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Generations The Official Newsletter of the Midwest Afro-American Genealogical Interest Coalition
Volume 24, Issue 1 January—March 2016
2015 OFFICERS
President
Preston Washington
Vice President
Wayne Reed
Recording Secretary
David W. Jackson
Assistant Recording Secretary
Deborah Jones
Corresponding Secretary
Virginia Flowers
Treasurer
Camille Lester-Young
Assistant Treasurer
OPEN: VOLUNTEER TODAY
Historian
Robert Stevenson
Publications
Algy Mason
Gloria Johnson
Jackie Dewberry
Generations Editor
David W. Jackson
OUR MISSION
The purpose of M.A.G.I.C. is to promote
genealogy and family history through the
presentation of structured classes, exhibi-
tion of genealogies, guest lecturers and
tours of agencies that are considered
sources of genealogical interest.
FOUNDING MEMBERS
Collins Anderson, Jr., D.D.S.
Jacqueline Briggs
Audreay McKinnie-Hunter
Bertha Johnson
Kimberly Tucker-Paige
Gwendolyn Richards
Dorothy Witherspoon
Mark Your Calendar and Attend
Jan 2
Feb 6 Aug 6
Feb 27* Sep 3
Apr 2 Oct 1 *
May 7 Nov 5
June 4 Dec 3 *
Juneteenth TBD*
All monthly meetings are held from Noon-2 p.m. at the
Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, 3700 Blue
Pkwy, Kansas City, Mo. 64130.
Dates with asterisks (*) held at alternative location.
CONTACT US:
magickc.org
facebook.com/MAGICKansasCity
Inside this issue:
Women in Black History…
Women’s History Month
……...2
Connect Through Queries ……...5
Negro League World Series in 1924 ……..12
Gordon Parks and Segregation ……..12
Joelouis Mattox, Historian and MAGIC
member, Recognized and Honored!
……..13
2016 Missouri Conference on History ……..14
Missouri's Little Dixie Heritage Foundation
receives grant
……..14
MAGIC Website Makes a Splash ……..15
African-American Exhibits at the Nelson ……..15
20th Century Civil Rights and Liberties
Film Series
……..16
Make Freedmen’s Bureau Records
Searchable by Nov 2016 Deadline/Goal
……..17
March is National Women’s History Month.
I dedicate this article [to several African
American women worthy of mention and
praise]:
The first is the late Madam C. J. Walker, of
St. Louis, Mo. Madam Walker was an
inventor of the first woman, black or white,
to become a millionaire as an entrepreneur.
In my opinion, every African American
beauty salon and cosmetology college should
have a prominent picture of this great lady on
the wall with a bit of her history.
This month is also the time African
Americans should begin to celebrate and
remember the shining moments of the
Reconstruction Era, 1865-1877 that came
just after slavery.
The great historian Carter G. Woodson
(1875-1950), Father of Black History Month,
was born during the Reconstruction Era. So
was Sarah Breedlove, later to become the
famous Madam C. J. Walker.
One historian
writes about
Madam C. J.
Walker as ,
“ P a u p e r
B e c o m e
Princess.” Born
i n a
sharecropper’s
c a b i n i n
Louisiana in
1867, Sarah’s
parents had been slaves. Young Ms.
Breedlove was orphaned at six, married at
14, and became a widow at 20-years-old.
After the death of her husband she eked out a
living by taking in laundry.
Early in life, Sarah possessed a spirit of
adventure, and was interested in embellishing
Women in Black History...Women’s History Month By Joelouis Mattox
2 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
her good looks. In St. Louis she experimented
with different concoctions that softened her
hair, but did not relax the tight curl. The result
was she developed a metal comb that, when
heated and used with her special emollients,
relaxed hair and gave it more styling freedom.
In the early 1900s the two products were a
godsend for millions of colored women.
Overnight, Madam Walker found herself in
business with assistants, schools and eventually
a manufacturing company.
