THE PLATT FAMILY
Allen Platt was like many bigoted Southern white men in 1954. He would say 'My dad always said Blacks had their place,'' This belief was challenged in October 1954. The Lake County Florida Sheriff Willis McCall paid Platt a visit in his Mount Dora home. There had been complaints about his children. There were many people who believed the family was Black because of their dark skin color and curly hair. McCall was pretty sure that they had ''nigra'' blood, as he called it. The sheriff told him "You don't belong here. You are trying to mix with white people." Platt told him 'I'm as White as you are and come from better stock." Under the law at that time you were accepted into White society if you only had one-sixteenth black blood. If you had one-eighth you were considered Black. Platt was told to keep his kids out of school until the race issue was settled. He was a fruit picker in Florida and the father of nine children. Over the next eleven months, the sheriff, the governor, the FBI and attorney's for the school board conducted investigations to determine the ethnicity of the Platt family. Platt claimed to be Irish and Cherokee, which contributed to his family's darker features.
During this harrowing time his house was visited by Klan night riders who threatened him and tried to burn down his house. Because of this threat the landlord evicted the Platt family. This case changed the racial attitudes.of many people. Platt once vowed that he would not send his children to school at all if he had to send them to a ''Negro school''. After being evicted he moved his family to Orange County and tried to enroll them in a White school. The children were denied enrollment until the question of race was settled in Lake County. Eventually his children would be tutored at home. The Platts had moved to Florida from South Carolina. In South Carolina they married White people, went to White churches, and attended schools comprised of Whites and Indians. The community was Indian but the state classified them as White. Florida was a horse of a different color, no pun intended. Platt would eventually win his case and his family was officially classified as white. After this incident Platt became much more sympathetic to the plight of black people in America.
During this harrowing time his house was visited by Klan night riders who threatened him and tried to burn down his house. Because of this threat the landlord evicted the Platt family. This case changed the racial attitudes.of many people. Platt once vowed that he would not send his children to school at all if he had to send them to a ''Negro school''. After being evicted he moved his family to Orange County and tried to enroll them in a White school. The children were denied enrollment until the question of race was settled in Lake County. Eventually his children would be tutored at home. The Platts had moved to Florida from South Carolina. In South Carolina they married White people, went to White churches, and attended schools comprised of Whites and Indians. The community was Indian but the state classified them as White. Florida was a horse of a different color, no pun intended. Platt would eventually win his case and his family was officially classified as white. After this incident Platt became much more sympathetic to the plight of black people in America.
Uh....as a multi-racial person whose DNA includes Anyi Ya Wiya (Cherokee), Celtic (Scottish) AND African (ADOS Of unknown origin as well as ADOS from Kru tribe of what is now called Liberia)...the Platts' complexions, noses AND hair textures, by the way, ain't just Cherokee and Irish. Also note that much of the Cherokee tribe had mixed with African-American by 1955, so......
ReplyDeleteI find the case of the Platt family so intriguing.As an African American,the Platts clearly looked as if they had a mixture of Native American,White and Black Ancestry.But I would have to surmise that the state of Louisiana where my maternal grandparents were from was even stricter when it came racial classifications.My maternal grandfather's family all looked ridiculously White.But because of the "One Drop" law they were all legally Black.I often wondered how his family might have fared if they had migrated to Florida during that time frame of the Platt's.There is no way that sheriff McCall could tell if they had any Black Ancestry.I don't think Florida officials at that time would have asked for their birth certificates.
DeleteViewing the picture and counting children from our left to right, child 1,2, and 5 are clearly exhibiting African features. He was trying to pass and got caught. I come from a family where both grandparents are half white and their are people in my family, who are black, that appear much more racial ambiguous than them.
ReplyDeleteThis man was clearly passing as white. We know our own.
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