Literary Club or Sex Den? You Decide!

court. Library of Congress

I came across a fascinating series of articles about raids on black social clubs at the turn of the century in Atlanta. The clubs referred to themselves as literary establishments rather than gambling establishments, and the white press tore apart this claim with biting sarcasm in each news brief. You really have to read these articles to get the full sense of how absurd and amazing and petty this whole issue was, but I'll try to give some snapshots of what occurred:

Headline 1: IT HAD A CHARTER. The Negro Literary Club Explains and Justifies Itself. A LITERARY MAN TELLS ABOUT IT. Questioned by the Judge, He Says That It Had Books for Its Members’ Delectation – The Cases Dismissed.

This article details the trial of a large group of members from the Colored Men's Literary and Social Club. The judge, Andy Calhoun, appears again and again in these scuffles, so I guess he enjoyed these sort of cases. The club members have been arrested for disorderly conduct and suspicion of gambling, and at the trial they must prove that they are indeed literary. Here's the white writer's description:

Twenty-five rough-handed, indifferently-clad negroes, who bore but faint, indistinguishable traces of likeness to those gentlemen who delight in the pleasure of literature and society, appeared to establish the club's identity as being distinct and apart from a low resort of gamblers and drinkers." 

The writer continues:

A chocolate-colored negro who imagined himself the possessor of a literary cast of countenance, attemped in a grandiloquent style to put the club before the court in its true light...

“It’s a literary club, is it?” the judge inquired in his blandest tones.

“Oh, yassar, yassar,” was the prompt response, accompanied by a sweeping grin. “Dat’s wut ‘tis; a kind uv litumrary s’ciety”

Here we see that literary is synonymous with elegance and culture, and is judged visually. The fact that the black club members have rough hands suggest they are of the working class, and therefore not genteel enough to be literary. You can see the night-and-day difference between transcriptions of white voices (the judge) and black voices (the witness).

Headline 2: DONE AT THE CLUBS: Will Howard, a Negro Clubman, Gives Himself Up to the Police.

This article describes a violent fight at a black club supposedly started by a dispute over cards and ending with a man shot. Unlike the last article, which criticizes blacks for being "rough-handed, indifferently-clad negroes" and uses their simple attire to argue against their genteel status, this writer uses the extravagance of their attire as evidence of sinful activities:

The name under which the club is known gives a very misleading impression as to the character of the club members. It is called the Laboring Men’s Social and Literary Club, but the members are apparently not of the class of orthodox colored laborers. Most of them are arrayed in fine linen and neat fitting clothes and bear none of the marks of labor. Will Howard, who gave himself up for the shooting of Mitchell, is a fair specimen of the club’s membership. He was dressed in ultra-swell style and wore an extremely gaudy tie.” 

**One side-note: I hope someday to have "ultra-swell style"

The writer doubts the working-class background of the club members based on their fancy dress, and argues that the whole club is merely a cover for gambling, sex orgies, and drinking binges rather than a place for working men to relax and debate the issues of the day. 

Headline 3: FESTIVE CLUBMEN: The Colored Literary Club Met with Disaster Yesterday

Another raid by police, and another chance for the journalist to show his wit by exposing how "ridiculous" it is to link the words Colored and Literary:

“But the climax of grandeur was reached when the officers turned their steps into the elegant barroom… It was an ideal resort for the bibulous disciple of letters… They were struck by the apparent disproportion in the supply of drinks and literature.”

*side-note: bibulous means: 

• fond of or addicted to drink
• absorbent; spongy

“Numerous clubmen, all of them looking very unliterary in looks and not strikingly intellectual appearing about the brow, testified.”

Again, literary is judged visually. Also, we see a creepy hint at phrenology - judging intelligence based on the shape of the skull - in the phrase "not strikingly intellectual appearing about the brow". 

Headline 4: Club Pulling. Two Bon-Ton Negro Clubs Pulled Yesterday by the Police. Forty-Six Club Men At One Haul. ‘The Laboring Men’s Literary Association’ and ‘The Laboring Men’s Pleasure Club’ Before the Recorder Today

This is a fascinating account of a raid of a HOPPING black club. Here we see for the first time that respectable whites are frequenting the clubs also (Uh oh!)

It has leaked out that negroes are not the only people who frequent the Laboring Men’s Literary Association and the Laboring Men’s Pleasure Club... Well-dressed white men have been seen refreshing the inner man there... This first came to the  attention of the police force through Detectives Wooten and Holcombe... On Sunday, two weeks ago, they visited… On entering the clubroom they found it teeming with negroes, all of who were either drinking beer and whisky or playing cards. To their surprise, however, there were over a dozen white men in the crowd, who seemed to be perfectly at home among their sable companions and were enjoying to the fullest extent the refreshments that were being dispensed.”

The black clubs were not the only places to party in town. In fact, many of them were directly modeled after white clubs in the city like the Capital City Club, organized in 1883.

Here's part of a speech by Harry Jackson, former president of the Capital City Club:

Membership in this club should be the insignia of a gentleman and all that the term gentleman includes. The prevailing sentiment of this house should be refinement – refinement in manner, conversation and recreations. Vulgarity should have no place here.

If nonchalance be the Doric column in the character of the gentleman, than perhaps permit me to complete the structure by the addition of another column – gentle courtesy and tender consideration of the rights and privileges of others, which we will call the Corinthian.

What is the defining characteristic of a gentleman? Nonchalance. Nonchalance has lost its glamour in the 21st  century. It isn't revered, and is even equated to carelessness or laziness. The ideals of these clubs, both black and white, are:

• nonchalance
• refinement

It is hard to be nonchalant unless you are rich, and just about impossible to live with nonchalance if you are of the working class. Exactly the point. For blacks working them up from nothing in the city, they may get money, but they will never have nonchalance. Here is an article about yet another raid, but this time the police find very "refined" and "nonchalant" blacks. It must be some mistake!

Headline 5: Made a Huge Haul

The African-American club being raided was called the "Classic City Club" (Note the resemblance to its white neighbor)

This club is the most prominent among the elite of colored aristocracy and has a large and influential membership made up of darkies who have high instincts of social life and whose standards of club life are gathered from contact either as butlers or waiters from the fashionable residences or resorts of Atlanta.

Translation: Refinement doesn't come naturally to blacks; it must have rubbed off from nonchalant white people.

Headline 6: "OUR CITY CLUB.": It Was Raided by the City Detectives Yesterday. IT IS COLORED AND VERY TONY

*Side-note - Don't ask me what "Tony" means, I don't know

This black club literally takes the name of the big white club in town and sticks an "Our" at the beginning to delineate themselves. After being raided, the owner, Bob Stephenson, was quoted in the paper denouncing the inequality between what is allowed in white clubs and what is punished in black clubs. Finally we get a voice from the other side of the debate!

Our City Club is legally chartered and its members are the very best colored people in the city. Our rooms are nicely arranged and we have refreshments, but the institution is conduction on the assessment plan, just like the white folks’ clubs, and we have violated no law. Gambling has never been permitted in the rooms, and I challenge anybody to find a more orderly set of colored folks than our members. It looks pretty hard to be continually raided in this way when the white clubhouses are wide open all the time. 

I'll leave it for you, my blog readers to decide: LITERARY CLUB OR SEX DEN??