1930
Pan-African Chronology
Pan-African Chronology
*****
February 21
*Richard B. Harrison starred as "De Lawd" in The Green Pastures, which opened on Broadway.
Stage performer Richard Berry Harrison (b. September 28, 1864, London, Ontario, Canada - d. March 14, 1935, New York City, New York) found his passion for acting as a child. He devoted his life to pursuing this passion despite the barriers imposed by the era of Jim Crow. He finally achieved acclaim in the last years of his life for his portrayal of "De Lawd" in the Broadway production of The Green Pastures.
Harrison was born on September 28, 1864 in London, Ontario, Canada, to Thomas L. Harrison and Ysobel Benton. His parents had escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad.
Growing up in Ontario, Harrison loved to recite poetry and attend the local theater. He also performed his own plays for this neighbors. When his father died in 1881, Harrison became the main provider for his family at age seventeen. He moved to Detroit to work at the Russell House hotel. While in Detroit, Harrison met Chambless Hull, a theater manager, who arranged for him to study at the Detroit Training School of Art.
After graduating from the Detroit Training School of Art in 1887, Harrison sought work as an actor but was rejected because of his race. In response to this discrimination in the white theater industry, Harrison began touring the United States and Canada putting on one-man shows and reciting poetry in tents, churches, and schools.
In 1893, Harrison travelled to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition. In Chicago, he met the noted African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. The two became good friends. Indeed, Dunbar was Harrison's best man when he married Gertrude Janet Washington in 1895 in Chicago.
Harrison continued his tours into the early twentieth century, which now included theaters in Mexico as well as the United States and Canada, under the sponsorship of the Great Western Lyceum Bureau of California. By 1913, Harrison performed at the first black-owned theater, the Pekin, in Chicago. Theatrical performances, however, never completely supported his family, so he intermittently worked as a porter and a waiter.
Constantly on the move and under pressure to learn scripts, Harrison suffered a nervous breakdown in 1922. Afterward James B. Dudley, President of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (North Carolina A&T) College at Greensboro, offered Harrison the position of Chair of the Department of Dramatics. Harrison, interested in improving the theatrical training of African Americans, remained at the college for seven years and led the effort to strengthen its programs.
Harrison left North Carolina A&T College in 1929 when he was offered the role of "De Lawd" in Marc Connelly's play The Green Pastures. The play told the story of the Old Testament with one of the first all-black casts on Broadway. Although this was by far the most important theatrical opportunity of his career, Harrison was initially reluctant to accept the role fearing to play the stereotypical dumb and lazy black person. Despite these concerns, Harrison accepted the role. The Green Pastures became extraordinarily popular as audiences were impressed by the dignity and passion of Harrison's character.
Harrison never missed a show. He went on to perform his role in more than 1,650 shows in some 203 different cities and towns. The play and its leading actor won multiple awards and were featured on the cover of Time magazine on March 4, 1935. However, only ten days after Time lauded the play, Richard Harrison died of heart failure. He died on March 14, 1935 at the age of 71.
Two funeral services were held for Harrison. The first was at St. Philip's Church in Harlem and the second was the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Chicago where he was buried. Thousands of people came to his funerals in order to honor the man who had enchanted the country with his protrayal of "De Lawd".
*****
February 24
*Richard Boone, a jazz musician and scat singer who became a resident of Denmark, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Richard Bently Boone (b. February 24, 1930, Little Rock, Arkansas – d. February 8, 1999, Copenhagen, Denmark) was an American jazz trombonist and scat singer. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Boone sang in a Baptist church choir as a boy, then began playing the trombone at the age of twelve. By the time he was 15, Boone had learned enough to go out on the road with Grover Lofton's band. The following year he won a talent contest as a singer with his version of "Embraceable You". His singing was influenced by Nat "King" Cole and his prize was to tour with the eminent Lucky Millinder Orchestra for a month.
When he was 18, Boone volunteered for the army and for six years played trombone in Special Service Orchestras. He travelled to Europe with one of these orchestras.
Out of the Army in 1953, he returned to Little Rock to study music at Philander Smith College.
With no musical outlet in Little Rock, he moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and worked as a postal clerk. It took him a year to become established as a musician, and eventually he began to get recording dates and studio work. He played with jazz legends like Dexter Gordon and Sonny Criss and toured with the singer Della Reese from 1961 until 1966.
While in Los Angeles, he got to know Count Basie's tenor player and band manager Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Davis called him the next time Basie's band needed a trombone player, and Boone joined and stayed for three years. One night in a California club, after Boone had been in the band a couple of months, Basie began improvising a blues number that the rest of the band did not recognize. Egged on by Davis, Boone went to the microphone and began singing a few words. Running out of lyrics he mumbled wordless syllables. Basie was impressed and called for the same routine the following night. It soon became a showcase for Boone and was so successful that Basie called for it every night. The band featured the number for the next 18 months, and Boone expanded his repertoire to include standards like "I Got Rhythm", "Some of These Days" and "Bye Bye Blackbird".
