right I told Will we'll keep you in our prayers My opinion of William Luke He was known to be one of the most rabid Negro quality fanatics that ever came into this county. He was repeatedly advised by friends and warned by enemies to Desist from his teaching and get out of the county He should have he did that advice In that summer of 1870 things were running out of control all across the South Racial and political passions were running strong and deep In cross planes a minor scuffle set everything off It started at the depot as everyone gathered to meet the Sunday evening train Former slave green little was sitting on the depot steps when Pat Craig rode up and asked little to take care of his

Mule while he met with friends on the loading platform The whistle from the six o'clock train excited the Mule It jerked at the reins held by little and bolted down the road Craig cursed little tackled him roughly and the fight was on a couple of Craig's friends joined in and soon green little was being hit and kicked Finally the station agent came out with a shotgun scattering everyone Green little came back to the Negro section of Patona where I lived and recruited four or five armed men to go back to cross planes with him I tried to calm them down All the time needed was an attack by armed Negroes to bring the clan in from all directions But they would not listen to me Pat Craig and some friends had got wind of the Negroes arming themselves and gathered up their shotguns and pistols It was now near dusk and part of the Methodist congregation was headed home from services It so happened little's group spotted Craig on the other side of the crossroads with many of the Methodist congregation in the middle

Little fired a shot over the church members heads then Craig's boy set out chasing the Negroes shooting and winding one of them badly Now from what I hear the incident where the church folk was exaggerated tremendously The Negroes fired a single warning shot that's all the lives of church folk were never in danger Still white towns people claimed that Negroes attacked innocent citizens and might even set find in the down They were in a frenzy All night Posses of whites hurted Negroes into town Many were dragged from their homes and beaten They failed to find green little But among the men brought in was the stranger from canada The teacher of the Friedman school William Luke They held an inquiry today Right after they had arrested most of the Negro population and myself

I testified about my lack of involvement in the incident and was backed up by the word of the Negroes But that wasn't all of it They started asking if I thought a Negro woman was equal to a white woman in the side of God Whether the Negro should seek the same wages as whites doing the same job and so on I couldn't lie and say that I didn't teach my students these fundamental truths When they had finished with me Well, I tried to help the Negroes cope with the questioning You see they were intimidated by the crowd and when they needed someone to stand up for them But before the inquiry could finish Where they adjourned for the night and brought us here to this jail under the god of a deputy sheriff They should never have had that inquiry in cross planes Or held those men in town Words spread that some sort of Negro uprising had been put down Clansmen from well outside Calhoun County soon descended on cross planes

A raging signal fire was lit about nine o'clock on Chimney Peak a good 11 miles from cross planes But everyone could see it Most knew what it meant Armed clansmen broke into the rail office at Patona forcing the night clerk to wire the northbound train to stop at Blue Mountain until further notice The clan wanted no interference I'm making such a difference in the lives of the Negro people here and a real way the south has rekindled my spirit When this blows over I'm going to sin for fanny and the children Later farmers heard groups of horses galloping through the night If they had been able to see the riders it would have been quite a sight because the clan was in full costume They came together at their usual meeting place a Baptist church near cross planes and gathered their courage It's so quiet even the cicadas are silent

Usually I've heard the train whistle by now It's so comforting somehow It was the noon hour when we arrived at cross plane station With me was a good friend just Charles Pellum Just a mile north of the town center We came upon the area we had been told about The trample ground led us through the brush and There it was

Two had been shot to death Luke and the others still had the ropes around their neck We heard stories later that Luke had been dragged from jail claiming innocence Then prayed out loud while the Negroes were killed Then something unusual His murderers granted him a final request to write a note We looked about and we found it waged under a splinter My dear wife I died tonight It had been so determined by those who think I deserve it God only knows I feel myself entirely innocent of the charge I have only sought to educate the Negro I little thought when leaving you that we should thus part forever so far distant from each other

But gods will be done He will be to you a husband better than I have been and a father to our six little ones God of mercy bless and keep you ever dear dear wife and children Your will My friend William Luke was dead, but so was many others Later that night another man Essex Hendrix was found hung from a tree And what about green little whose fight with Pat Craig had started it all He was found by the clan across the Georgia state line and lynched And you know as incredible as it may sound if it wasn't for the one white man of the bunch The lynchings probably would have been quickly covered ignored and forgotten Seven men dead and a matter of hours

The publicity was incredible Reporters from the north were all over the place Hundreds of troops came to cross planes in Patona An associate justice of the Alabama Supreme Court held a court of inquiry And a former governor was a prosecuting attorney Our citizens had no hand in the killing of those Negroes charged with murderously assaulting women and children As they returned from worship services The men who perpetrated the deed were thoroughly concealed behind grotesque disguises And no man knows from where they came or where they went Calhoun County is innocent They investigated for two months question 140 witnesses And nine men were arrested for taking part in the lynching But the Calhoun County grand jury soon released them

Because no one had the guts to charge them If you look at him from through the lens of today look had to be a hero Because here was a man who was utterly dedicated to what he believed was right And he was willing to stake his life for this William Blute was a man that you either admired or you absolutely hated He was driven by real religious passion deep religious passions But at the same time he brought within my days that were dangerous

To the average white southerner To me that southern mentality this rural Calhoun County mentality was a fierce bold reactive resistance to change The nationwide attention given the cross plains lynchings and other violence across the south led Congress to pass a sweeping measure The Ku Klux Act of 1871 This for the first time designated certain crimes committed by individuals as punishable under federal law Hundreds of clansmen were indicted the reconstruction career of the Ku Klux clan was over Still by 1877 it was clear reconstruction had failed National economic issues took precedence over humanitarian efforts and a new regime took hold in the south Home rule was restored and soon brought with it a rigidly segregated society The lynchings left an indelible stain on the communities of cross plains and Patona

The railroad run by the Astor family ceased construction of its headquarters and deserted Patona Shifting its resources to Selma and then to the newly established iron rich community of Birmingham, Alabama Honestly had the Astor plan been carried through I'm not sure the population centers In Alabama or even Georgia would be the same as they are today I would imagine the Gadsden, Aniston, Piedmont area would be the metropolis area of the south In 1888 the cross plains newspaper led a movement to help wipe clean the reputation of the town and attract industry That's when cross plains changed its name to Piedmont, Alabama The community of Patona no longer exists Four of William Savery's children received teaching degrees from the college he helped build as a slave

Henry Brown left Talladega College a short time after the lynchings but returned to build a theology department The six black men lynched the night of July 11th 1870 were buried in unmarked graves somewhere in Calhoun County Services were held for William Luke at Talladega College He is buried in Talladega's Oak Hill cemetery I'm going there to meet my father

I'm going there no more to roam I am just going over Jordan I am just going over For a videotape of this program send a check or money order for $25 to the University of Alabama Center for Public Television PO Box 87,000 Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487 or user visa Discover or Mastercard by calling 1-800-463-8825