In Black and White: Chinese in the Mississippi Delta

Abstract

In Black and White: Chinese in the Mississippi Delta Jeannie Rhee Editor’s Note: Thispaper is the winner of the 1994 Hughes-Gossett Award for Student Essays. Ms. Rheepresenteda longer version as her undergraduate thesis at Yale University in 1994. Scholars of constitutional legal history have foundmuchcausetocelebratethe Supreme Court of the United States in the twentieth century. Benno Schmidt, for example, argues that by the Progressive era ofthe early 1910s and 1920s, the Supreme Court bravely stood alone breathing “life into the Reconstruction principles that had been left for dead.”1 For Gong Lum and other Chinese in the Mississippi Delta who were seeking reentry into the all white public schools that had expelled their children, orders for desegregation came ironically from the local county district court, a supposed repository ofracist ideology, onlyto be snatched away by the Supreme Court.2 Rather than stand bravely alone in the midst of “rockbottom levels ofinjustice and callousness,”3 the Supreme Court inrealityevincedthe samelevels of injustice, swept up and mired in the hotly contested, tense racial climate of the era. The small communities scattered throughout the Delta could not be described as havens from the storm of racial discrimination that plagued minorities elsewhere. In the heart of the Jim Crow South, racismtowards African-Americans permeated virtually every aspect of life to the extentthat one “simplydidn’t questionit.” Inthe words ofa local matron, “It wasjust the waythat JIM CROW LAW. ? at an early hour M. 1 Joseph Rainey, resldda and Morgan streets, from that corner and Jrunkeness and disturbThey pleaded not guil­ ts were ordered against at 4:43 o'clock the male la Allen, colored, of No. et. died without mediThe coroner was notlae Slate against Andrew d with the murder of»aa called before Judge a preliminary hearing By agreement the ease until Thursday week, was crowded when the aae was called to-day stenographer tn court, le noted this as being a . as Mr. Ilorden should E CITY HALL. r Murphy ProinolPew Appointments— oniniltler Meeting:..·. notified that body that the ion of & aehool building on between Lafayette and Cybid ot M hat of the in the ‘i'asi’ light,’ ! others probably who ar· ottlcu who did not beeom the administration until certain tint’ Governor Ft continued in the chair. Senator Komain and Other uembers ci the Lea ol the gentlemen from th voted against the beint proposition to go behiix were on the platform : participated in the cer dent to the inauguratlot ernor. That was all very way. but it is to be quest the action of the repres attended the Odd Fellow lug will dovetail with ti yesterday. It is said that when V comes tip for considerati· tee an attempt will be i sawmills on the taxable the existing law sawmill from taxation. The saw fostered by wise legislatl to be one of the most lin State, and no industry i prom.se · of continued Whether or not th·· le take kindly to the propthe lumber mills on the cult now to say. Ex-Representative Kin here for a few days enj· He has had to be re-ini ever. When Mr. Knig w Legislature he was cont In public with a dainty II but now he sports a luxt Col. 1. D. Moore Is her* Price in being elected t Col. Moore has had the t meet many of his >1 frit is canvassing for .‘..rnsel usually runs in hard luc get.-: beaten, but he has a ly of winning the fights : ges for others; and he h daily successful when handled any of Mr. Prlci Mr. Price will not be JimCrowlawswereprevalentinthepostReconstruction South,including the Mississippi Delta 118 1994 JOURNAL things were done; everyoneknew theirplace and how to act in keeping with it.”4 Yet it was only thefactthatblacks and whites “knew theirplace” in the social pecking order that allowed the Chinese to attain for themselves a measure of equality. As a nominal group, they posed little threat ontheir own, and facedprejudices onlyas a minority whites associated with African-Ameri­ cans. Toachieve any rights, therefore,the Chinese were compelled to endorse the racial hierarchy. They not only deferred to white supremacy over them, but actively complied with the...