In the early twentieth century, two wealthy white sisters, cousins to a North Carolina governor, wrote identical wills that left their substantial homeplace to a black man and his daughter. Maggie Ross, whose sister Sallie died in 1909, was the richest woman in Union County, North Carolina. Upon Maggie's death in 1920, her will bequeathed her estate to Bob Ross—who had grown up in the sisters' household—and his daughter Mittie Bell Houston. Mittie had also grown up with the well-to-do women, who had shown their affection for her by building a house for her and her husband. This house, along with eight hundred acres, hundreds of dollars in cash, and two of the white family's three gold watches went to Bob Ross and Houston. As soon as the contents of the will became known, more than one hundred of Maggie Ross's scandalized cousins sued to break the will, claiming that its bequest to black people proved that Maggie Ross was mentally incompetent. Revealing the details of this case and of the lives of the people involved in it, Gene Stowe presents a story that sheds light on and complicates our understanding of the Jim Crow South. Stowe's account of this famous court battle shows how specific individuals, both white and black, labored against the status quo of white superiority and ultimately won. An evocative portrait of an entire generation's sins, Inherit the Land: Jim Crow Meets Miss Maggie's Will hints at the possibility for color-blind justice in small-town North Carolina. Gene Stowe grew up in Monroe, North Carolina, and was a reporter for the Charlotte Observer for twelve years. He is head of the writing program of Trinity School at Greenlawn in South Bend, Indiana. Carl A. Sergio earned degrees in art design and psychology at the University of Notre Dame. He is currently working in Chicago while preparing to attend graduate school. Learn more about the author at http://genestowe.blogspot.com/.
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Each person pulled from history and presented in this book had unique circumstance to bring forth their contribution and role in history as well as social conditions relating to the times.
After David receives a new game called Spy Moves he never expects to be asked to solve a realy mystery.
African American Heritage in the Upper Housatonic Valley: A Project of the Upper Housatonic Valley Heritage Area
Civil Rights Hero Anna Claybourne. Further Information Martin Luther King , Jr. Civil Rights Hero he gave. Glossary artery ( AR - tuh - ree ) A large blood vessel . assassin ( uh - SASS - in ) A killer who murders a famous person ...
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American Biography, 45–47, graduation date and financial statistics on 46; Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, 181–183; William Richard Cutter, ed., New England Families. Genealogical and Memorial (New ...
Rupert N. Richardson, Wallace, and Adrian Anderson, Texas: Lone ... Edward L. Ayers, The Promise of the New South: Life After Reconstruction (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1992), 156-57; Barr, Black Texans, 84-85,136-37; Brophy, ...
The LeRoi Jones/Amiri Baraka Reader includes poems from Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note, The Dead Lecturer, Black Magic, Hard Facts, It's Nation Time, & Poetry for the Advanced; the plays Dutchman, Great Goodness of Life, & What Was ...
Autobiography by William P. Hytche, who from 1976 to 1997 was chief executive officer/chancellor then president of University of Maryland Eastern Shore.