Memories of the Detroit Main Library

memories, sepia saturday

When I was growing up, this was the entry way to the Detroit Main Library.  It opened onto Woodward Ave. We probably started going soon after we moved back to Detroit when I was 4.  There was a man who stood there, a very friendly older man who looked at your books when you were going out to make sure you had checked them out. Younger than I am now, he was very friendly and always smiled at my sister and me. He wore a blue suit and had a round head, with little hair.

entry_old_library
Woodward Entry.  Click to enlarge.
ceiling

To the right was the check-out counter. The door you can see to the right led into the children’s room. The picture books and early reading books were right inside the door to the left. Straight ahead, against the back wall were the books for older readers – “Invisible Island”, the Narnia books and others.  My mother brought us here often, interspersed with trips to  libraries closer to our home.At the time I don’t remember noticing the high ceilings and the murals specifically, but they were the background for my library experience.  In 1963, an addition was added on the Cass side of the library.  With building and lawn, it occupies the entire block.  For reasons I don’t understand, most of the books were moved into the new area, leaving the old one behind.  The book checker moved to the new side of the building and continued to sit there all day and look at books. He was there when I studied on the new side all through college and he was still there in 1972 when I started taking my two year old daughter to the library. I wonder what his name was.

New addition.
Cass addition.

To read more about the Main library

  • I Met My Husband in the Library “I usually studied in the sociology room of the Main Library, which was in the middle of Wayne’s campus.  As I was leaving to go to my next class that day, a guy came up and asked if I was Rev. Cleage’s daughter. I said I was.”
  • Detroit Public Library  “Designed by Cass Gilbert, the Detroit Public Library was constructed with Vermont marble and serpentine Italian marble trim in an Italian Renaissance style. His son, Cass Gilbert, Jr. was a partner with Francis J. Keally in the design of the library’s additional wings added in 1963. Among his other buildings, Cass Gilbert designed the United States Supreme Court Building in Washington, DC, the Minnesota State Capitol and the Woolworth Building in New York City.”
  • Historic Detroit Library  “In March 1910, after some surprising opposition, the Common Council voted to accept an offer from steel magnate Andrew Carnegie to provide money to go toward improving the Detroit library system. Following two years of court cases and legal mumbo jumbo, the city finally got the go-ahead to start issuing bonds and moved ahead with building a replacement for the structure downtown, a building that was still only 35 years old.”
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Fannie Mae Turner Graham 1936

Grahams,

Today would be my grandmother Fannie’s 126th birthday, had she not died in 1974.  Here is a photograph of her with friends standing on the steps of Plymouth Congregational Church on Detroit’s Eastside, in 1936.

1936hatsfanniechurchsteps
“Mrs. C. L. Thompson, Miss Watt, Mrs. Martha Lee (Died July 1937), F. Graham
Taken as we talked on our Church steps 5/17/36
By Jim Dunbar” The Church was Plymouth Congregational Church.  F. Graham is my grandmother Fannie Mae Turner Graham.

When my sister, cousins and I were growing up in Detroit, my grandmother would make us birthday cakes. They were always yellow cake with pineapple filling between the layers and chocolate icing over all.  The recipe below is in the front of my mother’s falling apart cookbook.  My daughter is going to make one for us this weekend and I will take a photograph and add it to this page.

cake

5 Generations of Marie: 1891 – 2003

Williams

Today would have been my mother-in-law, Theola Marie Davenport Williams, 94th Birthday. It’s hard to believe so much time has passed since she left us much too soon in 1981.  In honor of the day I am sharing the Marie’s in the Davenport/Williams family.  There may also have been some cousins with the middle name of Marie but I am unaware of them at this time.  Click to enlarge the chart.

Marie's_5_generations

1.  Amy Marie Jackson Davenport was born in Portland, Arkansas on March 17, 1891 to Allen Jackson and Lettie Gray Jackson.  She married James Davenport of Mer Rouge, LA in 1909.  They made their home in Portland, Ashley County, Arkansas.  They were the parents of 7 children.  Most of the children migrated north to St. Louis, MO and Chicago, IL. In 1967 Amy died in Chicago, IL.  I wish I had a better photograph of her.

2. Theola Marie Davenport Williams  was the daughter of Amy Marie Davenport.  She was born March 7, 1920, in Portland, Arkansas, the fifth child of the late James and Amy Davenport. Arkansas was her home for many years, where she attended Dermott High School and Arkansas State University at Pine Bluff. The greater part of her adult life was spent in St. Louis, Missouri where she attended Meramec Community College and Washington University.

Theola married  Chester Arthur Williams on June 20, 1938.  Together they had 12 children – 6 sons and 6 daughters. She was an active member of the Church and Community, which involved the following; Sunday School Teacher, Primary Department, Women’s Missionary Union and was named to the Deaconess Board of Washington Tabernacle Baptist Church; she was a secretary at the Webster Groves High School; an active Top Member and a member of the In Roads Parents Association for the City of St. Louis.  She was 61 years old when she died September 21, 1981.  I remember her as a very calm, accepting and thoughtful mother-in-law.

3.  Linda Marie, born in 1954, is the daughter of Theola and the granddaughter of Amy.

4. Ife Marie, born in 1973, is the daughter of Theola’s son James (and me!), granddaughter of Theola and the great granddaughter of Amy.

5. Louisa Ann Marie, born in 1990, is the daughter of Theola’s daughter Deborah, granddaughter of Theola and the great grandaughter of Amy.

6. Brianna Marie, born in 1995,  is the daughter of Theola’s daughter Deborah, granddaughter of Theola and the great grandaughter of Amy.

7.  Sydney Marie, born in 2003, is the daughter of Ife, granddaughter of James, great granddaughter of Theola and 2X great granddaughter of Amy.

Men Wearing Hats in Poppy’s Yard – 1961

Grahams, sepia saturday

On May 21, 1961, my grandparents, Fannie and Mershell Graham, lined up their guests for the ritual photographs in their Eastside Detroit backyard.  These are streaky polaroids. One of the first things I noticed about the lower photograph is the uncut grass. I don’t remember ever seeing it like that.

"Theodore backyard Rance Allen"
Verso: “Our backyard 9-21-1961 (right to left) John Wesley, John Bishops son, Ernest and Shell”

In the photo above (from left to right), my grandfather Mershell stands on the left. Ernest and John Bishop’s son are in the middle and my grandmother’s first cousin, John Wesley Allen is on the far right.  I don’t know who Ernest, John Bishop or his son were and I don’t have enough information to look into the matter right now.  John Wesley was visiting from Chicago with his wife, Bobbie, who appears in the women’s line below.

"theodore backyard bobbie visits"
Verso:  “Bobbie, Bluetta, Mrs Bishop, Daisy, Fan, Alice, Abbie.   Taken by John Wesley Allen in our back yard 9-21-61.  Daisy passed 11-24-61.  Her last picture.”

We start this picture with my 2x great Aunt, Abbie Allen Brown on the left end.  Abbie was aunt to my grandmother and her sisters and to John Wesley Allen in the other photo.  Next to Abbie is my grandmother’s youngest sister, Alice Turner; then my grandmother Fannie Turner Graham; sister Daisy Turner. Next in line are two women I don’t know. I’m not sure the one second from the right is named Bluetta but that’s what it looked like to me.  On the far right is John Wesley Allen’s wife, Bobbie Conyer Allen.

All of my direct family members in these photos were born in Alabama. Bobbie was born in Sumter county Georgia.  Their ages range in age from Alice, who was 53  up to Aunt Abbie, who was 85. Daisy died unexpectedly from an aneurysm on November 11 of that same year. This was her last picture.  After that Alice moved in with my grandparents and Aunt Abbie.

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This weeks prompt shows a row of fenced yards with three men in hats standing in the alley.

 

“Hands Up!” – Charles Watkins

African-American Genealogy & Slave Ancestry Research, Grahams, Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study

I have decided to go through my grandparent’s photographs and see how many of their friends I can trace.  Yesterday I was looking at my grandfather, Mershell C. Graham’s friends from home when I came across “Hands up.  Just a little desperato. You know why.”

hands_up

I turned it over and saw there was a bit written there in pencil. Holding it up to the sunshine coming in the window, I was able to read: “From my friend Charlie Watkins.  10/22/07.  Mershell Graham.  Chas’ wife Emma Dee died 1949.” 

Charles_Watkins_verso

In 1907 my grandfather was still living in Montgomery, Alabama.  When looking for information about people who aren’t relatives, I’ve found it very helpful to start a tree for them on Ancestry. I’m able to put all of the information I find in context. I made Charles Watkins with wife Emma Dee (maiden name unknown at that point) the starting couple.

I was zipping along finding information when I decided to check out some photographs that were suggested. Imagine my surprise when I realized that Charles Watkins was the brother of William Watkins that I wrote about earlier here  He Hid Beneath the Floor.   It tells the story of Victor Tulane, my 2X great uncle by marriage, hiding a family friend, Montgomery dentist, William Watkins, under their floor to save him from white vigilantes.  When I wrote that post I researched the Watkins family.  I recognized the photograph of their father, William Watkins Sr.

Charles married Emma Thompson, a seamstress, in 1910 in Montgomery. By 1917 the family was living in Chicago, IL.  They had two children, William born in 1912 and Sarah born in 1916. Emma was no longer working.  Charles was a carpenter, as his father had been.  By 1920 they were living in Los Angeles, California. He was the first member of the family to move west. Others followed later as most members of the family left Montgomery after brother William was smuggled out to escape the mob.

Charles Watkins died in Los Angeles at the age of 74.  I still don’t know why he was a little desperado.

5 Generations of Pearls: 1886 – 2003

Cleages, Reeds,

5 Pearls
5 Pearls

Names are sometimes repeated in a family generation after generation. In my family, Pearl is one such name. My grandmother, Pearl Doris Reed Cleage, was the first Pearl.  She was born in Lebanon, KY in 1886, the youngest of 8 children.

  1. Pearl Losin Mullins was the son of Pearl’s sister Minnie Mullins.  He was born in 1908 in Indianapolis, IN. and died in 1986 in California.
  2. Theresa Pearl Averette, was the youngest daughter of Pearl’s brother Hugh. She was born in 1913 in Indianapolis, IN. and died in 1941 in California.
  3. Barbara Pearl Cleage, daughter of Pearl was born in 1920 in Detroit, MI.
  4. Pearl Michelle Cleage, my sister, daughter of Pearl’s oldest son Albert and 2nd granddaughter was born in Springfield, MA in 1948.
  5. Anna Pearl Shreve is my grandmother’s youngest daughter’s daughter.  She was born in 1960 in Detroit, MI.  Anna Pearl was the 4th granddaughter.
  6. Ayanna Pearl, my daughter and my grandmother Pearl’s great granddaughter, was born in 1976 in Jackson, MS.
  7. Jann Leya Pearl, great granddaughter of Pearl Reed Cleage, was born in 1983 in the Detroit area.
  8. Liliana Pearl Nowaczewski, is another great granddaughter of the original Pearl. She was born in 1989 in Michigan.
  9. Chole Pearl is the youngest family Pearl.  She was born in 2003 in New Orleans, LA and is a great great granddaughter of Pearl Reed Cleage.

 

4 Men In Hats On Ice

Cleages, sepia saturday

ice_hats_4_men
Who are they? Probably include Hugh Cleage, Paul Payne, Louis Cleage and ? The original is not clear enough for me to really make them out.

Entry from Henry Cleage's diary, 1936.
Entry from Henry Cleage’s diary, 1936.

January 13
Haliver Greene died this morning -spinal meningitis. Didn’t get up early to study History, however there was no class – lecture tomorrow so I won’t slide, tonight. Toddy bought back two books about lives of Dictators (putrid!!) only 25 cents a piece though – awfully windy out today-not so cold thought – like March. I would like to have been in the country, wrapped up good, walking into the wind at the Meadows, down the road towards the sand pile or over the hill to the creek – zest, spice, life, health, clear eye, firm step and all that sort of thing.

Route from Capac to Detroit.
Route from Capac to Detroit.

The photograph was taken at “The Meadows” near Capac, St Clair County, Michigan around 1939, several months after the journal entry was written.

My Aunt Gladys remembers that her father Dr. Albert B. Cleage Sr  and a bunch of fellow doctors bought it. It was to be a place where everyone could get away and the kids could meet and play… big house on the property with a porch that wrapped around 2/3 of the house…  dances on the porches… near Capac Michigan… they sold it later. She kind of remembers parties on the porch… a getaway other than the Boule or Idlewild … her brothers and their friends spending a couple weeks at the meadows during the summer and brother Louis packing the provisions.

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That’s a Creed: A ‘Day of Remembrance’ Salute to Jaramogi

Cleages, Detroit,

My friend, historian Paul Lee shared this today and I am sharing it with you, in remembrance of my father who died on February 20, 2000 on Beulah Land, the Shrine’s farm in South Carolina.

Preaching about 1972.
My father preaching about 1972.

‘A Day of Remembrance’ Salute to Jaramogi
By Paul Lee

On Feb. 20, 2000, Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, formerly the Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., the founder and first holy patriarch of the Shrines of the Black Madonna of the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church (PAOOC), returned to the ancestors at the age of 88.

