Vote FREEDOM NOW!

Cleages, Detroit, sepia saturday
Henry Cleage outside of Cleage Printers 1963

I wish my interviewing skills had been better when I recorded this. Obvious things like, turn off the radio and go to a quiet room. I edited out as much of the extraneous noise as I could. Henry and I were sitting in the living room of my house in Idlewild, MI. You can hear the sounds of the kids getting dinner on the table and hollering at the dog in the background. In 1994 my youngest four were all at home and we were homeschooling. Henry lived about 4 miles away and often had dinner with us. In his statements, Henry couldn’t remember some names. When I posted the transcript of the interview years ago, my friend Paul Lee commented:  “Henry couldn’t recall the names of the “two brothers” who co-founded the FNP with “Afro-American” newspaper foreign correspondent William W. Worthy. They were Leftist attorney Conrad J. Lynn and Daniel Watts, publisher of New York’s militant “Liberator” magazine. As you know, Worthy and Watts attended the National Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference in November 1963.”

Yesterday I came across these posters from 1963 and today I found the theme for this weeks Sepia Saturday was Posters. Although these are not on a wall, there were identical ones put up around Detroit during the time leading up to the election of 1964.

Ronald Latham

Older posts about the Freedom Now Party

The Freedom Now Party – William Worthy’s Speech

The Freedom Now Party – Convention

Transcript of Interview With Henry Cleage – Freedom Now Party Votes Stolen

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And now a modern wall with posters not too far from my house. The colorful part is painted. The faces are printed on paper and glued on. To the left of my sister’s face, three artists were peeled off. The building is a former night spot what now stands empty in a mostly deserted strip mall.  I hope they plan to put the three missing artists back up. There were men in the back painting that wall and there are similar murals on the other walls.

A wall in Southwest Atlanta dedicated to local artists. My sister Pearl Cleage, a writer/playwrite is in the center.
For other Sepia Saturday Posts, Click photo.

Baby’s First Photograph – Feb. 9, 1929

Grahams, Photographs, sepia saturday,

“Feb 4, 1929 – Dad snapped Baby and me through dining room sun window. Not very good – sorry as now he has whooping cough? Weather’s been too bad to take him out to have pictures made…”

Baby Howard and Mother Fannie in the window 1929.
1929 Doris and Mary V. and 1951 Barbara and Pearl
Dee Dee, Barbara, Poppy, Pearl and Kris – 1953 & Doris and Mary V. 1929

More about Howard: Howard Alexander Graham’s Death Certificate

For more Sepia Saturday, Click photo!

Gladys Cleage Evans Obituary

Cleages, Obituary

Click to enlarge.

Gladys was my father’s sister and my aunt. She contributed her spit for DNA testing, helping make new family discoveries.  I spent much time with Gladys when we both lived in Idlewild. We used to walk to Head Start together. I remember she told me some of her childhood  and adult memories and I wrote them down in one of my notebooks, and I haven’t been able to find them, but I am going to go through page by page soon.  She also shared memories of her extended family, which I quote in some posts. Gladys also shared with me the letters that her father wrote to her mother when they were courting, which I used to write an A-Z series several years ago Index to the Letters from Dr. Albert B. Cleage.  I wish I could have shared the letters that her mother wrote to Homer and the information about my grandmother Pearl’s uncle Thomas Allen who fought with the USCT in the Civil War. Hopefully, she knows.

Harold Thomas Allen 1932 – 1946

Allen

Harold Thomas Allen was the son of Ransom Allen’s son, John Allen. John was my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham’s first cousin. I did not know about Harold, who died the same year I was born, until the 1940 census was released. I recently found this article via the Momence Facebook Group. I do not have a photograph of Harold. That made me wonder what happened to the family photographs of John and Bobbi Allen when they died without children or siblings.

Momence Progress Reporter July 19, 1946 page 1
Harold Allen’s parents, John and Bobbie (Conyers) Allen. Photo from Ruth Hatcher’s collection.

Joe Turner’s Death Certificate

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Lowndes County, Turner
joeseph-turners-death-certificate-blog

Other posts about my 2X great grandfather, Joseph Turner of Lowndes County, Alabama.

