Category Archives: sepia saturday

Births, Deaths,Doctors and Detroit – Part 2

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Timeline

As I was transcribing my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s  records of her children’s births and deaths, I began to wonder about the lives of Dr. Ames and Dr. Turner (no relation) who attended these events.  As I read about their lives in various online sources I also learned about Detroit race relations, some of which I knew but I had not put them together with the lives of my family and those they knew. I also realized some tie-ins with my paternal Cleage side of the family.  They all get mixed up in this post.

On April 3, 1920  Mary V(irginia)  Graham was born at home with  Dr. Ames attending. My mother, Doris Graham Cleage did not remember him fondly. “It was a very difficult delivery, labor was several days long.  The doctor, whose name was Ames, was a big time black society doctor, who poured too much ether on the gauze over Mother’s face when the time for delivery came.  Mother’s face was so badly burned that everyone, including the doctor, thought she would be terribly scared over at least half of it. But she worked with it and prayed over it and all traces of it went away.  Mary V’s foot was turned inward.  I don’t know if this was the fault of the doctor or not, but she wore a brace for years.”

Dr. James Ames came to Detroit in 1894 after graduating from Straight University in New Orleans and Howard University Medical School in Washington D.C. He was elected to the Michigan State House of Representatives from Wayne County’s 1st district for a two year term, 1901-1902.

In 1900 the total population of Detroit was about 285,704. When my paternal grandparents, Albert B. and Pearl Cleage, moved their family to Detroit in 1915 the black population was about 7,000. By the time my maternal grandfather, Mershell C. Graham, arrived in 1917 the black population had soared to over 30,000.

Black doctors were routinely denied admitting privileges at white hospitals.  This meant their patients had to be admitted to the hospital by a white doctor.  They were sometimes also denied the right to treat their patients once they were admitted.  Often hospitals had segregated wards and once they were full, black patients had to find another hospital.  In 1918, 30 black doctors came together and founded Dunbar Hospital. Dr. Ames was Medical Director and Dr. Alexander Turner was Chief of Surgery.  My grandfather Dr. Albert B. Cleage was one of the doctors. Dr. Ames is first row second from left in the photo of the Dunbar staff above.  My grandfather is first row, last one to the far right.

Fannie Graham’s second child, Mershell C. Graham Jr, was born June 10, 1921 at Dunbar Hospital with Dr. Turner in attendance.  In that same year, membership in the Ku Klux Klan in Detroit totaled 3,000.  The third child, my mother, Doris J. Graham, was born February 12, 1923 at Women’s Hospital with Dr. Turner attending.  By that time membership in the KKK in Detroit was 22,000.  In November of that year between 25,000 and 50,000 Klan members attended a rally in Dearborn township, which is contiguous with Detroit’s west side.

By 1925  Detroit’s total population was growing faster than any other Metropolitan area in the United States, the black population was over 82,000.  Housing segregation was widespread, although there were neighborhoods such as the East Side neighborhood where the Grahams lived that black and white lived together without friction.  Perhaps the area wasn’t posh enough to invite trouble. Maybe the large number of immigrants accounts for it. Unfortunately that was not the story citywide as people began to try and move out of the designated black areas into the other neighborhoods. Families moving into homes they had purchased were met by violent mobs that numbered from the hundreds into the thousands. This happened in 1925 during April, June, twice in July and in September.

An Angry Mob Greets Physician in All-White Neighborhood in 1925
RoNeisha Mullen and Dale Rich The Detroit News
Dr. Alexander Turner College Graduation Photo
In the 1920s, Dr. Alexander Turner was one of the most prominent black doctors in Detroit.  A successful practitioner and surgeon, Turner co-founded Dunbar Memorial Hospital in 1918. The 27-bed hospital had an operating room and catered to Detroit’s black community.  Widely respected, Turner moved easily between Detroit’s black and white worlds. He held appointments at two white hospitals that barred most black doctors. He owned a chain of pharmacies and operated two private offices, and his clientele was 75 percent white.
But none of that mattered when the doctor moved his family into a house on Spokane Avenue, in an all-white neighborhood on the city’s west side.
On June 23, 1925, as Turner, his wife and mother-in-law were moving into their new home, they were greeted by members of the Tireman Avenue Improvement Association — thousands of people carrying rocks, potatoes and garbage, news reports said.
At the time, the neighborhood was off-limits to blacks. And it was common practice for mobs of whites to keep blacks from integrating neighborhoods, said Charles Ransom, a reference librarian at the Graduate Library at the University of Michigan.
The Turners had only been in the home five hours when the group attacked. At gunpoint, two men forced Turner to sign his deed over to them and, with the help of the police, had the Turner family escorted out of the house.
The family returned to Turner’s Warren Avenue home, which contained one of the doctor’s two offices, several bedrooms and a five-car garage. Turner later moved to Ohio, where he died in 1944.
Albert B. Cleage Jr age 15

While writing this I realized that in 1925, my father, Albert B. Cleage Junior, was 14 and attending Northwestern High school with the children of the families that forced Dr. Turner out of his home. The elementary schools for both communities fed into Northwestern High School, which my father and his siblings attended.  No wonder my grandmother Pearl Cleage is famous for going up to the school and fighting segregated seating and other inequalities practiced at the time.  Ironically, in the ’60s when my sister and I were living on Oregon Street, several blocks from where Dr. Turner tried to move in, and attending Northwestern High School, the community was 99 percent black.

On November 1, 1927  Mershell C. Graham Jr was killed when he was hit by a truck on the way back to school after lunch. He was taken to St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, a Catholic Hospital on Detroit’s East side. Dr. Turner was there with him when he died.

On September 9, 1928 Howard Alexander Graham was born at Woman’s Hospital with Dr. Alexander Turner attending.  By 1930 Detroit’s population was 1,568,662.  On March 4, 1932, Howard Graham died. I know that his first name was that of Fannie’s father. I wonder if his middle name, Alexander was for Dr. Alexander Turner.

Some links you might find interesting:
Part 1 – Births, Deaths, Doctors and Detroit – Grandmother Fannie’s Notes
The Sweet Trials:  An Account
Click For other Sepia Saturday Posts

Steps

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"On our back porch 1959. Kris 13 & Nannie. She's just turned 13."

I look so comfortable leaning into my grandmother.  Nannie was 71.  It was almost back to school time.  One more year ahead at McMicheal Junior High for me. Right now I’m wishing I could  go back there again, even for just one of those Saturdays in my grandparents backyard. 


 For other Sepia Saturday offerings, click HERE.

Theresa Pearl Reed – Sepia Saturday #90

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On the back of the photograph is says “A Merry Xmas to you all.  Here are some roses for your (faded words – if you can read them let me know!) Your little niece, Theresa P. Reed.”  “Hugh’s daughter.”

Theresa was my grandmother Pearl’s brother Hugh’s youngest daughter.  She was born in Indianapolis, IN in 1914.  There are several other photographs of her as she grew up to about the age of 12 or 13.  Unfortunately I cannot find the family in the 1930 census, although I do find her father later on. Hoping I can find them in the 1940 census and back track.

You can read about Theresa’s father, Hugh Marion Reed by clicking HERE.
You can see more fascinating Sepia Saturday posts by clicking HERE.

Another Photographic Mystery Solved

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Ubert Conrad Vincent

Sylvia Vincent

Yesterday after talking on the phone with my cousin Jacqui and posting the identities of the people in the formerly mystery photo, I decided to look online for a photograph of Ubert Conrad Vincent as an adult.  Instead I found a newspaper article in The New York Age from Saturday, May 7, 1927 with a photograph of him as a three year old.  As soon as I saw it I realized it was the same small boy in another photograph I had from my grandmother’s collection. It wasn’t labeled or dated, but my mother had written on the back “I don’t know who he is but he’s too pretty to throw away!” I hope this doesn’t mean she was tossing photos of those who weren’t all that pretty.

There was also an unidentified photograph of a little girl that is clearly the same little girl in the family portrait, Sylvia Vincent.

To tie this in with this Sepia Saturday’s theme, corner grocery stores, Conrad and Sylvia’s maternal grandfather was Victor Tulane who, among other businesses, owned a corner grocery store housed in the Tulane building on the corner of High and Ripley streets in Montgomery, AL. I offer several photos of the store from 1919 to 2004 below. For other fine photographs and stories about stores of all kinds and who knows what else click SepiaSaturday.

Trip to Jekyll Island

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Usually I do not post photos from the present but, when I saw the theme for this week’s Sepia Saturday was a Georgia live oak and I had just returned from a trip to Jekell Island, GA with photos of Georgia live oaks with Spanish Moss dripping off of them it was too good to pass up.

My daughter photographing the same live oak. Wish we’d gotten a better shot. Next time.

Corner of the veranda where I sat and waited for my daughter to finish her meetings. Note the live oak in the background.

Daughter in the Atlantic Ocean.

Me in the Atlantic Ocean.

Our toes just touched the water.


The Angel Oak

To finish up, here is a postcard from my collection.  We actually visited this 1,500+ year old oak in 1975 but did not get a photograph!  Hard to believe. Click this link to learn all you ever wanted to know about the Angel Oak.  For other posts of trees of all types click SepiaSaturday.

Jeanette McCall McEwen

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Cousins Annie Lee and Jeanette with their sons.

 With youngest son.

  Jeanette and husband Robert


Jeanette was born on February 18, 1897 in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the youngest of the six children of Edward and Mary (Allen) McCall.  Her oldest brother, James McCall was the blind poet in She was owned before the war by…. Her father, Edward McCall, was the cook and turn-key at the city jail. Her mother, Mary Allen McCall, was a seamstress.  Jeanette attended Alabama State Normal school, a primary through high school for African Americans in Montgomery that all of her siblings and cousins attended.

Jeanette’s best friend was Stella Brown, who later married her older brother Roscoe McCall. Jeanette attended Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi and met her husband, Robert Anderson McEwen there.  By 1920 Robert and Jeanette were married and living in Chicago as roomers.  On January 2, 1920 she gave birth to her first son, Robert Jr.  Robert Sr. worked at the post office.  By the time their second son, Raymond, was born  on December 16, 1923, Robert was a dental student.  Jeanette did not work outside of the home.

By 1930 Robert was a dentist.  Jeanette died December 22, 1931.  I do not know the cause of death yet. You may see another photograph of Jeanette here.  Robert remarried before 1938 to Ethel, last name unknown at this time. He died June 29, 1938.   You can see more car related (or not) Sepia Saturday offerings here.

My Detroit Rebellion Journal – 1967

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My father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage & me.

I wrote this after the Detroit riot in July of 1967.  I was 20. I had been in Idlewild, MI at my Uncle Louis’ cottage with my Aunt Gladys and some of my cousins when it started. I ended up at my Grandmother Cleage’s house where my father, several uncles and cousins were also gathered. Her house was on Atkinson, about three blocks from the 12th street corner where the riot started. Aside from a little editing for clarity, these are my memories from 1967.

____________________________

 The fire siren that night in Idlewild went on and on and on. Gladys got a phone call that a riot had started. We left that morning. The sky was pink with smoke as we drove into the city.

During the riot, when it got dark, we turned off the lights, put on black clothes and waited. The shots that had been going all day got louder, closer, smashed together. We sat on the porch and watched the tanks go up and down the street full of white boys wearing glasses, aiming their guns at us.

One during the day went by in a yellow telephone repair truck. He rode in the elevated stand, pointing his rifle. We looked back at him.

Lights from helicopters whirred over us. Troops went down 12th, down 14th. The street shook. Afraid to sleep because somebody might shoot through the window, we stayed up until the sky got light. My cousins cleared out the furniture in front of the windows, so they could shoot.

Should they let them get in or shoot before they reach the porch? They lay there on quilts, looking out the window. Seeing soldiers and armored trucks in flowerpots and dump trucks. Dale asked how the gun worked. Ernie shows him by the hall light.

The guns sounded like they were in the alley. I sat on the landing. Thorough the window it was dark and unreal outside. Blair came up, scared, so we went in the basement and turned on a program about Vietnam, but then off to a horror movie nobody watched.

