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Edmonia's Statues

2/28/2022

Cheryl Harness
She’s historical!

Old Patent Office Building

Every year, many thousands of visitors to Washington DC make their way to the crossing of 8th and F Streets, to an enormous building with many columns. Once it was the US Patent Office Building. Now it’s the Smithsonian American Art Museum. And there, up on the third floor, those visitors might well admire a BIG statue of Egypt’s Cleopatra VII, at the moment when she was dying in the summer of 30 B.C. She was carved in Italy, out of snow-white marble.

When people first saw it in Philadelphia, in 1876, at America’s big 100th birthday party, they were so surprised to discover that the sculptor was a woman! Still more unusual, she was an African American. Her name was Mary Edmonia Lewis.

Her ancestors came from Africa, Haiti, and the Native American Ojibwa (or Chippewa) tribe. She grew up in western New York. With money her big brother made mining for gold out west, talented Edmonia went to Ohio’s Oberlin College, but not for long. Two white girls there lied, saying she tried to poison them, then a bunch of people beat her up. So her brother helped her settle in Boston, where she learned to sculpt. By age 20, Ms. Lewis had her own sculpture studio. She was so successful that she was able to leave racist, Civil War-torn America in 1865, to sculpt and study in Rome. When she heard the glorious news that the war was over and America’s slaves were emancipated, she celebrated by sculpting an African American man and woman, unchained.

In the years after she created her dying Cleopatra, both the artist and her masterpiece were lost to history. But now we know that Ms. Lewis ended her days in England, in 1907. Her Cleopatra wound up in Washington DC.

But there’s a little more to tell.

About the time Ms. Lewis left for Italy, President Abraham Lincoln’s 2nd Inaugural Ball was held, March 6, 1865, at the old Patent Office Building when it was new. Little did he know that, in about five weeks, he’d be mortally wounded over at Ford’s Theatre. Or that the building where he and his wife were dancing would be a treasure house of art, including a dying queen sculpted by a great African American artist.

Mary Edmonia Lewis (1844? ~ 1907)

Edmonia Lewis, The Death of Cleopatra, 1876, 63 x 31 ¼ x 46 inches.

Edmonia Lewis, Minnehaha, marble, 1868, one of several pieces based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha." Collection of the Newark Museum

Edmonia Lewis, Forever Free, 1867, 41 ¼ x 22” x 17 inches; Howard University collection, Washington DC

The multi-talented hands of Cheryl Harness create another winning combination of history, biography, and illustration in George Washington Carver and Science & Invention in America, the inspiring story of a man who rose from slavery to worldwide fame as America’s plant doctor. Cheryl Harness’ lively narrative follows Carver as he pioneers hundreds of new uses for plants and revolutionizes American agriculture. Her vivid illustrations are an invitation to step back in time and become an active participant in this compelling story.

MLA 8 Citation
Harness, Cheryl. "Edmonia's Statues." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think Tank, 29 May
2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/Edmonias-Statues.

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It's Midwinter Vacation for Many Schools, So We're Taking a Break as Well

2/20/2022

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We'll be back with our posts for the week of February 28 on Saturday, February 26. In the meantime enjoy the archives. Also our podcasts! Here is Podcast #2: Fighting and Singing for Social Justice

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Scraps of History from Negro League Baseball’s Heyday

2/18/2022

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Carol Boston Weatherford

The Poet Professor

In the foreword to A Negro League Scrapbook, Buck O’Neil, former player/manager for the Kansas City Monarchs and the first black major league coach, says “Segregation was the only reason the Negro Leagues existed. Negro League baseball was outstanding.”

The players—most of whom never donned major league uniforms—were equal to, and sometimes better than, their white counterparts. Negro League and Major League players faced off in numerous exhibition games. Negro League teams usually won those contests, O’Neil explains, because the African-American players had something to prove.

From 1919 to 1963, Negro League teams crisscrossed the country, thrilling fans with crafty pitches, frequent bunts, hit-and-run plays, and stolen bases—all without big salaries or a level playing field.

Slugger Josh Gibson, a catcher for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, once hit a homer 580 feet, among the longest ever at Yankee Stadium. The Negro League’s home run leader for 10 consecutive years, Gibson hit 75 home runs in 1931.
Pitcher Leon Day, a no-windup right-hander who played for the Baltimore Elite Giants, hurled a 95-mile-an-hour fastball.
Satchel Paige, the Negro League’s most popular and highest paid player, struck out 24 batters in one game and pitched 64 consecutive scoreless innings and 21 straight wins. Paige coined such colorful names for his pitches as bat dodger, four-day creeper and whipsy-dipsy-do.
James “Cool Papa” Bell, one of the fastest runners in baseball, stole an estimated 175 bases one season.
During the 1932 Negro League World Series, all-star Ted “Double Duty” Radcliffe caught in the first game of a doubleheader and then pitched a shutout in the nightcap. The Negro League boasted several so-called utility players who could play more than one position.

Jackie Robinson, who began his career with the all-black Kansas City Monarchs, took the Negro League’s fast-paced brand of play with him to the Brooklyn Dodgers, stealing home during the 1955 World Series. Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947—a milestone that O’Neil considers the first pitch of the Civil Rights Movement.

Since 1971, more than twenty Negro League players have been inducted—some posthumously—into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

in 1921 the Elite (pronounced eee-light)Giants won a four game championship series against the Montgomery Grey Sox, making them the Southern Colored Champions.

A Philadelphia baseball park used primarily by the Negro League

Look Magazine profiled Jackie Robinson in 1946.

1924 Negro League World Series

Carole Boston Weatherford’s A Negro League Scrapbook recreates what life was like on and off the field for African American baseball players before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier. With lively verse, fascinating facts, and archival photographs, this is a celebration of the Negro Leagues and the stellar athletes who went unrecognized in their time.

