Category Archives: Detroit

Keeping in Touch in Detroit

Detroit, Edelweiss, One Place Study
Edelweiss in red. Other family in blue. Click to enlarge.

Some have wondered if the women associated with the Edelweiss Club who left Montgomery and moved to Detroit kept in touch with each other. Of course without interviewing them, I can only assemble the clues I have found and say that at least some did. There were other of their friends who moved from Montgomery to Detroit that they kept in touch with.

In Montgomery they lived within walking distance of each other. In Detroit they were much more spread out. My grandparents didn’t have a car until 1934. Before that, they caught buses or streetcars to travel outside of their neighborhood. In my grandparent’s lives, their church, Plymouth Congregational provided the groups to which they belonged to after moving to Detroit. Gwendolyn and Lewis Graham were also members.

Gwendolyn Lewis, Hattie and Fannie Turner in Detroit

Gabriella Snow married James Henry Kelly on 8 July 1917 in Montgomery. Although she was not a member of the Edelweiss Club, two of her younger sisters were. The Kellys moved to Detroit shortly after their marriage. They lived at 185 Rowena St. He worked as a machinist at an American Car and Foundry Company on Russell Street and died in Detroit in November of 1918. Gabriella Kelly returned to Montgomery and went back to teaching. She never remarried and had no children. She was buried from Old Church AME Zion Church in Montgomery.

1. Fannie and Mershell Graham’s house on Theodore. Family photo.

Fannie Turner married Mershell C. Graham on 15 June 1919 in Montgomery. They moved to Detroit later the same day. At first they boarded with friends from home at 1031 St. Jean Ave. Mershell worked as a machinest at an auto plant. Fannie didn’t work outside of the home after their marriage. They had four children and were members of Plymouth Congregational Church.

In 1930 they owned their home worth $8,000 at 6638 Theodore, Detroit. Mershell was working at Ford’s Auto plant as a stock keeper. Oldest son Mershell died in 1927. They had three children at home; ten year old Mary V. , seven year old Doris and one year old Howard.

Children of Gwendolyn and Clifton Graham (Clifton & Lewis) and Fannie and Mershell Graham (Mary V & Mershell Jr.).

Gwendolyn Lewis married Clifton Graham in Montgomery. He left for the army and Gwendolyn remained in Montgomery where their first child was born. By 1919 they were in Detroit and members of Plymouth Congregational Church. Their second child was born in 1920.

In 1930, the Grahams owned their own home worth $9,000 at 4431 St Jean Avenue. He was working as a Prohibition officer for the United States government. Their two sons were Clifton age ten and Lewis age nine. Unfortunately that house is no longer there.

Clifton’s older sister, Mattie and his mother Mary were in Detroit by the early 1920s.

3. 6747 Scotten present day photo from Google

Effie Todd married Arthur Robert Chisholm in Montgomery on 9 August, 1919 after he left the army. By the 1920 census they were in Detroit. They rented a house at 832 Roosevelt Street. He was worked as a laborer at the Packard Motor Company. Effie was not working outside of the home, but they had five borders, including Janie Douglas Binford, also a former Edelweiss member. She was working at the post office.

In 1930 they owned their home worth $14,000, at 6747 Scotten Avenue. Effie was teaching. Mary Monroe was boarding with them and also teaching. Arthur was a driving for a cab company. They had no children, but raised Effie’s niece, Cosette.She was seventeen when she died of tuberculosis in 1929.

They later divorced. He remarried. Effie did not. She continued teaching until she died of pneumonia in 1939. She was buried from Hartford Avenue Baptist Church.

Janie White Douglas Binford had one child with her first husband, who she divorced. She later remarried, Alphonso Randolph Smith, on 21 Feb 1921 in Detroit. He was a postal worker. Died June 24, 1946. She attended St. Matthews Episcopal Church.

In 1930 they owned their home worth $9,000 at 5717 Parker Avenue. Unfortunately there is now a vacant lot there. Alphonso worked as a postal carrier. Janie worked as a postal clerk. There were two sons, John age nineteen and Paul age fifteen. Alphonso’s mother lived with them and didn’t work outside of the home. There were two lodgers.

Clara Robinson Baily. Married an older man. They separated and later divorced before she left Montgomery. They had no children. She was in Detroit by 1920 and lived at 449 E. Jefferson. She died in Detroit two years later in 1922. Her death certificate gave occupation as postal clerk and residence as 3130 Chestnut Street.