Walker organized her agents into clubs,
trained operatives for her “Walker System for
treating hair,” and had a network of franchises
that had the cosmetics and equipment to make
black women look beautiful. One beauty school
was located in Kansas City, Mo., next door,
south, to the YMCA on Paseo Blvd.
Madam Walker was a philanthropist. She
founded a school in West Africa for girl. She
was a supporter of Margaret Murray
Washington, wife of Booker T. Washington.
She was also a socialite and her $250,000
mansion in New York on the Hudson River was
a meeting place and retreat for black scholars
and VIPs.
Another black woman who
should be remembered this
month is Sarah Rector of
Kansas City.
Ms. Rector was one
African American who
b en e f i t ed f r o m t h e
provisions of the Treaty of
1866 between the United
States and five Indian
nations: the Cherokee;
Chickasaw; Choctaw;
Creek; and, Seminole.
As a citizen of the Creek nation that owned
oil-rich land in Oklahoma, the wells on Ms.
Rector’s land made her one of the first black
millionaires in the country. Her mansion on the
corner of Euclid Avenue and 12th Street is an
historic site.
One more is
Anna Jones (1855
-1932). She was
born in Canada
and graduated
f rom Obe r l in
College in Ohio.
She taught at
historically black
W i l b e r f o r c e
University before
coming to Kansas
City, Mo., in 1892
to teach at Lincoln
High School. Anna became the first black
woman as a school principal at the Douglass
School in 1911. She was a close friend of W.
E. B. Dubois.
Some other famous African American women
who were born during the Reconstruction Era
were: Ida B. Wells-Barnett; Mary McLeod
Bethune; and, Maggie Lena Walker.
2 GENERATIONS January—March 2016 January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 3
The 12 years of Reconstruction, 1865-1877,
were some of the most notable and significant
times in the history of black America. It started
with the “After the Civil War scenes in Gone
with the Wind” and the 13th Amendment to
the U.S. Constitution, 1865. IT was a shining
moment for emancipated slaves who were
promised 40 acres and a Missouri mule and
free public schools.
During Reconstruction, many white
Southerners, especially former Confederates,
resented the “Black Power” that two black
U.S. Senators and 14 black members of the
House of Representatives had in the body
politic. Mary McLeod Bethune
“Black Power” during Reconstruction was
not gangs of illiterate, revengeful black brutes
running rough-shod over former slave owners.
Nor was it trying to get reparations—great
sums of money—for not being paid for
hundreds of years of free labor.
What blacks—leaders and ordinary people—
wanted was not black supremacy. What they
wanted and were determined to get were things
that would make them self-sufficient and
advance the race: ownership of land, schools
and teachers, and black doctors.
Black progress was real during
Reconstruction. One reason was black soldiers
were stationed in Southern states to help
monitor and enforce provisions of the 14th and
15th Amendments. Their presence was a
4 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
godsend for millions of colored people; but,
intimidating to former Confederates.
Hayes’s presidency saw the removal of
Federal troops from Southern states; the birth
and growth of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK); and,
the disappearance of so-called “Black Power
in the South.”
The end of Reconstruction brought the U.S.
Supreme Court’s decision Plessy vs Ferguson
(1896) beginning of Jim Crow laws,
“lynching bees” and black voter suppression.
It also brought the beginning of the Great
Migration. That was when millions of African
Americans moved from the South to industrial
centers of the North. Across the Mason Dixon
Line, their “bee line” was to St. Louis,
Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Kansas City.
Sadly, Federal troops, with black soldiers,
did not return to the South to secure the
constitutional rights of blacks until 1957.
They were there to enforce the law that blacks
had a right to attend Central High School in
Little Rock, Ark.
