KKK Fliers in Cullman? (Huntsville, Decatur: for sale, 2015, neighborhood)

[Justacoolguy]

Ive never been there. Is this an issue in Cullman? Candy-packaged KKK flyers popping up in Cullman areas | AL.com

[tas80]

Speaking of Cullman, I just looked up the demographics of Cullman and out of 15,000 people, a mind boggling 0.01% is african-american. That's like 2 people out of 15,000. How can any town in the deep south have that many people and no african-american's ?

[Cheesesteak Cravings]

That doesn't look candy packaged at all. It looks like it's 30 years old.

[1973PINTO]

Originally Posted by tas80

Speaking of Cullman, I just looked up the demographics of Cullman and out of 15,000 people, a mind boggling 0.01% is african-american. That's like 2 people out of 15,000. How can any town in the deep south have that many people and no african-american's ?

the whole area of the south has the reputation that cullman lives by ..but what is the problem with your statement ?

[RocketDawg]

Originally Posted by tas80

Speaking of Cullman, I just looked up the demographics of Cullman and out of 15,000 people, a mind boggling 0.01% is african-american. That's like 2 people out of 15,000. How can any town in the deep south have that many people and no african-american's ?

If you look at the census.gov data for counties, you'll find that very few counties in north Alabama (by my definition, Cullman County and north) have many blacks. Madison, by far the largest, has just under 25%, but surrounding counties are more in the 5% range. That's not as low as what you stated for Cullman, but pretty low at any rate for a state that has about 26%. Marshall County has almost three times the number of Hispanics than blacks.

I suppose Alabama is considered "deep south", but the Huntsville/Decatur area is far from "deep south" in reality.

[tas80]

Originally Posted by RocketDawg

If you look at the census.gov data for counties, you'll find that very few counties in north Alabama (by my definition, Cullman County and north) have many blacks. Madison, by far the largest, has just under 25%, but surrounding counties are more in the 5% range. That's not as low as what you stated for Cullman, but pretty low at any rate for a state that has about 26%. Marshall County has almost three times the number of Hispanics than blacks.

I suppose Alabama is considered "deep south", but the Huntsville/Decatur area is far from "deep south" in reality.

So why is there such a divide between the Northern part of AL and the rest of AL ? It seems very segregated.

[RatSnake]

Originally Posted by tas80

So why is there such a divide between the Northern part of AL and the rest of AL ? It seems very segregated.

People choose to self-segregate. And being a minority myself, I respect and acknowledge that.
I don't really understand that myself.

Now - would I be 100% ok with living in a place that is racially homogenous? Not really. I can always stare back when I am being stared out (head to toe). But then - I would be viewed as rude.

[Justacoolguy]

It is actually very true. There is a very strong black middle class is Huntsville, and they too tend to all buy in the same areas. I live in Hampton cove and gladly welcome anyone to live in our neighborhood, but truth is very few minotiries lives there.

[harry chickpea]

"So why is there such a divide between the Northern part of AL and the rest of AL ? It seems very segregated."

A lot of the difference has to do with settlement patterns and the way agriculture was handled. Some of the difference has to do with past active racism. Some of the difference has to do with the clannish nature of families (as in sticking together) and some from the Klan getting its start in Pulaski TN.

North Alabama did not have a lot of slaves compared to other areas of the south. The plantation concept that required slaves pre-dated the Louisiana purchase, was already in full use by the French settlers who had been given huge land grants. Roughly, land close to the Mississippi River and along coastal plains was developed in that fashion. A few ULTRA-wealthy families, and more families with moderately high wealth controlled the governmental bodies, the merchant class was very small, and the rest of the population lived poor.

North Alabama didn't really become available for settlement until later, in part due to the Cherokee Nation. Land was only opened fully for settlement after the Trail of Tears in 1838-39, close to the start of the Civil War. Land was allotted by "section" (640 acres, IIRC) and families - many being Irish and Scottish - did the main settlement. Slavery was expensive and the tenant farmer concept was a more viable alternative, and with the Irish potato famine starting in 1845 there were ample numbers of agricultural workers wanting to escape the English for a better life.

When the patriarch of a family died, the land was divided among offspring, and in general only nearby families and friends were ever allowed to even know that land might be for sale, and property tended to stay within closely allied groups.

The culture was more ambivalent to slavery than much of the south. A couple of areas wanted to side with the Union in the Civil War, others were solidly behind the Confederacy. Certainly the Irish knew the problems with top-down landed leadership and had little desire to support a slavery too reminiscent of their own history.

After the war, and the (rarely spoken of) problems with carpetbaggers and enforced Northern mores, some areas actively worked to exclude blacks. I have to think that some part of this was to avoid Northern sympathetic blacks in government. Cullman, Arab, much of Sand Mountain as well as parts of Georgia were known to be centers of Klan activity and places where literally any black workers had to be off the mountain or out of town by sunset to be safe.

When manual labor in the cotton fields was eliminated, jobs that supported black families dried up, causing more migrations to Memphis and then Chicago and the industrial areas of the northern midwest.

The issue with righteous indignation over "segregated" areas with primarily white populations is that it ignores history and that change happens not instantaneously, but over generations. Are the people of north Alabama to be blamed for not having slaves in the first place? Are they to be blamed for coming from a stock that was horribly abused by the English, forced into starvation so the English horses could eat oats? Are they to be blamed for reacting in defense to massive intrusion into government by martinets in the North? Are they to be blamed because geography has kept them from being as cosmopolitan a society as those along the seacoasts and trade routes?

Does Cullman have some backward thinking and reactive people? Sure, and it probably always will, just like Brooklyn, San Fransisco or any other place. It does make for good cheap-shot news to point them out though, and that sells paper and gains advertisers and gives people little pleasant emotional highs thinking how they are so superior to the folks in Cullman.
Just perhaps... getting emotional highs from such stories might not be the sign of mature thinking.

PS I'm not defending, just explaining. I didn't grow up in N AL and have lived in Vermont, New York, Atlanta, Miami, Ft Lauderdale, and a few other places. If people think N AL is backwards and a place to avoid, I kinda like that, because I've seen how tourism and development can destroy places.

[tas80]

Thank you Harry for that very informative response.