My father considered putting on plays a good project for the church youth groups. I remember one about a rummage sale that was put on in the basement of the parsonage on Chicago Blvd in the 1950s. Unfortunately, I can’t find any photographs. I remember a play he tried to put on with the Youth Fellowship in the 1960s where the actors just couldn’t get into the spirit of the play and it was canceled. Again, no photos.
My mother took acting classes at the local YWCA when she was a child and told me she learned how to fall down dramatically without hurting herself and that and her friend used to try and shock people sometimes when they were walking down the street by falling out. No photos.
But, when we lived in Excelsior Springs, MO in 1983 – 1985, my oldest daughters participated in several of the plays put on by the Community Theater. I remember Finian’s Rainbow and Peter Pan. There were lots of rehearsals in the evening and that we lived close enough to the practice place that they could walk downtown and back. This was good because we only had one car and it was often with my husband. We all missed the theater when we moved.
Jilo was in the production Excelsior Springs 1984 production of “Finian’s Rainbow”.
Jilo as Princess Tiger Lilly and Ife as a lost boy, in costume. The other’s are just in the photo.
Jilo and Ife ready for “Peter Pan.” Excelsior Springs 1984.
My maternal grandparent’s names were Mershell Cunningham Graham and Fannie Mae Turner Graham. They were both born in Alabama in 1888. Mershell was born in Coosada Station, Elmore County. Fannie was born in Hayneville, Lowndes County. Both counties are near Montgomery.
Before moving to Detroit, Mershell worked on passenger trains in the dining car. After coming to Detroit in 1917 he worked on a Great Lakes Cruise ship as a steward and finally put in 30 years at Ford Motor Company in the parts dept at the River Rouge Plant, before retiring.
My grandmother Fannie, managed her uncle Victor Tulane’s store in Montgomery before her marriage. After their marriage in 1919, she didn’t work outside of the home. They both lived until I was in my mid-twenties. My grandfather died in 1976 at 86 years. I was 26. My grandmother died in 1977 at 87. They both died in Detroit. We spent every Saturday at their house when I was growing up and for the last year of college, they lived downstairs from us. They lived in that flat until they died. So I knew them and also research them.
Albert & Pearl 1922. Detroit
Albert & Pearl 1950s
My paternal grandparents were Albert Buford Cleage and Pearl Doris Reed Cleage. Albert was born in Louden county, TN in 1883. Pearl was born in Lebanon, KY in 1886. They were married in Indianapolis in 1910. My grandfather worked on a Great Lakes Cruise line summers until he finished Medical school and became a family physician.
We lived down the street from them for several years when I was 5 and 6 years old. We saw them often. My grandfather died in 1957 after being ill for awhile. He was 73. I was 11. My grandmother lived until 1982. She was 96. I was 35. I knew both of them. I also research them.
Below are links to some of the many posts about my grandparents on this blog.
Both of my grandfathers worked on the Great Lakes steam ships. My maternal grandfather, Mershell Graham, worked as a steward for the Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Company when he first came to Detroit in 1917. He had previously worked in the dining cars of passenger trains. After several years he got a job at Ford Motor Co. where he remained until his retirement 30 years later.
My paternal grandfather, Albert B. Cleage, Sr, worked for the same company in 1909. He was a medical student in Indiana and earned money during the summer by working on the Eastern States cruise ship as a waiter. The excerpts in this post are from his letters.
June 19 1909 I left Indianapolis last night at 7:25. Stayed all night in Hamilton Ohio. Am now in Toledo at 10 AM. Will leave for Detroit 2: 15.
June 20, 1909 Arrived in Detroit yesterday at 4:00 PM, and left for Buffalo via “Eastern States” Star. on which I am at work. Was lucky. Am well, found two old school friends on same boat!
June 20, 1909 I am sitting in an old ware-house door on the wharf at Buffalo, – tell me there isn’t an element of romance in my location to say the least. I will be in Detroit again tomorrow and will see many of the boys whom I know there. You can imagine how worn out I am – just stopped traveling this morning, and if the boat ever comes into dock again I shall go immediately to bed. I went uptown to get some things and it went up the Lake and left me, but it will return soon.
Albert B. Cleage
June 24, 1909 Lawrence has come and we are working together.
