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OUR DALLAS ON SEGREGATION AND LYNCHING – Ed Sebesta 12/17/2020 Justin For Kimball was born in 1872. He graduated from Mount Lebanon College in Louisiana in 1890 and later received a M.A. from Baylor Univ. in 1899. After some postgraduate work, he started his career as a teacher and by 1900 was the superintendent of the Temple, Texas school system. He was hired by the Dallas school system where he was superintendent from 1914 to 1924. During his administration he was elected president of the Texas State Teachers Association. He resigned in 1924 for reasons of health and became a lecturer at Southern Methodist University in 1925. In 1929 he became vice-president of Baylor Univ. in charge of the College of Medicine, School of Nursing, College of Dentistry, and their hospital located in Dallas. In this position he originated a pre-payment plan which became the forerunner of the Blue Cross Group Hospital Insurance. Kimball retired from Baylor in 1939 and became an adjunct professor at Southern Methodist University. His book, “Our Dallas,” was published in 1927 and according to the entry in the Texas State Historical Association Handbook entry the book was, “used by Dallas grade schools for a number of years.” He was a life long Democrat which was the party of white supremacy at the time. From 1949 to 1952 he was a member of the Texas State Board of Education. He spent his last years revising his book “Our Dallas,” and it was announced in a Dallas Morning News (DMN) article in 1943 [DMN, July 26, 1943, “Dallas Students Brought Up to Date on Civil Affairs,” page 2.] that the Dallas School district was reprinting it and it was going to be used in the curriculum of 8th grade students. He died Oct. 7, 1956 and two years later a newly constructed high school was named after him. It appears that Kimball’s book was used by the Dallas school district for quite some time. It would have had a significant impact on shaping the thinking of Dallas youth and hence the people of Dallas. [“Kimball, Justin Ford (1872-1956),” Texas State Historical Association Handbook of Texas, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/kimball-justin-ford, downloaded 12/6/2020. The author wishes to state that the use of the TSHA Handbook is always problematic and often the entries whitewash Texas history in regards to racism. The use of this source is in no way an endorsement.] The question you first need to ask is who is the “our” in the title, “Our City – Dallas.” And, who are not part of the “our,” but are instead the others. Also, this is how white supremacy was built and run and normalized in Dallas. A lot of focus is given to transitory, sensational and marginal racist groups like the Ku Klux Klan and others in history, but the book, “Our Dallas,” shows how white supremacy was actually run, while always proclaiming concern for African American welfare, by the mainstream establishment in Dallas. This is how African American lives were crushed routinely and daily in the Dallas of the past. In many ways this book is the very essence of Dallas in the expression of concern for African Americans while in reality constructing a system to crush the lives of African Americans.
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Page 3 of 15 What is important to observe in this “Personal Word,� by Justin F. Kimball, is that his writings have the broad support of the white Dallas establishment. This is not some stray book that Kimball wrote in isolation and apart from the people who ran Dallas, but instead it was written upon request of the white supremacist regime that ran Dallas at the time with their full support. Some of these names can be seen on the landscape, such as Gillespie Street, Fouts Lane, and Baldwin Street. Fouts Lane is named after Mr. John Fouts and Gillespie Street is named either after C.B. Gillespie or his family, reports vary. Baldwin Street name origin still needs to be tracked down.
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The text on this page is as follows: The richest gifts are those which cannot be bought. The finest generosity is the giving of one’s self. The most splendid sacrifice is that which bestows benefits upon others and not upon one’s self. The people of Dallas and all of Texas have been the fortunate recipients of such gifts and of such sacrifice through the unstinted generosity of Dr. J.F. Kimball, to whom Texas owes a debt of deep gratitude and appreciation. For a year and a half Dr. Kimball has labored to give us his study on the civics and history of Dallas. THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Kessler Plan Association tender him our profound thanks and gratitude for this splendid service, and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of these resolutions be presented to Dr. Kimball and family, a second copy to the School Board and another copy be spread upon the minutes of the Association. Respectfully submitted, EDWARD TITCHE, Chairman, A.A. JACKSON, WALTER A. DEALEY, ALEX F. WEISBERG, A.O. ANDERSON, Special Committee, Kessler Plan. Association Unanimously adopted by Board of Directors, President, E.H. Cary, Secretary Jno. E. Surratt. Cary, and Titche have schools named after them.
