John L. Hunnicutt and Reconstruction

"I cannot go on, Randy, without telling you a little bit more about John L. Hunnicutt. He was the young man that I told you about that lost his boots to the Union soldiers in Tuscaloosa, and lost his father in the War Between the States. So when the War was over he was about eighteen years of age, and he immediately kept organized the Ku Klux Klan in this county. One night as he was sitting in the church out from Gordo, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and said, I want to see you after church. So when church was over, he went out the back and there stood another young man, and he told him, said, on the Tuesday after that there would be a big election over in Mississippi, in the little voting precinct of Trinity, which was across the ferry, at the old Nashville Ferry, just north of Pickensville. That this little village had about twenty-five hundred black voters in it, and if they all cast their vote for the Radical Party that Mississippi, that Loundes County especially, would be lost forever. John L. Hunnicutt told him not to worry, that he would come over there and fix that election. So for all day Monday he rode around the county on his horse getting up fifteen brave young men to go with him.

And on that Tuesday morning they rode down to the Old Nashville Ferry to cross, but the ferry was on the other side. And they screamed across at the ferryman to bring it across, but it was a black, and he refused to bring it across. So John L. Hunnicutt stepped into the Tombigbee, swam to the other side, took the ferry, and brought it across himself. He took his fifteen men and their horses across, and they rode on up to Trinity. They were getting ready to have the election, and the blacks were as thick as blackbirds. They tied their horses and went into the store, and he explained to the storekeeper what they had come from, where they had come from, and what they intended to do. And the storekeeper told him, said, well, the election is going to be held here in my store. And I just don't believe that you can do a thing like that, with this many men around they'll get suspicious. The election was to be run by all black people.

John L. Hunnicutt went out the back and told all of his riders to go on to Columbus, and leave him there alone. So he stayed, and during the day he wandered around in the old store, and in the back storeroom he found an empty barrel under a counter. He went back and talked to the storekeeper and told him, said, when the election is over tonight, suggest that everybody go home and get their supper, and you lock up the store, and give the key to the blacks, so they cannot say that we are cheating. And then go home and get your supper, and come back when you see them come back, and all of you come in and count the ballots.

It was a cold winter day, and they had a big fire in the stove. The Radicals were voting red tickets, and the Democrats were voting white tickets. So John L. Hunnicutt stayed in that barrel until he heard em getting through with the election, and the storekeeper not only told them to go home for supper, but invited them up to his house, something that had never happened before, for a white man to invite the blacks to his house for supper. But he took em up to his house, and when they were through eating they went back down to the store. He let them hold the key. They went back down there and they unlocked the door and they went in.

But while they were gone, John L. Hunnicutt got out of that barrel. He went up in the front of the store and he opened that box, and he burned up every one of those red ballots, and replaced them with white.

When they started to counting the ballots there were nothing but white ballots in there, and the Democrats were carrying the box. While they were counting them John L. slipped out the back door, got on his horse, and rode on into Columbus. The next day, when the report of how the election went and everything, the returning officer for that precinct was called into town, and he was black. And they asked him, how in the world did a precinct, with twenty-five hundred blacks in it, vote for the Democratic Party. And he said, his explanation was simple: a group of white men came out of Pickens County, Alabama, and hoo-dooed his box."