After he left Basie in 1968, Boone recorded an album, The Singer, under his own name with a big band in Los Angeles. However, his time in Europe with the army band and work there with Basie had given Boone a taste for what he felt was a more relaxed way of life. He returned there often and like many black jazz musicians he was particularly attracted to Denmark.
Boone settled in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1970. Two years later, he joined the Danish Radio Band, an outstanding orchestra that was to become one of the finest in the world under its resident leader Bob Brookmeyer. Boone stayed with the band until 1985.
Boone's lucrative job in the trombone section still left him plenty of time to tour Europe, and he played and recorded in many countries, often with American colleagues like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Benny Carter. Another expatriate in Denmark was the ex-Basie arranger Ernie Wilkins. Boone joined him when Wilkins formed his Almost Big Band in 1986.
In 1998, Boone recorded his last album, Tribute To Love, under his own name, with a band of Danish musicians.
February 25
February 26
*The President of the Dominican Republic Horacio Vasquez fled Santo Domingo as rebel forces controlled by General Rafael Trujillo, a person of African descent, toppled his government.
Stage performer Richard Berry Harrison (b. September 28, 1864, London, Ontario, Canada - d. March 14, 1935, New York City, New York) found his passion for acting as a child. He devoted his life to pursuing this passion despite the barriers imposed by the era of Jim Crow. He finally achieved acclaim in the last years of his life for his portrayal of "De Lawd" in the Broadway production of The Green Pastures.
Harrison was born on September 28, 1864 in London, Ontario, Canada, to Thomas L. Harrison and Ysobel Benton. His parents had escaped slavery through the Underground Railroad.
Growing up in Ontario, Harrison loved to recite poetry and attend the local theater. He also performed his own plays for this neighbors. When his father died in 1881, Harrison became the main provider for his family at age seventeen. He moved to Detroit to work at the Russell House hotel. While in Detroit, Harrison met Chambless Hull, a theater manager, who arranged for him to study at the Detroit Training School of Art.
After graduating from the Detroit Training School of Art in 1887, Harrison sought work as an actor but was rejected because of his race. In response to this discrimination in the white theater industry, Harrison began touring the United States and Canada putting on one-man shows and reciting poetry in tents, churches, and schools.
In 1893, Harrison travelled to Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition. In Chicago, he met the noted African American poet, Paul Laurence Dunbar. The two became good friends. Indeed, Dunbar was Harrison's best man when he married Gertrude Janet Washington in 1895 in Chicago.
Harrison continued his tours into the early twentieth century, which now included theaters in Mexico as well as the United States and Canada, under the sponsorship of the Great Western Lyceum Bureau of California. By 1913, Harrison performed at the first black-owned theater, the Pekin, in Chicago. Theatrical performances, however, never completely supported his family, so he intermittently worked as a porter and a waiter.
Constantly on the move and under pressure to learn scripts, Harrison suffered a nervous breakdown in 1922. Afterward James B. Dudley, President of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical (North Carolina A&T) College at Greensboro, offered Harrison the position of Chair of the Department of Dramatics. Harrison, interested in improving the theatrical training of African Americans, remained at the college for seven years and led the effort to strengthen its programs.
Harrison left North Carolina A&T College in 1929 when he was offered the role of "De Lawd" in Marc Connelly's play The Green Pastures. The play told the story of the Old Testament with one of the first all-black casts on Broadway. Although this was by far the most important theatrical opportunity of his career, Harrison was initially reluctant to accept the role fearing to play the stereotypical dumb and lazy black person. Despite these concerns, Harrison accepted the role. The Green Pastures became extraordinarily popular as audiences were impressed by the dignity and passion of Harrison's character.
Harrison never missed a show. He went on to perform his role in more than 1,650 shows in some 203 different cities and towns. The play and its leading actor won multiple awards and were featured on the cover of Time magazine on March 4, 1935. However, only ten days after Time lauded the play, Richard Harrison died of heart failure. He died on March 14, 1935 at the age of 71.
Two funeral services were held for Harrison. The first was at St. Philip's Church in Harlem and the second was the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in Chicago where he was buried. Thousands of people came to his funerals in order to honor the man who had enchanted the country with his protrayal of "De Lawd".
*****
The Green Pastures is a play written by Marc Connelly adapted from Ol' Man Adam an' His Chillun (1928), a collection of stories written by Roark Bradford. The play was the winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1930. The Green Pastures had the first Broadway play to have an all-black cast. The play and the film adaptation were generally well received and hailed by white drama and film critics. African-American intellectuals and cultural critics were more critical of Connelly's claim to be presenting an authentic view of black religious thought.
The play portrays episodes from the Old Testament as seen through the eyes of a young African-American child in the Depression-era South, who interprets The Bible in terms familiar to her. Following Bradford's lead, Connelly (a white man) set the biblical stories in New Orleans and in an all-black context. He diverged from Bradford's work, however, in enlarging the role of the character "De Lawd" (God), played on stage by Richard B. Harrison (1864–1935). The Green Pastures also featured numerous African-American spirituals arranged by Hall Johnson and performed by The Hall Johnson Choir. The cast also included singer Mabel Ridley.
