Context and Analysis
Graham's letter and the attached list emerge as documents of some significance in the light of his position and the time at which he held it. 1875 marked the waning point of Reconstruction in the American southeast generally, and Graham's political and legal position within that dynamic specifically points to his position within that historical period. Specifically, Graham's family were politically-active white supremacists, with his siblings playing varying roles in shaping the post-Reconstruction political landscape in North Carolina upon which the murder case in question played out. William Alexander Graham Jr., one of Augustus's older brother, was a major in the Confederate army that went on to serve, much like his younger brother, in the NC state assembly. He also served as secretary of agriculture and president of the Farmer's Alliance. Another elder brother and Confederate major, John Washington Graham, served as delegate to the North Carolina Constitutional Convention (UNC Libraries A.W. Graham Papers Search Guide). The Graham family was a significant force in shaping post-Reconstruction North Carolina using the ideology of the Confederate States as a guiding principle. As historian Eric Foner observes in "Rights and the Constitution in Black Life During the Civil War and Reconstruction," the social change that was supposed to define the era was undone by the political will of a broken-yet-potent remnant of the aristocratic powers that ruled the South before the war (883). In discussing the significance of this case and these artifacts, this fact cannot be ignored.
I would therefore propse to view these documents as points in a network of racist culture in which the Graham famiy was heavily invested. In service of this reading, I call attention to the parenthetical denotation of the witnesses as (negroes). The exact intent of this gesture is indeterminate, but it is at the very least obvious that the inclusion of this note in the correspondence is meant to mark the witnesses for the handlers of the case down the line. Given Graham's background and family, it becomes obvious that this mark is meant to make way for some form of compromise or sabotage. Too, the witnesses that visit Devenent's office are sent to Lusk in Greensboro, a re-direction that indicates the local authorities are either incapable of or unwilling to attempt to render justice in this case. It is important to note here that there is no record of a Samuel H. Johnson being tried for murder in Hillsborough 1875 or any of the adjacent years (Ancestry). This makes it likely that the witnesses in Graham's letter never found the justice they sought.
Johnson's position at the top of the list, emphasized with a bracket, may also indicate that the priority for Lusk or any future handlers of the case would be him. It is possible that the investigation simply needed to start with the suspect. However, the notation in the letter specifying that the witnesses are (negroes) lends some credibiltiy to the notion that Johnson, as a white male in post-Reconstruction North Carolina, would occupy a priveleged position relative to the people attempting to identify him as a murderer.
These material details of the text represent the shadows of a system of power in which Graham plays a prominent role. As practitioner and later author of law in the state, Graham defined the legal reality in North Carolina in the latter part of the 19th century; the details of his life leave little room to doubt that fact. The letter, a response to a Klan murder with a named suspect and six eyewitnesses, does not reveal the totality of this suppressive force, but rather shows the dark outer edges of it clearly in contrast with the details of the case.
Works Cited in This Exhibit
Foner, Eric. "Rights and the Constitution in Black Life during the Civil War and Reconstruction Author." The Journal of American History, vol. 74, no. 3, Dec. 1987, pp. 863-83.
"Samuel H. Johnson." Ancestry.com, Ancestry, search.ancestryinstitution.com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/cgi-bin/sse.dll?gl=allgs&gss=sfs28_ms_f-2_s&new=1&rank=1&msT=1&gsfn=Samuel%20H.%20&gsfn_x=0&gsln=Johnson&gsln_x=0&msypn__ftp=Hillsborough%2C%20Orange%2C%20North%20Carolina%2C%20USA&msypn=21091&msypn_PInfo=8-%7C0%7C1652393%7C0%7C2%7C0%7C36%7C0%7C2241%7C21091%7C0%7C0%7C&msbdy=1830&catbucket=rstp&MSAV=0&uidh=yn9. Accessed 25 Sept. 2017.
"Letter Regarding Klan Murder." Received from Augustus Washington Graham Jr., of Oxford, N.C., in March 1945; from Nancy Johns Mohlere in October 2006 (Acc. 100522); and from Shirley O'Keefe in August 2011 (Acc. 101477).