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A Peculiar Zoning Problem. In Dallas and in other southern cities, there is a peculiar and special reason why housing problems should be worked out in city planning. This is because of the of the presence of our negro population. In every American city, north or south, where there is a large number of negroes living, you will find the negroes gathering together in large groups of residences in some one or more parts of the city. The same thing is true of the various types of other population besides negroes. Mexicans tend to live among Mexican neighbors, Italians among Italian neighbors, millionaires among millionaire neighbors. This very natural tendency is a good thing in many ways. Among other reasons there is the fact that it lessens danger of friction between the races. Where negroes and white people know one another personally, there is little danger of race riot or race friction. In large cities where very few of either race know each other, there have occurred the worst types of race riots and race murders. The white people and our negro citizens must live together in the United States as law abiding citizens. The very worst enemy to the negro race is the man, white or black, who advises negroes to violence against the neighbors of the white
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Race. Whenever race friction or race riot or race murders break out, you can be sure that the most wicked and most dangerous criminals of both colors will be found in the mob on both sides. It is better for each race that the housing
Photo caption: A Negro Residence District of the better type. Crime and pestilence do not breed in homes like these. One-fourth of the negroes of Dallas live in houses that are reported as “unfit for human habitation.�
Zoning shall take place as it has in every city like Chicago and New York City in the north, and as it is in our cities of the south. This kind of zoning occurs whether it is provided by law or not; it is just human nature. In the South where many of the colored people work in the homes of the whites, the importance of good housing of the negro is a very vital matter to the welfare of the white homes. The white family may not be directly affected by
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bad housing conditions of other white families living in the same part of town; yet it may be vitally and directly affected by the bad housing of a negro family living in the negro part of the city. Let me give you an illustration that occurred not long ago in Dallas. Scarlet fever is a very dangerous disease, especially for children; it often leaves them with injured eye-sight or injured hearing. It is very contagious and difficult to control, because after the sick child gets well, the old skin peels off and this is the most dangerous time for contagion. Not long ago the mother of a white family having two children was surprised and worried by the fact that her children both suddenly developed fullblown, typical cases of scarlet fever and were all broken out before she even suspected the danger. She had a negro woman cooking for here and she knew that this cook had some small children in her home. The white lady, not wishing to endanger the health of her cook’s children, told her that the children had developed scarlet fever and she might stop for a while in order that the colored children might not be exposed to the danger of her carrying scarlet fever to them. The cook answered her mistress, “Law me, Miss Liza, you needn’t worry ‘bout my chillum; they done had it and are already peelin’ off.” The cook had brought the scarlet fever from her home to the home of the white mother. We white folks in the south need, not only for human reasons to our colored neighbors, but also for our own protection and the protection of our own children, to see that our colored people have decent, wholesome, clean homes in which to live and raise their children. If we do not look after this matter, we may have brought from their homes into our own families the seeds of diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, and other dreadful diseases.
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One of the most importantly vital questions in city planning in Dallas is to provide areas in which lawabiding, self-respecting, wage-earning, thrifty negro citizens may buy and pay for homes that are suitable for life use. The negroes who violate law and commit terrible crimes are, without exceptions, always roving, shifting negroes; the home-owning negro is a good citizens and can be depended on to uphold the law and support the institutions of the state and the city. A survey of the negro housing situation made by the Civic Federation of Dallas in 1925 showed that one-fourth of the negro population in Dallas were living in rented houses, “unfit for human habitation.� Not only was this the case, but the area open in which negroes can purchase land and build homes is limited. Without exception, the negro criminals come from the most unsatisfactory and unsanitary conditions of housing. The housing of the negro population is a problem which the white men who manage real estate businesses must help the colored people work out. We need zones opened for the purchase of humble homes, well-to-do homes, and better homes for our negro citizens. We white people need this for the benefit of our city and our own homes as well as for the benefit of the negroes themselves. If suitable areas for good negro homes are not provided by wise city planning, then not only the welfare of the negroes will be injured, but white districts will be blighted in values, the health and wealth of white people lessened, and worst of all, friction and misunderstanding between the races arise. The same is true in reference to a much smaller number of people in the Mexican population. Most of the Mexicans who live in Dallas are not American citizens, do not speak English, do not expect to remain in Dallas or the United States long, are unaccustomed to our conditions of life and housing. They
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will accept conditions of housing to which no other people in our city or state will submit. You may say that this is not your business or mine. Every such congested, over-crowded, unhealthful center is like a canker or eating sore
Photo caption: Mexican Houses along Mill Creek. No sewage—no sanitation. Many Mexicans live in worse conditions.
On our fair city. The rest of our city can no more live and grow and prosper with such a condition, than our body can be well when it has an angry, bleeding inflamed sore on some part of it. The rest of the body will be injured in health and strength; so will the rest of our city sooner or later, suffer the penalty for bad housing conditions among any large group of its population, however humble.
