“It is getting on fine”—MW to FBR, Dec. 20, 1917 (MWC/IHS).
“You certainly touched my weak spot”—LWR to FBR, Dec. 27, 1917 (MWC/IHS).
CHAPTER 18 WAR ABROAD, WAR AT HOME
captivated by the military drills—Badger, A Life in Ragtime, p. 152.
With Noble Sissle strutting as his drum major—“A Pageant,” New York Age, June 21, 1917.
Madam Walker was in Louisiana—MW to FBR, Apr. 11, 1917 (MWC/IHS).
“If war comes”—Washington Bee, Mar. 25, 1916.
“Why need we go 3,000 miles”—Iowa Bystander, Feb. 9, 1917, cited in Gerald W. Patton, War and Race: The Black Officer in the American Military, 1915–1941 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1981), p. 37.
“The Germans ain’t done nothing”—Ira D. Reid, “A Critical Summary: The Negro on the Home Front in WWI and II,” Journal of Negro Education, Vol. 12 (Summer 1943), p. 514, cited in Patton, War and Race, p. 36.
“take up the duty that comes to him”—James Weldon Johnson, “View and Reviews,” New York Age, Apr. 5, 1917.
“Let us not hesitate”—“Close Ranks,” The Crisis, July 1918.
“civil rights through carnage”—Lewis, Du Bois, p. 530.
“full quota to the federal army”—Patton, War and Race, p. 40.
“insult of a separate camp”—Lewis, Du Bois, p. 530.
A leading proponent of the effort—Patton, War and Race, p. 40.
“Our country faces the greatest crisis”—Ibid.
CCNCM claimed “victory”—Ibid., p. 43.
“The race is on trial”—Emmett J. Scott, The American Negro in the World War (New York, 1919), p. 87, cited in Patton, War and Race, p. 46.
join the advisory board of the Circle for Negro War Relief—“Show Interest in War Relief,” New York Age, Jan. 19, 1918.
“to improve conditions”—Adele Logan Alexander, Homelands and Waterways: The American Journey of the Bond Family, 1846–1926 (New York: Pantheon Books, 1999), p. 367, cites The Circle for Negro Relief, Inc., Annual Report, 1919.
Lelia . . . co-hosted a farewell concert”—“Tandy Made Major of 15th Battalion,” New York Age, Nov. 29, 1917.
Lelia College holiday greeting—“Mme. C. J. Walker’s Preparations for the Hair,” ad in The Messenger, Jan. 1918.
“daintily dressed” women—“News of Greater New York: Mrs. Robinson’s Military Cotillion,” New York Age, Jan. 26, 1918.
commanding officer of an ambulance company—Russell H. Davis, “Charles Herbert Garvin,” in Logan and Winston, DANB, p. 256.
1915 graduate of Harvard’s Medical School—Rayford W. Logan, “Louis Tompkins Wright,” in Logan and Winston, DANB, p. 670.
The Friday Evening Knitting Class—New York Age, Jan. 26, 1918.
Lelia next invited famed tenor Enrico Caruso—“Caruso to Appear at War Relief Benefit,” New York Age, Feb. 9, 1918.
“his voice is now at its richest”—Howard S. Greenfield, Caruso: An Illustrated Life (North Pomfret, VT: Trafalgar Square Publishing, 1991), pp. 138–39.
canceled “at the last minute”—LWR to FBR, Feb. 12, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“few intimate friends”—Greenfield, Caruso, pp. 144–46.
he sang a dozen different roles—Ibid., pp. 138–39.
special matinee of Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida—“Caruso Sings in ‘Aida,’” New York Times, Feb. 13, 1919.
basket of flowers—Enrico Caruso to LWR, Feb. 18, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“luxurious”—Greenfield, Caruso, pp. 144–46.
Whether serving lunch—“Battalion of 367th Infantry Makes Big Hit in Parade of Camp Upton Men in New York,” New York Age, Mar. 2, 1918.
helping form a black women’s auxiliary—“From Auxiliary to Red Cross in Harlem,” New York Age, Mar. 23, 1918.
Hudson Seal cape—Selig Dry Good Co., No. 1811, Storage Receipt, Apr. 20, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“cold seems to be sticking”—MW to FBR, Jan. 14, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
100 officers and 3,600 enlisted men—Patton, War and Race, p. 184.
escorted by attorney George Woodson—George H. Woodson to FBR, May 30, 1919 (MWC/IHS).
Later the founding president of the National Bar Association—J. Clay Smith, Jr., Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer 1844–1944 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993), p. 469.
“good fortune and high honor”—George H. Woodson to FBR, May 30, 1919.
