About The Braselton news. (Jefferson, Ga) 2006-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 22, 2023)
Page 4A The Braselton News Wednesday, February 22, 2023 Opinion Remembering a tragic past This year’s Black History Month comes amid an atmosphere where some politicians want to white wash the nation’s history (pun intended.) There's two very differ ent sides to this story. One the liberal side, some have taken the extreme po sition that just about all of today’s social pathologies are due to institutional rac ism. In this view, all issues are viewed through the lens of race even if the issue isn’t obviously about race. On the conservative side, some politi cians are trying to suppress the teaching of black history in public schools, or at least ban teaching that might make white students feel bad about the na tion’s treatment of minorities. Both sides in this debate are wrong. Not every issue can be framed around race or racism. While there is institutional racism in society, to focus entirely on that ignores the individual. The ideology that groups of people are victims based on racial or ethnic heritage doesn’t fully explain the complexity of human nature, or our social/political dynamics. It’s a lot more complicated than to simply portray everything through a racial lens. The Black Lives Matter movement is one example. The death of Black men at the hands of law enforcement isn’t just about white policemen abusing Black suspects; Black policemen have also abused Black suspects, as was evident in the recent beating death of a Black man in Memphis, Tenn. by a group of Black cops. Racism doesn’t explain that event; a bad police culture is perhaps a bigger problem than racism when it comes to the mistreatment of Black suspects. On the other side, the quisling ap proach to teaching the facts of Amer ican history, as is being advocated by some Republicans, does a disservice to students. Whatever its merits and accomplishments. America does have a tainted history with its inhuman treat ment of minorities — Native Americans were rounded up and herded like cattle onto reservations; slavery and the later violent suppression of civil rights of Black Americans is a stain on the nation that is still evident; and the nation has never fully come to terms with its many other minorities, including Asians, Hispanics and Jews. ••• Now during Black History Month, the nation should remember not only the achievements of Black Americans, but also how many Blacks were treated in the past. And that wasn't just “some where else.’’ Here in our local com munities, some whites treated Blacks shamefully. Here’s one of those stories: Exactly 100 years ago this month, a shocking thing happened in Jackson County: A grand jury indicted six white Jefferson men on attempted murder charges for having kid napped and shot a black man. I’ve not been able to find the final disposition of those charges, so I'm not naming those indicted here; their families are still in the area and some decedents carry the same name as their ancestors. But here’s the story as re ported in the press in 1923. In Oct. 1922, a black man, Jones (or Jesse or Ben, differ ent first names were published) Maxey was abducted from his home near Jef ferson around midnight when a group of hooded white men knocked down his door and came into the house firing pistols into the walls. Maxey was told to get out of bed and put on his clothes. The men then put a sack over Max- ey's head and led him to a car, which was followed by a second car through Jefferson and toward Winder. When the two cars got to the Mulberry River, they stopped on the side of the road and took Maxey out of the car. The men were angry with Maxey be cause he had dared to sue one of them in court over $60. Maxey had loaned one of the men the money a couple of years earlier when he had worked as a sharecropper on the man’s farm. But the man refused to pay the mon ey back to Maxey and had him arrested at one point on what was apparently trumped-up charges to avoid the debt. So Maxey sued his former employer (he was by then working for someone else). A black man suing a white man in the 1920s was rare, almost unheard of given the imbalance of power between whites and Blacks in the courts at that time. Two weeks before that lawsuit was to be heard, Maxey was kidnapped. When they got to the Mulberry River, the six men surrounded Maxey and asked him about the suit. As they talked, Maxey removed the hood over his head and saw the six men, all of whom he recognized. Four were related by marriage, including the man who owed him money. As the men told Maxey to prepare to die, they asked him his final words for his wife. “Tell her good-bye,’’ Maxey said. As he spoke, Maxey burst through the men and began running up the road. The men began for shoot at him, one bullet striking him in the back. As he veered off the road toward the bushes and the river, another shot hit Maxey in a knee. Out of options, Maxey jumped into the river. The group of men thought Maxey had been wounded severely enough that he wouldn't survive in the water, so they left and went home, thinking Maxey was dead. But he wasn’t. Maxey crossed the river to the Bar- row County side and hid in a cornfield until dawn. From the held, he made his way to a nearby farm and Jackson County’s sheriff, Ben Collier, was summoned. That incident led the six men to be indicted for