4536 Harding. Family photo. Jennie, Daisy and Alice Turner. Family photo.

5. Daisy Turner never married. She and her mother and sister Alice moved to Detroit in 1922. They lived with sister Fannie and husband Mershell until they saved enough money to buy their own house. Mother Jennie was a seamstress at Annis furs. Younger sister Alice didn’t work outside of the home. Daisy was head porter at Annis Furs.. All attended Plymouth Congregational Church.

In 1930 they owned their home worth $7,000 at 4536 Harding on Detroit’s East side. They kept in touch with Mary Monroe over the years.

The Detroit Tribune, Detroit, Michigan • Saturday, October 25, 1941 Page 4
6. 18417 Norwood. Annie & Louis Gilmer present day photo from Google

6. Annie Wimbs married Louis Gilmer on 24 Dec 1918 in Montgomery. They were married by Rev. Callahan of Dexter Ave. Baptist Church. They moved to Detroit by 1925. In 1927 they lived at 5304 24th Street. In 1930 lived at 18417 Norwood, in Conant Gardens, northeast Detroit. They had five children.

7. Mary Monroe never married. Moved Detroit. 1930 rooming with Effie and husband at 6747 Scotten Ave., Detroit West Side. She was a teacher in the city schools. In 1950 her niece was working at a fur store. Did Daisy help her get the job? She remained in the house on Scotten after Effie’s divorce and death.

Daisy in the dark dress with the pin with other workers at Annis Furs. Family photo.
The Detroit Tribune, Detroit, Michigan • Saturday, November 15, 1941 Page 4
Daisy and Alice Turner and their mother Jennie have dinner with Mary Monroe.
The Detroit Tribune, Detroit, Michigan Sat, Oct 27, 1956 · Page 3

“THIS IS YOUR LIFE,” honoring Miss Mary F. Monroe of Scotten avenue, former teacher in Alabama State for approximately 30 years of more, took place at New Light Baptist Church, 30th and Cobb streets, Saturday, Oct. 10th. This was a surprise affair for this great mathematician and founder of the popular Century of Progress Club which is about 22 years old. Left to right, seated, members of Miss Monroe’s family, Mr. George L. Carter, Mrs Tommie Dorsey, Miss Mary Monroe, Miss Temple Moore, Miss Daisy Turner and Mrs Helen Hamilton. Standing, left to right and also looking on as Mr. Clarence K. Howard makes cash presentation to Miss Monroe are Fred Hewlett, Dr. William H. Benson, Mrs. Bessie B. Benson, Mrs. Fred Hewlett, Mrs. Jessie Beasley and Mr. George Beasley, all out of town guests; Mrs. Gwendolyn Graham, Mrs. Madaline Nesbitt Phillips, Mrs. Mattie Shannon, Mrs. Bertha Debbs and Mr. John W. Askew. – Photo by F. Williams.

Poppy at Ford’s

Detroit, Grahams

We called my maternal grandfather, Mershell C. Graham, “Poppy”. My grandmother, Nanny, and his friends called him “Shell”. His co-workers called him “Bill”.

Poppy, 1919 Detroit, Michigan, newly married and working at Ford’s.

In the summer of 1953 my mother, sister and I stayed with my grandparents while my father was organizing a new church and parsonage across town. He stayed with his parents. We didn’t have a car and each morning we walked our mother around the corner to the bus stop where she caught the bus to Wayne State University. She was taking classes to get her teaching certification.

Pearl and Kris in the backyard with our horses. 1953.

I was almost seven and my sister Pearl was four. I remember spending most of the summer playing in the backyard. My grandmother would be doing what she did in the house, my great aunt Abbie mostly stayed up in her room looking out of the window. After 35 years, my grandfather was working his last months at Ford Motor Company. He retired on December 31.

My grandparent’s house and yard was surrounded by an alley on two sides. On the third side was the Jordan’s house next door and on the other side of them was the third arm of the alley. You can see on the map below that the long arms of the alley went through from Theodore to Warren Ave, which is where the bus stop was. My grandfather did have a car, but he didn’t use it to go to work. He caught a streetcar and it took him right to the River Rouge Plant. He had built a little ramp against the back fence against the wooden fence. We could see him coming home through the alley carrying his lunch box.