Joelouis Mattox, MAGIC member, is a
veteran and lives in Kansas City, Mo. He
majored in history at Lincoln University in
Jefferson City. Images courtesy: Wikipedia;
Blackpast.org; Oberlin College Archives;
cjonline.com
Maggie Lena Walker (1864–1934) of Richmond, Virginia, first black woman
to form a bank in the United States
AFRICAN AMERICAN
SURNAMES & LOCATIONS Footnote number refers to
contact/submitter on page 8
Aitch—Franklin & St. Louis Co., MO25 Aitch—Mecklenberg Co., VA25 Akers—Chariton Co., MO25 Allan—LA10
Allen—MS20
Anderson—TN44 Anderson—AR44 Bailey—AR3 Bailey—Cherryvale, Montgomery Co., KS34 Banks—OK6 Berry—Pine Bluff, AR14 Bethpage—TN4 Blair—AR18, 41 Bonds—Hennings, Lauderdale Co., TN29 Bonds—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO29 Brookings—Jackson Co., MO3 Brooks—AR45
Brooks—NC45 Brooks—GA45 Brooks—LA45 Brown—TX3 Brown—VA22 Brown—Washington, D.C.22 Bullock—NC47 Bumpus—TX3 Burton—NC47 Bussey—LA30 Bussey—OK30 Butler—St. Joseph, Buchanan Co., MO32 Byers—NC40
Byers—SC40 Byers—AR40 Byers—KS40 Byers—MO40
Caldwell—AR45 Caldwell—AR45 Caldwell—AR45 Caldwell—AR45 Campbell—MS6 Carroll—Camp Co., TX8 Carter—AR18
Carter46
Carter—Hennings, Lauderdale Co., TN29 Carter—Jackson Co., MO29 Chaney—Calgary, Alberta, Canada3 Chaney—Edmonton, Alberta, Canada3 Chaney—TX3 Cherry—Houston/Jefferson Co., TX29 Clowers—GA26 Clowers—AL26
Clowers—MS26
Clowers—LA26
Coley—NC47 Collins—AL41
Collins—TX41
Cradock—Camp Co., TX8
Craig—KY38 Craig—AR38 Craig—TX38 Crawford—GA26
Crawford—AL26 Crawford—MS26 Crawford—LA26 Daniels —AL5
Davis—NC40 Davis—SC40 Davis—AR40 Davis—KS40 Davis—MO40 Dorsey—LA
35
Duffel—Kansas City, Wyandotte Co., KS37 Duffel—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO37 Durham—MS39 Durham—AR39 Durham—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO39 Edwards—TX3 Ellington—Chariton Co., MO1
Ellington—LA30
CONNECT
THROUGH
QUERIES Search by surname below,
or location, separately on page 9
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 5
Ellis—AL26 Ellis—GA26
Ellis—MS26 Ellis—LA26 Epps—MS39
Epps—TN44 Epps—AR39 Epps—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO39 Evans—AR45 Evans—NC45 Evans—GA45 Evans—LA45 Felts—GA48 Ferguson—AR18 Ferguson—SC18 Field—MS17 Frazier—Calgary, Alberta, Canada3 Frazier—TX3
Gaaunt/Gantt—AL24 Gaaunt/Gantt—PA24 Gants—Pleasant Hill, Clay Co., MO14 Giles—Richmond, Ray Co., MO19
Glover—AL5
Goodrem—NC43 Gore—MS6 Graham—MS
27
Grant—Kansas City, Wyandotte Co., KS30 Grayson—OK6 Gumby—Westmoreland Co., VA8
Hall—AR45 Hall—NC45 Hall—GA45 Hall—LA45 Hank—MS17 Hardin—NC40 Hardin—SC40 Hardin—AR40 Hardin—KS40 Hardin—MO40 Harris—NC
47
Harris—AL26 Harris—GA26 Harris—MS26 Harris—LA15 & 26 Hayes—AL5 Hendricks—LA7 Hendricks—TX7
