Slocum, Texas

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Slocum
Unincorporated community
Slocum (1 of 1).jpg
Slocum is located in Texas
Slocum
Slocum
Location within the state of Texas
Coordinates: 31°37′53″N 95°27′44″W / 31.63139°N 95.46222°W / 31.63139; -95.46222Coordinates: 31°37′53″N 95°27′44″W / 31.63139°N 95.46222°W / 31.63139; -95.46222
CountryUnited States
StateTexas
CountyAnderson
Government
Time zoneUTC-6 (Central (CST))
 • Summer (DST)UTC-5 (CDT)

Slocum is an unincorporated community in southeast Anderson County, Texas, in the United States. According to the Handbook of Texas, the community had a population of 198 in 2018. It is located within the Palestine, Texas micropolitan area.

History[]

The community's name is thought to have originated with E.T. McDaniel, the first shopkeeper, and postmaster, who had long sought to get a post office for the community. When the town was authorized a US post office in 1898, the residents called it a "slow come." In 1914, the community had two general stores left and 45 people; the population increased to 200 by 1927. By 1939 the community had rebuilt and had eight new businesses and 160 inhabitants. The discovery of oil in nearby fields caused the community's economy to receive a boost in the late 1950s, and by 1964, the community's population grew to 200 residents. Afterward, the community declined to 110 people in 1970. It grew to 125 in 1974, holding there to 1990. The community had four businesses, two churches, and a few homes in the mid-1980s. It doubled to 250 in 2000 but declined to 175 in 2014.[1] Other reported reasons for the name Slocum include slow-coming fortunes being made or town growth being slow.[2]

Many African Americans fled the area in July and August 1910, after the Slocum Massacre, an unprovoked riot by 200 whites in which they killed at least 22 Blacks and wounded countless others; they were unarmed. Casualties are believed to have been much higher, with perhaps as many as 120 injured (200, counted as 120 due to the "3/5 compromise") and dead.[3]

Slocum massacre of 1910[]

Main article: Slocum massacre

On July 29–30, 1910 an unknown number of African Americans[4][5] were murdered by an all-white mob of an estimated 200 to 300 people.[6] The original death-toll of the massacre was reported by newspapers as 8 to 22 victims. However, evidence and survivors' stories say that the actual death toll may have reached upwards of 200 victims. Bodies were found in fields and canebrakes.[7][3] The state ordered in militia, and the commanding officer requested a company of militia as well.[5] The sheriff at the time, William H. Black, described the attacks as "Men were going about killing Negroes as fast as they could find them, and, so far as I was able to ascertain, without any real cause".[3] He also described it as “There was just a hot-headed gang hunting them down and killing them.…They were just hunting the negroes down like sheep."[8] Judges had also ordered saloons and gun shops and ammunition stores to be shut down.[2]

Before the massacre, the majority of Slocum's several hundred residents were black. During and afterward, many black residents fled the town, leaving behind real estate, homes, and other assets to save their lives. Their property was seized, and the victims never received compensation.[9] Several events may have sparked the attacks. After a black person was lynched nearby, rumors spread that blacks were planning revenge. Also, a scuffle broke out over a business disagreement between a white and black resident. Many accounts said that white resident James Spurger instigated events by claiming he was threatened by blacks.[9] Another reported cause of the Slocum Massacre was a boxing match between Jack Johnson and James J. Jeffries, when Johnson defeated him in the "Fight of the Century" and caused race riots in 1910.[3]

All known victims were unarmed, and most were shot in the back as they fled;[9] no whites were injured.[10] Spurger, Reagon McKenzie, S. F. Jennings, and at least 13 other white men were arrested for the attacks.[11] Spurger and six others were indicted on 22 counts of murder, but none were tried. State Judge B. H. Gardner convened a grand jury; almost all local citizens were subpoenaed, and prominent people who resisted testifying were arrested. Gardner sent them to be tried in Houston, but the special prosecutor did not proceed. Elections had removed Gardner and others involved in prosecuting the case from office, and the next administration did not resume the process. The defendants were released without trial.[4][12]

