Tag: American history
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Memories of Childhood and My Father | Geraldine Wilson
Memories of Childhood and My Father Hand-in-hand we walked two-and-a-half childhood steps to one Daddy stride my braids bowed pinafore plaid up curb down curb spring water days were fine fun smoothing diamond edge of his anger mean the wide-brimmed gray Stetson snapped over Black Bottom of his white Post Office pain. Growing up under…
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Chef Vincent A. Flowers & Pinemere Camp
A few weeks ago I received the following comment on Roots of a Hidden Legacy: Not a descendent of the Flowers family, but went to Pinemere camp in Stroudsburg, PA in the 1970’s for 8 years. Vincent Flowers was the head chef at camp, and was the most beloved person at Pinemere. I remember we…
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To My Nana, The First Archivist I Knew
For Frances Louise McLean Graham (October 12, 1946 – December 13, 2019) “My first introduction to this field began not in the classroom but in my Nana’s kitchen cutting collards and seasoning catfish. She carried lessons of Black history through food, gossip (her form of historical fact), and stories of her upbringing in rural North…
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In Search of a Black Woman’s Archives
It was my third time viewing Geraldine Wilson’s Papers at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Crumbled in the bottom of box 3, belonging to no folder, I found this small piece of paper, a medical record. The diagnosis”breast ca.” Breast Cancer. I wonder what that day meant to Geraldine, what came to…
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#SayHerName: A Digital Memorial
Originally posted on Electric Marronage. Over my desk hangs an image of Korryn Gaines, a 23 year old Black woman, mother, daughter, and sister, shot and killed by Baltimore County Police in 2016. On Juneteenth at the Say Her Name: March for Black Women and Femme Survivors, organized by Baltimore activists Amorous Ebony and Brittany…
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1922: Chicken and Waffle Dinner
Under the “Personal and Social News Items” section in the Harrisburg Telegraph August 11, 1922 Miss Rachel Flowers Hostess at Summer Home Miss Rachel H. Flowers, of Brandtsville, entertained at a chicken and waffle dinner at her country home. The guest included: Mrs. Lucie Arrington, Mrs. Smith, Miss. Rebecca Scott, Miss Gladyce Flowers, Mrs. Hilda Flowers…
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The Life of Rachel H. Flowers (1900-1988)
Still piecing together this journal article. It is difficult to write without access to a library or archives, but I am pressing through with this piece. Rachel Flowers holds a special place in my journey as a historian because it all began with this research. Figure 1. Rachel Flowers in Class—1, 1916-1918, Messiah College Archives. Below—back…
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Reading Images in the Archives
Rachel Flowers, Messiah College Archives This was the first image I encountered of Rachel Flowers a decade ago (a WHOLE DECADE AGO). It was my first semester of college and I saw the above image in the college’s library. Messiah College recently celebrated its centennial anniversary and posters honoring the institution’s multicultural century hung across campus.…
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Geraldine L. Wilson and Black Consciousness Workshops for Mississippi’s Head Start Teachers
Geraldine Wilson, Photos & Prints Division at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, NYPL Geraldine Wilson arrived to Mississippi during the concluding weeks of Freedom Summer, a summer-long collective call for action to civil rights in the state. There are many questions surrounding her late arrival and her activism during that summer. Wilson…
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Rachel’s Journey to Messiah.
Been gone for a minute. I will post soon about an update on the graduate program and life, but for now we will start where I left off–my research on Rachel H. Flowers. Over the next few weeks, I am slowly updating older post and changing the look of the blog. So stay tune for…
Diary of a Historian 