Hicks—GA48
Hill—Lee Co., AL4 Hodge—Camp Co., TX8 Hooker—MS39 Hooker—AR39 Hooker—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO39 Houston—Kansas City, Wyandotte Co., KS32 Houston—AR32 Huddleston—TN44 Humphreys—TX43 Jackson—St. Joseph, Buchanan Co., MO31 Jackson—Doniphan Co., KS2
Jackson—Franklin Co., MO2
Jackson—Holt Co., MO2
Jackson—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO2
Jackson—Kanawha Co., W/VA2
Jackson—Spotsylvania Co., VA2
Jackson—Westmoreland Co., VA2
Johnson—MS4 Johnson—VA22 Johnson—Washington, D.C.22 Jones—AR18, 45 Jones—NC45 Jones—GA45 Jones—LA45 Jones—Bunceton, Cooper Co., MO28 Jones—Calgary, Alberta, Canada
3
Jones—Edmonton, Alberta, Canada3 Jones—VA17
Jones—MS17
Jones—Sardis, MS18 Kidd—Jackson Parish, LA5
Keller—KY38 Keller—AR38 Keller—TX38 Land—Houston/Jefferson Co., TX29 Leach—MO3 Lee—AR41 Lester—AR18 Lester—Sardis, MS18 Levison—MS
24
Levison—NE24 Lewis—AL11 Lewis—AR11 Lyles—MO3 Madison—St. Joseph, Buchanan Co., MO31 Malone—TX13 Marzett/Morissette —AL5 Mason—SC9
6 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
Mason—Fulton/Portland, Callaway Co, MO19 McClain—GA24 McClain—SC24 McDaniel—Blackwell, Conway Co., AR23 McDonald—MO3
McIntosh—AR8 McIntosh—MO33 McKinney—NC47 McLeod—AR18 Meggs—TX3 Mitchem—NC40 Mitchem—SC40 Mitchem—AR40 Mitchem—KS40 Mitchem—MO40 Moore—Calgary, Alberta, Canada3 Moore—Edmonton, Alberta, Canada3 Morgan—Fort Scott, Bourbon Co., KS19 Morris—Newport, Jackson Co., AR23
Morris—St. Louis, MO23 Nash—AR20 Nash—MS20 Nelson—LA16 Parker—TX3 Patenande—LA24 Patterson—LA
24
Phifer—AR3 Polk—Calgary Alberta Canada3 Polk—Edmonton Alberta Canada3
Prior/Pryor—Franklin Co., MO2 Prior/Pryor—Holt Co., MO2
Prior/Pryor—Kanawha Co., W/VA2 Ramey—MS17 Ray—MS6
Ray—AR6 Reams—LA42
Reams—AR42 Reed—TN43 Reed—TX3 Rentie/Renty—OK
6
Rienzi—MS4 Ross—TX3 Rowell—AR41 Sanders—SC9 Seymore—TX3 Sharp—Holt Co., MO2 Sherard—NC47 Sidney46
Simpkins—AL11
Simpkins—AR11 Skinner—AR3 Slay—KY38
Slay—AR38 Slay—TX38 Smalls—AR12 Smalls—Jackson Co., MO12 Snowden—AR45 Snowden—NC45 Snowden—GA45 Snowden—LA45 Spratt—Camp Co., TX8 Stevenson—MS21
Stewart—AR3 Stitt—AR3 Tate46
Taylor—OK6
Taylor—Kansas City, Wyandotte Co., KS37 Vann—OK7 Vinson—Camp Co., TX8
Ward—AR18 Washington—Blackwell, Conway Co., AR23 Washington—Chariton Co., MO1
Washington—SC23 Webb—NC
43
Webb—AR18 & 42 Webb—GA42 White—TN4
Wiggins—AL26 Wiggins—GA26
Wiggins—MS26 Wiggins—LA26 Williams—AR18, 39
Williams—MS39 Williams—Kansas City, Jackson Co., MO39 Winfield—Houston/Jefferson Co., TX29 Woody—SC23 Wright—Bunceton, Cooper Co., MO28 Wright—LA
10
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 7
QUERY CONTACTS
Contact information provided as submitted.
