Californians Keeping Culturally Connected by LeeAnn Nelson

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

A window for viewing art, crafts, and memorabilia within the African American and African Diaspora

Cozetta Gray Guinn

California History Center and Foundation at De Anza College

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

A window for viewing art, crafts, and memorabilia within the African American and African Diaspora

Selections from the Exhibit, February 2002 Curated, written, and compiled by Cozetta Gray Guinn De Anza College Assisted by Dianne Hayes Quarles, Yvonne West, Texanna Tooles Davis, and Jean Libby With support from Omonike Weusi-Puryear, Dr. Marion Winters, The Black History Month Planning Committee, De Anza Student Body, The California History Center Foundation, and Greg and Cheryl Davis, Davis Broadcasting, Inc., Columbus, Georgia

Copyright © 2012 Cozetta Gray Guinn, principal essayist and editor. Jean Libby, principal photographer. All rights reserved. Published in conjunction with the exhibit of the same title, Californians Keeping Culturally Connected: A Window for Viewing Art, Crafts, and Memorabilia within the African American and African Diaspora, February 2002.

Credits and acknowledgments for materials borrowed from other sources reproduced and used in this catalogue with permission appear on pages adjacent to items.

Published by The California History Center and Foundation De Anza College 21250 Stevens Creek Boulevard Cupertino, California 95014 No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage without written permission from the copyright holders.

Cover: Mother’s Love Oil painting by Cozetta Gray Guinn, 1979. Title page: Yoruba Woman and Child Oil painting by Cozetta Gray Guinn, 1973. About the owners of Mother’s Love: Arnold and Anita Webb were the owners of Webb Tile Company, Inc. of San Mateo for twenty-seven years. They successfully completed tile projects such as Bechtel Corporation’s twenty-five story office building in San Francisco, Pier One of San Francisco, California State University, Monterey Bay, Serramonte Center Fountain in Daly City, Kaiser Hospital, and medical office building in Richmond, and a San Mateo parking structure. They are volunteer members of the Home Association of North Central San Mateo and are life members of the NAACP San Mateo Branch.

Contents

Dedication. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii Acknowledgments. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

section 1

S lavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

section 2

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

section 3

World War I–1950 and Beyond . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

section 4

emories of Faculty, Staff, Students M and the Community, 1950–2000. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected Panel. . . . . 118 Exhibit Contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Lenders. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Donors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125 A Timeline of Black America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126 Suggested Readings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Epilogue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

In Memory of…

George L. Dabney, Sr., 1925–1999 History Instructor Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, De Anza College As a longtime champion of student excellence, George L. Dabney, Sr., throughout his career, set the same standard for himself. A native of St. Louis, Missouri, he became a pioneer in desegregating educational institutions. He was the first African American to graduate from St. Louis University where he earned a master’s degree. He would become the first African American to be hired to teach in the San Mateo County schools. Later he was the first African American to join the De Anza College faculty, where he taught history. Professor George Dabney retired from De Anza in 1990. By then he had served as instructor in American history and as dean of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences. In addition, he and his wife, Lorraine W. Dabney, were early supporters of the California History Center. One writer said of Professor Dabney that “he was an individual who demanded excellence from students, because he wanted success for each of them.” In the fall of 2002 a former De Anza athlete, in response to the question “what was a memorable De Anza experience?” made the following statement, “The most positive experience for me was being in Mr. Dabney’s class.”

Dedication

vii

viii

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Acknowledgments From beginning to end, I received assistance from numerous people in the preparation of the exhibit and catalogue, Californians Keeping Culturally Connected: A Window for Viewing Art, Crafts, and Memorabilia within the African American and African Diaspora. The California History Center and members of the De Anza College community, individuals from surrounding communities, family members, and friends have all played indispensable roles. The major contributors and lenders are cited in the lenders and donors sections. However, there is still a list of a few individuals whose names I wish particularly to mention. Thanks go to Omonike Weusi-Puryear and Dr. Marion Winters for their support in shaping the idea. Thanks go to the lenders â&#x20AC;&#x201D; without their sharing, this exhibit would not have been. Thanks go also to designer and community activist Dianne Hayes Quarles, De Anza African American Studies student Yvonne West, and De Anza staff member Texanna Davis, all of whom spent hours assisting with hands-on hanging of items. Thanks are due CHC board member Jean Libby for providing a photographic record to preserve the memory and to Carolyn E. Taylor for a great deal of computer assistance. I especially want to thank Greg and Cheryl Davis of Davis Broadcasting, Columbus, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina, for believing enough in the idea to be the initial donors for the catalogue publication. My sincere gratitude goes to California History Center Foundation director Tom Izu, and the California History Center Foundation Board of Trustees for supporting this project. Thanks to Joni Motoshige of the CHC staff, for her assistance in preparing images for gallery display, to CHC staffer Kathleen Russ and to Quan Nguyen for technical assistance. Thanks to Lisa Christiansen of the CHC for immeasurable computer assistance and editing, and to LeeAnn Nelson for design of the catalogue. Lastly, I give thanks to my husband, Isaac Guinn, for his tremendous support from day to day making it possible for me to spend the necessary time to work on this catalogue. The project was truly the result of the efforts of an entire community.

Thank you all for your support,. Cozetta Gray Guinn

Acknowledgements

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Preface The quest for knowing the origin of something or getting to the base of a story, event, or the general background of a particular individual, in my case, probably stems from nothing more than general curiosity. However, it may have been nurtured by sibling rivalry. Growing up, there was a lot of competition among us children. Periodically, contests centered around athletic skills, poetry recitations, farm chores, and simply coming up with answers to questions on miscellaneous topics. My athletic ability was more challenged than my siblings’ and for some reason I lacked talent in doing some farm chores as well. However, I never wanted my brother to know more about a given topic than I did. As a result, I searched intensely to come up with information that he didn’t have, perhaps so that I could have the final word on something, or at least to keep him from having “one-upsmanship” on me in everything. I wanted to be able to claim a certain identity with most subjects in question, first hand. As curator of the exhibit and writer of the catalogue, “Californians Keeping Culturally Connected,” perhaps the most exciting thing to occur in the overall development of the project is that it has allowed the lenders to speak of their own heritage and declare, or claim, a certain identity. In doing so, each individual passes on a fragment of history, thus preserving a piece of the past. As sources of family histories decrease with each passing year, it becomes crucial to rescue whatever can be found. For that reason, those who contributed to the exhibit and all who have an interest in collecting should use this medium to share a piece of their own history. Getting information about the cherished items from the lenders, spending time locating additional data, cross-referencing and verifying information can be exhilarating. Finding sources of information for a given item can be almost as pleasurable as owning it because the experience allows one to make sense of the “who, what, when, where, and why” of things. As stories unfold about certain subjects, documents, tools or objets d’art, they spur us to dig deeper into the background of the environment from whence each sprang. It is at this point that the mindset of the history detective emerges, looks for and finds clues that lead to particular conclusions. The research should also bring forth the identity of the messenger and the motivation for the message. By placing a document, an object, or story in a given place and time, diverse scenarios are created, seen and told from different points of view. I have created an introductory narrative for each section of the exhibit that places the pieces chronologically in their appropriate settings and explains the general relevance of the items in the exhibit to their eras. Then, after analyzing the records associated with the peculiar circumstances surrounding the memorabilia, I draw my own conclusions. The situations were seen from my own viewpoint, and have been told in that manner. Therefore, in regard to historical information included as background in this document, I take responsibility for the selection and interpretation of the data. However, for young people who, for whatever reason, may not be familiar with events of this period of two hundred years as told by African Americans, it is important to get a sense of history from the black perspective alongside of traditional white writers of American history. For this reason, a chronology and a list of suggested readings are included.

Preface

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

A window for viewing art, crafts, and memorabilia within the African American and African Diaspora

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Introduction There are images of memories and experiences which, from time to time, like stars, dart across the silver screen of the mind. Once in a while you’ll reach out and touch the fine-tuning. Then behold, these images are brought into focus. They are truths which cannot be denied and should not go undeveloped. They are art forms, silently waiting to be brought into existence, not to bring happiness nor sadness to anyone, but simply to record. The possessor of these images is the only one who can, at that time and place, impart that which he or she perceives. Therefore, should the urge to record loom strongly, it becomes incumbent upon that individual to produce and, we hope, to share. —Cozetta Gray Guinn, ca. 1978 This catalogue grew out of a February 2002 exhibit, Californians Keeping Culturally Connected: A Window for Viewing Art, Crafts, and Memorabilia Within the African American and African Diaspora. It was a display that featured images, artifacts, and narratives collected from individuals in and around the De Anza College community in Cupertino, California. The dream to design and construct such an exhibit in which many individuals would participate was part of a wish list that had been in the back of my mind for a few years. Sharing this with instructor Omonike Weusi-Puryear from the De Anza College Intercultural/International Studies Division and Dr. Marion Winters of the Office of Diversity proved very beneficial. They, too, wanted to bring to the community a more visible awareness of African American heritage on the De Anza campus. The three of us met in June of 2001 to discuss the idea. Shortly afterward, California History Center director Tom Izu approached me with the idea of using individual narratives in an exhibit. The two ideas appeared compatible. They were combined and the exhibit was set in motion. It was important that the exhibit would be made up of items provided by individuals from the college and local communities. By so doing, the project would not be the curator’s, but a collective one that focused on something historic and meaningful to those who participated. With this in mind, the following appeal was sent:

If you are a first, second, or even third generation Californian and were asked to look around your

home today and share one thing that you find there that is meaningful to you, possibly something that you or someone important to you brought here from another place, chances are you could do so. Perhaps these are images, memories, or experiences, which, from time to time, like stars, move in and out of your consciousness. They may be in a form that one can actually reach out and touch. Then again, they may be part of a memory or a story told to you, invisible to others, and take form only when spoken, written, or performed. Nevertheless, each plays a role in the greater picture of self-identity, defining the individual in a special way. Should this matter interest you, please share your collection with the California History Center for an exhibit in February 2002.

Introduction

That invitation ignited the spark for an African American History Month celebration using art, crafts, historical documents, and other items. The call to participate paid off. Members of the De Anza College community and other local communities responded magnificently. Forty individuals loaned various memorabilia. They described the items, shared historical information regarding them, and told why the items were kept. As case notes were composed, a pattern emerged. Each item occupied a specific time frame and could be categorized in terms of how it was used and by whom. Soon, it was evident that within the collection there were bits of information and memorabilia historically linked, revealing that Californians were literally “holding on to” cultural history. Participants shared things that spoke to their identities, including such items as pottery, baskets, quilts, smoothing irons, tools, photographs, musical instruments, sheet music, books, legal documents, posters, and other cultural and utilitarian objects. Lenders included administrators, faculty, staff, students of De Anza College, and individuals from surrounding communities. Multiple diverse experiences were revealed, some shared by many, others entirely personal. One commonality was that each item within the exhibit showed how tradition, customs and values were passed along to educate, inform and keep individuals connected to their pasts. Among the items collected were authentic bills of sale for slaves from St. Louis to New Orleans by way of the Mississippi River during the years between 1833 and 1843. There was a reward poster from 1852 for a runaway slave. Other significant documents included a collection of photographs and a recently written history of a black pioneer family who came west from St. Louis to San Francisco via the Oregon Trail in the mid 1850s. The adverse social/political climate in the Bay Area at that time would cause the group to move from San Francisco to Vancouver, British Columbia within a few years. Also included in the exhibit was a page from a replica of the newspaper The Black Chronicle of July 25, 1862, which described an event wherein a young slave, Robert Smalls, stole a Confederate gunboat and turned it over to the Union Navy. Letters from prominent African Americans such as W. C. Handy, Mary McLeod Bethune, and John Hope Franklin were submitted. Also, there were photographs of Tuskegee Airmen and black astronauts. Life at home, with ordinary artifacts such as laundry and hairdressing implements, was also represented in the exhibit. Although some aspects of this history are atrocious, there are other parts that are strong and positive sources of pride. Whether positive or negative, each entry is invaluable, strong enough to stand on its own merit, fulfilling the mission of sharing something important one has held on to that pertained to African American history and culture. In 1963, Langston Hughes and Milton Meltzer noted through pictures and narratives in their Pictorial History of the Negro in America:

Most history books used in schools slighted the Negro as a factor. When there were stories written

about the Negro on the front pages of newspapers there was little or no background to which to relate the news…there had been no attempt to tell the Negro’s relationship to America in this way.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

This exhibit was intended to expand the Hughes-Meltzer concept of the African American experience in the United States by chronologically arranging documents, photographs, and three-dimensional objects. In so doing, the data emerged as several scenarios of a complex story within a given time frame. The items that were brought in spanned a time period from the early 1800s to 2001, which dictated the structure of the exhibit. With one hundred seventeen entries varying in size and needing to fit inside one room, the task was to categorize and place each in the proper period in a span covering nearly two hundred years. The space was divided into sections with each section representing an era or time period in American history. Most two-dimensional items were hung. Others which necessitated a close-up view in order to be read, and threedimensional objects, were placed in cases next to or near the wall representing that specific era. Case notes for each item were added. It was particularly gratifying that the contributors were an important aspect of the legacy inherent in the exhibit. In addition to telling individual stories that would merge into a single story, each lender, in his or her own way, has been a significant participant in the greater history of the place called Silicon Valley. By and large, throughout the catalogue, the lenders’ stories are word-forword as they were presented to me. Conceivably, by sharing their input in such a manner, this catalogue could become the catalyst for someone else, fifty years from today, learning of the existence of those who came before from a near first-hand perspective. Although all lenders were not African American, it was evident that all had made a valuable contribution to the overall success of the exhibit and to the community in which they, and we, live and work. History includes the existence and activities of all who live in a given time and place. It is imperative that we take the initiative to research and write about our lives so that a robust record is available for future generations. The exhibit, linking the experience of individual African Americans and the African American Diaspora with American history through retained images and artifacts, became the impetus for weekly student and community tours, and a panel discussion and teacher workshop, which drew hundreds of visitors. A writer once said, “history is that event at a given time and place that someone thought worthy of reporting.” University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff, professor Dr. Viola Ellison, during the 1980s and 1990s, repeatedly admonished her students to “Document everything” … saying “Remember, if you don’t write it down, it didn’t happen.” Author Nick Salvatore in We all got history, 1996, used the following quote: We all got history. Some of us just don’t know it. But it’s there. Just got to look for it… —Ellen L. Hazard If one is guided by the above counsel, this catalogue is an important document. It magnifies the legacy of individuals who unselfishly, in 2002, shared their treasured memorabilia, those things that they have held on to in California that keep them connected to other times and places.

Introduction

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years 1800â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1865

Wall I, Cases I and II

1800 to 1865 Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years In early nineteenth century America, slavery of Africans and their descendants was over three centuries old. The institution of slavery has existed in some form from earliest times all over the globe and exists to this day in various forms. Recently, it has been the subject of numerous scholarly studies of social issues. Although the focus of this chapter deals specifically with memorabilia associated with African Americans dating from 1800 to 1865, a summary of earlier events, which led Africans to the Americas by way of the Atlantic Slave Trade, is important. During the latter part of the fifteenth century, the glorious stature of the West African kingdoms of Ghana, Mali, and Songhai was fading. The regionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s social, political and economic infrastructures had been reduced and so had its once-flourishing trade with Europe and Asia in gold, ivory, salt, and other goods. For a thousand years, from Cairo, across the Sahara, to Ghana and north to the Mediterranean, caravans had transported many trade items including slaves. Since the fourth century, old Ghana, which would later be replaced by Mali and then Songhai, had been a center of trade, a powerful and wealthy empire doing business with Europeans, Asians, and the Middle East. Its power lasted from the fourth century to the eleventh century. By the seventh century, Mohammedans had swept across North Africa and into Europe. Some of them made their way to the Maghreb and later invaded Ghana. The invasion of Ghana in the eleventh century by the Almoravids, and the civil wars of Europe, followed by Western Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perceived need for exploration, control, and trade, would usher in a uniquely exploitative commercial endeavor in West Africa. Following the fifteenth century voyages of Christopher Columbus and others, a different type of European and African trade system began. It would become known as the Atlantic Slave Trade. In the early sixteenth century, an Atlantic trade route was established moving tradable commodities from Europe to Africa, to the Caribbean Islands, to the continental Americas and back to Europe. The route became known as the Middle Passage. It began as an economic venture embarked upon after the Crusades by the Portuguese and Spaniards whose ships traveled the eastern Atlantic shores and traded along the coast of West Africa. Africans had been transported to the Iberian Peninsula, some becoming servants in Western Europe. In the time of Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460) Portugal and Portugalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rival Spain launched business enterprises in which men became commodities in an international trade exchange. There is general acknowledgment that slavery existed in Europe, Asia, and Africa long before the sixteenth century, but it is the slave system from this age that gave birth to a different kind of international trading based on race. There are historians who argue that it was a belief in the necessity of Christian conversion and the racial supposition that it was the natural order of the universe that people of light skin should rule darker-skinned people that were put into practice, leading to the importation of millions of Africans to

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

the Americas solely for economic profit. White Europeans and their descendants forced Africans and their descendants to work for over three hundred years, providing free labor for owners. Some landowners were able to accumulate vast amounts of wealth. Most slaves arrived from various parts of the west coast of Africa, bringing with them a myriad of traditions and skills, along with accounts of their experiences in Africa and on the journey. The journey known as the Middle Passage was a one-way trip for African people that many did not survive. The ships were generally small vessels with unimaginably cramped space holding human cargo shackled arm-to-arm and forced to lie on hard wooden surfaces for weeks amid human waste. The number of captured people leaving the shores of West Africa on a given ship varied. There were loose packs (with less severe crowding) and tight packs. In both, a high percentage, sometimes up to fifty percent, died. Deaths occurred from disease as well as from suicide. It is also estimated that on such voyages many of the undertrained crewmen died as well. When the Atlantic slave trade began in the early sixteenth century, Portuguese and Spaniards took slaves from West Africa to the Caribbean, South America, Mexico and Florida. By the seventeenth century, the Dutch superceded the Portuguese and Spanish in the battle for control of the Atlantic. The Dutch West India Company, founded in 1621, was granted a monopoly over trade in the Atlantic colonies by the Netherlands’ parliament. It was a Dutch ship that brought indentured Africans to Jamestown in 1619 and to New Amsterdam in 1626. Chattel slavery increased as human cargo found its way to the eastern shores of Florida, Virginia, and to the New England states. As fortunes grew, the scheme to take more slaves widened. In the latter part of the seventeenth century the British wrested control of the slave trade from the Dutch. By now slavery was entrenched along the Atlantic shores of the Americas. There was no turning back. British merchants took manufactured goods from ports such as Bristol and Liverpool, sold or exchanged these goods for slaves in West Africa who were then taken as slaves to British colonies of the Caribbean. From there they were taken to the American colonies along the Atlantic seashore, where they were sold mainly to the planters for molasses, rum and sugar, which the merchants took back to British ports. This was the so-called “triangle trade” because these merchants traded in three places each round-trip. How the slave system began in what is now the United States is an arguable topic. Whether the first slaves were the indentured servants brought to Jamestown in 1619 aboard a Dutch man-of-war, or those who came with the Spaniards who settled in St. Augustine in the 1500s, Africans were brought to America for slavery. Whether they were bought from other Africans, captured, or volunteered to pay off a debt, these African men and women soon learned that their predicament was dire. Africans brought to the New World were a multi-talented set. Some were skilled in sailing. Others were capable farmers of rice and other agricultural products. In addition, weaving, woodcarving, and metalworking were skills with which they arrived. The Europeans who brought them to North America soon became cognizant of their capabilities and spared little time in taking advantage of them, therefore creating an economic system that benefited and created wealth for Europeans and would lay the economic foundation on which America is built.

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

From the settlement of early seventeenth century Dutch colonies in what is now New York, to the takeover by the British slave trade, to the establishment of the New England colonies and independence from Britain, through the Civil War and beyond, slavery has had a profound effect on the life and culture of black people living in America. To recount the events of the lives of African Americans entrenched in bondage for over three hundred years is not pleasant, but it is valuable. The retrospective accounts of family stories, folk tales, and events reported by historians and lay writers, speak of life in the colonies and the Atlantic Coast states. They tell of the expansion of slavery into the southern states as well as US constitutional law legalizing slavery. They also tell of escape from bondage, rebellion, abolitionist movements, the search for identity, and other situations that belong to the heritage of black people in America. Although the exhibit was filled with fragments of all of the aforementioned, we can make crucial connections by identifying and highlighting specific occurrences. Africans in bondage did not spend all of their time passively working for white masters. In one case, a company’s black slaves, under absolute bondage, managed to effect resistance. When the Dutch West India Company, during the first quarter of the seventeenth century, unloaded its cargo containing Africans (referred to as Creole-Africans) there were indentured servants, or slaves, who ran away. Other forms of challenge to slavery occurred as uprisings by Africans against their masters in which crops were destroyed, structures burned, livestock killed, and work stopped or slowed. There were a few Blacks who took action by self-purchase. In the early Dutch settlement there lived freemen of color. Among these were property owners. It is reported that in 1675 there were 75 Blacks of free status out of a total 375 in New Amsterdam. From the time the Dutch West India Company established itself in New York, there were records of marriages and baptisms for African Creole families. A substantial number of baptisms in the churches were of Africans. Upon becoming free, many Africans sought to help other Africans.

As more Africans were brought to the region, slavery became more entrenched, and the more en-

slaved Africans located in a given settlement, the greater the productivity and profit for a company. As a business is concerned with profit there was apparent economic justification for slavery. Early laws strengthening slavery supported this economic system. Massachusetts in 1641 was the first of the colonies to legalize slavery. By the middle part of the century, slavery had increased substantially. (See Massachusetts.“The Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641))” Hanover Historical Texts Project. 1996. http://history.hanover.edu/ texts/masslib.html (1/25/2011)). In 1662, Virginia designated that a child’s race would be determined by the status of its mother, therefore a child born to a black woman and fathered by a white man was of slave status. However, in 1664 Maryland passed laws against English women marrying black men. (See Maryland. “Maryland Addresses the Status of Slaves in 1664.” Pearson Prentice Hall www.prenhall.com/aahtour/pdf/ doc_and_res.pdf (1/25/2011)). By 1664, Dutch power in New Amsterdam had begun to decline. With conflicts in the Caribbean and South America, the Dutch were not able to thwart a takeover by the British. Soon after, the British usurped power in the slave trade from the Dutch. The number of slaves imported to the colonies increased at an alarming rate. New York’s population in terms of numbers of slaves approximated that of South Carolina. Evidence of restrictive laws aimed at Blacks appeared in the colonies.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Slave revolts occurred in New York City in 1712 and in a small town west of Charleston, South Carolina in 1739 (called the Stono uprising). In addition there were continued escapes. In spite of harsh laws, many Africans concluded that they must carve out a place in which they could survive with as much dignity as possible economically, politically, and socially under the laws that relegated them to sub-citizenship. As the colonies’ relationship with the English changed, some slaves embraced the battles on the side of the colonists, perhaps believing that conditions would be better with independence from Britain. One example is that of a runaway slave patriot named Crispus Attucks, one of the first to die in the incident known as the “Boston Massacre.” There were also writers of prose and poetry, preachers, educators, physicians, and ship builders who played significant roles in the colonies before the War of Independence. By 1775, the institution of slavery had made a substantial number of white colonists wealthy. However, it was a time when the colonists found it difficult to imagine themselves falling slave to the English crown. As the British levied more taxes upon the colonies there was a call for independence that turned into war. Although some 5,000 Blacks would eventually fight in the war, they were not initially wanted. Believing that their status would improve by joining the battle, enslaved Blacks fought. This exercise in fighting for independence did not do much to further their chances for freedom. Instead, more slave codes were put in place. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 is one example of the extension of the institution of slavery. Historian John Hope Franklin, in From Slavery to Freedom, 3rd ed. (New York: Knopf, 1967) states that After the colonies secured their independence and established their own governments they did not neglect the matter of slavery in the laws which they enacted. Where slavery was growing, as in the lower South in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, new and more stringent laws were enacted. All over the South, however, there emerged a body of laws generally regarded as the Black Codes which covered every aspect of the life of the slave…The point of view was that slaves were not persons but property; and laws should protect the ownership of such property, should protect the whites against any dangers that were likely to arise from the presence of large numbers of Negroes, and should maintain a position of due subordination on the part of the slaves in order that the optimum of discipline and work could be achieved. Note that the predecessors of laws known as the Black Codes, referred to by Franklin, had begun to emerge as early as the seventeenth century. With the invention of the cotton gin in 1793, slavery became more entrenched in the South. The country had increased its dependence on the production of cotton as its premiere economic base and in some Southern states, there were more slaves than there were whites. By now there was an uneasiness in some circles of Northern and Southern whites regarding this situation. In spite of the tension, forced labor was a way of life. The economic and social lifestyle, especially among the upper classes, depended on it. In 1800, Thomas Jefferson was elected president. Soon to come was the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, which doubled the size of the country. It was also a chance for white settlers to move west and expand their economic prosperity with laws. Some of the changes are shown on Wall 1 of the Californians Keeping Culturally Connected exhibit.

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

The Abolitionist Movement It is reasonable to assume that an overwhelming number of slaves wanted to be free. During the slave era many slaves resisted by using different tactics. There were uprisings by slaves, and instances of sabotage, work slow-down, and killing of livestock. There were periods of on-going rebellion that lasted several years. This type of attitude and action perpetrated by some slaves necessitated the monitoring or close watching of the slave by the owner or other person designated to do so. Thad W. Tate, in his book The Negro in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg (Williamsburg VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1965) wrote that …it was unrelenting fear of the Negro as a potential insurrectionist and constant determination to police his conduct rigidly that instigated most of the early laws affecting Negro slaves. As early as 1680 slave owners and lawmakers in Virginia took steps to establish a policy that made it a crime to leave the master’s property without permission, lift a hand against a “Christian” (a white man), or hide or resist capture after running away. Tate reports that the last of these crimes was punishable by death. However, not all white people were slaveholders, neither were they in favor of holding slaves as commodities to be bought and sold at will. In 1688, the German Mennonites from Germantown, Pennsylvania, passed a resolution against slavery. They were the first in the British colonies to do so. (See Garrett Henderich et al. “ A Minute Against Slavery, Addressed to Germantown Monthly Meeting, 1688.” Quaker Heritage Press. <http://www.qhpress.org/texts/oldqwhp/as-1688.htm>(1/25/2011)) Yet in Virginia the laws tightened to such an extent that in 1691 slave owners were forbidden to free their slaves. By now it was clear that most Blacks were chattel property. They were sources of free labor. Between 1705 and 1748 several laws were enacted in the British colonies to eradicate any insurrection. Even among free Blacks what they could or could not do was restricted. These laws were the beginning of the slave codes and later “Black Codes.” Aware of the amplified restrictions placed on them more and more frequently, free and enslaved Blacks used various tactics to seek relief from bondage. In 1785 the New York Society for Promoting the Manumission of Slaves, founded by John Jay, had its beginning. Between 1785 and 1787 anti-slavery societies sprang up in the Eastern states from Massachusetts to Virginia. In 1787, the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade was formed. Well-represented on the committee was a group known as the Quakers who were strong advocates for the abolition of slavery. According to an essay by Guy Duquella, Patrick Hassell and others in Quakers in the Anti-slavery Movement, the Quakers founded the first American anti-slavery group in 1775. The authors state that

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

The Quakers were radical Christians. They believed that all people were equal in the sight of God, and every human being was capable of receiving the “light” of God’s spirit and wisdom. They also were against violence. Quakers were known for their simple living and work ethic. Therefore, to the Quakers, slavery was morally wrong. Quote from Dan Blackmon’s Advanced Placement American History classes., Coral Gables High School. “Antislavery Movement Quakers.” Slavery in the Western Hemisphere. 1999. <http://cghs.dadeschools.net/slavery/anti-slavery_movement/quakers.htm> (1/25/2011) Free Blacks and ex-slaves took it upon themselves individually and collectively to protest openly the institution of slavery during the eighteenth century. In 1800 Gabriel Prosser led a slave revolt in Virginia, the same year Thomas Jefferson was elected president. The following year the Ohio legislature passed laws intended to restrict the movement of Blacks in Northern states. For economic and humanitarian reasons the British outlawed slave trading in 1807. The following year, slave trading was outlawed in the United States. The law decreed that a fine of $800.00 would be placed on anyone knowingly buying an African or a fine of $2,000.00 could be levied for equipping a slave vessel. However, slavery and restrictive laws continued in the United States along with a gradual growth of organized resistance. Even though there had been organized anti-slavery movements during the eighteenth century from both black and white groups, the anti-slavery movement of the nineteenth century was a more concerted effort for both. In addition to Quakers and Mennonites, some sympathetic whites connected with Methodism and other societies joined with black organizations to fight slavery. Those involved in anti-slavery ventures were not always in total agreement on everything. There were opposing points of view on a number of issues, one of which involved the American Colonization Society organized in 1816. The group advocated the relocation of freed Blacks to Africa. At the same time there were Blacks for whom this idea had no appeal. Many Blacks preferred to stay on North American soil since they knew nothing first hand of Africa. However, in spite of differences, the persistent nature of the movement to outlaw slavery did get the attention of the general public, spreading the word of the inhumane treatment of the enslaved and the negative effect slavery had on American society as a whole. In 1820 some slaves did go to Africa through the auspices of the American Colonization Society. This movement resulted in the establishment of Liberia in West Africa. Meanwhile, some enslaved individuals continued to resist their bondage and escaped to Canada. There were those who fought to liberate themselves. Still others continued to believe that a change was coming on American soil. In 1822, Denmark Vesey, a freedman in Charleston, South Carolina, planned an uprising, His plan was exposed before it was implemented; he and fellow conspirators were caught, tried, convicted, and hanged. In 1829, David Walker, a free black man, published David Walker’s Appeal in Boston calling on blacks to revolt. In 1831, 31 years after Gabriel Prosser’s unsuccessful rebellion, Nat Turner, another Virginia slave, carried out a revolt killing about sixty white people. He was caught a few days later and hanged along with about thirty others.

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

For the next thirty years the abolition movement continued. Individual freedom fighters and organized societies were unrelenting in seeking freedom for themselves and the black masses. The Anti-Slavery Society was established in 1833. However, old strategies did not cease. Running away and other forms of rebellion continued. The stories of Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman are probably the most famous of the individual abolition legends. Both were born in Maryland — Douglass in 1818 and Tubman in about 1820. In spite of being a slave, Douglass learned to read and write. He escaped and later was able to purchase his freedom, becoming a newspaper publisher and a prominent figure in American history. He was a political activist, and was instrumental in getting Blacks admitted into the Union Army, and in helping to organize black regiments from Massachusetts to fight in the Civil War. Tubman, unlike Douglass, could neither read nor write, but became the most well-known of the leaders of the “underground railroad.” Tubman, after having escaped to the North, returned to the South 19 times and led over 300 other slaves to freedom. During the Civil War she continued to help others by nursing wounded black troops. Also among black abolitionists were activist Sojourner Truth, and Martin Delaney, a physician. By 1850 another Fugitive Slave Act became law. Then, in 1857, the Dred Scott decision rendered by the Supreme Court declaring that Negroes were not citizens of the United States became an additional weapon for the South to continue slavery. By now, some Northerners had become uneasy with Southern power, especially after Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger B. Taney made it clear that Scott could not bring suit in a federal court because he was a Negro. A few months later two black businessmen in California protested against their goods being confiscated for payment of taxes when white businesses were not taxed (see the essay included here called “Early Black Settlers in California.”) White individual abolitionists also lent support to the movement. Included in this group were William Lloyd Garrison, publisher of an anti-slavery newspaper, The North Star, and John Brown, an Eastern-born anti-slavery advocate who became a resident of Kansas. After the Kansas and Nebraska Act was approved by Congress in 1854 Brown was involved in the violence that occurred between pro-slavery and anti-slavery groups by retaliating when the anti-slavery town of Lawrence, Kansas was sacked. Such was the case in 1859 when Brown organized an attack on the United States arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia. He was executed later that year. After John Brown’s death more voting people were concerned about slavery. The result was that more people began to turn toward the Republican Party. Abraham Lincoln became the candidate for the party and won the presidency. In 1861, when Lincoln arrived in Washington, some states in the lower South had already seceded and others were threatening to do the same. The struggle for power to continue slavery in the South was the issue that ultimately led to the Civil War in the United States.

The Civil War From 1861 to 1865, Northern and Southern Americans were involved in a ferocious conflict. Today it is known as America’s Civil War. It should not be surprising that this war erupted because for many years the North and the South were in disagreement over a number of issues, but two issues headed the list. These

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

were the Fugitive Slave Law of 1793 regarding runaway slaves and the right of the property holder to retrieve his slave property and the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. Although both laws favored the South, the latter added more substance, requiring others to participate in assisting a given slave holder in retrieving his property. The South was also disturbed by various abolitionist movements, including the underground railroad, abolitionist newspapers, and activists like John Brown. Southerners believed that the North cooperated in promoting agitation against the South. The final straw would come in 1860 when the Southern Democrats’ choice for president, John C. Breckinridge, was rejected and the country chose Abraham Lincoln instead. South Carolina was deeply resentful, so much so that the lawmakers of that state decided South Carolina should secede, issuing what was called a “Declaration of the Immediate Causes which Induce and Justify the Secession of South Carolina from the Federal Union.” The declaration was made in late 1860. By January 1861, most of the South seceded. South Carolina was the first state to remove itself from the Federal Union. When Abraham Lincoln, a known opponent of slavery, was elected president, the South Carolina legislature perceived a threat. Calling a state convention, the delegates voted to remove the state of South Carolina from the union known as the United States of America. The secession of South Carolina was followed by the secession of six more states—Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas — and the threat of secession by four more—Virginia, Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina. These eleven states eventually formed the Confederate States of America. (From Joanne Freeman. “Time Line of the Civil War, 1861.” Library of Congress. American Memory. <http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/cwphtml/tl1861.html> (1/25/2011)) The declaration was probably hastened by the Dred Scott decision of 1857 coupled with Chief Justice Roger B. Taney‘s writing that Negroes had no rights that a white person was bound or obligated to recognize or honor. By the time Abraham Lincoln took office, seven states had seceded from the Union. In 1861 South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas, as the Confederate States of America, elected Jefferson Davis as president. The lawmakers were in favor of states’ rights for themselves, but were unhappy when the Northern states did not wish to honor the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act which mandated that their states were obligated under federal law to assist in returning a fugitive to his Southern owner. After Lincoln took office in March of 1861 and gave his inaugural speech, the Confederate states took their concerns to Washington. When Lincoln and the Confederacy could not agree on the current issues, Confederate troops attacked Fort Sumter, a Union military post, April 12, 1861. The result was the beginning of the Civil War. When war erupted black men hurried to offer to join the Union Army. Initially they were rejected. Lincoln did not want to drive the Southern and border states further away and appeared not to have had a clear policy about the exact strategy to use. The abolitionists were rather annoyed with Lincoln’s decisions or lack thereof. William Lloyd Garrison expressed his displeasure through the newspaper The Liberator. Frederick

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

Douglass advocated the use of black men in war. In 1862 he encouraged black men to join the Union Army and argued for emancipation. In 1863 Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. In New York City draft notices were issued, however, through some corruptive measure, some men could avoid the draft by paying $300.00. Needless to say, this did not sit well with the more economically challenged white ordinary workers. In Clayborne Carson’s chronology the following entry appears for July 13–16, 1863: Thousands of working-class whites in New York City, angry over the implementation of the draft and having to “fight a war for the niggers,” unleashed their wrath on the city’s black population. At least 11 black people are killed and hundreds are injured. Civil Rights Chronicle: The African-American Struggle for Freedom. Clayborne Carson, Ph.D. (Lincolnwood, IL: Legacy Publishing, 2003) p. 26. Frederick Douglass successfully lobbied President Lincoln on behalf of enlisting black troops in the Union cause. Among the renowned groups was the 54th Regiment of Massachusetts led by Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (played by Matthew Broderick in the movie “Glory,” which also starred Denzel Washington as Private Tripp). Two of Douglass’s sons served with the 54th Regiment. Initially, black troops were paid less than white troops for their service, In nearly all cases the officers in charge of black troops were white. In 1854 the men of the 54th Colored Regiment had refused their pay for a full year until they could receive the same pay as white soldiers. By the time the Civil War ended, over 180,000 black men had fought in the U.S. Army and approximately 19,000 in the U.S. Navy. Some runaway slaves joined the Union Army. Historians report that, in some cases, slave owners demanded the return of the slaves. Initially there appeared to be no set policy regarding captured slaves under the 1850 Fugitive Slave Act. Some Union officers handed over slaves while others refused on the grounds that they were contraband, which meant that because they were confiscated at a time of war the Union Army could keep such bounty. An example in the exhibit was the memorabilia collected related to Robert Smalls, a twenty-three year old black man who, in 1862, cunningly stole a Confederate gunboat and turned it over to the Union Navy. Blacks were heavily involved in the Civil War in various capacities. Some fought for the North while others fought for the South. They fought in every major battle. They also participated in a slave capacity. Harriet Tubman served as a nurse for black soldiers. Meanwhile, through other American institutions, white and black, schools were set up for children and adults. Despite the various laws adversely affecting African Americans, and the punishment for disobeying those laws, desire and action for freedom remained strong. During the war, the Northern states were industrialized and their economies grew. The Southern states were dependent mostly on cotton and other agricultural products and by the end of the war Southern economies were in shambles. Over 38,000 black soldiers had died in the Civil War. In April 1865 the Confederate Army surrendered and Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. It was the end of the war and an era. That same year the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery, was adopted.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

…in the Exhibit The earliest date represented in the exhibit was a Boston Recorder newspaper article dated February 23, 1831 submitted by Loretta Green, an African American newspaper columnist, reporting on the sale of a young man from Louisiana, and another regarding a 25,000 acre parcel of land in Canada awaiting Blacks. Then there were 8 bills of sale for slaves from 1833 to 1843 that were loaned by De Anza history instructor, Dr. James Williams, who is white. These documents had been in his family for generations. Other items listed in this period included a poster of a slave burial ground unearthed in New York, a graphic design by a former Stanford University student, Monica Morales-Loving. Also, displayed in this section was a pioneer Missouri family, the Alexanders, who traveled by wagon from St. Louis to San Francisco searching for a better life in the early 1850s. They were the great-grand parents of Harold Alexander of Saratoga, California. The family arrived in San Francisco in search of a peaceful, free life. Within a few years, the political climate was such that the family, along with many other black families, left San Francisco and moved to Vancouver, British Columbia. A poster reprint of an 1852 reward offer for three runaway slaves that had hung in the home of Dr. Lawrence Hooper, a Sunnyvale, California physician was submitted, as well as a recent drawing of abolitionist, Fredrick Douglass, by artist Carol Mitchell, submitted by Isaac Guinn. A Harriet Tubman print submitted by Rose Bickerstaff, appeared in this same section of the exhibit along with a document called “Bequeath,” taken from the Georgia tombstone of Mary Parks Washington’s grandfather. The information accompanying this item revealed that his mother had been bequeathed

Taken from the Boston Recorder, Feb. 23, 1831. Contributed by Loretta Martin Green.

to an individual. The document speaks for itself. In congruence with the law, slaves were chattel and could be handled the same as if they were livestock or furniture. Another entry in the exhibit that stood out in this section was submitted by Dr. Marion Winters. This entry consisted of replicas of three Black Chronicle newspapers with the front page of one shown in full size and dated August 25, 1862. The headline reads “Slave Steals Confederate Gunboat and Turns It Over

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

to Union Navy.â&#x20AC;? The slaveâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s name was Robert Smalls, who would later become a congressman. A facility at Great Lakes Naval Station bears his name, Camp Robert Smalls. Last but not least, it turns out that Smalls is the great-great-great-great-uncle of Carolyn Wilkins-Greene, Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities at De Anza College, who was a lender to this exhibit.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Slave Papers 1833-1843 Contributed by James C. Williams, Ph.D. The second oldest contribution to the Californians Keeping Culturally Connected exhibit (after the Boston Recorder article) was a set of eight hand-written documents, referred to as “receipts,” dating from 1833 to 1843 and kept in the possession of a family. This set of primary documents consisted of letters written by a professional slave trader to the great-great-great-great grandfather of De Anza College instructor and California History Center Director Emeritus and trustee, James C. Williams, who volunteered to loan the papers to the exhibit as his contribution to a broader overview of the Diaspora. During the 1830s and 1840s, my fourth great-grandfather Sampson Wright lived in Missouri and participated in the local slave market. He bought and transported enslaved African Americans for a man named William R. Taylor, during October 1833 and continued working in the trade at least through 1843. Sampson immigrated to California in 1852, with his son, W. S. M. Wright, leaving the “peculiar institution”

James C. Williams, Ph.D.

of slavery behind them. They settled with their families in Santa Rosa, and descendents of the Wrights continue to live in Northern California.

I first learned of my family’s connection to slavery in America through my mother, who had carefully preserved boxes of

family letters and papers. When I was a boy growing up in San Jose during the 1950s, she showed me some receipts for the sale

Record of sale of a 5-yearold in 1838 “For an[d] in consideration of the sum of fifty dollars I have this day bargained and sold unto Sampson Wright a negro boy named Joshua age five years which I warrant to be sound in body and mind and slave for life given under my hand this 7 of November 1838.” —William Wright

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

of slaves. Years later, when I began teaching nineteenth century American history, I remembered the receipts and brought copies of some to class. The reaction by students, especially African-American students, was profound, and I found it personally painful as well to reflect with students on my family’s connection to slavery. I later discovered more receipts and letters that more fully revealed Sampson Wright’s participation in the Missouri slave trade, and I continue to share these with students. As a historian, I find these documents remarkable and precious. As a descendent of Sampson Wright, I am painfully saddened by this piece of my own history. Who could not be dismayed at reading the matter-of-fact instructions on how to deliver human cargo to St. Louis for delivery down river to New Orleans? And who could not be appalled at the selling of five-year old Joshua in 1838? The receipt for Joshua personalizes it so very much: He is “sound in mind and body” as well as a “slave for life”, which means that my fourth-great grandfather Sampson had the legal right to purchase him, and William Wright (possibly a relative of my grandfather as well) had the legal right to sell him. It means Joshua’s mother was a slave, probably owned by William.

And I can’t help but wonder, where was Joshua in 1852, when Sampson Wright immigrated to California? If Joshua had

survived, he would be twenty-one years old. Could he have escaped slavery? Probably not. He probably labored from dawn to dusk on a cotton plantation in the Deep South. —James C. Williams

Then They’ll All Be Free Contributed by Monica Morales-Loving Prominently displayed in the upper left corner of Wall I was a graphic design poster, Then They’ll All Be Free, depicting an African slave burial site of the late 1700s and early 1800s that was unearthed in New York City in 1991. The print was the work of graphic design artist and businesswoman, Monica Morales-Loving. The poster had been given to me by Jewel Boswell Hudson, a retired Stanford University legal assistant, who had obtained the print from her friend, Morales-Loving. According to Hudson, Morales-Loving is a descendant of Cuban and African American parents. She was born in Sacramento, California, and graduated from Stanford University in 1976. Today she is president and CEO of M2 Graphics, in the Washington, D.C. area. Because the poster depicts a time and place in colonial America, it was an important addition to Californians Keeping Culturally Connected. The poster content is based on an actual occurrence. It appears that during the preparation of a site for a new building in Lower Manhattan at Broadway and Reade Street in New York City during the 1990s, construction workers unearthed the burial site. It is significant to note that some artifacts found were traced to their origins in West Africa. Some of the icons and images revealed traditional social, cultural, and religious linkage between the African on American soil and those of tribal groups residing in Africa today. Monica Morales-Loving is primarily known for “Total Company Imaging”—working with companies to graphically produce a total marketable image package.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Early Black Settlers in California Black men were among the first non-natives to arrive in and explore California. From the 16th century exploration of California by Friar Marcos and his guide, Estevanico, to Coronado and the black priest, there are a number of stories that refer to their early presence in the state. Delilah Beasley in Negro Trail Blazers of California, 1919, quotes several historians who indicated in their notes that men and women of African heritage came to the Pacific Coast as early as the 1770s. Specific mention is made of several listings of Negro and mulatto slave and free people in California between 1771 and 1846. Among the historians who wrote of this were Charles Edward Chapman, and Hubert Howe Bancroft in his History of California. Bancroft had located evidence in Catholic Church history using Father Junipero Serra and his lifelong friend Father Palou as sources. One reference is to a burial of a mulatto slave man (one born to a ‘Free Negress’ and a Spaniard) who had been aboard the vessel San Antonio that landed at Monterey Bay on May 21, 1771. One writer speaks of the first burial at Mission San Carlos as an individual buried on June 3, 1771, and makes reference to the man as having had enough money with him to buy his freedom. Similar scenarios of slave and free Negroes were reported at intervals of seven or eight years up to the days of the gold rush according to Beasley and Bancroft. Indications of colored settlers throughout California are provided by these authors and others. There were black men in the military in 1790 posted at the Presidio of San Francisco, at Santa Clara Mission and at Mission San Jose. In 1849 there were as many as three hundred miners who worked the mines at Mokelumne, Grass Valley, Placerville and other places in California. Black pioneers were recorded at Marysville, Sacramento, Stockton and San Francisco. In June 1847 California’s first public school was established in San Francisco. On the 24th of September that year William A. Leidesdorff was appointed to a committee to put in place measures for building the school. Beasley reports that he was a mulatto and Bancroft refers to him as having a “dash of Negro blood” although this contention is now in dispute. He was also owner of a steamship. Today a street in San Francisco is named for him. Other pioneers of the Bay Area include miner Moses Rogers, Mifflin Wistar Gibbs and Peter Lester, shoe and boot storeowners. Gibbs was also one of the publishers of Mirror of the Times. The family of Charles and Nancy Alexander, featured in this section of the exhibit, also lived in San Francisco.

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Go Do Some Great Thing Contributed by the Alexander Family The period of the 1850s was an interesting one in the history of the United States. Slavery had been in existence for 200 years. Now the abolitionists were focusing their attention on some of the negative aspects of institutionalized slavery and debates were centered on whether new states should be slave or free. Gold had been discovered in California. Striking it rich from mining this precious metal was on the minds of many who migrated to the gold fields. All sought to better their condition. Among them were some Blacks. A few were successful while others were not and moved on to cities and towns farther west. Some chose San Francisco. It was considered a good place to be in terms of freedom and business opportunities. Hundreds went there to seek independence and an opportunity to make a new life for themselves although everything would not be harmonious. Many Blacks would leave after only a few years. Among those to leave were Peter Lester, a boot shop business owner, and his partner Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, who was also owner of a San Francisco newspaper, the Mirror of the Times. They, along with the Charles Alexander family, left San Francisco to go to Vancouver, British Columbia, to begin a new life. One of the exhibitors for Califor-

Gay Alexander

nians Keeping Culturally Connected is a descendant of the Alexander family. Harold Alexander, a great-grandson, and wife Gay Alexander contributed photographs and the following story regarding the group. They also shared a book, Go Do Some Great Thing, written about the life of six generations of Alexanders. In a panel discussion held in conjunction with the exhibit Gay Alexander told the following story: Charles and Nancy Alexander were free Blacks, husband and wife, living in St. Louis, Missouri in the early 1850s. Charles was a carpenter who built and ran a gristmill. He was a great speaker who also was to

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1865

become a lay minister as well as farmer and prospector. In 1857, they decided to leave for California. The Alexanders and their two children accompanied by four friends and a guide left Missouri and traveled the Oregon Trail in a van (covered wagon) pulled by a four yoke bullock team. The journey took four months. Charles was sure they would make the trip safely as he had faith in his Bible, his compass and his logbook. They reached California where he would work in the gold fields, but he was not very successful. In 1858, in the midst of anti-Black sentiment and the denial of basic civil rights, a new law was introduced in the California legislature to legalize slavery. The law was defeated but Charles and Nancy, along with hundreds of black families, decided to migrate to British Columbia at the invitation of James Douglas, Governor of British Columbia, himself a mulatto. Boarding the steamships, Commodore and Oregon, they immigrated to the Hudson Bay Colony on Vancouver Island at precisely the time that gold was discovered along the Fraser River in British Columbia. A new gold rush began and hundreds of Blacks arrived at the mines at the head of the frantic influx! The diversity of migrants was astounding. There were fugitive slaves and former slaves and freemenâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;miners, farmers, who, as their fortunes grew, became businessmen in the town, laborers and professional men. Charles Alexander became a miner in the Fraser Valley. Then with the money he made, he and Nancy and their six children purchased farmland at Shady Creek, in the Saanich District north of Victoria. Their large family has today formed the Alexander Black Pioneer Family society of six or more generations of Alexanders dating back to the 1850s. Librarian Gay Alexander was married to retired Santa Clara County social worker, Harold Alexander a great-great-great-grandson of Charles and Nancy Alexander. The Alexanders lived in Saratoga, California and are the parents of three children who continue the legacy. Their daughter, Claudia Alexander, Ph.D. is a nuclear physicist at the Jet Propulsion Lab, Pasadena, California. Suzanne Alexander Ryan is a reporter for the Boston Globe, and their son David is an engineer in Santa Clara County. Suzanne attended Kennedy Jr. High School in Cupertino, and was the first person to be inducted into the Kennedy Jr. High National Junior Honor Society. This writer was the teacher and sponsor of record. Go Do Some Great Thing, a book by Crawford Kilian, 1978, chronicles the saga of the Alexander family of Vancouver, British Columbia. This book was displayed in Case II of the exhibit.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Bequeath Contributed by Mary Parks Washington Mary Parks Washington is a native of Atlanta, Georgia. She is a nationally known artist and educator whose work has been widely exhibited. One of her concerns is to show the connection between art and history. Bequeath is a collage based on a photograph taken of the Georgia tombstone of Washington’s grandfather. A will revealed that her grandfather’s mother had been bequeathed to a member of the slave master’s family. The document speaks for itself because by law slaves were chattel and could be handled the same as if they were livestock or furniture. Mary Parks Washington, now living in Campbell, California, remarked that “the cursive writing in the painting was a paragraph taken from the will written by John Parks, a slaveholder, who bequeathed unto his son, John Ira Parks, one Negro woman,

Mary Parks Washington

Becky, and her child, Henry. Henry became ‘Pa Parks,’ my grandfather.” She continues, “The words without the pictures are meaningless. I am a visual artist and the words accompanying the art [are] as a secondary source…I feel you ask too much of the viewer to look at something that is not clear to imagine. The presentation becomes a confusing challenge. The story of Pa Parks has a chapter of sadness of what we learned about slavery. I feel blessed that I [also] have a chapter that has a pleasant part. I met the “off-spring” of the master of this story and we have become the best of friends. In fact, she knows more about us (by reading positive books and other media) than many of my black friends! Looking forward to seeing your brochure. That was an interesting show and it needs to be recorded.”

Bequeath

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

Replicas of Black Chronicle Newspapers But if “to live in hearts we leave behind is not to die,” to be worthy of such memorial we must have done or said something that blessed the living or benefited coming generations… Mifflin Wistar Gibbs, The American Negro: His History and Literature Little Rock, Arkansas, January 1902 The black newspaper has been a vital instrument in American history. By pinpointing issues that uniquely affect African Americans, it has served to inform, inspire, educate, and empower this community since the early nineteenth century. The above quote from Mifflin Wistar Gibbs’s autobiography would come nearly fifty years after he became publisher of The Mirror Of The Times, (1857) in San Francisco. It was California’s first black newspaper—published during the Gold Rush. Even before Gibbs, there were Frederick Douglass and others who chose this medium as a method of getting out their message. In some of the free states there were those who were educated and wise enough to make this method of communication possible. Evidence suggests that black journalists and their followers embraced and intensively sought to network around the issues that concerned them. Six news articles in the exhibit illustrate this finding.

On Wall I, three Black Chronicle replica newspapers dated August 25, 1862, June 1, 1896, and July 15,

1910 respectively were loaned by Dr. Marion Winters. Featured on the front page of each were articles the titles of which reflected the issues of the time. There were two headlines on the first which read “D.C. Slaves Freed” and “Slave Steals Confederate Gunboat! Delivers To Amazed Union Navy!”

The leading story on the front page of the 1896 replica paper was “High Court Approves Race

Separation,” which referred to the March 18, 1896 Supreme Court ruling on Plessy v. Ferguson. Two other high-profile stories on this page were “Booker T. Washington Honored” and a picture which appeared to show a man lying dead in the street with a caption which read “One Vote Less...Negro Murdered in Richmond, Va.” Featured in the 1910 replica Black Chronicle were several articles of interest, among them were “Harlem, Quiet Country Town Becomes Haven,” “Jack Johnson Defeats ‘Great White Hope’... Jefferson Badly Beaten,” “Oklahoma Blacks May Lose Vote,” and “Professor DuBois accepts NAACP Position.” Lastly, there was ”Women’s Movement Gains Strength.” One thing that stood out was that unlike the headlines featuring men, printed in bold, the last one, conerning women, appeared in regular type. Although all three papers were showcased together in a single frame on Wall I, each appeared again on the walls in their contemporary settings.

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Frederick Douglass circa 1818-1895 Contributed by Isaac Guinn Frederick Douglass was one of the most influential leaders in nineteenth century America; orator, abolitionist, writer, publisher, freedom fighter, and womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rights advocate. The Frederick Douglass portrait above was submitted by Isaac W. Guinn. The pen and ink drawing is by New Jersey artist Carol Mitchell, a former student in the Foothill-De Anza Community College District. During the 1970s she resided in the area and attended Foothill College. The artwork was done in 1976.

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1865

Harriet Tubman (Library of Congress)

Harriet Tubman circa 1820-1913 The photograph above is one of Harriet Tubman from the Library of Congress. It is a realistic image of the woman African Americans sometimes refer to as “Moses.” A print of a painting depicting Tubman’s escapades as a leader in the “Underground Railroad” was submitted by Rose Bickerstaff and displayed on Wall I. The print from a 1979 oil, Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad by Paul Collins, captures the legendary epochs of an African American abolitionist. Not only did she escape from slavery herself, but took on the mission of delivering over 300 others from slavery.

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Age of Minstrels 1865â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1918

Case III and Wall II

The Age of Minstrels, 1865 to 1918 Being uneducated, landless, homeless, and otherwise economically challenged to the ultimate extreme, former slaves were forced to create survival techniques. To manage this meant somehow to acquire as much land as possible and as soon as possible and to erect some kind of shelter. The fact that they found themselves in such a predicament, through no fault of their own, did not matter. There were two choices, survive or perish. The images and documents shown in Case III and on Wall II and Wall III date roughly from the period between 1865 and World War I. The items include two smoothing irons, a bar of lye soap, a recipe for making lye soap, a washboard, a cast iron weight called a “P”, a coffee grinder, ice tongs, minstrel posters, items representing historic black colleges and universities, the black family, the black church, “Black Code” documents and poll tax receipts. Each piece is relevant and speaks to some aspect of African American culture from that period. However, to appreciate more fully the story told by the lender, some historical data is included. Although succinctly addressed, it is intended to give some background information that will place the pieces in an appropriate context. The period referenced begins with the end of the Civil War and items shown are known to have been available or in use during that period. Exactly what are these items? Who used them? Why were they used? How were they used? What do they mean to the lender and why has he or she held on to them? The last question is basically easy. There is an old saying that “One needs to know where he has been in order to know where he is going.” It was 1865 and the Civil War had just ended. It was a chaotic period which offered numerous unsatisfactory alternatives for black men and women. The dilemma of ex-slaves regarding the economy, land, labor and education was urgent. The Reconstruction program that featured the Freedmen’s Bureau was set in place to help provide support to ex-slaves. Although not effective in all the needed areas, it was helpful in some. In terms of securing rations for a good number of homeless, it was relatively effective. This was also true in terms of establishing a public school system, advancing medicine, and negotiating contracts with the white planters that were not necessarily favorable to the black family. What stands out most is that very few Blacks ended up with land allocated to them. Being landless, many Blacks settled on properties of white planters where the only option was sharecropping, a stressful, life-altering experience that would adversely affect participants for the next century. Education and economics of a given community are intertwined. From Reconstruction to the 1920s, some adventurous field workers and sharecroppers left the plantation to seek work on railroads, in levee camps, textile and lumber mills, and urban work places. Those who remained in rural areas experienced vicious cycles of poverty. Some would never get out of debt. Individuals brave enough to leave were plagued by obstacles of inexperience and lack of education and preparation, and could not secure immediate non-farm

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work. This was especially true in some small southern towns. Here African American men frequently found themselves in conflict with local laws, picked up for vagrancy and consigned to work camps. Black workers were on their own. Their presence alarmed white people. Some whites were afraid and others were appalled that the men were wanderers when their labor was needed on white farms and in white businesses. For the next fifty to seventy years the authority of the “Black Codes” would manifest itself as a social phenomenon by emerging as a multifaceted albatross, designed to burden, and allow white control of, Blacks. The codes were state laws that in some cases forced African Americans to labor for whites — planters and businesspersons who set the work hours and the wages. If a black person appeared not to have a job he could be forced to work, or he might end up jailed as a vagrant, forced to sign a labor contract. Once incarcerated, he could be leased to a private individual to work without benefit of pay. This was called convict leasing. Blacks without jobs were frequently arrested, jailed, and put on chain gangs. It is reported that by 1900, twenty to thirty thousand African Americans were in convict camps. Many of those imprisoned were juveniles and some were as young as eight years old. They were placed on chain gangs for minor violations and sentenced to as many as twenty years incarceration. Richard Wormser in The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow (2003) equates convict leasing with slavery replacement. To meet the labor demand, the sheriffs arrested Blacks with the blessing of the law. Stories of these atrocities have been passed down in music, art, oral history, and literature in the black community. A Frank Stokes album in the exhibit includes the blues song “Mr. Crump Don’t Allow…” which alludes to the vagrancy-led convict camp syndrome. Alan Lomax attests to this theory in oral history he collected in Mississippi between 1939 and 1941. It is also addressed in August Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. The setting of the play is about 1911. The fact is that ex-slaves and their descendants were about the business of surviving. Those who left the agricultural sector of the white planter and moved to towns had to create their own means of making a living. The items in Case III were some of their survival tools.

Reconstruction With the defeat of the South the Civil War ended in 1865. By then, some 186,000 African Americans had fought for the Union Army. Among those, approximately 38,000 are believed to have died. What followed was a great deal of confusion and suffering through the South. There was land abandonment. For the slaves, and for some whites, there was no shelter, food, or clothing; and there was no organized civil control. That year President Andrew Johnson announced a Reconstruction program which required ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment. Legalized slavery ended with ratification, but it did not bring about full citizenship, which meant that many problems remained. There were problems of homelessness, landlessness, and joblessness. Some former slaves took to the road, literally roaming here and there, and lived as squatters, eventually settling in ruins, on small parcels of land, or on the land of white planters. There was no reward for their past labor. There was now a new experience and struggle to be encountered. The main point for them was no more slavery. They were free.

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

The reaction of whites to black freedom was not one of welcome. The presidential pardon of Confederate leaders who were allowed to reclaim the land they had previously owned coupled with enactment of “Black Codes,” left Blacks dependent upon a system that economically paralleled slavery. They were now faced with several major challenges. They had to cope with instant homelessness, hunger, illness, and high death rates; they also needed land and basic education for everyone. In 1866 the Fourteenth Amendment expanded the guarantees of federally protected civil rights. The Freedmen’s Bureau was established to assist with land problems, relief, and education. While the bureau did give assistance in relief and education, it did not solve problems of land distribution. As ownership of land was directly related to one’s economic status, most Blacks found themselves in a sea of poverty. However, empowered by the guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment, as well as by those of the Fifteenth Amendment barring voting restrictions based on race, things looked promising for the African American in the South. Blacks voted and black elected officials served in local government, state legislatures, and the United States Congress. Significant reforms in state constitutions were put in place during the early part of the Reconstruction period. However, the Ku Klux Klan and other vigilante groups waged a relentless campaign to keep Blacks out of political office. Despite their efforts, many black politicians came to power after federal troops pulled out in 1877 though vigilante groups made life too difficult for most black elected officials to stay. This was not true for Robert Smalls who served five terms as a congressman from South Carolina, longer than any other African American during this period. The 1862 issue of one of the Black Chronicle newspaper replicas on Wall 1 referred to this piece of history. One of the most important things that evolved during the years of Reconstruction was a systematic universal free public education policy. Blacks saw this as an opportunity to fulfill ideals of freedom. There had already been a small number of black people who were educated in the North long before the Civil War. There were a few institutions of higher education for Blacks that were made possible through efforts of sympathetic white people in the North and by independent black churches. However, the slavery system in the South had forbidden education for black people. Even with the additional numbers of educational institutions, there were far fewer than would meet the demand. Thus, hundreds of thousands of Blacks were left without a basic education. Some good things did come out of the efforts of the Freedmen’s Bureau. Land grant colleges and universities as well as religious-based institutions were founded during the period of 1866 to 1900. Among them were the universities of Howard, Hampton, and Atlanta as well as the colleges of Philander Smith, Shorter, and Payne. This vision of reform based on new opportunities in education was in contrast to the political views of white Southerners whose main thrust was to restore white control in Southern states. Generally, Blacks supported reform. Perhaps the greatest disappointment for the former slaves was the unfulfilled promise regarding land. Without land, black men and women were relegated to itinerant work or sharecropping, in some cases for their former slavemasters. An alternative for them was to move to an urban environment. Once there, they had to create their own means of survival. Some of those ex-slaves who took themselves out of the plantation system became icemen, millers, brick masons, shoe shiners, washerwomen, beauticians, barbers, preachers,

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musicians and entertainers. Others who had obtained an earlier education through the aforementioned colleges and universities, or private training, became doctors, lawyers, teachers, journalists, insurance writers and morticians. Items in Case III are examples of a few tools of the trade for some of the independent workers.

Jim Crow The period of 1890 to 1910, the early Jim Crow era, saw the marginally-gained autonomy that black people experienced at the end of the Civil War erode drastically. The result was a setback for those ex-slaves who had now become second-class citizens. A number of complex issues figured in the scenario in which Blacks would find themselves. Some Northern industries moved to the South. This meant that job discrimination would still be a big factor. Some landless Blacks had clearly decided to leave the plantation. They made their way to towns and larger urban centers. However, those who chose to leave the plantations in most cases did not benefit economically. By this time laws of the South closely resembled those set forth by the Glen Grey Act of South Africa and promoted by Cecil Rhodes during the same period – laws promoting forced and very cheap labor. As time passed, black men were jailed for being caught without jobs. Those in the penal system were often hired out for road building, mining, etc. They could also be turned over to an employer and could not leave that employment. To do so was to risk imprisonment. Blacks migrating to some states had to pay bond. The Ku Klux Klan added to the tension of Blacks exercising freedom by using intimidation tactics. Several organizations fought to overthrow these practices. However, discrimination against African Americans in the United States permeated every aspect of life and manifested itself in many different forms. It was present in education, employment, the justice system, the military, on the streets of small towns and big cities. For a brief period some former slaves voted in the South. However, as the years of the 1890s rolled by they became disfranchised. In the Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1896 the Supreme Court ruled in favor of a state segregation law preventing the “co-mingling” of races, legalizing segregation. Interestingly, the latter part of the 1890s saw interracial organizations such as the Niagara Movement attempt to strategize for racial equality. To have a small measure of control over their own lives, African Americans created jobs. There was subsistence farming if one was fortunate enough to have acquired land, and other modest entrepreneurial skilled and unskilled jobs as described previously within the “Reconstruction” essay. During this era Bert Williams and George Walker worked in blackface comedy to earn a living patronizing white audiences while the entertainers themselves were humiliated. Another important factor is that this was a period of unabated lynching. In 1910 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was organized in protest against the lynching of an Illinois man, a practice which, by now, had become commonplace. According to Langston Hughes in Fight for Freedom: The Story of the NAACP (1962), three people met in the Manhattan apartment of Miss Ovington, a wealthy white Northerner. The other two conferees were William English Walling, a Southern journalist and Henry Moskowitz, a

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

Jewish social worker. They decided to issue a “call” for a conference to be signed by a number of prominent Americans. On February 12, 1909, the story of “the Call” was published in the New York Post. The document was signed by sixty persons of distinction. Among those who signed were John Dewey of Columbia University; Francis J. Grimke, Washington’s militant Negro minister; William Lloyd Garrison of Boston; Alexander Walters, bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church; Ida Bell Wells-Barnett; Mary Church Terrell; and W.E.B. Du Bois. The conference that resulted from “the Call” took place from May 30 to June 1, 1909. The organization was called the National Negro Committee and consisted of 40 members. They held 4 public meetings and enrolled additional members. At the second annual meeting May 1910, a new name was chosen for the organization. The name was the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The organization was incorporated in New York State. Among those signing the incorporation papers were Mary White Ovington, W.E.B. Du Bois and Oswald Garrison Villard. Later, Du Bois became the director of publicity and research as well as editor of the NAACP publication, the Crisis magazine. Newspapers, cartoons, featured editions and theater were caught up in the caricaturist renditions of black people. It was in vogue to stereotype Blacks as bumbling buffoons. Incorporated in the exhibit on Wall II were five posters and the front page of the replica Black Chronicle of 1876, evidence of this stereotyping. In addition, exhibited in Case 5 were pieces of sheet music, newspaper inserts and Bert William’s book, Nobody, all featuring blackface comedy.

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Minstrel Posters

Wall II Far left: Just a Little Local Color to Cheer You Up! Top left: Gold Dust Twins Middle left: Shoe shine boys Top right: Print of George Walker, minstrel performer. Lower left: Pastime in Dixie, tobacco ad Lower right: replica of the Black Chronicle, June 1, 1896

George Walker (top right) attended Stanford University briefly and went on the road to earn money. He often performed with famous black minstrel personality, Bert Williams. Black minstrels often lived sad lives and were wracked with emotional conflict about their craft.

Age of Minstrels, 1865â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1918

Utilitarian Items Racial barriers were largely responsible for the poor economic conditions of black people throughout the South. After the Civil War many Northern factories, foundries, mills, and other industries moved to the South to take advantage of the cheap labor provided by poor whites and non-plantation Blacks. Unable to unionize to compete for jobs, Blacks were forced to work on road building, ditch-digging, street-cleaning, mining, brick-making and other low-paying jobs. Skilled jobs once done by black architectural artisans from the colonial days became the jobs of white union workers. In the South, a large percentage of black women were commonly looked upon as washerwomen. Oftentimes, they were women who worked as servants in the homes of white people. The laundry duty was frequently included in the servantsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; routine domestic work. At other times laundry was bundled up and taken to the homes of service providers. In earlier times a small outdoor fire was built under large cast iron black pots that were used to heat the water and to boil clothes in the cleaning process. The washboard and lye soap were used to scrub the clothes. The end result would be sparkling white clothes and other clothes being noticeably bright. They were hung on an outdoor clothesline to dry. After drying, smoothing irons were used to remove wrinkles. In some cases the women transported the laundry between their homes and their employers or clients. The mode of transportation was generally by foot. Before the turn of the century a third of black women worked as domestic servants. Black men who chose not to work on plantations as sharecroppers or day laborers could be found in non-agricultural areas. Here, they worked as independent businessmen in skilled and unskilled jobs. Conditions were often cruel. Despite harsh working conditions many Blacks created jobs for themselves. Shown in Case III are tools used by black women and men to earn a living. Lye soap, a washboard, two smoothing irons, a handmade brick, ice tongs, and a weight for balancing a scale such as the one on Wall II are examples of items used by relatives of lenders to this exhibit. In Case 7 one of the two sculptured dolls, Miles and Myiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Foke, was the Washer Woman by Mary Jacks. The figure is symbolic of its name. The woman is featured with a bundle of clothes on her head and she is traveling by foot.

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Laundry Items Contributed by Texanna Tooles Davis, Loretta Martin Green and Christopher Stevenson Case III From colonial times through World War II, most laundry in Southern rural communities was done by women using rub-boards, or washboards, and bar soap. Whether by design or circumstance the soap used most frequently was lye soap. After the clothes were washed, they were hung on an outdoor line to dry. Flat irons, also, called smoothing irons, were heated and used to iron out wrinkles. The irons were heated by placing them in front of hot coals, or by heating them on a heating stove or cooking stove. .

Soap Making The washboard was loaned by Christopher Stevenson. The lye soap was loaned by Texanna Tooles Davis. The smoothing irons were submitted by Loretta Martin Green and Omonike Weusi-Puryear.

Age of Minstrels, 1865â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1918

Smoothing Irons Contributed by Loretta Martin Green and Omonike Weusi-Puryear Two smoothing irons, a number 6 and a number 7, were among the items listed in Case III. The number 6 smoothing iron came from the collection of Loretta Martin Green, who submitted the following statement with it: The numbers indicate weight (7 being heavier than 6.) Delphia Chapman, born into slavery in South Carolina, used this #6 smoothing iron in the 1800s and early 1900s. She was my greatgrandmother. The # 7 smoothing iron was loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear who was also born in the South. Not only were these tools used in the nineteenth century, they were in use well into the twentieth century. As late as the 1950s many rural Americans were ironing the old fashioned way. Omonike made the statement below: The smoothing iron was a common household appliance in my relativesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; homes who lived in rural areas in Louisiana when I was growing up in the 1940s and 50s. Electricity was only in towns and cities. I was fascinated by the effort and skill needed to remove wrinkles from natural fiber clothing. The fire was usually built outside with coals. The iron would then be placed near the coals to heat. As you can see there is no regulator on the iron. Children were taught how to match the fabric to be ironed with the proper heat. The ironer also had to maintain a smooth bottom to the iron by applying candle wax to its surface or by running the iron over pine leaves. The aroma from the pine leaves when the hot iron was pressed on these leaves was a heady and pleasant occasion for me, although it was a sweaty labor of love for my relatives.

Ironing was always a laborious task in hot summers in Louisiana and a challenge on rainy days. I

now use the iron as a bookend. It is a reminder of the work ethic of my rural relatives and most of my relatives did not live in a town as I did. Omonike Weusi-Puryear Instructor, Intercultural/International Studies Division De Anza College

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Harvey Cole Remembers

Wooden Brick (circa 1860s) The wooden brick was removed from Market Street in downtown Chattanooga, Tennessee in the mid-1950s. Wooden sidewalks, plank roads, and wooden bridges were quite common before concrete, asphalt and clay brick surfaces were used. My late wife’s great-grandparents were living in the Chattanooga area during pre- and post-Civil War days when this brick was made—probably

by slaves or with very cheap labor. The asymmetrical lines of the brick suggest lack of precision sawing—therefore, handmade. I like to think that I am holding some of my ancestors in my hand Brick made from wood, 1860s

when I hold this brick.

Ice Tongs and Coffee Grinder The ice tongs come from my great uncle’s house in New Orleans. “Ice-men,” as they were called, were big, strong, black men who delivered ice to homes. The ice was usually “cut” with an ice pick into 50, 25, or 10 lb. blocks and placed in a wooden, sheet metal-lined “ice box,” usually in the kitchen or back porch. These ice-men were among the first independent entrepreneurs. Many sent their children to college selling ice for 1 cent per pound. I feel a great sense of pride in family when I think of how hard my ancestors worked in order that their children get an education and BE SOMEBODY. The coffee grinder was submitted along with the ice tongs and wooden bricks. It was a standard tool in many kitchens. The date of manufacture is not known, probably late 1800s or early 1900s.

Case III’s utilitarian items for laundry, the kitchen, and construction.

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

Cotton Scale Contributed by Rose Bickerstaff Rose Bickerstaff, a Bay Area resident, contributed two items to the exhibit, both of which had been gifts to her. The first was a lithograph of Harriet Tubman

Cotton scale used by Rose Bickerstaff ’s father.

depicting a pre-Civil War scene and displayed on Wall I. The second was a scale displayed on Wall II that was used for weighing cotton. The scale had been given to her by her father. She knows that it was obtained in Little Rock, Arkansas. Most probably the scale was used in one of the outlying rural agricultural areas. Displayed on Wall II, titled the “Age of Minstrels,” is the iron cotton scale, a thin, 42” apparatus with approximately 200 chevron-patterned teeth. The left end has a shape like a quarter moon and is about three inches high and tapers to about one inch at the right end. A ring near the left end is used to hang the scale. In line with and just below the scale is a hook on which the bag or basket of cotton or fruit can hang for weighing. A number 5 or 6 cast iron weight is used to balance the scale and measure the weight. Ms. Bickerstaff states that she is the only family member to date who collects memorabilia. An image illustrating the use of the cotton scale is shown below.

Photo courtesy of The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas. This photo was not part of the original exhibit but helps illustrate the use of the cotton scale.

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Wall III

Age of Minstrels, 1865â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1918

Family Photographs: “The Sweetest Link” Contributed by Isaac Guinn Isaac Guinn narrates: These photographic portraits are of members of my family, two of which were made around 1910. The last was probably early 1930s. The portrait on the right is my great-grandmother, Tennessee Meadows, to whom I refer as that “sweet link” in the family. To the left below, is her son and my great uncle Clarence Griffin. Seated in the group photo on the right are my step-great-grandfather “Perk” (Perkins) Meadows and my great-grandmother at a later time in her life; standing is their daughter, my great aunt, Pearl Adams. These pictures have the mystical power of instantly transporting me back to the place of my birth and my childhood in the semi-rural town of Alma, Arkansas. I have stayed connected to my culture and the

Isaac Guinn’s great-grandmother, known as “Aunty Tenny”, Tennessee Meadows

memories of my formative years through these images and associated experiences. The “sweet link” was with my great-grandmother, fondly referred to as “Aunty Tenny” by most of the community and fellow members of Zion Baptist Church. It was reinforced in a literal sense by her unmatched cookies called tea cakes. These she kept in a cookie tin in the “safe,” and offered to visiting friends as a social ritual. She gave me samples from every batch, and, of course, I would opt for additional samples at opportune times. Although they are all deceased, the “sweet link” endures through these photographs.

At left: Clarence Griffin At right: (l-r) “Perk”Meadows, Pearl Adams, and Aunty Tenny

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Black Colleges African Americans: The Education Legacy After the Civil War it became legal to educate African Americans in the South. However, an infrastructure for doing so was needed. In its five years of existence the Freedmenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Bureau had helped some Blacks in the courts and with contracts. Most notably, however, it helped with aiding and setting up schools. It was probably the catalyst that moved church organizations to play a large role in establishing colleges and universities in the South. The first school of the post-Civil War period was Shaw University, a Baptist institution founded in 1865 in Raleigh, North Carolina, followed by Fisk, Talladega, Morehouse, and Clark. Other institutions of higher learning were Howard University, Hampton University, Philander Smith College and Atlanta University. Blacks had not been legally barred from education in the North as in the manner of the South before the Civil War. Some African Americans were recipients of a Northern university education, even though they were not all freely embraced there. The church played a major role in the black community, in the North and in the South. Local congregations, each with a connection to their national church body, became the leaders at a grass-roots level in the education of young black students. It would be through black church institutions that the greatest percentage of African Americans emerged to become leaders. With emphasis on religion and education, nationally organized black churches, social welfare organizations, black fraternal orders, and other self-help organizations worked diligently to further the educational progress of the African American. The main churches participating in this process were Baptist and Methodist. For example, Spelman College began in the basement of a Baptist church in Atlanta, Georgia. Likewise, the Augusta Institute, founded in Augusta, Georgia in the basement of a Baptist Church to train Blacks for teaching and the ministry, became Morehouse College in 1906. Among those churches embracing

Age of Minstrels, 1865â&#x20AC;&#x201C;1918

education in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) were the founders of Wilberforce University in 1857. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, (AMEZ) and the Colored Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church were instrumental in fostering higher learning and leadership among Blacks allowing them to continue to shed the cloak of ignorance. Noted among these were scholars such as W.E. B. DuBois and Ida B. Wells. Another was John Madden, who was one of the founders of the First African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in San José, California. All were leaders setting the stage for black Californians to become educated. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, African Americans had been free for fewer than fifty years. They had met and survived numerous challenges including the periods of Reconstruction and Jim Crow laws. There were a few schools and enforced ignorance was no longer mandated in the former slave states. At last, with the help of missionaries from some white churches in the North and other philanthropists, and from the black church, North and South, participation in a formal learning situation was possible. For those who heretofore had been educationally disfranchised in the South, it was a time for hope. By 1895, the educator Booker T. Washington’s Doctrine of Education plan, promoting vocational education for economic advancement, had been promulgated in America and abroad. Although widely acclaimed by many for his ideas for training black people, all Blacks did not embrace the “Doctrine.” Among those who opposed Washington’s philosophy were W. M. Trotter, editor of The Guardian and W.E.B. DuBois, editor of the Crisis Magazine. Both would use the media to fight for their opposing views. In the early 1900s, Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Hampton, Shaw, Tuskegee, Philander Smith, and Agricultural Mechanical & Normal College of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, (now University of Arkansas, Pine Bluff) were among the colleges and universities that had graduated hundreds of African Americans. These private- and publicbased institutions, although basically segregated, were the conduits by which many Blacks successfully obtained an education and served in various leadership roles. Although gains had been made educationally, the need to fight for justice and equality continued. In 1910 the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was organized in an effort to combat institutionalized injustices. Featured in the exhibit were photographs of two of the earliest institutions of higher education for Blacks—Tuskegee Institute and Hampton.

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Poll Tax Receipts Beginning in 1787, the US Constitution allowed the black slave to be counted as 3/5ths of a man in determining representation in the House of Representatives. After Reconstruction, all eleven states of the Confederacy (along with some Northern states) had instituted the poll tax as a means of controlling who could vote. In some states, a “grandfather clause” would allow individuals to vote whose father or grandfather had voted in an election or was a property owner. The poll tax was often due six to nine months before the election and in some cases only property owners would be notified. In Arkansas, the poll tax act became law in 1909. The two poll tax receipts below were those of two African American men. The first was issued in 1913 and the second was issued in 1922. The practice continued in Arkansas and other communities in the South until 1964 with the enactment of the Twenty-fourth Amendment to the US Constitution which prohibits the poll tax. These receipts were among the items exhibited on Wall III. Items below were collected from Louisa Brown Gill’s trunk and reflect three things of importance to her. Louisa Brown Gill was the grandmother of Cozetta Gray Guinn and worked as a seamstress in the community.

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

The Cotton Gin . Told by Cozetta Guinn I grew up with stories about my paternal grandfather, Elijah Gray, Sr.. Some stories he told himself. One example…he was born a slave in Elkton, Kentucky, moved to Arkansas in 1874. Later he carried the US mail by “pony” express to adjacent counties from about 1898 to 1903. His route included the communities of Perryville, Houston, Bigelow, Dixie, Redemption, and took him across the Arkansas River to Conway. He bought his own farm in the east end of Perry County along the river in the Redemption-Toadsuck area. From the early 1900s to 1929 Elijah Gray, Sr. and Joseph L. Hawkins were co-owners of a cotton gin “Hawkins and Gray Ginners and Seed Buyers.” The two canceled checks from the Farmers State Bank showing 1918 signatures of Joseph L. Hawkins and the top check from the Bank of Conway of 1919 with the signature of H.H. Gray verify the existence of the cotton gin. In spite of the fact that he had no formal schooling, my grandfather was successful in providing a living for his family and work for several heads of households as well as other community service. After the devastating flood of 1927 and the stock market crash of 1929, the price of cotton fell. The cotton gin was lost to arson but he held on to the farm, which still remains in the family. He learned to read and write during the WPA days of the 1930s in the local Julius Rosenwald School. His teacher was one of my mother’s younger sisters. My grandfather’s motto was that “everyone should have a little piece of land” so if things got rough, one could raise a garden. Incorporated in some of my paintings are reflections of images gleaned from these stories…stories that keep me connected to my family and the community in which I was born.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Hawkins & Gray Ginners and Seed Buyers Contributed by Cozetta Guinn “…Gin my cotton, sell my seed Buy my baby ever’ thing she need…” Skip James, Blues singer, circa1930. Southern farmers took their cotton to the gin where the seeds were removed and the soft white material was compressed into large four to five hundred pound bales, tightly packed bundles held together with a burlap type cloth and thin metal bands. The ginners often bought the seed and resold it to manufacturers who processed the product into lubricant oil. In some cases the seed ended up as animal food. This photo was not included in the original exhibit but helps illustrate the process used by Elijah Gray of Hawkins and Gray Ginners and Seed Buyers. Photo courtesy of The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. . Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas.

Hawkins & Gray catered to local cotton growers, African American and white. The middle check was written to a white farmer

World War I – 1950

Case IV

Porcelain, Lace, and Silver Contributed by Dr. Robert Griffin, Dianne Quarles, and Omonike Weusi-Puryear From the 1880s, it was not uncommon to see members of the African American community having in their possession beautiful household items and other things of good taste and quality. Willard B. Gatewood, in his book Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite, 1880-1920 (1991) spoke of many wealthy black families in this category. He describes a certain Denver, Colorado man who had purchased a large house in the heart of the city. His wife was a gracious hostess, and their elegant residence was often the scene of receptions, teas, and dinners. However, it has been said that every American city, town, or community had a small, self-aware black group who felt it was their duty to set high standards for not only their own family but for others as well. Within these groups were gracious hosts and hostesses who, likewise, entertained in this manner. The lenders of the porcelain, lace, and silverware shown in this case may well be descendants of the “standard pacesetters.” Certainly the stories told by Dr. Robert Griffin about his grandmother’s porcelain, by Dianne Quarles about her grandmother’s linen tablecloth, and Omonike Weusi-Puryear’s story of the demitasse cups and silverware represent evidence of this trend.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

My Grandmother’s Linen Contributed by Dianne Hayes Quarles The linen tablecloth was hand made by my grandmother, Ruth Lewis Hedrick. She was the daughter of Virginia Thompson, a run-away slave from Dr. Thompson’s property. Her mother, Mamma Ginny, was a seamstress until she married a free Black man who came down from Canada to Louisiana. They had eleven children and were able to provide for them very well. Mamma Ginny taught her daughters the fine art of stitchery so they could have a proper “hope chest” befitting young girls of that time. The entire piece is stitched, embroidered and tatted by hand. Dianne Hayes Quarles Los Altos, California

Demitasse Cups Contributed by Omonike Weusi-Puryear Omonike Weusi-Puryear loaned the demitasse cups and the silver shown above. Over the years, they have been very meaningful items used by her family. She remembers when they were acquired and the pleasure derived from just having them. Her case notes read: The half cups (demitasse) were often used to serve coffee to dinner guests at our house in Bogalusa, Louisiana. My mother, Minnie Thomas Cooper believed that we lived in a provincial town, but we didn’t have to be provincial, too. Weusi-Puryear journeyed from Bogalusa to Dillard University, to the Peace Corps in the Philippines and the Middle East, to Job Corps and to San Jose Unified School District. She later married and raised a family, began teaching at De Anza, and entered the business world, which involved many miles and many changes. She has held on to the cups and today they have been transformed into use in her family’s Eretrian-based

Omonike Weusi-Puryear, instructor, Intercultural/International Studies Division, De Anza College

traditional coffee ritual during Kwaanza celebration.

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

China belonging to Elmira Bowens, circa 1860

The China of Elmira Bowens Contributed by Dr. Robert Griffin These items belonged to my great-grandmother, Elmira Bowens. I remember asking my grandmother, Carrietta Jones, about them because she usually told us stories about living and growing up in Texas. I remember her talking about having to leave Texas because of problems with white landowners and some oil they found on her property. My great grandmother was born a slave. She escaped from slavery several times when she was a very young girl. Each time they caught her and brought her back, they tried a new way to stop her from escaping. Once they even hung a bell around her neck on chains, so it would ring if she ran. She stuffed leaves in the bell and escaped. When they caught her they put a yoke around her neck and hung the bell out of her reach. Somehow she managed to escape again and was never caught. My mother, Ruby Griffin, said Grandma Elmira didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t talk much about slavery, but she had a cabinet where she kept special dishes locked away. She remembers the dishes as being beautiful and special to her grandmother (Elmira Bowens). The plate is from her cabinet. The plate and vase remind me of the strength and character that was my grandmotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s. I am sure it reminded my grandmother of the strength and character that was her run-away-slave mother. Robert Griffin Vice President of Student Affairs De Anza College

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Hand-Made Quilt Contributed by Texanna Tooles Davis This hand-made quilt was made by my stepmother Beatrice Reed Tooles and by me, Texanna Tooles Davis. When my stepmom passed away, I inherited this quilt topping. It is a precious piece of memories from the past. My mother taught me how to quilt when I was a child growing up in Mississippi. This quilt looks like one of many that my mother designed and hand made. She taught me the skills as she made them. When I inherited my stepmother’s incomplete quilt, I wanted to finish her fabulous artwork. However, I didn’t have the tools used then for quilting, so I improvised by clearing an area on the floor. Then I completed it working on my knees. To have participated in this learned skill was a joy. In addition, I felt the connection to both of these powerful and skilled women: my mom, a professional seamstress and domestic worker, and my stepmom, a professional seamstress and a schoolteacher, who was my fourth grade teacher. This precious project connected me to the Portuguese culture as well. On the day of putting up the displays, one worker recognized the pattern as similar to her Portuguese culture. Though her English and mine were not so good, we shared lots of memories of our part of history. I hope it will help connect others to their past as well. Texanna Davis Secretary, Transfer Center De Anza College

Texanna Davis (right) with Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear and Thelma Redmon at the panel presentation of “Californians Keeping Culturally Connected,” the California History Center, February 27, 2002.

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

Ballad for Americans by Paul Robeson Contributed by Willys Peck Willys Peck, journalist, attorney, author of Saratoga Stereopticon, and board member of the California History Center Foundation, loaned the Paul Robeson album to the exhibit. He also owns a Bert Williams album. Peck was born in Oakland, California, grew up in Saratoga, California, and continues to live there. He is sometimes referred to as “Mr. Saratoga” and carries the title of “Town Character.” A semi-retired journalist for the San Jose Mercury News, he has worked as a reporter, assistant city editor, and continues to work occasionally as copy editor. He also writes a regular column for the Saratoga News.

Willys Peck

Mr. Peck was one of three white persons to share memorabilia for this exhibit. The Paul Robeson album and Bert Williams’s memorabilia represent a segment of African American entertainment. Unlike Williams, who reluctantly played black-faced stereotypical caricatures through his nearly three decades in the performing arts, Robeson spoke out against racial injustice in America. Born in 1898 to educated parents, Robeson attended Rutgers College, became a member of Phi Beta Kappa his junior year, was an accomplished athlete, earned a law degree from Columbia University and pursued a career as an actor and singer. He was an activist whose outspoken persona earned government retaliation. He was blacklisted during the 1950s. Paul Robeson’s Ballad for Americans, 1940, Victor 2-record set in Case V.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Music, Minstrels, and the Cast Iron “L” Contributor Loretta Martin Green In 1994 Loretta Green received the following from this writer, which read in part: …I want to say to you that you have a way of articulating that which many of us, of diverse ages, genders, and backgrounds would like to shout to the world. I will write a letter and never mail it, paint a picture and never show it, and talk about it (a situation) to my close friends, but never bring myself to really share what I think, feel, or believe. It is through your writings, whether it is about a cancer patient, an injured football player receiving inspiration from an elderly woman, a refugee camp in East Africa, family, social, or political situations, you are a voice that speaks for many. I am so pleased to be a part of this community, which has a concerned writer such as you, who becomes our voice…. Another facet of Loretta Green is that she is an avid collector. In this exhibit she explains her love of collecting: I think I inherited the need to keep old things. Even today, things still occasionally arrive from my 86-year-old mother that reflect my own history. • A letter I wrote from Camp Atwater in Massachusetts in the 1950s. • A government stamp-rationing book she and my father had during World War II. • The rusted bell from the neck of my grandfather’s favorite cow. • A blurry photo of my great-great-great-grandfather. • A Marian Anderson souvenir program. She taught me the value of heritage. Though I grew up in the segregated South amid messages that told me I was inferior, my parents told me daily that I, and our people, were indeed – SOMEBODY. As a result, I became interested in our history. Along with the things I have collected within my family…that includes even the “negative” images. After all, minstrels, such as Bert Williams and George Walker had to perform to live. And so did

Age of Minstrels, 1865–1918

beautiful poets such as Paul Laurence Dunbar who sadly noted that the public demanded that he write in what he called “broken tongue.” There is talent, pain, pathos, beauty, strength, courage, intelligence and ingenuity behind so many of the things in my collection that represent the African-American. While I lift the heaviness of my great-grandmother’s smoothing iron or feel the mass of the cast iron weight from the scale where my grandfather weighed cotton from his farm, I am reminded that someone before me toted my water and lifted my bales. And for that, I am grateful and very proud of this great heritage. Loretta Green Palo Alto, California San Jose Mercury News journalist

Case V: Philip Simmons, known as the “Charleston Blacksmith,” who passed away in 2009 at age 97, had done many of Charleston, South Carolina’s distinctive ironwork gates and the Chamber of Commerce used him in their ads. Loretta Green visited him at his unpretentious forge and he gave her this “L” which he used for decades as a pattern. He hammered his mark – “PS” – into it. Simmons is recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts. The South Carolina State Museum prominently displays a Philip Simmons Gate, which has the state’s palmetto tree. Simmons’s work is also in the collections of the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. Sheet music: “Six Negro Folk Songs” featuring Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, 1943. Anderson (1897-1993) was the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan Opera Company, but it was not until 1955 when she was in her late 50s and near the end of her career. Robeson (1898-1976) was an actor, singer and football All-American who had a law degree from Columbia University. He triumphed in Othello in 1940 on Broadway and campaigned for civil rights. Later his political beliefs regarding communism got him barred from the US until the mid-1950s. Sheet music: “It Won’t Be Very Long” was a supplement to the San Francisco Examiner in 1898. Derogatory sheet music was common during this time and appeared in newspapers as an “extra” for the readers’ enjoyment. Sheet music: Bert Williams, “Nobody,” 1905; Williams’ Jubilee Singers, 1920s; Duke Ellington and Bob Russell, “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me,” 1940; “Ma Angeline” in San Francisco Examiner, 1896.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Case VI Books and Cosmetology Tools The five books in this case, from left to right, were Standard Textbook of Cosmetology, a book designed specifically for Ms. Odile Thomas’s School for Cosmetology in Kentwood, Louisiana; Paul Laurence Dunbar’s Candle-Lightin’ Time, illustrated with photographs by the Hampton Institute Camera Club and decorated by Margaret Armstrong, published in 1901 by the University Press, John Wilson And Son, Cambridge,Massachusetts; a 1928 edition of Negro Makers of History by Carter G. Woodson, Ph.D., published by The Associated Publishers, Washington, DC; Folks From Dixie, a book of stories by Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1898, loaned by Loretta Green; a pink and green Alpha Kappa Alpha handbook loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear. Seven members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority (the oldest Greek-letter sorority of black college women established in America) were lenders to the exhibit: Gay Alexander, Dianne Quarles, Omonike Weusi-Puryear, Carolyn Wilkins-Greene, Dr. Marion Winters, Mary Parks Washington, and Cozetta Gray Guinn.

Heater, Curling Iron, and Straightening Comb Contributed by Angela Jones Puryear andDr. Muata Weusi-Puryear. My mother, Angela Jones Puryear, who is now 88 years old, graduated from high school with high grades and the skills to be a secretary. Seventy years ago in Asbury Park, New Jersey white business owners would not hire my mother even though she was highly qualified for the position. Two years after my mother’s graduation, my grandparents sent her to a boarding school to learn to be a beautician. The gas stoves were used to heat the hot comb and curling irons. The hot comb was used to straighten black women’s hair and the curling irons were used to style the straightened hair. Great skill was required to know the proper amount of heat needed to straighten or style a woman’s hair because hair textures vary. My wife Omonike displays the stoves and curling irons in our home as though they are pieces of sculpture. They are a reminder to us and to our three sons of the adjustments my mother had to make in order to be a successful person in the United States. Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear Mathematics Instructor De Anza College

World War I – 1950

Curling Irons and Straightening Comb Contributed by Yvonne Kennedy and Stephanie Ware Yvonne Kennedy narrates: My twin aunts, one of whom was Stephanieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grandmother, used these hair styling tools. Sarah Ware, a city government administrator and Henrietta Crawford, a nurse, also owned and operated beauty salons for 35 years in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Henrietta became a cosmetology instructor at the Ella-Rene School of Beauty. Aaron Kennedy, Sr., a Ford Motor Company technician, became interested in hair care when his daughter was a teenager. He enrolled in a Cleveland, Ohio beauty school, received his Cosmetology license and became the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only hair stylist. We have kept these tools as a reminder of the influence our families have had on three major lifetime lessons: a) a strong work ethic b) continuing education, and c) maintaining healthy hair, skin and bodies. Yvonne Kennedy Cupertino, California Stephanie Ware De Anza College Student

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Miss Odile Thomas Cosmetology Textbook Contributed by Omonike Weusi-Puryear Omonike Weusi-Puryear narrates: In the 1930s and 40s the people who controlled power in the United States did not permit progressive Black women to enter professions. Therefore, many became teachers or beauticians. My aunt, Odile Thomas, was one of those. In the early 1960s she opened a beauty school in her hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana. The textbook, labeled Odile’s Beauty School, was the school’s text. Omonike Weusi-Puryear Instructor, Intercultural/International Studies Division De Anza College Drawing by Richard Thomas.

World War I – 1950

World War I – 1950 and Beyond

Wall IV — Aviation, Military and Boxing

World War 1 and Beyond Images and documents themselves alone do not tell a story. They lie on the surface of history like floating debris from a shipwreck after the vessel itself has gone down underneath the waves… —Richard Wormser. 2003 African Americans are known to have participated in every war in which the United States has been involved. When congress declared war against the Central Powers in April 1917, African Americans were among the first to volunteer and serve. More than two hundred thousand went overseas as stevedores, artillerymen, machine gunners, and infantrymen… —William Loren Katz, 1995 Jim Crow did not end with the beginning of World War I. In 1914, as war erupted in Europe, the United States elected a new president, Woodrow Wilson, a Southern Democrat. When he took office a number of anti-Black bills were introduced in the legislature. Such political indicators were accompanied by similar social reinforcement emerging from the White House. In 1915 Wilson embraced D.W. Griffith’s Birth of a Nation, a film that validated the Ku Klux Klan. According to John Hope Franklin, lynching and other forms of violence increased. In April 1917, the United States entered World War I. In the same month, black volunteers were no longer accepted in the military. However, when the draft was

The Black Boys in Khaki Excerpts from a poem by Mrs. A.C.H. Bilbew and published by Delilah Beasley in Negro Trail Blazers of California, 1919. “When Alsace sighed and Lorraine cried, Till her streets with tears were wet; With your Anglo comrade by your side, You helped America pay her debt. Black boys in khaki, America is proud of you, For you have proven once for all, You’re Americans thru and thru.

initiated a month later, Blacks, who were 10 percent of the population, accounted for 13 percent of the inductees. Labor and stevedore battalions in the military were basically black. Black soldiers who trained in the South were treated more harshly than black civilians by white Americans. Nevertheless, these men fought valiantly in France. Among the battles were the “Henry Johnson” and the “Argonne Forest.” As stories were told of black soldiers heroic efforts, lynching and riots continued in the United States. When the war ended and they, along with other military personnel, came home to ticker-tape parades, black tolerance was still challenged and race riots continued heavily for the next several years.

And if she should establish Democracy

As material was collected for this exhibit, several docu-

Away across the sea,

ments were brought in for sharing that reflected strong evi-

There is no doubt she’ll bring it about

dence of African American participation in World War I.

In her own land of the free”

Military photographs, draft cards, and discharge papers were among the items listed. These pieces of memorabilia acknowl-

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

edged the contributions of black soldiers to World War I. Here, as in the War of Independence, the War of 1812, the Civil War, the Indian wars, and the Spanish American War, their service had made a difference. On Wall IV the soldier in the World War I uniform is Herschel H. Gray who was drafted into the Army in February 1918. Within six weeks he had spent time at Camp Pike in North Little Rock, Arkansas and at a camp at Newport News, Virginia. After three weeks at the latter location, his company was called out to drill and was drilled right aboard the USS Madawaska which took them to France. Gray was a stevedore in St. Nazaire and Is-sur-Tille, France, where his job was loading and unloading heavy bags until one day a number of bags cascaded down and injured him. He was hospitalized for the duration of the war. Four months earlier, in October of 1917, his older brother, Elijah (misspelled Elige on this document) Gray had been inducted into the army. He too, was sent to France and participated in three battles, one of which was fought in the Argonne Forest. Their father was a former slave, Elijah Gray, who was born in Kentucky and after the Civil War migrated to Arkansas. The older Gray purchased land, and became the co-owner of a cotton gin. After the war, both Elijah and Herschel returned to the United States, honorably discharged. Herschel, who had attended Shorter College before the war, upon his return would work for his non-reading father as secretary and accountant in the cotton gin business of Hawkins and Gray Ginners and Seed Buyers in Perry County, Arkansas. As for the younger Elijah, it appears that the war experience left him less stable. When he returned home from World War I, he seemed always restless. Documents of these two World War I soldiers are included in the catalog. Also on Wall IV is a picture of woman pilot, Bessie Coleman. Her career began shortly after World War I. She was a Chicago manicurist, a black woman who wished to train to become a pilot but had to do so outside the United States. Determined to fulfill this dream, she traveled abroad to earn an international pilot’s license and become one of the first women to fly an airplane. Numerous doors were closed to her in America. Perhaps this occurred because of race, or perhaps because she was a woman. Despite the roadblocks, Coleman achieved her goal and participated in air shows for a brief period. She was killed in a plane crash in Texas. Even though she was a pioneer in aviation, research by this writer in several recent books about African American history found no mention of her. Coleman’s pioneer adventures took place about the same time as the period known as the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. This was a time of great achievement in art, dance, literature, and music. In 1929, at the time of the stock market crash, the economic scenario was negative for Blacks and whites. However, 1932 would see Franklin Delano Roosevelt elected President of the United States. Blacks who had generally voted for the Republican Party changed their affiliation to the Democratic Party. President Roosevelt embarked on a Depression-recovery program known as the New Deal. The New Deal appealed to many Blacks. He also brought in some black advisors who were highly respected individuals. Among them were Mary McLeod Bethune, who founded Bethune Cookman College and the National Council of Negro Women, Robert Vann of the Pittsburgh Courier and Robert Weaver. They were instrumental in providing leadership during the days of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).

World War I – 1950

By 1939 World War II was looming. The Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), during the same year had refused to allow Marian Anderson, the famous African American contralto, to sing in their privately owned facility. The incident led First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt to resign from the DAR. As First Lady, Mrs. Roosevelt was supportive of social justice projects and neutralized some stereotypes regarding African Americans. In 1941 the United States became involved in the war. By 1942 the United States Army had established a school for black pilots at Tuskegee Institute although the experiment was not supported by members of Congress. Displayed on Wall IV were photographs of four military men of that eraâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;Corporal Charles Kennedy, seen with the rifle, Staff Sergeant Rayfield Wilkins, Sr., of the 101st Buffalo Division in Ft. Huachuca, Arizona, Lieutenant Colonel Harold C. Hayes of the Tuskegee Airmen, and Sergeant Joe Louis Barrow, the famous heavyweight boxing champion from 1937-1940. The Tuskegee Project was an experimental one. Many whites did not believe that African Americans were capable of becoming pilots. No doubt those embracing that kind of thinking would be surprised to learn that Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt personally went to the Tuskegee facility and flew with one of the pilots. In a second plane, the assistant, who accompanied her on her visit, flew with Lieutenant Colonel Hayes. The Tuskegee Airmen are today legendary heroes. The history of African Americans in aviation continues with space travel. Additional photographs on this wall belong to Dr. Bernard Harris, an astronaut of the 1990s who participated in two successful space flights for NASA. Two other African American astronauts are also featured in the exhibit, Dr. Mae Jemison on Wall VIII and Commander Charles Bolden in Case VIII. Lastly, shown on Wall IV are two magazine covers. The first features Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong and the second shows Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Each person shown on Wall IV has earned an honorable place in American history. All of the memorabilia associated with them and displayed in the exhibit are dear to the hearts of Californians, who are today Keeping Culturally Connected to these heroes.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Elijah Gray Enlistment Record, 1917 Contributed by Cozetta Guinn

World War I â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1950

Stories from World War I to 1950 Told by Cozetta Guinn

Left: Herschel H. Gray, circa 1918 Right: Eula Gray and her sister, Viola Jones, circa 1931

For as long as I can remember I have kept culturally connected through the arts. Reading, poetry, and storytelling were important in our home. Both my mother and father were excellent storytellers. However, it was my dad who would periodically go to his trunk, open it, look over “old papers” and other paraphernalia. Then he would explain the contents. This was always a special moment for me. Unlike some of my siblings, I never left early, even though I had heard the stories over and over. It was a ritual that would last for over forty years. My father’s stories marked situational changes in his life and that of the community in which he lived. He told of the awful storm of 1908 that devastated Toadsuck, the small rural community where I was born in Perry County, Arkansas. He would describe details of his US Army days in World War I. My father died in 1979. About nine months before he passed away he penned one such story: …It was in 1918, in January, I was living with my father, 1/4 mile from the Arkansas River (about) 2 1/2 or 3 miles below Toad Suck Bridge in our area. The snow fell 12 to 14 inches. It bent small trees to the ground and some of them never straightened up anymore. We had a heater and kept warm by it. I had my U.S. Military Service call card. The snow was gone in about three weeks. I had to leave in February. I walked 10 miles to Bigelow to catch the train to Perry. Then I had to walk from Perry to the Perryville Courthouse for enlistment. No place to stay in Perryville. They sent me to a place near Houston, Arkansas called the Cardon Farm where some blacks live. The next morning I had to appear at the courthouse at

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

9 AM they took me to the (train) station, and soon I was in Little Rock, transferred to Camp Pike. They made me a (an) M.P. I walked guard all night with an M. P. club in my hand. One night it rained so hard until water ran over the top of my feet on a hillside. In three weeks they sent my company to Newport News, Virginia. I was there about three weeks, and one night they called our company out for drilling. We drilled around for a while and the next thing I knew we were walking into a ship they called the Matti-K Waski. About the ninth day out on the water, we came in contact with a submarine. They began shooting at them with long-range rifles, which didn’t seem to do any good. So they got the machine guns and began shooting. I was standing by one of the machine guns when they started shooting that’s when my ear was affected and I have lost my hearing. I can hardly understand what people say, and can’t read lips… Herschel Gray went to France on the USS Madawaska (later called the USAT U.S. Grant). Like many African Americans, he was assigned a heavy-duty service job and was injured while performing that duty. He was taken to a hospital where he had contact with other soldiers who had been wounded in battles. My mother Eula Gray’s stories were often dramatic community oral histories. They spanned from very, very funny children’s pranks to sad things that happened, such as lynching. It was through my parents that I, also, grew up with stories about my grandparents. The Californians Keeping Culturally Connected exhibit included a painting and story of my paternal grandfather, Elijah Gray. Incorporated in some of my paintings are reflections of images gleaned from these stories. Cozetta Gray Guinn Artist, Historian Los Altos, California

World War II Soldier Charles Kennedy Contributed by Omonike Weusi-Puryear In 1939 World War II began in Europe. By 1941, America had entered the conflict. Once again, African Americans were drafted. This image documents African American participation in the war.

Charles Kennedy, with an Enfield Rifle, circa 1942. Husband of Julia Cooper Kennedy of Louisiana. Submitted by Omonike Weusi-Puryear, niece of Julia Cooper Kennedy.

World War I – 1950

In addition to those soldiers who served in the infantry, another group of men chose to be pilots, even though mainstream America generally believed they were incapable of this achievement. The collage shown here is made of 12 photographs created by Lt. Col. Harold C. Hayes, Sr., between 1942 and 1946. His younger daughter Dianne Hayes Quarles shared the photographs and the following story.

Dianne Hayes Quarles, contributor Los Altos, California

The Tuskegee Airmen: Lt. Col. Harold C. Hayes, Sr. Photographs and Narrative Contributed by Dianne Hayes Quarles I am proud to be an American. I am proud to be the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman, the late Lt. Col. Harold C. Hayes, Sr. They knew him as Lt. Hayes, a tough officer and a role model for the young men coming in. Dad was a pilot turned navigation instructor. Each and every airman at Tuskegee had to pass his class. He was known as a tough instructor. He knew that

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

excellent navigation skills were critical in saving lives and ensuring the men would be able to find their way home in adverse conditions. They couldn’t be just the best. They had to be better than the best. It was the “Tuskegee Experiment.” They were in the heart of the Deep South where segregation ruled and lynchings were still common. White senators and congressmen argued on Capitol Hill that “Negroes” were incapable of flying airplanes. My father was among the first African American men at Tuskegee to proudly disprove that myth. The 99th Pursuit Squadron, the “Red Tails,” went on to earn one of the most outstanding records of any squadron in World War II. I grew up hearing the stories and meeting the heroes. I was thrilled as a youngster to visit with Brigadier General & Mrs. Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. The Tuskegee Airmen were pioneers and the pride of their people. I am proud to have been raised in the American spirit. I am happy to share some of my father’s pictures from Tuskegee (see collage). In the center is my father, a handsome, tall man from Boston. He gave up flying when my sister was born in 1943 at Tuskegee, Alabama. There he is with some of his buddies on the runway. Singer Lena Horne, performed for the men and was honored with a seat in the cockpit of one of the planes. The barracks and facilities were not the best, but you can see the pride in their hearts as they posed in front of their barracks and got ready for graduation. Women also served at Tuskegee in many support capacities. Lena Horne proudly posed with some of the airmen in front of the statue of Booker T. Washington, founder of Tuskegee Institute. Another African American celebrity, heavyweight boxing champion and soldier Joe Louis, shown in the cafeteria, was proud to support the men at Tuskegee. After graduation there was plenty to celebrate. They knew they were the best of the best. I am proud to be the daughter of a Tuskegee Airman.

World War I – 1950

Rayfield Wilkins, Sr. ca.1943 Contributor by Carolyn Wilkins-Greene Thousands of miles away from Tuskegee, another group of black soldiers, stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona wore the badge of the Buffalo, a symbolic gesture to honor another group of soldiers who aided American expansion in the southwestern United States.

Carolyn Wilkins-Greene Carolyn Wilkins-Greene is the daughter of the late Rayfield Wilkins, Sr., and the lender of two items to the exhibit: the December, 1953 issue of Etude magazine and the photograph of her father. The following narrative accompanying the photograph gives some valuable historic information. Rayfield Wilkins, Sr. ca.1943 Buffalo Division, U.S. Army Ft. Huachuca, Arizona

During World War II, Ray Wilkins served his country in the Buffalo Division of the U. S. Army. The Buffalo Division was a famous Black Division that gained its name and reputation during the invasion of Indian

land in what became the Western United States during the 19th century. American Indians saw the Black soldiers as fierce fighters that commanded their respect. Because of the physical appearance of the Black soldiers with brown skin and woolly hair, Indians called them “Buffalo Soldiers.” The term reappeared during World War II with the naming of one of the segregated Black units the “Buffalo Division.” This Division was stationed at Ft. Huachuca, Arizona. In basic training, Ray Wilkins earned the Expert Infantryman’s Badge (EIB) and later the rank of Staff Sergeant. In addition to this, he earned the Combat Infantryman’s Badge (CIB). Staff Sergeant Wilkins was wounded in combat in the European theatre in Italy and subsequently awarded the Purple Heart.

Carolyn Wilkins-Greene Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities De Anza College

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

“Most Valuable Boxers of 1938” “The Battle of the Century” Contributed by Loretta Martin Green

Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong From the turn of the twentieth century with Jack Johnson, to Joe Louis and Henry Armstrong in the 1930s, to the postWorld War II era of Sugar Ray Robinson, Sonny Liston, Joe Frazier, Muhammad Ali, George Foreman, and Ray Leonard, among others, boxing in the African American community has been a highly popular sport. For many Blacks, when an African American won in the ring, it was more than just one fighter against another. It was as though the sports hero was liberating black people all over the world. True to this concept, it was no surprise that two boxing publications would be among the items chosen for this exhibit. Each carried its own message. Each rekindled memories of the not-toodistant past when boxers were heroes extraordinaire. Many African Americans live their lives vicariously through boxers and other sports persons. One can find evidence in the March 1939 issue of The Ring, “Boxing Records for 1938.” The cover page featured the smiling faces of Joe Louis and The Ring, March 1939

Henry Armstrong, which, most probably, had a positive impact on the African American community. The images were set against a background of a golden shield topped by an

eagle with wide spread wings and two red, white, and blue American flags near the base. The caption reads: “Most Valuable Boxers of 1938.” The cost was 25 cents. The depression, which had been harsh on the nation as a whole was even harder on many black people. By this time, Europe was on the verge of World War II, the Italians had invaded Ethiopia, and Haile Selassie, a hero to African Americans, was in exile. Therefore, any positive news about black people was worthy to report. After all was said and done, most Blacks in America wanted to be fully accepted as citizens, complete with all the privileges. Every positive image was viewed as one step closer to obtaining that goal. At first glance, judging from the smiles of the two men, one might get the impression that their journey to the cover had been made with ease. On the contrary, Louis is reported to have knocked out 35 of 36 oppo-

World War I – 1950

nents including Primo Carnera and Jim J. Braddock before acquiring the title of heavyweight boxing champion. Generally, icons carry symbolic meanings. When one considers the year—1938—the smiles, the flags, and the golden eagle, one can assume that metaphorically, a statement is being made. Although a popular boxer in his own right, Armstrong did not receive the degree of fame of Louis. Nevertheless, his championship was widely recognized and respected. Joe Louis served as a US Army sergeant in World War II, before the 1948 Executive Order 9981, issued by President Truman, desegregating the armed forces. Louis died in 1981 and was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery. Henry Armstrong was a middleweight boxer from St. Louis, Missouri. The 5’7” champion was known as the “Buzz-Saw,” and “Homicide Hank.” His opponents included Baby Arizmendi and Fritzie Zivic. Armstrong turned professional after failing to make the 1932 Olympic boxing team. In 1933 he embarked on a journey that led him to a successful 12-year career and a record that stood at 151-21-9 with 101 knockouts. Armstrong is the only boxer to have simultaneously held three world titles – featherweight, welterweight and lightweight. He knocked out featherweight champion Petey Sarron in 1937. In 1938 he had a 15-round decision over welterweight Barney Ross and a 15 round split decision when he took away Lou Ambers’s lightweight crown. In 1943 Armstrong lost a 10-round lightweight decision to Sugar Ray Robinson. He continued his boxing career until 1945. By that time he had lost most of his skills. Henry Armstrong was born Henry Jackson in Columbus, Mississippi in 1912. His family moved to St. Louis, Missouri when he was 4 years old. He was an honor student at Vashon High School. Armstrong’s success was not accompanied by comparable earnings. When he retired at age 32, most of his money was gone. He is reported to have overcome alcoholism. In 1951, he was ordained a Baptist minister. Armstrong was founder of the Henry Armstrong Youth Foundation. When The Ring Magazine Boxing Hall of Fame opened in 1954, Henry Armstrong was one of the first inductees. Armstrong died October 22, 1988 in Los Angeles.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali Thirty–three years after Louis and Armstrong were featured as “The Most Valuable Boxers of 1938,” two other African Americans boxers were chronicled in a spectacular boxing event. The April 1971 publication of International Boxing Souvenir Issue featured Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali on its cover. Ali had been an Olympic champion (Cassius Clay) as well as world heavyweight boxing champion, beating Sonny Liston and Floyd Patterson along the way. He had also converted to Islam. However, this change in religious preference and his refusal to be drafted into the Vietnam War would cause him a lot of problems. Ali was stripped of his title and forced out of boxing. He eventually returned to the ring. Although the cost was considerable in many respects, he became a positive role model and legend for many African Americans. Joe Frazier was born in the Gullah area of Beaufort, South Carolina in 1944 nearly two years after International Boxing, April 1971.

Muhammad Ali. At age twenty he won the 1964 Olympic gold medal.

Known publicly as “Smokin’ Joe,” he is reported to have been one of the hardest working fighters ever in the history of boxing. When Muhammad Ali was in exile from the ring in the late 1960s, Frazier’s successful fights included defeating Buster Mathis and Jerry Quarry. Frazier was elected to the Boxing Hall of Fame in 1980. Of his 37 professional fights, 27 were won by knockouts. There was one loss by decision, 3 losses by knockout, and 5 victories by decision. Frazier is remembered as an excellent boxer in much the same way as Henry Armstrong. His fame was also eclipsed by Ali’s, but to many, he is a culture-hero.

World War I – 1950

Bernard A. Harris, Jr., M.D. NASA Astronaut, Retired Contributed by Vera Randle

STS-55 D-2 Columbia The major objective of the mission is to conduct research which cannot be performed on Earth, yet whose result could have far-reaching effects upon our lives on Earth. To do this, D-2 will take advantage of the unique laboratory facility installed in Columbia’s payload bay. National Aeronautics And Space Administration. Excerpt from STS D-2 Columbia Launch Program. Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr. was a member of the crew of STS-55 of the Space Shuttle Columbia where he served as a Mission Specialist and conducted experiments outside the spacecraft. He is a native Texan whose early school years were spent on Navajo reservations in Arizona and New Mexico. A portion of his training was locally at NASA, in

Dr. Bernard A. Harris, Jr., NASA Astronaut, Retired Vice President SPACEHAB, Inc A Horatio Alger Award Recipient. Photographs courtesy of NASA

Sunnyvale, California. A collage of his photographs was loaned by Vera Randle, a teacher in the Sunnyvale School District, who was a friend and neighbor of the Harris family in Greasewood, Arizona and Tohatchi, New Mexico.

Vera Randle contributed two items to the exhibit. The first was a poster featuring explorer Matthew Henson and astronaut Mae Jemison (not shown). The second was a collage made from five personal photographs of Bernard Harris, M.D., NASA Astronaut, Retired, and Vice President of SPACEHAB, Inc. Vera Randle, Foster City, California Teacher, Sunnyvale School District

“I first met Bernard when his mother and I worked for the United States Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. He was in fifth grade and I was a first year teacher in a Greasewood, Arizona boarding school on a Navajo Indian Reservation. We lived in the same apartment complex. His mother, Mrs. Gussie Burgess, was like a “big sister” to me. We would later move to Chuska Boarding School in Tohatchi, New Mexico. I was always part of their extended family, and we remain close today.”

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

World War I â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1950

The Price of Cotton

Wall V: When the Price of Cotton Fell Top: Rural South. Oil. Cozetta.Gray Guinn, ca.1979. Lower left: Poor Manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Cotton. Lithograph. Hale Woodruff, 1934. Lower right: Relics. Linoleum block print. Hale Woodruff, 1935.

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When the Price of Cotton Fell From the invention of the cotton gin nearly a quarter century before the Civil War to the time of the stock market crash in late 1929, the economy of the South was based on cotton. The phrase “cotton is king” was common and there was a reason. Previously, rice, indigo, tobacco, lumber, and sugar cane had been the products to sustain the population. When, in the early 1790s, the modern cotton gin was invented, a device which could separate the small seed from the soft fiber much faster and more efficiently than pulling and carding by hand, there was a change in the South’s economic base. The transformation was smoothly accomplished since the basics were already in place. First of all cultivating cotton was dependent on land sufficiently fertile for growing the plant. Secondly, it needed a substantial amount of free or cheap labor for cultivation and harvesting. It was a time when Egypt’s cotton production was in decline and there was a growing international demand for American cotton.

As slavery was already in place, profit from the cultivation of cotton was substantially increased

over previous crops. The growing of cotton with its subsequent by-products was proven far superior to the production of rice, indigo, tobacco, lumber, and sugar. Fiber was used in the textile industry for making garments. The hulls, the shells in which the cotton lay, were used in soil amendments. The cotton stalk provided material for paper products, while the seed could be turned into animal food, lubricant oil, cooking oil, and margarine. Returns of this magnitude enabled the South to become a one-crop economy.

Even after slavery ended, cotton continued to play a major role in the economic growth of the

This photo was not part of the original exhibit but helps illustrate the cotton harvesting process. Photo courtesy of The Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Central Arkansas Library System, Little Rock, Arkansas.

World War I – 1950

United States, and ironically, substantial change never occurred in terms of the status of the newly freed slaves. The political climate of the period permitted pre-Civil War landowners to reclaim land while many rural Southern black people, tenant farmers and sharecroppers, provided cheap labor, as cotton remained a high-end commodity. Sharecropping practices were supposedly designed to allow an individual farmer to live on a planter’s land, raise a crop, and share the profits. However, the plan proved to be economically good for the landowner, but left many sharecroppers bound to the land, not able to clear enough profit from their work ever to get out of debt, and unable to leave. The sharecropper who lived on the planter’s land bought tools, seed, food, and clothing from the owner’s store and created cotton-based wealth. Meanwhile, creative laws were put in place to maintain this balance of power between owner and sharecropper. With this one-crop economy, the rich became richer and the poor remained poor. It is important to note that not all whites were landowners, some were share-tenants and some were sharecroppers. Despite the cheap labor and other unscrupulous tactics, every year was not a profitable cotton-crop year. In the early twentieth century periodic disasters occurred in various locations. There were devastating storms, disastrous floods, and a small insect known as the boll weevil that destroyed the cotton while it was green. World War I also adversely affected the price of cotton. By the late 1920s storms, floods, the domestic political climate as well as the general condition of the world market were instrumental in crushing the power of cotton. The stock market crash of late 1929 brought with it bank closures in the early 1930s. There was a massive loss of jobs, widespread hunger, and the Great Depression loomed over America and the world. The price of cotton fell, drastically. Images described here are shown on Wall V.

The Years Between the Wars The years between the wars were in many ways and at different times devastating for all segments of American society. There was racial tension that culminated in race riots and Jim Crow practices with continued lynching of Blacks. Prominent among these conflicts were the Tulsa, Oklahoma riot of 1921 and the Rosewood, Florida incident of 1923. Then there was the great migration from the South of Blacks moving to the North in search of a better life. There were cultural, economic, political and social struggles and changes from the 1920s through the 1930s and 1940s. It was a period when all Americans experienced some catastrophic times. However, for African Americans, while some things remained status quo, a number of cultural strides were made. A case in point is the period known as the Harlem Renaissance when visual art, music, and literature of the black community emerged and left a profound mark in American history. In 1929 the stock market crashed, then came the great depression, the dust bowl, the New Deal, the Works Progress Administration (WPA), World War II, the Japanese American internment camps, The Tuskegee Airmen, and the “Tuskegee Study of Untreated Syphilis.” Encompassed in this period were also signs of hope. The New Deal ushered in economic aid giving relief to many Blacks and whites. Meanwhile, black people continued to struggle as second and third class citizens. Likewise they continued to organize and protest discrimination while the NAACP, through these years, aided by Walter White, Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall, Roy Wilkins, Medgar Evers, and others challenged these practices in the courts.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Seeing History Through African and American Art Collections Art From The Hooper Collection Dr. Lawrence B. Hooper and the late Wilma Austin Hooper were supporters of the arts and avid collectors of art from Africa, Asia and the USA from the early 1960s to 1999. Although multiculturalism is apparent in the diversity of the images of art and memorabilia, the vast majority of their collection reflects the African and African American Diaspora. Included in this exhibit are three important works from the Hooper collection. The first is a poster of a reward for runaway slaves dating back to the mid 1850s. The second, a Hale Woodruff poster, Poor Man’s Cotton, 1934, was published by Shoreman of Newark, New Jersey. The third is an original 1935 block print by Woodruff, Relics. It is signed but not dated. According to one of his students, Mary Washington, it was a common practice for him only to sign, and not date, his work. Hale Woodruff is, perhaps, most noted for his mural, Mutiny Aboard the Amistad, 1939.

Poor Man’s Cotton (detail), Hale Woodruff, 1934.

World War I – 1950

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community 1950â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000

Wall VI and Case VII (lower right).

Memories From Faculty, Staff, Students, and the Community 1950–2000 The last fifty years covered in the exhibit required three walls and focused on memorabilia from 1950 to 2000. Included were photographs and stories of families migrating to San Francisco as well as to other Peninsula and South Bay communities. At the time this migration pattern was occurring, there were stories of continuing segregation in the Southern states. By 1950, WWII was five years into history. America had been victorious. European and American allies had teamed up and won the war and the US emerged as a Cold War superpower. However, discriminatory practices continued in private sectors of society During the years from 1950 to 2001 some significant changes in America took place. Among them were Supreme Court rulings, the ongoing Civil Rights movement, the Korean Conflict and the Vietnam War. Some unforgettable events that impacted black people included Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, decision where, in 1954, the Supreme Court overturned school segregation at all levels. Education and housing were among the major problems. In the early 1950s, black children in the South attended segregated schools. Although the law in some states was operating on the so-called “separate but equal” system, most people knew there was little equality, especially for the African American. In general, hotel accommodations for Blacks in certain areas were non-existent. Even well-known entertainers were unable to stay in major hotels. Some black small business owners provided shelter to entertainers. During this period an all-black California town, Allensworth, struggled to survive. Evidence of these situations was chronicled in the CHC exhibit on Wall VI. One such article featured a Fort Smith, Arkansas newspaper account of blues musician, B.B. King (Riley Ben King) commenting about his experience of not getting accommodations at the city’s hotel and having no choice except to secure this service at the Stevenson family’s home. The Stevensons were African Americans who rented to “colored people.” In 1955 Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama. Then in 1957, nine black students integrated Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas. In 1960 college students from Greensboro, North Carolina (the home of North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and Bennett College) staged sit-ins. In 1963, A. Phillip Randolph and others organized the “March on Washington” and Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson and the Poll Tax was abolished that year. By now the Civil Rights movement had become a prominent feature on television newscasts and in the pages of newspapers. There was a push to end discrimination and resistance against change. The conflict led to numerous assassinations and murders. In 1965, civil rights leader and minister of the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, was killed. In Los Angeles the Watts riot occurred.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

The year 1968 brought the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. The same year, track and field and cross-country athletes at San Jose State College including Tommie Smith, John Carlos, and De Anza College Vice President of Student Services Robert “Bob” Griffin (featured in the exhibit) came to prominence in the sports world as “Speed City” stars. In 1968 several African Americans became more visible in the political arena. Shirley Chisholm ran for president of the United States and Kenneth Gibson became mayor of Newark, New Jersey in 1970. Thomas Bradley became mayor of Los Angeles in 1973 while Maynard Jackson was elected mayor of Atlanta. Jesse Jackson ran for the office of President in 1988 and Carol Moseley Braun became the first black woman senator in 1992. Mae Jamison was the first black woman to go into space aboard the space shuttle Endeavor. In 1993 M. Joycelyn Elders, a classmate of this author, from Philander Smith College, became the first woman to serve as Surgeon General of the United States. The positive progress of the period of 1950 to 2001 came as a result of hard work, persistence, resistance, and fortitude. There were people of many races, black, white, and others, and both men and women, who supported the struggle. They were the ones at the grass roots level who became involved. They fought in wars, protested, marched, went to jail, and died to gain many of the freedoms that are part of the American system today thus paving the way for individuals to become independent thinkers capable of continuing the legacy. On Walls VII-IX documents of artists, poets and national leaders of the “sixties” are displayed as the legacy continues and voices of protest are heard across the nation. Lastly, on Wall X, intellectually gifted and upwardly mobile young executives demonstrate success in their work by quietly accepting challenges and meeting needs in their respective endeavors.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

Sunday Morning . at Bethel. Oil Bigelow, Arkansas Cozetta Gray Guinn, 1984

The Black Church Contributed by Cozetta Guinn Sunday Morning At Bethel, a painting of a rural African Methodist Episcopal Church, was among four of the artist’s prints displayed in the exhibit. Small churches such as this one played a major role in the black community. Local congregations, with connections to the national church body, became the leaders at the grass-roots level in the education of young black students. The congregations played a prominent role in the early education of African descendants, mainly freedmen of the Northeast and post-Civil War Blacks in the southern states. Founded in 1787 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first church was dedicated as Bethel AME and today is generally referred to as “Mother Bethel.” Bishop R.R. Wright, Jr., Ph.D., in 1957, wrote: The founders of Bethel Church were people called “Africans” then; they would now be called “Negroes.” Their leader was Richard Allen, a local preacher of great spiritual power and dynamic personality. He was assisted by many others. He was born a slave in 1760, bought his own freedom… The church in the painting above is in the Toadsuck (or Toad Suck) Ferry Community of Bigelow, Arkansas. This was the church home of my grandfather and my father. Before the days of the Rosenwald School in Bigelow, 1926-1957, some of the young black community residents were sent to Shorter College, an AME institution in North Little Rock, Arkansas, for advanced study. From circa 1914 to 1917, Herschel H. Gray, my father, attended Shorter College.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Elijah Gray Sr., circa 1855-1946 Painting and story by Cozetta Guinn This painting is a portrait of my grandfather, Elijah Gray, painted over the course of one evening from memory in 1973. I recall that, at the time, I had run across an old advertisement of a brand of candy, “Uncle Sam’s Kisses,” that he lovingly gave to his grandchildren on special occasions, such as Christmas, or for drawing a bucket of water from the well for him, shucking corn to feed his animals, or for sweeping his house. The gift was always one piece of candy that he took from a tin box. During my very early years, the only well on our farm was at Grandpa’s house. Three of my grandfather’s sons, including my father, had their homes on the farm. Frequently, his grandchildren met at the well to play hide and seek, ring games, and marbles. We climbed the trees that hosted the wild grapes, and met there to begin our treks for berry picking expeditions, picking up pecans, as well as visits to his tomato, cucumber, and watermelon patches. Once there, we were allowed to “harvest” the produce with the privilege of eating what we wanted. However, we were expected not to overindulge or be wasteful. As small children, we raced to comb Grandpa’s soft white hair. As we combed and patted his hair, it seemed that he would inevitably fall asleep, especially after his morning beverage. He always drank one cup of hot water with one teaspoon of sugar. Old Man’s Meditation Portrait of Elijah Gray, Sr., circa 1855-1946 Oil by Cozetta Gray Guinn, 1973.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

Photograph of the Reed Family Contributed by Dr. Marion Winters This photograph is important to my family because it captures the hope that they carried from the segregated South (Waco, Texas) to â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Land of Milk and Honeyâ&#x20AC;? (California). This is how the uncles, aunts, and friends that had come before them described existence in the West. Through the system of chain migration, those pioneers who traveled from the South in the early forties to take jobs in the war industries provided passage, residences, and job connections for my mother and father, Mary and Ernest Reed. This photo depicts my parents and myself in front of a converted Army barracks, which was then our home in San Francisco, California in 1948. Dr. Marion Winters De Anza College

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Christopher Stevenson,of San Jose, California a De Anza College student, loaned these photographs. They are from the collection of his parents Dr. Don and Henrietta Stevenson formerly of Fort Smith and North Little Rock, Arkansas.

The Stevenson Family Contributed by Christopher Stevenson Christopher states: The enlarged copy of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette features an article on Scipio A. Jones, a prominent Black Civil Rights lawyer and later judge. The only Black high school in North Little Rock, Arkansas was named for him. This was my mom’s school and she was part of the Jones High Marching Band. There are two impressive things that stand out in my mind about her connections to the school. The first is that of Mrs. V. R. Robinson from the English Department. She was, according to my mother and aunt, one of the greatest English teachers of the latter half of the twentieth century—strict but kind. My mother still corresponds with her today. The second connection to the Jones High legacy is the jazz musician, Pharoah Sanders, who also played in the band. While he played solo, Mom played second clarinet.

In the upper left hand corner of the collage is a picture of my paternal great-great-grandmother. Next

is her daughter, the grandmother of Dr. Don A. Stevenson, my father. On the second row are pictures of my

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

grandfather, Dad, as a high school student, and my grandmother. My grand parents lived at 503 North Ninth Street, just five blocks from downtown Fort Smith. They had a large house and as shown on the sign, rented apartments and rooms to “Coloreds.” This was especially true for Black entertainers such as B. B. King. They stayed in my grandparent’s home, as there were no accommodations for Blacks in Fort Smith until 1973.

Even though I was born and grew up in San Jose, things like these photos and newspaper articles keep

me culturally connected to a time and place that my parents remember. Christopher Stevenson Student, De Anza College

Datis Brock ca. 1865-1886, paternal great-greatgrandmother.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Mary Magdalene Brock Stevenson, paternal greatgrandmother, 1884-1974. She married and became a teacher at age 14.

Don A. Stevenson, D.D.S., in a high school photo.

Mrs. Freddye Stevenson

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1950â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000

South Carolina Families of Anderson, Jackson, and Hunter Contributed by Truly Hunter

Until I moved to California in 1988 from South Carolina, I did not think much about my history or the legacy that I had. It was not until I began to talk with people that I realized that I had a wonderful history that needed to be written down, so I began a project to collect information about my family through oral history and pictures that my family had. Here is a picture of Robert Anderson, my maternal great grandfather (not shown). What is so special about this picture is that I have the only one. I got it from my great Aunt Zora. This was her father. Robert and Hester Jackson had 15 children, of which she was one. Before she died, I asked for all the pictures that she had and this was one of the pictures. When I was growing up we would give Aunt Zora pictures of us we had taken in school and she would display them on a coffee table protected by a glass cover. Some of these pictures are from that table. There are the pictures of my sister, Brenda and my brothers, Charles, Craig, David and of course one of me. As we grew up, we gave her school pictures of us. One of my favorite pictures is of my mother and father, Clara Belle and Wyatt Hunter. Hunter’s aunt, sister, father, and brother, above. Truly Hunter’s father, below.

They posed for this picture early in their marriage (not shown). I don’t know when they took it but it must have been in the early 1940s. Several years ago, I gave my mother a copy of this picture for Christmas. This is the only picture that the family has of both my parents. Uncle Bill Hunter gave me the picture of my father and his sister and my sister and oldest brother Charles (shown above). The picture is so special to me because my father died when I was fifteen. I gave my mother and my seven siblings a copy of this picture a while ago. We realized that we didn’t have many pictures of our father to document his life. The picture of my father shows the confidence this man had. He liked to dress, look at

the detail in the socks and of course the hat! The other pictures were taken at Christmas a long time ago. Aunt Mary Lou was very young. I look at my brother Charles as a baby and my sister, who is three years older, a young girl. I notice a large tricycle and the “white” baby doll in the picture. By the time, I was growing up; I didn’t get white baby dolls. Truly A. Hunter De Anza College

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Life in California Contributed by Aida Wells One of the things I have often wondered about is how both of my grandparents ended up in Monterey, CA. Actually, I have no idea. Of all places for them to come, both sets—both sets were ministers. My father was also a minister. He pastored a church, Friendship Baptist, which is still in existence today. Grandpa and Grandma Wells and I lived on Pearl Street. Mother died when I was very young. I do not remember her. Rose McClure and Willie Wells, my father, married sometime in 1945–1946. One of the earliest things I remember growing up is playing hop scotch in front of the house on Pearl Street after school. One day I ran in the house saying ”Grandpa, Grandma, the President is dead,” and then went back outside. I didn’t know what that meant then. That was Franklin D. Roosevelt. I attended Walter Colton Elementary and it is still there. When I go back to Monterey, I visit Walter Colton, the house on Pearl Street, and all the places where I grew up. When I was very young, we all lived in Fort Ord Village, 4F Anza. The family worked at Fort Ord. 7806 was my first phone number. I don’t know how I remembered these things. I grew up with being accustomed to seeing soldiers on the street with guns. We had to go through a gate to leave our Fort Ord home to go to Monterey. We had to go through the gate with soldiers; they called them MP’s (military police). We could not take pictures in our front yard or any place because it was on an Army base. My Grandpa and Grandma McClure worked in the laundry at Fort Ord. Grandma & Grandpa Wells always stayed in Monterey. Grandpa was a minister, but he didn’t have a church. The first three Black churches (in Monterey) were: Rev. Bailey’s in Pacific Grove, Rev. Martin’s in Seaside, and Rev. Ellis’ Oceanview Baptist in Seaside. Then my dad started Friendship Baptist in Seaside. Everything centered around the church. It seems most of the members were extended family members. The churches were relatively small. We moved to Seaside. After Seaside we moved a lot because dad was a “wanderer”(someone who kept on the move) even though my parents bought a house. He had attended a seminary in Texas and was often called on to do seminars for ministerial organizations. We lived in Berkeley when I was in the 5th grade. Dad was going from church to church preaching. During my younger years there was a year or half a year spent in a single school. Dad was always coming up to preach. He started going to the Valley, Corcoran, and Tulare. Dad would start a church in a one room building with no windows, but he would have a church. I only saw migrant workers picking fruit, poor whites and Blacks from the dust bowl. This was in the 1940s. The Black soldiers did not bring their families. We never saw Asians or Hispanics. There were Blacks and whites. We were all poor. I can’t think of all the places we lived because dad was a wandering preacher. He came up from Monterey to San Francisco on the streetcar. San Francisco, Fillmore District, what was the Western Addition, at that time was all Chinese. 1942–1945, we did not see any Japanese because of the internment camps. They were in Heart Mountain, a camp in the California central Valley, two camps in Arkansas, and Topaz in Utah among others.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

In Hunter’s Point Blacks worked in the shipyards. Italians were in North Beach. Russians occupied what we called Park Amazon. We also lived in Allensworth for a while. A lot of these memories are between 1943 - 1952. Allensworth was a little gray stucco small church. The architecture was different. The stairs for the choir were in the back of the church, which is very different than churches now. I remember Mrs. Holmes. We went to her house on Sundays. She had a lot of chickens and some pigs. Everybody had an “out house”. There was no running water. She had a lot of relatives. Mrs. Holmes is the only one I remember. Colonel Allensworth had been a chaplain. He built the church. As a child I remember the church and school. I don’t remember the groceries. The average wage was twenty-three cents an hour. During the day there was just old people about who kept the kids. There was no such thing as babysitters. There was an abundance of migrant teachers. At one time we lived in what was called “tent city”. We would get up very early in the morning 4 or 5 A.M. to catch a truck to go pick cotton. Paternal Grandmother and Grandfather were buried in the cemetery at the end of Pearl Street 1951. Grandfather and Grandmother, Mr. and Mrs. McClure were buried in an Indian community in Oklahoma. Today, the Monterey park I used to play in is a tennis court. Aida Wells Palo Alto, CA Retired Office Manager Carnegie Institute Stanford University

Editor’s post script: During the Dust Bowl of the late 1930s there was a mass migration of people from the Midwest – especially Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma – who moved to California to work the fruit orchards and farms. In addition, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in late 1941, and the subsequent entry of the United States into WWII, people from that region moved to California to work in defense plants, shipyards, and as military personnel. This may explain why her parents and grandparents moved to California.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Jeanne English, Contributor Jeanne English is a retired librarian who was a lender to the exhibit. She is a supporter of the California History Center On loan from the English collection were newspaper articles and photographs of her ancestors from Key West, Florida. Her father was a physician and her grandfather had been the postmaster of Key West, appointed by President Garfield prior to the turn of the twentieth century. The photograph above shows Ms. English touring the CHC exhibit.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1950â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000

Tom Izu, executive director of the CHC, is shown here viewing items inside Case VII.

