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HEIRS TO DIRTY LINEN AND HARLEM GHOSTS
WHITEWASHING PROHIBITION WITH BLACK SOAP
By THEDA PALMER SAXTON Balboa Press
Copyright © 2013 Theda Palmer Saxton, Ph.D.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4525-7377-9
CHAPTER 1
White Women Give Birth to Prohibition
Woman conceives, nurtures, and gives birth to new life. Her ability to manifest fresh, new life is one of the natural, phenomenal powers reserved for her. She has the ability to easily give birth to flesh or spiritual concepts; both require conception, nurturing, and delivery. Although it is a time-consuming process, women seem to do it naturally. Giving birth permits them to take ownership of the process, as if it's their private right just because they're women.
Some call it wisdom; others call it mother wit, or women's intuition. Whatever it's called, it doesn't matter. As a young girl, when I would delicately question my mother's or grandmother's judgment of an issue, they had a standard answer: "Because I said so." That was it, end of conversation. "Because I said so" had an authoritative ring to it. That answer was the only and last word to resolve the issue. My mother said she knew what she knew, and she did not have to qualify it any further. She was also usually right.
They Got Pregnant
Somewhere around the late 1800s, far too many women suffered from what is presently called domestic violence. They had little legal recourse or protection back then. Being on the losing end of the weekend drunken brawls with their husbands regarding paychecks spent in saloons became intolerable. Oftentimes, fights and beatings of women and their children in poor or working-class white families became a common script that was no longer bearable.
Women became impregnated with an idea. Like falling rain, the pregnant notion of power peppered the spirits of women across the country. This awakened a group of women, and their sympathizers found a common cord that connected many of their salient issues into a simplistic concept: no more domestic violence and economic dependency. Essentially, white women demanded to have power over the quality of their lives.
The power of the idea struck with clarity and held salvation in its reins. The alcohol and saloons were the initial culprits. The women identified the enemy. These women wanted the saloons to stop selling alcohol and to close down. It seemed perfectly logical to them that in turn, their husbands would stop drinking and squandering their wages. Almost all women wanted sober and responsible husbands, fathers, and brothers. As a group they were convinced they had the solution to their domestic violence issue. They were willing to nurture and deliver this ideal across the country and see the laws change, even if it meant changing the Constitution.
They conceived a fresh, new lifestyle for themselves and were willing to do whatever was necessary to get the laws changed. To the best of their limited knowledge of the real world, these women honestly thought their social and domestic issues were caused primarily by the excessive drinking of alcohol in saloons. But how were these women to know the severity of the far-reaching and negative, complex ramifications and mayhem that their new idea would unleash in America?
With absolute resolve and newly discovered self-confidence in their mission to fight saloons and alcohol, this initially small group of religious white women forged ahead with fury. They knew they were right. Who could challenge their collective voice of the "Because I said so" mentality of righteousness?
However, tampering with the governing laws of the land to satisfy a growing multitude of well-intentioned women proved to be more than anyone could anticipate. Unknown to these community-minded women, who were ideologically pregnant with a lofty dream that was in reality a maniacal, monstrous embryo, the new brainchild would eventually bring forth to the American scene a live concept of such magnitude that the birthmothers would be powerless to harness it. The intuitive mother wit did not give them a clue that they had conceived a King Kong in Hillsboro, Ohio, 1873. They were sure of one thing: their ideological baby's name would be Prohibition.
Carrying Dreams to Full Term
Their new baby, Prohibition, was absolutely incompatible with America's Constitution. The document was written by all white men and for all white men, to keep democracy stable for their best interests. Historically, race and gender were in ideological conflict in the original democratic structure of America's Constitution, and therefore the document provided settings for ensuing battles. White men gave themselves unquestioned power—everybody else was invisible. Nonetheless, their women remained true to their intuitive format, and they relentlessly kept pushing forward to deliver the passionate embryo that burned in their bellies. The women would tackle the men and their constitution head-on.
On the other hand, during the same time frame of the late 1800s, black women knew they needed to take action to create a better life for their families. The salient issues of domestic violence and intoxicated husbands that ignited hot political reactions of white women were of no interest to black people in America. White women wanted sober husbands and closed saloons; black women wanted the right to get married and have a husband—and for him to not be lynched by a band of white cowards hiding under white sheets. Each was seeking changes in the Constitution. Each woman wanted power from the white man to gain parity for the improvement of their particular living conditions. Each lived as far apart as imaginable, but within clear vision of each other's predicament.
Although there was no established communication between white women and black women during or after slavery, each was aware of the reality of the white man's abuse and unquestioned power. Historically, they had both felt the brunt of his subtle and often savage anger, and they learned how to placate the white master to get what they could for themselves.