*****
*****
February 24
*Richard Boone, a jazz musician and scat singer who became a resident of Denmark, was born in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Richard Bently Boone (b. February 24, 1930, Little Rock, Arkansas – d. February 8, 1999, Copenhagen, Denmark) was an American jazz trombonist and scat singer. Born in Little Rock, Arkansas, Boone sang in a Baptist church choir as a boy, then began playing the trombone at the age of twelve. By the time he was 15, Boone had learned enough to go out on the road with Grover Lofton's band. The following year he won a talent contest as a singer with his version of "Embraceable You". His singing was influenced by Nat "King" Cole and his prize was to tour with the eminent Lucky Millinder Orchestra for a month.
When he was 18, Boone volunteered for the army and for six years played trombone in Special Service Orchestras. He travelled to Europe with one of these orchestras.
Out of the Army in 1953, he returned to Little Rock to study music at Philander Smith College.
With no musical outlet in Little Rock, he moved to Los Angeles in 1958 and worked as a postal clerk. It took him a year to become established as a musician, and eventually he began to get recording dates and studio work. He played with jazz legends like Dexter Gordon and Sonny Criss and toured with the singer Della Reese from 1961 until 1966.
While in Los Angeles, he got to know Count Basie's tenor player and band manager Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis. Davis called him the next time Basie's band needed a trombone player, and Boone joined and stayed for three years. One night in a California club, after Boone had been in the band a couple of months, Basie began improvising a blues number that the rest of the band did not recognize. Egged on by Davis, Boone went to the microphone and began singing a few words. Running out of lyrics he mumbled wordless syllables. Basie was impressed and called for the same routine the following night. It soon became a showcase for Boone and was so successful that Basie called for it every night. The band featured the number for the next 18 months, and Boone expanded his repertoire to include standards like "I Got Rhythm", "Some of These Days" and "Bye Bye Blackbird".
After he left Basie in 1968, Boone recorded an album, The Singer, under his own name with a big band in Los Angeles. However, his time in Europe with the army band and work there with Basie had given Boone a taste for what he felt was a more relaxed way of life. He returned there often and like many black jazz musicians he was particularly attracted to Denmark.
Boone settled in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1970. Two years later, he joined the Danish Radio Band, an outstanding orchestra that was to become one of the finest in the world under its resident leader Bob Brookmeyer. Boone stayed with the band until 1985.
Boone's lucrative job in the trombone section still left him plenty of time to tour Europe, and he played and recorded in many countries, often with American colleagues like Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis and Benny Carter. Another expatriate in Denmark was the ex-Basie arranger Ernie Wilkins. Boone joined him when Wilkins formed his Almost Big Band in 1986.
In 1998, Boone recorded his last album, Tribute To Love, under his own name, with a band of Danish musicians.
*****
February 25
*Archibald Grimke, a lawyer, intellectual, journalist, diplomat and community leader who was the recipient of the Spingarn Medal in 1919, died in Washington, D. C.
Archibald Henry Grimke (b. August 17, 1849, Charleston, South Carolina - d. February 25, 1930, Washington, D. C.) was an American lawyer, intellectual, journalist, diplomat and community leader in the 19th and early 20th centuries. A graduate of freedmen's schools, Lincoln University (Pennsylvania), and Harvard Law School, Grimke later served as American Consul to the Dominican Republic from 1894 to 1898. Working principally in Boston and Washington, D. C., Grimke was an activist for rights for African Americans. He was a national vice-president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), as well as president of its Washington, D. C. branch.
Grimké was born into slavery near Charleston, South Carolina, in 1849. He was the eldest of three sons of Nancy Weston, who was also born into slavery as the daughter of an enslaved African or African-American female and her white owner, and her owner Henry W. Grimké, a widower. Henry recognized his sons, but he did not manumit (free) them, nor did he make the rest of his family aware of their existence. Archibald's brothers were Francis and John. Archibald's father, Henry was a member of a prominent, large slaveholding family in Charleston. His father and his white relatives on his father's side were planters and active in political and social circles.
Henry Grimke, Archibald's father, actually had two families. After becoming a widower, Henry began a relationship with Weston. It appeared to be a caring one. He moved with her out of the city to his plantation where they and their family would have more privacy. She was his official domestic partner in the house and with Nancy, he fathered three sons. Henry taught Nancy how to read, a skill that she would pass on to their sons.
In 1852, as he was dying, Henry tried to protect his second family by willing Nancy, who was pregnant with their third child, and their two sons Archibald and Francis to his legal (white) son and heir Montague Grimké, whose mother was Henry's deceased wife. He directed that they "be treated as members of the family," but Montague never provided well for them.
Henry's sister Eliza, executor of his will, brought the family to Charleston and allowed them to live as if they were free, but she did not aid them financially. Nancy Weston took in laundry and did other work. When the boys were old enough, they attended a public school with free blacks. In 1860 Montague "claimed them as slaves," bringing the boys into his home as servants. Later he hired out both Archibald and Francis.
During the American Civil War, Francis ran off and became a valet for a Confederate Army Officer stationed at Castle Pinckney, a jail for Union soldiers. Francis was found and jailed for a time before being returned to Montague Grimké, who sold him to another Confederate officer. Archibald ran away and hid for two years with relatives until after the end of the Civil War.
