Their Southern Legacy
 African
Americans have been a part of America's history from the original
discovery of the Americas in the 1400s. When the first ships touched
Colonial America in 1619, there were twenty blacks of undetermined
origin who arrived as indentured servants. History records that they
fared relatively well in their new environment. Some attained full
freedom, acquired land, were baptized, and secured the right to
vote. Several became affluent and masters of servants themselves.
With the great need for labor in the new lands of
America, the slave trade flourished. Great numbers of men and women
were brought from the Motherland of Africa.
The settlement of the area now known as Bullock
County increased as a result of the Indian Wars. Land became
available for settlement after 1814 when Andrew Jackson started the
relocation of the Indians (Trail of Tears). The State of Alabama was
created in 1819.
As the region grew and land needed to be cleared for
large plantations, the need for a large labor force increased. Men,
women, and children were brought in as slaves to tend the fields, do
carpentry, be brick masons, and serve in the homes of their owners
at various jobs. Many of the white landowners did not own slaves,
but worked their own small fields.
The war, commonly called the Civil War, gave the
slaves their freedom: however, many remained as tenant farmers or
sharecroppers on the plantations where they were once considered
personal property. Many of the former slaves took the names of their
former owners as their own.
The rule of the day was that a county seat should be
accessible by mule and wagon within one day's travel. With a
legislative act in 1866, land from Barbour, Macon, Montgomery, and
Pike counties were joined to form Bullock County. It was named for
Colonel E.G. Bullock of the 18th Alabama Infantry Regiment. Union
Springs, incorporated in 1844, was selected as the county seat.
Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1866,
granting citizenship and voting rights to all native-born Americans,
except American Indians. Only men were given the right to vote.
The Bullock County Courthouse was built in 1871
during Reconstruction. It was during this time that five African
American men served with distinction in the Alabama Legislature:
Representatives G.W. Allen, D. H. Hill, Charles Smith, Lawrence
Speed, and Senator Benjamin Royal. When Reconstruction ended in 1877
and the Union Troops withdrew, many of the rights began to be eroded
with restricting laws.
The largest migration in U.S. history from the rural
South to the Northern states began in 1910 and continued until 1950.
Bullock County had a population of forty thousand at the turn of the
century. Bullock County African Americans began to migrate to
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, New York and many other towns and
cities in the Northern part of the U.S. Bullock County's elected
officials? failure to uphold basic civil liberties played a great
part in the exodus.
Bullock County had seven documented lynchings from
1889-1921 with the 1911 public lynching of Aberdeen Johnson
resulting in the National Guard being called out by Governor O'Neal.
Three shootings, in 1945, contributed greatly to the mass exodus of
young African American men. Edgar Thomas, a businessman, was killed.
Algie Lee Gary, an ex-serviceman was shot and Dock Hightower was
killed within three months by Officer Dewey Bradley. In 1947,
Sheriff Joseph L. Pickett and others were indicted and acquitted for
violating the civil liberties of Martha McMillian.
Many young Bullock County African American men
served in the First and Second World Wars only to return to a
country that would let them die for freedom, but would not give them
the full benefits of the freedoms for which they so valiantly
fought.
The right to vote was never actually taken away; but the poll tax
and the written tests, "designed to fail the citizen," had the same
effect. A group of Tuskegee University leaders came to Bullock
County to help the local leaders in their efforts to eliminate these
hindrances. Rufus Huffman, Benjamin Jordan, Aaron Sellers, and Wilma
Cox were among those that took the lead in Bullock County. Attorney
Fred Gray of Tuskegee, was instrumental in several court cases that
facilitated the registration of African American voters in Bullock
County.
In 1961, the United States Government filed a
lawsuit against the State of Alabama, particularly Bullock County,
to eliminate the hindrances to voter registration. The Court found
that there had been "systematic, intentional and insidious conduct
and such conduct was a clear violation of the Fifteenth Amendment of
the Constitution." In 1960, there were five African American voters
registered and there were 2,845 by 1966.
The churches of Bullock County have always been a source of strength
to the African American community. A strong faith in the face of
adversity has been the key to the nonviolent way that changes have
come to Bullock County. One exceptional man of courage was Solomon
Derry, pastor of Derry's Chapel AME Zion Church, who stood up to the
KKK and began the first public school for all African Americans. The
members of the Oak Grove No. 1 Baptist Church in Midway allowed
their church to he used as the meeting place for the NAACP.
Cultural and political changes have taken place in
Bullock County and continue to change. Many of those who left the
county in the 1950s are returning as retirees. This has become
possible because of the courageous men and women from both races who
worked together to make Bullock County a better place. In the past
five years, the Hispanic population has grown to 1.6% of the
population, adding another dimension to our cultural diversity.
Many accomplishments have been and will be made by
the African American citizens of Bullock County--many who have come
and gone, those working today, and those yet to be. It is impossible
to put in one brochure all that needs to be said of these
contributions, both positive and negative. This brochure is only a
beginning for the collection of oral and written history of those
that have lived the struggle, felt the joys of equality, and justice
for African Americans. Please use this brochure as a guide to visit
the churches, Courthouse, Pauly Jail, and talk to our living
legends. The Tourism Council thanks Judge Rufus Huffman, Nadine Ivy,
Lynn Jinks III, and Henry Thomas for their assistance in this
endeavor.
This section of the web site
is an excerpt of a Tourism Council brochure (pictured above).
Contact the Tourism Council for a copy of the brochure. |