Memories of Memphis: Albums and Dolls Three items are shown in Case VII. On the lower left is a ceramic sculpture of two African American children loaned by Mary Jo Ignoffo. The sculptor, Essie Cotterell, was an African American woman living in Southern California and a friend of Ignoffo’s mother. Although this small figure was made in California, its theme could well be reflective of a scene in the South. The middle figure and the one on the right are sculptured dolls created by Mary Jacks. They reflect cultural aspects of Memphis, Tennessee, as seen through the eyes of the artist when she was a child growing up in Memphis. The figure in the rocker represents an elderly woman resting her feet and reading the Bible. The one on the right is a washerwoman carrying a bundle of clothes on her head. There are two album covers displayed on top of the case. Shown here is one of Memphis Minnie, a legendary blues singer. In back (not shown) is an album cover by Frank Stokes who lived and worked in Memphis at the turn of the twentieth century. Some call him the Case VII: Dolls and Memories

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

“Father” of Memphis Blues.

Memphis Memories The exhibit “Californians Keeping Culturally Connected” included seven items with some degree of linkage to Memphis, Tennessee, a city the history of which holds things very beautiful and things very ugly. Memphis was the city from which newspaper owner Ida B. Wells launched her crusade against lynching; the city of historic Beale Street and its legendary blues singers and other musicians; the city where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated. Items selected for this exhibit focused on memories of things that were beautiful. Among those were two sculpted folk art dolls by Mary Jacks who grew up in Memphis, two record albums by noted blues singers Memphis Minnie and Frank Stokes, respectively; a letter from W. C. Handy, creator of The St. Louis Blues, written to Edith Ware McClinton; a print of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Roberto Lupetti. Lastly, there was a print of an original egg-tempera painting Buy Me Some Blues by Jimi Claybrooks that featured blues singers B.B.King (Riley B. King) and Howlin’ Wolf (Chester Burnett). Case V, labeled Memories of Memphis, focused on four items which addressed themes from Memphis, Tennessee. The Stokes and Memphis Minnie albums allowed one’s memory to flash back nearly 100 years to visualize the blues songsters with their guitars, harmonicas, and rhythmic styles. Contrary to belief, the blues did not begin with W.C. Handy. When Handy moved to Memphis in 1909, there were bluesmen already performing there. It is reported Handy wrote that he first heard the blues while waiting to change trains at a station in Tutwiler, Mississippi. Handy, who was already a professional musician, liked the strange music. In 1910, he composed “The St. Louis Blues.” Frank Stokes has been called the “Creator of the Memphis Blues.” He is said to have performed with Charlie Patton and Son House. One historian reports that Stokes’s professional involvement in Memphis was several years prior to Handy’s and he was performing on the streets of Memphis at the turn of the twentieth century. Some historians credit Frank Stokes with providing the background for blues musicians of the World War II era. He is sometimes called one of the “unsung blues heroes.” Memphis Minnie was born Lizzie Douglas in Algiers, Louisiana in 1897. Her family moved to Walls, Mississippi and by the age of 13 she had run away from home and was singing in a Memphis park under the name “Kid Douglas.” She is reported to have been a part of the Beale Street musicians during this period. In 1916 she joined the Ringling Brothers Circus and performed for several years. By 1929 she had married, acquired the name Memphis Minnie, performed in New York and toured with her husband Kansas Joe (Joe McCoy). By 1939 she had remarried and moved back to Memphis where she lived until her death in 1973. Memphis Minnie was known for her strong voice and guitar playing. Among her most memorable albums are Moaning the Blues, What’s the Matter With The Mill, Weary Woman’s Blues, Chickasaw Train Blues, and Reachin’ Pete.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

Case VII (detail). Dolls by Mary Jacks

Miles and Myia’s Foke Contributed by Mary Jacks Mary Jacks was born Mary Alice Culp, the third daughter of Rosie Anna and Samuel Culp. She recalls growing up in a home filled with warmth and subtle images of small things made beautiful. Her mother, Rosie Anna, was gifted. She was the family griot. Griot is a West African word for a storyteller whose words spoke of deeds and created mental images that taught values and kept families connected for generations. When it came to doing things with her hands Rosie Anna could transform the smallest item from a basic bland, unattractive object to something special. Her talents included making wonderful window curtains and lovely children’s clothes, things that brought comfort and a sense of beauty to her daughter. In young Mary’s eyes her mother was an artist and a beautiful caring person who nurtured her daughter’s attitude and creative efforts. In August of 1999, Rosie Anna died. She would be the third of the three most important women in Mary’s life to pass away. The first was Carrie, her maternal grandmother, a kind and loving woman, an ancestor whom she greatly admired. Although the two never actually met, it would be through her mother’s stories about the family that Mary knew they shared a “kindred spirit.” The other had been a cousin, “Old Missy,” who was like a grandmother, someone very special. She was an elderly lady who took in washing and was known locally as “the washer woman.” Within weeks of her mother’s death, Mary created her first doll “Grandma Carrie.” Then came her second doll “Ole Missy, The Washer Woman.” They were her “folks,” her very own relatives. They were people with whom she could relate. Although the women are no longer alive, Mary finds that designing dolls in their likenesses brings comfort to her. It is a kind of healing. She also creates other unique images of individuals, some of whom are commonly known within the southern black community as “characters” or “so and so’s foke.” Miles is her 8-year-old son and Myia is her granddaughter, age 5. Story told to Cozetta Guinn by Mary Jacks, Patterson, California.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Case VII (detail). Ceramic Sculpture of African American Children by Essie Cotterell

Over the years numerous artists have chosen African American children as their subject. This small sculpture (10 inches high) of African American children comes from the collection of Mary Jo Ignoffo, historian and author of several books on California and local history. She has also served on the California History Center Board of Trustees. Artist Essie Cotterell of Los Angeles sculpted the figures in the 1960s. Mary Jo Ignoffo, Contributor Historian and author Santa Clara, California

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1950â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000

The W. C. Handy Letter Contributed by Charles McClinton A letter from W. C. Handy dated March 17, 1955, addressed to Mrs. I. S. McClinton, Little Rock, Arkansas, was submitted by her son, Charles McClinton and displayed on Wall VII of the exhibit. The stationery’s letterhead read, “Handy Brothers Music Co., Inc., Publishers, Genuine American Music, 1650 Broadway, New York, 19, New York.” Handy, the famous blues musician, and Mrs. I. S. McClinton (Edith Ware McClinton) were friends. He is the legendary composer who, in the McClinton corresponded with W.C. Handy in the 1950s. One letter from the correspondence was displayed on Wall VII.

early 1900s, wrote the “St. Louis Blues” as well as the sheet music of “Mr. Crump” and “Memphis Blues.“ Although blind during the latter stages of his life, he was able to correspond with friends and fans with the help of a stenographer.

This is one of several letters that Mrs. Edith McClinton received from Handy. It is of particular interest because here he speaks of attending the funeral of Matthew Henson at Abyssinian Baptist Church where US Representative Reverend Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. officiated. Henson was the African American who went to the North Pole with Admiral Peary. Mrs. McClinton is an author, a former teacher, and social worker. Her son, Charles McClinton had this to say: Mrs. McClinton has enjoyed the entire blessing many of us pray for. She enjoyed a long and happy marriage and is a loving mother of three children, five grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren. Edith is a graduate of Dunbar Junior College in Little Rock, Arkansas taught school in North Little Rock, Arkansas. She retired early from this profession due to the loss of her eyesight. For many people, blindness is a handicap, but Mrs. McClinton who considers herself a child of God, has never allowed her sightlessness to inhibit her in any way.

After losing her eyesight she graduated with honors from Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ar-

kansas. She earned a degree in Social Work, raised three children and became a caseworker for the blind. Mrs. McClinton has traveled to Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and extensively throughout the United States. But at this point, you have been made aware of only a small portion of this beautiful success story. Many of these trips were made alone. Her hobbies include writing and reciting poetry, public speaking, using speed weaves to make bedspreads, hats, shawls, afghans, clothes, and, best of all, making friends. She is the author of four books entitled: Stepping Out of the Fire, Fire From Thoughts and Words, The Green Lights On a One Way Street, and Scars From A Lynching.

Mrs. McClinton is also an accomplished pianist and organist. She was a friend of W. C. Handy prior to

his death. They were good friends and communicated regularly.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Edith was recently honored at a surprise 90th birthday celebration. She is

still active and is indeed an example of success via industry, dedication, and trust in God. Her son Charles McClinton provided the above information. Charles retired from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) where he was the Financial Management Officer of its Ames Research Center. He resides with his family in San José, California.

Charles McClinton, San Jose, California

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

The Story of Sarah Webster Fabio Contributed by Mary Parks Washington My friend, Sarah Webster Fabio, was a fortunate human being, a professor of a unique personality. She permitted her fellow man to know her as she was, rather than an enigma wishing to be seen as a person she was not. Sarah chose not to conceal her authentic being behind a mask. She was open with a free style; she did not camouflage her true being before others to protect her against criticism or rejection. She accepted the consequences and often paid the price. Sarah had a great capacity to give to others and a very natural talent of receiving as well. With Sarah, there was always some sort of interaction, a happening or an experience. She must have felt the best cure for worry, depression, melancholy, brooding was to sally deliberately forth and try to lift with one’s cheerfulness the gloom of someone else.

Sarah believed that every human being was to have a character of his own; to be what no other is and to do what no other

can do. I feel I was most fortunate to have a friend like Sarah and to have realized and appreciated her for what she was. I can recall many experiences with Sarah: sharing our mutual love for the ocean, being able to verbalize with her freely and not having to explain my thoughts.

It’s a wonderful and exhilarating feeling to be on the same wavelength with another person. Sarah was my poet. She

listened while I described a thought or made an image for her to see. From the creative mind she wrote thoughts that wanted expression. Sometimes the subject was simple, like a burnt wooden spoon that

Wall VII

inspired “Soul Through a Lickin’ Stick.” Sometimes the subject was profound, such as the poem we wrote together, “A Down-home Recipe From A Black Soul Mother’s Workshop.” “My Own Thing” was inspired by a piece of driftwood found at the beach.

She was not under the illusion

to think that more comfort meant more happiness. I am sure she felt that happiness comes of the capacity to feel deeply, to enjoy simply, to think freely, to risk life, to be needed. The purpose of her life was to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make a difference that she lived at all —that was my friend Sarah.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Sarah Webster Fabio, 1928 – 1979 Sarah Webster Fabio, poet, educator and pioneer and innovator of the Black Studies and Black Arts movements in the United States, was born in Nashville, Tennessee. She attended Pearl High School where she first began to write poetry, graduating from there at age 14. Sarah Webster undertook college studies at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, and at Fisk University in Nashville, where she was a student of poet Arna Bontemps. In 1946, Sarah Webster graduated from Fisk with a BA in English and history. Following graduation, Webster married Cyril Fabio, II, a young dentist educated at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. Cyril Fabio practiced his profession in the US Air Force, attaining the rank of major. Service took the growing family to bases around the United States and in Germany. Civilian life brought the couple and their five children back to the States where they settled in Oakland, then Palo Alto, California. Here in California, Sarah Fabio continued her education at San Francisco State College (now University). She earned a master’s degree in language arts and creative writing with a specialty in poetry. Sarah Fabio was among the first black writers to combine poetry with jazz accompaniment, and with history. In 1966 Fabio performed at the First World Festival of Negro Art at Dakar, Senegal. Her teaching career began at Merritt College in Oakland, and took her to the California College of Arts and Crafts and University of California, Berkeley, where she worked to develop the Black Studies program. After her 1972 divorce, Fabio taught at Oberlin College in Ohio and University of Wisconsin, Madison, where she also studied. Colon cancer brought her back to the Pinole, California, home of her eldest daughter. Fabio died November 7, 1979, leaving prodigious published and recorded poetry, with her daughter, a film collaboration, “Rainbow Black”, and black academic culture transformed.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

Walls VIII and IX

A Legacy Continues… Contributed by Minnie Cooper Minnie Thomas Cooper, a native of Louisiana, went to college along with one of her five children. She became a teacher and taught in Louisiana. Later moving to California she began a second career in teaching. Upon retiring she would move to Jamaica to teach. Artist Richard Thomas, her nephew, created the print “The Legacy Continues” which features prominent musicians from New Orleans — Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, and Wynton Marsalis. In addition to teaching she has been a gourmet cook who enjoys preparing and sharing Louisiana-style cooking. Minnie Cooper Menlo Park, California

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Protests Against Vigilante Violence The rights gained by freed slaves at the end of the Civil War eroded rapidly. Even as several organizations strategized to eliminate practices of quasi-slavery and second-class citizenship there would be continued indignities to which Blacks were subjected. From the end of Reconstruction through World War II discrimination was commonplace and permeated every aspect of life. Whether in education, the justice system, health care, the military, or in the streets of small towns and urban centers there were acts of injustice. The disfranchisement of Blacks at so many levels exposed communities to vigilante violence and for years the voice of oppressed people went unheard. In some areas of the United States a lynching was as common as a community picnic and from time to time would manifest itself as such. Edith Ware McClinton’s Scars From A Lynching was displayed in Case VIII. It describes death by lynching of several African American men. Among them were her grandfather and his brother (her great uncle) lynched by a mob in 1895. In the summer of 1917, lynching in the United States was not uncommon. What was uncommon was to have a protest march by black people denouncing such acts. This was a powerful statement. At that moment in history, hundreds of thousands of black troops were deployed overseas to fight for the freedom of certain Europeans. In the minds of African Americans, it was time to speak out. Surely, if they could fight for the freedom of others, they could stand up for themselves. In July of 1917, a few months after the US entered World War I, a group of fifteen thousand protesters silently marched in New York to demonstrate their disapproval of the dehumanizing treatment they suffered. After the war was over, civil rights for black people, including veterans, did not change. Lynching and race riots continued in many places throughout the South. In 1927 Edith Ware McClinton literally heard a mob coming down her street in Little Rock, Arkansas in search of a black man whom they believed had murdered a white person. While neighbors turned off the lights in their homes, her mother refused. The mob passed by. They did not find the man sought, but did find another black man who happened to be on the road. He was lynched.

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Blacks, Too, Sing America “When my father’s father was lynched, that not only affected my father’s life but mine, too. He was studying to be a doctor…we kept his books for a long time.”

Edith W. McClinton. Scars From A Lynching, 2001

Despite various forms of inequitable treatment, voices of resistance by black people in America were never silenced. Over the years numerous voices have spoken out against legalized cruelty. They have come from Nat Turner, Sojourner Truth, Fredrick Douglass, Denmark Vessey, Ida B. Wells, W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Roy Wilkins, Martin Luther King, Jr., Stokely Carmichael, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, and Edith Ware McClinton. In most cases the choice of weapon is the pen. At times they have discussed unpopular subjects and in some cases engaged in forms of protest that were at some point denounced by those who considered themselves the only true Americans, implying that their own world view is the appropriate one for all others. The problem is that America has historically not always been the same America for all its citizens. In view of everything, blacks, too, sing America.

Edith Ware McClinton’s Scars From A Lynching was displayed in Case VIII. It describes death by lynching of several African American men. Among them were her grandfather and his brother (her great uncle). In 1895 her father watched as his father was taken from his own field and lynched for a crime he did not commit. Then the mob took a second innocent life. This time it was her grandfather’s twin brother.

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Letter from Mary McLeod Bethune Contributed by Charlotte Kelley My Dear Brother John; …The years of our friendship and interest have been many. They are gradually growing to a close. What moments we can spend now in helping to make bright the pathway of the other, those moments are to be used. Both of us have had a long tedious journey. God has been so merciful to us. He has permitted us to work with him and for him, and I rejoice exceedingly in the bounteous harvest that our matured lives are reaping…Tomorrow we celebrate the 48th anniversary of Bethune-Cookman College. I wish you might be here. Looking back 48 years brings both joy and tears... Mary McLeod Bethune, 1952 This document came from the collection of Charlotte Kelley shown on the right in the photograph. When asked how she felt about having this letter in her possession, Charlotte Kelley had this to say: “To obtain something from such a great lady, who had instant public recognition is remarkable. However, I believe it is equally important to see something that shows her personal feelings. This letter to her friend allows one to see her in a different way. Getting this letter was an awesome experience. When it was handed to me, I remember getting cold chills and saying, “O My God!” Charlotte Kelley Foster City, California

Exhibit viewers from the Peninsula Book Club, left to right, Jeanne English, instructors Ulysses Pichon, and Cozetta Guinn of De Anza College, and Charlotte Kelley.

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Muata Weusi-Puryear, Ph.D.

Thomas and Victoria Puryear, 1954

The 50th Anniversary of Thomas and Victoria Puryear Contributed by Muata Weusi-Puryear, Ph.D., Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear was among the lenders who had multiple artifacts in the exhibit. He had three items. They were his motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s cosmetology tools, his fatherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s miniature train set, and a photograph of his grandparents at their fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration. On the data sheet accompanying the photograph above right, Weusi-Puryear states: This photograph shows my paternal grandparents celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary in 1954. At the turn of the twentieth century, my Grandmother Langhorne moved from Roanoke, Virginia. My grandfather migrated from Clarksville, Virginia, to Longbranch, New Jersey. They met on the train that brought them from Virginia to New Jersey to seek a better economic life. From their union seven children were born. At this Celebration all of their children and grandchildren attended except one grandson who was in active service in the Army. Muata Weusi-Puryear, Ph.D. Mathematics Instructor, De Anza College, Cupertino, California

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Buy Me Some Blues Contributed by Eb Hunter Ebenezer Hunter, Chair of African American Studies, was among the faculty at De Anza College who shared a cherished possession. His contribution was a 36”x 48” print by artist Jimi Claybrooks called Buy Me Some Blues, displayed on Wall IX. Professor Hunter grew up in the Bay Area. However, he has family ties in the South and that is where “the blues” was born. It is through the narrative provided that one can see the historical and cultural connection to the exhibit. During the latter part of the nineteenth century the blues, an African American creation, became an important part of American history, heavily influencing many other music genres. Deeply rooted in the Black cultural experience, it is a form of music featuring lyrics that tell a story to the sound of a unique Africanrooted rhythmic beat expressed with emotions and feelings. Although it can be individualized and played for one’s own gratification, it is generally public music for dancing. The early blues music parallels and, in some respects, is synonymous with the cultural history of post-Civil War Southern Blacks. Some historians describe the blues as music having grown out of hard times for indeed the blues had roots in the work songs of field hands who plowed the cotton and corn as well as of those persons who worked on railroads and levee camps in the South. Blues music, expressing loss, loneliness, good times, and uncertainties, was a form of communication. After the Civil War and Reconstruction, there were some hard times for ex-slaves. Despite changes from one decade to another, it was a source of oral history of these periods that kept individuals connected to families, and communities. Through their blues songs, one can see what was going on economically, socially, and politically from the Jim Crow era, to World War I, through the depression years, World War II and beyond. Buy Me Some Blues is an offset lithograph by Jimi Claybrooks, an African American who grew up in Chicago. The original is egg tempera, a medium perfected by European master painters. Depicted in the painting are seven men sitting and standing around the country store. They are legendary blues men — Sleepy John Estes, Huddie Ledbetter (Lead Belly), Robert Johnson, McKinley Morgenfield (Muddy Waters), Chester Arthur Burnett (Howlin’ Wolf), John Lee Hooker and Riley King (B. B. King). When asked what this lithograph by Claybrooks meant to him Hunter replied…As a child growing up in Richmond, California, I heard the music of blues artists like “Little” Willie John, “Little” Junior Parker, Bobby “Blue” Bland and B. B. King. This was the music of my youth and every time I reflect back on these times I think of this music. Therefore, when I attended a showing of Mr. Claybrooks’s art, I saw this lithograph and immediately decided to purchase it because it reminded me of these times. Eb Hunter Chair, African American Studies Department Intercultural /International Studies Division De Anza College

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A Legacy Continuesâ&#x20AC;Ś 1950â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000

Wall X (detail): The culminating period in the exhibit was brought together and assembled on Wall X and in Case VIII. Items featured in this area include photographs of activists Stokely Carmichael and Huey Newton, a news article about entrepreneur, Charles A. Jones, a news article about Hewlett-Packard e-Inclusion executive, Janiece Evans-Page, and a letter from historian John Hope Franklin.

Wall X and Case VIII

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Then and Now: Charles A. Jones, Entrepreneur Contributed by Sandra Jones-Spencer Charles A. Jones is one who can be described as a “community pillar.” He is a leader and a supporter. He is an approachable businessman. Mr. Jones shared two items that were displayed on Wall X in the exhibit. The first was a framed news article from the San Jose Mercury News of Sunday, September 9, 2001, Peninsula Edition, that hung in the quiet, comfortable waiting room at his mortuary in East Palo Alto, California. The article addressed his business and professional characteristics, and commended both. A letter was displayed, one written by his daughter, Sandra Jones-Spencer. The third item was a small, framed picture of a child approximately 3 or 4 years old which hung in his office. The setting is rural Louisiana. There was a notable contrast between the former and the latter.

Charles A. Jones, Entrepreneur

At the first interview, Charles Jones did not talk much about himself. However, he later participated in the panel discussion that accompanied the exhibit and was more revealing.

The following case notes came from his daughter, Sandra Jones-Spencer, an instructor in the De Anza College Business Department: When I think of all my father has achieved, it makes me proud and serves as an example to me of what can be accomplished if we dare to dream and then commit our energies to realizing those dreams. Though he faced numerous obstacles growing up in a rural southern community (and throughout his life), he did not allow these challenges to prevent him from reaching his goals. In fact, I think he became even more determined to attain them.

Today, my father owns and operates Jones Mortuary, Inc., located in East Palo Alto, California. He has

been in business in this community for almost thirty years and throughout this time he has been a good neighbor and friend to all. He has received numerous awards for his generosity and support in the local community, and for being a vital part of the Peninsula community at large.

When I think of my father “then and now”, I am inspired. He is a “trailblazer” in his own right and

his legacy encourages and keeps me connected. Through him, I am connected to enduring family principles that have guided him along his journey and that are a significant part of our cultural heritage. These I embrace and as a result I, too, believe that nothing is impossible and that… “Excellence can be achieved if you care more than others think is wise, risk more than others think is safe, dream more than others think is practical, and expect more than others think is possible” —Charles A. Jones Sandra Jones-Spencer, De Anza College Instructor East Palo Alto, California

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Provides Opportunities for the Disenfranchised Contributed by Janiece Evans-Page Janiece Evans-Page was born in Arkansas and grew up in Northern California. She holds an MBA from Golden Gate University. After completing her undergraduate work at UC Berkeley, she began a career at Hewlett-Packard (HP) and now owns her own consulting business. During the fall of 2001 City Flight newspaper published an article about her commitment to working with groups and involvement in community service. The passion that she reveals for this work can be attributed to her family and her workplace. She is the daughter of Jo Ann Randle-Evans, another participant in this exhibit. When asked what keeps her culturally connected, Janiece made the following statement: I am honored to be a descendent of a proud family, one that is socially and culturally responsible. Hence, my role as e-Inclusion Director at HP is one that is personally and professionally rewarding. I manage HPâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s partnership efforts to close the digital divide for people of color. This work is so important in that it provides opportunities for underserved communities to improve their quality of life. I now realize that my mission in life is to provide opportunities for those who often feel disenfranchised or disempowered, and so it is that I remain culturally connected. Janiece Evans-Page Castro Valley, California e-Inclusion Director Hewlett Packard 2005-2008 Palo Alto, California

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

War Ration Books Contributed by Jo Ann Randle-Evans Among the items shown in the exhibit were “WWII War Ration Books.” Jo Ann Randle-Evans narrates: The war ration books are dear to me because my mother used to tell us stories about having to use these books to purchase sugar, flour and other staples during “the war.” (Our dad, Wilson Matthew Randle was in the Army, World War II.) We never really knew if other people had these or not, but Mother could weave stories about going to town with her twins in this huge buggy and being stopped along the way by strangers who wanted to see the “twins”. According to her stories, a trip to town was a major undertaking, which took at least three to four hours to get to the store and back. (Alma, Arkansas was only a small town, but the spectacle of Black twins was enough to bring people out from their porches to the street for a gander at the Randle twins.)

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

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Family Treasure Contributed by Jo Ann Randle-Evans Often since the death of my parents, I have craved for their presence – a hug, a song, a whistle, and a laugh. The most tangible means I have of satisfying that longing and feeling that connection is a trip through the pages of my “family treasure,” a Scripture book called THE GAME OF LIFE, A Pictorial Allegory. In it, my great-grandfather, John Hughes, wrote the names of each of his and his wife, Addie Hughes’s, children. Because MaMa Hughes was illiterate, she was unable to spell or to write the names; PaPa Hughes, a professor, (one who read, wrote, and taught), lovingly recorded them. Although the pages are yellowed with age and crumbling from dryness, the book tells a tale, in the writing of my great-grandfather, of how I am connected to those recorded therein. Reading the birth dates of my mother, her mother, her aunts and uncles, her grandparents and even her children (us!) comforts me, and reminds me of the rich heritage into which I was born. Jo Ann Randle-Evans, Richmond, California Published 1891, copyright 1888. In the possession and care of Mrs. Jo Ann Randle-Evans Great-granddaughter of John and Addie Hughes Granddaughter of Susie Hughes Guinn and William Guinn Daughter of Willie Guinn Randle and Wilson M. Randle

Note: Unknown family member(s) continued recording births after the death of John Hughes.

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Etude Magazine (December, 1953) 40 cents for one issue; $3.50 for a year’s subscription

Contributed by Carolyn Wilkins-Greene During the 1953 Christmas assembly at Jack Yates Junior-Senior High School, Houston, Texas, Carolyn Wilkins played a piano duet with her 7th grade music teacher, Mrs. Bickham. Carolyn played “Secondo” while Mrs. Bickham played “Primo” in the duet for piano, “Two Christmas Melodies.” In addition to being an accomplished pianist, Carolyn WilkinsGreene is the dean of the Social Sciences and Humanities Division at De Anza College. This December 1953 copy of Etude magazine, published by Theodore Presser from 1883-1954, and called “arguably the greatest of all music magazines,” was loaned by Carolyn Wilkins-Greene.

