{"id":38389,"date":"2015-10-01T13:20:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-01T17:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=38389"},"modified":"2022-09-27T11:15:20","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T15:15:20","slug":"wright-state-lake-dayton-campus-student-trying-to-save-historic-darke-co-town","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2015\/10\/01\/wright-state-lake-dayton-campus-student-trying-to-save-historic-darke-co-town\/","title":{"rendered":"Wright State Lake, Dayton Campus student trying to save historic Darke Co. town"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Connor<\/a>

Connor Kaiser, at left, is a junior at Wright State University majoring in International Studies.<\/p><\/div>\n

Excerpt<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Amid the corn and soybean fields of western Ohio 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 Jim Crow have never walked here.<\/p>\n

Founded by James Clemens, a freed slave from Virginia who became a prosperous farmer, Longtown was a community far ahead of its time, a bold experiment in integration.<\/p>\n

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

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

\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<\/p>\n

A junior majoring in international studies at nearby Wright State University, Keiser seems an unlikely savior for this blink of a town. Unfailingly polite, possessing a bright white smile, Keiser looks as Caucasian as the rest of Darke County, which was 97.7\u00a0percent white at the last census.<\/p>\n

Read the entire story in the Washington Post.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A junior majoring in international studies at nearby Wright State University, Keiser seems an unlikely savior for this blink of a town. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":38392,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[731,747,715,4855,730],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lake-campus","category-liberal-arts","category-news","category-social-sciences-and-international-studies","category-wright-state-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38389"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38394,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38389\/revisions\/38394"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}