Tag: Black History
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Research Journal #2: A Conversation w/ Mrs. Elouise Walley
In 1966, Mrs. Elouise Walley began her journey with Friends of Children of Mississippi as a teacher. Little did she know that this journey would span over 30 unforgettable years. Our interview was quite the spectacle.
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research journal, # 1: Mrs. Garlee Johnson
More than ten years ago, I created this digital space to share my research findings which began with Rachel H. Flowers. It shifted to other scholarly projects, including my research on Flowers’ niece, Geraldine L. Wilson, and now the history of Friends of Children of Mississippi, a grassroots antipoverty organization, established in 1966.
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Using StoryMaps to Celebrate A Black Church’s 196th Anniversary
196th anniversary. The pandemic disrupted the church’s original plan to celebrate a year prior. Despite the ongoing global pandemic, the church found a small window to safely gather and honor its nearly two-century history in Baltimore.
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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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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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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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Toni Cade Bambara x Geraldine Wilson, A Friendship
LA TIMES (Dec 15. 1995) Toni Cade Bambara, 56, a novelist, short-story writer, scriptwriter and filmmaker, died of cancer Dec. 9. Ms. Bambara, a native of New York, lived in Germantown, Pa. In this undated photo, a photographer captured Geraldine Wilson (seated-left), Toni Cade Bambara (seated-center), Ruby Dee (seated-right), and others at a writer’s workshop in…
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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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City People: Black Baltimore in the Photographs of John Clark Mayden
Read the gallery guide here. This past spring, I began my curatorial fellowship work with Sheridan Library. The library recently acquired about 100 prints from local street photographer, John Clark Mayden, which they sought to display in both an exhibit and book, Baltimore Lives: The Portraits of John Clark Mayden. Before I curated a small exhibit…
Diary of a Historian 