June 27, 1909 (On board the Steamer “Eastern States” – Lake Erie) This is Sabbath night about 10:00 o’clock and we are about six hours ride out of Detroit and about twelve miles from land in the shortest direction. Surroundings are such as to impress one with his insignificance and emphasize the fact that he is indeed kept by Jehovah’s care. I shall first endeavor to acquaint you with the boat on which I am working. It’s name is “The Eastern States” and runs from Detroit to Buffalo. We leave Detroit one day at 5 PM and arrive in Buffalo the next morning at 8 o’clock, staying in
Buffalo all day we leave again for Detroit in the Evening at 5 PM you see we spend one day in Detroit and one in Buffalo. Today we were in Detroit and would it interest you to know how I spent it? Well, if it will interest you; after breakfast was over about 9 am, I went down to our “quarters” (I suppose you have only a faint conception of what that word means – I describe it later.) and slept until 11:30 – served lunch, after which Aldridge and I walked up town for about 2 hours – smoked some cigars, came back to the boat and took a couple of hours more of sleep. So you see I am putting in plenty of time sleeping. This stuff I’m sure does not interest you and I will not bore you longer but as I promised to say something about our “quarters”
It is one large room about 35 x 40 ft. in which are 32 beds – just think of it!! Those beds or better bunks are arranged in tiers of three and I at the present time am sitting on my bed (the top one) and there are two other fellows below me. What ventilation we get comes through six small port holes the diameters of which are about 6 in.
The fellows are a cosmopolitan aggregation, men from everywhere and at any time you can hear arguments and discussions on all subjects – Sensible and nonsensible. There are several students on board – boys from Howard University, Wilberforce University, Oberlin University, Michigan, and Indiana and out of them there are some very fine fellows to know… I could talk all night about the desirable and the non-desirable features of my Steamboat experience.
This isn’t the dining room of the Eastern States but the City of Detroit was a sister ship so it was probably similar.
July 3, 1909 (Enroute to Buffalo, Steamer Eastern States) Yesterday while Lewis and I were walking up the street in Buffalo, whom did we see standing on the corner (as if lost) but Miss Berry of Indianapolis, her brother and his wife and a Miss Stuart an Indianapolis teacher. Well to be sure we were surprised and they too seemed agreeably so. We spent the day with them taking in the zoo and other points of interest. They visited our boat and we showed them through it. That was experience number one.
Secondly – our boat was in a storm last night I awoke last night amid great excitement in our quarters and found that it was only possible for me to lie in bed with quite a great deal of effort. The old boat was being mightily tossed and driven and the angry waves were rising a high as your house or higher. We were sometimes on top of them and again between them at all times with a feeling that we would every minute be swallowed up by them. Great excitement prevailed. Most of the waiters got up and put on life preservers thinking they would have need of them. I neither was afraid or sick. Nothing serious happened and we arrived in Detroit only a few hours late this morning.
We are tonight taking over to Buffal0 a 4th of July Excursion. A large crowd is aboard. A great number of extra waiters are aboard and an extra amount of noise is present and unfavorable to letter writing accept the effort…
After WW2, automobile travel replaced steamer travel and gradually the ships were retired, burned and scrapped. Here is a timeline for the Eastern States from the link above.
Laid down as EMPIRE STATE.
1902, Jan Launched Wyandotte, MI.
1909 Owned Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co, Detroit, MI.
1930 Owned Detroit & Cleveland Navigation Co., Detroit.
1950 Laid up, Detroit.
1956, Jun 21 Owned Lake Shore Steel Co & Siegal Iron & Metal Co, Detroit.
I have kept many journals during my life. Unfortunately I’ve only kept them for short periods of time, sometimes a day, sometimes several months. I have used all sorts of journals and sometimes just plain notebooks. I think that because the pages are spread out in various journals, I should type all the entries into one file on the computer. I could print it out. Or I could take pages from where they are and put them in acid free sleeves in a binder. Right now I’m sure they are not much use to anyone. Even I find it hard to locate information from a particular time and place.
I do have several journals from family members. I have my grandmother Fannie’s Little Book and a big scrapbook. I have my grandfather Mershell’s work notebook. And I have my Uncle Henry’s Diary kept in 1936.
Below are more or less random pages from 4 of my journals from 1967, 1972, 1981 and 2001. I’ve transcribed with some correction of grammar or spelling where it makes it easier to understand.
December 4, 1967 – Bronze pour, junior year Wayne State University. I was 21 years old.
12/4/67
The fire’s green, noisy, can’t hear voices hardly. getting ready to cast – pour. have big cans set up. 2 to do it. Katze (note: the teacher in charge of pour) has visor on. (room) smells dusty, dusty. hard to breath. dirty. sand all over floor. fire flame big, roars, loud – dust – loud dust. Can’t be ready yet. glasses just ran downstairs. sculpt must really get involved in it.
Can even hear roar on steps. Like train. Sounds like burning. Smells like hot metal – no wonder. at other end of room someone works with some tool – makes sparks & higher buzzing noise off and on combines with steady roar. Room covered with white dust didn’t answer – the (maybe the um sound was yes)
They poured and it ran out so had to heat more, spilled it on floor, started fire. Burned 3 folks feet. not badly. Oxygen stored in there. Fireboxes not hooked up! no evacuation of building. Linoleum on floor. Total chaos.(Note: before the spilled hot, liquid metal, everyone thought the floor was cement but it turned out that there was cement looking linoleum.)
man holed up in his house on west side.
February 3, 1976 – Raising rabbits and tomatoes, Simpson County, MS. I was 29 years old.
2-3-76
Fed goat & rabbits twice. pollinated tomatoes & pruned more for transplanting in greenhouse #1. Those need watering. soaking them overnight to get better start. Those with roots do better (& small leaves) than large leaves & no roots. Fill holes with water when transplanting.
Found 2 red tomatoes in #2 when pollinating. found Velma rabbit had ear canker. looked in Rabbit book & called Ruth Shiers about treatment says common & should treat rabbits monthly as precaution. Put Vaseline on it. Need camphophenic to treat it & all others as a …
July 4, 1981 – Trip to Norway. I was 34 years old.
July 3, 1981 friday
Started out a very sunny warm day until after lunch – ended up being cold & RAINY. Went to the theater to see a fairy tale of a princess a would be prince who had to get 3 feathers of a dragon to win her. Very good – even understood a few words. Before it started, a tall man came up & said he should have written a synopsis & did I know the story – then he started telling it to me. (Note: He was the playwrite.) The people who organized this outing, neglected to call in reservations & we had to wait for cancelations, luckily there were some. After we went in the cold rain to get varme polster, pomme frit og ice!(?) It was COLD with dress, bare legs & sandals but a good evening & it’s nice to be back & warm. Paul was at Blinern stop.
Class is harder – ie. lessons are, class remains the same. Spent more time in language lab today. Mary Kate reads at 3,000 words a minute. Now to bed.
July 4, 1981 Saturday
Classes in morning. Sunny day went downtown in afternoon with Joan & Kari. Walked all the way over to St. Olaf’s Church.
Campus party was tonight. Jilo (Note: my 11 year old daughter.) went & stayed until midnight, danced a few dances with a nice Howard student. I went for a moment with little Kari & her mother. It looked like everyone was having a good time. Reminded me of those terrible parties & never danced. it also made me miss Jim.
Went for a long walk with Joan, little Kari, her mother & a lady I can’t remember, who also never liked parties. Walked all over in a different direction, to the stadium.
June 29, 2001 – Train trip home to Michigan from Seattle. I was 54 years old.
June 29, Friday
“This land is your land, this land is my land…”
Woke up in Montana. isolated cabins on the sides of wooded mountains. mountain (rushing streams) line of parked cars in the middle of no where. a deer on the side of the tracks, pine trees, poplar or is it aspen? “Big sky” low clouds.
James, the Chinese steward, had a laugh this morning with the Irish woman across the aisle. He’d thought she’d be Chinese (note: because her name was “Lee”.)… “Robert E. Lee wasn’t Chinese”, she pointed out, a bit peevishly.
I awoke around 7:30 (6:30) Seattle time) yawn. Could have slept longer. Mountains of feathery pines. So close together. The highway right below, a stream leads up, up, up the mountains to a meadow. “I knew the mountains would make you well.” Breakfast of yogurt parfait.
On closer view, what appears to be meadow may be bushes. Least that’s what the one we passed was. Going through open covered tunnels? bridges? Better than the dark holes.
Rock is gray, slate like layers, dirt was mauve this morning. Began taking photos. Why didn’t I do that all along??? What a waste. Oh well. Jilo & ife have bot expressed an interest in cross country travel.
