Category Archives: Investigations

How Many Monsters Did You Create Today?

Cleages, Investigations, , ,
Rev. Cleage/Jaramogi

My friend, historian Paul Lee, asked me to publish the following article after a rash of violence in Detroit by young black men. The original articles were written by my father, Albert B. Cleage Jr/Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, in 1968. It is depressing how the more time passes, the worse things seem to get.  All photographs, aside from the first, are from The Illustrated News and were taken by photographer Billy Smith during the early 1960s. KCW

Following the call made by the Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr. (later Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman), students commemorate Malcolm X Day in front of the old Northwestern High School, Detroit, Feb. 21, 1969.  (Detroit Free Press Photo/Courtesy Paul Lee)

The following article is excerpted from a report on two columns by Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, then known as the Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., which were originally published in The Michigan Chronicle on May 4 and June 29, 1968, respectively.

Jaramogi Agyeman was the charismatic founder and pastor of the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOCC) and the father of Black Christian Nationalism (BCN), its sacred-secular creed of Black Power, or self-determination, which was proclaimed on Easter Sunday, March 26, 1967.

The Shrine sought to reclaim the African roots of Christianity and, at least until the passing of its founder on Feb. 20, 2000, to restore the historic sovereignty of black people, who were considered the scattered “Black Nation, Israel,” by forming a “black nation within a nation,” which included governing majority-black communities.

During his half-century in the black liberation struggle, he was called the “Apostle of Youth” because of his deep concern for and involvement with the education of young black persons, particularly with regard to addressing their inculcated sense of self-hatred, or “Acceptance of Black Inferiority” (ABI).   From the 1960s to the 1990s, he was aided in this concern by the substantial percentage of Shrine members who were teachers.

The report and two of his weekly “Message to the Black Nation” columns dealt with ideas that he presented at “Project Salvation,” a Black Ministers-Teachers Conference sponsored by the Black Teachers Workshop at the University of Detroit-Mercy on April 27, 1968.   It was attended by 300 conferees from across the country.

While much has changed in the Detroit Public Schools (DPS) since then, much has remained the same, or gotten worse, including the anti-democratic takeover of DPS by a black Emergency Manager imposed by Michigan’s white, racist, right-wing governor, who’s doing the bidding of corporations.

In light of the deplorable state of our schools and the dangers posed by young “monsters” here and across the country, many of Jaramogi Agyeman’s insights and prescriptions remain relevant. — Paul Lee

How many monsters did you create today?

A message to black ministers and educators

By Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman
(Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr.)

[Monsters are persons who prey on others because they have no sense of social or human identity.]   Both the schools and churches have created these monsters.   They have taught black children to hate black people and therefore to hate themselves.

Now that they have seen what white people are like, they also hate white people and have abandoned the integration dream which sustained the older generation.   With nothing to attach themselves to, a whole generation of lonely, vicious youth is now running up and down the streets, grabbing pocketbooks, knocking down old women, taking anything they can lay their hands on, concerned only with their own individual selves.

Unless the black church can give these young people a positive self-image and something to attach themselves to, they will destroy not only themselves but all of us.

* * *

…black churches do not play any important part in the education of black children other than the destructive one of handing down the white supremacy power symbols of a white Jesus and a white God.

The school is a white institution which perpetuates and hands down the white man’s interpretation and conception of the world.   We clean up our little children, tell them to study hard and send them off to school where almost everything they learn is a distortion of the truth.

White-dominated schools teach white supremacy. …   In school libraries the books are predominantly white supremacy books.   In every book about Africa, “the native” has a bone in his nose.   They say that they are changing the books but you stop and look.   The bone is shorter, that’s all.

The books and the personnel are still teaching the same point of view:   white people have done everything in the world that was worth doing and poor primitive black people have been the kindly white man’s burden.    This destroys our children.

The problem is with us

[Many teachers and preachers] are overly optimistic about black parents.   They seem to think that black parents are fed up and want a basic change.   I do not think that black parents are fed up.   If they were, they would keep their children out of school until the schools are changed.   We can change the schools any day that we decide that black children are important enough.