We try to keep this list current. If you
encounter defunct data, contact MAGIC
([email protected]) to see if further/current
information about the submitter may be
procured.
Consecutive numerals below refer to
footnote numbers in surname listing starting
on page 5.
1 [email protected] 2 [email protected] 3 [email protected] 4 [email protected] 5 [email protected] 6 [email protected] 7 [email protected] 8 [email protected] 9 [email protected] & (816) 921-1225 10 [email protected] 11 [email protected] 12 [email protected] 13 [email protected] 14 [email protected] 15 [email protected] 16 [email protected] 17 [email protected] 18 [email protected] &
[email protected] 19 [email protected] 20 [email protected] 21 [email protected] 22 [email protected] 23 [email protected] 24 [email protected] 25 austinchummy@gmail 26 [email protected] 27 [email protected] 28 [email protected]
29 [email protected] 30 [email protected] 31 (816) 924-1417 32 [email protected] 33 [email protected] 34 [email protected] 35 [email protected] & [email protected] 36 37 [email protected] 38 [email protected] 39 [email protected] 40 [email protected] 41 [email protected] 42 [email protected] 43 [email protected] 44 [email protected] 45 [email protected] 46 [email protected] 47 [email protected] 48 [email protected] 49 YOUR E-MAIL COULD BE HERE!
M.A.G.I.C. members!
Submit your genealogical queries, family
and/or local history stories.
Become a member
Deadline for Apr-Jun issue is Mar 1
8 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
SURNAMES, BY LOCATION
Alabama
Clowers Collins Crawford Ellis Gaunt/Gantt Harris Hayes Lee Co. Hill Daniels Lewis Marzett/Morissette Simpkins Wiggins
Arkansas Anderson Bailey Pine Bluff, Jefferson Co. Berry Blair Brooks Byers Caldwell Carter Craig Davis Evans Ferguson Hall Hardin Houston Jones Keller Lee Lester Blackwell, Conway Co. McDaniel McIntosh McLeod Mitchem Newport, Jackson Co. Morris Nash Phifer Reams Rowell
Simpkins Skinner Slay Smalls Snowden Stewart Stitt Ward Blackwell, Conway Co. Washington Webb Williams
Calgary Alberta Canada Chaney Frazier Moore Jones Polk
Edmonton Alberta Canada Chaney Moore Jones Polk
Georgia Brooks Caldwell Clowers Crawford Ellis Evans Felts Hall Harris Hicks Jones McClain Snowden Webb Wiggins
Kansas Byers Davis Kansas City, Wyandotte Co. Grant Hardin Kansas City, Wyandotte Co. Houston
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 9
Mitchem Fort Scott, Bourbon Co. Morgan
Kentucky Craig Keller Slay
Louisiana Allan Brooks Bussey Caldwell Clowers Crawford Dorsey Ellington Ellis Evans Glover Hall Harris Hendricks Jones Jackson Parish Kidd Nelson Patenaude Patterson Reams Snowden Wiggins Wright
Mississippi Allen Campbell Clowers Crawford Ellis Field Gore Graham Hank Harris Johnson Jones Sardis, Panola Co. Jones Sardis, Panola Co. Lester Levison
Nash Ramey Ray Rienzi Stevenson Wiggins Williams
Missouri Franklin Co. Aitch St. Louis Co. Aitch Chariton Co. Akers Jackson Co. Brookings St. Joseph, Buchanan Co. Butler Byers Jackson Co. Carter Davis Chariton Co. Ellington Clay Co. Gants Ray Co. Giles Hardin St. Joseph, Buchanan Co. Jackson Franklin Co. Jackson Holt Co. Jackson Jackson Co. Jackson Bunceton, Cooper Co. Jones Leach Lyles St. Joseph, Buchanan Co. Madison Fulton, Callaway Co. Mason Portland, Callaway Co. Mason McDonald McIntosh Mitchem St. Louis Morris Franklin Co. Prior/Pryor Holt Co. Prior/Pryor Holt Co. Sharp Jackson Co. Smalls Chariton Co. Washington Jackson Co. Williams Bunceton, Cooper Co. Wright
Nebraska Levison
North Carolina Brooks
10 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
White
