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Caroline Dye One of the paradoxes of the Jim Crow era of segregation was the allowance made for black female fortune tellers. “Aunt” Caroline Dye of Newport, Arkansas, was perhaps the most famous of these black clairvoyants. During –, Arkansas and the rest of the American South was a land of strict segregation. Black children studied in all-black schools, black travelers were denied lodging in hotels, almost all churches were segregated, and when black folks cast off their mortal coil,they were buried in black cemeteries.Still,large numbers of white people not only sought out Mrs. Dye but also paid her well for her services. Born a slave in South Carolina around , she was brought to Arkansas by her owners when they moved to Independence County. After the Civil War, she married Martin Dye of Sulphur Rock, and about  the couple settled into a home on Remmel Avenue in Newport. Dye’s reputation as a seer started when she was a child.After moving to Newport, her fame spread rapidly. She was reputed to be especially successful in locating lost articles such as jewelry. One man remembered Dye as having a devoted clientele: “there were scores of both negroes and white people who regarded her as lawyer, doctor, preacher, confessor, and adviser.” First-time visitors were surprised by Dye’s understated style. She dressed simply, and she made no use of crystal balls or other traditional fortuneteller props.Sometimes she used a deck of cards,though she said they merely served to focus her concentration and had no psychic powers.She usually received clients while sitting in a rocking chair on her large back porch. Dye’s fame spread as many of her predictions proved accurate, or at least almost nearly accurate. Famed bluesman W. C. Handy made Caroline Dye a central figure in two songs, “St. Louis Blues” and  “Sundown Blues.” The latter song, about a woman’s “two-timing papa,” contains the lines “I’m goin’ to Newport . . . I mean Newport, Arkansaw! / I’m goin’ there to see Aunt Car’line Dye.” By  Dye’s powers landed her on the front page of the Arkansas Democrat, where she was reported to have been visited “by a deputation of citizens in an endeavor to ascertain whether a cowering wretch being guarded by a mob was the right man to hang, following an assault upon a young woman.” Sometimes predictions were attributed to Dye that she denied.For example, the same  newspaper account cited above mentions that Dye had disclaimed any predictions of impending disaster for the town of Newport, “and as a result many uneasy feelings have been calmed.” Clients paid handsome fees for Dye’s services, usually in cash. She owned a large home, which provided housing not only for Dye and her husband, but also for a retinue of staff and friends. Being totally illiterate, she maintained a fulltime secretary. At one time she owned eight farms.Without offspring of her own,she raised a number of foster children. When Dye died in ,her executor called authorities to her home, where a search reportedly yielded $, in cash, about one-third in silver dollars.For years before her death rumors had circulated that Dye distrusted banks and had buried her wealth in various locations. About twenty years after her death, newspapers reported that a Newport man had supposedly located Dye’s buried money.This rumor brought scores of spade-wielding searchers into Newport’s back allies and lanes. “Men and women are digging feverishly in old fence corners and under gnarled trees,” reported one journalist. Regardless of her wealth, Caroline Dye will be remembered as a black woman who rose above the constraints of slavery and segregation to build an independent life. FOR MORE INFORMATION: “Caroline Dye: Date of Birth.” Stream of History  (October ): . Morgan, James L. “She Put Newport on the Map: A Biography of Aunt Caroline Dye.” Stream of History  (January ): –, –. Wolf, John Quincy. “Aunt Caroline Dye: The Gypsy in the ‘St. Louis Blues.’” Southern Folklore Quarterly  (): –.  SEERS, SPIRITUALISTS, AND SKEPTICS ...

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