Perhaps the most pitiful thing is the fact that many black parents still believe that white folks know best how to educate black children.   When they see too many black teachers in a school, they are upset.   “This school is entirely black,” they say and begin looking for a place to move where they can get their children into an integrated school.   It is pathetic.

Basically the problem is with us.   We cannot expect white folks to be seriously concerned about educating black children.   Why should we expect them to be?   We know how they treat us in employment — keeping us in the poorly paid jobs at the bottom.

We know how they treat us when it comes to selling a house — charging $19,000 for a house they would sell a white person for $15,000.   Why should they be any more democratic when it comes to education?    I am not surprised at them but I am surprised that it takes us so long to wake up and do something to change an educational system that our tax dollars support.

Our children are being destroyed by the schools and we are doing nothing to prevent it.   Some of you will say, “Our children are not so bad.”   But you know as well as I do that our black children will knock an old black woman down, rape her and take her purse containing 50 cents.

These are not just “bad kids.”   These are children in a white civilization who do not have any sense of identification with anything and who do not believe in anything.   These are black children who have been destroyed by the black church and the white[-dominated] school.

Do you know what saved some of you older people when you were growing up?   You had a dream.   Your mother told you that if you studied hard, you could rise above other black folks.   She told you that if you washed your face, stood up tall and walked proud, white folks would accept you.

So you spent your time trying not to be like black folks and trying to be like white folks.   In a sense that saved you.   As asinine and ridiculous as it now sounds, that is what saved a lot of older black people.   It was a foolish dream but it was a dream.    It was something to hang on to.

We hated ourselves.   We did all we could to escape from ourselves.    In church on Sunday we tried to shout our way right out of our black skins.

What dream do our children have?

Now let me ask you, What dreams do our children have?   They know that the old integration dream is dead.   They know that the white man does not want them and they do not want the white man.

Those who belong to the Nation and attend the Shrine of the Black Madonna reject the old integration dream just as black children do.   But we have something to put in its place. We are working to build a black community that we can be proud of.   We have a new dream to take the place of the old dream that is dead.

But most of our young people don’t have anything.    They hate themselves.   They hate white people.   They hate everybody.   They have been psychologically murdered by the black church and the white[-dominated] school.

Look at the black community.    What does a black child have to identify with?   When he goes to church, he sees white folks in Sunday School lessons, white folks in the stained glass windows, and a white Jesus up front over the altar.

When he rejected the integration dream and white folks, he rejected all of them, and he is not going to come into a black church and make an exception for a white Jesus.    So you don’t see our young people in churches.   The church doesn’t have anything to offer so young people stay away.

Our children are mad, evil, lonesome.   They feel cheated and left out.   They strike out at the world in anger and frustration.   This is the basic task of the Black Nation.

The only thing that can save a black child is a Black Nation that they can come into.  For a black child it is the difference between life and death.   For a black child this is the only thing that he can come into that will give him a sense of identity.

Out there on the street, he has nothing to believe in and having nothing to believe in is psychological death for any child.

* * *

We feel that most ghetto schools today destroy children rather than educate them.  The teachers and administrators serve as power symbols and kill a black child’s self-image. Their influence, their lack of concern, and in many instances their contempt make it impossible for a black child to learn.

So, we are insisting more and more that in a school for black children … its curriculum be reoriented to cover the culture of black people; that the present textbooks, which are essentially lies, particularly in the area of social science and history, be thrown out and that textbooks explaining the history and cultural background of black people be substituted.   We are not insisting that white schools teach the truth, but we do insist that schools in black ghettos teach the truth.

______________________________

This column was edited by Highland Park scholar and Michigan Citizen historical features writer Paul Lee, who indicated omissions with ellipsis (…) and paraphrases and clarifications with [brackets] and separated the Michigan Chronicle report and columns with asterisks (* * *).   The subheadings are the Chronicle’s.

I’d like to thank Sala Andaiye (Adams) and Peter Goldman for their helpful proofreading,  and Baba Malik Yakini for his sage counsel. — Paul Lee

Editorial Matter Copyright © 2012 by Paul Lee

1940 Census – Chester and Theola (Davenport) Williams

1940 Census, Investigations, Williams, , , ,

395 Knox Street, Bowie, Chicot County, Arkansas

 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.