attempted murder in Feb. 1923. The indictments made headlines around the state since it was unusual at that time for white men to be charged in a killing, or attempted killing, of a Black man. Bench warrants were issued for the six men in July 1923 to appear in court in August that year. But then the trail goes cold. I’ve not been able to find any final disposition of those cases. I doubt any of the six men, who were described as being prominent in the community, were convicted even if they were tried. Likely, the case was contin ued until it was forgotten or tossed out. One part of that may have been that in August 1923, court was postponed due to the creation of the new Piedmont Judicial Circuit and the need to fill positions in that new judicial circuit. The cases may have conveniently fallen through the cracks at that time. ••• At the same time in August 1923, another violent incident happened near Jefferson. The body of Felix Davenport, a Black man. was found in the Oconee River between Jefferson and Pendergrass. Davenport had a long rap sheet, hav ing himself been charged in 1896 for at tempted murder. One newspaper article said he was “notorious” and a gambler and bootlegger. He was certainly in court a lot on various charges. Roy Toney, 25, was soon arrested a charge with the murder. Toney had been a barber in Jefferson and Athens, according to newspaper reports at the time. Toney, who was white, was reportedly the last person to see Daven port alive. In November, a brief newspaper re port said that the grand jury didn’t indict Toney for the murder due to insufficient evidence. That was the typical outcome of these kinds of cases. Few white men were ever convicted of kilting a black man; it just didn’t happen. ••• Both of those events happened during a violent time in the state’s history where lynchings, floggings and beatings of Black citizens by white men happened on a regular basis. The KKK was strong in the state at that time and politically powerful. To not remember these events, to pretend they didn't happen, is to ignore history. Politicians may be successful in hav ing public schools downplay the history of that troubled time in our state and nation, but many others will continue to write about the events in the hope that our nation will never repeat its past mistakes. Mike Buffington is co-publisher of Mainstreet Newspapers. He can be reached at mike@mainstreetnews.com, The Ugly Shirts When Tink came South, toting all his worldly pos sessions. included in the myriad boxes were some of the ugliest shirts I’d ever seen. Until Tink began to hap pily pull the beloved plaid shirts from storage. I don’t believe I had ever looked at a man’s shirt and thought, “Yuck.” There was plenty of yuck in those boxes. Each shirt was mun dane in color but the ones with varying shades of grays were definitely in the majority. He had at least six shirts that had four tones of gray in the checks. Drab. Do you remember the old, plaid shirts that Billy Bob Thornton wore in the Southern Gothic movie. “Slingblade”? That was exactly what these shirts, from Los Ange les, California, resembled — which is particularly eye-rolling because Southern California enjoys laughing at Southerners. Yet. they had stores that sold shirts like those. This was in the early days of our marriage when I sought to guard what I said. Finally, though. I had to speak up. Tink came bouncing down the stairs, rolling up the sleeves on yet another dreary, gray, plaid shirt. Perhaps we’d already had a fuss that day. Or perhaps I was in a bad mood and just couldn’t take ugly anymore. I sighed heavily... the way wives do when they want to make a point without saying it. “What?” asked Tink innocently, believing he looked quite fine in the blah shirt. “Tink, I'm sorry, but that is the ugliest shirt I have ever seen.” His sweet face fell and hurt darted in his eyes. I almost wished I hadn’t said it. Almost. “What’s wrong with it?” he asked. “First, it’s about 20 years old and out of style. That makes it a fine shirt for yard work and bam cleanings. Second, all your shirts are gray plaid and dreary.” I paused. “You look like ‘Sling blade.’” Let me kindly and generously warn all wives against saying such a thing to your husbands. What ensued was so ugly that it made the shirts look beautiful. A couple of days later, our battle troops in retreat, Tink popped into the bedroom where I was watching television. He had on his ugliest gray shirt, buttoned all the way up to his neck in Slingblade-style, his jaw jutted out like the character, while he quoted memorable lines from the movie. I laughed so hard, I choked. It remains, to this day. the funniest moment in our marriage. Soon, though, Tink agreed that I could throw out all the ugly shirts and replace them with colors of red, yellow, green, and orange. It had worked very well for several years until a couple of months ago. I had ordered four beautiful new button-up shirts for Tink. He prefers these over polo shirts. He always rolls his sleeves up and these had contrasting fabric on the cuffs. We were traveling to North Carolina where I was to produce and host a documentary. The first day I was in the studio, I got a text from Tink, back at the hotel. “Baby, I'm sorry but I left all my shirts at home. I’m going out and buy one or two new ones.” I shook my head but was too busy to get mad. That afternoon, after a long hard day. a