[ConservativeMind]

“The punishment for blacks found in state, IIRC was enshrined in the constitution as something like 30 lashes, to be repeated every 30 days until the message was conveyed.”

Disgusting. Thank you for mentioning that.

Shocking that was in a state constitution until the 1930s.

[Hieronymus]

There was a saying around where I grew up: We aren’t racist, we can’t be. There aren’t any of them around here.

If you have lived through Bloody Kansas, it may make more sense. Two tribes of whites fighting each other over views on blacks.

My great-great Grandmother, who is buried in Salem and has descendants all over the State, is remembered by her surviving grandchildren (two left that I know of, the last WWII vet kicked off last month) as a bitter woman. If one realizes what she lived through as a small child and growing up before she moved to Oregon, one would understand why. Having a younger brother born in 1861 christened Jefferson Davis Scott was not quite the same as being a Boy Named Sue, but for practical purposes was likely close enough depending on where you lived. In her county (in south-west Missouri) the county seat did not function for nearly all of the 1860’s because the county was in the midst of its own civil war.