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June 15, 2024
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jun 8, 1892 - The Memphis Ledger for June 8, 1892 said the following about a teenage white girl who gave birth to a Negro child:

Description:

"If Lillie Bailey, a rather pretty white girl seventeen years of age...would be somewhat less reserved about her disgrace there would be some very nauseating details in the story of her life. She is the mother of a little coon. The truth might reveal fearful depravity or it might reveal the evidence of a rank outrage. She will not divulge the name of the man who has left such black evidence of her disgrace, and, in fact, says it is a matter in which there can be no interest to the outside world. She came to Memphis nearly three months ago and was taken in at the Woman's Refuge in the southern part of the city. She remained there until a few weeks ago, when the child was born. The ladies in charge of the Refuge were horrified. The girl was at once sent to the City Hospital, where she has been since May 30...When the child was born an attempt was made to get the girl to reveal the name of the Negro who had disgraced her, she obstinately refused and it was impossible to elicit any information from her on the subject."

Note the wording. "The truth might reveal fearful depravity or rank outrage." If it had been a white child or if Lillie Bailey had told a common story of "Negro outrage", then it would have been a case of a white woman's weakness or assault and she could have stayed at the Woman's Refuge. But having a black child and withholding the father's name, thus preventing the lynching of another Negro "rapist" was regarded as "fearful depravity." As defined by Vocabulary.com, "Depravity goes beyond mere bad behavior — it is a total lack of morals, values, and even regard for other living things". Racism runs so deep that a young girl protecting her baby's father's identity for fear of his life is described as one of the worst things a human being could do. That alone is indicative of how deep the hatred and detestation of the black man runs to the point that the white race would cast aside their own, a young teen mother, and move her from the comfort of a woman's refuge to a city hospital, just because she would not reveal the identity of the baby's father.

Important Note: The purpose of including this case is to further emphasize how hated the black race was to the point that white people would treat each other differently.

Added to timeline:

Date:

jun 8, 1892
Now
~ 132 years ago

Geo: