On Juneteenth

by Annette Gordon-Reed

The Winters and White stories had something in common, besides the cliché of hysteria surrounding the taboo of Black men and White women. In both situations, Blacks offered an alternative version of what had happened. They insisted that the teenaged girl had been caught in the woods with Winters, having gone there voluntarily. Embarrassment about being found with a Black man led to the charge of rape. As for the White case, my stepgrandfather, who knew Bob White and the Cochrans, insisted that Bob White and Ruby Cochran had been “going together.” White, apparently, talked freely about it. When her husband discovered the liaison, things proceeded from there. After White’s murder, and no doubt knowing about Winters, one of my great-great-aunts, who had helped raise my mother, vowed to never spend the night in Conroe again.