Today’s SepiaSaturday prompt showed a wedding party in their posh clothes. My photos are not of a wedding party but everybody is dressed up and most are wearing hats. They are from my Cleage family collection and are labeled only “Boulé“. They were taken during the 1950’s in Detroit, I believe. I had heard of the Boulé all my life as an organization my grandparents belonged to. I had no idea it was secret fraternal organization until I started working on this post. I have labeled my grandparents. I do not know who any of the other people are.
My grandfather, Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr on the right hand end of the line. Where is his hat?My grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage, is second on the right.My grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage, 4th from the right. Why is she giving her neighbor that look? Because she isn’t wearing her hat?
“Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, also known as the Boule, is the first Greek-letter fraternity to be founded by African American men. Significantly, unlike the other African American Greek -letter organizations, its members already have received college and professional degrees at the time of their induction. The fraternity’s insignia is the Sphinx.
From the beginning, Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity was a learned society, a social fraternity and an advancement organization, albeit a quiet one. As well, the fraternity believed absolutely in the equality of standing of its members and insisted that anyone who was eligible for membership was eligible and qualified for leadership. The founders were so certain of this fact that the fraternity selected its officers by lot, a custom that continued for the most senior officer until 1970.” Taken from the official Boule page. Click to read the more about the Boulé.
My mother, my husband, my children, my grandchildren, my sister, my in-laws, some friends and me in various kitchens down through the years. I couldn’t find any photographs of my grandparents in the kitchen, although I know there is at least one of my grandmother Fannie out there. I am preparing to participate in the Family History Through the Alphabet Challenge by writing about streets that have played an important part in my life. These kitchens will reappear in these posts in the coming weeks.
To see other Sepia Saturday offerings featuring kitchens and other things, click.
On Sunday, February 9, 2009 my daughter, Ife and I drove over to Montgomery, AL. It’s only a 2.5 hour drive from Atlanta. She had to pick up some art work and I wanted to see if the store my Grandmother Fannie managed before she married was still standing. I also wanted to find Eliza and Dock Allen’s graves in Oakwood Cemetery.
Oakwood Cemetery layout from Google Maps. The older section has Dock and Eliza’s graves. The Newer one holds the Tulanes. The Tulane housing projects, named after Victor Tulane, are across from the cemetery.
First we picked up the art. The artist’s husband gave us directions to the cemetery and the store.We found the cemetery easily. It was open and there was a man walking into a little office near the entrance. Ife parked and I went in and showed him the information I had, a location for the grave site of Victor Tulane. He told us to follow him to the place we could look. it was out of that one and around a few blocks and over the tracks to the newer part of the cemetery, which he drove up into, us following. He finally stopped and said it should be there in, that area, waving vaguely around.
Ife and I got out and started looking. There were old graves, some newer ones from the 60’s and even 70’s and some from the 1800’s. we walked up and down hills and probably over graves and couldn’t find it. He came back with a map and asked if we’d looked further down. So we went in that direction. I told him I had some death certificates and asked if he could tell me where the graves were located if I gave him the names. He said I should bring them up to the office and he would copy them and look in the file.
We continued to look and finally Ife saw this grave with the name we were looking for “Tulane”. It was a child’s grave. On the other side it said “Alean”. She looked next to it and there was the grave we had spent all that time looking for. We had walked by that place several times but there was an upright grave marker that said “Ophelia M. Peterson” so we just went by without looking at the flat, cement slab, which was the grave we were looking for. I still don’t know why Ophelia’s stone is right up above it or who she was.
We then went up to the office and I took my death certificates in. He copied them and asked if he could copy Dock Allen’s photograph, which I had stuck in the mylar pocket with the death certificate. After making copies, he got out his file drawers and found Victor Tulane and two children, age 2 and 10 months. My mother used to talk about how spoiled their daughter Naomi was, but she never mentioned or maybe even knew that they had lost two babies. I think that might help explain the spoiling. He found Dock and Dock Allen (father and son) and Eliza. He said they were buried on that side in Scotts Free Burial Ground – when it started they let people bury for free. He drove ahead of us and showed us the section where the graves were and we walked around and finally found the grave marker for Dock and Eliza. We regretted not bringing flowers or something to leave but we hadn’t expected to even get in.
Ife standing to the right of Dock and Eliza’s grave. Tulane Homes in the background.
As we were leaving the Cemetery, wishing we had brought some flowers or an offering of some kind, I noticed a name out of the corner of my eye, “Sallie Baldwin.” It was like finding another relative. A cousin of a cousin and I spent weeks, months figuring out how our families connected and about her relatives. Her mother was alive then and kept giving us information that my friend didn’t believe but it always turned out to be true. James Hale, a well known and well to do black Montgomery businessman contemporary with the Tulanes, was her son-in-law and is buried here also.
Sallie Baldwin and family.
When we left the cemetery we drove down Ripley Street towards the store. Ripley runs next to Oakwood Cemetery. The block where my grandmother and her family lived with Dock and Eliza Allen is now paved over for parking lots and government buildings. The store is still there and looking good. I feel that it’s time for another trip to Montgomery.
In 1940 my husband’s parents, Chester and Theola Williams and baby Maxine were renting the house at 395 North Knox street in Bowie, Chicot County, Arkansas for $1 a month. I will tell you that it is very hard to find illustrations for places out in the country unless the family took them. Google maps does not even make an attempt to get in close enough to see the house, although we can see what the neighborhood looks like now, lots of trees and a little distance from Dermott, where they later lived.
Theola Marie Davenport Williams - Not dated.
Chester Williams was 23. He was a farmer and working as a farm hand. He had worked 24 weeks in 1939 and earned $240. Chester was asked the extra questions and both his parents were born in Arkansas and he grew up speaking English. Farming was his usual occupation.
Theola was 20 years old. She didn’t work outside of the home. Both of them had completed 4 years of high school and lived in the same place (not the same house) in 1935. Jocelyn Maxine was 11 months old. They were enumerated on April 25. Chester Jr. would be born in September of that year so he was already on the way.
They had one roomer, Eliza Robinzine. (Note to those helping index the 1940 census, I’m sure if I were indexing this the arbitrator would say it was something different but it looks like Robinzine to me.) Eliza was 66 years old and born in Mississippi. She was a widow and had completed 4 years of college. In 1935 she worked 32 weeks as a school teacher, earning $360.
Theola’s mother, Amy Davenport lived next door. She rented her house for $1 a month and had not worked in 1935. She was born in Arkansas, a widow, 49 years old and had completed 5 years of school. She lived alone and had lived in the same place in 1935.
Looking at the 8 other households enumerated on that page we find that people had from no schooling (2 elderly women) to 4 years of college. Six families owned their own homes with values of $7,000, $500, $480, $300, $200 and $75. People were working at a variety of jobs. There was an undertaker, two real estate salesman, a secretary, a butcher, a carpenter and a cook. One man did odd jobs at a laundry, one was doing timber work and three people were seeking work. Most people were born in Arkansas but several were born in Mississippi and Louisiana. Two children living with their grandparents were born in Illinois and one man was born in Texas. Everybody was identified as Neg(ro).
You can see the 1940 Census Image with the Williams family HERE.
I have written quite a few stories about Naomi Vincent and her family. She was my grandmother Fannie Graham’s first cousin. The year and a half before the census had been a life changing one for this family. Naomi’s husband, Dr. Urbert Vincent, died in December of 1938 leaving her a widow with four young children.
In the 1940 Census Naomi Vincent was 41 years old. She had been born in Alabama. She and her children were living at 251 138th Street, Harlem, NY. The house, on “Striver’s Row” was worth $9,000. Naomi had finished 2 years of college. She was not working outside of the home and had a number of boarders. Naomi was the informant for her family. Most of the lodgers spoke for themselves. Everybody in the house was identified as Neg(ro). All but three people in the house were born in New York. Everybody but 2 year old Barbara had lived in the same place in 1935.
The oldest child, Ubert, was 16. He was attending school and had completed 3 years of high school. Sylvia was ten, attending school and had completed 4 years of school. Jacqueline was 6 and was enrolled in school. Barbara was 2. They were all born in New York.
There were 6 lodgers and a servant living in the house. Charles McGill, a widower, was 65. According to the census, he had 1 year of school. He was a butler to a private family and had worked 52 weeks in 1939 earning $80.
Their house, 251 138th Street, is on the far side of the private drive. From Google maps
Seeing that Charles worked 52 weeks in 1939 and only made $80 made me curious about what he had been doing before. Looking back at the 1930 census, Charles had been a lodger in the Vincent home. At that time he was a chauffeur for a private family. There were five lodgers in the home in 1930.
Back to the 1940 Census and the other lodgers. Jennie Mount was 71, single and had 8 years of schooling. She was not employed. Beatrice King was 31. She was married, had 3 years of high school and was not employed. Her 6 year old son, Stanley also lived there. Fifty-six year old Rosalie Moseley was single with 2 years of college. She was born in Georgia and worked as a cook for a private family. In 1939 she was employed for 24 weeks and made $240, which was a lot better than Charles McGill had done. Charles Earle was single and 56 years old. He had 1 year of high school, was born in Connecticut. He was employed as a Red Cap with Grand Central Railroad. In 1939 he worked 52 weeks and earned $900.
Margaret Fuller was a servant in the household. She was born in South Carolina, 23 years old, single and had worked 8 weeks in 1939, earning $75. Even this was way better than 52 weeks for $80. Maybe they left off a zero. I hope they did.
To see the 1940 census page with the Vincents click HERE.
In 1940 James McCall and his family lived at 4880 Parker Ave. on the east side of Detroit. The house was worth $5,000. He was 58 years old and had completed 4 years of college. He had worked 52 weeks in 1939, earning $1,600 managing a Printing Establishment.
James and Margaret McCall in the early 1940s.
His wife Margaret was 52 years old. She had completed 4 years of high school and was not working outside of the home. She was the informant. Everybody in the house was born in Alabama, had lived in the same house in 1935 and was identified as “W(hite)”. I would guess that people are wrongfully identified as “white” because the enumerator would not ask race, they would assume they “knew” by looking.
Margaret and Victoria McCall – Palm Sunday 1941.
Oldest daughter, Victoria, was 24 years old, single and had completed 4 years of college. She had worked 40 weeks in 1939 as a public school teacher, where she earned $1,600. The youngest daughter, Margaret was 21 years old. She had worked 24 weeks in 1939 and earned $240 as a secretary of a Printing company.
The McCall’s owned their own printing company and published a newspaper “The Detroit Tribune”. My aunt, Mary V. Graham, who was their cousin, worked at the same printing establishment in the 1940 census. In the 1990’s she shared her memories of her work there. Mary V’s job was to read newspaper articles to James McCall because he was blind. From what she read to him, he would formulate his editorial articles. He had a braille typewriter that he used to write the articles. Mary V said she learned so much, reading to him and talking to him about various topics. She remembered that he was a wealth of information and knew a lot about everything.
In late April of 1966 I was 19 and a sophomore at Wayne State University in Detroit. Northern High students walked out of school on April 25 to protest the way they were being (or not being) educated. Several other inner city high schools walked out in sympathy. Northwestern organized a supporting boycott and my sister, Pearl, was a leader. My father and others were providing adult support.
I usually studied in the sociology room of the Main Library, which was in the middle of Wayne’s campus. As I was leaving to go to my next class that day, a guy came up and asked if I was Rev. Cleage’s daughter. I said I was. He asked if I was leading the Northwestern boycott and I said no, that was my sister. We made arrangements to meet after my class on the picket line in front of the Board of Education Building.
We aren’t in the photo but this was the demonstration.
We did and afterwards sat around for several hours talking in the “corner” in the cafeteria at Mackenzie Hall. The “corner” was where black students congregated. I felt strangely comfortable with Jim. Strange for me, anyway, since I didn’t feel comfortable with anybody, unless I was in a political discussion. He tried to convince me to join a sorority and convert the members to revolution. There wasn’t a chance I was going to do that. He also told me that he was “nice”. I asked if he meant as in some people were “revolutionaries”, he was “nice”. He said yes, that’s what he meant.
Michigan State Police Additional Complaint Report Page No. 2 Complaint 99-133-66 file 1.15 Date 4-25-66
(note: seems to be continued from a lost page)…students take part in the meeting and form plans by themselves. Representatives from the following Detroit High Schools were present and pledged to back the walk-out, Cass Tech, Central, Chadsey, Cooley, Denby, Mackienzie, Mumford, Northwestern, Southeastern and Western.
Advisers to the students at this meeting were; Reverend Albert Cleage and Reverend Cameron Wells MED. The school representatives most active at this meeting were; Micheal Bach____, 17, Negro male of Northern HS, Pearl Cleage, 17, Negro female of Northwestern HS and Stanley Parker, 17, Negro male of Southwestern HS.
April 25, 1966: The “Freedom School” session (sic) were held in the day. No police incidents.
At 4:oo PM a demonstration and picket line formed at 5057 Woodward Avenue, the Board of Education building. The demonstrators carried signs demanding upgrading of the education at Northern and other inner-city high schools.
There were about 75 persons demonstrating. About 14 adults appeared to be parents of students, about 12 young people appeared to be high school students, the remainder of demonstrators were persons identified as members of such groups as SNCC, Young Socialist Alliance, Detroit Committee to end the War in Vietnam, Students for a Democratic Society and persons seen at Socialist Workers Party Forums.
The following persons were identified in the picket lines: _____ Allen, Kenneth Cockerel, Edward D’Angelo, Todd Ensign, Robert Higgins, Derrick Morrison, Marc ____, David Neiderhauser, Sol Plafkin, Micheal Patrick Quinlin, Harvey Roes, Sarah Rosenshine, Charles Simmons, Mark Shapiro, Tom____, Peter_______, Jackie Wilson and James Winegar.
April 26, 1966: The students met at the “Freedom School” at 8:00 PM a meeting was held. They returned to the classes at Northern High School. Representatives of the students and the school authorities are going to continue meeting to improve conditions.
__________FAST FORWARD TO APRIL 26, 2012_________
Today, April 26, 2012, I received this email from a community organizer in Detroit about a student walkout yesterday.
“Today, 180 students were suspended for walking out of Western HS yesterday. Their cell phones were taken from them and messages and numbers were gone through by security. The police deleted numbers and messages from the students’ phones.
This month, Frederick Douglass Academy students walked out over constant turnover of teachers and shortage of supplies. The principal being fired was the catalyst in this student lead walk out. The secretary of the school was ultimately fired, as well.
Mumford HS students walked out, refusing to have Mumford put into the Educational Achievement Authority (failing district). The students were suspended and the teacher who told them they are not failures was fired for allegedly encouraging them to walk out.“
To visit a website with information by the involved students about the freedom school that starts today (Friday, April 27) and more, click Southwest Detroit Freedom School. The article is on the left side and there are more links at the bottom of the article. I’m cheered to find organizing going on in response to what happened. Almost makes me wish I was in Detroit.
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There is no May Pole in this post but there are a couple of Demonstrations that I think will represent May Day.
By 1940 there were only 3 of Eliza’s children remaining in Montgomery, Alabama. Willie Lee Allen Tulane, Abbie Allen and Beulah Allen Pope. Willie Lee lived on S. Union. Abbie lived on Ripley. Beulah and Robert Pope lived on W. Jeff Davis Ave. Scroll down and to the left to see the blue pointer for their house. View the Montgomery Family – 1940 in a map on Google Maps. Enlarge to see the locations.
Willie Lee Allen Tulane. A photo from the 1930s.
Willie Tulane lived at 430 S. Union Street. She owned the home and had lived there in 1935. It was worth $2,000. She gave her age as 55 although, since her age on the 1880 census was 7, she was closer to 67. She had attended 8 years of school. Willie had not worked in the past year. She was the informant. Everybody in the house was identified as Neg(ro).
There were two boarders. Louise McHaney age 25, worked as a private maid. She earned $260 a year. She was single and had attended school for 8 years. The other boarder was Charles Williams, a 52 year old Insurance salesman. He had attended school for 7 years and was married but separated from his wife. He earned $1,040 in 1935. Both boarders had worked 52 weeks out of the past year. You can see a copy of the 1940 Census page with Willie Tulane on it on Ancestry.com HERE.
Abbie Allen, photo – 1966.
Abbie Allen had stopped using her married name, Brown, in the 1930 Census and she still was using her maiden name. She’s listed as a widow. She owned her home at 444 Ripley Street where she had worked as a seamstress for 40 weeks during the past year. She gave her age as 42, although being age 5 in the 1880 census, she was closer to 65. She was identified as Neg(ro). She had lived in the same house in 1935. It had been her parents home and she had lived there since about 1900. It was valued at $500. She had gone to school for 7 years. Abbie was the informant. You can see a copy of Abbie Allen’s 1940 census page on Ancestry.com HERE.
Robert and Beulah (Allen) Pope. Date of Roberts photo not known. Beulah’s photo is from the 1950s.
Beulah and Robert Pope owned their home at 235 W. Jeff Davis Ave. It was worth $400. They had lived there in 1935. Beulah had attended college for 2 years and was not working outside the home. Robert had completed 4 years of college and was a clerk for a wholesale drug company. He had worked for 52 weeks during 1939 and earned $1,720. Both were identified as Neg(ro). He was listed as 58. In 1880 he was listed as 6 years old so he was actually about 66. Beulah was listed as 53. In the 1880 census she was listed as 1 year old so she was closer to 61. Beulah was the informant.
I became interested in how accurate the ages were when I noticed that Aunt Abbie was younger than the youngest sister, Beulah. I went back to the 1880 census to see what ages were given when they were close to their births. I wonder if they just didn’t keep up with how old they were or if they were trying to seem younger.
“Sigma Pi Phi Fraternity, also known as the Boule, is the first Greek-letter fraternity to be founded by African American men. Significantly, unlike the other African American Greek -letter organizations, its members already have received college and professional degrees at the time of their induction. The fraternity’s insignia is the Sphinx.
