Come ye thankful People, come:
Raise the song of Harvest home
Archive for November 27, 2008
Coming This Sunday: Appealing Subjects
This Sunday at Shades of the Departed, a new weekend column called Appealing Subjects debuts. And it’s written by me!
I’m honored to be one of the four Weekend with Shades columnists. The others are Terry Thornton, George Geder, and Jasia.
In Appealing Subjects, we’ll explore the strange and wonderful relationship between photography and law. We’ll consider issues such as Photography and the Constitution, Crime by Camera, Photos as Punishment, and Photography Goes to War. Naturally, we’ll also stay updated on copyright, privacy, the right of publicity, and the status of orphan works. We’ll discuss whether photography is art or journalism and why it matters.
And we’ll dress it all up with appropriate photographs, vintage and modern.
I hope you’ll join at Appealing Subjects, coming this Sunday, November 23!
A New Rabbit: Santa Fe’s African American Graveyard Rabbit
This new blog by the estimable George Geder can be found at http://africanancestryinsantafecemeteries.blogspot.com/.
George poses this interesting question: “How many African Americans are buried in Santa Fe, New Mexico? Who are they? What are their stories?”
His answers no doubt will fascinate and educate us. Check it out!
Veterans Day 2008
Our Veterans Day post, on this 90th anniversary of the end of World War I, is called “The Pyrrhic Monument at Meuse-Argonne.” You can find it at The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit.
Family on Television
My families will be getting some television exposure this fall.
First, on Tuesday, November 11, ABC Family Channel presents the two hour season finale of Lincoln Heights, which stars Nicki Mischeau as Jennifer Sutton, wife of police officer Eddie Sutton. Nicki is part of the “French Negroes of Illinois” families that settled in St Louis. An experienced character role player, Nicki has appeared in Six Feet Under, The Shield, JAG, The Practice, and many other popular television shows. ABC recently announced that Lincoln Heights has been renewed for a fourth season.
Some very exciting news is that in December, the African American Channel will launch with a documentary on James Bowie, Free Man of Color. I’m a direct descendant of James Bowie (1791-1832); he being my 4th great-grandfather. The African American Channel’s documentary promises to be an outstanding bit of history and genealogy. My cousin Steven Bowie is featured in the piece. I’ve seen some photographs from the filming and it should be great. Updates on the time and date and how to get the African American Channel in your area will be forthcoming!
Some of the Photographic Stash
You recall that last summer I cane into a windfall of literally thousands of photographs. Well, we’ve spent some time on photo-triage, so every now and then I display some of the pictures most compelling or most in need of rehabilitation. This is another of such posts.
We start with a good one.
John & Maggie Lewis
These portraits are of John Henry Phillip Lewis and his wife, Margaret (“Maggie”) Elizabeth Griffin. John was born a slave in 1852 in Baltimore. It is said that he was born with a “twisted ankle,” and this fact allowed him to be a house servant. As a house servant, he received an education that field slaves did not. At some point, his mother and brother Charles were sold in New Orleans. John headed south to find them and later discovered that his mother had died. He couldn’t find his brother. He migrated north to Missouri and for ahwile, resided in a boarding house in Cape Girardeau. Family lore says that one day he noticed a girl playing with other girls, but the one he noticed was particularly sad. It was Maggie Griffin. He asked her why she seemed so sad. She said she wanted to go home to Tennessee. Her mother had sent her north for better opportunities. But Maggie was quite homesick and missed her mother and sisters Harriet and Sally back in Tennessee. John tried to console Maggie, but nothing worked. Then at some point, perhaps days or weeks later, John suggested that they go to Tennessee to visit Maggie’s mother. And they set off. But when they reached the town of Charleston in Bradley County, Tennessee, where Maggie had been born, they were told that Maggie’s mother had died some time previously. They did, however, connect with Maggie’s sisters. Greatly saddened, they headed back to Illinois. On the way, however, they stopped in Gibson County, Tennessee, and got married. They stayed in Tennessee for awhile, where John got a job as a teacher for twelve dollars a month. The first three of their eight children, Emma, Charles, and Anneta, were born there. (Records actually show that Emma was born in 1877; Charles in 1879; and that their parents were married in 1880).
John took his family north to Illinois in search of better wages, settling in Carbondale. They lived with a woman named Sally, who was from Tennessee. John and Maggie helped care for the elderly woman. When she died, shewilled her house to Maggie. Later, John built a big house at 119 North Wall Street in Carbondale. Thereafter, he acquired a large tract of land and built other homes on it. John was now in the real estate business. The area became known as the John Phillip Lewis subdivision. John also owned several other properties and a grocery store. In addition, he taught math in the city schools.
The Lewis family were members of the AME Church, after first having attended the Free Will Baptist Church. John was the superintendent of the Sunday school.
John and Maggie were very generous, congenial and neighborly people. Black folks arriving in town at the train station had no access to public facilities. So John would collect them from the station and feed and lodge them in his home with no thought of remuneration.
John and Maggie’s sixth child, Edna Julia Lewis, married into the French Negro Micheau family of Prairie du Rocher, Illinois. John died in Carbondale in 1916; Maggie died in Union County, Illinois, in 1942.
Now some photos in need of rehabilitation.
This one is in the worst shape and also comes from the Lewis branch.
John Paul Harris
This is John Paul Harris, born in 1915 in Carbondale. He was one of the grandchildren of John and Maggie Lewis. The picture looks like he may have been five or six years old when it was taken. It is on the front of a post card. We’ve seen family photos on postcards before. Unfortunately, when the photo reached me, it was split in half as you can see.
Although they look like different boys to me, I’m told that the boy standing in the next photo is also John Paul Harris. The other boy is John Paul’s cousin, Claude Micheau (1917-1991). The identity of the girls could not be confirmed to me. Chances are, however, that one of them may be John Paul’s sister Margaret; or the two of then could be Claude’s sisters Edna and Ottie.
Cousins John Paul Harris and Claude Micheau and (?) sisters
Oh Baby! My Mother Smiles for the Camera
Mom as a baby (1933)
Mom as a babe (1953)
My Father Was Born 70 Years . . .
. . . after the Emancipation Proclamation. And now, 76 years after his birth, he’s seen the impossible.
Graveyard Rabbits?
What’s a Graveyard Rabbit? Well, there are about 40 or so new ones in the blogosphere as of tonight!
The Association of Graveyard Rabbits is an inspired idea from Terry Thornton, writer and publisher of The Hill Country of Monroe County, Mississippi. It is a group of bloggers focused only on issues of cemeteries, burial, memorial monuments, and the like. In putting this project together, Terry and co-conspirator footMaven have done something unprecedented in the field of genealogical and historical writing. In a little over three weeks, the project has attracted an international field of writers who last week produced more than 90 diverse and interesting articles.
Most of the Graveyard Rabbits are regionally focused. Here at GeneaBlogie, we’re participating with The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit, a blog that will cover cemetery issues around the world and include the occasional article on the law related to cemeteries and burials. The blog’s already been active a few days–check out what’s there now! In the sidebar of that blog is a list of other Graveyard Rabbits–see if there’s one for the region you research the most.
A digest of last week’s Graveyard Rabbit articles from around the world can be found at the Association’s blog here.
Now, why exactly the name Graveyard Rabbit? You’ll have to read this article: About the Name Graveyard Rabbit to find out!
We’ll post several times a month at The Peripatetic Graveyard Rabbit. we hope you’ll join us as well as the other Rabbits for a close look at matters of grave concern.
Vote!
I first voted in the 1972 elections; as far as I know, my parents have voted in every election since 1954. But, of course, not all of my ancestors had the right to vote.
The Fifteenth Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1870, provides:
Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
This Reconstruction-era measure was necessary to ensure that all the former Confederate states and a number of Northern ones did not deny the right to vote to the former slaves. In some places, however, blacks were registered to vote before the Fifteenth Amendment. Milam County, Texas, was one such place.
A transcription of the 1867-1869 Milam County Voter Registration records contains the following:
412 9 Jul 1867 Sanford, A. W. TN
1093 15 Aug 1867 Sanford, Manuel TN colored
1285 20 Nov 1869 Sanford, Joe TN colored
1298 20 Nov 1869 Sanford, R. H. TN
1305 20 Nov 1869 Sanford, George TN colored
The number to the left is the voter registration number; the date is the date he registered to vote. The two letter abbreviation is the place of birth of the voter. Voter No. 412, Archer Wood Sanford, and Voter No. 1298, Rueben Henry Sanford, were landowning brothers from Williamson County, Tennessee. In 1854, they re-located with their mother, siblings, and slaves to Milam County, Texas. The other Sanford voters listed were the former slaves. I should note that I have no evidence that they ever actually voted.