 

1940 Census – Montgomery

1940 Census, Allen, Investigations, ,

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.

1940 Census – Jennie Virginia (Allen) Turner

1940 Census, Investigations, Turner, ,
4536 Harding Street, Detroit.

 In 1940 my 75 year old great grandmother, Jennie Virginia Turner, lived with her daughters at 4536 Harding, Detroit, Michigan. She lived about 10 minutes by car (not that they had a car) from her oldest daughter, Fannie Graham and her family on Theodore. Her nephew, James Edward McCall, lived about half way between the two with his family on Parker. She was listed as a widow and retired with 6 years of schooling. Everyone in the house is identified as “Negro”.  Jennie gave the enumerator the information.

Aunt Daisy was 48 years old, single, with 4 years of high school. She was the only one in the house working outside of the home. She is listed as a stock girl at a retail fur company. It had been my understanding that Daisy was a seamstress but she was also listed as head stock girl at a fur store in the 1930 census so I guess she wasn’t sewing. My mother told me years ago that Daisy also collected numbers at Annis to supplement the family income. When she lived in Montgomery, AL, Daisy was a teacher for several years and worked in her Uncle Victor  Tulane’s grocery store as a clerk.

Aunt Alice was 32 years old, single and had completed 9 years of school. This answered a question I had about Alice, did she finish high school after she moved to Detroit at age 15.  I don’t think she did.  If she started school at 6, she probably stopped when she moved to Detroit.

"Daisy with friends from work"
Daisy (the arrow points at her) with friends from Annis Furs.

1940 Census – Jacob and Gertrude (Brunt) Cleage

1940 Census, Cleages, Investigations,

The Old West Side Detroit neighborhood where my father's family and aunts and uncles and cousins lived in 1940. Uncle Jake's house was the second one up from the bottom of the map.

Jacob Cleage was my grandfather Albert Cleage’s oldest brother.  He and his wife, Gertrude, lived at 5670 Hartford Avenue, very close to my grandfather’s Cleage Clinic.  The house is no longer there, but there are 3 houses on either side of the spot where it stood   and it appears that all were built from the same plan.

Empty spot marked by "A" where Jacob and Gertrude Cleage's house once stood.

House near 5670 Hartford Ave. The least modernized house of the 3 and perhaps the closest to what their house looked like.

5670 probably looked like this house that hasn’t been renovated or sided. I think their house would have been painted and kept up.  They owned the house and it was worth $1,900 according to the 1940 census.

Jacob Cleage

Gertrude Cleage

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were six people in the household. Everybody was identified as Negro and had been living at the same address in 1935.

According to the census  Jacob Cleage was the head of the house. He was 62 years old and had been born in Florida. He worked as a sweeper in an auto plant with 2 years of high school.  He earned $1,200 in 1935.

Gertrude Cleage, 58, wife, born in West Virginia. She was not working outside the home and had completed 3 years of high school.

John Cleage, 29, son (SON?? first I heard of Jacob having any children), born in West Virginia. He worked in the stock room of an auto factory and earned  $1,600 during 1935. He had 4 years of college and was attending college in 1940. He was married and his wife were seperated.

Jacob Cleage, jr, 24 son (ANOTHER SON???) also born in West Virginia. Not working with 3 years of college and attending college in 1940. He was single.

Robert Evans, 22, lodger, born in Alabama. He had attended school that year and had 2 years of high school. He wasn’t working and had earned no money. He was married.

Countess Evans, 22, wife of a lodger born in Alabama. Shw had 4 years of college, was not working and had earned no money. Countess spoke to the enumerator which probably accounts for the incorrect information.

Jacob Cleage was actually born in Tennessee and Gertrude was born in North Carolina. I never heard that they had any children and I’ve followed them down through the years from the 1880 census and other records and through family stories and photographs. My grandparents lived with them when my father was born in 1911. I can’t find Jacob Jr. or John Cleage any place else, not living apart with a different mother and not in any directories.   If all of these young people were living there in 1935, the lodgers would have been 17. Jacob Jr. would have been 19 and John would have been 24. That would have been a house full of students for one working man to support.  Jacob Cleage died in 1942, just two years later.