The Graham and the Jordan’s houses are in the light yellow area. You can see how the alley makes and “H”.

My grandfather began work at Ford’s Highland Park Plant on May 10, 1918, as a machinist. He was 30 years old and single. During that time Ford’s was paying five dollars a day, to qualifying workers, for a forty hour week. There were no benefits.

He returned to Montgomery and married my grandmother, Fannie Mae Turner, in 1919, they returned to Detroit the same day. In the 1920 census his occupation was an “auto inspector”. He was transferred from the Highland Park plant to Rouge plant on March 14, 1930 and went to work as an electrical stock clerk, which is the position he held until his retirement in 1953.

He was at the Rouge Plant during the May 26, 1937: Battle of the Overpass and the unionizing of the auto plants. My mother told me that after he joined the union, he carried a gun to work for protection. Unfortunately, I never heard my grandfather talk about any of this.

In September 1949 the UAW won a $100-a-month pension, including Social Security benefits , averaging $32.50 a month, for those age 65 with 30 years of employment with Ford’s. My grandfather was among the earliest workers to receive the pension when he retired at age 65 after working there for 35 years. His Social Security benefit was $85 a month. My grandmother received $42.50 as his homemaking wife.

Other posts about my grandfather’s life.

One Way Ticket
From Montgomery to Detroit – Plymouth Congregational Church – 1919
Mershell Graham and Fannie Mae Turner
Graham-Turner Wedding – 1919 Montgomery Alabama
F – FAMILY, MY GRAHAMS in the 1920 Census
The Graham’s in the 1930s
Mershell Graham’s Notebook – 1930s
Lizzie – 1934
1940 Census – The Grahams
The Graham’s in the 1950 Census

Mystery Class photo

Cleages, Detroit
Students at Norvell School 1940s. I noticed the strip of airplanes above the students and wondered about that. There is a story below about a Xmas drive for the pilots at an air force base.

A few years ago one of my cousins sent me the above photograph. They didn’t know anything about it. Unfortunately my aunt Gladys Cleage Evans, who was an art teacher from 1944 to 1948 is no longer with us to identify. I’m assuming that this was one of her classes during that time. She taught at Norvell elementary school on Detroit’s East side in the old Black Bottom neighborhood, since urban renewed out of existence.

My maternal grandfather lived in Black Bottom when he first arrived in Detroit from Montgomery, Alabama in 1917. It was the ghetto where the vast majority of black people in Detroit lived and where all the people he knew that had gone to Detroit from Montgomery before him, lived. Anyway, back to the photo.

My cousin Dee Dee with her younger sister Barbara. Dee Dee was a Student at Smith Elementary School.
My aunt Gladys Cleage, art teacher at Novell School

Then I remembered that my cousin Dee Dee on my mother’s side had lived in the Norvell neighborhood at that time and I wondered if she had attended Norvell. She didn’t, she attended Smith Elementary, a few blocks away in a different direction. On the map below you can see both schools, plus where Dee Dee lived. Gladys lived with her parents over on the Old West Side of Detroit.

The neighborhood. Norvell Elementary School up on the left. Click to enlarge.

Students Set Fine Example in Goodwill

Oscoda Fliers Will Get 450 Box Presents

The Michigan Chronicle
Saturday October 30, 1943

The children of the Norvell school are attempting something rather unique this year as a Christmas project. They decided that it would be a nice thing and entirely in keeping with the Christian spirit of the Yuletide season to devote their entire efforts to packing Christmas boxes for the fliers of the Oscoda Air Base.

David Blair, captain of the Safety Patrol and Sophie Smith, captain of the Service Girls’ club, head a committee of fifteen students who are doing all of the work within the school. It is planned that 450 boxes or, one for each two children in the school, will be the result of this project.

Extensive Program

The children are writing up their own publicity, drawing posters to be displayed in the halls and conducting speaking programs in the various rooms to stimulate interest in this activity.

It is hoped that officiers from the Oscoda Air Base will visit the school while the project is in being, and give the children first-hand information about life in the United States Army Air Corp.

A board of directors has been selected to supervise the buying of materials for the Christmas boxes, and generally oversee the project. This board is composed of: Miss Carolyn Dunbar, teacher, Norvell school; Mrs. Fannie Goodgame, director, Nursery School, Gleiss Memorial Center; Mrs. Laura Ford, a parent, 2916 Jos. Campau; Owen F. Stemmelen, principal, Norvell school.

