{"id":42956,"date":"2015-09-28T17:26:38","date_gmt":"2015-09-28T17:26:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=42956"},"modified":"2015-09-28T17:29:25","modified_gmt":"2015-09-28T17:29:25","slug":"an-ohio-town-where-races-have-mixed-freely-for-more-than-200-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=42956","title":{"rendered":"An Ohio town where races have mixed freely for more than 200 years"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/an-ohio-town-where-the-races-have-mixed-freely-for-more-than-200-years\/2015\/09\/26\/7ab3b250-4cfa-11e5-bfb9-9736d04fc8e4_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">An Ohio town where races have mixed freely for more than 200 years<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\" target=\"_blank\">The Washington Post<\/a><br \/>\n2015-09-26<\/p>\n<p><strong>Kevin Williams<\/strong><\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"552\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/an-ohio-town-where-the-races-have-mixed-freely-for-more-than-200-years\/2015\/09\/26\/7ab3b250-4cfa-11e5-bfb9-9736d04fc8e4_story.html\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/img.washingtonpost.com\/rf\/image_1484w\/2010-2019\/WashingtonPost\/2015\/08\/26\/Others\/Images\/2015-08-26\/20150819_mcgarvey_longtown_03711440564425.jpg?uuid=gjo4gEutEeWAwhBup_uA1A\" alt=\"\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small>Connor Keiser, 22, left, shows his album of historic photos of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_and_Sophia_Clemens_Farmstead\" target=\"_blank\">Longtown<\/a> to James Jett, 90 at <a href=\"http:\/\/bethellongwesleyan.weebly.com\" target=\"_blank\">Bethel Long Wesleyan Church<\/a>. (<a href=\"http:\/\/maddiemcgarvey.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Maddie McGarvey<\/a>\/For <em>The Washington Post<\/em>) <\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Amid the corn and soybean fields of western <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Ohio\" target=\"_blank\">Ohio<\/a> lies a progressive crossroads where black and white isn\u2019t black and white, where the concept of race has been turned upside down, where interracial marriages have been the norm for nearly two centuries. The heavy boots of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=4781\" target=\"_blank\">Jim Crow<\/a> have never walked here.<\/p>\n<p>Founded by James Clemens, a freed slave from <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Virginia\" target=\"_blank\">Virginia<\/a> who became a prosperous farmer, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/James_and_Sophia_Clemens_Farmstead\" target=\"_blank\">Longtown<\/a> was a community far ahead of its time, a bold experiment in integration.<\/p>\n<p>Now that history is in danger of being lost. Longtime Longtown residents are dying, and whites are moving in and buying property. Many historically black-owned buildings have already been torn down or remodeled.<\/p>\n<p>But Clemens\u2019s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson is working to save his family\u2019s heritage. Though his eyes are blue and his skin is pale, Connor Keiser, 22, said that his childhood is filled with memories of \u201ccousins of all colors\u201d playing in the pastures at the family farm.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe were a typical Longtown family. We all looked different, and we were taught that color didn\u2019t matter,\u201d Keiser said. \u201cAs long as I have anything to do with it, Longtown won\u2019t die.\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national\/an-ohio-town-where-the-races-have-mixed-freely-for-more-than-200-years\/2015\/09\/26\/7ab3b250-4cfa-11e5-bfb9-9736d04fc8e4_story.html\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An Ohio town where races have mixed freely for more than 200 years The Washington Post 2015-09-26 Kevin Williams Connor Keiser, 22, left, shows his album of historic photos of Longtown to James Jett, 90 at Bethel Long Wesleyan Church. (Maddie McGarvey\/For The Washington Post) Amid the corn and soybean fields of western Ohio lies [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,459,8,20],"tags":[21226,21227,21225,21228,260,2875,2581],"class_list":["post-42956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-history","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-connor-keiser","tag-james-clemens","tag-kevin-williams","tag-longtown","tag-ohio","tag-the-washington-post","tag-washington-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42959,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42956\/revisions\/42959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}