Abstract
Throughout the 20th century, Madison County, Florida’s African-American population contended with the limitations of living in a racially segregated society. Hampered by inadequate schooling, proscribed economic opportunities, constant threats of violence and the inability to participate in the democratic process, Madison’s black people, like black people everywhere in the South, had taken several steps backwards from the hopeful and promising days of Reconstruction. Despite these difficult challenges, the county’s blacks managed to build viable institutions through their churches, uphold their segregated schools as sources of community pride, and find a variety of ways, both subtle and bold to fight the inequities of a cruel and unjust system.
The present study is a broad snapshot examining certain elements of this story. It begins with an introduction reviewing the available historiography on rural, locally-based studies on the 20th century African-American experience. From there, it offers a chapter on a social and economic overview on Madison County, Florida, during the 20th century and the ways in which its white citizens negotiated race related matters. Chapter Two offers an exposition on how the county’s black citizens drew strength from their institutions, namely – their churches, clubs and schools. The next three chapters are biographical sketches of four black Madisonians and the ways in which they operated within their respective spheres. Interwoven throughout their narratives are contextual analyses that bring perspective to the ways in which their lives and their actions reflected patterns seen across the country in general and the South in particular. The concluding epilogue offers additional insight into both the need for locally based histories and their scholarly value, while considering some of the cautions attendant on a reliance of first-hand accounts of events from a past that is simultaneously recent and distant.
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