Daddy came down, with a drink, to use the phone and dictate demands to the papers. Ernie showed us how to bolt doors if someone tried to come in the window.

They tried to get Grandmother down to watch TV, but she wouldn’t. She stayed upstairs, watched TV and came out only at times to turn lights on and silhouette everybody hiding guns as the soldiers were pulled back.

On the police radio: Fifty policemen wounded in one hour. They were run out of the Clairmont Square again. A woman turns in her sniper husband.

Dale was left on the porch when they flashed light on the porch and summer-salted in. Bullets were so close I was afraid and went back inside.

Grandmother turning on lights with armed flower pots aiming at us.

Turning Vietnamese guns up loud to drown out theirs. Jan and I, sleeping on the hard scratchy rug. Ernie wanting just a ring to show he was there. Dale taping, taking pictures to show his children. Jesus painted Black.

All that Sunday cars full of white folks went down Linwood past the Church. Windows rolled up. Sightseeing. Long, slow lines, car after car, windows shut tight. Troop Jeeps going by pointing guns.

For other Sepia Saturday offerings click HERE.

Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church 1909

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Witherspoon Presbyterian Church 1909, Indianapolis, Indiana.

This is a photograph of the congregation of Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, IN in 1909, two years after they organized. This photograph is from the personal collection of my cousin Vivian Vaughn McDonald.  My grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage is the third person on the top right. My grandfather, Albert Cleage is next to her.  They wouldn’t be married for two more years. Next to Albert is his brother Jacob and next to him is their brother Henry.  Directly in front of my grandfather Albert is Jacob’s wife, Gertrude. Three people over from Henry is James Cleage, their sister Josephine’s husband.  He was from a different Cleage branch.  In the second row, second from the right is Henrietta Cleage, oldest daughter of James and Josephine. Although the woman 4th from the left, front row, looks like Josephine to me, I’m told Josephine was not there for the photo but was home pregnant with Hattie Ruth, the youngest of her five children.

In the 1909 Indianapolis City Directory Witherspoon United Presbyterian Church is listed as located in Realty Hall with Rev. David White as Pastor.

Here is another photograph in front of the church.  Also from my cousin Vivian’s collection.  Josephine Cleage is on the far right, wearing a dark dress.  The history below is from the Witherspoon web page, however they seem to have taken the history section down.

My grandfather’s sister, Josephine Cleage, is on the far right wearing a dark dress.

On April 30, 1907 the Presbytery of Indiana of the United Presbyterian Church held a called meeting at Realty Hall in response to a petition signed by 31 persons asking to be organized into a United Presbyterian congregation.

Begins With 31 Members

Prof. David Graham of Rushville was moderator and Rev. W. W. McCall of Greensburg was secretary. Other members present were Rev. Fred W. Schmuch of Milroy, Rev. N. B. McClung of Vevay, Rev. Mr. McDill of Madison, and Dr. Cowan of Indianapolis.

The petition was discussed at some length. By unanimous vote an organization was decided upon. The 31 members who signed the petition were as follows: Henry W. Cleage, Mrs. Carrie Perkins, Mrs. Emma Moore, A. T. Roney, Mrs. Cora Donann, Mrs. Cathern Crenshaw, Mrs. Daisy L. Brabham, Albert Cleage, Mrs. Gertrude Cleage, James Myers, Mrs. A. L. McElrath, O. F. Dennis, Mrs. Hattie  Mitchell, H. M. Mitchell, Mrs. Theresa Finley, Othello Finley, Miss Edith Finley, Miss Luell E. Hibbett, Mrs. Mary Peterson, Mrs. Anna Bowman, John T. Fox, Miss Pearl Reed, Thomas H. Bransford, Mrs. O. F. Dennis, Miss Alice Mathews, Miss Hilda Reeder, W. J. Perkins, Henry Moore and H. L. Hummons.

For other fine Sepia Saturday photographs dealing with windows or lights or who knows click here.  My family seems to have a habit of starting churches.  To see a photograph of the congregation of a church started by the maternal branch of the family click Plymouth Congregational Church.