Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2022/Fall/Section087/Eldon Graham

Overview

Eldon Graham was a white, First Deputy of Henry County, Tennessee throughout the mid 1920s and 1930s.Interviewed by Nellie Gray Toler about his career.

• 
  United States sheriff badge

Biography

Military Life

Prior to his working as law enforcement Graham served in the Army during WWI. While overseas he took a bullet and spent two years in a hospital recovering from the wound and getting the toxic gas out of his system.

Career in Law Enforcement

After his recovery Graham started his work as a deputy in 1924 working through the 1930s with a couple exception years due to a disagreement with a sheriff. Overall, he loved his job, and it was always his dream to “be the law.” Through his line of work, he gained commission for arrests and subpoenas which were most found with fights, debt and stills. A lot of these arrests came from immoral practices such as waiting outside of funerals to arrest drunk loved ones. He says the hardest part of the job is arresting a friend or a neighbor but, “we must do our duty by doing so.”

Role in Racism

He also served as deputy in a time when racism was live and active in the south. He discussed his role in this racism by stating he even led a mob to kill a black man with a bunch of other guys from the town.

Social Context

Role of Law Enforcement in Racism in the South

During the 1930s racism was very common in the south. This hate was shown in many different ways but was easily found in the South. Many stereotypes ran rampant, there was segregation in many areas of life including things like schools and even bathrooms and people formed groups to conduct lynchings on African Americans. This is evident through the violence performed by hate groups such as the KKK . This racism however extended into the law enforcement and the corrupt judicial system of the time. This also was not very well hidden, “Lynching incidents were infrequently prosecuted and lynching “was tolerated” by local politicians and law officers." This shows the effect the beliefs of the south had on African Americans because they had no protection from these acts of violence. The law enforcement who partook in this racism did not face much justice since the system in place did not typically care to stop them. In many cases, “penalties were rarely imposed because district attorneys, judges, and jury members were highly reluctant to limit the power and authority of law enforcement officials.” With this unjust system in place it was hard for African Americans to escape the hate.

Lack of Relief for WWI Soldiers

WWI was a very deadly global conflict resulting in many deaths and casualties of American Soldiers. These, however, were not the only negative effects the war brought on these veterans. Following the veterans were promised a bonus for their service with the exception that it would be paid on a later date. When the Depression struck, and these men had little to fall back on they requested the government give them their bonus early as a means of economic relief. “Millions of Americans were left hungry and homeless. Veterans of the war were desperate for relief.” A group of these soldiers known as the “Bonus Army” protested in Washington D.C. to receive their compensation but initially were given nothing. This was a group of men who had felt abandoned by their country that they had served and betrayed since they were even attacked by the Army in attempt to evacuate them. This is a big representation of how the whole nation felt hopeless and abandoned due to their current state at the time.

• 
  Members of the Bonus Army camped out on the lawn of the U.S. Capitol building

Effects of Prohibition in the U.S.

Prohibition was originally put in place to reduce crime, reduce costs created by prisons and to have positive social change. The outcome was quite the opposite. The U.S. faced many problems during the 1920s and 1930s as a result of prohibition. These including economic, social, and political issues. The economy suffered greatly due to loss of job jobs with the closing of breweries, distilleries and saloons along with lower demand for waiters, and truckers to transport the alcohol. There was also a major hit on the economy due to the loss of the public tax revenue on alcohol. “Prohibition cost the federal government a total of $11 billion in tax revenue, while costing over $300 million to enforce. In the end, prohibition was a factor that led to the Great Depression and economic suffering of many Americans. It also did not complete the goal of decreasing crime since it led to more bribery of public officials and law enforcement by bootleggers and merchants of the black market as well as increases in homicide. “The homicide rate is relatively unresponsive for the first few years after a city has been under prohibition, and then trends upwards until around the !0th year under prohibition.” . Prohibition did not meet any goals that it was made to fulfill and created numerous negative effects in the realms of the economy, society and politics.

• 
  Removal of liquor during Prohibition

References

• Toler, Nellie Gray. “On the Road to Sheriff.” In Federal Writers Project, 1938–1939.
• King, Ryan. “Contemporary Hate Crimes, Law Enforcement and the Legacy of Racial Violence.” American Sociological Review 74, no. 2 (04/01/09). https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/000312240907400207
• Niedermeier, Silvan. The Color of the Third Degree: Racism, Police Torture, and Civil Rights in the American South 1930-1955. UNC Press Books, 2019. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mAuwDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=Color+of+the+third+degree&ots=jQiPALrRTS&sig=053RhUXOuzim_QUS1xTtREIlF5M#v=onepage&q=Color%20of%20the%20third%20degree&f=false.
• “The Bonus Army: How a Protest Led to the G.I. Bill.” NPR, November 11, 2011. https://www.npr.org/2011/11/11/142224795/the-bonus-army-how-a-protest-led-to-the-gi-bill.
• Lerner, Michael. “Unintended Consequences of Prohibition.” PBS, n.d. https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/prohibition/unintended-consequences.
• Garcia-Jimeno, Camilo. “The Political Economy of Moral Conflict: An Empirical Study of Learning and Law Enforcement Under Prohibition.” Econometrica 84, no. 2 (2016). http://www.iies.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.57515.1321520810!/GarciaJimenoJobMarketPaper.pdf.
• w:Sheriffs_in_the_United_States
• w:Bonus_Army
• w:Prohibition_in_the_United_States