friend dropped me at the hotel. As I was getting out of her car, Tink was strolling across the parking lot in one of his new shirts. Gray plaid. Drab. Ugly. It was identical to the discarded shirts of years past, as if they had resurrected from the trash graveyard. “You’re kiddin’ me?” I said, astounded. “Baby, it was only $14.1 got two!” “Tink, there’s a reason they were only $14. Nobody else wanted them.” My friend was doubled over in laughter. She’s married, too. so she knows: there are just some battles a wife can’t win. Either in color or drab gray. Ronda Rich is the best-selling author of What Southern Women Know About Faith. Visit www.rond- arich.com to sign up for her free weekly newsletter. Remembering Billy Harper For many years, I enjoyed a friendship with a French sportswriter by the name of Denis Lalanne, who wrote for L’Equipe, (The Team), a daily sports paper based in Paris. Lalanne traveled the world, covering all sports, but was considered an expert in rugby and tennis. He later added golf to his “preferred lineup.” He was the Jim Murray of France, one of the most respected sports journalists in Europe. With a flat in Paris, he spent his work week in the “City of Lights,” and repaired to his home in Biarritz which is near the Spanish border on the weekends. We often went into San Sebastian, just across the bor der, for dinner along with a great num ber of Frenchmen who had an affinity for Spanish ham. The wines were very good, too, and my friend Denis was an expert with a seasoned regard for food and wine. Often, people would stop him in the street and compliment him on his writ ing. One night, a young rugby aficio nado got carried away and gushed with great emotion about my friend’s work, saying in halting English, “He is our Hemmingway.” As we moved on to our place for dinner, Denis turned and said, shrugging this head and lifting his arms, “I’m just a local star.” That scene flashed back in my mind when I heard the news that the longtime sports editor of the Athens Banner Herald, Billy Harper, had passed away. Billy was a local star in the Classic City for years. He was a nice man who wrote nice things about everybody. He didn’t travel the world as my French friend did but became highly appreciated for his patronizing of Bulldog teams and whatever competition was taking place in Ath ens. He wrote about Little League baseball, Pony League games and whatever competition was taking place at the “Y.” My recollection is that he never wrote a critical column. After all, the sports he covered were about local teams which were part of HIS community. He felt that it was his job to support local teams, not to critique someone’s little boy when he pitched a no hitter but walked enough hitters that he lost the game 20-19; or find fault in print for some fuzzy faced, precocious quarterback who threw an interception that cost his team a big game. In fact, Billy consoled the poor kid in print. Billy enjoyed being a homer. He was there to bring about a “feel good” atmosphere for the kids growing up in Ath ens. I bet there are seasoned businessmen in Athens who have a faded clipping in a treasured scrapbook with Billy’s smiling photo and a tribute to their prowess in competition in Little League, or the Athens YMCA, or one of the local high schools or a moment in the sun in Sanford Stadium. I will always appreciate his love of high school football. He enjoyed the competition of the prep games as much as he did UGA outings in Sanford Stadium or the confines of the plush stadiums around the SEC when the “Dogs” played on the road. When the news came that Billy had moved on to that great press box in the sky, the sad disclosure came from a couple of his former staff members — Steve Colquitt and Chuck Perry. Steve was a long-time photo manager for UGA sports and Chuck advanced from the Atlanta Jour nal-Constitution sports pages to a successful run as a book publisher. They both were “around” some very accomplished writers over the years. While Billy’s credentials might not have turned heads in major league baseball or the National Football League, owing to his confining himself to a small market, they pointed out what was important. He was a good boss at the Banner Herald, and he was always giving his staff a pat on the back as he directed passionate cover age of all local sports teams. The last time I saw Billy was one fall morning when he was loosening up on Rutherford Steet by the Barrow Street School, propping himself for his daily three mile run down Milledge to Prince Avenue and back. This local star loved his life, his family, the University of Georgia, and his community. He invested his time into the local sports scene because he loved what he did and loved his constituency. The cynicism that has always been a staple of sports writing was never embraced by this local star with a big and generous heart. Loran Smith is a UGA football radio personality and col umnist for Mainstreet News. loran smith The Braselton News Mike Buffington Co-Publisher Scott Buffington Co-Publisher & Advertising Manager Ben Munro Editor Taylor Hearn Sports Editor Wesleigh Sagon Photographer/Features MEMBER • Georgia Press Association • National Newspaper Association • International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors Postmaster: Send Address Changes To: MainStreet Newspapers, Inc. 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