Tent City, Fayette and Haywood Counties, 1959–1962

SUMMARYTent City, Fayette and Haywood Counties, 1959–1962 (Nov 8, 2026; TANASI line research)

RECORD (Tennessee Encyclopedia, "Tent City, Fayette and Haywood Counties," Linda T. Wynn)"In 1959 African Americans in Fayette and Haywood Counties fought for the right to vote"; the Burton Dodson trial ("an African American farmer in his seventies who was tried for the 1941 murder of a white man") showed Black citizens kept off juries; "registered African American voters were not allowed to cast their ballots"; "the Original Fayette County Civic and Welfare League" sued the local Democratic Party (first such suit under the Civil Rights Act of 1957); "In the winter of 1960 white property owners evicted hundreds of black tenant farmers from their lands"; "The U.S. Justice Department filed several lawsuits"; on July 26, 1962 "landowners were enjoined from engaging in any acts" of retaliation

RECORD (University of Memphis, "Tent City: Stories of Civil Rights in Fayette County," 1960 timeline)a "blacklist" of registered Black voters; September 1960, Shepard Towles, a Black farmer who owned his land on Old Macon Road, let evicted families pitch tents: "This collection of makeshift homes comes to be known as 'Tent City'"; "approximately 13 families with more than 100 children are living in Tent City"; Dec. 1, 1960, United States v. Atkeison; Dec. 28, 1960, "Shots are fired into tents at the Towles farm site," hitting Early B. Williams

PATTERNregister to vote, lose the land you farmed for decades; a Black landowner's ground becomes the refuge

LENS (WW9)Fayette and Haywood lie in West Tennessee, inside the 1818 Chickasaw cession (P865 and the 1818 treaty notes); held land, paper land, and the people on it again (Lens, not Record; no document links these families to Chickasaw ground title)

OPENTowles's deed and chain of title back to the 1818 cession; Haywood County tent site details. Connects: P865, P870, P874.