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“All y'all Lees and Ludlows come get some cake, and somebody run some cake to Papa and Grandma Ludlow too, because we have a 150-year thing that isn't a birthday over here because even Pop-Pop is not that old, but we have a lot of cakes because all Stepforth and Stepforth-adjacent people can get some, but what nobody can have is the land.”
Eight-year-old Gracie Trent made this announcement and needed to give no further explanation for every Ludlow under 12 to go running after her.
“All they heard was cake,” Mrs. Maggie Lee said to her chuckling husband Col. H.F. Lee.
The two Lees were guardians for a few more days to the seven Ludlow grandchildren, and followed their charges over to the Trent home where the Stepforth grandparents were holding down the fort until Sgt. Vincent and Mrs. Melissa Trent got back.
“So much cake, and I need a piece of all of them!” nine-year-old George Ludlow said.
“Right after I get mine!” five-year-old Lil' Robert Ludlow said.
“There's plenty of cake,” Col. Lee said, “and if each of you chooses a different slice, you can try each other's and trade if you want, but none of you are getting more than one piece of cake.”
“Aw, man!” the two little boys said.
“Well, at last we don't have to fight now!” George said.
“Yeah, that's good,” Lil' Robert said, “because, see, you don't do too well with all that.”
“Now, wait a minute!”
“Settle down,” Col. Lee said.
“Yes, sir,” they said, picking up the no-nonsense tone in his voice.
Meanwhile, ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow had his notebook out just like 16-year-old Tom Stepforth III did as his grandfather and namesake explained it all.
“150 years ago, Elijah Russell fell on hard times getting harder but had some very valuable land in Texas, and was shrewd enough to get a lease instead of selling it – the locals from the other side of the color line certainly didn't feel they should have to pay him the full price, but they were a bit progressive and really didn't want to run him off or kill him because the Russells kept that land up well. So, seeing that Elijah had mostly daughters, they figured in the second or third generation all those different men marrying in would start fighting among themselves, lose the lease or fail to pay the taxes, and then they would have it while having the Russells keep it up all the while.
“But Old Elijah and his sons and daughters were shrewd – they knew a copy was at City Hall, but they also somehow got three copies for themselves, with original signatures – you can do a lot with good moonshine. That wouldn't hold up in court, but then the Russells knew they would be lynched if they even tried to go that way anyhow … so they just passed on the leases through the family, while the generations that had the use of the land just kept waiting … the Russells and their adjacent families stayed poor as Black people tended to do all the way through the Jim Crow period, and the value of that land kept going up … so any number of lawyers would be available to get that land from them by the end and they would be helpless.
“Civil rights at last hit in 1964, but poverty didn't just evaporate for most of the Russells – however, Elise Russell married Theodore Stepforth in 1940, and it just so happened that their baby boy Tom bron in 1954 became a billionaire, hired the best lawyers in the country, had them roll up with all the copies of the lease, and got the Russell land back at the end of the contract – TODAY!”
“I see why you needed to make all that money now, Tom,” Mrs. Velma Stepforth said. “That was important.”
“Well, honestly, I had forgotten about it, but my mother left me a copy of the lease and all that she had written down about it and I got that when Pops died,” he said. “But yes … the Lord allowed Elijah Russell to see that if he just hung on, sooner or later, his family would get to a position to get their land back free and clear.”
“Forget what I said, my little Ludlow cousins,” Col. Lee said. “Y'all can have two pieces of cake – this is big – and yes, I will be rolling cake out to your grandparents, immediately!”
“Get back quick though because you need to meet my other grandma, Gladys Jubilee Trent, who is coming to get her cakes herself,” Gracie said. “Whole other story about how the Russells learned how to shoot real well because everyone didn't want them to get their stuff back.”
“All you needed to tell me was Jubilee, Ms. Gracie Jubilee Trent,” the colonel said. “My family has been friends with your family ever since my big uncle Robert and your Big-Big-Papa Hubert worked together on some things we still can't talk about in Lofton County – I'll be back to meet your grandmother, Gracie.”
“Wait, what?” 21-year-old Melvin Trent said.
“The full story is in one or another of Frederick Jubilee Lofton's archives,” the colonel said, “and Samuel Smith Lee probably has some notes in his archives, too. I expect that Major Jonathan Lofton also has some details of the latter end of that. And of course, all the Lees and Jubilees-of-the-mountain know. But Lofton County is not ready for all that yet – wait until after the election!”
“Aw, man!” 16-year-old Tom Stepforth III and ten-year-old Andrew Ludlow said.
“Y'all love a good story,” the colonel said with a smile, “but you also love your life. That story is a little too hot for Virginia to handle right now, but the day will come.”