Texas Brown Bumpus Camp Co. Carroll Chaney Houston/Jefferson Co. Cherry Collins Camp Co. Cradock Craig Edwards Frazier Hendricks Camp Co. Hodge Humphreys Keller Houston/Jefferson Co. Land Malone Meggs Parker Reed Ross Seymore Slay Camp Co. Spratt Camp Co. Vinson Houston/Jefferson Co. Winfield
Virginia Mecklenberg Co. Aitch Brown Westmoreland Co. Gumby Spotsylvania Co. Jackson Westmoreland Co. Jackson Johnson Jones
Washington, D.C. Brown Johnson
Bullock Burton Byers Caldwell Coley Davis Evans Goodrem Hall Hardin Harris Jones McKinney Mitchem Sherard Snowden Webb
Oklahoma Banks Bussey Grayson Rentie Taylor Vann
Pennsylvania Gaunt/Gantt
South Carolina Byers Davis Ferguson Hardin Mason McClain Mitchem Sanders Washington Woody
Tennessee Anderson Bethpage Hennings, Lauderdale Co Bonds Epps Huddleston Reed
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 11
“A Long Hungry Look”: Forgotten Gordon
Parks Photos Document Segregation
By Randy Kennedy
“The Negro League World Series was played in
1924. However, very little attention has been paid to
the first Negro League World Series, even though
some of the top players were in the lineups. The 1924
Colored World Series was the first official
championship series between two recognized Negro
League championship teams, Kansas City Monarchs
and the Eastern Champs Hilldale. Players such as Biz
Mackey, Jose Mendez, Bullet Rogan, and Judy
Johnson were all of great importance to black baseball
during this time.
“There was not a Colored World Series scheduled
in 1923, due to the unresolved conflicts between
league presidents Rube Foster and Ed Bolden, but
there was considerable pressure from the black media
and from fans to hold a championship. The 1924
Colored World Series was a best-of-nine match-up
between the Negro National League champion Kansas
City Monarchs and the Eastern Colored League
champion Hilldale. In a ten-game series, the Monarchs
narrowly defeated Hilldale 5 games to 4, with one tie
game. It was the first World Series between the
respective champions of the NNL and ECL.
“The Negro Leagues World Series was not to be
measured in immediate monetary terms but in what
the series might mean for the future of the black game.
That would remain to be seen as the decade that has
been dubbed Black Baseball’s Golden Age played
itself out across the remaining years of the 1920s. The
World Series payoff for players was less than what
many had expected–$4,927.32 to be split among the
winners; $3,284.88 to the losers.”
http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/
article/first-black-world-series
DID YOU KNOW THE FIRST NEGRO
LEAGUE WORLD SERIES WAS
PLAYED IN 1924?
12 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
BOSTON — In
1950, Gordon Parks
was the only African-
American photogra-
pher working for Life
magazine, a rising
star who was gaining
the power to call his
own shots, and he
proposed a cover
story both highly
political and deeply
personal: to return to
Fort Scott, Kan., the
prairie town where
he had grown up, to
find his 11 class-
mates in a segregated middle school.
The magazine agreed, and in the spring Parks
drove back into his hometown for the first time in 23
years, taking, as he wrote later, “a long hungry look” at
the red brick school where he had been educated, a
school still segregated in 1950. “None of us understood
why the first years of our education were separated from
those of the white; nor did we bother to ask,” Parks
wrote. “The situation existed when we were born. We
waded in normal at the tender age of 6 and swam out
maladjusted and complexed nine years later.”