In May 2014, journalist E. R. Bills published The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas with The History Press. The following August, Constance Hollie-Jawaid, a Dallas Independent School District administrator, whose great-grandfather, Jack Holley, was among the Slocum Massacre victims, enlisted Bills to help apply for a Texas state historical marker commemorating the Slocum Massacre. Jack Holley had survived the massacre and fled with his family, losing the granary, dairy, and general store that he developed after being freed from slavery.[4] Other survivors included Wilustus "Lusk" Holley, who witnessed his brother, Alex, being murdered and escaped by playing dead and moved to Fort Worth, while Reagan and Marshall Holley lived the rest of their lives in Anderson County, even after the massacre.[8] When the Anderson County Historical Commission repeatedly demonstrated antagonism toward Hollie-Jawaid's marker application (which included Chairman Jimmy Ray Odem and Commissioner Greg Chapin), Hollie-Jawaid applied to the directly, and the marker was approved on January 29, 2015.[13] On January 16, 2016, a Slocum Massacre historical marker was placed and dedicated one-half mile south of Slocum on FM 2022. Besides the Holley's, seven other men who died in the massacre were Cleveland Larkin, Sam Baker, Dick and Jeff Wilson, Ben Dancer, John Hays, and Will Burly.[2]

Today, the Slocum Massacre has been classified as forgotten, because it isn't taught in Texas history classes. Some even say that it didn't happen, including Odem and Chapin, who say there is a lack of evidence or there was no race riot to start with.[3]

1929 tornado[]

A tornado demolished Slocum in 1929, causing eight deaths and 150 injuries. Only two houses were left standing in the settlement. A mule was stuck in a tree during the tornado and rescuers had to cut the tree down to bring it back to safety. One of the saws from the sawmill was also stuck in a tree. A woman named Vic Lively's cousin's house was picked up and set down to face another direction, a door was found across the river, and a wagon with a team still inside it was found in a pasture after it was swept away by the tornado. One of the horses had a 2x4 sticking out of its back but survived. Another resident saw cars rushing to the scene to see the damage caused by the tornado. Clothes from a nearby store that was destroyed by the tornado were found stuck in trees as if they decorated the town. They were used to cover wounds on people who were injured during the tornado. A little girl carried her little brother's dead body two miles away from her home and her birthday gifts from a party the day before it hit blew away during the tornado and were never found again.[2]

Geography[]

Slocum sits at the intersection of Farm to Market Road 2022 and Texas State Highway 294, 12 mi (19 km) southeast of Palestine in the southeastern part of Anderson County.[1]

Education[]

Slocum had its own school in the mid-1980s.[1] The Slocum Independent School District serves area students who attend Slocum High School and Slocum Elementary School. It is a very small school that as of 2016-2017 has around 300 students in the grades k-12 and is registered as a 1A by UIL. Slocum ISD recently completed the new Slocum High School, which was completed and opened for the 2016-2017 school year.

F. Ernest Day was a teacher and coach at the school, as well as the star pitcher of the community's baseball team in the early 1900s. The high school's track team has competed at the state level, even though there is no track there. They train by running through pastures.[2]

During the 1929 tornado, the superintendent of the school district, Thomas Gatlin, ordered kids who were having lunch to have a tornado drill by hiding under their desks. The two-story frame school building was destroyed, but none of the students were injured or killed.[2]

Economy[]

Slocum, Texas has one volunteer fire department. The VFD holds an annual BBQ and school reunion to raise money to provide for the needs of the fire department. There is also a community-wide reunion held at the school's cafeteria on the Sunday before Mother's Day, and women who live in the community bring homemade cakes and other goodies.[2]

References[]

  1. ^ a b c Slocum, TX from the Handbook of Texas Online
  2. ^ a b c d e f g "Slocum, Texas". Texas Escapes Online Magazine. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  3. ^ a b c d e Davies, David Martin (2017-01-15). "Should Texas Remember or Forget the Slocum Massacre?". Texas Public Radio. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  4. ^ a b c Madigan, Tim (January 16, 2016). "Texas marks racial slaughter more than a century later". Washington Post. Retrieved January 17, 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Cavalry to Quell Outbreak in Texas" (PDF). The New York Times. 1910-08-01. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  6. ^ Bills, E. R. (2014). The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press.
  7. ^ "Slocum Massacre Highlights Historical Double Standard In The South". NPR.org. Retrieved 2017-03-20.
  8. ^ a b Campbell, Randolph B. "Mike" (2015-04-16). "Slocum Massacre". tshaonline.org.
  9. ^ a b c Madigan, Tim (2011-02-27). "A century later, Texas race massacre completely forgotten except by the "victim's descent."". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The McClatchy Company. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  10. ^ "Score of Negroes Killed by Whites" (PDF). The New York Times. 1910-07-31. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  11. ^ "More Texas Riot Arrests" (PDF). The New York Times. 1910-08-07. Retrieved 2011-03-02.
  12. ^ "Slocum Massacre". zinnedproject.org. July 2014.
  13. ^ Barajas, Michael (July 2019). "Where the Bodies Are Buried". Texas Observer.
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