Tag Archive for Black History Month

CGS February Meeting A History Maker

February 20, 2010 Craig Genealogy

The African-American History Month presentation of the California Genealogical Society and Library has just concluded minutes ago.  The meeting itself was a history maker.

A morning session consisted of a panel of eminent experts from the African-American Genealogical Society of Northern California.  These top researchers were Electra Price, Juliet Crutchfield and Jackie Stewart.

Then, in the afternoon, I was set to make two presentations: one on finding African-Americans in the census records prior to 1870; and a second on military research with an emphasis on African-American  military members. But, for personal health reasons and logistical challenges too complex to detail here, I was going to be able to make it to Oakland for the program.   What to do?

CGS Past President Jane Lindsey Knowles and CGS publicity director Kathryn Doyle quickly came up with the answer:  call Thomas MacEntee!

Thomas assessed our situation and the Monarch of Genealogical Technology guided us to a platform called Webex.   We spent a couple of hours one day practising and getting familiar with the technology, with Thomas mentoring.

I then spent a few more hours later to get the feel of the platform.

Using Webex, we were able to convene a web-based meeting from my home office in  Carmichael, California.   I “invited” Jane to participate.  She had a computer with projector set up at CGSL  about 90 miles away in Oakland.   I was able to present a PowerPoint  slide show from my computer which was viewable in Oakland.  I was able to provide audio as well; and  the attendees in Oakland could ask me questions via audio.

There were a few glitches, but they were minor and we got them ironed out relatively easily.  For example, at the outset, Jane and I found ourselves in different meetings!   I later figured out that I had accidentally scheduled two meeting; Jane was in the correct one.

During the presentation, I was able to switch between sharing my PowrePoint slides and sharing the content of my web browser.  The operation is not as smooth as it could be, but it worked for our purposes.  At one point,  however, I tried to switch back from Ancestry.com to the slides and the Webex application crashed.  But not to worry! Webex automatically made Jane the host of the meeting so things kept running while I re-started Webex and rejoined the meeting. Then I took  over again as host so that I could change the slides.

For a first time presentation, I’d say it went very well.   We may need more experience with the software and the program itself could use some tweaking.

This type of web collaboration has the potential to be a game changer for CGSL and other societies. For example, for space considerations in our location, CGSL has to limit the number of attendees at its programs. With this technology, we could reach a theoretically unlimited audience.

Thanks to Thomas, Jane, Kathryn, Kathy Watson, and others who helped make this unprecedented event occur!

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Black History Month: Knights of Peter Claver – St Elizabeth’s Branch, St Louis, MO

February 9, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

During November, which is Black Catholic History Month, I wrote about the Knights of Peter Claver.  A few days ago, I came across this badge from St Elizabeth’s Catholic Church in St Louis.  St Elizabeth’s was a parish established especially for black Catholics by Fr. John Markoe and his brother, Fr. William Markoe, both Jesuits, during the term of Archbishop Cardinal Glennon.  St Elizabeth’s became one of the most prominent churches in St Louis.

The original St Elizabeth’s Church was closed several years ago and should not be confused with the current parish, St Elizabeth Mother of John the Baptist.

The Peter Claver badge on this badge belonged to Joseph Perry Micheau (1888-1975).  When I found it, it was in an envelope in which it may have originally been obtained by Joseph Micheau.  The envelope itself has a connection to St Louis history; see the next post.

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Black History Month: A Strange Letter and an un-Fair Move?

February 8, 2010 Craig Family History, Genealogy

Sometime after their marriage in 1913, Joseph P. Micheau and his wife Edna Lewis moved their family from Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, to St. Louis, Missouri. According to Joseph’s 1917 draft card, they  lived at 4210 Cote Brilliant and then apparently at 3128 Fair Avenue. The 1920 census places them on Fair Avenue.  Later, however, they moved to 1923 Whittier, which is documented in the 1922 Gould’s St Louis City Directory.  Their daughter, Edna Micheau Penny, recently recalled life as a toddler at 1923 Whittier.  But for some reason, the family seems to have moved back to the Cote Brilliant neighborhood by the 1930 census.  Perhaps the letter below contains the clues as to why they moved from the Whittier house.  The letter is reproduced in the condition that I received it more than eighty-five years after it was written.  The identity of the writer, other than his name (and I’m not sure we’ve got that right), is unknown.

Aug 29-’ 24

Mr. Joseph P. W. Micheau
1923 Wittier Str.
St. Louis Mo

My dear Mr. Micheau:

Your letter Aug. 22nd inst. was recd today my absence from the city till last evening, being the reason for delay in seeing your communication.

Since my arrival home I have had some information regarding the movement started by the people of this neighborhood, relative to restricting their District. As you can readily understand they have a right to use any legal means to promote their property interests. You and I cannot justly complain of the exercise of such right.  Where our interests are concerned, we should use every legitimate means to conserve their value–I feel sure that you as a Catholic gentleman would not intentionally desire to injure your neighbor even though he be a white man. And any white man should be as particular in his desire to respect the rights of his fellow citizens of the colored race.–yes, God Almighty has created, redeemed and seeks the welfare of the colored race as much as He does those of any other race.  Your soul, and the souls of your dear little ones are precious in the sight of Heaven.  And it will make no difference what our color, nationality, or race may be, provided we do God’s holy will and seek honestly, the salvation of our precious souls.  I am sure therefore that you will never buy a word or deed seek to violate the precepts of the decalogue.  If any of our people by word or deed sought to injure any man, no matter what his color or race, I would protest against such injuring.  In a word, I believe in justice for every man.

Up to the present, I have not had  an opportunity of getting a clear and thorough understanding of the movement referred to.  One thing you can be assured of, no one will slight you or any of your race, while I am able to defend you–which at the same time, I will be ready to endorse any just effort for the common good.

Very respectfully and sincerely,

Your friend,
Peter Johnson [remainder illegible]

Joseph Perry Micheau (1888-1975) with his daughter, Edna Mary, at their home at 3128 Fair Avenue, St Louis, c. 1921.

Photographer unknown.  Original found in the effects of Edna Penny Wells (1941-2008), daughter of Edna Mary Micheau Penny; now in the possession of Margarett Penny Manson, Carmichael, California.

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Bridging Black History Month and Women’s History Month

February 28, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

Here’s some  aviation history made just recently:

All African-American Female Crew

All African-American Female Crew

Atlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 5202 from Atlanta to Nashville and Flight 5106 from Nashville back to Atlanta.  Thursday, February12, 2009.  The crew: Captain Rachelle Jones (back, right); First Officer Stephanie Grant (front, left); Flight Attendants Robin Rogers and Diana Galloway

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Black History Month: “Negro Subversion”

February 4, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

March 8, 1918

From: Chief, Military Intelligence Branch, Executive Division

To: Captain Roy F. Britton, Boatmen’s Bank Bldg., St Louis, Mo.

Subject: Charlie Williams (colored)

1. The above is employed as a porter-janitor at St Louis Union Station, 18th and Market St., St. Louis, Mo.

2.   About 45 years old, very black, about 5 feet 4 inches, weight about 175 pounds.   He cleans and sweeps floors in Union Station, always on second floor, west wing of building, between the hours of 7 and 8:30 A.M.

3.  Reported to be decidedly pro-German.   Reticent in speaking freely except with those he thinks he can trust.  Boasts taht the German army will “take care” of the American soldiers.  Also that the American Army will lose the war and the Germans win.

4.  Believed to be prejudiced against American Army on account of the execution of negro soldiers in the Houston riots.

5.   Is not considered a dangerous character but might be susceptible to  German influence, and is too free in his speech.

6.  An immediate invesigation and report on the above is requested.

R.H. Van Dorman,

Colonel, General Staff.

BY:

Henry T.  Hunt,

Captain,  Inf., U.S.N.A.

Transcription of letter found in files of Military Intelligence Division
Publication Title: Correspondence of the Military Intelligence Division Relating to “Negro Subversion”, 1917-1941
Content Source: NARA
Content Partner: NARA
Source Publication Year: 1986
Footnote Publication Year: 2009
Record Group: 165
Footnote Job Number: 09-007
Language: English
Country: United States
File Number: 10218
Case Number Range: 101-150
Case Number: 10218-110
Date: March 5, 1918
Description: AV Burr, Supt. Pullman Co., St. Louis, MO to C, MIB. Re: Charlie Williams.

See the letter at http://www.footnote.com/image/182725250/

Part of the joint Footnote.com-National Archives Black History project, at http://go.footnote.com/blackhistory/

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Black History Month: Lift Every Voice and Sing

February 1, 2009 Craig Uncategorized

Lift Every Voice And Sing

Lift every voice and sing,
‘Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the listening skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on ’til victory is won.


Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast’ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.


God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.

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Black History Month: Guinda, California

February 10, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

For those who know the Capay Valley in Yolo County, California, it’s a place of great natural beauty, almond orchards, a few wineries, and (lately, unfortunately), Indian “gaming.” Few folks know that the Capay Valley town of Guinda is rich in African-American history.

Read more here.

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Black History Month: Dr. Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler

February 8, 2008 Craig Uncategorized

Today is the 177th anniversary of the birth of Rebecca Davis Lee Crumpler, the first black woman in America to graduate from medical school and practice as a physician. [Early sources say that this distinction belongs to Rebecca Cole; however, it appears that Crumpler graduated several years before Cole]. Sources say she was born in Delaware and that her parents were Absolum Davis and Matilda Webber.

Apparently, little biographical matter exists about Rebecca Crumpler. It is known from her own writings that as a child she spent much time with an aunt in Pennsylvania who attended to the sick and may have been either a nurse or a midwife. In 1852, Rebecca moved to Charlestown, Massachusetts, where she worked as a nurse. She worked for various doctors for the next eight years.

In 1860, several of the doctors she worked for wrote letters recommending Rebecca to the New England Female College of Medicine. This was the world’s first medical school for women [it later merged with Boston University to become Boston University School of Medicine--the first coeducational medical school in the world]. Rebecca was accepted and graduated in 1864. One of her professors was another pioneering woman physician, Dr. Marie Elizabeth Zakrzewska.

After graduation, Dr. Crumpler remained in the Boston area for awhile. But when the Civil War ended, she moved to Virginia to help poor people, mostly black, who had been affected by the war. She was married to a black physician, Dr. Arthur Crumpler.

At some point, exactly when is not clear, the Crumplers returned to the Boston area. They appear on the 1870 census living in Boston, and on the 1880 census living in Hyde Park, Massachusetts.

In 1883, Rebecca Crumpler wrote a book titled A Book of Medical Discourses, which was a reference book for women as well as guide to public health issues.

For a woman physician, finding work in the latter part of the nineteenth century was difficult, as even Dr. Crumpler’s white female colleagues were discovering. For black physicians, work was not easy to find, either. By the time she wrote her book, Rebecca Crumpler was no longer actively practicing medicine. On the 1880 census, her occupation is listed as “keeping house,” and her husband was said to be a “porter.”

Rebecca Crumpler died in 1895 at the age of 64.

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Black History Month: Alpha Kappa Alpha

February 2, 2008 Craig Uncategorized


Ethel Hedgeman Lyle was born in St Louis in 1885. Her father, Albert Hedgeman, was a janitor; her mother, Marie Hubbard, was a homemaker. She graduated from Sumner High School in 1904 and attended Howard University.

In her second year, illness forced her to withdraw. Ethel later returned to school at Howard. In her senior year, she led a group of eight other women to found Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority. She probably had no idea what she had wrought.

AKA was the first Greek-letter organization for black women. Marking its Centennial this year, AKA has been one of the elite organizations in America. Today, it is an international organization with a diverse membership. AKA’s focus has always been “service.” In its early years, AKA made toys for, and worked with, children confined at Freedman’s Hospital in Washington, D.C., and helped rural refugees adapt to the urban environment. Later, AKA worked with the Mississippi Health Project to address appalling health conditions facing rural blacks in the South. As part of this project, AKA invented and staffed the world’s first mobile health clinic. and acted to demand an end to lynching. The sorority contributed to Howard University’s child development programs and sought to help advance research into sickle cell anemia. In the 1960s and 1970s, AKA ran the Cleveland Job Corps Center for Women under a multimillion dollar government contract. They purchased Dr. Martin Luther King’s birth home in order to preserve it.

AKA commenced its Reading Experience program that later became the basis for its Educational Advancement Foundation. The Foundation’s program includes Academic Scholarships, Fellowships and Community Assistance Awards.

In the 1980s and 1990s, AKA went global with its International Foundation for Education and Slef-Help. The Sorors also initiated programs such as the PArtneship in Mathmatics and Science and them Young Authors Program, which is an effort to increase reading and wriitng skills.

Today, AKA is creating economic expertise, success in business and power networking opportunities for the non-traditional entrepreneur to build a strong foundation for women in business. At the same time, the sorority’s mission also focuses on education, synergy and partnerships, as the economic keys to success in improving living standards within the Black community.

AKA also concentrates on building educational advantage through technology and has leadership programs geared to competition in the global economy.

All that from Ethel Hedgeman Lyle’s idea for service to the community!

AKA will hold its 100th Anniversary celebration (the Centennial Boule) in July in WAshington D.C.

Many of America’s successful black women have been AKA sorors, including Lillian Gines Manson (my mother) Delorise Annrie Gines, and Bernadine Coles Gines (my aunts). Bernadine’s sister, Frances, is also an AKA soror. AKA’s Midwestern Region has named its award for the top undergraduate chapter president the “Delorise Gines Award.”

Other AKA sorors include: Marian Anderson, the first African-American woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera; Dr. Maya Angelou, award-winning novelist and poet; Professor of American Studies at Wake Forest University; Bebe (Elizabeth) Moore Campbell, acclaimed author;
Suzette Charles, second African-American and first Italian-American Miss America (1984); Olivia Cole, award-winning actress (Roots); Alice Coachman Davis, first African-American woman to win a gold medal and first American female to win a gold medal in track and field;
Sarah “Sadie” Delaney, educator, businesswoman, and co-author of book, Having Our Say: The Delaney Sisters’ First 100 Years; Vonetta Flowers,first African-American to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics for bobsledding; Zina Garrison -Jackson, Olympic gold medalist in tennis (1988); Althea Gibson, pioneer in amateur tennis and professional golf; Carmen de Lavallade Holder, renowned ballet dancer and theater actress; Catherine Hughes, CEO/owner of Radio One; Mae Jemison, M.D., first African-American woman astronaut; Gladys Knight Parker, singer and actress; Toni Morrison, Nobel prize winner, novelist and poet; Jada Pinkett-Smith, actress; Georgiana Simpson, First African-American female to get a PhD.;Dr. C. Delores Tucker, National Chairman of the National Political Congress of Black Women.

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