Ella Pruitt

A City Divided traces the development of white Kansas Citians’ perceptions of race and examines the ways in which those perceptions shaped both the physical landscape of the city and the manner in which Kansas City was policed and governed. Because of rapid changes in land use and difficulties in suppressing crime and vice in Kansas City, the control of urban spaces became an acute concern, particularly for the white middle class, before race became a problematic issue in Kansas City. As the African American population grew in size and assertiveness, whites increasingly identified blacks with those factors that most deprived a given space of its middle-class character. Consequently, African Americans came to represent the antithesis of middle-class values, and the white middle class established its identity by excluding blacks from the urban spaces it occupied. By 1930, racial discrimination rested firmly on gender and family values as well as class. Inequitable law enforcement in the ghetto increased criminal activity, both real and perceived, within the African American community. White Kansas Citians maintained this system of racial exclusion and denigration in part by “misdirection,” either by denying that exclusion existed or by claiming that segregation was necessary to prevent racial violence. Consequently, African American organizations sought to counter misdirection tactics. The most effective of these efforts followed World War II, when local black activists devised demonstration strategies that targeted misdirection specifically. At the same time, a new perception emerged among white liberals about the role of race in shaping society. Whites in the local civil rights movement acted upon the belief that integration would produce a better society by transforming human character. Successful in laying the foundation for desegregating public accommodations in Kansas City, black and white activists nonetheless failed to dismantle the systems of spatial exclusion and inequitable law enforcement or to eradicate the racial ideologies that underlay those systems. These racial perceptions continue to shape race relations in Kansas City and elsewhere. This study demystifies these perceptions by exploring their historical context. While there have been many studies of the emergence of ghettos in northern and border cities, and others of race, gender, segregation, and the origins of white ideologies, A City Divided is the first to address these topics in the context of a dynamic, urban society in the Midwest.

Becoming pregnant at thirteen by a young man who comes to her hometown complicates Ella's life. Her mother passed away in her sleep by 'refusing to wake up', leaving Ella, her sister and her brother with a father who has no idea of what it means to be a father and who spends most of his days talking to his dead wife's ghost.Eventually Ella meets a young man, Damon, who is a mystery to the citizens of New Home, the town in which Ella lives, having seemingly arrived out of nowhere, and they fall in love. Within months of meeting the young man Ella becomes pregnant. She is only thirteen and Damon is eighteen. No one understands why Ella would have given herself to someone at so young an age, but she does. She and Damon are both lonely and in search of something more in life.However, Damon's view of life is much larger than Ella imagined and she finds she must figure out a way of holding onto him. As a result, the seemingly small act she commits to hold onto Damon spins out of control leading to something that haunts Ella for years to come and touches everyone around her.'Ella Pruitt', a story about memory, guilt and reckoning.

A doctor places an advertisement for a woman to talk with, and a topless dancer answers it. They proceed to meet regularly in a hotel, she covered head to toe at his request so her looks will not influence their conversations. The topic: beauty.

Samuel Johnson (1757-1834) was a son of Jeffrey Johnson and Rachel Walker. He moved from Prince William (later Fauquier) County, Virginia to Wilkes County, North Carolina and married Mary Hamon. Descendants and relatives lived in North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Tennessee and elsewhere. Some descendants became Mormons and moved to Utah, Idaho, Arizona, California and elsewhere. Some descendants immigrated to Ontario and Alberta, and their progeny and relatives lived in Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and elsewhere. Includes ancestry of Samuel in North Carolina and Virginia to 1650.

John Callaham was born in Virginia about 1770. On 2 April 1792, a marriage bond was issued in Lunenburg County, Virginia, for the marriage of John Callaham and Nancy Jarrett. He died 24 September 1855 and is buried in the cemetery at Little River Baptist Church, Abbeville County, South Carolina. Zachariah Carwile (1750-1841) was born in Goochland County, Virginia. He married Mary McMahon in 1755. He died at Level Land, South Carolina.