Oberlin College's Emeritus Professor of Anthropology Dr. Jack Glazier offers a penetrating look at Hopkinsville and Christian County in his book, which is part ethnography and part historical narrative, titled Been Coming Through Some Hard Times - Race, History and Memory in Western Kentucky. Glazier met with Hopkinsville groups last year to discuss his conclusion: that structural inequality persists in the community. On Sounds Good, Kate Lochte speaks with Dr. Glazier about the root of his interest in Hopkinsville, the historical significance of Kentucky granting marriage rights to African Americans and the failure of the Freedman's Bureau in the city.
After conducting field research with residents of Hopkinsville and Christian County between 2001 and 2008, Dr. Jack Glazier began compiling his work on the history of African American life in the region into a book. He credits a woman named Idella Bass Richardson for his interest in telling the story, having grown close to her in childhood, when she moved to Indianapolis and helped his parents care for him and his siblings.
Remembering Idella Bass Richardson
Idella Bass was born in Hopkinsville in 1891. Her father had been born into slavery and eventually became a student at Oberlin College. She told him one day that she wanted to grow up and become a nurse - to care for old people and children. Her father told her she should aim higher and become a doctor. "Thinking about this, it's really quite extraordinary that in apartheid America a man born into slavery could make such a recommendation to his daughter," Glazier says. She was unable to complete high school in Hopkinsville because there wasn't one she could attend at the time. So she moved to Chicago and worked in a laundry. In a tragic accident, her right forearm got caught in a steam press and it had to be amputated, which dashed her hopes of becoming a doctor. Years later, in the 1920s, she moved to Indianapolis to help Jack Glazier's parents and care for their children.
More on Idella Bass Richardson from Kentucky New Era
Preserving Stories and Accounts
The history of Hopkinsville's black population survives through the oral tradition and documents and archives, which Dr. Glazier spent copious amounts of time researching. From slave narratives collected in the 1930s to letters and wills left behind by white slave owners. The most important of all of his research, he says, is trying to hear black voices in the historical record of Hopkinsville and Kentucky. Much of his stories came from forging friendships in the black community.
"As an historian, as an anthropologist, one has to go wherever one can to find possible sources. So the attitudes of white people are also important here because they were influential in shaping the possibilities black people had both in slavery and in freedom."
Recognizing Marriages in Kentucky
Dr. Glazier says black marriages in the time of slavery may have been informally recognized, but lacked civic importance as far as the states were concerned: not registered, lacked rights or obligations conferred. However, after 1865, there was a statewide interest in having that kind of civic recognition and children considered "legitimate." Dr. Glazier says this goes against some of the stereotypes that persist today.
"When we look at the conditions of the black family now in inner cities - high rates of illegitimacy and single parent households, we have tended popularly and in some of the scholarly literature to project that backward, as if 'that is how it has always been.' 'It's a legacy of slavery' and I think that's certainly in error."
Between 1880 and 1925, the two-parent family was the norm. In 1950, only 9% of black families were headed by a single parent. Dr. Glazier says one of the the most moving efforts from the post-Civil War era was the reconnecting of black families. Ads would often appear in newspapers in the 20th Century of sons and daughters, husbands and wives writing something like 'I was separated from my mother in Virginia in 1862. This is her name here's what she looked like.'
Why Christian County Had So Many Slaves
Dr. Glazier says he learned a great deal of Kentucky during his research. For instance, it was highly regionalized - more than in most states, he says. Eastern Kentucky and Western Kentucky were quite different, namely in the slave populations of 1860. Where there were approximately 200 to 300 slaves in Pike County (one of the largest counties in the east), nearly 46-50% of people in Christian County were slaves. The reason for this, he says, is tobacco. The crop accounted for a very large number of slaves in Christian County and other counties in the Pennyroyal region. Tobacco paid very well for farmers and was extremely labor intensive. The labor came from slaves. In 1860, nearly 3% of all the tobacco in the United States came from Christian County, Kentucky.
'Mingling' Between Blacks and Whites
For so long in Hopkinsville's history, it was considered that black and white people lived in parallel universes, but Dr. Glazier's research finds that there was always an intersection between the two races. White people changed black people when they brought them from Africa by instilling European-centric ideologies like Christianity. But it goes both ways, he says, Black people 'Africanized' the white South, too. "I think this recognition is very important for the future. It's a recognition that also forces us to come to grips with some very unpleasant aspects of the American past."
The Freedman's Bureau
One of Dr. Glazier's 'great finds' during his research was 130 microfilm reels from the Freedman's Bureau in Hopkinsville. The Freedman's Bureau and the American Army, which was stationed in Kentucky for a long while after the Civil War was essentially all that stood between four million liberated slaves in the South and defeated Confederates - some of whom were determined to continue the subjugation of black people, Dr. Glazier says, who called this time "A Reign of Terror." The Freedman's Bureau, while underfunded and corrupt started schools, supervised labor contracts and was considered an early social work agency.
This short-lived effort lasted from 1865 to 1872, before corruption became too rampant and the Freedman's bank failed. At this time, Dr. Glazier says, many black people were giving up on the federal government. Slavery had ended, citizenship had been granted, but from 1876 onward - for nearly 100 years - this was all betrayed by the withdrawl of American troops and the federal government looking the other way while states rights enthusiasts got their way.
'Been Coming Through Some Hard Times'
In a recent presentation at a high school, Dr. Glazier began with two questions, "Are you more open, are you more tolerant, are you more progressive about your attitudes about race than your grandparents?" Then he asked "Why is that?" Students of both races responded saying that they knew each other, they have contact, they go to school together and develop friendships. Dr. Glazier says it's very hard to retain stereotypes when you have day by day contradictions. While there remains a bifurcation after school and into adulthood, attitudes have changed.
Since the publication of his book, there has been at least one active discussion group at Grace Episcopal Church between black and white citizens interested in how to make things better in the community. "To think that I had a role in inspiring this is enormously gratifying," he says.
On the thorough and candid nature of his work, Dr. Glazier says "If we're going to censor or dress up the past, we're really dealing with propaganda." He says , "We should let history take us where it will if we're to understand where we came from and to try to make things better in the future."
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Been Coming Through Some Hard Times - Race, History and Memory in Western Kentucky
