Jill Ogline Titus, deputy director of the Civil War Institute at Gettysburg College and the author of Gettysburg 1963: Civil Rights, Cold War Politics, and Historical Memory in America’s Most Famous Small Town, spoke at the Lutheran Seminary’s Valentine Hall on “A New Birth of Freedom? Civil Rights and Black History in 20th Century Gettysburg.”
TItus observed that in 1863, the 2,400 residents of Gettysburg included 200 African Americans. Most lived on the margins of society, though an estimated 1/8 of Black residents owned property and an active parallel society had been created. The first school for Black children had been created in 1834.
Sitting at the center of a road network only seven miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, it was perhaps inevitable that a Slave Refuge Society would be created in the 1840s. But as with more recent times, “the struggle [for Black residents] has always included the struggle against racial injustice. “ This was especially true when Robert E. Lee’s army came north with, among other objectives, the mission to kidnap Blacks and take them south.
Black residents knew that a Confederate invasion meant slavery and most Black residents fled by mid-June, many to Harrisburg, some to the area of Yellow Hill, an area where many Blacks lived north of Gettysburg. Nevertheless, Ogline Titus observed that for those who stayed, life during the invasion included all the nightmares whites experienced plus the risk of enslavement. Some estimates are that several hundred Blacks were captured in south-central Pennsylvania.
Not all who fled came back and those who did were hard-hit by the battle. Basil Biggs was one prominent Black citizen who gained early contracts to relocate bodies to the national cemetery. He used much of his money to buy farmland; he later was active in Republican politics and played a leading role in establishing what is now the Lincoln Cemetery, where veterans of the US Colored Troops were buried.
By the late 19th century, tourism was becoming a major factor in Gettysburg, which afforded some Black residents jobs as porters and in other service jobs.
Like most northern towns, Gettysburg was segregated, but in some ways not. For example, at this time, programs to honor veterans went to both cemeteries. And when the Civilian Conservation Corps brought two segregated black camps to Gettysburg during the Great Depression, opinions varied widely, at times viewing the black workers as “dangerous and uppity,” but at other times welcoming them.
Nevertheless, lack of opportunity forced many Blacks to leave. Rigid housing segregation prevented Blacks from living in any but a few neighborhoods; realtors simply wouldn’t show properties. The segregation that prevailed in restaurants, lodging, and theaters was at least as much due to custom as law. Many white residents claimed that “I’m not biased but our southern visitors are. Why offend southern visitors?”
Titus briefly addressed the Centennial celebration, which was the subject of her book. She said the celebration brought emancipation but not a new birth of freedom. The centennial brought “a brief window of opportunity to shine a light on discrimination,” she said.
Titus said a primary concern of the organizers was to avoid any sit-ins or protests. In terms of public accommodations, the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission reminded merchants of the public accommodations law, and in that regard substantial progress was made.
More broadly, though, the celebration reflected the reconciliationist view that “both sides fought honorably for the cause they believed in,” which largely erased Blacks from the story. And the dedication of many Confederate monuments during the centennial overshadowed other events. In their monuments and dedication speeches, many Southern governors redefined Gettysburg in terms relevant to present-day controversies: Gettysburg was a high point of the struggle for Southern Rights and a rallying point for Southern resistance to federal encroachment.
Titus concluded by saying that Gettysburg is more than the site of a battle. it is also a living community, a place where generations of Black residents have fought for civil rights.
Leon Reed, freelance reporter, is a former US Senate staff member, defense consultant, and history teacher. He is a 10 year resident of Gettysburg, where he writes military history and explores the park and the Adams County countryside. He is the publisher at Little Falls Books, chaired the Adams County 2020 Census Complete Count Committee and is on the board of SCCAP. He and his wife, Lois, have 3 children, 3 cats, and 5 grandchildren.
Not interested
I know. So much nicer to just ignore parts of history we don’t like.
But removing a Confederate monument? Now THAT is “removing history,” and that’s wrong, wrong, wrong.