(FLORIDA) The Negroes of Putnam are Invited to Enjoy with

Sale 2562 - Lot 236

Price Realized: $ 281

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 400 - $ 600

(FLORIDA.) The Negroes of Putnam . . . are Invited to Enjoy with us the Big Celebration. Letterpress broadside, 17 x 10 1/4 inches; folds, minimal wear. Palatka, FL: Wattles Printing Shop, 11 November 1927

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We hope somebody can explain this one for us. Here in the deep south, at the height of the Klan's second heyday, a town holds a large Veteran's Day celebration to dedicate a new bridge--and they make a point to invite the "Negroes of Putnam and Adjoining Counties" to the celebration. Furthermore, the keynote speaker was the president of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College, an historically Black college. In closing, the local African Americans are assured this is no joke: "The citizens of Palatka mean for you to come and bring your wives and children. Come and enjoy one long free day of festivity; see our bridge, schools, and churches."

The celebration was held in Palatka, a small inland city west of Jacksonville, FL. Putnam County had some glimmers of progressive racial attitudes. Their former sheriff, Peter Hagan, had resisted lynchings and Klan activity at great personal risk, but he had been voted out of office in 1924. That ushered in two years of Klan violence--dozens of horrific incidents against Blacks and Catholics. The better elements eventually prevailed, with the threat of a state investigation cooling down the incidents in 1926, and Hagan was re-elected in 1928. See "Ku Klux Klan met its match in Putnam County in the 1920s," Tampa Bay Times, 24 October 2012.

Klan or no, the town apparently went ahead with its integrated celebration in 1927. The Memorial Bridge remained in service until replaced by an identically named bridge in 1976; a World War One memorial which was also dedicated at this event still stands today.