The Saddest Story Ever Told
[Virginia]: [United Klans of America?], [197-?]. A United Klans of America variant of the Oliver Allstorm (b. Oliver Allstrom) anti-miscegenation poem, “The Saddest Story Ever Told,” about the marriage of a white woman and a black man and the birth of their mixed-race child. The poem begins,
“When a white girl marries a Negro, her sun of life goes down, / And glaring spots of sin appear on her white wedding gown... “We know a carnivorous bug has crept into her brain / And gnawed away her self-respect, which has left her half insane.”
The poem continues in similarly dramatic fashion recounting the protagonist’s regret following the birth of her interracial child (“...now my baby’s mongrel face reminds of my shame”), her parents’ death following her marriage (“...crushed when I became a Negro’s common bride”), and her thoughts of suicide as the only solution to “racial suicide.” A volley of vitriolic verse intended to disgust other racially aware readers troubled by increasing interracial marriages.
Oliver Allstrom was born in Chicago in 1878 of Swedish-American descent. He later moved to Texas and made a living as a traveling salesman and poet. In 1915 he composed the "Houston Municipal Song", the official song of the city of Houston, Texas. In his later years he moved back to Chicago and died there in 1963.
This variant was distributed without Allstorm’s name by a Tidewater, Virginia, chapter of the United Klans of America during the 1970s. An 8 ½” x 11” sheet mimeographed recto only. Some faint toning to stock, else Fine. Item #8675
Price: $150.00