Fennell said, “They’ll come in damned useful on Election Day.”

Walker Taylor said, “Now, you listen to me. We’re not vigilantes. We are defenders of the civil order.”

“Men in this town want to work,” Beery said. “White men. Mike Dowling is their hero.”

“He’s an out-of-work house painter.”

“Nobody’s hiring nigrahs anymore,” Meares said.

Fennell said, “Nobody’s firing ’em fast enough, either. This thing’s going to go off.”

Walker Taylor said, “Don’t spoil the larger plan.”

“Less than a month,” somebody said.

“Can we rely on Kenan, when the time comes?” Beery said.

Walker Taylor gave him a look that made him sorry he’d asked.

“Will Colonel Davis interfere?” someone said. Charles Davis was acting adjutant general of the State Guard—Colonel Taylor’s superior.

Walker Taylor said, “I have assurances that he will authorize a local solution.”

The men nodded.

Walker Taylor said, “George will be around to collect money from each of you for the Businessmen’s Committee. We have certain debts. He estimates we will need to raise about thirty thousand dollars. Encourage your colleagues to be generous.”

They nodded and murmured. Things were getting accomplished. They’d already seen what they were getting for their money.

Beery said, “Solly Fishblate keeps sniffing around.”

“Absolutely not,” Walker Taylor said.

“What do I tell him?”

“Tell him he had his chance. He’s permanently retired from politics.”

“He’ll keep his people from—”

“The people we need are sitting in this room. The people we need are on the Businessmen’s Committee. We’re trying to form a government, not a mob.”

Fennell said, “What’s the difference?”

“The difference is law” Walker Taylor said, his voice too big for the sacristy. “The difference is order. The difference is that we must be able to feel morally proud when it’s over. We must be able to answer with a clear conscience those who will judge our actions a hundred years from now.”

Fennell said, “Like I said, what’s the difference?”

Chapter Nine

The race question, which might be possibly soluble without great trouble were all negroes all negro, becomes a sociological problem of awful possibility when we consider that miscegenation has made and is making inroads into the Caucasian race in this country to an extent little realized by the masses of people.

C H A P T E R   N I N E

Saturday, October 15

THE WORD WAS OUT: no Negroes need apply.

The White Government Union had appointed a Labor Bureau to find jobs for white men only. All employers had to hire through the bureau or face the consequences. Hugh MacRae, the Businessmen’s Committee, and the Wilmington Light Infantry stood behind the bureau with all their guns and law.

On the street corners of Brooklyn, boys passed out handbills. “Mind your jobs, Negro workingmen,” the handbills said in part. “Stay out of politics. Don’t vote, or else.”