Star Creek Papers

Acknowledgments

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Editing the Star Creek Papers has been a fascinating and movingexperience . Coming across these long-forgotten manuscripts seemed at first sheer serendipity, but, in retrospect, it was more than pure chance. I had long been interested in the Wilson family of Washington Parish. In 1987, wading through the NAACP's lynching files in connection with my research on Louisiana, I read about the shooting affray on the Wilson farm that took place on July n, 1934, and the subsequent trial, conviction, appeal, and lynching ofJerome Wilson. I sketched the bare outlines of the story in Race and Democracy, but I always wanted to know more about these events. Every lynching was a tragedy , but the fate of the Wilson family seemed especially tragic. John Wilson was a strikingly sympathetic character, and I often wondered what became of him and his family. Were any of his children still alive? Where did they go after Jerome's death? Did any Wilsons still own land and farm in Washington Parish? In 1994 I was introduced to Julia W. Bond by our mutual friend Connie Curry. Prompted by Julian Bond, who knew that a lynching had occurred in a place called "Star Creek," Louisiana, while his parents had been living there, I asked Mrs. Bond about her recollections of this event. Only then did I learn of the Bonds' personal knowledge of Jerome Wilson's lynching, and of Horace Mann Bond's effort, sixty years earlier, to turn the history of the Wilson family into a book. Mrs. Bond also told me of her friendship with Freddye Henderson of Atlanta, who was a first cousin of Jerome Wilson. When finally I had the opportunity to go through Horace Mann Bond's papers, I read his xi xii Acknowledgments Star Creek manuscripts with mounting excitement and enthusiasm. A recent biographer of Bond had,to my amazement, devoted only a page or two to Bond's Star Creek sojourn, and only a couple of paragraphs to the researches and writings that it inspired. I had no doubt in my mind that publication of the Star Creek manuscripts would make an important contribution to both the sociology and history of the American South. Karen Orchard, director of the Universityof Georgia Press, shared that view and I am grateful for her confidence and support. In pursuing this project I am indebted to Julian Bond for providing initial encouragement and to Julia Bond for her help and cooperation throughout. In a real sense, Mrs.Bond is the co-author of this book. It is also a pleasure to acknowledge the help of Freddye Henderson, who gave generously of her time and provided invaluable information, based on personal knowledge and memories, about the Wilson and Magee families. Two surviving siblings of Jerome Wilson also helped me to trace the history of the Wilsons since 1935. Felton Wilson of Chicago provided important details of the family, as did Alexzine Wilson Young ofBrooklyn. Mrs. Young was particularly obliging, and she freely shared her vivid and painful memories of the events of 1934-35.1 am immensely grateful toher. The task of editing the Star Creek Papers was made considerably easier by the fact that I spent 1994-95 at tne National Humanities Center in North Carolina. This wonderful institution not only provided that most precious of all commodities, time, but also gave me invaluable secretarial assistance. Two NHC staff members, Karen Carroll and Linda Morgan, contributed many hours of their time to retyping and putting onto disk blurred and dog-eared copies of the original manuscripts. Their cheerful and efficient assistance was a real boon. I also wish to acknowledge the scholarship of E. Russ Williams Jr. of Monroe, Louisiana, whose encyclopaedic History of Washington Parish helped me to confirm and amplify important details of peoplementioned in Bond's narrative. Finally, my wife, Mary Ellen Curtin, was unstinting in her encouragement and help. This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank ...