Category Archives: Cleages

Its Friday afternoon

Cleages, sepia saturday, , ,

This is another letter that my father wrote home to Detroit from Los Angeles when he was studying film in 1944. The photograph of my mother putting a hem in her skirt is also from August, 1944. I’m not sure if this picture was enclosed with this letter.

dorissewing
Putting a hem in a skirt. Aug 1944 in Sunshiny living. Los Angeles

231 South Hobart Blvd. #4
Los Angeles, 7, California
August 18, 1944

Hi Folks:

Its Friday afternoon and I just got home from school, and I thought I’d drop you-all a note on the state of the nation.  My “little” wife is still working. She gets off about five-thirty and comes home by way of the grocery store. Everything is about the same as usual. We’re still at large (out of the poor-house)…but I’ll have to find something to do pretty quick if we’re planning to stay that-a-way! I’m “dickering” with the Los Angeles Church Federation for a “position”. The “boss-Man” is out of town but I’ve filed an application and we’ll discuss the matter further when he gets back in September. It would be a pretty-good job if I can get it…sort of Negro field-worker for the Federation, co-ordinating the community work of the Negro churches… recruiting and training volunteers and organizing programs and clubs and groups and what-have-you. I’ve also applied to the Negro Community-Center, just-in-case.

On the way to school this morning a man picked me up in the safety-zone (big fine looking red-faced white man) in a Packard from here down town…and we got to bulling each other, and it turned out that he’s the Director of Audio-Visual Education for the Los Angeles Public Schools.  Of course he was very happy to meet a real authority in the field…and invited me down to his office to see the experimental work the School System is doing in Moving-picture production.  I’ll go down as soon as I can and see what them there “amateurs” are a trying to do.

School is going along fine…(no grades yet, of course!) Me and the Dean of the School of Religion are having a little long-distance controversy through his secretary.  He thinks I ought to take half of my work in RELIGION…and I think I ought to take all (or almost all) in Cinema.  He has an ace in the hole, however, in as much as I’m registered under the School of Religion and therefore pay only the special fees (Fellowships in religion make up the difference) …However, I’m not going to take half of my work in religion in as much as the religion courses will not contribute to what I’m trying to do!

 SPECIAL NOTE TO LOUIS: If he makes me pay up the REGULAR REGISTRATION FEES I’ll have to wire you for a small loan of $100.00 or so until I can work long enough to pay it back. I think we can “arrange the difference of opinion” without such a drastic step… but with the good-white-folks you can never tell…especially preachers. My wife will divorce me if I have to borrow…but I aint no sentimentalist myself…and so I’m a warnin’ you.

How’s the farm going? How’s Mama getting along? I hear that “Racial-tension” in Detroit is a thing of the past! We’re getting ready to have a riot here…The FEPC has ordered the Street Railways to hire and upgrade Negroes immediately! Maybe I can get a “Riot-Movie”.

Here are some “snaps”- Did you get the ones we sent from San Francisco – I don’t think you ever mentioned them.

194+Minibanner
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Athens, Tennessee, about 1919

Cleages, sepia saturday,

athens_1919This is a double exposure that I found in my Cleage photos. It was probably taken by my grandfather since my father was only about 8 or 9 years old. It is in the batch with other photographs taken in Athens, Tennessee around 1919. There seem to be sheets on a clothesline in the foreground. Athens is in the foothills of the Great Smokey Mountains and was my Grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr’s hometown.  He took his family back for a visit most summers when they were growing up.

There are links to other photos from trips to Athens below.

SS+183+Mini
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A Mystery Rider & A Run-Away Horse

Cleages, sepia saturday,
stranger on horse_mexico
Unknown Rider – Mexico 1960s.

#1  During the 1960s my Uncle Louis and various family members and friends traveled to Mexico. They stayed in out of the way hotels and places. Louis became very proficient in Spanish and was happy to talk to any of us in Spanish. Unfortunately, I never was invited on any of these trips. The above photo is an unmarked photo from the Cleage collection. I think it was taken in Mexico. Then again, maybe it was taken in Michigan in the country during the 1940s.

#2  I posted this article about a horse jumping through a windshield in 2011.  Thought I would give it another go.  Victor Tulane was my great grandmother’s sister Willie’s husband. He was a successful Montgomery businessman.

horse+jumps+through+car+windshield

Horse Jumps through Automobile Windshield

Considerable Excitement Attends Runaway On Court Square Tuesday Afternoon.

Much excitement and some damage was the result of a run-away horse crashing into an automobile in front of Alex Rice’s store on Court Square late yesterday afternoon.

The horse, which was pulling a buggy, became frightened on the first block of South Court Street and dashed toward Montgomery Street.  An automobile belonging to Theo Meyer was parked in front of Alex Rice’s and the front feet of the horse went through the wind shield.