“social, cultural and political”—Patton, War and Race, p. 59.
“Now and then, but seldom”—“Mme. C. J. Walker Holds Second Annual Convention,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 10, 1918, p. 12.
“The eloquent force”—Woodson to FBR, May 30, 1919.
“I tried to get her away from the great mass”—Ibid.
Later when Madam Walker arrived at the home—Ibid.
Although Woodson “insisted”—Ibid.
Valedictorian of his 1901—Joseph J. Boris, Who’s Who in Colored America, Vol. 1 (New York: Who’s Who in Colored America Corp., 1927), p. 28.
“one of the seven or eight”—L. N. Bergmann, “The Negro in Iowa,” Iowa Journal of History and Politics, Vol. 56, No. 3 (Jan. 1948), p. 82, cited in Smith, Jr., Emancipation, p. 454.
“begged the privilege”—Woodson to FBR, May 30, 1919.
“The madam has developed into”—“Mme. C. J. Walker to Speak Next Sunday,” Chicago Defender, July 27, 1918.
“I understand that Mme. Walker No. 2”—MW to FBR, Feb. 20, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
With nearly 1,000 newcomers—Chicago Commission on Race Relations, The Negro in Chicago (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1922), pp. 79 and 357; Horace Cayton and St. Clair Drake, Black Metropolis (London: Jonathan Cape, 1946), p. 8.
tobacco strippers and hotel waitresses—Chicago Commission, The Negro in Chicago, pp. 367 and 368.
1,500 black mail-order clerks—Ibid., pp. 379–81.
“deserted this grade of work”—Ibid., p. 371.
4656 South State Street—Samuel G. Grodson to FBR, Mar. 28, 1918 (MWC/IHS). In Aug. 1918 there was a Walker salon at 3115 South Prairie across from what is now Dunbar Park. See LWR to FBR, July 19, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“Do not accept any social engagements”—MW to FBR, Mar 15, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“She is as crooked as a black snake”—MW to FBR, Apr. 6, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
Madam Walker was welcomed—Zella Ward to FBR, Feb. 26, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
oldest black congregation—Reverend Jonathan McReynolds, phone conversation with author, Feb. 20, 2000.
Although there were eleven Y buildings—G. Richard Peck, The Rise and Fall of Camp Sherman (Chillicothe: U.S. National Park Service, 1972), YWCA Hostess House photo in photo section.
“Army Club No. 1 for White Soldiers’”—Ibid., Ross Court House photo in photo section.
issued a directive ordering black troops—“What the N.A.A.C.P. Has Done for the Colored Soldier,” in Aptheker, A Documentary History, p. 208.
jailed for “violating the separate coach laws”—“Harassment of Afro-American Soldiers in the United States,” in Aptheker, A Documentary History, pp. 203–4, cites “Negro Lieutenant Ejected from Pullman . . . ,” Savannah Tribune, Mar. 30, 1918.
“This is your country”—“Madam C. J. Walker Tells of Her Success,” Pittsburgh Courier, Apr. 19, 1918 (GSC/CU, Vol. 41).
“We all remember you”—William E. St. to MW, Nov. 21, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“one night while under shell-fire”—Ibid.
From Chillicothe—Pittsburgh Courier, Apr. 19, 1918.
“Her tribute to ‘our boys’”—Ibid.
“packed house”—MW to R. L. Brokenburr, Apr. 12, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“But we see that they are needed”—Pittsburgh Courier, Apr. 19, 1918.
“What I have done you can do”—Ibid.
hoped to “meet every agent”—Ibid.
“since I have gone to New York”—MW to FBR, Apr. 15, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“I think it will not be any trouble”—Ibid.
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substituting “white vaseline”—MW to FBR, Apr. 19, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“They want me to take it out”—Ibid.
in search of a second interpreter—Hallie E. Queen to FBR, June 17, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“The pictures . . . the most important”—MW to Miss Lynch, June 10 or 11, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“I don’t think you quite understand”—MW to Mrs. N. J. Skelton, Apr. 12, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“I don’t think it a good idea to pay salaries”—MW to FBR, Apr. 18, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“the most foolish woman”—MW to FBR, Apr. 25, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“will be better to have some one”—Ibid.
“You said we should . . . have but one”—Ibid.
“Mother stews and frets”—LWR to FBR, Feb. 20, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“We have been out of goods for a week”—MW to FBR, May 3, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“What is the trouble?”—MW to FBR, May 7, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“The situation here is getting terribly embarrassing”—MW to FBR, May 29, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“I started yesterday to make Grower”—LWR to FBR, May 24, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“Grower is in greater demand”—LWR to FBR, May 28, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“Was surely received with honor in Denver”—MW to FBR, July 21, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“made an appeal for club women”—Minutes of the Eleventh Biennial Convention of the NACW, July 8 to 13, 1918 (Washington, DC: NACW, 1918), microfilm LOC, p. 38.
