Dorothy Knight Marsh, “From Cotton Fields to Mission Fields: The Story of Anna Knight”

Accomplishing what others could not with so little, this woman of courage and determination, too white to be black and too black to be white, stood up against the moonshiners who threatened her. (Quoted from back side of From Cotton Fields and Mission Fields)

At the young age of sixteen, Anna Knight escaped Jim Crow Mississippi by joining the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Anna, the daughter of former slave George Ann Knight, and reputedly of Civil War guerrilla leader Newt Knight (who was recently portrayed by Matthew McConaughey in the movie, The Free State of Jones) , eventually became part of the legion of educated middle-class women of color who worked tirelessly between 1890 and 1930 to “uplift African Americans by opening the doors to education and health care” (Quoted from Bynum, “Negotiating Boundaries of Race and Gender in Jim Crow Mississippi,” Long Shadow of the Civil War, ch. 6, p. 118).

Yet, Anna Knight had first to “uplift” herself before she could join the ranks of elite African American women. In this newly-released narrative of her life, Anna’s great-niece, Dorothy Knight Marsh, seeks to reveal how this mixed-race child, who grew up amid racial strife and economic hard times in the piney woods of Mississippi, transformed her life into that of a highly-educated Adventist teacher, nurse and missionary who would in turn transform the community in which she was raised.

From Cotton Fields to Mission Fields, by Dorothy Knight Marsh, 2016

In June, 1988, Dorothy and a cousin retrieved the voluminous collection of papers and documents left by Anna Knight when she died in 1972 at age 98.  In the book’s introduction, Dorothy describes how she waded through the fascinating materials, discovering in the process Anna’s original handwritten version of her 1952 autobiography, Mississippi Girl (now out of print). Very soon, Dorothy explains, she decided to rewrite Mississippi Girl  by paraphrasing Anna’s original autobiography and incorporating new information found in her personal papers. She also added an additional chapter that describes Anna’s final years of life (Marsh, Intro, p. v-vii).

Dorothy Knight Marsh was born in Soso, Mississippi, and was raised and educated outside of Mississippi. After a career as a business woman, she and her husband retired from the active life in Washington, D.C., and returned to her birthplace. She is involved in serving the history of Anna Knight and Knight Family Legacy, speaking at churches, organizations, and universities. Marsh is the mother of three daughters, one surviving daughter, and a grandson.

I can’t wait to read the entire book, and I encourage you to do so, too! From Cotton Fields to Mission Fields may be purchased on Amazon by clicking here.

THE LONG SHADOW OF THE CIVIL WAR reviewed online in THE CIVIL WAR MONITOR

The following is the latest online review of my recent book, The Long Shadow of the Civil War: Southern Dissent and Its Legacies. I especially appreciate the careful and thorough analysis provided by Laura Hepp Bradshaw, a PhD candidate at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

http://www.civilwarmonitor.com/book-shelf/bynum-the-long-shadow-of-the-civil-war-2010

Vikki Bynum

“Who are These Women?” Revisited

Another Knight descendent has weighed in on the identities of the two women portrayed in my earlier post,   “Who are These Women.” Dorothy Knight Marsh identifies the woman on the left in that photo as Anna Knight, born 1874, the daughter of George Ann and, possibly, Newt Knight. Dorothy, then, agrees with Yvonne Bivins, who speculates further that the lighter-skinned woman on the right is Candace Smith Knight, also born 1874, the daughter of Lucy Ainsworth Smith and the wife of Anna’s brother, John Howard Knight. It does make sense that sisters-in-law who were the same age would pose together for a photograph. Let’s look at that photo again:

Is this Anna Knight and Candace Smith Knight, sisters-in-law?

Now let’s look at the picture below of Yvonne’s  mother, Mary Ann Dodds. Mary Ann was Candace’s niece. Both women were descended from Lucy Ainsworth Smith, and all three, Yvonne tells me, were tiny women, under 100 lbs, who were known to greatly resemble one another. Readers can judge for themselves Mary Ann’s resemblence to the woman on the right, above:

Mary Ann Dodds, niece of Candace Smith Knight

Below is an actual photo (unfortunately very faded) of Candace with her husband, John Howard Knight, and their family.

John Howard Knight family. Candace Knight is on the right, in back row. Collection of Yvonne Bivins.

 

So, what do you think? Look forward to more observations and perhaps even confirmations!

Vikki Bynum

The Multiracial Knight Women During the 20th Century

By Vikki Bynum

Newt Knight’s political career was short-circuited by his open embrace of his mixed-race descendants. The essay, “Negotiating Boundaries of Race and Gender in Jim Crow Mississippi,” which appears as chapter six in The Long Shadow of the Civil War, explores the legacy of that decision.

Lessie and Grace Knight, sisters, circa 1930s

This essay extends the Knight saga well into the twentieth century by focusing on several Knight women, but especially the sisters, Anna, Gracie, and Lessie, who personified the struggles and triumphs of being female as well as multiracial in the segregated South. The centerpiece of the essay is Anna Knight, who carved out a remarkable international career as a teacher and a Seventh-Day Adventist missionary who spent many years in India.

Anna’s steely determination shaped the course of many of her kinfolks’ lives as well as her own. In 1898, she established an Adventist-sponsored school and two Sunday schools in the Knight community. Under her tutelage, many of her relatives gained educations and converted to Seventh-Day Adventism. 

Anna Knight of Oakwood College

While education and religious faith were important tools for combating racial prejudice and segregation, other Knights, including Anna’s sister, Lessie, opted instead to identify with their European or Native-American heritage, and to ignore or deny African ancestry. Under segregationist terms, they were “passing,” but under their own terms, they were choosing the ancestry that fit their self-image and afforded them the same opportunities for self-fulfillment that “white” Americans enjoyed.

NOTE: For my legal analysis of the “one drop rule” of race, click here.