After the Civil War ended, the three Grimké boys attended freedmen's schools, where their talents were recognized by the teachers. They gained support to send Archibald and Francis to the North. They studied at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, a college established for the education of blacks.
Francis and his brother went through many hardships afterward, as their father had not provided for them financially. After the Civil War, which disrupted family fortunes further, Archibald, Francis and John were enrolled at Morris Street school, part of the Charleston public schools, a segregated system set up for the first time during the Reconstruction Era by a Republican-dominated, biracial legislature. At the Morris Street School, the talents of three brothers were recognized by the teachers. The two older Grimke brothers gained support to send Archibald and Francis to the North.
John, the youngest son, did not take so well with education. .It appears that he also went North for college but he dropped out. He chose to return to South Carolina to care for their mother, Nancy. Later, there appears to have been a rift between John, the one left behind, and his older brothers. For whatever reasons, John cut himself off from the rest of the family. Later, it was reported that he moved to Florida. He died in 1918, the youngest brother dying first.
After the Morris Street School, the brothers, Archibald and Francis, were then sponsored by Mrs. Pillsbury, sister-in-law of Parker Pillsbury, for higher education at Lincoln University. It was a historically black college founded in Pennsylvania for the education of blacks. Archibald and Francis received tuition from a church committee, but had no money for books and clothing.
Nevertheless, despite the hardships, the two brothers manage to excel at Lincoln University and financial assistance would soon come from an unlikely source.
Archibald Grimke's greatest legacy was undoubtedly his stewardship of the District of Columbia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The District of Columbia branch was the organization's largest and came to represent the NAACP on all issues involving federal legislation and policy. As branch president, Grimke led the efforts of the NAACP into the 1920s, lobbying Congress and federal agencies to inhibit the segregationist policies of Woodrow Wilson's administraion, whilc fighting against discrimination in the Washington community itself. In 1919, in recognition of these efforts and of his lifetime of service defending the rights of African Americans, Archibald Henry Grimke received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor.
*****
(See also Appendix 1: Spingarn Medal Recipients.)
John, the youngest son, did not take so well with education. .It appears that he also went North for college but he dropped out. He chose to return to South Carolina to care for their mother, Nancy. Later, there appears to have been a rift between John, the one left behind, and his older brothers. For whatever reasons, John cut himself off from the rest of the family. Later, it was reported that he moved to Florida. He died in 1918, the youngest brother dying first.
After the Morris Street School, the brothers, Archibald and Francis, were then sponsored by Mrs. Pillsbury, sister-in-law of Parker Pillsbury, for higher education at Lincoln University. It was a historically black college founded in Pennsylvania for the education of blacks. Archibald and Francis received tuition from a church committee, but had no money for books and clothing.
Nevertheless, despite the hardships, the two brothers manage to excel at Lincoln University and financial assistance would soon come from an unlikely source.
Unbeknownst to the brothers, by the time their father Henry Grimke began his relationship with their mother Nancy Weston, Henry's two youngest sisters, Sarah and Angelina, had been gone from Charleston for years. Unwilling to live in a slave society, they left the South and their family and became noted abolitionists and feminists, drawing on their first-hand knowledge of slavery's horrors. Together known as the Grimke sisters, they were active as writers and speakers in Northern abolitionist circles, having joined the Quakers and the American Anti-Slavery Society. After Angelina married Theodore Weld, the three lived and worked for years in New Jersey. They operated a school together. In 1864, they moved to Hyde Park, Massachusetts, a new community outside Boston.
In February 1868 Angelina Grimké Weld read an article in The Anti-Slavery Standard in which Edwin Bower, a professor at Lincoln University near Philadelphia, compared Lincoln's all-black student body favorably with any class I have ever had, with special praise for a student after a speech of his was reported. Because of the unusual name, she wrote to learn whether he was related to her family. After learning that he was their nephew and about his brothers, Angelina and Sarah officially acknowledged the three mixed-race boys as family. The sisters supported the three boys while they were in college, and opened their home to them.
Angelina and Sarah tried to provide Archibald and Francis with better opportunities. They paid for their nephews' education. Both Archibald and Francis graduated from Lincoln University in 1870. Archibald and Francis then attended Harvard University and Howard University, respectively, for law. Francis shifted to Princeton Theological Seminary and became a minister. The Grimké sisters also introduced the young men to their abolitionist circles.
Archibald graduated from Harvard Law School in 1874. After getting established with his law practice in Boston, Massachusettws, Archibald Grimké met and married Sarah Stanley, a white woman from the Midwest. Archibald and Sarah had a daughter, Angelina Weld Grimke (named for her great aunt Angelina Grimke Weld), who was born in 1880. Archibald and Sarah separated while their daughter was young, and Stanley returned with Angelina to the Midwest when the girl was three. When Angelina was seven, Stanley started working. She brought Angelina back to her father in Boston. The couple never reconciled, and Stanley never saw her daughter again. Sarah Stanley committed suicide by poison in 1898.
In 1894, Grimké was appointed as consul to the Dominican Republic. While he was in Central America, his daughter Angelina lived for years with his brother Francis and his wife Charlotte in Washington, DC, where Francis was minister of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church.
