James and Hattie Bell Brazier had a reputation for a higher standard of living than most blacks and even some whites in the small Georgia town of Dawson. They were African-Americans who owned their home. Between them they worked five jobs. In 1956, they purchased a brand new car. It would cost them dearly.

James Brazier was a thirty year-old World War II veteran with a day job at the local Chevrolet dealership gas station and a night job at the Dawson Cotton Oil company. While the median annual income for nonwhite families in late 1950s Terrell County was $1,300, James earned nearly three times that much—not even including his wife's income from her multiple cleaning jobs. Sometimes the Braziers even picked cotton to add even more to their relatively substantial income. Only 12 percent of the nonwhite families in Terrell County made more than $3,000 a year. The median income for whites in the county at that time, meanwhile, was $4,300.

James and Hattie Bell Brazier had a reputation for a higher standard of living than most blacks and even some whites in the small Georgia town of Dawson. They were African-Americans who owned their home. Between them they worked five jobs. In 1956, they purchased a brand new car. It would cost them dearly.

James Brazier was a thirty year-old World War II veteran with a day job at the local Chevrolet dealership gas station and a night job at the Dawson Cotton Oil company. While the median annual income for nonwhite families in late 1950s Terrell County was $1,300, James earned nearly three times that much—not even including his wife's income from her multiple cleaning jobs. Sometimes the Braziers even picked cotton to add even more to their relatively substantial income. Only 12 percent of the nonwhite families in Terrell County made more than $3,000 a year. The median income for whites in the county at that time, meanwhile, was $4,300.