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Buried Lives

2/17/2022

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Carla Killough McClafferty
Illuminating lives from the past,
impacting lives in the present

The shady spot overlooking the river didn’t look like a cemetery. Nothing marked it as a burial ground - no flowers, no grave markers, not even a sign. Yet buried there lay the remains of enslaved people of Mount Vernon, George Washington’s estate.

Even knowledge of the cemetery’s location might have been lost to time if The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association hadn’t bought Mount Vernon in 1858. Just a few years later, the Civil War brought an end to slavery. At last, men, women and children would no longer be enslaved - or buried - at Mount Vernon.

Years passed and the memory of who was buried there and where they were buried faded away. By 1929, The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association realized that even the location of the cemetery might soon be forgotten. They installed a marker to identify the site of the cemetery. More years passed. Weeds and underbrush grew over the unmarked graves-and the 1929 marker.

At last in 1982 a memorial was installed to honor the people who were enslaved at Mount Vernon. For the first time the public had a place to pay their respects to those buried there. The gray granite column in the center of the memorial reads:

Then in 2014, archeologists at Mount Vernon began an exciting new project. A multi-year archaeological dig that would answer three questions:

Where are the cemetery boundaries?
How many people are buried there?
How are the burials arranged within the cemetery?

To accomplish the dig, archeologists remove six to eight inches of soil - only enough to determine if a grave is present. No human remains will ever be disturbed in the process. So far, more than 70 graves have been located – some of them graves of children.

Like other slave owning families, the Washingtons did not keep birth, death or burial records of the people they enslaved. Today, it is impossible to know the identities of the individuals who lie in each grave. But this archaeological dig will at least allow us to know, and honor, the location of their final resting places.

The individuals buried there may remain nameless, but they are not forgotten.

The marker places by The Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in 1929 is still in the cemetery today.

The memorial monument placed here in 1982 honors the enslaved people buried in the cemetery whose graves are unmarked.

Flowers adorn the graves of enslaved men, women and children that were uncovered by the archaeologists during the dig.

This yellowish oval is a grave shaft. It was revealed after removing about eight inches of the soil above it.

Do you want to find out how an archaeological dig works? In Buried Lives: The Enslaved People of George Washington’s Mount Vernon you will discover how they uncovered graves in the cemetery at Mount Vernon-and about six, specific real life enslaved people who served the Washington family. You can read Vicki Cobb's review here. It won the National CDA Young Reader Book Award in 2020.

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The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

2/15/2022

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Jim Whiting
The Running Encyclopedia

When seamstress Rosa Parks boarded a bus after work in Montgomery, Alabama on December 1, 1955, she had no idea she was about to make history.

At that time, Montgomery buses were strictly segregated. According to city law, whites had the right to the first few rows of seats. Under a long-standing custom, blacks had to give up their seats as additional whites boarded. So when that happened, the driver ordered Parks and three other blacks to move further back. The other three did. Parks didn’t. The driver repeated his order. Again Parks refused. She was arrested.

Years later, a legend grew up that she was tired from a long day on her feet. But as she explained, “No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in.”

Black leaders, who had long shared her frustration, sensed an opportunity. They quickly formed the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA) and selected a young minister who had just moved to Montgomery as leader. His name was Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Under his leadership, Montgomery blacks ordered a boycott of the bus system. They used many methods of alternate transportation, sometimes walking for an hour or even more. Despite whites’ burning of several churches and an explosion that destroyed Dr. King’s home, they persisted: day after day, week after week, month after month. Since blacks formed about 75 percent of the normal ridership, the loss of their fares began crippling the system. Finally, on December 20 the following year Montgomery repealed the law requiring segregated buses. The victory also catapulted Dr. King to national prominence.

Parks didn’t fare so well. She was fired from her job and received numerous death threats. She and her husband moved to Detroit.

Honors began pouring in. In 2000, Time magazine named Rosa Parks—often called the “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement”—as one of the 100 most important people of the twentieth century.

Parks had another honor that year. In 1994, the white supremacist group Ku Klux Klan had announced a plan to clean up a portion of Highway I-55 near St. Louis, Missouri under the federal Adopt-a-Highway program. That meant signs would be posted to acknowledge the Klan’s “public service.” The Missouri Department of Transportation objected, but a series of court cases concluding in 2000 deemed the objection as unconstitutional. The state quickly responded by naming that portion of I-55 the Rosa Parks Freeway. The Klan never did clean it up.

Rosa Parks being fingerprinted. Library of Congress

A plaque entitled "The Bus Stop" at Dexter Ave. and Montgomery St.—the place Rosa Parks boarded the bus—pays tribute to her and the success of the Montgomery bus boycott. Wikimedia

Parks on a Montgomery bus on December 21, 1956, the day Montgomery's public transportation system was legally integrated. Behind Parks is a reporter covering the event.

Statue of Rosa Parks in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol, Washington, D.C.

On the morning of December 1, 1955, hardly anyone in Rosa Parks s home town of Montgomery, Alabama had heard of her. By the time that night fell, she was on her way to becoming a household word all over the United States. Jim Whiting tells the story in his book What's So Great About Rosa Parks? For more information, click here.

MLA 8 Citation
Whiting, Jim. "The Mother of the Civil Rights Movement." Nonfiction Minute, iNK Think
Tank, 26 Feb. 2018, www.nonfictionminute.org/the-nonfiction-minute/
The-Mother-of-the-Civil-Rights-Movement.

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Edmonia's Statues

It's Midwinter Vacation for Many Schools, So We're Taking a Break as Well

Scraps of History from Negro League Baseball’s Heyday

Buried Lives

The ﻿Mother of the Civil Rights Movement

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