After graduating from school, Angelina became a teacher and writer. Her essays and poetry were published by The Crisis, the major publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1916, Angelina wrote the play, Rachel, which addressed lynching, in response to a call by the NAACP for works to protest the controversial film, Birth of a Nation. Angelina's play is one of the first plays by an African American considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, Angelina wrote poetry, some of which is now considered the first literary works by an African American lesbian.
Archibald Grimké lived and worked in the Boston area most of his career. Beginning in the 1880s, he began to get active in politics and began speaking out about the rise of white supremacy following the end of Reconstruction in the South. In 1884, Archibald was appointed editor of the Hub, a Republican newspaper that tried to attract black readers. Grimké supported equal rights for blacks, both in the paper and in public lectures, which were popular the nineteenth century. He became increasingly active in politics, and was chosen for the Republican Party's state convention in 1884. That year he was also appointed to the board of a state hospital for the insane. Grimké became involved in the women's rights movement, which his aunts had supported, and addressed it in the Hub.
Archibald was elected as president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Believing that the Republicans were not doing enough, he left the party in 1886. In 1889, he joined the staff of the Boston Herald as a special writer. Shortly after 1890, Grimke removed himself from politica and focused on scholarship. He wrote major biographies of William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner.
Archibald was elected as president of the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association. Believing that the Republicans were not doing enough, he left the party in 1886. In 1889, he joined the staff of the Boston Herald as a special writer. Shortly after 1890, Grimke removed himself from politica and focused on scholarship. He wrote major biographies of William Lloyd Garrison and Charles Sumner.
In the interim, in the South, the situation for blacks was deteriorating, prompting Archibald Grimké to resume the struggle against racism, allying at times with other major leaders of the day. He became involved in Frederick Douglass' National Council of Colored People, a predecessor of the NAACP. The National Council of Colored People grappled with issues of education for blacks, especially in the South. Grimké disagreed with Booker T. Washington about emphasizing industrial and agricultural education for freedmen (the South still had a primarily agricultural economy). He believed there needed to be opportunities for scholarly higher education such as he had.
In 1894, Grimké was appointed as consul to the Dominican Republic. He would hold this position until 1898. While Archibald was in the Caribbean, his daughter Angelina lived with his brother Francis and his wife Charlotte in Washington, D. C., where Francis was minister of the 15th Street Presbyterian Church.
After graduating from school, Angelina became a teacher and writer. Her essays and poetry were published by The Crisis, the major publication of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). In 1916, Angelina wrote the play, Rachel, which addressed lynching, in response to a call by the NAACP for works to protest the controversial film, Birth of a Nation. Angelina's play is one of the first plays by an African American considered to be part of the Harlem Renaissance. In addition, Angelina wrote poetry, some of which is now considered the first literary works by an African American lesbian.
In 1901, with several other men, Archibald Grimke started The Guardian, a newspaper in which they could express their views. The trustees of The Guardian selected William Monroe Trotter as editor. Together Grimké and Trotter also organized the Boston Literary and Historical Association, which at the time was a gathering of men opposed to Washington's views. For a time, he was allied with W. E. B. Du Bois, but Grimké continued to make his own way between the two groups.
Despite earlier conflict with Washington and his followers, in 1905, Grimké started writing for The Age, published in New York and the leading black paper. The Age was allied with Washington. He wrote about national issues from his own point of view, for instance, urging more activism and criticizing President Theodore Roosevelt for failing to adequately support black troops in Brownsville, Texas, where they were accused of starting a riot.
Continuing his interest in intellectual work, Archibald Grimke served as president of the American Negro Academy, from 1903 to 1919, which supported African-American scholars and promoted higher education for blacks. He published several papers with them, dealing with issues of the day, such as his analysis in "Modern Industrialism and the Negroes of the United States" (1908). He believed that capitalism as practiced in the United States could help freedmen who left agriculture to achieve independence and true freedom.
In 1907, Grimke became involved with the Niagara Movement, started by Du Bois, and later with the NAACP.. Grimke and Du Bois continued to struggle to find the best way to deal with racism and advance equal rights, at a time when the lynching of black men in the South continued.
Grimké became increasingly active as a leader in the NAACP, which was founded in 1909. First, he was active in Boston, for instance, writing letters in protest of proposed legislation in Washington, D. C. to prohibit interracial marriages. (The legislation was not passed.) In 1913, he was recruited by national leaders to become the president of the Washington, D. C. branch and moved to the capital with his daughter Angelina. The move reunited Archibald and Angelina with Archibald's brother Francis and his wife Charlotte who still lived in Washington D. C.
Grimké led the public protest in Washington, D.C., against the segregation of federal offices under President Woodrow Wilson, who acceded to wishes of other Southerners on his cabinet. Grimké testified before Congress against it in 1914 but did not succeed in gaining changes. About this time, he also became a national vice-president of the NAACP. The organization supported the United States in World War I, but Grimké highlighted the racial discrimination against blacks in the military and worked to change it.
Archibald fell ill in 1928. At the time, he and Angelina were living with his brother Francis, who by then was a widower. Archibald's daughter and brother cared for him until his death in 1930.
