Tag Archives: blackface

The Urban Legend(s) of “Barefoot Bill”

Posted on March 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

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“Barefoot Bill” seemed to be everywhere in Jacksonville at once, a phantom menace, a “burglar bugaboo,” pilfering bedrooms of prominent citizens as they ate dinner downstairs. Whether or not he ever existed, Bill made headlines from the 19-aughts to the 1930s and as far away as South Carolina. Maybe he’s out there still.

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Tagged "high murder rate in the South, A.J. Hedrick, Barefoot Bill, blackface, Calvin Oak, Daddy Mention, Daddy Mention Polk County, G.T. Gato, John Henry, John N.C. Stockton, Jose Huau, Judge W.H. Baker, murder rate Jacksonville, Old Folks at Home, Stagga Lee, Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stephen Foster, Stetson Kennedy, T. Frederick Davis, Vaudeville, W.H. Baker, Way Down Upon the Swanee River, Zora Neale Hurston

Jefferson Davis Junior High School

Posted on February 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

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My father and I were the only white people on the basketball court. He was 40 years older, at least, than everybody else. I’m writing this story on his 96^th. He died six months ago tomorrow.

Of what beloved Jacksonville architect Taylor Hardwick thought of designing new schools with the names of Confederate leaders, there’s no record. The only black faces in 1960s Jeff Davis yearbooks are those of the custodial staff. And the school principal, Wilber C. Johnson, standing beside a Confederate flag and wearing blackface.

“We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree. / We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree. / We will hang Jeff Davis to a sour apple tree, / As we march along!”

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Tagged Alexander Stephens, Battle Hymn of the Republic, Battle of Yellow Tavern, blackface, Bob Gray, Brown v. Board of Education, Confederate Park, Cornerstone Speech, desegregation, Fort Pillow Massacre, Grand Wizard, In Memory of our Women of the Southland, J.D., J.E.B. Stuart, jax psycho geo, Jay Dee, Jeff Davis, Jefferson Davis, Jefferson Davis Junior High, Jefferson Davis Middle School, Jesse Jackson, Kirby Smith, Lost Cause Movement, Martin Luther King, Morrison's Cafeteria, Natham Bedford Forrest, Nathan Bedford Forrest High School, Robert E. Lee, Robert Gray, Sam Wolfson, segregation, Southernaire, Taylor Hardwick, Tim Gilmore, Trinity Baptist Church, Trinity Christian Academy, Wilmer C. Johnson