For reasons that remain unclear, Life never pub-
lished those words or the powerful pictures Parks took of
nine of his classmates, and their stories have remained in
the time capsule of his archives for more than half a cen-
tury. But an exhibition opening Jan. 17 at the Museum of
Fine Arts here will at long last bring the work to light, at
a time when racial unrest and de facto segregation in
many American cities give it a new kind of relevance.
“The story would have been the only Life cover
in those years — other than one about Jackie Robin-
son breaking the color barrier — to show African-
Americans, and I think it would have had a big impact,”
said Karen E. Haas, the show’s curator. “I just really
wanted to figure out what had happened to it and see
what was there.”
http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/12/28/arts/design/gordon
-parks-photos-document-segregation.html?referrer&_r=0
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 13
American Legion
Wayne Minor Post 149
Joelouis Mattox, historian for Post
149, has written articles, done interviews
and made presentations to raise
consciousness and awareness about Kansas
Citian Private Wayne Miner, a member of
the American Expeditionary Forces, who is
thought by some to be the last African-
American soldier killed in World War I, just
three hours before the 11:00 a.m. signing of
the armistice on November 11, 1918 which
ended The Great War. Two of Joe’s
interviews are available at:
kclibrary.org/event/buffalo-soldiers-world-
war-I and kcur.org/post/remembering-
legacy-wwis-buffalo-soldiers#stream/0.
Some of Joe’s research on Wayne
Minor is posted at:
findagrave.com (Memorial# 56341265)
Mattox was honored by the Black
United Front, in partnership with
the American Jazz Museum, at its
34th Annual City-Wide Kwanzaa
Celebration at the Gem Theater on
December 26, 2015! Congrats, Joe!
14 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
sponsorship of historian Joseph McGill Jr.'s visit to Missouri this past October. McGill is the founder of The Slave Dwelling Project, Inc. The nonprofit's mission is to identify former slave dwellings, and to assist property owners, government agencies and organizations in the preservation of these historic sites. During his visit, McGill gave a talk at the Missouri Preservation Conference in Cape Girardeau. He also toured various sites related to the history of African Americans in Ste. Genevieve. McGill gave a public presentation and did an overnight stay in the former slave quarters of the Felix Valle House State Historic Site. Missouri's Little Dixie Heritage Foundation is a public organization focused on recording, preserving and strengthening the ties of the public to the heritage, history and material culture of Missouri's Little Dixie region. It is headquartered in Arrow Rock and can be found on Facebook. http://www.marshallnews.com/story/2255805.html
Be a part of the March 9-11, 2016, Missouri Conference on History:
http://shs.umsystem.edu/mch/call.#2016MCH
Missouri's Little Dixie Heritage Foundation receives grant from
Missouri Humanities Council
The Humanities Council is the only statewide agency in Missouri devoted exclusively to humanities education for citizens of all ages. It has served as a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities since 1971. "The Missouri Humanities Council grant award will sustain Missouri's Little Dixie Heritage Foundation's efforts to provide slave dwelling stewards, and the collective general and historic preservation public with the educational knowledge to identify, document, and save slave dwellings in our Little Dixie region and across our state," said MLDHF president Gary Gene Fuenfhausen. "This grant will also help us in our continued effort to foster the much needed understanding that these buildings and their history are monuments to the African American ancestors who lived in them." The MHC grant award will go toward supporting the heritage foundation's
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 15
MAGIC member, Walter Ray,
writes, "There is a wonderful
exhibit at the Nelson Art Gallery in
Kansas City that ends on Jan.
10th, 2016. It is on tour around the
nation and if you have the chance
to see it in person you will not be
disappointed. It is called Rising Up:
Hale Woodruff's Murals At
Talladega College. Rising Up
includes unbelievable images of
The Mutiny on the Amistad !!!