The philosophy of the staff at the Norvell school is molded around the theory that, the enthusiasm and activity of children, if guided into well directed channels, will furnish much needed power, and that busy hands have no time for mischief.

The students who are working on the committee with Sophie and David are: James Finley, Elbert Foster, Herman Parks, Helen Johnson, Betty Matthews, Mildren Remsing, Albert Grimaldi. Charles Hollins, Eileen Brown, Helen Taylor, Frank Lauria, Mary Bologna, Delores Berry, Calvin Montgomery, Leroy Dennard, Robert Ketelhut, Alphonse Stafford, Joan McAlpin and Dora Davis.

Quizdown

I stumbled across Quizdown while investigating the Smith and Norvell schools. Quizdown was held every Saturday morning at Detroit Institute of Arts and broadcast on the radio. Sponsored by The Detroit Free Press and featured teams from two local schools competing against each other by answering general knowledge questions provided by other Detroit area students. Various famous people appeared on the show and interacted with the students.

Other School photo stories

Eighth Grade Graduating Class – Wingert Elementary School Detroit, 1922

The Afram River and Freedom School – 1964

Working on the D. & C. line

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Detroit, Grahams
Clifton Graham
Mershell Cunningham Graham, my grandfather.

The first job my grandfather got when he came to Detroit was as a steward on the Detroit and Cleveland fleet. His friend Cliff Graham worked as a waiter on the same fleet.

Mershell C. Graham’s WW1 draft registration card. Address and employment given. Race erroneously written as “caucasian”. Click to enlarge in new window.
John Clifton Graham’s WW1 draft registration card. Click to enlarge.

Traffic on D. & C. Route Increases

Two Boats on Cleveland Run Handle Larger Business Than at Start Last Year.

Yearly season Passenger traffic between and Cleveland this year have been somewhat in excess of the business carried on during the similar period a year ago, according to officials of the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation company.

The two boats of the line covering the route, the Easter States and the Western States, have been in operation since April 2. Besides an increase in passenger business the line has handled large shipments of automobiles and trucks in addition to the usual amount of package freight.

“W are now carrying about 50 more passengers on a trip than we did last year.” says A. A. Schants, vice-president and general manager. “To meet the increased operating costs we must do more business this year than ever before. With the larger boats in operation early in the season our costs are higher, but we feel that the prospects for a large passenger and freight business have justified this policy.

Detroit Free Press Detroit, Michigan • Tue, Jun 19, 1917 Page 1

Passenger Boat Rams Freighter

On her way down the Detroit river bound for Cleveland, the Eastern States of the D. & C. fleet collided with an upbound freighter opposite Ecorse about midnight.

The freighter, formerly the Pioneer, now the Natironco, was damaged to such an extent that she was put on the bottom.

The bow of the eastern States was considerably damaged and she was brought back to Detroit, arriving a out 2 a. m.

People on the Eastern States made the assertion that the freighter was seemingly improperly lighted, her lights not showing clearly.

Part of the crew of the Natironco were taken aboard the Eastern States by Captain Lee C. C. Nike. The others made their way ashore in the steamer’s yawl.

__________

On May 10, 1918, my grandfather started work at the Ford Motor Company.

Click photo for more sepia posts.


Other posts about my grandfather’s move from Montgomery, Alabama to Detroit, Michigan
Prologue: Montgomery
Bound For the Promised Land
The Land of Hope
One Way Ticket
The Steamer “Eastern States” – 1917


The Grahams – A Day In 1931

Detroit, Grahams, sepia saturday

My grandfather Mershell C Graham was the son of Mary Jackson Graham who we saw scheduled to be auctioned off with her family after the death of slave holder Crawford Motley Jackson in 1860. We move forward 70 years to to see what was happening with the Graham family in 1931,

Click on any image to enlarge in another window. Click on any link to open relevant information in another window.

“Doris – Mother – Howard – Mary Virginia ’31”

These two photos of my mother, Doris (wearing the dress with scarf) and her family were taken in the backyard of their Detroit home in 1931. Doris was eight, her sister Mary Virginia was eleven. Baby brother Howard was two years old.

Dad – Howard – MV and Doris (Actually Doris and M V)

Maybe they had just come from church, or were on their way. I wonder if my grandfather was pointing to one of the airplanes that were just beginning to become more common.