Since then, the PAOCC and others who cherish the life, work and legacy of this visionary theologian, master-teacher, freedom fighter, nation-builder, father and father-figure, who on Easter Sunday 1967 proclaimed the self-determinationist creed of Black Christian Nationalism (BCN) to restore the African roots of Christianity and resurrect the original Israel as a “black nation within a nation,” have commemorated the anniversary of his passing as the “Day of Remembrance.”

COVENANT AND COMMITMENT

This year, I’m honored to share a rare audio recording of Jaramogi Abebe reading the original BCN Creed, his statement of the church’s sacred covenant with God and “Total Commitment” to God’s people, which he promulgated in early 1972.

From then until 2011, church members and often visitors faithfully recited it during every Sunday service at Atlanta, Ga., Beulah Land, S. C., Detroit, Flint and Kalamazoo, Mich., and Houston, Tex., and at the community and college cadres at Georgia, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania.

FROM MOVEMENT TO CHURCH TO DENOMINATION

Jaramogi Abebe read the creed at a “Black Religion and Black Revolution” symposium at Duke University, Durham, N. C., on April 8, 1972.

He was then the presiding bishop of the Black Christian Nationalist Movement, founded on March 26, 1967, when he unveiled at Central United Church of Christ, formerly Central Congregational, Glanton Dowdell’s striking nine-by-18-foot Black Madonna and child chancel mural, after which the church would be renamed in January 1968.

From Jan. 27-30, 1972, the then-Reverend Cleage served as the general chairman of the second biennial Black Christian Nationalist Convention at Shrine #1, during which the BCN Movement became the BCN Church, a new “black” denomination. When he read the creed at Duke, he neglected to change “Movement” to “Church” in the final sentence.

In July 1978, the BCN Church evolved into the Pan African Orthodox Christian Church, named in honor of the African Orthodox Church (AOC), which grew out of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA). After this, “Pan African Orthodox Christian Church” replaced “Black Christian Nationalist Church” in the creed.

NEW TITLE AND NAME

Five days before the Duke appearance, Sala Andaiye (also Adams), the Detroit minister’s new secretary, advised the symposium’s organizer: “We also have given Rev. Cleage an African name, Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman, and address him as Jaramogi.”

His Luo title (Jaramogi) and Amharic and Akan names (Abebe Agyeman), erroneously identified as Kiswahili by an amateur African names book, was given to him by the late Rev. George Bell, the BCN convention coordinator, who soon took the Kiswahili title Mwalimu and the Fulani and Kikuyu names Askia-Ole-Kariuki.

ORIGINAL BCN CREED

Below is the original creed read by Jaramogi Abebe (all-capitals represent the bold font used for “believe”; “INDIVIDUALISM” was capitalized in the original):

“I BELIEVE that human society stands under the judgment of one God, revealed to all and known by many names. His creative power is visible in the mysteries of the universe, in the revolutionary Holy Spirit which will not long permit men to endure injustice nor to wear the shackles of bondage, in the rage of the powerless when they struggle to be free, and in the violence and conflict which even now threaten to level the hills and the mountains.

“I BELIEVE that Jesus, the Black Messiah, was a revolutionary leader, sent by God to rebuild the Black Nation Israel and to liberate Black people from powerlessness and from the oppression, brutality, and exploitation of the white gentile world.

“I BELIEVE that the revolutionary spirit of God, embodied in the Black Messiah, is born anew in each generation and that Black Christian Nationalists constitute the living remnant of God’s chosen people in this day, and are charged by him with responsibility for the liberation of Black people.

“I BELIEVE that both my survival and my salvation depend upon my willingness to reject INDIVIDUALISM and so I commit my life to the liberation struggle of Black people and accept the values, ethics, morals and program of the Black Nation, defined by that struggle, and taught by the Black Christian Nationalist Movement.”

At the end of the recording, Jaramogi Abebe pauses, then says, “That’s a creed.” Indeed!

3 Men in Hats

Alabama, Montgomery Alabama, One Place Study, sepia saturday

 The photograph of three of my grandfather Mershell C. Graham’s friends was perfect for today’s Sepia Saturday prompt.  To read about their lives, click this link – The Migration Part 3 – Those Left Behind.  It turned out that some of them also left Montgomery, AL and moved north.

Lowndes Adams, Rufus Taylor and Lewis Gilmer
Lowndes Adams, Rufus Taylor and Lewis Gilmer & Lowndes little niece, Edoline.
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