Dr. John A. McFall

Pages: 372 • 6x9 • Illustrations: 14 • Paperback • Ebook

“... a far more insidious plan was discovered, for we found that the architect’s plans and the intents of the Directors of the [Carolina-West Indian] Exposition, was to have separate restrooms and eating places for Negroes and for whites. It was the first time that an openly planned system for racial segregation had been made in Charleston since emancipation and it created a wave of protest from the Negroes.”

Resisting Jim crow:

The Autobiography of Dr. John A. McFall

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Historic manuscript introduces
an eye-witness to Charleston’s injustice

“Injustice… is a cancer that is rapidly eating into the vitals of our nation.” A newspaper reported Dr. John A. McFall’s words at an annual program on race relations at a Charleston church in 1936. The details of how Dr. McFall and many thousands experienced the transition to Jim Crow in Charleston is vividly told in the book Resisting Jim Crow: The Autobiography of Dr. John A. McFall. Found in the Fisk University Library—the manuscript was not originally intended for publication. Dr. McFall’s grandniece, Lahnice Hollister, edited and published it in 2021 because “few African-American voices tell our lived history.”

Dr. McFall’s life spanned the years between the end of Reconstruction in 1878 and the Brown v Board of Education decision in 1954. McFall’s emancipated parents had hoped for both freedom and equality for themselves and their children. Instead, generations faced white supremacy and legalized segregation.

Dr. McFall’s autobiography is like a magnifying glass. Labor issues, voter suppression, unequal health care and education, daily humiliations .… McFall witnessed these injustices and wrote the details in this manuscript.

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Praise for Resisting Jim Crow

“This book is something of a minor miracle, in turning back the clock and giving back a voice to those once silenced. John McFall’s story, written over 75 years ago, is not just personal tale, but a testimony to a time, a place, and a people as Charleston, SC regressed from Reconstruction to Jim Crow. Not just a witness but a participant, McFall vividly recorded the sights and smells of the city, its neighborhoods and customs, while never failing to keenly analyze the parts both individual Whites and Blacks played in Charleston’s growing segregation crisis. Unlikely heroes and those not so heroic appear in the book’s pages. He names names, and the author’s clear sighted assessment will, no doubt, trigger the rewriting and revisioning of this era. It offers a rare glimpse and time-capsule view of what went on when racism was allowed to run rampant, told from the perspective of a man who refused to be victimized by it. Even in its matter-of-fact tone, the narrative is gripping and engrossing and a necessary corrective to our understanding of what happened.”

— Harlan Greene, author and historian
“Born in 1878, deceased in 1954, Dr. John McFall has written a first-hand account of life in Charleston South Carolina during those tumultuous 76 years. This primary document of real personal experience gives weight to the scholarship of these important years of US History. With elegance and power, McFall covers sweeping themes: political, religious, economic, medical, and social changes, some of which are surprising (the integrated Pilot’s Association, p. 17). He brings to our attention his real-life experiences, how in one church he heard Frederick Douglass speak, and in another he heard Flora Batson (known as the Black Jenny Lind) sing. In education, McFall belongs in a long line of African American advocates for education, and the story is heart-wrenching. He personally had to watch the transition from people who cared about the education of all the children, white and Black youngsters, to the ascendancy of those who cared only for white supremacy. He knows that knowledge is for the generations. He speaks of human mystery: “We know that it begins in heredity and terminates in posterity….” Straight-forward, honest, and personable, this man is someone you wish you could know, and with this autobiography, you do get to know him and experience his insights into South Carolina’s and specifically Charleston’s history. This is a work of remarkable achievement.”

— Orville Vernon Burton, is the prizewinning author of several books and most recently of Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court; the Judge Matthew J. Perry, Jr. Distinguished Professor of History, Clemson University and Emeritus University Scholar and Professor of History, University of Illinois.
“Dr. McFall’s autobiography provides a much-needed perspective on a period of Charleston’s history that was much darker, more complicated, and more nuanced than portrayed in mainstream histories. His narrative reveals the struggles, and triumphs, of people briefly granted freedoms long overdue, only to have them taken away. The detailed stories illustrate the tremendous effort required of community leaders to lobby for fair and equitable treatment in hospitals, schools, and public places. For my own work, descriptions from his childhood of the markets, the keeping of livestock and gardens, the growth of neighborhoods, the damage and reconstruction from storms, provide a great window into everyday life.”

—Martha Zierden, The Charleston Museum
“Dr. McFall’s autobiography…is simply riveting! I am most impressed by the level of detail he provided about places and people in Charleston during the post-Reconstruction era. As I read through his descriptions. I felt like Black Charleston from that era was coming alive! I think it should be required reading for every student and scholar of Black history in Charleston….”

—Felice F. Knight, PhD., Director of Education, International African American Museum
“As with most Blacks, including myself, who witnessed life in the deep South during the Jim Crow era, Dr. McFall’s autobiography tells the complex and conflicting story of how Blacks, especially professional Blacks, had to tip-toe between the fine lines of the Black Codes initiated after Reconstruction. Resisting Jim Crow… is a riveting tale of that life during those challenging times.”

— Walter O. Evans, M.D., philanthropist and collector of African American art and literature.

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Resisting Jim crow:

Historic manuscript introduces an eye-witness to Charleston’s injustice

Praise for Resisting Jim Crow

Historic manuscript introduces
an eye-witness to Charleston’s injustice