I wish Jacob or Gertrude had been the informant because I’ve got to take much of this with a grain of salt until more information comes my way.

Source: 1940 U.S. census, Wayne Co., Michigan, pop. Sch., Detroit, Ward 14 E.D. 84-785  Sheet No. 11 B  HH 191 Jacob Cleage. Informant – lodger. Click to view census sheet.

1940 Census – James and Minnie (Reed) Mullins

1940 Census, Investigations, , , ,

Minnie Reed Mullins was my grandmother, Pearl Reed Cleage’s sister.  James and Minnie Mullins were the parents of 12 children. At the time of the 1940 census only the youngest 3 – William, Harold and John – were still at home. Minnie was the informant. The house they rented for $20 a month at 4345 Tireman is no longer there. Here is a shot from Google Maps looking down the street from the now vacant lot.

Looking down the street from 4345 Tireman, which is no longer standing.

In the 1960s I sometimes walked down Tireman on my way to school. At that time the houses were still there. They were a mix of brick and frame two family and single family houses.  My uncle Henry talked about riding his bike down Tireman and out into the country when he was a boy.   The one time my sister and I tried it, we ended up in Dearborn and were called “nigger” by some white teenage boys.  But that is not today’s story.

James Mullins was listed as 75 years old and had not worked during the past year.  He and wife Minnie both had 8 years of school.  She was born in Kentucky and he was listed as born in New York.  I don’t know if Minnie was joking with the enumerator or trying to give them false information on purpose or if it was a misunderstanding.   He was actually born in Georgia according to all the other documents I have. Well, except for the 1930 census where his race was “Indian”, his place of birth was “Cherokee” and Minnie was identified as “white”.  In 1940 everybody living in the household was identified as “Negro”.

Mr. Mullins holding John. William “Bill” and Harold in front, about 1924. Benton Harbor, MI

Minnie Reed Mullins about 1924. Benton Harbor, MI.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A later photograph of William (known as Bill) and Harold Mullins.

William Mullins was 26 in the 1940 Census. He was born in Indiana. He had finished 4 years of high school. He had earned $960 wages in 1939 working 52 weeks as a machinist in an Auto Factory.

Harold was 24 years old. He was born in Indiana and had completed 4 years of high school. During 1939 he worked 52 weeks and earned $936 as a stock boy at a clothing store.

John Mullins

John was 18 years old, born in Michigan and had completed 3 years of high school. He was attending school so he was probably a senior at Northwestern High School. I know that John was also a musician and probably played during this time.

Just looking through other information I have collected for the Mullins family has shown me I need to plan another post where I pull it all together.

 Source 1940 U.S. Census. State: Michigan. County: Wayne. City: Detroit. Ward 14. Enumeration District: 84-788. Sheet number: 1-A. Household # 1. Head of household: James Mullins. Informant: Wife: Minnie Mullins.  To see the census page for the Mullins family click here.

1940 Census – The Albert B. and Pearl (Reed) Cleages

1940 Census, Carnival of Genealogy, Cleages, Investigations, , , , , , , ,
Albert, Pearl, Albert Jr, Louis, Henry, Hugh, Barbara, Gladys, Anna.
6429 Scotten, Detroit, Michigan

In 1940 my grandparents and family were living at 6429 Scotten at the corner of Moore Place. They owned the house and it was worth $5,000. They had lived in the same place in 1935 and in fact had been there for over 20 years as all the girls in the family were born in that house.  My grandfather was a medical doctor in private practice at the Cleage Clinic.  The amount of money he made in 1939 was a crossed out number, replaced with “0”. He was the informant, that is he is the one that talked to the census taker and gave them the information on the form.

My grandfather was 56 years old, born in Tennessee with plus 5 years of college. My grandmother was 50, born in Kentucky with 4 years of high school. My father was 28, born in Indiana, had plus 5 years of college and was absent from the home. All the other children were born in Michigan. Louis was 26, had plus 5 years of college and absent from the home. Henry was 24 and had 5 years of college. Hugh was 21 and had 2 years of college. Barbara was 19 and had completed 1 year of college. Gladys was 17 and had completed 4 years of high school. Anna was 15 and had completed 2 years of high school.

