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The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 423
When asked if the law had been told of this or her father had any trouble about it, the subject said no. She added that her father had gone to talk to the man's brother, but there hadn't been any trouble about it. • One incident of the shooting (not fatal) of a woman was reported. It was not reported in the interview section. One White person and three Black people interviewed described the incident. When the researcher learned about it, she made sufficient inquiries to verify the incident was true; she concluded it was common knowledge among the members of the community where it occurred. A divorced White woman was slipping out of her home at night to meet a Black man. People who lived in the area became aware of this. White men were watching the house. The woman slipped out and met the man in a grove of trees. She was shot. One person said, “She was shot by mistake.” Further clarification was added by another person who had lived nearby. He said that during the day, the Black man who was meeting the White woman had been dressed for a social activity and was wearing all white clothing. The woman did not generally wear all white clothing. That night, the woman had put on all white clothing; the Black man she met had changed from the white clothing he'd worn during the day to darker clothing. Thus, in the darkness of the night, she was mistaken for him. The man ran and got away. He kept going--left the state. The woman was admitted to Huntsville Hospital. She did not return to the community. The police did not pursue her shooting. She had broken an unwritten law. • An unwritten set of rules governing behavior was known to both Black people and White people. Some White people who were interviewed often commented about Black community members who were good, hardworking people. Some spoke fondly of Black people who had worked in their homes; on the other hand, these same people said, “Blacks knew their place.” A Black person did not break the rules, because he himself might not be the one to pay the price??"his entire family could suffer for it. In regard to White people, some Black people said they usually kept to themselves. This was the safe thing to do. Nevertheless, one Black person said “We all got along like family.” This was probably within the unwritten set of rules that were known by all. However, respect, and sometimes friendship, and neighborly acts that crossed racial lines were reported. • There were no race-based differences in how people lived. Whether Black or White, the very poor lived in what one man called “very pitiful” houses, and those who had more resources lived in better houses. Who had more and who had less could not be differentiated along racial lines. All people grew the same crops, had the same vegetables in their gardens, and prepared their food in the same manner. They all suffered the same hardships. 423 - (4456)