The Uplift Generation by Clayton McClure Brooks

Author:Clayton McClure Brooks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Virginia Press

Louis I. Jaffe. (Papers of Louis I. Jaffé, Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia)

The African American newspapers expressed as much shock as the white dailies. The Richmond Planet questioned how such a tragedy could occur and declared that it “did not believe that there were in this city two colored men who would have permitted a woman to be so assaulted without having made some outcry or without having offered his life to prevent such a fiendish crime in his presence.”79 Editor Mitchell, a confirmed bachelor who never entirely trusted the sensibilities of women, found it difficult to believe that any white woman in Richmond “with her innate horror of the male members of the darker race, who would even under threat of death submit to such an indignity when there were within calling distance hundreds of white and colored men, who would have risked their lives to save her from such a disgrace.”80 He agreed that a crime had occurred but did not entirely believe the Heislers’ version of the story or that black men could have been the culprits. Black elites feared that the incident challenged their constant assurances about the irreproachable morality of the black masses. They understood that the crime could end white support of African American uplift reforms and threaten the relative peace in which the two races lived in Virginia.

After the initial frenzy, white Virginians tried to dismiss the possibility that the rapists were African American. Mrs. Heisler’s family physician, Dr. B. L. Beams, white, came forward with his story to the press. The white Richmond News Leader reported that Beams had been called the morning of the attack to treat Mrs. Heisler and, at that time, also took her statement. He confirmed that she had indeed been violated and also assured the public that it was through no fault of her own. Mrs. Heisler, Beams explained, was “a moral, honest woman though in very, humble circumstances.”81 Beams, however, offered his opinion that the house was too dark for either of the Heislers to see whether or not the attackers were actually black. Although Beams’s statement was less than concrete evidence, the white newspapers accepted his interpretation, and fervor over the crime subsided. In the following weeks, the police continued to search for culprits with no success. With their minds eased that no crazed African American criminals were on the loose (only white ones), the white public, at least according to the newspapers, forgot about the incident.

Apart from Beams’s statement, racial tension was diffused by white paternalists working with African American leaders, drawing upon the ties of years of interracial cooperation. Whites asked African American leaders to release statements denouncing the violence, reassuring frightened whites, and expressing their desire for racial peace. According to the Richmond Planet, “this request was complied with although the colored people resented an imputation that any colored resident of this city would be guilty of such a crime.” The paper predicted that once “the facts

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