Frazier B. Baker was appointed postmaster of Lake City on July 30, 1897. His starting salary was $238.71 a year. He arrived in September to establish his home, ready to get started in his newly appointed position. Frazier’s half-brother, Fairchild Baker, was very protective and interested in Frazier’s welfare. Fairchild had assisted him with his mail duties during Frazier’s short stint as postmaster of Effingham, from March 15, 1892, through September 2, 1893. It was only natural that he continue to do so in Frazier’s new appointment.
News of the appointment spread quickly, setting off a flurry of activity. Many whites in the community, having been informed who their new postmaster was, were outraged by what they saw as infringement on their town. They continually demonstrated their unwillingness to accept Frazier, refusing to rent space to him within the town’s business limits. Lake City, after all, had to keep up its reputation as a white man’s town, and having a colored man serve in such an official capacity was contradictory to their whites-only policy. Placing a “nigger” in an official position over white men of the South was an outrage of the most flagrant type in the fight to cling to old sentiments and traditions. Lake City’s whites would never allow a Negro to control their affairs or to reach a plane of social equality with whites.
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