“none of us may live our own lives”—“Colored Women Ask Opportunity Be Made Equal—Will Make Good If Given Change, Says Speaker at Convention,” Denver Post, July 11, 1918.
With Douglass’s violin—“The National Association of Colored Women Hold Meeting,” Colorado Statesman, July 13, 1918; Mary B. Talbert, “The Frederick Douglass Home,” The Crisis, Feb. 1917, p. 174.
“It will be beautiful and all relics”—“As Reported by Press Agent,” Denver Star, July 13, 1918.
“I am glad to be able”—Rose Atwood, “Frederick Douglass Memorial,” The Competitor, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Feb. 1920); 1918 NACW Biennial Minutes, p. 24.
$750 from individuals—1918 NACW Biennial Minutes, p. 7.
helped rescue the hilltop home—Today the Frederick Douglass Home in Anacostia in Washington, DC, is a National Historic Landmark maintained by the National Park Service.
“a splendid mixed audience”—MW to FBR, July 21, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
she reviewed “the valor”—“N.Y. Woman Addresses High School Graduates,” Chicago Defender, July 27, 1918.
“My anxiety is growing”—Baker to Wilson, July 1, 1918, Series 4, No. 152, Wilson Papers; Trotter to Wilson, Mar. 5, 1918, Series 4, No. 543, Wilson Papers, cited in O’Reilly, Nixon’s Piano, p. 93.
Moton had despaired—Stephen R. Fox, The Guardian of Boston: William Monroe Trotter (New York: Atheneum, 1970), p. 221.
“wholesome effect”—Baker to Wilson, July 1, 1918, Wilson Papers; Trotter to Wilson, Mar. 5, 1918, Series 4, No. 543, Wilson Papers, cited in O’Reilly, Nixon’s Piano, p. 93.
“did not shrink”—President Woodrow Wilson to Oswald Garrison Villard, July 23, Aug. 15 and 21, Sept. 22 and Oct. 2, 1913, Series 4, No. 152A, Wilson Papers, cited in O’Reilly, Nixon’s Piano, p. 87.
“The mob spirit . . . vitally affects the honor”—“President Wilson Declares Against Mob Rule,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 3, 1918; “President Denounces Mob Spirit,” New York Age, Aug. 13, 1918.
imploring “the Governors of all the States”—Ibid.
“We the undersigned agents”—Walker Agents/Chicago to FBR, Apr. 22, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“Among the many objections”—FBR to MW, July 26, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“The real thing after all is making the agents feel”—Ibid.
“One thing is sure”—Ibid.
his products in Woolworth’s—White and White, Stylin’, p. 185.
“You doubtless are aware that these conventions”—“Mme. C. J. Walker Holds Second Annual Convention,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 10, 1918.
“My friends, if out of these conventions”—Ibid.
“Never one to run away from a fight”—Violet Reynolds, “The Story of a Remarkable Woman” (Indianapolis: The Mme. C. J. Walker Manufacturing Co., 1973), p. 8.
“These same factories, mills and workshops”—Cayton and Drake, Black Metropolis, p. 60.
from 10,000 to 93,000 between 1916 and 1918—Henri, Black Migration, p. 63.
“by far the largest circulation”—Ibid., p. 65.
“We are here not only to”—Chicago Defender, Aug. 10, 1918.
contributed $5 million—“Denver Entertains National Assn. of Colored Women,” Denver Star, July 13, 1918.
“some of the best women the Race has produced”—Chicago Defender, Aug. 10, 1918.
“I want you to know that whatever I have accomplished”—Ibid.
“I want my agents to feel”—Ibid.
“to do their bit to help”—Ibid.
“I tell you that we have a duty”—Ibid.
“Bring them into your clubs”—Ibid.
“I shall expect to find my agents”—Ibid.
the Walker delegates . . . dispatched a telegram—Ibid.
“patriotic sentiments are appreciated”—Joseph Tumulty to MW, Aug. 5, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“coated with tar and feathers”—“Dr. Foote and Harrison Barred from Vicksburg,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 10, 1918; “Professional Men Tarred and Feathered in Mississippi,” Chicago Defender, Aug. 3, 1918.
soldier said to be “in the trenches”—Ibid.
local lawmakers perverted the federal Selective Service—Hunter, To ’Joy My Freedom, pp. 227–28, cites Walter F. White, “‘Work or Fight’ in the South,” The New Republic Vol. 18 (Mar. 1, 1919), pp. 144–46; Cynthia Neverdon-Morton, Afro-American Women and the Advancement of the Race, 1895–1925 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1989), p. 73.
