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30 Facts About Challenger Astronaut, Ronald McNair

Tim Flight December 28, 2019 20 min

Ronald McNair - Dr. Ronald McNair — McNair on board the Challenger, 1984. Berkeley

29. Lake City has a troubled race history

A mob killed Frazer Baker and his infant daughter Julia in Lake City, in 1898. This is his surviving family, pictured in 1899. Wikimedia Commons

Lake City in the 1950s was fairly typical of a pre-Civil Rights Southern rural settlement. The city was home to segregated black and white populations. Think of what Martin Luther King Jr. fought against in the 1960s, and you’ve got a pretty good idea of life in Lake City during Ronald McNair’s childhood. Lake City’s history is peppered with racial injustice. In 1898, for example, a notorious murder took place there. A white mob burned the house of Frazier B. Baker, shooting him and his infant daughter dead when they fled. Baker’s crime? Being Lake City’s first black postmaster.

Written by

Tim Flight

I am a freelance historical and literary writer based in West Yorkshire, UK. I read for a funded PhD in English at the University of Oxford (Magdalen College) and graduated in 2016. I am a former lecturer in Medieval English Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London. My publications include peer-reviewed articles in academic publications, and pieces in mainstream magazines such as History Today and Fortean Times. For more information, please see www.drflight.co.uk

30 Facts About Challenger Astronaut, Ronald McNair

29. Lake City has a troubled race history

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