Archibald Grimke's greatest legacy was undoubtedly his stewardship of the District of Columbia branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. The District of Columbia branch was the organization's largest and came to represent the NAACP on all issues involving federal legislation and policy. As branch president, Grimke led the efforts of the NAACP into the 1920s, lobbying Congress and federal agencies to inhibit the segregationist policies of Woodrow Wilson's administraion, whilc fighting against discrimination in the Washington community itself. In 1919, in recognition of these efforts and of his lifetime of service defending the rights of African Americans, Archibald Henry Grimke received the Spingarn Medal, the NAACP's highest honor.
*****
*****
*The President of the Dominican Republic Horacio Vasquez fled Santo Domingo as rebel forces controlled by General Rafael Trujillo, a person of African descent, toppled his government.
Rafael Trujillo, in full Rafael Leónidas Trujillo Molina, (b. October 24, 1891, San Cristobal, Dominican Republic - d. May 30, 1961, Ciudad Trujillo, near San Cristóbal, Dominican Republic) was the dictator of the Dominican Republic from 1930 until his assassination in 1961.
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was born on October 24, 1891, in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, into a lower middle class family. His father was José Trujillo Valdez, the son of Silveria Valdez Méndez of colonial Dominican origin and José Trujillo Monagas, a Spanish sergeant who arrived in Santo Domingo as a member of the Spanish reinforcement troops during the annexation era. Trujillo's mother was Altagracia Julia Molina Chevalier, later known as Mama Julia, the daughter of Pedro Molina Peña, also of colonial Dominican origin, and the teacher Luisa Erciná Chevalier, whose parents were part of the remaining French descendants in Haiti. Luisa's father (Trujillo's great grandfather), Justin Alexis Víctor Turenne Carrié Blaise, was of French descent, while Luisa's mother (Trujillo's great grandmother), Eleonore Juliette Chevallier Moreau, was part of Haiti's mulatto class. Trujillo was the third of eleven children.
Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina was born on October 24, 1891, in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, into a lower middle class family. His father was José Trujillo Valdez, the son of Silveria Valdez Méndez of colonial Dominican origin and José Trujillo Monagas, a Spanish sergeant who arrived in Santo Domingo as a member of the Spanish reinforcement troops during the annexation era. Trujillo's mother was Altagracia Julia Molina Chevalier, later known as Mama Julia, the daughter of Pedro Molina Peña, also of colonial Dominican origin, and the teacher Luisa Erciná Chevalier, whose parents were part of the remaining French descendants in Haiti. Luisa's father (Trujillo's great grandfather), Justin Alexis Víctor Turenne Carrié Blaise, was of French descent, while Luisa's mother (Trujillo's great grandmother), Eleonore Juliette Chevallier Moreau, was part of Haiti's mulatto class. Trujillo was the third of eleven children.
In 1897, at age six, Trujillo was registered in the school of Juan Hilario Meriño. One year later he transferred to the school of Broughton, where he became a pupil of Eugenio Maria de Hostos and remained there for the rest of his primary schooling. At the age of 16, Trujillo got a job as a telegraph operator, which he held for about three years. Shortly afterwards, Trujillo turned to crime—cattle stealing, check counterfeiting, and postal robbery. He spent several months in prison. Nevertheless, his time in prison did not deter Trujillo, as he later formed a violent gang of robbers called the 42.
Trujillo entered the Dominican army in 1918 and was trained by United States Marines during the United States occupation (1916–24) of the country. He rose from lieutenant to commanding colonel of the national police between 1919 and 1925, becoming a general in 1927. Trujillo seized power in the military revolt against President Horacio Vásquez in 1930. From that time until his assassination 31 years later, Trujillo remained in absolute control of the Dominican Republic through his command of the army, by placing family members in office, and by having many of his political opponents murdered. He served officially as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952.
Trujillo entered the Dominican army in 1918 and was trained by United States Marines during the United States occupation (1916–24) of the country. He rose from lieutenant to commanding colonel of the national police between 1919 and 1925, becoming a general in 1927. Trujillo seized power in the military revolt against President Horacio Vásquez in 1930. From that time until his assassination 31 years later, Trujillo remained in absolute control of the Dominican Republic through his command of the army, by placing family members in office, and by having many of his political opponents murdered. He served officially as president from 1930 to 1938 and again from 1942 to 1952.
In 1916, the United States occupied the Dominican Republic due to threats of defaulting on foreign debts. The occupying force soon established a Dominican army constabulary to impose order. Trujillo joined the National Guard in 1918 and trained with the United States Marines. Seeing opportunity, Trujillo impressed the recruiters and won promotion from cadet to general and commander-in-chief of the Army in only nine years.
A rebellion (or coup d'etat) against President Horacio Vasquez broke out in February 1930 in Santiago. Trujillo secretly cut a deal with rebel leader Rafael Estrella Urena. In return for Trujillo letting Estrella take power, Estrella would allow Trujillo to run for president in new elections. As the rebels marched toward Santo Domingo, Vásquez ordered Trujillo to suppress them. However, feigning "neutrality", Trujillo kept his men in their barracks, allowing Estrella's rebels to take the capital virtually unopposed.