All of the children were in school. Anna was still attending Northwestern High school. Gladys had graduated in 1939 and was a freshman at Wayne State University. Henry, Hugh and Barbara must have been at Wayne. Louis graduated from Wayne State medical school in 1940 and was doing a residency at Homer Philips in St. Louis. My father graduated from Wayne in 1938 and was in the seminary at Oberlin College.

Source: 1940 U.S. Census. State: Michigan. County: Wayne. City: Detroit. Ward 14. Enumeration Districe: 84-787. Sheet number: 11-A. Head of household and informant: Dr. Albert B. Cleage.  To see the census sheet for the Albert Cleage family click HERE.

I hadn’t realized that one of my grandmother sisters and all of my grandfather’s living siblings lived within walking distance of their house.  I have labeled their houses, Northwestern High School, Wingert Elementary School and the Cleage Clinic.  I sort of knew this, but I didn’t realize it until I mapped it out after finding everybody in the same neighborhood.  In future posts I will share what I learned about each household in 1940.

1940 Census – The Grahams – Supplemental Material

1940 Census, Grahams, Investigations, , , ,

After I finished writing about my Grahams in the 1940 Census yesterday, I looked at some maps of the enumeration district. Here are some photographs I put together from Google maps showing what the area looks like now and what streets were included in their enumeration district.  My cousin Barbara and I visited the area in 2004 and it looked just like this.

The Enumeration District is outlined in red. My grandparents house is the “A”. The yellow line traces the route to the elementary school.

An ariel view from google of my grandparents block. Their house was located where the “A” is. There used to be an alley but it is now overgrown as they don’t maintain alleys in Detroit any more.  The Jordan house and the Graham house shared the enclosed space. There was another alley next to the Jordan house which is included inside the fence.

The site of my grandparents house. Now a storage area.

Unmaintained side alley next to the house site.

The factory across the street from my grandparents house.

Thomas Elementary school. The school my mother and her siblings attended. Now deserted and burned.

Looking down the street from elementary school toward the ruined Packard plant. My Uncle Mershell was hit and killed by a truck on the way back to school with his older sister, Mary Vee after lunch. I think she always felt she was somehow responsible.

1940 Census – The Grahams

1940 Census, Carnival of Genealogy, Grahams, Investigations, , ,

The 1940 census was released yesterday. Today I was able to find both sets of grandparents, with my parents still living at home, the only great grandparent still alive, three families of cousins  and my in-laws who were married and living in their own home with the first of their twelve children, baby Maxine. Today I am going to write about my mother’s family, the Grahams.

The Grahams – Fannie and Mershell 1930

My grandparents were enumerated on April 12, 1940.  They lived, as I expected, at 6638 Theodore Street in Detroit. The entire enumeration district was white with the exception of my grandparents and their next door neighbors, the Jordans.  Just noticed my grandparents and family were enumerated as “white”. Among the adults over 40 was a mix of naturalized citizens from Italy, Poland, Canada, Switzerland, England, Germany and natural born citizens from the southern United states. There were a few people who had filed their first papers towards gaining citizenship and a few “aliens”. The younger adults and  the children were almost all born in Michigan. The majority of people in the district had lived in the same place since 1935.  Among the workers on my grandparents page were  a janitor, two maids, a laborer at a spring factory, a bender at an auto plant,  a checker at a dress shop, a grinder at an auto factory, a delivery man for a print shop, a stock clerk at an auto factory, a stenographer, a time keeper at a machine shop, a manager for a coal and ice concern and a salesman for a radio concern.

My grandmother, Fannie, was the informant for her family. She and Mershell were both 50. He had completed 8th grade. She and 20 year old daughter, Mary V., had completed 4 years of high school. My mother, Doris was 17 and had completed 4 years of high school and was attending college.  Mershell had worked 52 weeks as a stock clerk at an auto factory and earned $1,720 during 1939. Mary V. was working as a stenographer at a newspaper office and had earned nothing in 1939. They owned their own home which was worth $3,500 and had lived in the same house in 1935.