Mershell was 44. My grandmother Fannie was 42. They kept chickens, had a large garden and several fruit trees. The girls attended Barber Elementary school several blocks away. My grandfather rode the streetcar to work and they took the streetcar to church. They didn’t have a car until 1934.

From my grandfather's little pocket notebook. This was the only entry from 1931. 
"Transferred from HP (Highland Park) plant to Rouge plant Mar. 14, 1930
Went to work in Elect(rical) Stacks
 Mr. J.H. Arthiston foreman"
Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan) · 24 Jul 1931, Fri · Page 15

Below are some 1931 comments from Howard’s baby book, written by my grandmother.

Saw his first circus – 2 1/2 years old – and what a thrill. July 1931
On Oct 23 1931 – Howard came into bathroom while Dad was trimming my hair.
Where have you been I asked?
Answer …In the children’s room.
Question—What doing?
Answer – “Lecturing on common-sense.”
The above is true – Believe it or not.
Had more sense then any child his age we’ve ever seen.

In my grandmother Fannie’s scrapbook, I found two library cards made by my mother, Doris and her older sister, Mary Virginia in 1931. My mother was 7 and Mary Virginia was 11. There is no book listed on my mother’s card but Mary Virginia names “The Children’s Story Hour” on hers. I wonder what other books they borrowed and lent or if this was a one time happening. I notice that Mary Virginia returned her book on time.

Related Posts

The Graham’s in the 1930s
Mershell Graham’s Notebook – 1930s
Home Library 1931
Births, Deaths,Doctors and Detroit – Part 1- Grandmother Fannie’s notes

Extended Family Gathering – Memorial Day 1922

Cleages, Detroit
“Daddy, Grammom, Uncle Jake. The whole bunch” Written on the back.

Memorial Day in 1922 was on a Sunday. The temperatures were in the 70s. My paternal grandparents with their five children joined the extended Cleage family at a picnic. There are several photographs from the day. Unfortunately both group photos are damaged – the one above has pieces missing and the one below is very blurry. Both group photos are hard to identify because people are so jumbled up instead of standing in easy to see straight lines.

Starting from the left of the first photograph from the outing are two headless women and I don’t know who they are, although the second one is wearing an identical coat (click link to see it) to the one Uncle Henry’s wife wore the next year. The little girl is my Aunt Barbara, next to her is my Uncle Hugh, Uncle Louis, Uncle Henry, Theodore Page (who looks like he has a double). My great uncle Henry’s little daughter, Ruth, who is holding the same ball the catcher is holding in the action shot. Behind her is my grandfather Albert B. Cleage Sr., with a cigar and a flag stuck in the ground in front of him. In back of them are, an unknown man, my great grandmother Celia Rice Cleage Sherman, her son Jacob, my father Albert “Toddy”, three people I don’t know them.

Another photo from the day is a very blurry group photo. 

Above is a very blurry group photo.  My grandmother Pearl on the far left. Looking over her shoulder is Aunt Gertrude (Theodore’s aunt). Next to my grandmother is a woman I don’t know, next is my great uncle Jake (Gertrude’s husband.)

with little Barbara in front of her. ,   Hugh is next to Barbara,  My father is in the front row center, next to him is my great grandmother, Celia Rice Cleage Sherman, a little kid, probably my uncle Louis is next.  Behind Louis we see Theodore Page.  My grandfather is on the end holding a flag.

“Theodore Page and Toddy”

My father’s cousin, Theodore Page, is ready at the bat while my father, “Toddy” seems oblivious to the fact that he could have his head knocked off when Theodore goes to hit the ball. 

My uncle Henry loved baseball and often described the game in terms that made it seem like a work of art or a piece of music. My mother’s mother used to listen to games on the radio. I never liked playing the game – I could not hit the ball. I didn’t like watching it, compared to basketball, baseball games seem so long and slow moving.

More about Theodore Page, the batter above, from The Church Calendar in 1960

Mr. Theodore Page was a charter member of Central Congregational Church. He was Deacon-Trustee of the church from it’s organization until the time of his death. He was a member of the Men’s Club, the Usher Board, Area Group III and was co-chairman of the Stewardship Committee. He accomplished an effective job in evangelism.

Mr. Page loved three things, his church, Masonic Lodge and his music. He was a very active Mason, a musician and a conscientious church worker.