Beyond sustaining several minor cuts, the horse was unhurt and the damage done to the automobile, too, was small.

Victor Tulane was owner of the horse.

Montgomery Advertiser – Montgomery, Alabama – January 27, 1915 – page 16

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Click for more Sepia Saturday photos of horses, riders, and more.

 

Family Faces – Memorial Weekend 2013

Cleages, Photographs

In September of  2012 members of the family met in Detroit to celebrate my Aunt Gladys (my father’s sister) 90th birthday. On Memorial Weekend we again gathered, this time to celebrate my Ernest’s and Susan’s 25th wedding anniversary. Some of the same people were at both, some were at one and not at the other. It was wonderful to see cousins and cousins spouses, once again at a celebratory event.  The younger cousins are getting to know each other. The aunts are getting a chance to see each other and older cousins are getting a chance to see each other outside of facebook! I hope we can continue to meet often to celebrate family. Often enough that the children will not just know they’re family, but feel it.

Cleage family members who gathered at Ernest and Susan's in May of 2013.
Cleage family members who gathered at Ernest and Susan’s in May of 2013 – cousins, aunts, children, grandchildren, spouses.

I hope I didn’t leave anybody off. If I did, please advise and I will add them.  The header photo is from the September gathering, put them together and you have almost  the whole Albert and Pearl Cleage branch of the family. One day maybe we can get those missing family members there too!

Eight Generations of L3b MtDNA from Susan Rice Regan

Cleages, DNA - Genetics,
Hattie Ruth’s daughters, granddaughters and great grands
This chart is adapted from the 23andMe website.
This chart is adapted from the 23andMe website.

Susan Rice Regan is the earliest name I can call for this line. She was born into slavery about 1833 in Virginia and later brought to Tennessee. She gave birth to two sons and three daughters. Her sons were Henry Rice and Philip Ragan. Her daughters were Anna Celia Rice, Sarah Sallie and Mollie Ragan.

Her daughter Anna Celia Rice, my paternal paternal grandmother was born into slavery in Virginia or Tennessee about 1855. Celia had 4 sons, including my grandfather Albert, and 1 daughter, Josephine (also called Josie). MtDNA is passed from the mother, to the daughter, to the grandaughter to the great grandaughter in a straight line. Although sons receive their mothers MtDNA, they do not pass it on to their children. Their children will receive their own mother’s MtDNA. So, I am going to be talking about daughters of daughters in this post.

Celia Rice Cleage's MtDNA passed through her daughter to her daughters, to their daughters and on and on and on.
Celia Rice Cleage’s MtDNA passed through her daughter to her daughters, to their daughters and on and on and on.

Josephine married James Cleage, (from a different Cleage family)  and had 5 children, 2 sons and 3 daughters, Henrietta, Lucille and Hattie Ruth. My cousin Felix, a descendent of Hattie Ruth, shared a chart of family members with me about five years ago.  There are probably more family members out there since then. Additions and corrections welcome!

Henrietta had 1 son and 3 daughters, Margaret, Hortense and Ruth. I don’t have any information about their children.  Lucille had 2 sons and 1 daughter, Mary, who had 1 son only. Hattie Ruth had 5 daughters, Vivian, Betty, Beverly, Marion and Erma.

Vivian had 2 daughters, Josephine and Laura. She had 7 grandchildren, 11 great grandchildren and 1 2xgreat grand at the time I received my list.. I don’t know  how many were daughters. Josephine had 2 sons.  Laura had 5 children, 2 boys and 3 girls. She has at least 2 granddaughters.

Betty had 3 daughters, 2 lived to adulthood.  Sandra had 3 daughters, Bernita, Jamiliah and Aisha. Bernita had 5 daughters. Jamiliah had 1 son and 3 daughters. Aisha had no children.    Charlene had 2 daughters and 5 granddaughters.

Beverly had 1 son and 2 daughters, Tanya and Kim.  Tanya has 1 daughter, Danelle.  Kim has 2 daughters, Mahogany and Celeste.

Marion had 2 sons and 2 daughters, Alma and Ruth Anne. There were 5 grandchildren, but I don’t know how many were daughters of daughters.

Erma had 3 sons and 7 daughters, Beatrise, Marcella, Haleema, Fatima, Aleah, Ameena, Leshia. I don’t know the breakdown of her 16 grandchildren, but I know there were some granddaughters.

Susan Rice Ragan’s two younger daughter’s each had one daughter each.
Sarah/Sallie married first Henry Hale and they had two sons and a daughter, Blanche Augusta Hale.  Blanche had three sons had no daughters.
Mollie married Grant Hodge and had a son and a daughter, Dora Hodge.  Dora had no daughters.

*****
Special thanks to my cousin Denora for permission to use the photograph above of Hattie Ruth’s daughters, granddaughters and great grands.  And to Felix for the information in the chart. And to Tanya for getting her DNA tested.  Family makes it happen.