Carolyn Wilkins-Greene, Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities Division, De Anza College

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

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Methodist Adventures in Negro Education Contributed by Harvey Cole

This little book, published in 1922, chronicles the achievements of the schools under the auspices of the Board of Education for Negroes of the Methodist Episcopal Church. My late wifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mother graduated from Clark University in Atlanta, Georgia in 1927 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the year of my birth. I feel a strong attachment to family and its values when I read and re-read this book. The above quote is from Harvey Cole, best known as an educator. He arrived in the city of Mountain View, California, in February of 1962 as one of several members of a research team from the University of Minnesota whose department head had chosen to relocate to Stanford University to create the Department of Histo-Chemistry (the study of cell chemistry). At Stanford, he co-authored several research papers relating to the study of cancer. Later, he set up the Physics and Biology Department at Ravenswood High School in East Palo Alto.

Courtesy New York Public Library

When Ravenswood High School closed, he taught at Woodside High School in Woodside, California, until he retired.

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Case VIII

Memorable Memorabilia Case VIII featured an array of memorable diverse collectibles. They included a family Bible and World War II ration coupon books, a train set circa 1950, a publication of sheet music — Etude; two books — Methodist Adventures in Negro Education from the African Methodist Episcopal Church and Scars From A Lynching by Edith Ware McClinton; a sweatshirt with the photograph of astronaut Commander Charles F. Bolden, Jr. of the Discovery Mission STS-60. There was also a plate created by the late inventor Ron Jones of Silicon Valley commemorating the 100th anniversary of James Weldon Johnson’s anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” The plate depicts a sculpture by Augusta Fells Savage created in honor of the famous composer. African Americans during the mid-twentieth century in parts of the South commonly referred to Johnson’s song as the Negro national anthem. Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear displayed a model train set which had belonged to his father, emphasizing the importance the railroad has had in the lives of black Americans. Lastly, there were two pieces of “Shirley Chisholm for President” memorabilia saved by this writer from a “Chisholm for President” fundraiser. In all, the more than 100 items in the exhibit became catalysts from which many stories evolved.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community — 1950–2000

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“Lift Every Voice and Sing” Millennium Project Contributed by Ron Jones

Ronald L. Jones, aka. Ron Jones, engineer, inventor, political activist, peace advocate, graphic artist, and entrepreneur, was born in Monterey, California, April 5, 1955. Jones went through public school in nearby Pacific Grove and graduated from San José State University. Founder of SongBoy.com and Colossal Graphics, Inc., Ron Jones also worked as an engineer for local companies Hewlett-Packard, IBM, and Rolm and was an award-winning contributor to various fields in computer science and engineering. Jones was also the force behind the “ ‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ Millennium Project” which brought attention to the lives and works of poet, James Weldon Johnson, Jr., and sculptor, Augusta Fells Savage (see Case VIII.) Inspired by biographies of Johnson and Savage, Jones set out to carry the story of the poet and the sculptor and the intertwining of their lives. James Weldon Johnson supplied the words, in 1900, for the song “ Lift Every Voice and Sing,” set to music by his brother, John Rosamond Johnson. Thirty-nine years later, a sculpture by Harlem artist Augusta Savage called The Harp, was commissioned in honor of Johnson. The sixteen foot-high, harp-like structure had strings represented by robed African American singers and was preceded by a young boy bearing musical notes. The sculpture was created for the 1939 World’s Fair in New York. The Harp was destroyed when the fair ended. In 1999 Jones, who had recently experienced business and legal setbacks, wanted other African Americans to understand that at any time they may walk in his footsteps and need inspiration. “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” referred to as “The Negro National Anthem,” gave Jones new purpose as he researched the lives of Johnson and Savage. He then surveyed African Americans’ fading familiarity with the two “national treasures.” Jones championed a celebration in the black community of James Weldon Johnson and Augusta Savage and honored them by creating a commemorative plate which bears the hundred year- old song’s title and features pictures of Johnson, Savage, and an image of The Harp. Ron Jones died February 12, 2004.

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Lorraine W. Dabney Lorraine Westmoreland came to California in 1953 from Chicago, Illinois. In 1955 she began attending San Francisco State. Her parents Willie Erskine and Essie Mae Westmoreland expected her return to Chicago upon completion of her education. That was not to be. She met and then later married, in August 1965, George L. Dabney, Sr., to whom this work is dedicated. Mrs. Dabney taught elementary school, kindergarten, 3rd and 4th grades, for over thirty years in the Redwood City Elementary School District. Currently she remains active and still connected to youth by teaching part-time at St. Elizabeth Seton School in Palo Alto, California.

Lorraine W. Dabney, Palo Alto, California

Lorraine Dabney continues to give back to her community. She recently celebrated 50 plus years of active service in Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, A Public Service Organization; 32 years as an active member in the Peninsula Chapter of Links, Inc.; 7 years as an active member of the National Coalition of 100 Black Women, Silicon Valley Chapter. Most recently, in 2003, Mrs. Dabney was appointed to the Black Infant Health Advisory Board of Santa Clara County.

This letter was written to George Dabney by John Hope Franklin, October 25, 1976. It was loaned for display in the exhibit by Lorraine Dabney.

Memories from the Faculty, Staff, Students, and Community â&#x20AC;&#x201D; 1950â&#x20AC;&#x201C;2000

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Appendices

Photographs of the reception, February 27, 2002

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected Panel The panel, reception, and tour of the exhibit, Californians Keeping Culturally Connected, on February 27, 2002, drew an audience of about one hundred twenty-five De Anza College faculty, staff, students, and supporters from the community. The focus of the exhibit was on art, crafts and memorabilia linked to the African American and the African Diaspora. As an adjunct to the event a panel composed of lenders shared information about specific images and artifacts included in the exhibit. Each shared a story of how he or she had come into possession of that specific item or memory and its meaning. CHC Director Tom Izu welcomed everyone. Exhibit curator Cozetta Gray Guinn introduced the sixmember panel. Panel participants were artist Mary Parks Washington, history instructor Dr. James Williams, Hewlett Packard executive Janiece Evans-Page, mortician Charles A. Jones, Intercultural International Studies instructor Omonike Weusi-Puryear, and retired librarian Gay Alexander. In addition to their personal stories shared in this catalog, the panel was able to relate the item or memory to a historical period or event thereby making cultural connections that linked them to a special place and time. An incredible amount of discussion and new information provided insight into several periods from the 1830s to 2002. Among the items discussed were bills of sale for slaves explained by Dr. Williams, and the book, Go Do Some Great Thing, a saga of the Alexander familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s move from San Francisco to British Columbia in 1858, which was summarized by Gay Alexander. There was also an article in a 2001 issue of the San Jose Mercury News, which focused on a positive relationship between an East Palo Alto mortician/businessman named Charles Jones and his community. From the audience retired NASA business manager, Charles McClinton shared a letter from W. C. Handy and a book, Scars from a Lynching, written by his mother, Edith Ware McClinton. The letter revealed her friendship and correspondence with the legendary musician, W. C. Handy, during Handyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s later years. Both Mrs. McClinton and W. C. Handy were blind. Journalist Loretta Martin Green shared information about several pieces she loaned, including a work by Philip Simmons, the blacksmith responsible for a large number of the famous wrought iron gates of Charleston, South Carolina. Another lender present was Lorraine W. Dabney, an elementary school teacher, whose letter from John Hope Franklin was exhibited. It was addressed to Mr. and Mrs. George Dabney, Sr., thanking them for their hospitality when Franklin spoke at De Anza in 1988. Mrs. Dabney stood and expressed her thanks to the CHC for having dedicated the exhibit to her late husband. Also seated in the audience were students from De Anza College and San Jose City College, along with some instructors who accompanied their classes to the event. There were eight other lenders in the audience who shared stories of their exhibit items. As each lender spoke fondly of his or her connection to a special item in the exhibit the audience could see evidence of that item or a story relating to a greater story. Conversation continued during the reception. Afterwards, the curator led a tour of the exhibit. Judging from questions and comments the program was well received.

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected A Window For Viewing Art, Crafts, and Memorabilia Within The African American and African Diaspora CALIFORNIA HISTORY CENTER DISPLAY OF BLACK AMERICAN HISTORY February 2002 Curator: Cozetta Gray Guinn

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years,1800 – 1865 Wall I

Monica Morales-Loving, Then They’ll All Be Free, print. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Go Do Some Great Thing, photograph collection. Loaned by Harold and Gay Alexander. Crawford Kilian. Go Do Some Great Thing, 1978, book. Loaned by Harold and Gay Alexander.

Case II

Paul Collins. Harriet Tubman’s Underground Railroad, circa 1979, print. Loaned by Rose Bickerstaff. Boston Recorder, February 23, 1831, newspaper reprint. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. $2,500 reward poster for apprehension of “Ranaway slaves.” St. Louis, August 23, 1852. Loaned by Lawrence B. Hooper, M.D. Black Chronicle, August 25, 1862 (also enlargement), June 1, 1896, and July 15,1910, 1970s newspaper reprints. Loaned by Dr. Marion Winters. Carol Mitchell, Frederick Douglass, 1976, print of pen and ink drawing. Loaned by Isaac W. Guinn. Mary Parks Washington, Henry P. Parks June 2, 1845 – March 19,1937, drawing. Loaned by artist. Slave papers, 1833-1843. Loaned by Dr. James C. Williams. Including the names “Joshua,” “W. R. Taylor,” “Sampson Wright,” “W.S.M. Wright,” “William Wright,” “Willis Samuel,“ “Zachariah Jackson.”

Case I

Age of Minstrels, 1865-1918 Just A Little “Local Color” To Cheer You Up!, 1940s, print. Loaned by Christopher Stevenson.

Wall II

The Gold Dust Twins, circa 1900, print. Loaned by Christopher Stevenson. Minstrel period shoe shine box cover, print. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Pastime in Dixie, ad for plug tobacco, lithograph. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn.

Appendices

119

“Beck & Walker Colored Minstrels,” print. Pictured is George Walker, minstrel performer. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. Black Chronicle, June 1, 1896, newspaper reprint enlargement. Loaned by Dr. Marion Winters. Washboard. Loaned by Christopher Stevenson.

Case III

Lye soap. Loaned by Texanna Tooles Davis. Smoothing irons. Loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear and Loretta Martin Green. Wooden brick. Loaned by Harvey Cole. Scale pin (for balancing the cotton scale). Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. Coffee grinder. Loaned by Harvey Cole. Ice tongs. Loaned by Harvey Cole. Cotton scale. Loaned by Rose Bickerstaff.

Reconstruction to 1914 Family Photos and Historically Black Colleges

Wall III

Griffins-Adams-Meadows family photographs, circa 1910. Loaned by Isaac Guinn. Black Chronicle, July 15, 1910, newspaper reprint enlargement. Loaned by Dr. Marion Winters. Historically Black Colleges, postcards. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. Receipt for Poll Tax of 1913. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Checks written by Hawkins and Gray ginners on Conway, Arkansas banks, 1918 and 1919. Loaned by Cozetta Guinn. China and Silverware

Case IV

Crochet doily. Loaned by Dianne Hayes Quarles. Demitasse cups. Loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear. Silverware. Loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear. Porcelain vase. Loaned by Dr. Robert Griffin. Porcelain plate. Loaned by Dr. Robert Griffin. Quilt, hand made by Texanna Tooles Davis and her stepmother, Beatrice Reed Tooles. Loaned by Texanna Tooles Davis. Poetry and Correspondence Paul Robeson, Ballad for Americans, 1939, record album. Loaned by Willys Peck. (The following items loaned by Loretta Martin Green) Bert Williams, “Nobody,” 1905, sheet music. Six Negro Folk Songs Featuring Marian Anderson and Paul Robeson, 1943, sheet music. Williams’ Jubilee Singers, 1920s, sheet music. Duke Ellington and Bob Russell, “Do Nothing Till You Hear From Me,” sheet music, 1940.

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Case V

“It Won’t Be Very Long,” Sunday supplement to San Francisco Examiner, 1898. “Ma Angeline, “ supplement to San Francisco Examiner, 1896. Cast iron “L,” art object by Philip Simmons (1912-2009) —known as the “Charleston Blacksmith.” Books and Cosmetology Tools

Case VI

Standard Textbook of Cosmetology. Used by students of Odile Thomas at Odile’s Beauty School. Loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Candle–Lightin’ Time, 1901, book. Loaned by Cozetta Guinn. Carter G. Woodson, Negro Makers of History, 1928, book. Loaned by Cozetta Guinn. Paul Laurence Dunbar, Folks From Dixie, 1898, book. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. Alpha Kappa Alpha handbook, 1952. Loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear. Curling irons (4). Loaned by Yvonne Kennedy and Stephanie Ware. Straightening combs (2). Loaned by Yvonne Kennedy and Stephanie Ware. Heating plates (2) and curling irons. Loaned by Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear.

World War I–1950 and Beyond—Aviation, Military and Boxing Charles Kennedy with an Enfield rifle, ca.1942, photograph. Loaned by Omonike Weusi-Puryear.

Wall IV

Elijah Gray enlistment record, 1917. Loaned by Cozetta Guinn. Herschel Gray. ca.1918, photograph. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Eula Gray and Viola Jones, ca.1931, photograph. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Bernard A. Harris, M.D., shuttle astronaut, photographic collage. NASA photographs loaned by Vera Kay Randle. Aviator Bessie Coleman (1893-1926), photograph. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. Tuskegee Airmen, 1942-1946, photographic collage. Loaned by Dianne Hayes Quarles. Rayfield Wilkins, Sr., ca.1943, photograph. Loaned by Carolyn Wilkins-Greene. The Ring, March, 1939 and International Boxing, April, 1971, boxing magazines. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green.

When the Price of Cotton Fell Cozetta Guinn, Rural South, 1979, lithograph. Loaned by artist.

Wall V

Hale Woodruff, Relics, 1935, linoleum block print, Loaned by Lawrence B. Hooper, M.D. Hale Woodruff. Poor Man’s Cotton, 1934, lithograph. Loaned by Lawrence B. Hooper. M.D.

Appendices

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Memories From Faculty, Students, and Community 1950-2000 Cozetta Guinn, Sunday Morning at Bethel Church, 1984, print from oil. Loaned by artist.

Wall VI

Cozetta Guinn, Yoruba Woman and Child, oil. 1973. Loaned by artist. Cozetta Guinn, Mother’s Love, 1979, oil. Loaned by artist. Cozetta Guinn, Old Man’s Meditation, 1973, oil. Loaned by artist. Reed family portrait, 1948, photograph. Loaned by Dr. Marion Winters. Plunkett, Chuck. “White, black kin of state leader to meet in NLR (North Little Rock). Scipio A. Jones was forebear.’” May 3, 1999. Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, newspaper article. Loaned by Christopher Stevenson. Stevenson Family, photographic collage. Loaned by Christopher Stevenson. Truly Hunter Family Members, photographs. Loaned by Truly A. Hunter. Aida Wells Family photographs; Colonel Allen Allensworth, photographs and newspaper articles. Loaned by Aida Wells. Key West, historic photographic collage. Loaned by Jeanne English. Memories of Memphis

Case VII

Miles & Myia’s Foke, Grandma Carrie and The Washerwoman, 1999, cloth sculptures. Loaned by Mary Jacks. Essie Cotterell , 1960s, sculpture. Loaned by Mary Jo Ignoffo. Memphis Minnie, 1983, MCA compilation of songs recorded for Vocalion and Decca in 1934-1935, vinyl record album. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Frank Stokes - Creator of the Memphis Blues, 1977, Yazoo Records Inc., compilation of late1920s Paramount or Victor label songs, vinyl record album. Loaned by Cozetta Guinn. Poetry and Correspondence W.C. Handy to Edith McClinton, March 17, 1955, letter. Loaned by Charles McClinton. Sarah Webster Fabio. “My Own Thing“ and “Soul Through a Lickin’ Stick,” poems on paper, (recorded by Fabio in the early 1970s.) Loaned by Mary Parks Washington.

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Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Wall VII

A Legacy Continues…

Wall VIII and Wall IX

Mary McLeod Bethune to Bishop John A. Gregg, October 2, 1952, correspondence. Loaned by Charlotte Kelley. School poster with Matthew Henson and Mae Jemison. Scholastic News. Loaned by Vera Gray Randle. Richard C. Thomas Urban League of Greater New Orleans, The Legacy Continues, poster, 1984. Loaned by Minnie Thomas Cooper. Roberto Lupetti (1918-1997). Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr,. print. Loaned by Isaac W. Guinn. Grandparents 50th Wedding Anniversary, Thomas Puryear and Victoria Puryear, 1954, photograph. Loaned by Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear. Halessie, 1933-1996. Kawanza, print. Loaned by Isaac W. Guinn. Jimi Claybrooks Buy Me Some Blues, lithograph. Loaned by Eb Hunter. Ebony Museum of Fine Arts, Inc., Oakland, California, collage of African American artists, print, circa 1990. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. San Jose Mercury News, Sunday Peninsula Edition, September 9, 2001. Article about Charles A. Jones. Loaned by Sandra Jones-Spencer.

Wall X

Charles Bible. Stokely Carmichael, photograph, 1968. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Huey Newton, photograph. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. “Tapping the Source: A Conversation with Janiece Evans-Page,” magazine article. City Flight, 2001. Scars from a Lynching by Edith Ware McClinton, Backyard Enterprises, 2000.

Case VIII

The Game of Life, A Pictorial Allegory, 1888, Scripture book. Loaned by Jo Ann Randle-Evans. World War II Ration Book No. 3. Loaned by Jo Ann Randle-Evans. World War II Ration Book - “Never Buy Rationed Goods Without Ration Stamps.” Loaned by Jo Ann Randle-Evans. Etude, music periodical, December 1953. Loaned by Carolyn Wilkins-Greene. “Running for President – Shirley Chisholm,“ 1972, poster and bumper sticker. Loaned by Cozetta Gray Guinn. Train set. Loaned by Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear. Ron Jones, “Lift every voice,” commemorative plate, 1999. Loaned by Cozetta Guinn. Charles F. Bolden, Commander, STS – 60 sweatshirt,1994. Loaned by Loretta Martin Green. John Hope Franklin to George Dabney, October 25, 1976, correspondence. Loaned by Lorraine Dabney. Jay Stowell, Methodist Adventures in Negro Education, 1922. Loaned by Harvey Cole.

Appendices

123

Lenders Mr. and Mrs. Harold Alexander, Social worker (retired)/Librarian (retired) Rose Bickerstaff, Sr. Realtor/Consultant

Charles McClinton, Division Business Manager NASA (retired)

Harvey Cole, Educator (retired)

Monica Morales-Loving, Graphic Designer

Mrs. Minnie Thomas Cooper, Educator (retired)

Willys Peck, Trustee, California History Center Foundation, Author (retired), “Mr. Saratoga”

Mrs. Lorraine W. Dabney, Educator (retired) Texanna Davis, Transfer Center Consultant, . De Anza College Jeanne English, Librarian (retired) Jo Ann Randle-Evans, Musician, Pharmaceutical Technician (retired)

Dianne Hayes Quarles, Designer and Co-owner Maruva-DQ Vera Gray Randle, Teacher, Sunnyvale School District, ESL Specialist Sandra Jones Spencer, Instructor, Business/ Computer Science, De Anza College

Janiece Evans-Page, e Inclusion Executive, . Hewlett Packard

Christopher Stevenson, Student, De Anza College

Loretta M. Green, Newspaper Columnist

Miss Odile Thomas, Cosmetologist (retired), Owner/Founder, Odile’s Beauty College

Robert Griffin, Vice President, Student Services, . De Anza College Cozetta Gray Guinn, Instructor, Intercultural/ International Studies, De Anza College, Artist Isaac W. Guinn, Engineer (retired), African Art Gallery owner Lawrence B. Hooper, M.D. Vinson and Jewell Boswell Hudson, Owner and CEO of Jewson Enterprises, Austin, Texas Eb Hunter, Chairman, Intercultural/International Studies, De Anza College Truly A. Hunter, Counselor, De Anza College Mary Jo Ignoffo, Trustee, California History Center Foundation, Historian and Author Mary Jacks, Cosmetologist and Doll Designer Mr. Charles A. Jones/Jones Mortuary, . Mortician and Entrepreneur Ms. Charlotte Kelley, United Airlines Flight Attendant, Community Volunteer

124

Mrs. Yvonne Kennedy, Office Manager (retired)

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Stephanie Ware, Student, De Anza College Mary Parks Washington, Artist, Art Instructor (retired), Campbell Union School District, Campbell, CA Ms. Aida Wells, Administrative Assistant (retired), Carnegie Institute, Stanford University Dr. Muata Weusi-Puryear, Professor of Mathematics, De Anza College Omonike Weusi-Puryear, Instructor, Intercultural/ International Studies, De Anza College Carolyn Wilkins-Greene, Dean of Social Science & Humanities and Instructor Intercultural/ International Studies, De Anza College Dr. James C. Williams, History Instructor, . De Anza College, Former CHC Director Dr. Marion Winters, Interim Chair of the Diversity Programs, De Anza College

Donors Greg and Cheryl Davis, Davis Broadcasting, Inc., Columbus, Georgia The Herschel H. and Eula Gray Estate Trust Fund, Pine Bluff, Arkansas Lawrence B. Hooper, M. D., Sunnyvale, California Jewell Boswell and Vinson Jene Hudson, Austin, Texas Charles A. Jones Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Palo Alto Alumni Chapter St. Mark A.M.E. Zion Church Anita and Arnold Webb, Webb Tile Company, San Mateo, California Marian and Robert Williamson

Appendices

125

A TIM E L I N E O F B L AC K A M E R I C A 1500 circa 1517 European trading of African slaves for plantation work in the Americas begins.

1600 1619 The first Africans arrive in Jamestown as indentured servants. They would become the first Blacks to be forced into involuntary labor in what was to become the United States. 1624 Dutch colony of New Amsterdam is established on the Hudson River. 1641 Massachusetts becomes the first colony to legalize slavery by statute. 1663 The first slave rebellion takes place in Gloucester County, Virginia. 1688 Germantown, Pennsylvania, Mennonites and Quakers pass the first formal antislavery resolution.

1700 1712 A slave insurrection occurs in New York City, leading to the execution of 21 black persons. 1770 Crispus Attucks, an escaped slave, becomes the first person to die in the Boston Massacre. 1772 Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, from Haiti, builds the first trading post near Lake Michigan. He becomes the first permanent resident of the area to be called Chicago. 1775 Free Blacks fight alongside Minutemen in the first skirmishes of the Revolutionary War at Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts.

126

1777

Vermont is the first of the colonies to abolish slavery.

The African Free School is established in New York City.

George Washington reverses earlier policy and allows recruitment of Blacks as soldiers - some 5,000 fight during the Revolution.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

1787 The Free African Society, a mutual self-help group in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is organized by Richard Allen and Absalom Jones.

The Continental Congress passes the Northwest Ordinance forbidding slavery in the region northwest of the Ohio River.

The United States Constitution allows a black male slave to be counted as three-fifths of a man in determining representation in the House of Representatives.

1792 Benjamin Banneker publishes an almanac, the first by a black person. 1793 Congress passes the first Fugitive Slave Law.

Eli Whitney obtains a patent for his cotton gin. The invention encourages increased slavery in the South.

1794 The Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church opens under Richard Allen in a storefront church which Allen converted from a blacksmith shop.

1800 1800 Gabriel Prosser leads a slave revolt near Richmond, Virginia. 1804 The Ohio Legislature passes Black Laws intended to restrict movement of free Blacks in the Northern states. 1807 Slave trading is outlawed in Great Britain. 1808 Slave trading is outlawed in the United States, punishable by a fine of $800.00 for knowingly buying an African and $2,000.00 for equipping a slave vessel. The law is largely ignored. 1816 The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is officially established when recognized by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. Richard Allen is elected the first bishop.

The American Colonization Society is organized. It is designed to ease race problems by sending black people to West Africa.

A TIM E L I N E O F B L AC K A M E R I C A 1817 Blacks meet at Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia to protest the deportation of Blacks from the United States to Africa.

1843 Sojourner Truth, abolition activist, becomes a traveling preacher and quickly begins speaking out against slavery.

1820 Congress approves the Missouri Compromise. Missouri enters the union as a slave state and Maine as a free state. In addition, no states north of Missouri would become slave states.

1847 Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and a former slave, begins publication of the North Star.

1821 The American Colonization Society encourages Blacks to go to West Africa - as many as 20,000 Africans accept the offer. Liberia is founded by American Blacks. The founders name its capital Monrovia after President James Monroe. 1822 Denmark Vesey, a former slave, organizes a revolt aimed at freeing slaves. His attempt fails when a member of his team informs the whites of the plan. Increased brutal treatment of slaves follows. 1827 Freedom’s Journal, the first black newspaper, begins publication. 1830 The first National Negro Convention is held in Philadelphia. Resolutions are drafted opposing the American Colonization Society’s encouragement of deporting Blacks to Liberia. The convention responds by drafting strong resolutions supporting emigration to Canada. 1831

William Lloyd Garrison, with financial assistance from prominent Blacks, publishes the Liberator, an anti-slavery newspaper.

1849 During the California gold rush Waller Jackson leaves Boston and locates in Downieville, California, He is the first black miner in California.

Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland.

1850 Congress enacts the Compromise of 1850, which allows California to be admitted as a free state while the slavery issue in New Mexico will be determined by the people of that state.

Fugitive Slave Act is passed

1852 Uncle Tom’s Cabin, a novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a white woman, is published in Boston. 1855 John Mercer Langston, a black attorney, becomes the first black man to win an elective political office in the US He was elected clerk in Brownhelm Township in Loraine County, Ohio. 1857 The US Supreme Court rules in The Dred Scott v. Sanford case that US territories cannot prohibit slavery and furthermore that Blacks, even those who are free, do not have constitutional rights.

1833 The American Anti–Slavery Society is founded in Philadelphia.

1858 During spring and summer, black emigrants leave San Francisco for the gold rush in British Columbia.

1835 The fifth National Negro Convention meeting in Philadelphia encourages Blacks to discontinue using the words “African” and “colored “and to replace them with the word “Negro” when referring to institutions and to themselves.

1859 John Brown, a white abolitionist from Kansas, leads an attack on the United States Arsenal at Harper’s Ferry, Virginia. The raid is intended to cause a massive slave uprising. It is not successful.

1839 Cinque leads a mutiny aboard the Spanish slave ship Amistad.

1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected President of the United States.

1841 Former President John Adams successfully defends the Africans who rebelled on the Amistad.

1861 The Civil War begins in the US.

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A TIM E L I N E O F B L AC K A M E R I C A 1862 Robert Smalls, a young black slave who is loaned out by his master to work on the Confederate gunboat, the Planter, out of Charleston, South Carolina, seizes the opportunity to steal it and turns it over to the Union Navy. 1863 Emancipation Proclamation is issued by Abraham Lincoln freeing all slaves in the rebelling states. 1864 The 54th Massachusetts black Regiment serves a year without pay rather than accept less pay than white soldiers. 1865 Confederate President Jeff Davis signs a bill for Blacks to be soldiers in the Confederate Army.

Civil War ends.