Down the corridor a couple are discussing their vacations & train trips. The rocks do look like the earths bones. I need to use the bathroom…
Are we lower or higher? trees are smaller, fewer. More grass. God’s golf course out there?
Montana high plains. rutted dirt road comes out of fields to the truck. Several piles of dumped household stuff. Irrigation. Houses, small, alone. A man with orange flags. Clouds I could reach out the window and touch. Sage brush again every where. Wonder if it’s like my sage.
April 5, 2004 Shared Journal with my daughter ife. I was 57 years old.
My daughter and I were going to fill this journal up, mailing it back and forth from Idlewild, MI to Seattle, WA. We started it when her twins were 6 months old. We never completed the book.
Monday morning April 5 – full moon 11:04 AM
Waiting until time to leave for Ludington for my first mamogram. Another sunny, cold day. Yesterday I saw a robin on my walk and there was a crocus in the garden. Spring is really here. (my entry from Michigan)
Tuesday 8…….A quick sketch of the Deifenbaccia that is in front of the west window of the living room. it is doing much bettwer since it was repotted inot a larger pot and now that it gets nice strong light. I spend a lot of time watching it grow.
Both Sean and Sydney are finally napping.. they don’t want to be moved from my lap though… cuts down on being able to use this time… (ife’s entry from Seattle)
My aunt Anna Cecelia was born January 29, 1925 in Detroit, Michigan. She is the little ghost baby being held by her mother, my grandmother Pearl Reed Cleage.
J.L.C. Mama and nana peela
Barbbara & Gladys J.L.C.
My aunt Gladys looks like she is either returning or leaving the scene via time travel.
Mr. Louis Cleage Age 12, – 1925
Mr. Louis Cleage, age 12 wrote names on the backs of the photos.
Here is a family photograph from about 20 years later. From L to right we have Barbara (who we can actually see.) Henry, Anna, mother Pearl and in the front is Gladys.
The room is cold.
The bed hard with
too few quilts.
More fumes than heat
come from the small
gas heater in the fireplace.
All around, the empty,
crumbling campus.
Inside the spirits swirl
in the cold air.
Several years ago my husband and I attended a conference in Selma Alabama by the Black Belt African American Genealogical & Historical Society. We stayed with our friend, Donald Stone on the campus of the Snow Hill Institute. It was once a thriving and bustling school but since the early 1970s when it was closed due to school integration, it’s been pretty much deserted. Stone, who is a descendent of the founder lives there. We stayed in the house next to the one he was in. It was so sad to see what was once an important educational institution, empty. Below is a short interview with Donald Stone. Above is a poem I wrote during the August Postcard Poetry month about the experience of spending the night there.
For more information about Snow Hill Normal and Industrial School:
Rev. Albert B. Cleage sitting on the steps of St. John’s Congregational Church around 1948.
Today is the International Day of Peace. My post includes a petition, “A Plea for Peace and for American Democracy” signed by my father, Rev. Albert B. Cleage (later known as Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman) in 1948. It was printed in The Springfield Union newspaper of Springfield Mass, April 1, 1948 edition.
I have included several pages from a document prepared for the USA Senate titled Report on The Communist “Peace” Offensive. This includes a list of people who signed the petition in Massachusetts and a few other states. This happened as the anti-communist era got underway, leading directly into the McCarthy era. You can read more about it here McCarthy Era. As always, click on any picture to enlarge it.
A song written and sung by Victor Jara ends this post. Víctor Jara was a Chilean teacher, theatre director, poet, singer-songwriter and political activist. He was also a member of the Communist Party of Chile. When the USA supported coup against the elected government of Chile took place on September 11, 1973, Victor Jara was taken to the football stadium where his hands were cut off, his guitar smashed and after taunts to play his guitar now, they shot him to death. To read more, see this link Bruce Springsteen Honors Chilean Folk Hero in Santiago.
My father, Jaramogi Abebe Agyeman/Albert B. Cleage about 1975.
