Black Enclaves of Violence: Race and Homicide in Great Plains Cities, 1890-1920

These killings, occurring three years apart in Coffeyville, Kansas, offer bookend images of interracial homicides in the Great Plains. In the first shooting, Charles Vann, a black man and the victim, had been drinking at Walnut and Eleventh Streets in the tenderloin district, a black neighborhood in Coffeyville. This region, near the railroad yards, provided entertainment for black customers and occasionally whites in saloons, brothels, and gambling parlors. William Rodecker, a white male horse trader, had just arrived from Missouri and started drinking heavily in this area. About 8 P.M. Rodecker accosted Vann at the corner of Twelfth and Walnut Streets and began to rag him. Apparently, Vann took offense and allegedly put his hand on his hip pocket. Rodecker quickly pulled a .38 revolver and fired four shots in quick succession, mortally wounding Vann.1 In the second example, on 5 February 1907 Rodecker, just released from prison, became involved in an argument in the exact same area. Al Jesse (one of Vann\u27s friends) pulled a revolver and shot Rodecker three times.2 Not surprisingly, the killing of Rodecker occurred less than one block from the previous shooting. These shootings typified violent behavior in Coffeyville at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since many men carried handguns, it is not surprising that violent confrontations often ended in death. Both homicides are especially significant because of the interracial factor. In the first case Rodecker, the white defendant, appeared before a justice of the peace and was quickly released on a five-hundred-dollar bond, and at a preliminary hearing the Montgomery County district attorney charged Rodecker with murder. Months later a jury found him guilty of manslaughter and a judge sentenced Rodecker from one to five years in prison.3 In the second killing, despite the defendant pleading self-defense (both men had drawn their handguns), an all-white jury found Al Jesse guilty of second-degree murder; he received a twenty-year sentence.4 These dramatic shootings provide historians with a window of opportunity to ask the question: how common were black homicides in Coffeyville, Topeka, and other eastern Kansas cities? MEASURING BLACK VIOLENCE LEVELS There is considerable literature on the black experience in Kansas. For example, Nell Painter and others have examined the black migration of the Exodusters who arrived to make a new life in rural Kansas after the Civil War. However, most of these studies deal with rural agricultural communities such as Nicodemus, Hodgeman, Morton City, and Parsons, which developed when blacks fled the South to escape mob violence, lynching, and discrimination.5 Arriving in large numbers, blacks soon discovered that discrimination also existed in Kansas and Nebraska

Black Enclaves of Violence: Race and Homicide in Great Plains Cities, 1890-1920

These killings, occurring three years apart in Coffeyville, Kansas, offer bookend images of interracial homicides in the Great Plains. In the first shooting, Charles Vann, a black man and the victim, had been drinking at Walnut and Eleventh Streets in the tenderloin district, a black neighborhood in Coffeyville. This region, near the railroad yards, provided entertainment for black customers and occasionally whites in saloons, brothels, and gambling parlors. William Rodecker, a white male horse trader, had just arrived from Missouri and started drinking heavily in this area. About 8 P.M. Rodecker accosted Vann at the corner of Twelfth and Walnut Streets and began to rag him. Apparently, Vann took offense and allegedly put his hand on his hip pocket. Rodecker quickly pulled a .38 revolver and fired four shots in quick succession, mortally wounding Vann.1 In the second example, on 5 February 1907 Rodecker, just released from prison, became involved in an argument in the exact same area. Al Jesse (one of Vann\u27s friends) pulled a revolver and shot Rodecker three times.2 Not surprisingly, the killing of Rodecker occurred less than one block from the previous shooting. These shootings typified violent behavior in Coffeyville at the beginning of the twentieth century. Since many men carried handguns, it is not surprising that violent confrontations often ended in death. Both homicides are especially significant because of the interracial factor. In the first case Rodecker, the white defendant, appeared before a justice of the peace and was quickly released on a five-hundred-dollar bond, and at a preliminary hearing the Montgomery County district attorney charged Rodecker with murder. Months later a jury found him guilty of manslaughter and a judge sentenced Rodecker from one to five years in prison.3 In the second killing, despite the defendant pleading self-defense (both men had drawn their handguns), an all-white jury found Al Jesse guilty of second-degree murder; he received a twenty-year sentence.4 These dramatic shootings provide historians with a window of opportunity to ask the question: how common were black homicides in Coffeyville, Topeka, and other eastern Kansas cities? MEASURING BLACK VIOLENCE LEVELS There is considerable literature on the black experience in Kansas. For example, Nell Painter and others have examined the black migration of the Exodusters who arrived to make a new life in rural Kansas after the Civil War. However, most of these studies deal with rural agricultural communities such as Nicodemus, Hodgeman, Morton City, and Parsons, which developed when blacks fled the South to escape mob violence, lynching, and discrimination.5 Arriving in large numbers, blacks soon discovered that discrimination also existed in Kansas and Nebraska

Editor\u27s Note - Volume 3, Number 1

The manuscripts for this special issue of Great Plains Research devoted to environmental concerns were selected by guest-editor J. Allen Williams, Jr. Editing and manuscript preparation were completed by the editor and editorial staff of Great Plains Research

Review of Mills & Mine: The CF&I in the TwentiethCentury.

Following in the tradition of his earlier work, Pioneer Steelmaker in the West (1976), H. Lee Scamehorn concludes his history ofCF&I. There is no need to guess here-this is a history of the Colorado Fuel and Iron Company from the company\u27s perspective. Scamehorn criticizes earlier historians for emphasizing labor policies, particularly the coal miners\u27 strike of 1913-14, that tended to ignore the firm\u27s important role in the evolution of Colorado and the American West. Then the author sets out to chronicle the growth and eventual decline of the steel works at Pueblo, Colorado, and the various coal mining operations located primarily in Huerfano and Las Animas counties