To prevent a large population of Black voters from swaying the election ofOxford,Alabama, Mayor Whitehead of Oxford went to the state capitol and had the corporate boundaries of Oxford redrawn to exclude what is nowHobson City. The town was incorporated on August 16, 1899.[1] Records from a contemporary Alabama newspaper,The Peoples' Journal, described the municipality as "the only municipality controlled and governed entirely by colored people anywhere in the United States." The newspaper further commented: "The whole country will doubtless be interested in the result of this experiment." Under the leadership of the first mayor, S. L. Davis, and the first police chief, James Duran, police protection was restored to the area. The town was named afterRichmond P. Hobson, a whitenaval hero in the then-recent Spanish-American War and member of Congress.
In the summer of 1919, the mayor ofHobson City, Alabama, was Newman O'Neal. He served his community until he received death threats in the form of a "black hand letter surmounted by a skull and crossbones."[2] He ignored the letter but he was assaulted by unknown aggressors and seriously injured forcing him north into exile in late July 1919.[3][4] The acting Mayor J. D. Kirksey also received an unsigned death threat letter.[5] Author Cameron McWhirter says this was a typical tactic of theKu Klux Klan.[5]
This uprising was one of several incidents of civil unrest that began in the so-calledAmerican Red Summer, of 1919. The Summer consisted of terrorist attacks on black communities, and white oppression in over three dozen cities and counties. In most cases, white mobs attacked African American neighborhoods. In some cases, black community groups resisted the attacks, especially inChicago andWashington, D.C. Most deaths occurred in rural areas during events like theElaine Race Riot inArkansas, where an estimated 100 to 240 black people and 5 white people were killed. Also occurring in 1919 were theChicago Race Riot andWashington D.C. race riot which killed 38 and 39 people respectively, and with both having many more non-fatal injuries and extensive property damage reaching up into the millions of dollars.[6]