On March 3, 1930, Estrella was proclaimed acting president, with Trujillo confirmed as head of the police and of the army. As per their agreement, Trujillo became the presidential nominee of the Patriotic Coalition of Citizens (Spanish: Coalición patriotica de los ciudadanos), with Estrella as his running mate. The other candidates became targets of harassment by the army. When it became apparent that the army would only allow Trujillo to campaign unhindered, the other candidates pulled out. Ultimately, the Trujillo–Estrella ticket was proclaimed victorious with an implausible 99 percent of the vote. In a note to the State Department, American ambassador Charles Boyd Curtis wrote that Trujillo received far more votes than actual voters.
Competent in business, capable in administration, and ruthless in politics, Trujillo brought a degree of peace and prosperity to the republic that it had not previously enjoyed. However, the benefits of economic modernization were inequitably distributed in favor of Trujillo and his favorites and supporters. Moreover, the people of the country paid for the prosperity with the loss of their civil and political liberties. Haitians living in the Dominican Republic suffered acutely. Trujillo encouraged anti-Haitian prejudice among Dominicans, and in 1937 he ordered the massacre of thousands of Haitian migrants.
In spite of the harsh measures that Trujillo took to protect his power, domestic opposition continued to grow during the later years of his regime, and he also came under considerable foreign pressure to liberalize his rule. He began to lose support in the army, and this led to his assassination by machine-gun fire as he was driving to his San Cristóbal farm. Many of the supposed assassins, including General J.T. Díaz, were subsequently captured and executed.
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In a 2014 population survey of the people of the Dominican Republic, 70.4% self-identified as mixed (mestizo/indio 58%, mulatto 12.4%), 15.8% as black, 13.5% as white, and 0.3% as "other". A different survey in 2006 reported 67.6% mulatto and indio, 18.3% black, and 13.6% white. However, according to the electoral roll completed in 1996, 82.5% of the adult population were indio, 7.55% white, 4.13% black, and 2.3% mulatto. Historically there has been a reluctance to expressly identify African ancestry, with most identifying or being identified as mestizo or indio rather than mulatto or black.
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In a 2014 population survey of the people of the Dominican Republic, 70.4% self-identified as mixed (mestizo/indio 58%, mulatto 12.4%), 15.8% as black, 13.5% as white, and 0.3% as "other". A different survey in 2006 reported 67.6% mulatto and indio, 18.3% black, and 13.6% white. However, according to the electoral roll completed in 1996, 82.5% of the adult population were indio, 7.55% white, 4.13% black, and 2.3% mulatto. Historically there has been a reluctance to expressly identify African ancestry, with most identifying or being identified as mestizo or indio rather than mulatto or black.
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Mulatto (French: mulâtre, Haitian Creole: milat) is a term in Haiti that is historically linked to Haitians who are born to one white parent and one black parent, or to two mulatto parents. Contemporary usage of the term in Haiti is also applied to the bourgeoisie, pertaining to high social and economic stature.
People of mulatto and white descent constitute a minority of five percent (5%) of the Haitian population.
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In the colonial period of Haiti, the French imposed a three-tiered social structure similar to the casta system in colonial Hispanic America. At the top of the social and political ladder was the white elite (grands blancs). At the bottom of the social structure were the enslaved blacks (noirs), most of whom had been born in Africa. Between the white elite and the slaves arose a third group, the freedmen (affranchis), most of whom were descended from unions of slave owners and slaves umder an arrangement known as placage. Some Mulatto freedmen inherited land from their white fathers, became relatively wealthy and owned slaves (perhaps as many as one-fourth of all slaves in Saint-Domingue belonged to affranchi owners). Nevertheless, racial codes kept the affranchis socially and politically inferior to the whites in the racial hierarchy. Also between the white elite and the slaves were the poor whites (petits blancs), who considered themselves socially superior to the Mulattoes, even if they sometimes found themselves economically inferior to them.
Of a population of 519,000 in 1791, 87 percent were slaves, 8 percent were whites, and 5 percent were freedmen. Because of harsh living and working conditions, the mortality rate among the enslaved blacks was extremely high, so new slaves were continuously imported to replace the ones who died. Thus, at the time of the slave rebellion of 1791, most slaves had been born in Africa rather than in Saint-Domingue.
The Haitian Revolution (1791-1804) changed the country's social structure. The colonial ruling class, and much of the white population, was killed or expelled, and the plantation economy was largely destroyed. The earliest black and mulatto leaders attempted to restore a plantation system that relied on an essentially free labor force, through strict military control, but the system collapsed during the tenure of Alexandre Petion (1806–18). The Haitian Revolution broke up plantations and distributed land among the former slaves. Through this process, the new Haitian upper class lost control over agricultural land and labor, which had been the economic basis of colonial control. To maintain their superior economic and social position, the new Haitian upper class turned away from agricultural pursuits in favor of more urban-based activities, particularly government.