Above Doris and Mary V. in front of Plymouth Congregational Church.

Did I learn anything new from this census? This was the first time I looked at the whole enumeration district which gave me more of an overview of the neighborhood. I did not know that my grandfather completed 8th grade. I always heard he taught himself to read because he never attended school.  I wonder which is true, did he teach himself to read and my grandmother just said he completed 8th grade or did he go to school.  No big surprises, mostly seeing in the record what I already knew.

 For more information about the Grahams, their enumeration district and photographs of what the area looks like now Supplemental material about the neighborhood.  A photo of my mother, aunt and uncle – Bird’s Eye View, 1940 photograph.  My grandmother’s mother and sisters – 1940 Census – Jennie Virginia Turner.  A map of where my family lived in Detroit during the 1940 Census – Where We Lived.  My grandmother Fannie’s 1940 Journal Entries. My mother at Wayne State University in 1940.

 Source 1940 U.S. Census. State: Michigan.  County: Wayne. City: Detroit. Ward:15. Enumeration District: 84-862. Household: 331. Sheet Number: 16-A. Date: April 12, 1940. Head of Household: Mershell Graham. Informant: wife, Fannie Graham.  To see the census sheet for the Graham Family – click.

Stolen from Africa

Eliza, Fearless females, Investigations, Many Rivers To Cross

Do you know the immigration story of one or more female ancestors? Do you have any passenger lists, passports, or other documentation? Interesting family stories?

africa_americaI don’t have any immigration stories, passenger lists, passports or even the names of the women who came to the United States, probably in the 18th century, against their will from Africa.  Until I took an mtdna test several years ago and persuaded my father’s sister to do the same I didn’t know what part of Africa they were from. We have no oral history of the Middle Passage.

In 2008 my sister received a free mtdna testing kit from African Ancestry.  Since she wasn’t interested, she passed it on to me. The results came back L3e for the haplogroup and they said I shared dna with the Mende people of Sierra Leone.

Later I decided to test again with Family Tree and my father’s sister also tested. My results came back L3e3*.  My aunts came back L3e2*. They said her results were the same as a broad area of Sub-Sarahan Bantu speaking groups.

In 2011 23andMe had a free offer to entice more African Americans to test and I took it. The results came back L3e3b.  Neither of these testers were so specific with a group as African Ancestry was.  They were more general, saying that L3e3b is one of the Sub-Saharan groups. One said they had matches from both Sierra Leone and Ethiopia. One map I found shows the group originating around Ethiopia and migrating out towards West Africa.

Reading online I found that most African Americans in the United States left from a fort on  Bunce Island in Sierra Leone. The photos on the left of the the montage show the fort back when it was being used and then the overgrown, green island and fort as they are today.I also found that most slave ships coming into the United States docked on Sullivan’s Island outside of Charleston, South Carolina.  The people were sold at auction on the north side of the Exchange building in Charleston, shown on the far left side of the photo. Other photos include maps of Sierra Leone and Charleston/Sullivan’s Island, an actual photograph taken in the 1800’s aboard a slave ship, and an old drawing of the auctioning off of slaves.

In 1974-1975 my family and I lived in Mt. Pleasant, right outside of Charleston.  My husband was working for the Emergency Land Fund trying to help black farmers save their land. We often went swimming at the beach on Sullivan’s Island, without knowing that our African ancestors probably landed near there after crossing the Atlantic ocean during the 1700s.

When my oldest daughter was born in 1970 we decided to give her a family name and an African name. I picked a name out of a children’s story we had in the Black Conscience Library. The name was Jilo. We could never find out what kind of name Jilo was or what it meant. After I received the information that Eliza’s line went back to the Mende people of Sierra Leone, I found a list of names and found that the name Jilo comes from  Sierra Leone.

In the spring of 2013 my daughter Ife, her two children and I went to Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina, to see the place where the slave ships landed.

The view of the harbor from Fort Moultrie, South Carolina.

My grandson and I standing by the sign on Sullivan's Island.
Sanding with my grandson next to the sign on Sullivan’s commemorating the entry site for the thousands of Africans that arrived through that port.

To see photos of my mtdna line click My Matrilineal Line and More.