(unreadable) minister, one of four children and born in Helena, Arkansas, Aug. 24, 1902. At the time of his death, he was working as a Final Inspector in the Automotive Department for the U. S. Government. His wife and daughter, Ann, will always remember him as a dedicated husband and father. Mr. Page succumbed May 22, 1959.

My paternal grandparents. Dr. Albert B. Cleage with a flag and a cigar . Pearl Reed Cleage pregnant with their sixth child, Gladys.
Clifton, Mary V, Lewis, Mershell Graham. 1922 Brighton Gardens, Michigan

Meanwhile, my mother’s family was celebrating at Brighton Gardens, a black resort about 45 minutes from Detroit. My mother wasn’t born until the following year.

A clipping from the same Memorial Day outing above that comes from my maternal grandmother’s scrap book.
Click for more Sepia Saturday Posts

V – VICTORIA Interviews

A-Z Challenge 2023, Detroit

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

This article is taken from my Grandmother, Fannie Turner Graham’s scrap book. It was printed in the Detroit Tribune on November 24, 1945. Victoria’s parents, James and Margaret McCall, were the owners and operators of the Tribune. My grandmother wrote the date and my mother wrote the identifying information. James McCall and my grandmother, Fannie Turner Graham were first cousins. Their mother’s were Eliza’s daughters.

The Detroit Tribune Nov. 24, 1945. Transcription below. My mother wrote on the right. My grandmother on the right.

In Detroit, Saturday, November 17, Mrs. Franklin D. Roosevelt, widow of the late president, held a press conference in her suite at the Hotel Book-Cadillac, before she spoke to an audience of more than one thousand $5-a-plate guests who attended a luncheon sponsored at the hotel by the Michigan Citizens’ committee. Mrs. Roosevelt is shown conferring with Victoria McCall Thomas, of the Detroit Tribune staff, who asked the former First Lady several pertinent questions relating to the nation’s race problem, all of which Mrs. Roosevelt answered in her customary democratic manner. She declined, however, to comment upon Detroit’s recent mayoralty election, in which numerous race-baiting tactics were used, on the grounds that as an outsider she was not sufficiently informed on local situations to express an opinion; but Mrs. Roosevelt did state that she was very pleased with New York’s city election, since the man she had backed is now mayor. Mrs. Roosevelt had just come from the dedication of Roosevelt college in Chicago, named in honor of her husband, which she lauded for the liberal democratic principles upon which it was founded.

1940 Census – James and Margaret McCall and Family
An “At Home” In Honor of Chicago Visitors

Detroit Free Press 20 May 2007, Sun  •  Page 27
#AtoZChallenge 2023 letter V

U- ULTIMATE Eggnog

A-Z Challenge 2023, Cleages, Detroit, ,

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

eggnog
Pearl with an eggnog mustache, my mother, me posing with our goblets of eggnog about 1963.
eggnog recipe
.Detroit Free Press, 18 Dec 1977, Sun  •  Page 73 I can’t believe we used all that sugar!

This was the eggnog we drank during the Christmas/New Year holidays. I got the recipe from my mother. When I found it in the Newspaper, it is dated 1977. We were drinking it during the 1960s. I looked in my mother’s Women’s Home Companion Cookbook and found …

This recipe is what we must be drinking in these photos! There was no whisky or cognac brandy added.

Women’s Home Companion Cook Book page 95
My mother and me playing Stratego and drinking eggnog.
#AtoZChallenge 2023 letter U

S – SEMINARY

A-Z Challenge 2023, Cleages, Detroit

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

Transcribed from the sermon “On the Origins of Christianity”, December 8, 1967, by my father Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr. You can listen to this excerpt below.

Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr. about 1950 Springfield, MA

I can remember Christianity never meant a whole lot to me when I was a child. I went to ordinary Negro churches where not too much was being said and not much of anything was being done. My experience with black Christian churches in my childhood was a very disillusioning experience. I wondered why anybody wasted time Sunday after Sunday going into the building and sitting there listening to utter nonsense that had no relationship at all to the lives of the people who were sitting there. It seemed there had to be some tremendous traditional hold upon people to make them continue to go in.

