Opinion | Black history comes alive with drama and heroism — in Trump Country

In that haven of conservative White rural America, a new book, “Black History of Highland County,” brings to light important events long suppressed. Published by the county historical society, the book is the product of local authors Kati Burwinkel, Myra Cumberland Phillips and John Glaze — a White woman, a Black woman and a White man, respectively — all determined to reveal and preserve a neglected past.

The book sprang from an earlier project on Lincoln School, a former elementary school in Hillsboro, the county seat, to which Black children were relegated even after 1954’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education desegregation ruling. Hillsboro was the last place in Ohio to integrate its elementary schools, an episode highlighted in 1956 in Time magazine.

In response, a group of African American women who became known as the Marching Mothers walked several blocks with their children every school morning from 1954 to 1956 to the doorstep of the new, White elementary school, only to be turned away each day. After court fights and a threat from the state education board to withhold funding, Black students were finally allowed to attend the new school.

Burwinkel told me that in researching the segregation saga, so much additional information was unearthed on Black lives and events that she and others decided, “This has to get written down.” With assistance from Ohio Humanities, an advocacy council working “to identify untold and under-told stories,” Burwinkel, Glaze and Phillips — one of the students who marched each day with her mother — began organizing, writing and editing. Each story is interesting and informative, but some deserve inclusion based on drama alone.

One standout — documented in late-19th-century newspaper articles — recounts a Ku Klux Klan assault on a Black church camp gathering. One Friday night in July 1880, KKK members — “fueled by hatred and alcohol” — made their way from Hillsboro to Danville, a tiny burg about eight miles to the west, and attacked the campers using “clubs, billies and loaded canes.” But the church group fought back and “eventually was able to run off the attacking men.”

Unwilling to concede defeat, the Klansmen again gathered in Hillsboro on Saturday night, loading up on liquid courage. They “paraded the streets until after dark, and made threats that they were going to Danville to clean out the camp meeting.” As many as 50 gathered in Danville to threaten the Black families while they slept. A gunfight broke out, and “50 to 75 shots were fired.” Several KKK members were hurt, but “none of the church group reported injuries.”

The Klansmen, inept but determined, returned to Danville on Sunday to ambush the campers as they departed in their horse-drawn wagons. As the wagons came through town, “the roughs [KKK members] saw the church people were armed with double-barrel shotguns,” so the first wagon passed “unmolested.” But then the attackers — as many as 75, according to accounts — pounced on the second wagon of 13 men and women.

“Moments later as the wagon sped through Danville, shots were fired. … Again, most injuries were suffered by the roughs [KKK],” according to reports. Eventually, a few men involved in the assault on the campers were arrested, although their fates are lost to history.

Efforts to suppress Black history deprive us of stirring examples of Americans overcoming adversity and courage under fire. Rather than making anyone feel guilty or uncomfortable, these true-life stories should inspire us all. They are testaments to the resilience and human spirit found in people of all races.

Working with Ohio Humanities — and despite the threat of legislation restricting how race is taught, and occasional criticism for dredging up skeletons from the past — Burwinkel said there are plans to reach out to young people, including a children’s book on the Lincoln School saga.

“What’s going to make a difference is reaching the kids,” she said. “They’re the future of race relations.”