Tag: history
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A Race Against Time: The Quest for a Living Descendant
Vincent Flowers at Messiah Academy, Courtesy of Messiah College Archives Vincent Flowers, Rachel’s brother passed away in 2002. Edna Wiggins, Rachel’s sister-in-law, died in 2004. About seven years later, Paul Stevenson passed away in 2011. He was Rachel’s nephew. A great amount of history is lost with each death that occurs within the Flowers’ family. I…
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Victims of Hate, Part II
Image Source Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn, July 1964 People commit crimes like this because they are ignorant. They need to be educated. Georgia Penn, wife of Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn In the summer of 1964, Lt. Col. John D Howard, Major Charles E. Brown, and Lt. Col. Lemuel Penn travelled from Washington, D.C. to Fort…
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Victims of Hate: Geraldine’s Newspaper Collection During the 1960s
Read Geraldine’s biography here. Image taken from the Geraldine Wilson Papers Collection at the Schomburg Center During her time with Freedom Summer, Geraldine kept record of the events occurring in the South involving missing and murdered blacks and civil rights activists. Most of the newspaper articles within her private archival collection were from The Student Voice,…
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The Family Poet: Mrs. Geraldine Wilson
The Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture holds the largest archival holding of information regarding the Flowers family, particularly letters between Rachel and her niece, Geraldine, and documents and artifacts Geraldine collected throughout her lifetime. This includes her academic writings, personal collection of newspapers, personal writing, and even her poetry collection. The next few…
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What Became His Wife’s War: The Battle for Civil War Pension
I am a researcher, yet some days I wish I were not. You see, I dive into multiple topics within African American history from slavery to the present encountering countless historical figures and seeking to learn their stories. The issue comes with time, a luxury I do not have. Despite this fallback, there exist a few stories and historical…
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Personal Thoughts: Selma
I do not believe there are any spoilers I could give in this post for we already know what happens. History is essentially history. I am a fan of David Oyelowo and his portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was outstanding. He gained weight and studied the man he played from Dr. King’s diction…
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Behind the Lens: Gordon Parks
A few days ago, I received an e-mail from the Museum of Fine Arts which caused a huge grin to rush across my face. It read: It may be cold outside—but not inside the MFA! The new year brings a slew of new art, exhubitions, lectures, and courses to cozy up to this moth. Discover…
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Findings in the Archives: Sharing Research Interests with Those You Are Researching
As I slowly, but surely work my way through my findings from a recent archival research trip, I came across the following piece of paper. Photo taken from the Geraldine Wilson Papers located at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture It states the following: Arthur Schomburg Puerto Rican of African Descent Inspired by bad…
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Slave Schedules, Take Three: Harry Flowers
What do we know about Harry? Well, he was born on February 23, 1845,at times I list his birth year as 1846 because of his Civil War enlistment record, but I need to start using the date from his death certificate completed by his daughter, Rachel, in 1928. For all other information, I use the 1880 United States Federal…
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Slave Schedules, Take Two
I confronted my first slave schedule during my early stages of my research and it was a tough document to go through. Link The above image is from the United States 1850 Slave Schedule in Calhoun County, Florida. Featured is slave owner William H. Flower. I doubt Mr. Flowers was the owner of Harry Flowers;…
Diary of a Historian 