Portrait of a Scientific Racist: Alfred Holt Stone of Mississippi

13 IN PUBLIC DUTY

233 1. One reason the flood of 1913 did less damage was because it occurred in January, before the cotton crop had been planted (Stone, “The Overflow,” 3). 13 IN PUBLIC DUTY Alf Stone pursued multiple, overlapping interests during the remainder of his life. One of those was cotton, which he grew at Dunleith. He also became the first vice president of the Staple Cotton Cooperative Association and edited its newsletter from 1923 until his death. Another of Stone’s interests was public service, first as a state legislator and later as the state’s tax commissioner for four consecutive terms from 1932 until his death. Stone was also interested in history and spent much of his free time pursuing the state’s storied past, first as a president of the Mississippi Historical Society and later as a member of the board of trustees for the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) from 1933 until his death. The pattern of Stone’s achievements during the last thirty-five years of his life is clear. If he latched on to something he was interested in, he stuck with it until he died. Cotton was the reason Stone gave up his career as a racial theorist, and it was the business of growing cotton that consumed most of his attention after he returned to Dunleith in 1909. The boll weevil was the first challenge he faced, but it would not be the last. An overflow from the Mississippi River in 1912 inundated Dunleith, and flooding the next year created havoc throughout the Delta, although it did not damage Dunleith extensively .1 The floodwaters had scarcely receded when the First World War erupted in Europe. Although it would be some time before the impact made itself felt in the United States, Stone assumed an active part in response to the worldwide crisis when it arrived. He was a member of the Washington County PORTRAIT OF A SCIENTIFIC RACIST 234 2. Undated newspaper clippings in Washington County, World War I Scrapbook, Daughters of the American Revolution, Belvidere Chapter, MDAH (Z1899). 3. Mississippi Legislature, 1916–1918, Joint Report of the Senate and House Committees Appointed at the Session on 1916 to Consider the State’s Revenue System and Fiscal Affairs (Jackson, MS: Tucker Printing, [1918]), 63 pages. 4. A. S. Coody, “Repair of and Changes in the Old Capitol,” Journal of Mississippi History 11 (April 1949): 89–96; John Ray Skates, Mississippi’s Old Capitol: Biography of a Building (Jackson: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1990), 125–26. 5. Stone was particularly interested in cotton factors, as was evidenced by his paper “The Cotton Factorage System of the Southern States,” which he read at the 1914 annual meeting of the American Historical Association in Chicago. It was later published in the American Historical Review (20 [April 1915]: 557–65). Council of Defense and the local chapter of the Red Cross. In addition, he was active in work for Jewish war relief and organized the black workers at Dunleith for a war bond drive. Mary Stone was also active in the Woman’s Committee for the Council of Defense and the YWCA.2 In 1916, Stone was elected to the Mississippi State Legislature as a representative from Washington County. He served two, four-year terms. His tenure in the legislature gave Stone experience in state governance that would later prove to be useful in many ways. Perhaps the most important experience in that regard came as the result of his being appointed to a joint committee charged with studying the tax equalization of property throughout the state.3 Stone’s service in the legislature also allowed him to become an advocate for historic preservation. Within one week of assuming office, Stone introduced a bill to determine the feasibility of restoring the Old Capitol. The state’s new Capitol building had been dedicated on Jefferson Davis’s birthday in 1903, and the Old Capitol on State Street was in a state of ruin. Some people wanted to tear it down, but Stone and other legislators fought for its renovation. They won, and Stone was largely responsible for allowing the Old Capitol to duck the wrecking ball.4 Despite his legislative duties in Jackson and interest in historic preservation , Stone’s heart was in the Delta. Traditionally, cotton growers in the Mississippi Delta were at the mercy of the cotton brokers, called “factors,” who bought their crop and sold it at a pro...