Congress passes the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which abolishes slavery. It is ratified nine months later.

1872 In May of this year, Congress passes the Amnesty Act allowing reactivation of politics among those of the old Confederate Party.

In June the federal government closes the Freedman’s Bureau.

In December, Lt. Governor, P.B.S. Pinchback becomes Governor when Henry Clay Warmouth, who held the position, is impeached.

1875 Congress passes the Civil Rights Act of 1875 which prohibits discrimination in public accommodations such as hotels and restaurants.

The Freedmen’s Bureau is established by Congress to aid former slaves.

1883 The US Supreme Court declares the Civil Rights Act of 1875 unconstitutional. It rules that while states cannot discriminate based on race individual owners can choose who they serve.

President Abraham Lincoln is assassinated at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth.

1888 A law requiring segregation in railway coaches is passed in Mississippi.

Former Confederate states enact “black codes.”

1890 US Supreme Court permits states to segregate public transportation.

1866 The Ku Klux Klan is created in Tennessee.

The Civil Rights Act is passed by Congress granting full citizenship and equal rights to all persons (male) born in the United States.

1867 Congress passes the Reconstruction Act.

Mississippi law requires its citizens to pass a literacy test before they are allowed to vote. This law is adopted by many southern states between 1895 and 1910.

Ida B. Wells, an African American woman, crusades against Jim Crow laws and lynching. She publishes A Red Record, a numerical report on lynching.

Mifflin Wistar Gibbs graduates from Oberlin (Ohio) College, is admitted to the Arkansas bar; and begins law practice in Little Rock.

1868 The Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified. 1870 The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution is ratified.

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Joseph H. Rainey becomes the first African American to join the US House of Representatives.

Tennessee passes the first Jim Crow law mandating separation of black and white riders on trains. Hiram R. Revels from Mississippi replaces Jefferson Davis. He becomes the first African American US senator.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

1895 Booker T. Washington’s gives his “Atlanta Compromise” speech. 1896 The National Association of Colored Women is organized. Mary Church Terrell is the first president.

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The US Supreme Court rules in Plessy v. Ferguson that governments may have separate facilities for Blacks if the facilities were equal to those of whites.

1910 Jack Johnson, boxer defeats James J. Jefferies, “the great white hope.” Racial violence follows in some cities.

The National Urban League is established.

1897 Mifflin Wistar Gibbs is appointed U. S. Consul to Tamatave (now Toamasina), Madagascar.

1912

W. C. Handy publishes Memphis Blues.

1898 Louisiana becomes the first southern state to exempt males from a poll tax providing that their fathers or grand-fathers voted before January 1, 1897. The measure is aimed at keeping black men off the voting roster.

Spanish-American War is fought for a period of 112 days.

1913 President Woodrow Wilson segregates federal government departments.

1914 NAACP is formed in Los Angeles. 1915 D.W. Griffith‘s film Birth of a Nation opens.

1899 The US Supreme Court ruled in Cummings v. Richmond County, Georgia, that a city can provide a high school for whites even if it does not provide one for Blacks.

Carter G. Woodson establishes the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History.

In Guinn v. United States, the Supreme Court declares that the “grandfather clause” is unconstitutional.

1900

1900 The US Supreme Court approves of segregated railcars even when the train passes through a place where segregation was illegal.

Paul Robeson, actor, singer, political radical, and advocate of racial equality, enters Rutgers College.

1917 The United States enters World War I.

1901 Booker T. Washington is invited to dine with President Theodore Roosevelt. This causes controversy throughout the South.

Three hundred fifty thousand African Americans serve in segregated units.

A race riot in St. Louis results in the death of 39 people. The NAACP stages a silent protest in New York City.

Paul Robeson, a Rutgers Phi Beta Kappa student, is named All-American football player.

1903 W.E.B. DuBois publishes The Souls of Black Folk. 1905 Robert S. Abbott begins publication of the Chicago Defender, a newspaper.

The Niagara Movement is created. Twenty-nine people including W.E.B. DuBois, and William Monroe Trotter will campaign for civil rights for Blacks. Paul Laurence Dunbar, a black poet, dies in Dayton, Ohio.

1909 The National Negro Committee is formed, the precursor of the National Association For The Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), by a multiracial group of men and women.

Marcus Garvey begins the Universal Negro Improvement Association.

Matthew H. Henson arrived at the North Pole with Commodore Robert E. Peary.

1918 World War I ends.

There is an outbreak of influenza. Millions die in Europe, America, and Asia.

The first Pan–African Congress, led by W.E.B. DuBois, meets in Paris.

Race riots erupt in many cities throughout the United States.

1922 The Harlem Renaissance begins. 1924 Carter G. Woodson publishes The Makers of Negro History.

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Shirley Anita Chisholm is born in Brooklyn, New York, November 30.

1925 A. Phillip Randolph organizes the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. 1927 There is a major flood along the Mississippi River and other tributary rivers in the southern states.

1945 World War II ends.

1948 President Truman orders the desegregation of the US

Marcus Garvey is deported as an undesirable alien after being released from a federal prison in Atlanta, where he served time for a conviction on charges of mail fraud.

1929 The New York Stock market crashes and the Great Depression follows. 1931 In Scottsboro, Alabama, nine young black males are charged with raping two white women. They are quickly convicted. 1934 Charley Patton, African American blues guitarist and vocalist, dies in Indianola, Mississippi. 1936 Jesse Owens wins four gold medals at the summer Olympics in Berlin. 1937 Joe Louis defeats James Braddock, becoming the heavyweight-boxing champion of the world.

1947 Jackie Robinson becomes the first Black to play baseball in the major leagues.

Armed Forces with Executive Order 9981.

1950 Ralph J. Bunche wins the Nobel Peace Prize for his work as mediator in Palestine. 1952 Tuskegee Institute reports that for the first time in their 71 years of recordkeeping, there was not a lynching. 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas. The US Supreme Court overturns legal school segregation at all levels. 1955 Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus. She is removed from the bus and arrested.

The Montgomery, Alabama Bus Boycott, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., begins.

1939 World War II begins in Europe.

1957 Civil Rights Act passed by Congress.

1940 Benjamin O. Davis, Sr., becomes the first black general in the United States Army.

1941 President Franklin D. Roosevelt issues an executive order forbidding discrimination in defense industries following political pressure by Blacks led by A. Phillip Randolph.

The Japanese bomb Pearl Harbor. Dorrie (Doris) Miller, sailor and cook, mans a machine gun and defends the USS Arizona during the attack. He earns the Navy Cross.

The United States enters World War II.

1942 The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) is organized in Chicago. 1944 The United Negro College Fund is organized.

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The first working, production-ready cotton picking machine is demonstrated in Clarkdale, Mississippi. Many Blacks leave the plantation, and migrate to northern cities.

Port Chicago, California, disaster and mutiny.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

Nine high school students in Little Rock, Arkansas, integrate the public high school with the assistance of the NAACP. Following violence by whites, President Eisenhower sends the 101st Airborne troops to guard the students.

1960 Black student sit-ins begin in Greensboro, North Carolina. Other student protests will follow, resulting in the organization of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). 1962 Augustus Hawkins becomes first African American congressman from California. 1963 Medgar Evers, NAACP field secretary, is assassinated in Mississippi.

W.E.B. DuBois dies in Ghana, where he had moved and renounced his US citizenship.

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The March on Washington becomes the largest civil rights demonstration ever in the United States, with over 250,000 people in attendance including 75 to 100 US congresspersons. It is organized by A. Philip Randolph. Martin Luther King delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech there.

Assemblymember William Byron Rumford authors Assembly Bill 1240, commonly known as the Rumford Act. This important bill prohibited discrimination based on race or creed in the sale or rental of real estate property in California.

1977 Alex Haley’s 12-hour miniseries Roots: The Saga of an American Family is shown on television in 8 episodes to a huge viewing audience.

1964 Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits the use of the poll tax.

Civil Rights Act of 1964 is passed. The act guarantees equal rights in housing, public facilities, voting and public schools. A civil rights commission is established to ensure that these laws are enforced.

Martin Luther King, Jr. receives Nobel Peace Prize.

Proposition 14 nullifies the Rumford Act but is later found to be unconstitutional by state and federal Supreme Courts.

1965 Malcolm X is assassinated in Harlem.

The Watts area of south Los Angeles experiences riots.

1966 Huey Newton and Bobby Seale found the Black Panter Party.

1982 Lee P. Brown is named the first black police commissioner in Houston, Texas. 1983 Harold Washington becomes the first black mayor of Chicago.

Guion (Guy) Bluford is the first black American astronaut to fly into space with the space shuttle Challenger.

President Ronald Reagan signs the bill designating January 20 as a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

1986 Ronald McNair, black astronaut, is one of the seven who die in the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger. 1987 Frederick Drew Gregory becomes the first black space shuttle commander. 1988 Jesse Jackson runs for the office of President of the United States. He receives 1,218 delegate votes at the national Democratic Convention but loses to Michael Dukakis.

Bill Cosby donates $20,000,000 to Spelman College.

L. Douglas Wilder is elected governor of Virginia and David Dinkins becomes mayor of New York.

1968 Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated.

Robert Kennedy is assassinated.

1969 The Congressional Black Caucus is formed.

Black Studies Department is established at University of California, Berkeley.

1970 Kenneth Gibson becomes the first black mayor of an Eastern city, Newark, New Jersey. Gibson goes on to serve four terms. 1973 Thomas Bradley becomes the first black mayor of Los Angeles.

Maynard Jackson becomes Atlanta, Georgia’s first black mayor. 1974 The largest gift to date from a black organization, $132,000, is given by the Links, Incorporated, to the United Negro College Fund.

1989 General Colin Powell is named chair of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. 1990 Nelson Mandela is freed after spending 27 years in a South African prison for fighting policies of apartheid.

Wellington Webb is elected mayor of Denver, Colorado.

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A TIM E L I N E O F B L AC K A M E R I C A 1992 Carol Moseley Braun becomes the first black woman to be elected to the US Senate.

Mae Jamison is the first black American woman in space on the space shuttle Endeavor.

1993 M. Joycelyn Elders becomes the first woman, and the first Black, US Surgeon General.

Toni Morrison wins the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first black American to do so.

1995 The Million Man March, organized by Minister Louis Farrakhan of the Nation of Islam, is held in Washington, DC.

2003 President George W. Bush signs legislation to create the National Museum of African American and Culture at the Smithsonian Institution. 2004 Tom Colbert is appointed the first black Oklahoma Supreme Court justice. 2005 Shirley Chisholm dies in Florida.

Condoleeza Rice is sworn in as secretary of state.

Hurrican Katrina arrives to devastate parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, August 29.

Ground is broken for the African Burial Ground in Manhattan.

Ebony magazine celebrates its 60th anniversary.

1998 Civil rights leader James Farmer is awarded the Medal of Freedom by President William Jefferson Clinton. 1999 Freddie Meeks, one of 50 sailors convicted of mutiny following the Port Chicago disaster, is pardoned by President Clinton.

2000 2000 President-elect George W. Bush announces the appointment of Colin Powell as secretary of state, Condoleeza Rice as national security advisor and Dr. Roderick Paige as secretary of education.

The tennis-playing Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, compete in the Wimbledon semi-finals. Venus goes on to win the womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s title, the first black woman to do so since Althea Gibson in 1957 and 1958.

2001 US Commission on Civil Rights holds investigative hearings into voting irregularities in Florida in the 2000 presidential election.

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Legislation to create a commission to study the issue of slavery reparations is reintroduced by Representative John Conyers.

2002

Halle Berry wins best actress Oscar and Denzel Washington wins best actor Oscar.

Actor/comedian Bill Cosby and baseball player Hank Aaron are awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush.

Californians Keeping Culturally Connected

2006 StoryCorps and the National Museum of African American History and Culture collaborate to record up to 2,000 oral histories of black Americans, including World War 2 veterans and civil rights activists. 2008 David Paterson, becomes governor of New York.

Barack Obama receives Democratic nomination and is elected President of the United States. Obama nominates Eric Holder, Jr. as attorney general, Dr. Susan Rice as UN ambassador, Ron Kirk as trade representative, and Lisa Jackson as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. All are confirmed.

2009 Barack Obama is inaugurated and assumes office as the 44th president of the United States.

Charles Bolden begins duties as chief administrator of NASA.

Note: Timeline information is gathered from the books Timetables of history by Bernard Grun (1991), Chronicle of the 20th Century (1987) and Chronicle of America by Clifton Daniel, online from chronologies and timelines offered by Gale Cengage Learning, InfoPlease, Library of Congress, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, and BlackPast, among others, and from newspaper sources.

Suggested Readings Appiah, Kwame Anthony and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. Africana. New York: Basic Civitas Books, 1999. Aptheker, Herbert. A Documentary History of the Negro People in the United States. New York: A Citadel Press Book/ Carol Publishing Group, 1990. Aptheker, Herbert, ed. The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois. International Bearden, Romare & Harry Henderson. A History of African-American Artists from 1792 to the Present, New York: Pantheon Books, 1993. Beasley, Delilah. Negro Trailblazers of California. 1919. Blockson, Charles L. Underground Railroad. New York: Berkley Books, 1989. Curry, Leonard P. Free Black in Urban America, 1800-1850. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Curtis, Nancy C. Black Heritage Sites: An African American Odyssey and Finder’s Guide. Chicago: American Library Association, 1996. Diggs, Anita Doreen. Talking Drums: An African-American Quote Collection. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1995. DuBois, W.E Burghardt. The Autobiography of W.E.B. DuBois. New York. International Publishers, 1968. DuBois, W.E. Burghardt. The Souls of Black Folk. New York: Washington Square Press, 1970. Franklin, John Hope. From Slavery to Freedom. New York: Alfred Knopf, 1967. Gatewood, Willard B. Aristocrats of Color: The Black Elite 1880-1920. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2000. Gibbs, Mifflin Wistar. Shadow and Light. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1968. Guinn, Cozetta. “In Celebration of African American Art In Northern California Since 1858: Seeing History Through Art.” The Californian. Vol. 20, No. 2 (December 1998): 6-11. Hall, Charles E. Negroes in the United States 1920-1932. New York: Arno Press and the New York Times, 1969. Hamann, Jack. On American Soil: How Justice Became a Casualty of World War II. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books, 2005. Hine, Darlene Clark, et al. The African American Odyssey. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 2000. Hornsby, Alton Jr. Chronology of African-American History: Significant Events and People from 1619 to the Present. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1991. Hughes, Langston and Milton Meltzer. A Pictorial History of the Negro in America. New York: Crown Publishers, 1963. Katz, William Loren. Eyewitness; A Living Documentary of the African American Contribution to American History. New York: Touchstone, Simon and Schuster, 1995. Kilian, Crawford. Go Do Some Great Thing. Seattle: University of Washington, 1978. Kranz, Rachael and Koslow, Phillip J. The Biographical Dictionary of African-Americans. New York: Facts on File, Inc., 1999. Lindsey, Howard O. A History of Black America. Secaucus, New Jersey: Chartwell Books, Inc., 1994. McAdoo, Stacey James. Bearing My Soul. Little Rock, Arkansas: Backyard Enterprises, 2001.

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McClinton, Edith W. Scars from a Lynching. Little Rock, Arkansas: Backyard Enterprises, 2000. McElroy, Guy C. Facing History: The Black Image in American Art 1710-1940. Washington, D.C. The Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1990. Mintz, Sidney and Richard Price. The Birth of African American Culture: An Anthropological Perspective. Boston: Beacon Press, 1992. Moore, Joe Louis. “In Our Own Image, Black Artists in California, 1880-1970.” California History Vol. 75, No.3 (Fall 1996): 264-271. Mullen, Robert W. Blacks in America’s Wars: The Shift in Attitudes from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam. New York: Anchor Foundation, Pathfinder Press, 1986. Powell, Richard J. and Jock Reynolds. To Conserve a Legacy: American Art from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 1999. Salvatore, Nick. We All Got History. New York: Times Books, Random House, 1996. Sampson, Henry T. Blacks in Black and White: A Source Book on Black Films. Metuchen, N.J.: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1977. Sampson, Henry T. The Ghost Walks: A Chronological History of Blacks in Show Business, 1865-1910. Metuchen, N.J. The Scarecrow Press Inc.,1988. Taylor, Susie King. A Black Woman’s Civil War Memoirs. Edited by Patricia W. Romero. New York: Markus Wiener, 1988. Willis, Deborah. Reflections in Black: A History of Black Photographers 1840 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2000. Wilson, August. Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. New York. A Plume Book, New American Library, 1988. Woodson, Carter G. The Negro Makers of History. Washington D.C. The Associated Publishers, Inc., 1928. Wormser, Richard. The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. New York; St. Martin’s Press, 2003.

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Epilogue I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow Of human blood in human veins My soul has grown deep like the rivers… Langston Hughes, 1920 At last I am bringing closure to this catalog. What I first anticipated would take only a few months to do during the summer and fall of 2002 stretched into many years, working periodically from October to June. Needless to say, I have been embarrassed with the length of time that it has taken, especially when my friends and family ask, “Are you still working on that?” Despite the time that it has taken to complete the catalog, I am happy about putting forth the effort. Being able to view the time period of 1800 to 2001 in America through memorabilia, special family heirlooms, and wonderful everyday stories has had an immeasurable effect on me. Indeed it has been interesting. Using case notes provided by the lenders, conducting additional research and cross-referencing, I have increased my knowledge of events and broadened my perspective of the culture and history of African Americans. For days, I pondered how to pinpoint what it was that I was doing when I collected, sorted, and arranged the exhibit and subsequent catalog. I asked myself what is the real story? Why are you telling it? What is it that you expect to communicate? Then it came to me… treat it as if it were just another painting. As a painter, I tell stories on canvas or paper. Reflecting on my own creative work, I see that I have painted various subjects, from nature scenes, to still life, to portraits of family members and friends. However, I can also see that the thesis of much of my work is probably that of social realism executed in a combination of realistic and impressionistic styles. My work consists of what I see or feel at a given time in relationship to a given subject. It includes the present and the past, both of which are real for me. Some things are pleasant, while others are not. The idea that the thesis of the exhibit was social realism really jelled when I accidentally ran across a copy of a research paper written in 1992 by a former student from one of my multicultural art history classes. The paper was about the works of two noted visual artists, a writer and a musician: David Hammons and Jacob Lawrence, painters; Toni Morrison, a writer; and Tracy Chapman a guitarist and singer. All had themes that addressed social issues. The heart of the student’s paper was how each of the subjects dealt with social issues that were significant in their lives. Hammon and Lawrence addressed what they saw on the streets of Harlem in their paintings. Morrison’s writings reflect the connectedness of social issues from slavery to the present, while Chapman, a young black female, reflects on what it was like attending a prestigious Connecticut college and being asked peculiar questions by white students about black-related issues. The student’s paper points out that according to David Shapiro, each scenario was a form of social realism. It is

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about processing and recording compound activities that have designed and shaped and continue to guide and define African American life. Californians Keeping Culturally Connected identifies factors that, when critically viewed, explain the importance of putting together this project conveying many stories with differing messages but having a common strand, one of self-identity and what it means to be who we are. It is in part a record that validates the existence of individuals who lived and moved within the confines of the communities surrounding De Anza College in 2001. The collection of memorabilia did not constitute items on display just for the sake of being there; instead they were communiqués dealing with social issues from the past and present. They represented a variety of themes that focused on achievements, joy, pleasure, and pride, as well as atrociousness, sadness, struggles, and the fight for justice. Reviewing the assorted images and stories in the exhibit has given me a broader insight into the social, economic, and political state of affairs that has permeated African American life for the past 300 years. Adding a chronology of events has been helpful in allowing me to see panoramically the time and context of the pieces displayed. It has revealed a history of living daily in this country. Reflecting on the 200 years, becoming acquainted with, and vicariously living with and visiting people and places of the period is priceless. The experience has been like the journey of a great river with many tributaries. The waters merge and flow powerfully taking with them all kinds of things. Here, the sundry of items become connected by means of the water and they move collectively, downstream. And so it has been with the exhibit, merging several pieces of memorabilia under the umbrella of a common topic allows viewers to see multiple facets of given themes. There are paradigms of achievement and survival skills, the Black Church, cotton, education, family, lynching, work and war. A case in point is the example of war. There are three themes that deal with war; the Civil War with connections to civilians Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, and Robert Smalls shown on Wall I; then on Wall IV, there are images of soldiers from World Wars I and II. Included in the W.W. II section were photographs of three military men—Corporal Charles Kennedy shown with an Enfield rifle ca. 1942, Sergeant Rayfield Wilkins, Sr., wearing on his arm the highly acclaimed “Buffalo Soldier” insignia of the 92nd Infantry Division stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona in the early 1940s, and Col. Harold C. Hayes of the famous Tuskegee Airmen between 1942 and 1946. Lastly, there were two World War II Ration Books of stamps from that period designed to regulate consumer purchases. Although each is historic in its own right, all emerge with a different focus or story of the history of the same war. However, beyond the immaculate demeanor of the men in their neat uniforms is a disturbing side of WWII that is rarely mentioned. It is nevertheless, part of the sundry of items included in the history of African Americans that, when viewing the memorabilia, must not be omitted. In view of the present-day wars, I am compelled to shed some light on African Americans in war. The term war is not meant to be pleasant, there are always tragedies. Even though the casualties of war are not immediately apparent as indicated in the World War II photographs in the exhibit, they are ever-present. African American troops were laden with excess baggage of numerous social, economic and political

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tribulations that were different from those of white troops. The military was segregated. Incidents listed in the chronology of events in 1944, when examined carefully, show that in addition to fighting the country’s official enemy, African American U.S. military troops fought a social and political war with their own country as evidenced by the July, 1944 Port Chicago, California explosion that destroyed two cargo ships and leveled the town of Port Chicago; also by the August 1944 controversial murder by hanging, of an Italian prisoner of war detainee at Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington. The Port Chicago incident occurred while untrained seamen were loading a ship with live ammunition. Of the three hundred twenty men who died, two hundred-two were African American. A month later, two hundred fifty of the surviving African American seamen were ordered to load another ship. They refused to continue loading (hot cargo) ammunition ships without proper training and equipment. Fifty were tried and convicted of mutiny for refusing to do so. A month later a similar tragedy unfolded on the West Coast of the United States. Here, an Italian POW at Fort Lawton in Seattle, Washington was found dead from hanging. The barracks of the POWs and African American soldiers were segregated from the white troops, but only yards apart from each other. On the night in question, a POW was hanged and a riot occurred. African American soldiers believed that the hanging of the Italian was done by a white military policeman. The incident was investigated and black troops were blamed. The largest and longest court martial of WW II followed. The “war theme” in the exhibit showed that African Americans have fought in all American wars. They were there fighting in the War of Independence and the Civil War. Since then, they have volunteered and have been drafted. From combat fights to space flights, black people have always been there in times of peace for others around the world and at home, and, in times of crisis, visibly giving service and their lives despite the second class conditions in which they frequently served. In addition to war related service African Americans have participated in space exploration. The exhibit included pictures of three African American astronauts; Dr. Mae Jamison, Commander Charles F. Bolden and Dr. Bernard Harris. The interconnected stories of war, slavery, freedom, economics, education, labor, lynching, music, theater, art and religion are documented evidence within the exhibit shedding new light on these topics in unique ways. As with everything, time marches on and changes the course of events. Our everyday experiences, relationships, world events, wars, and other circumstances force us to make adjustments. In various ways our lives merge and flow. In doing so, we are reminded of the connectedness through images of memories and experiences. The memorabilia, and “pop–up” bits of information along with decisions that are made and actions taken by individuals, organizations, and governments give a fairly clear picture of the history and culture of African Americans from 1800 to 2001. In terms of what has happened to participants in the exhibit, a few transitions have occurred since 2002. Some deal with change in job status, mostly individuals retiring. In this category is Professor James Williams of De Anza College, who loaned the slave papers. Loretta Green is now retired from her post as columnist for the San Jose Mercury News. Vera Randle is retired from teaching in the Sunnyvale School District. Student

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Christopher Stevenson graduated from De Anza and is completing his four years of course work at San José State University. Stephanie Ware has returned to Pennsylvania to complete her college studies. Although she is no longer at De Anza College, the photograph of the quilt belonging to Texanna Tooles Davis is still admired by those who view it. Janiece Evans-Page was promoted to Vice President of Imaging at HewlettPackard and later developed her own consulting company. Dr. Muata Weusi–Puryear, has retired from teaching math at De Anza College. It is important to note the role he played in helping to bring fair housing practices to Santa Clara County, a social change initiated under his tenure as president of the Palo Alto branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Since the exhibit of Californians Keeping Culturally Connected, time has alternated between occurrences that have been both joyous and tragic. Included in the first category, is Mary Jacks, who has added realtor and beauty shop owner to her titles of hair stylist and doll maker. Omonike Weusi-Puryear has taken on the title of financial advisor and is CEO of her own company. Sadly, a number of the lenders to the exhibit are now deceased. We have lost scientist and educator, Harvey Cole. Ron L. Jones, inventor and entrepreneur, died in February of 2004 and Minnie Cooper died in June of 2005. Mrs. Edith Ware McClinton passed in 2009 and Harold Alexander in 2010. The New York Trade Center and Pentagon were bombed on September 11, 2001, the War in Iraq began in March of 2003 and continues today along with the war in Afghanistan. A giant tsunami occurred in the Indian Ocean December of 2004. The devastating hurricanes of Katrina and Rita hit New Orleans and other United States Gulf Coast communities causing untold grief and pain and raising many questions of why. America celebrated and proudly acclaimed the genius of Ray Charles in the film Ray, starring Jamie Foxx. Shirley Chisholm, highlighted in Case VIII, died January 1, 2005. In fall of 2005, Americans quietly mourned the passing of John H. Johnson, founder and publisher of Ebony Magazine and the legendary Rosa Parks, civil rights worker. In 2008, Barack Obama, the son of a white woman from Kansas and an African father from Kenya, became the first Black President of the United States. In spite of and because of all that has happened, Californians will continue to create, collect and connect.

Lastly, for young people, it is important that you learn about your past, for to ignore events just because

you were not born when they happened is to “remain a child.” How important it is to be an independent thinker!

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About the Author Cozetta Gray Guinn was born in Bigelow, Arkansas. Her undergraduate degree in art is from Philander Smith College, Little Rock, Arkansas. She has a Master of Arts in Social Science and a diploma in Ethnic Studies from San José State University. In her role as a painter, storyteller and a teacher of art, art history, African American studies, and history of Africa, she calls on her experience to help others see history through memorabilia in exhibits that she curates.

Guinn has served as a volunteer and docent in

San Francisco’s Mexican Museum, the M. H. de Young Museum, and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor. She is an instructor in the Intercultural/ International Studies Department at De Anza College, a former member of the Boards of Trustees of the Euphrat Museum and the California History Center at De Anza College, and past coordinator of the Peninsula Book Club, an African American group dedicated to promoting black authors since 1983.

Cozetta Guinn lives with her husband Isaac in Los

Altos, California.

California History Center and Foundation at De Anza College

Slavery, Abolition and the Civil War Years, 1800–1865

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