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Voting: You remember that when Athens was the size of Dallas and the greatest city in the world, only one-tenth of its people were citizens. These citizens used to meet in the sunny, open, public square and there discussed and transacted the business of their government, making laws, choosing of-
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ficers, and attending to all government business in person by word of mouth. Our nation, our state, and even our city is so big and has so many citizens that they cannot all come together in any one place and transact their public business. For this reason the American people hold elections an vote, and so choose men to attend to the business of the government for them. Voting is not a right of all citizens but is a privilege of some citizens. Each state makes its own laws as to which of its citizens shall vote and choose its officers and decide its policies. In Texas the privilege of voting is given by the constitution to all except the following: (1) Those under twenty-one years of age. (2) Idiots and lunatics. (3) Paupers on public expense. (4) Those convicted of felony (unless pardoned). See if you can give a good reason why each of these groups should not be allowed to vote. In some states no person is allowed to vote unless he owns several hundred dollars worth of property. Should this be law? The purpose of voting is to choose good officers for the government and to decide wisely its general policies. Before any person entitled to the privilege of voting in Texas is allowed to vote, he must have lived in the state at least a year and have lived six months in the county where he wishes to vote, and must have paid a poll tax to the state, or secured an exemption certificate in place of paying poll tax. People over sixty years of age and those who are deaf or dumb or blind or who have lost a hand or foot, are not required to pay poll tax and are given an exemption certificate. The word poll means a head, and it is called a poll
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Tax because the tax is so much a head for each man and woman who pays it. Other taxes except poll tax are not paid on the basis of so much a person but on the basis of how much property he has; so one man pays more or less than another, but all pay the same poll tax. Ignorant or corruptible citizens can always be counted on to vote, although they usually vote wrong, because bad men will see to it that they do vote wrong, on the other hand there are many good people who have the privilege of voting who do not take the trouble to vote. This is a grave problem, for as Henry Ward Beecher once said, “Our government is built on the vote.� Ballots are of as much importance to our nation as bullets; what should be done to those who have the voting privilege, yet do not use it? In some nations grave punishment is given to those who have the privilege of voting but neglect to vote. In the year 1705 the Colony of Virginia compelled by law every citizens who failed to vote to pay a fine of 200 pounds of tobacco. Senator Capper is advocating a law to increase the Federal income tax of every qualified voter who fails to vote in the national elections.
Red to call attention to texts.
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One of the worst results of failure to punish crime is that it not only breeds disrespect for the law in the criminals, but also makes the good people themselves impatient and distrustful of the law. This sometimes causes people to take the law into their own hands and to inflict punishment on persons accused of crime by lynching, hanging, beating, torture, and sometimes by burning to death. Lynch law is positively the most dangerous form of anarchy because it involves so many good people. The poorest and most uncertain court in the world is better than any lynch court, yet the failure of the courts to visit punishment on criminals is the reason that lynchings occur. The mob itself is never wholly to blame for mob law; part of the blame belongs always upon the courts and juries of the past that failed to punish those guilty of crime. It is confessed with regret that the United States not only has more murders than other civilized nations but that it also has far more lynchings. The cure for both of these grave dangers, these terrible evils, is for each man and each woman to see by his own acts and his own help that courts, and juries, and lawyers do their full duty in protecting the state from crime and lack of law. The habit of resorting to violence is most dangerous for a nation’s welfare. It is this habit that has made the past history of Mexico so bloody and unhappy, that has so often destroyed her peace and prosperity. Our own nation is not more blessed with beauty and resources than Mexico; the handicap that has held Mexico back is the habit of violence among her people in matters of government. We have referred to the fact that England, whose laws, customs and people are more like ours than any other nation, has a most excellent record for enforcement of law and scarcity of serious crime. We Americans can find cause for hope of
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better days for our own land when we know that seventy years ago England had almost the same conditions that we now face. By simplifying the rules of the courts that we now face. By simplifying the rules of the courts and by trying the cases promptly, the English people made a wonderful change in only a few decades. The same remedy lies in the power of us Americans if our citizens will rouse themselves and insist on our rights to protection of life and safety by our courts. There lies the certain remedy – the only remedy. Men cool of temper, slow and solid in their way of thinking, are the best citizens on which to build a nation. That was the best trait of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin. They believed in law and order at the cost of life itself. When people cannot rely on the law of the land for protection, they either develop cowardice or spirit or violence of action; either will bring a free people to ruin. One thing that comes up repeatedly with Southerners in this period writing about lynching is that they first condemn in strong terms and then follow with justifications for it. Here after Kimball tells how terrible lynching is, he then follows with excuses for it. Also, the issue of race is wholly absent in his discussion of lynching, it is attributed to poor citizenship and technical details of how the court system operates. Finally, his solution to lynching is to make sure that there is a swift conviction before potential lynchers have a chance to get emerge, if at the cost of limiting legal protections. This also was a common solution white southerners proposed to end lynching, quickly convict African Americans with a sham trial.
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The City of Dallas has a special connection to the history of lynching. Its congressional representative Hatton W. Sumners was the leading national opponent of federal antilynching legislation in the U.S. Congress. Sumners was one of the major reasons federal anti-lynching legislation wasn’t passed in the 20th century. Sumners also campaigned against any and all civil rights legislation from the beginning of his career to the end. One thing he fought to defend was the poll tax. This book written by Justin F. Kimball and used to indoctrinate Dallas students is one reason Hatton W. Sumners would be elected with large majorities year after year to oppose civil rights legislation, oppose federal anti-lynching laws, and oppose efforts to end the poll tax.