I look a lot like my father did when he was my age. I turned 67 in August, 2013. Usually, I hope people will not notice much of what I am going to tell you here, but because it is the 3rd prompt in the “Story of Me, by Me”, I am going to share it. My hair, once sandy, now is grey, rapidly turning white. It’s not as thick as it once was, although it still covers my head pretty well. I have some age spots on hands and face. I’ve got one or two extra chins and 75 extra pounds. My hands are wrinkling up like they’ve been gathered. I’ve got dark circles under my eyes and dark eyelids. I’ve worn my hoop earrings 24/7 since I had my ears pierced at 15 and the earlobes are sagging a little, as is everything else. My eyes are still blue/grey and my brows are still arched. My eye lashes are almost missing. My complexion has a reddish hue.
Me
My feet have calcifications on the achilles tendons from long ago ignoring symptoms I should have paid attention to. Due to the feet going bad, I was unable to continue my fast 4 mile daily walks and put on weight, which I still haven’t gotten rid of. I used to be 5 ft 7 in, now I’m lucky if I’m still 5’6″. Allergies I never had before make my throat, eyes and ears itch when the air is bad or the pollen is high or a cat is around. I have a c-section scar, stretch marks, skin tags, several chin hairs and too many flat moles to count. Any childhood scars have faded away.
I’ve got high blood pressure, high Cholesterol and low thyroid. My eyes are getting worse. I can’t read without glasses and now need them for viewing performances or anything in the distance. My teeth are my own and I have all of them, minus one and the wisdoms. Many have fillings or crowns. I wear 1X or 2X or, even better, one size fits all. I prefer to go barefooted. Never wear heels and dress for comfort. That used to mean jeans and t-shirts, now it mostly means skirts and loose blouses. I’m about to move to only flowing garments. I prefer pictures where I am smiling.
This is another letter that my father wrote home to Detroit from Los Angeles when he was studying film in 1944. The photograph of my mother putting a hem in her skirt is also from August, 1944. I’m not sure if this picture was enclosed with this letter.
Putting a hem in a skirt. Aug 1944 in Sunshiny living. Los Angeles
231 South Hobart Blvd. #4 Los Angeles, 7, California August 18, 1944
Hi Folks:
Its Friday afternoon and I just got home from school, and I thought I’d drop you-all a note on the state of the nation. My “little” wife is still working. She gets off about five-thirty and comes home by way of the grocery store. Everything is about the same as usual. We’re still at large (out of the poor-house)…but I’ll have to find something to do pretty quick if we’re planning to stay that-a-way! I’m “dickering” with the Los Angeles Church Federation for a “position”. The “boss-Man” is out of town but I’ve filed an application and we’ll discuss the matter further when he gets back in September. It would be a pretty-good job if I can get it…sort of Negro field-worker for the Federation, co-ordinating the community work of the Negro churches… recruiting and training volunteers and organizing programs and clubs and groups and what-have-you. I’ve also applied to the Negro Community-Center, just-in-case.
On the way to school this morning a man picked me up in the safety-zone (big fine looking red-faced white man) in a Packard from here down town…and we got to bulling each other, and it turned out that he’s the Director of Audio-Visual Education for the Los Angeles Public Schools. Of course he was very happy to meet a real authority in the field…and invited me down to his office to see the experimental work the School System is doing in Moving-picture production. I’ll go down as soon as I can and see what them there “amateurs” are a trying to do.
School is going along fine…(no grades yet, of course!) Me and the Dean of the School of Religion are having a little long-distance controversy through his secretary. He thinks I ought to take half of my work in RELIGION…and I think I ought to take all (or almost all) in Cinema. He has an ace in the hole, however, in as much as I’m registered under the School of Religion and therefore pay only the special fees (Fellowships in religion make up the difference) …However, I’m not going to take half of my work in religion in as much as the religion courses will not contribute to what I’m trying to do!
SPECIAL NOTE TO LOUIS: If he makes me pay up the REGULAR REGISTRATION FEES I’ll have to wire you for a small loan of $100.00 or so until I can work long enough to pay it back. I think we can “arrange the difference of opinion” without such a drastic step… but with the good-white-folks you can never tell…especially preachers. My wife will divorce me if I have to borrow…but I aint no sentimentalist myself…and so I’m a warnin’ you.
How’s the farm going? How’s Mama getting along? I hear that “Racial-tension” in Detroit is a thing of the past! We’re getting ready to have a riot here…The FEPC has ordered the Street Railways to hire and upgrade Negroes immediately! Maybe I can get a “Riot-Movie”.
Here are some “snaps”- Did you get the ones we sent from San Francisco – I don’t think you ever mentioned them.
