Daniel J. Sharfstein - The Invisible Line

Table of Contents

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Published by the Penguin Group

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First published in 2011 by The Penguin Press,

a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Copyright Daniel J. Sharfstein, 2011 All rights reserved

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Sharfstein, Daniel J.

The invisible line : three American families and the secret journey from Black to white / Daniel J.

Sharfstein

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

eISBN : 978-1-101-47580-5

1. Racially mixed peopleRace identityUnited StatesCase studies. 2. MiscegenationSocial aspectsUnited StatesCase studies. 3. Passing (Identity)United StatesCase studies. 4. RaceSocial aspectsUnited StatesCase studies. 5. Race awarenessUnited StatesCase studies. 6. United StatesRace relationsCase studies. 7. Gibson family 8. Spencer family. 9. Wall family. I. Title.

E184.A1S5724 2011

305.800973dc21

2010029647

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For Ann

AUTHORS NOTE

The Invisible Line is a work of history. It tells the stories of real people who left traces of their lives in census and military records, wills and property deeds, the occasional memoir, and stories in the back pages of newspapers. In the course of my research, I drew upon the resources of courthouses, manuscript libraries, government archives, and private collections in eighteen states and the District of Columbia. I found that I was able to reconstruct the lives and worlds of the books main figures in considerable detailtheir neighborhoods down to the siding on the homes, the day-to-day routines of their jobs, even the size of the collars they wore on their shirts. Above all, their individual characters emerged with remarkable clarity in private letters, newspaper interviews, and testimony in court and before Congress.

Many of the people I chronicle left behind a voluminous record of their thoughts, aspirations, and agonies. To convey the richness of their stories, I have written the book from their perspectives whenever possible. I have set scenes and described individuals and places as clearly and vividly as the sources allow, consistent with what I know about the time, locations, people, and events. Often the descriptions are based on letters, interviews, and court testimony. In the absence of these personal expressions, I have relied on other material, including documented sources from contemporaneous observers, local histories, and my own observations. Like every historian, I have made inferences in interpreting primary sources, but these inferencesmy interpretations of historyare always rooted in fact.

Because The Invisible Line is a history of race told largely from the perspective of people who lived in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, I have made every effort to preserve their individual voices by retaining the original spelling, capitalization, and punctuation in direct quotations. I also use a number of archaic terms to refer to African Americans. These are the terms that the subjects of this book used in order to think about racial categories and to define themselves and others.

Now measure ten drops into the paint ... There, thats it, not too goddam fast. Now. You want no more than ten, and no less.

Slowly, I measured the glistening black drops, seeing them settle upon the surface and become blacker still, spreading suddenly out to the edges.

Thats it. Thats all you have to do, he said. Never mind how it looks. Thats my worry. You just do what youre told and dont try to think about it. When youve done five or six buckets, come back and see if the samples are dry... And hurry, weve got to get this batch back off to Washington by 11:30...

Lets see, he said, selecting a sample and running his thumb across the board. Thats it, as white as George Washingtons Sunday-go-to-meetin wig and as sound as the all-mighty dollar! Thats paint! he said proudly. Thats paint thatll cover just about anything!

He looked as though I had expressed a doubt and I hurried to say, Its certainly white all right.

White! Its the purest white that can be found. Nobody makes a paint any whiter. This batch right here is heading for a national monument!

RALPH ELLISON, Invisible Man (1952)

Where is the blood of me? Where is my color? My blood is covered over the cornfield among these hills ... Blood and sweat of mine is on the bare hills where they aint no timberwhere there is old corn rows. Thats where my blood is and my color is.

JESSE STUART, Battle Keaton Dies, in Head o W-Hollow (1936)

WALL FAMILY TREE

For reasons of space and clarity, the family trees depict only those branches that are featured in this book. Each family can claim dozenseven hundredsof living descendants.

SPENCER FAMILY TREE

GIBSON FAMILY TREE

INTRODUCTION

The House Behind the Cedars

T HOMAS MURPHY GREETED ME on a warm autumn day in 2005 wearing a baseball cap with a bald eagle staring fiercely across an American flag. He lived twenty-five miles south of Atlanta in an area that was neither country nor city. His house was shrouded by woods yet stood only blocks from a busy commercial strip. It was close enough to the Atlanta Motor Speedway that he could hear the engines revving on NASCAR race days.