Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section20/Richard Medlin

Biography

Early life

Richard Medlin was born circa 1862 on his father’s farm on Crabtree Creek in Wake County, North Carolina. He was the second of five children born to James and Subriny Medlin. His father, James Medlin, had been seriously injured in the Civil War. As James regained his strength, Subriny and the children tended to the farm. The family lived in a one-room log cabin and collected water from a nearby stream. Food was scarce, and the family lived primarily off of their farm, foraged berries, and game. Because the children were busy helping with the farm, they had little opportunity for education. There was a log schoolhouse six miles away, but Richard Medlin didn't believe formal education was necessary.

Marriage and family life

Richard was initially too busy with farmwork to be interested in girls. However, he immediately fell in love with Mimi Powell, who was one-fourth African-American, despite hearing rumors of her illegitimate heritage. It was scandalous for Richard to call on Mimi during the day, and his father and peers tried to dissuade him from pursuing the relationship. Richard tried to forget Mimi, but one day he overheard some boys talking about Mimi negatively. Richard got into a fight with the boys and decided that he would marry Mimi. Mimi was initially skeptical and warned Richard of the challenges he would face if he married her. Richard eventually proved to Mimi that he was serious about his love, and she agreed to marry him. In order to get married under the law, Richard cut Mimi's hand and drank a few drops of her blood. Then he swore to the preacher that he had African blood.

The couple moved to a log cabin on James Medlin's farm. James and Subriny tried to help the couple as much as possible, but they would encounter many challenges. The couple were ousted from Richard's church and became social outcasts, as no one wanted to be associated with them. When Richard went to vote, he was accused of being a Republican and harassed by racist Democrats, despite having always been a Democrat. One day, Richard saw a white boy slap his son and ridicule him for his ancestry. Richard then became determined that his children would receive the best education and become teachers. Richard started building a large bookshelf and reading the weekly paper to his children, despite not having much formal education himself.

Richard and Mimi had fourteen children. They worked hard on the farm and spent their free time overseeing the children's education. They taught each child about their heritage and the necessity of hard work. Additionally, the children were raised Christian and taught good manners. They also taught their children that the color of skin was not important, and that what truly mattered was someone's character. When their oldest child was six, Richard went to the Superintendent of Education to ask if they could send their children to a white school, because they did not want to send their children to the lower-quality black schools. The superintendent refused, so the Medlins homeschooled their children instead, but they did not give up trying to send their children to a white school. In the end, a member of the legislature took up the fight. The result was a little schoolhouse with an excellent teacher. James Medlin remarried after Subriny's death, and his new wife was not fond of Mimi and the children. Richard was able to purchase a small farm. He built a log cabin and a two-room frame house on the property. The younger children in the family were eventually allowed to attend the white high school, and two of them received college degrees.

Two of their sons enlisted in World War I. One of them was gassed in the trenches and came back in bad condition, and the other went missing. The missing son eventually returned and became a successful business executive in California. Their children all eventually married or found work, and the Medlins had become the most prosperous and socially prominent family in their neighborhood.

Federal Writers' Project interview

In 1938, the Medlin family was interviewed for the Federal Writers' Project. At the time of the interview, they lived on their thirty-five acre farm property in Raleigh, North Carolina. Their eight-room house had been recently renovated, furnished with modern appliances and furniture. The Medlins had hired several servants, a cook, and a farmhand, but found that they preferred the hard work when they were younger. They were proud of their family, but idleness bored them. Richard did not approve of the Works Progress Administration and Roosevelt's New Deal, because of his belief in hard work and rugged individualism.

Social Context

Interracial marriage laws

In the United States, legal prohibitions on interracial marriage and interracial sex date back to the colonial period. Several laws did not actually prohibit interracial marriage, only discouraging them by imposing heavy fines. However, miscegenation laws first passed in the South became widespread in the nineteenth century. Most northern states repealed their prohibitions after the Civil War, but these laws remained in most southern states until the mid-twentieth century. The North Carolina General Assembly passed a law in 1830 banning “any free negro or free person of color” from marrying a white person.

In terms of mixed-race individuals, one common method of racial classification was the "one-drop rule". This rule classified any individual with even one black ancestor as a black person. This legal notion is also known as hypodescent and dates back to a 1662 Virginia law on the treatment of mixed-race individuals. Even in the modern day, people of a mixed-race ancestry are often seen and identified with the minority race.