Pearl’s Letters – An Index

Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,

My Grandmother’s Letters
Finding The Letters
The Letters – The People
May 17, 1903 – Evangeline
July 3, 1903 – Hot Weather and A Train Trip
December 21, 1903 – Invitation to Christmas Dinner
January 27, 1904 – Illness and The True Reformers
January 31, 1904 – Misunderstood & Helping Homer Forget
February 7, 1904 – Evil Thoughts
March 8, 1904 – Guitar and Piano Lessons
March 17, 1904 – A New Address and The Mullins Move to Michigan
April 7, 1904 – Mother Very Ill, Minnie’s New Address
April 12, 1904 – Mother Ill Again
May 27, 1904 – Happy For Homer’s Speedy Return
June 16, 1904 – Minnie Coming to Visit
August 24, 1904 – An Entertainment
Aug 29, 1904 – An Invitation
November 8, 1904 – Pearl’s Mother Very Ill and Homer Shares “Vitality Supreme”
November 11, 1904 – Homer Advised Not to Visit
December 1, 1904 – Tired of Sarcasm and Baby Arthur Walks!
December 21, 1904 – Would She Be That Selfish?
January 2, 1905 – Mother Ill and Homer In Hot Springs, Arkansas
January 15, 1905 – Mother Better and Homer Describes Mountains
January 18, 1905 – Shall We Cease Writing?
January 27, 1905 – Minnie and Family Visiting, All Are Sick & Pearl Takes a Walk
February 6, 1905 – Pearl Accused of a Flighty Disposition & Illness in Homer’s Family
March 2, 1905 – Delighted With Stereoscopic Views, a Big Fire and Neglect of MacFadden’s Program
March 10, 1905 – Homer Sends Music and 50 Stamps. Hugh Whistles.
March 20, 1905 – Sorry to Read Homer’s Letter
April 21, 1905 – Busy Sewing for Mother’s Trip to Benton Harbor
April 26, 1905 – No Flowers For Easter & A Mystery Cousin
May 22, 1905 – Homer Reckless and Little Eulala Dies of Pneumonia
May 28, 1905 – A Walk, Request For A Photograph & Mother Ill in Benton Harbor.
June 25, 1905 – Pearl Receives Photograph of Homer, Promises to Send Hers in Return
July 11, 1905 – Missing Minnie & Music In The Night
July 16, 1905 – Music Through the Night and A Visit With Homer
July 22, 1905 – Mother Dangerously Ill, Pearl Fixes Hot Lemonade
August 27, 1905 – A Very Short Letter
Sept 7, 1905 – Pearl Sings & The Weather Cools
Oct., 24, 1905 – “Most exasperating of people…”
Oct. 29, 1905 – A Walk Into the Country, A New Aqueduct And A New Post Office
Nov. 28, 1905 – The Last Letter – An Invitation to Thanksgiving Dinner

Pearl Doris Reed Cleage Obituary

Cleages, Obituary, Reeds

PEARL D. CLEAGE, HELPED FOUND ST. JOHN’S CHURCH

DETROIT FREE PRESS

Date: Friday, July 23, 1982     Page: 7 B

Edition: Metro Final     Secton: OBT

Pearl D. Cleage, a founder of St. John’s Presbyterian Church in Detroit, died Saturday while vacationing in Idlewild, Mich. She was 94.

Mrs. Cleage, a Detroit resident since 1915, was the widow of the late Dr. Albert B. Cleage SR. and the mother of Reverend Albert B Cleage Jr., minister and founder of the Shrines of the Black Madonna, who began the Black Christian Nationalist movement in Detroit in the late 1960s. The Shrines are in Detroit, Atlanta and Houston.

Mrs. Cleage often lectured on African-American history. She was a member of the Auxiliaries of the Iota Boule and Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternities.

Survivors include four sons, the Rev. Albert B. Cleage Jr., Dr. Louis, Henry and Hugh; three daughters, Barbara Martin, Gladys Evans and Anna Shreve; nine grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren.

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Other posts about my paternal grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed Cleage.

Introduction to the letters my grandfather Albert B. Cleage wrote to Pearl Reed before their marriage from 1907 to 1910.

Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage’s Birthday
Pearl Reed Cleage With Baby Henry
Grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage – photographs
Two Newspaper Articles 1908 and 1960
Dr. Albert B. Cleage and Miss Pearl Reed Wed
1940 Census – The Albert B. and Pearl (Reed) Cleage Family
Pearl Doris Reed Cleage 1884 – 1982 – Two Photographs
Albert and Pearl Reed Cleage – Cemetery
Albert and Pearl (Reed) Cleage 1922
Grandmother Before the Party – 1971
Oh Dry Those Tears

Nov. 28, 1905 – The Last Letter – An Invitation to Thanksgiving Dinner

Great Migration, Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds, Thanksgiving,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
131 Puryear St. City

2730 Kenwood Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Nov. 28, 1905

Mr. Jarrett,
Dear Homer, You are most cordially invited to take Thanksgiving dinner with us at our home Thurs. Nov. 30th. It will be very informal.

Yours sincerely
Anna Reed

P.S. I neglected to tell you that dinner will be served at “7:00 P.M.”
Anna Reed

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click to enlarge

Oct. 29, 1905 – A Walk Into the Country, A New Aqueduct And A New Post Office

Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
Forwarded from French Lick to
131 Puryear St. City

2730 Kenwood
Oct. 29, 1905

Dear Homer;

I wonder what you are doing tonight? Are you at home? I have but just returned home after leaving with Hugh about four o’clock for a walk. O, and it was a walk too Homer! We reached home about nine thirty o’clock.

I enjoyed it though. Everything was and is just beautiful. The trees all shades of yellow and red and the fields with the green and yellow pumpkins lying here and there amid the shocks or stacks of grain. Past groups of cows and horses all of which I gave ample space while Hugh laughed and tried to assure me that they were harmless. And such a lovely sunset!

He took me over the new aqueduct supposed to be the only one of it’s kind in the world. He helped to construct it. We walked on and on until the new moon came to warn us of the end of the day and we then winded our way in downtown stopped at the Dairy Lunch, got a lunch and caught the car and came home. Was to have gone to a friend’s house and from there to church, but Hugh suggested the walk and it just suited me, for it was just cool enough today to walk briskly.

What did you do today I wonder? Tell me about French Lick? Will you? Is it a pretty place? Do you like it there?

I wonder if you are at church now? Hope you are.

Yours Pearl Doras Reed

P.S. O Homer, I forget, did I tell you that the new Post Office was completed? I suppose you read of it in the paper? It is simply grand. I think I have been in it once since it has been completed.

What are you going to do Halloween? Celebrate? I hope you have a pleasant time.

Good night
Pearl

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Click to enlarge
Click to enlarge
Baltimore Dairy Lunch The_Indianapolis_Star_Sat__Sep_10__1904
Baltimore Dairy Bar The_Indianapolis_Star_Sat__Sep_9__1905

Oct., 24, 1905 – “Most exasperating of people…”

Great Migration, Indianapolis, Letters, Pearl Reed's Letters, Reeds,
Courtesy of Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library/University of Georgia Libraries. Click to enlarge.
Pearl Reed

Homer Jarrett
French Lick, Indiana

2730 Kenwood Ave.
Indianapolis, Indiana
Oct., 24, 1905

Dear Homer

Most exasperating of people, your difficulties and troubles must have ruined your memory, for you asked me to or why I had not answered your letter and you should know that I wrote last and did so about six or seven weeks ago. Did your tribulations run away with your pen, ink, pencils and paper? You have my sympathy, I am sure.

You know very well that you did not come to French Lick to be near me, of course it sounds nice to be told that but of course you do not mean it Homer.

Where you did not answer my letter I thought you had gone south or some other place and was agreeably surprised to get your letter. Glad you are well and coming home, if “even for a visit” O Homer are you coming? Soon? I am curious you see?

What have you been doing with yourself for so long? Everything? How is your mother? Mine is quite well and sends her best regards to you. She tells me that she will be glad to see you again.

We are having ugly weather here Homer, it is raining now, just a fine penetrating rain that soaks you through.

I suppose I’ve about spoiled your temper Homer so I shall cease.

Pearl Doras Reed

P.S.
Wait a second, please, Homer, mother, just now, tells me to tell you that she wishes you were here now to paint this house, for you know you told her that you painted “houses”. She says she is trying to get ready for you Thanksgiving for she expects to have you out here.

Good night
your
Pearl

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