Black Populism in the Pine Capital (1907-1949) Laurel, Mississippi Post-Emancipation Proclamation Derrion Arrington Mississippi Library Commission In the decades following the end of slavery, African American people faced formidable barriers to political, economic, and social equality. The U.S. Supreme Court institutionalized segregation with the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson “separate but equal” decision. This decision upheld laws requiring racial segregation, as long as those laws did not dictate that separate accommodations and facilities for blacks would be inferior to those for whites. In the South, Jim Crow laws enforced a rigid racial segregation. (“Jim Crow” was a pejorative term for blacks which became a term used to describe discriminatory race-based segregation practices and laws.) Local poll taxes and literacy tests were aimed at preventing blacks from voting. In the North and West, there were fewer legal barriers, but widespread, blatant discrimination occurred in employment, housing, schools, and other aspects of life. Race-based violence was also common, and thousands of blacks were lynched or assassinated in the South and elsewhere from the 1870s until the 1960s. However, Laurel, Mississippi has a long and virtually untold history in the Mississippi Freedom Movement. They, also, had a Black Populist Movement that few even know about. The benefactors’ progressive outlook transcended traditional racial divisions and helped create a town of the “New South” in the heart of the Piney Woods. Like all southern cites, strict racial separation kept the citizens of Laurel apart. According to author, Cleveland Payne, the northern born members of the community adhered to the “separate but equal” policies, but they also implemented programs and institutions that would help foster Laurel’s African American community. Although Laurel’s black residents still lived under a system of regional and national injustice, Laurel provided them with opportunities unavailable to blacks in many other parts of the “Old South.” In the years between 1902 and 1918, Laurel realized an enormous amount of civic growth. Education was essential to this upward surge. If not for a well-defined educational system, Laurel might become just another shortlived mill town. In 1907, R.H. Watkins, a young superintendent from Bristol, Tennessee, accepted the same position in Laurel. Laurel, like many other “New South” towns, took a progressive posture