Among the former Sanford slaves was my great-great-grandfather, William Sanford (1809-1916). He was the oldest of the Sanford slaves, having been with the family in Virginia before the went to Tennessee. He’s not listed among the registered voters. I have no idea what to make of that fact. I also don’t know if he was related to the other black Sanfords.
The end of Reconstruction brought the effective end of “Negro suffrage” as well in most places. A long struggle commenced for black voting rights, culminating in the enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But the price was high: murder, assaults, intimidation and unjustifiable arrests were typically used to discourage blacks from voting.
In Texas, the most liberal of the former Confederate states, however, Jim Crow voting laws weren’t enacted until the early 1900′s. In 1906, Texas then enacted a law that permitted Democratic party county organizations to judge the qualifications of voters for the primary election. (Until the 1980′s, the Democrats were the only party that mattered in Texas). Some county committees added “white man” to the statutory criteria. However, from time to time, depending on political needs, these same county committees would announce that Negroes would be allowed to vote.
Later, Texas adopted a statute that provided, “in no event shall a negro be eligible to participate in a Democratic party primary election held in the State of Texas.” This law was challenged by a black physician, L.A. Nixon, and was declared unconstitutional by a unanimous United States Supreme Court in 1927.
Texas quickly enacted a new provision to continue restrictions on voter participation, granting authority to political parties to determine who should vote in their primaries. Within four months the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party passed a resolution that “all white Democrats … and none other” be allowed to participate in any primary election thereafter.
Five years later, Dr. Nixon reappeared before the Supreme Court in another suit against the “white man’s” primary. Again, the law was struck down.
In the 1940′s, most of my relatives moved away from Milam County. Some went elsewhere in Texas, but two brothers, my grandfather Quentin Vennis Harold Manson and his older brother, Carl Edward Manson, ended up in Los Angeles. Both registered to vote there in the 1940′s as California then had no laws disadvantaging any citizen from the franchise.
Uncle Carl registered to vote in Los Angeles as soon as he got there in 1940. Voter registration records show him and his first wife, Marie, living at 5820 Melrose Avenue, Los Angeles. Carl’s occupation is given as “salesman” (he owned a millinery shop) and Marie is “at home.” Both registered as Democrats. They maintained the same registration in 1942. In 1944, however, they had moved to 131 South Wetherly Drive, and Carl’s occupation was given as “aircraft” (he worked in one of the many airplane manufacturing facilities in Southern California at the time).
Carl Manson in front of his hat shop in Los Angeles, 1966
Interestingly, in 1946, Carl became a Republican as the couple moved to 226 East 30th Street in Los Angeles. In 1948, they were still at that address and both Carl and Marie were Republicans. But by 1950, having moved to 1109 Hartsock Street, they were Democrats again. They switched parties again to Republican in 1952 and moved to 175 East 49th Street. I don’t know what all the party switching was about. I speculate, however, that in 1952, they were for Eisenhower rather than Adlai Stevenson–choosing the war hero over the “egghead.”
Strangely enough, in 1954, Carl and Marie Manson were registered in two different places in two different parties. At the 1952 address of 175 East 49th Street, they were Republicans. At 14415 Haas Avenue, they were Democrats. This must have been the result of moving in the middle of the year and re-registering in the new place. No dates are given on the Los Angeles voter records. 1954 is the last year that they appear in the voter records. Carl lived another 29 years and I don’t know what became of Marie after they divorced. Carl’s second wife, Izola, does not appear at all in the voter records.
Grandpa Quentin, Carl’s younger brother, first registered to vote in California in 1946. He was a consistent Democrat. From 1946 to 1954, he moved just twice: from 1710 South Central Avenue to 221 West 41st Place. Like Carl, he doesn’t appear in the voter records again after 1954.
I’ve voted in every election since I first voted in 1972–even in 1984 when I was in the Air Force in Great Britain. These days, I’m what California calls (unfortunately and inaccurately) a “permanent absentee voter.” All that really means is that I vote by mail instead of standing in line at a polling place. So as I write this on Halloween night, it’s been a week since I voted.
As for the rest of you, quit reading and go out and vote! For whether you’re white or black, the elective franchise has been purchased for you with your ancestors’ blood.