Timing is everything.
America was going through a chain reaction of bipolar political policy swings. It started with the Civil War from 1861 to 1865, and then President Lincoln brought about the abolition of slavery, signing the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. In the same year women were staging sit-ins in saloons in Millsboro, Ohio; that was followed closely by President Lincoln's assassination, which placed America into a virtual eggbeater. The climate in the country was in turmoil and confusing for whites and blacks alike. Change had come, and cultural norms were being redesigned. Seeds of discontent landed on new soil and took root.
America's standard, white man's superiority policies were being challenged; it was a perfect time for new ideas to spring forth. Extraordinary women, unknown to each other from different camps, were crossing unconscious paths and going in the same direction of freedom. The black path was a matter of life and death. That of the white woman was of personal self-worth. Each carried the potential to create something new.
Harriet Tubman had already been preparing freed slaves, brought through the Underground Railroad into free Northern schools for training so that they could be productive, free blacks with skills needed in their new urban communities. Susan B. Anthony, an educated Quaker, pioneered white women's right to vote. She knew that the right to vote was the key to real power for the white woman. It is amazing that Harriet and Susan were both born the same year, 1820. Each woman, black and white, was busily preparing her own kind to move forward in the new post-Civil War and post-slavery era in America. Freedom from the slave system and freedom to vote were non-negotiable agendas from the camps of these women.
White, Female, and Angry
White women possessed few rights independently of their white men. Although they were technically free, they were without political and economic power. A white woman lacked a voice; she had no legal power to control her domestic household, and that included her bedroom. Her powerful white husband raped and slept with whomever, wherever and whenever he pleased. The black house slaves gave birth to fair-skinned, blond babies with light eyes and other features that looked like the white woman's husband and their children. The man had no regard for her feelings or pride. The white woman had no vote and owned no land, property, or slaves in her name, but she could claim her fair skin and soft, straight hair. The black man and woman could claim nothing but superior fortitude.
The carnage from the Civil War left the Southern white woman where she was before it started. Her position was only affected in as much as her man's status was changed. In 1865, when slavery was abolished, it served as a conscious wake-up call to her precarious position in America. Blacks from plantations began to migrate away from the Southern farmland to the more industrialized North in search of work, although some remained as sharecroppers.
But for the most part, the most poor and modest economic white rural households were without free domestic services and essentially free field labor. For the first time, some Southern white women had to raise their own children, do daily chores, and maintain all household responsibilities. Because of the formation of the KKK and white citizen organizations, many white households were able to maintain some of slavery's benefits because of sharecropping and detaining blacks for years to work off imaginary fines imposed by sheriffs and judges.
However, many less affluent were forced to become self-reliant. Without the benefit of education, money, or political power to affect social change in their best interests, many white women learned to adapt to new roles forced upon them by circumstances beyond their control. The Civil War and post-slavery aftermath left some whites with few valuable possessions to hold on to. Having white skin was all many Southerners had left to embrace as a superior possession. Likewise, to secure their whiteness further, men created the mystical, highly protected pedestal for their woman to occupy. The white woman, regardless of how poor, uneducated, or physically unattractive, automatically became a psychologically coveted trophy. Possessing the trophy gave all white men, poor and affluent, parity in the illusion of possessing power.
Meanwhile, the black woman was left by the wayside without elevation from her man, who unfortunately forgot that it was his role to do for her what the white man had done for his woman.
However, living on a pedestal was not a comfort zone for the struggling, poorer class of white women. It proved to be a dysfunctional symbol used by Southern mobs to have as a cause for lynching black boys. White women sought substance. In order to sustain their families and stay together, they acquired life skills and became survivors. Much of their energy was put into churches and civic organizations, where they rallied around mutual issues and discovered the power of large, unified numbers. These emerging women organizers sought new ways of solving their common problems. As memberships increased, especially in the small cities, education became a key component in their developing independence. Through education, large numbers of women became aware of how a democratic government was supposed to work, and of the human rights all citizens were entitled to enjoy. The Constitution was now available for reading along with other civics books.
Shared readings and public speaking in front of religious audiences and political forums became tools for the evolving political awareness. White women utilized their organizational skills and personal relationships with their husbands, fathers, brothers, and ministers to influence powerful politicians to push their particular issues forward.
Historically, the early 1900s was a time for curious minds and unleashed new energy to take flight down the road of adventure. The white woman needed a vehicle to push her agenda forward; advocacy for change became her mantra. Banning saloons and alcohol and getting voting rights were adopted as the key issues for the movements' expanding agenda.