The nineteenth-century Haitian ruling class consisted of two groups: the urban elite and the military leadership. The urban elite were primarily a closed group of educated, comparatively wealthy, and French-speaking Mulattoes. Birth determined an individual's social position, and shared values and intermarriage reinforced class solidarity. The military, however, was a means of advancement for disadvantaged black Haitians. In a shifting, and often uneasy, alliance with the military, the urban elite ruled the country and kept the peasantry isolated from national affairs. The urban elite promoted French norms and models as a means of separating themselves from the peasantry. Thus, French language and manners, orthodox Roman Catholicism, and light skin were important criteria of high social position. The elite disdained manual labor, industry, and commerce in favor of the more genteel professions, such as law and medicine.
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A casta is a term which has been interpreted by certain historians during the 20th century to describe mixed-race individuals in Spanish America, resulting from unions of Spaniards (españoles), Amerindians (Indios), and Africans (Negros). Basic mixed-race categories that appeared in official colonial documentation include Mestizo, generally offspring of a Spaniard and an India; Castizo, offspring of a Spaniard and a Mestiza; Mulatto, offspring of a Spaniard and a Negra; and Morisco was the offspring of a Spaniard and a Mulatta. There were a plethora of terms for mixed-race persons of indigenous and African ancestry, some of which appear in official documentation, but many do not.
Racial category labels had legal and social consequences, since racial status was a key organizing principle of Spanish colonial rule. Often called the sistema de castas or the sociedad de castas, there was, in fact, no fixed system of classification for individuals. There was considerable fluidity in society, with individuals being identified by different categories simultaneously or over time. Individuals self-identified by particular terms, often to shift their status from one category to another to their advantage. For example, Mestizos were exempt from tribute obligations, but were subject to the Inquisition, unlike Indios, who paid tribute and were exempt from the Inquisition. A Mestizo might try to "pass" as an Indio to escape the Inquisition. An Indio might try to pass as a Mestizo to escape tribute obligations.
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Affranchi is a former French legal term denoting a freedman or emancxipated slave, but was a term used to refer pejoratively to mulattoes. It is used in the English language to describe the social class of freedmen in Saint-Domingue, and other slave-holding French territories, who held legal rights intermediate between those of free whites and enslaved Africans. In Saint-Domingue, roughly half of the affranchis were gens de couleur libres (free people of color; Mulatto) and the other half African slaves.
The term is derived from the French word for emancipation — affranchissement, or enfranchisement in terms of political rights. But, the affranchis were barred from the franchise (voting) prior to a 1791 court case, which followed the French Revolution. The decision in their favor prompted a backlash from the French white planter class on Saint-Domingue, who also exerted power in France. These elements contributed to the outbreak of the Haitian Revolution.
The affranchis had legal and social advantages over enslaved Africans. They became a distinct class in the society between whites and slaves. They could get some education, were able to own land, and could attend some French colonial entertainments. Planters who took slave women or free women of color as concubines, often sent their sons to France for education. In some cases these sons entered the French military. The parents were more likely to settle property on them as well. Because of such property and class issues, some free men of color considered themselves to have status above that of the petits blancs, shopkeepers and workers. Nonetheless, the latter had more political rights in the colony until after the Revolution.
The colonists passed so many restrictions that the affranchis were limited as a separate caste. The affranchis could not vote or hold colonial administrative posts, or work in professional careers as doctors or lawyers. There were sumptuary laws: the free people of color were forbidden to wear the style of clothes favored by the wealthy white colonists. In spite of the disadvantages, many educated affranchis identified culturally with France rather than with the enslaved population. A social class in between, the free people of color sometimes had tensions with both whites and enslaved Africans.
Ambitious mulattoes worked to gain acceptance from the white colonists who held power in that society. As they advanced in society, affranchis often also held land and slaves. Some acted as creditors for planters. One of the affranchi leaders in the late 18th century, Julien Raimond, an indigo planter, claimed that affranchis owned a third of all the slaves in the colony at that time. In the early years of the French Revolution and Haitian Revolution, many gens de couleur were committed to maintaining the institution of slavery. They wanted political equality based on class - that is, extended to men of property, regardless of skin color.
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Plaçage was a recognized extralegal system in French and Spanish slave colonies of North America (including the Caribbean) by which ethnic European men entered into civil unions with non-Europeans of African, Native American and mixed-race descent. The term comes from the French placer meaning "to place with". The women were not legally recognized as wives but were known as placées; their relationships were recognized among the free people of color (gens de couleur libres) as mariages de la main gauche or left-handed marriages. They became institutionalized with contracts or negotiations that settled property on the woman and her children, and in some cases gave them freedom if they were enslaved. The system flourished throughout the French and Spanish colonial periods, reaching its zenith during the latter, between 1769 and 1803.
Placage was widely practiced in New Orleans, where planter society had created enough wealth to support the system. It also took place in the Latin-influenced cities of Natchez and Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Saint Augustine and Pensacola, Florida; as well as Saint-Domingue (now the Republic of Haiti). Placage became associated with New Orleans as part of its cosmopolitan society.
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(See also Appendix 2: Colonial Racial Categories.)
(See also Appendix 3: Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary Latin America.)
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(See also Appendix 2: Colonial Racial Categories.)
(See also Appendix 3: Race and Ethnicity in Contemporary Latin America.)
