“[My arrival in Robbinsville] became a news flash, received about the way a raiding party from outer space would be.
“Most perplexing was the number of people I tried to tell about my walk across America who wouldn’t believe me. Most thought it was a clever city-boy trick to cover up drug dealing…. Now I understood how people felt in Russia. Around every corner and behind every window, I was being watched.
“I should have stopped looking for a job and moved on. But I decided to be stubborn.”
– From “A Walk Across America” by Peter Jenkins (1979)
Jenkins’ resolve soon succumbed to the threat of lynching: “I was guilty for the crime of being a stranger,” he said later. “A couple of law enforcement officers informed me that I needed to get out town by sundown or I would find myself hanging from a pine tree…. I got out of town.” (Jenkins had a better experience — much better — in Murphy, where he enjoyed a months-long stay with a black family who saw his arrival as God’s way of testing their hospitality.)
I’ve always wondered if anybody in Robbinsville had anything to say about the way they were depicted in Peter Jenkins’ book. He really made them look bad (acid-mean, paranoid people). Or more accurately, they made themselves look bad with their inhospitality.
I was curious about that, too. If the folks in Robbinsville wanted to be left alone then they definitely got their wish. Peter’s book has never been out of print, so Robbinsville has had 35 years of advertising as the unfriendliest town in America.
It’s not nearly as bad now, but robbinsville was that bad and worse back then. My grandparents used to visit it when they were kids in the summertime and there was literally a sign going into the county that said ‘don’t let the sun set on your ass, n***er.’ Meaning you could pass through but if you were still there at nightfall, you’d be dead. Horrible how people can be so arrogant.
Although Robbinsville isn’t listed among James Loewen’s possible “sundown towns” in North Carolina,
http://sundown.afro.illinois.edu/sundowntownsshow.php?state=NC
Graham County is — along with this comment:
“Rainbow Family, an organization of hippies and neo- hippies that holds annual camping festivals in different locations, met in Graham County in 1987.
“One of the campers reported that they saw signs reading ‘Nigger don’t let the sun set on you here in Graham County.’ The Rainbow gatherings are interracial, so some campers took the signs down.
“Rainbow Family sued in federal court, arguing that federal marshals were restricting their access to the national park in Graham County. During the hearing, a federal marshal stated, ‘I congratulate you for finally bringing some black people into Graham County. You have a few of them sleeping in your camp, and that’s probably more than ever slept in Graham County before.’ “
I spent many summers in 70s and 80s in Robbinsville as a vacation from my home in Texas. I can attest to much of what is said in Jenkins’ book. Certainly, it was a racist town in those days with very black people ever seen in the area. And certainly it was small enough that everyone knew everyone and “news” (e.g., visitors such as Peter Jenkins) traveled with the speed of light through town. However, I found the people friendly and outgoing, even though I could have been easily cast as a rich, cityboy invading their territory. Overall, I have thousands of fond memories from there.