This Black History month I am thinking of my great-grandfather, Fred Lawrence, who was charged as one of the ringleaders of a protest in 1911 because he and others defended a Black woman who was assaulted by a white shop owner in my hometown in South Carolina. Thread to follow...

On September 12, 1911 a Black woman named Jane Johnson confronted a white shop owner, W.W. Jordan after he cheated her two young sons out of full payment for some work they did for him. When Johnson went to confront Jordan he beat her then tried to get her arrested.

News of the assault on Jane Johnson spread to the local Black community in Cainhoy. Over 150 Black folks gathered at the magistrate’s office refusing to allow Jane Johnson to be arrested and demanding that Jordan be instead arrested for his actions.

Naturally the media at the time, especially the News and Courier, covered this act of collective defense as an attempt to riot. In Cainhoy, the history of Black self-defense held weight in the years after the Cainhoy Riot of 1876 when armed Black Republicans defended themselves.

The memory of the Cainhoy riot lived on for white residents of Cainhoy and Black residents as well. White folks in Cainhoy (and greater CHS area) feared a reprise of what happened in 1876. (Notice what is said about Red Shirts, right above the small note.)

A week after Black folks showed up to the magistrate, the Berkeley County Sheriff arrived in Cainhoy with a “posse of men” to arrest the suspected ringleaders of this "disturbance."

The News and Courier published an account of the story and decided to get the “Negro” view of what happened. Naturally the “Negro” view is riddled with lots of racism and stereotypes. The description of this Black man as “an antebellum type" for example...

But notice what this older Black man said about the treatment of Jordan. He says that had Johnson been white and Jordan Black, “dey would a chopped him to little pieces" and that he would have been lynched.

Disgusted that the News and Courier afforded space to the Black perspective of the situation, Jordan gave his own interview, with very predictable comments:

The seven "ringleaders" of the supposed riot were arrested and charged. Fred Lawrence, my great-grandfather, was one of them. He and Sam Brown were acquitted. The rest were convicted and charged a $50 fine. (I believe this would have been well over $1000 dollars in today's money)

It is unlikely Jordan ever faced any repercussions for beating Jane Johnson. Instead he claims, in his own account, to continue to go on with his business. We know the history--white perpetrators of violence remained unpunished. Black folks organized in defense pay the price.

When teaching, I emphasize that violence in the Jim Crow South was constant and so was resistance. So many of these stories have yet to be told. I never heard of this story or incident before reading about it years ago in Herb Frazier’s Behind Gods’ Back. https://evepostbooks.com/product/behind-gods-back/

We search for extraordinary stories every Black history month and there are so many ones of ordinary people, like my great-grandfather, and the dozens of other Black folks in Cainhoy who risked their lives for the collective defense of their people. I honor them this month.

(Thank you to the S.C State Library Reference librarians for sending me the digital copy of the article from the State with my great-grandfather's name listed. Always thank your librarians and archivists!!)