Also at the Nelson until April 3,
2016 is Through The Lens: Visions
of African American Experience
1950-1970."
http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/exhibitions/woodruff/
MAGIC Website Makes a Splash A beta version of MAGIC’s re-designed website will soon be posted at magickc.org. The major components from its predecessor remain the same, with updated information and presentation. Significant upgrades and new elements, courtesy the expertise of The Digital Agenda, include: 1) a live, functional calendar for events and meeting dates; 2) Facebook links; 3) automatic ‘news feeds’ from Facebook to the website whenever MAGIC posts to Facebook; 4) a rotating homepage banner; 5) a “Photo Gallery” and “African American Genealogy” sections;
and 6) a MAGIC bookshop where a printable booklist is available for those who want to print it out and pay by check. MAGIC members and friends are encouraged to share photos by sending them to [email protected] for inclusion in the photo gallery. Let us know what you think, and if you have any suggestions we might implement as time marches forward. Call David at 816.714.6552, or e-mail [email protected].
—Save the Dates— 20th Century Civil Rights and Liberties Film Series
The Greater Kansas City Black History Study Group (GKCBHSG), an affiliate of The
Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH), will present in
conjunction with The National Archives at Kansas City several free historic documentary films
as part of the 20th Century Civil Rights & Liberties Film Series.
All programs will start at 6:30 p.m. and will include post-film discussion with local scholars. To make a reservation for these free films call 816-268-8010 or email [email protected].
Thursday, February 4, 2016 Spies of Mississippi highlights Freedom Summer in 1964 and the group known as the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission. The Commission was a state-funded spy agency which infiltrated the civil rights coalition and their most potent weapon was a cadre of black operatives.
Thursday, April 21, 2016 In Search of History: The Night Tulsa Burned features Tulsa’s Greenwood District, the site of one of the most violent race riots in American history. More than 300 people were killed and 1,200 homes destroyed after an elevator encounter between two teenagers led to destruction of the “Black Wall Street.”
Thursday, June 9, 2016 The Power Broker: Whitney Young’s Fight for Civil Rights is the story of Whitney Young who served as director of the National Urban League and advised Presidents Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon on many issues. Yet his close ties with powerful whites sometimes came at a cost, including an attempted assassination described as part of a “black revolutionary plot.” Others often called him “Whitey” Young, and mocked him as “the Wall Street of the civil rights movement.”
16 GENERATIONS January—March 2016
On Saturday, September 5, MAGIC welcomed to the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, Sherri
Camp, Genealogy Librarian at the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library and President of the Kansas Chap-
ter of the Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society.
Ms. Camp shared exciting news about the Freedmen's Bureau indexing project. “The Freedmen’s Bureau
was organized near the end of the Civil War to assist newly freed slaves in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The bureau from 1865 to 1872 opened schools, managed hospitals, rationed food and clothing and performed marriages. During this time, the bu-reau gathered handwritten, personal information, such as marriage and family information, military service, banking, school, hospi-
tal and property records on about 4 million African-Americans.” http://cjonline.com/news/2015-06-19/topekan-helps-make-announcement-about-freedmens-bureau-project-which-helps-african
If you are looking for a volunteer project, “It only takes a little training for anyone with a computer and
Internet access to join the project,” You can volunteer from home at your own pace and schedule to help make
MORE records accessible SOONER! “It’s very easy to pick up,” Dave Thomason said of the process to help in the
indexing effort. “It’s rewarding to know you are contributing to something that will last forever.”
To find out more about the Bureau's records, here are some good places to start:
http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/summer/freedmens-bureau-records.html http://www.archives.gov/research/african-americans/freedmens-bureau/brochure.pdf A document explaining the MISSOURI field office records: http://www.archives.gov/research/microfilm/m1908.pdf [Midwest Genealogy Center has microfilm of one part of that bureau's records--"Records of the Freed-man's [sic] Savings and Trust Company," one branch of which was in St. Louis. (There was no Kansas City branch.)]
Sign up to volunteer TODAY at discoverfreedmen.org
January—March 2016 GENERATIONS 17
Make African American Freedmen’s Bureau Records Searchable
by November 2016 Deadline/Goal!