The church I went to was a Presbyterian church here in the city and they had a series of preachers, as I can understand, it was not too prosperous a church at that time, and I can’t remember a one, not a one out of a whole series, a whole childhood that ever had anything to say on a Sunday morning that would make black people come in and listen, that had any message for the world in which they lived. That had anything to do with the problems that they faced. And yet it’s important that we realize that we tend to accept this kind of thing, this is the church. We don’t expect, really, as black people, we don’t expect the church to say anything. We don’t really expect the church to mean anything. We don’t really expect the church to be anything. When we come into church, we expect to get the warm feeling of tradition. Maybe it calls to mind a church down home some place where we used to be young and have friends. It calls it to mind and this gives us a sort of a warm glow which bathes the innocuousness of the minister and the off-beat of the choir into something that we think is pleasant, but it has very little to do with what we are actually getting in the church. It’s some ancient memory that we bring to the experience of worshiping Christ in church today.

Now it’s important, I think, that we realize this. I know during my childhood Christianity had very little meaning. My mother talked about it all the time. Obviously for her it had meaning and obviously it was painful that for me it had no meaning. For most of her children it had no meaning. And she couldn’t see that the church we were going to had anything to do with it. We were supposed to believe. Now that had nothing to do with the church, just you were supposed to believe. Everybody’s supposed to believe. It’s the only way you get to Heaven.

I remember the first time I began to have any conviction that the church could in any way be meaningful, was when one evening I just happened to stumble into the Plymouth Congregational Church when the Rev. Horace White was preaching. And he was the first minister I had ever heard who made the slightest effort to make sense. I was amazed to sit in a congregation and hear a minister who was trying to say something. He didn’t always succeed, but he was always trying to say something. And for him Christianity had to have some relationship with the world. And so, I listened to him. And I said Christianity really isn’t as empty and meaningless as people everywhere would lead children to think. It is possible for an individual to take the Bible and try and apply it to the world. To try and see in the Bible a revelation, an epiphany to see God revealed in the Bible. It’s possible. And I only came to believe it because I saw a man trying to do it. Now he fell far short of understanding how the Bible really relates to the lives of Black people because he was at the beginning of a long process. I mean, much has happened since he tried to preach sense to a black congregation. And we’ve gone through a lot of experiences since then. We are different now than we were ten, fifteen years ago, twenty years ago when he was trying to preach sense basing it upon the revelation of God through Jesus Christ. But I think back now how many things he didn’t understand, that I didn’t understand. I decided at Plymouth church to enter the ministry and I went to a seminary. 

++++++++

You can hear the whole sermon and see his sermon notes in this post – On The Origins of Christianity.

#AtoZChallenge 2023 letter S

R – RACING

A-Z Challenge 2023, Cleages, Detroit, ,

This is my tenth A to Z Challenge. My first was in 2013, but I missed 2021. This April I am going through the alphabet using snippets about my family through the generations.

Michigan Chronicle, February 8, 1947. Front page

“Hugh, Gladys and Anna Cleage of Scotten took their share of places in the annual city ice skating meet which was held at Belle Isle last Sunday afternoon.  Anna won first place and a gold medal in the Senior girls’ novice; Gladys, third in the same event and  a gold medal.  Hugh competed in the men’s 220 and two-mile events.”

Years later, my aunt Anna told me that the story was wrong. She actually came in third and Gladys won the race.  She remembered taking an early lead in the race but soon falling behind as Gladys easily over took her.  One reason might have been that Anna kept looking over her shoulder to see Gladys smiling as she gained on her. They learned to skate at the  Northwestern High School skating rink, which was a few blocks from their home on Scotten Avenue. Years later, my sister and I also learned to skate there.

The Michigan Chronicle, February 8, 1947

After being asked how two gold medals were given, I looked for more news articles that would set the record straight. Unfortunately, I found none. I can only suppose that the Chronicle got it wrong and only 1st place winner, Gladys Cleage got a gold medal. Third place winner Anna Cleage should have received a bronze metal.

I did find two articles, one tells that there was a meet. The other mentions a Northwestern High School student who won an earlier national meet.

Detroit Free Press, Sun, Feb 02, 1947 · Page 1
The Detroit Tribune, Sat, Feb 01, 1947 · Page 10

John James, Junior, of Northwestern High School, became the first Negro ever to win a championship in a North American or nation meet when he won the Intermediate two-mile event in the DETROIT NEWS sponsored North American Meet at Belle Isle on Sunday. James, a 16-year-old Northwestern Junior, is also a bike racer of local repute.

#AtoZChallenge 2023 letter S