Many interracial couples built long-term monogamous partnerships despite these laws. It was significantly easier for non-white women and white men to maintain partnerships, because these relationships were more socially accepted. Some miscegenation laws explicitly banned marriages between white women and black men, but white men were allowed more sexual freedom. Additionally, the legal system was more lenient towards white men because the power structure was unwilling to publicly shame members of its own group. Though these interracial couples were not legally recognized, they were able to develop strategies to live in a way that resembled marriage as closely as possible, taking advantage of deed transfers and deeds of sale. They often owned two separate houses and would come together for family time.

Racial segregation in schools

A first- and second-grade classroom in an African-American school used as the Defendant's Exhibit No. 149 for the civil rights court case Alice Lorraine Ashley, et al. v. School Board of Gloucester Co. and J. Walter Kenny, Division Superintendent.

Racial segregation in schools in the United States was enforced through Jim Crow laws in the nineteeth and twentieth centuries. African American students were banned from attending the same schools as white students, and the quality of schools designated for African Americans were not comparable to quality of white schools. Black schools were underfunded, often receiving hand-me-down materials from white schools. Many school buildings had leaking roofs, sagging floors, and windows without glass. Black schools were also often overcrowded with fewer teachers than white schools, and teachers were not properly trained or compensated.

In North Carolina, the State Department of Public Instruction built approximately two hundred rural schools for white students in ninety-three out of the state's one hundred counties by 1911. However, the first secondary school for African Americans was not established until 1918, and there were fewer African American schools in fewer counties. Additionally, most high schools for African American students were limited to two years.

De jure racial segregation in schools was outlawed in 1954 in the Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. However, de facto racial segregation in schools continued into the late nineteeth century after the ruling, especially in the South.

Realignment of political parties

Political parties in the United States have undergone several political realignments throughout United States history. Initially, there were no parties during Washington's administration, but then multiple parties began to form around prominent individuals, eventually becoming a two-party system.

The Republican Party was originally anti-slavery and pro-business, countering the Democratic party, which supported slavery and agrarianism. When African Americans gained the right to vote through the Thirteenth Amendment, they primarily voted for the GOP, the party of Abraham Lincoln. Franklin Roosevelt's election was one of the most critical points for electoral realignment, causing the majority of African American voters to switch to the Democratic party. The Democratic Party attracted socially progressive voters, and the Republican party was considered more conservative.

Roosevelt presidency

Franklin D. Roosevelt served as the 32nd President of the United States from 1933-1945, during the Great Depression and World War II. He was elected during a nationwide crisis, enacting many relief measures through his "New Deal" programs that reshaped American institutions and increased the power of the federal government. His administration had a large impact on American politics, but opinions on the New Deal programs were mixed.

Works Progress Administration

The Works Progress Administration was one of several “New Deal” relief measures enacted by President Franklin Roosevelt to address the Great Depression. $11 million was spent to employ the jobless on various small jobs including the Federal Writers Project.

References

Bradt, Steve. “‘One-drop rule’ persists.” The Harvard Gazette. Dec. 9, 2010. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2010/12/one-drop-rule-persists/

Brooker, Russell. “The Education of Black Children in the Jim Crow South.” America’s Black Holocaust Museum, December 30, 2022. https://www.abhmuseum.org/education-for-blacks-in-the-jim-crow-south/.

Hicks, Mary A. 1938. "The Medlin Family." Folder 543, Federal Writers’ Project Papers #3709, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Lee, Bradford A. “The New Deal Reconsidered.” The Wilson Quarterly (1976-) 6, no. 2 (1982): 62–76. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40256265.

Milteer, Warren E. 2014. “The Strategies of Forbidden Love: Family across Racial Boundaries in Nineteenth-Century North Carolina.” Journal of Social History 47 (3): 612–26. doi:10.1093/jsh/sht112.

Pascoe, Peggy. “Race, Gender, and Intercultural Relations: The Case of Interracial Marriage.” Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 12, no. 1 (1991): 5–18. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346572.

Reardon, Sean F., and Ann Owens. “60 Years After ‘Brown’: Trends and Consequences of School Segregation.” Annual Review of Sociology 40 (2014): 199–218. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43049532.

Rust, Owen. “How the 2 Major American Political Parties Evolved.” TheCollector, December 20, 2022. https://www.thecollector.com/evolution-of-american-political-parties/.

Wadelington, Flora Hatley. “Segregation in the 1920s.” NCpedia, January 1, 2004. https://www.ncpedia.org/history/20th-Century/segregation-1920s#:~:text=North%20Carolina%20enacted%20segregation%20laws,the%201920s%20was%20in%20education.