Brandon T. Jett - Race, Crime, and Policing in the Jim Crow South: African Americans and Law Enforcement in Birmingham, Memphis, and New Orleans, 1920–1945

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As anyone who has ever written a book knows, it is not an individual process. I am delighted to thank the many people and institutions that contributed to the completion of this project over the course of nearly a decade. I am sincerely appreciative of the support, encouragement, and assistance that you all provided. Thank you all for the multitude of ways you have made my life and this project significantly better.

First and foremost, dozens of archivists and librarians assisted me throughout the research phase. Irene Wainwright and Christina Bryant of the Louisiana Division/City Archives and Special Collections at the New Orleans Public Library, Jim Baggett at the Department of Archives and Manuscripts at the Birmingham Public Library, Vincent Clark of the Shelby County Archives, and G. Wayne Dowdy and Scott Lillard at the Memphis and Shelby County Room at the Memphis Public Library directed me to primary sources, answered questions, and provided professional support in person and via email and phone conversations. The interlibrary loan staffs at the Smathers Library at the University of Florida, Rollins College, and Florida SouthWestern State College fielded requests for obscure articles, books, and newspapers with incredible efficiency.

Many students assisted in the larger research in several ways. Melissa Dunham, Sami Manausa, and Desmond Nichols assisted me in creating a database of thousands of stolen-property cases from New Orleans, and Martez Files found and scanned several grand jury indictment records at the Birmingham Public Library. I am appreciative of their individual efforts to assist in the project and their willingness to help me at critical junctures throughout the research process.

I am indebted to numerous institutions and organizations that provided support for this book. I received funding from multiple organizations throughout the course of my time at the University of Florida. The History Graduate Society and the University Womens Club provided funding that supported my early forays into the archives in Birmingham that fundamentally shaped the larger project. The Department of History and the Graduate School provided substantial monetary support that contributed to an intensive and grueling three-month-long research trip that included stops in Birmingham, Memphis, New Orleans, and Washington, D.C.