How this group of white women climbed off their pedestals and rolled up their sleeves to create the climate to convince politicians to embrace the anti-drinking-law sentiments is an exciting phase of American history. It remains one of the most interesting historical stories of persuasive lobbying.
"Let's Have Our War"
The lesson learned from this early female-driven political coup is to use the power of the perception of a common enemy that threatens the well-being of all members of the organizations, as the point of the attack. It became a moral war of survival. This huge group of disenfranchised and unhappy white women took courageous steps to strengthen and improve the well-being of their families, while increasing the influence of the church doctrine in their communities. Husbands coming home drunk, fighting with their wives, and sometimes beating their children were serious issues for many households. Spending too much of the household money while gambling in saloons, paying for drinks and prostitutes, and spending hours away from home were key common issues around which women rallied.
Saloons, the sites for the consumption of alcohol, became the primary enemies. The women used Christianity as their battle ax against the saloon establishments, to drive their intoxicated husbands at home and the saloons out of business.
In 1873 Hillsboro, Ohio, was the scene of small groups of determined women staging many saloon sit-ins and sit-outs. Ideally, the ladies wore long black dresses with long sleeves, full skirts, and tight collars high around the neck. With very little conversation, a hoard of women would descend upon a saloon location, ready for battle. They boldly carried their Bibles like protective shields. Uninvited, they sat in the center of the saloon floor, perched in chairs, sang hymns, and prayed loudly. If getting inside was not possible, they sat outside the entrance doors in small groups and walked, sang, and yelled at men as they entered.
In rainy weather, they sat under black umbrellas that covered them like tents. The Christian ladies always wore very wide-brimmed bonnets with ties under the chin. Their pale faces were clean, and they hair was compliantly in place; they were stoic and persistent. The saloon owners found them to be a nuisance to the men wanting to drink and have fun with their comrades. Some men left their favorite saloons because their wives, mothers, and sisters were members of the Christian brigade.
Within a short time after the Ohio anti-saloon activity started, a surge of movements cropped up in different parts of the country. The methods and tactics changed, but the enemy remained: saloons and drinking alcohol. Some women gave tea parties in private homes, and some gave speeches in public halls, but the focus was consistent: ban alcohol. They formulated an enemy to attack.
Discovering Political Muscle
The combined energies of Mother Eliza Thompson's Crusade and Carrie Nation (the barroom smasher)—followed by the Woman's Christian Temperance Union, Susan B. Anthony, and Elizabeth Candy Stanton (advocates for women's right to vote), and the Anti-Saloon League—pooled together a mighty force for social change. Their combined numbers were staggering. Politicians were at a loss for how to control this pervasive tidal wave of female determination.
Wayne B. Wheeler, an original Capitol Hill insider lobbyist, had the loyalty of the Anti-Saloon League (ASL), and more important, the ear of spineless and shallow-minded President Warren G. Harding. The women of the ASL had direct influence on the White House level through Wheeler. After deals and promises were made in the name of the common good and decency, Wheeler was able to use his thousands of women supporters as power brokers for change, although they could not vote.
The Pivotal Year of 1919
On January 16, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution was ratified and essentially gave the women's organizations what they were after: Prohibition. Under the guise of correcting a moral weakness, while using the voting power of wet and dry states for huge economic gains for a select group of American legal and illegal businessmen, Wheeler got the votes he needed. The country was ruled legally dry. Dry was the green light for gangsters and their bought-and-paid-for politicians to continue to make money illegally with government protection.
President Harding's level of ignorance and lack of leadership left America vulnerable to smart businessmen and gangsters to become entrenched in American politics. Organized crime became glamorous. Greed became legal and was the new American Dream.
From the first day of Prohibition on January 17, 1920, to its last on December 5, 1933, America was thrown into internal chaos. The residue of an era that lasted for less than fifteen years probably supplied dirty money for many current billionaire American corporations. The contemporary government joke called "The War on Drugs" is the new Prohibition, to create another cadre of American billionaires legally through the illegal gangsters in the drug business.
Daniel Okrent, succinctly sums up the impact of Prohibition.
And the 18th Amendment, ostensibly addressing the single subject of intoxicating beverages, would set off an avalanche of change areas as diverse as, international trade, speedboat design, tourism practices and English language. It would provoke the establishment of the first nationwide crime syndicate, the idea of home dinner parties, the deep engagement of women in political issues and the creation of Las Vegas. Prohibition fundamentally changed the way we live. ("The Man Who Turned Off the Taps," The Smithsonian Magazine, May 2010)
(Continues...)
Excerpted from HEIRS TO DIRTY LINEN AND HARLEM GHOSTS by THEDA PALMER SAXTON. Copyright © 2013 Theda Palmer Saxton, Ph.D.. Excerpted by permission of Balboa Press.
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