Jackson, Mississippi, city council members passed—“Washington Officials Deny Report Women Can Be Made to Work,” New York Age, Nov. 16, 1918; Neverdon-Morton, Afro-American Women, p. 73, cites “Report of Conditions Found in Investigations of ‘Work or Fight’ Laws in Southern States,” NAACP Administrative Files, Box 417, Aug. 19 and Oct. 26, 1918, Manuscript Division, LOC.
the case of Maria Parker—Hunter, To ’Joy My Freedom, p. 229, cites White, “‘Work or Fight’ in the South.”
“in that the spirit of [this] social unrest”—Chicago Defender, Aug. 3, 1918.
CHAPTER 19 HER DREAM OF DREAMS
“a wonder house” with a “degree of elegance”—“Wealthiest Negro Woman’s Suburban Mansion,” New York Times Magazine, Nov. 4, 1917; also quoted verbatim in “Madame Sarah J. Walker Dies; Was Wealthiest Negress and Gave Freely to Help Her Race,” New York Herald, May 25, 1919.
“one of the showplaces”—New York Herald, May 25, 1919.
Called “the wealthiest spot of ground”—Polly Anne Graff and Stewart Graff, Wolfert’s Roost: Portrait of a Village (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: Washington Irving Press, 1971), p. 116.
In the “zone of the metropolis’s millionaires”—R. W. Thompson, “Short Flights,” Indpls. Freeman, undated, probably Jan. 6 or 13, 1917 (MWC/IHS).
founding families of the Ardsley Casino—Elizabeth Cushman, “Ardsley Club Founded as ‘Casino’ by Swells,” Tarrytown Daily News, Sept. 14, 1931, reprinted in The Roost (Irvington Historical Society), p. 77; Graff and Graff, Wolfert’s Roost, p. 117.
“the most exclusive part of Irvington”—Untitled, undated manuscript describing Villa Lewaro (MWC/IHS).
timed to bloom continuously—New York Times Magazine, Nov. 4, 1917; untitled, undated manuscript describing Villa Lewaro (MWC/IHS).
Nail began searching for an alternative—MW to FBR, June 3, 1916 (MWC/IHS).
“no better spot on earth”—John E. Nail to FBR, Jan. 12, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“Now in reference to having two mansions”—MW to FBR, May 25, 1916 (MWC
/IHS).
By the end of August 1916 she had signed—Westchester County Record of Deeds, Book 2124, pp. 135 and 143, Sept. 2, 1916 (deed transferred Aug. 31, 1916, and recorded Sept. 2, 1916, for $20,000).
“I am very anxious”—MW to FBR, June 13, 1916 (MWC/IHS).
twelve-piece Louis XVI chamber suite—“Special Police Called Out to Handle Traffic,” Baltimore Afro-American, Dec. 6, 1930.
At night yachting parties were known—New York Times Magazine, Nov. 4, 1917.
“I had a dream and that dream begot”—“Mme. Walker’s Objets d’Art on Block/ Ex-Laundress’ Art Works on Sale,” Harlem-Bronx Section of the New York Evening Journal, Nov. 25, 1930.
“undue extravagance”—New York World, Dec. 2, 1923.
“convince members of [my] race”—Ibid.
“Do not fail to mention”—MW to FBR, Sept. 14, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“This residence will be”—Untitled, undated manuscript about Villa Lewaro (MWC/IHS).
“object lesson to her race”—Indpls. Freeman, undated, probably Jan. 6 or 13, 1917.
“Every morning at six o’clock”—MW to FBR, Aug. 14, 1918 (MWC/IHS).
“Two divisions of Negro troops”—“311,308 Race Men in Khaki,” New York Age, Aug. 31, 1918.
physically imposing and charming man—Carson A. Anderson, “The Architectural Practice of Vertner W. Tandy: An Evaluation of the Professional and Social Position of a Black Architect,” master’s thesis, University of Virginia School of Architecture, 1982, p. 47.
contributing “more to architecture for Negroes”—Report of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Annual Sessions of the National Negro Business League, Chattanooga, Tenn., 1917, and Atlantic City, N.J., 1918 (Washington, DC: William H. Davis, 1918), p. 314.
“I want to say to you, Madam”—1918 NNBL Report, p. 314.
had introduced the first federal antilynching bill—George W. Reid, “George Henry White,” in Logan and Winston, DANB, p. 645.
Maggie Lena Walker, founder of the St. Luke Penny—“Membership Enrollment at Atlanta [sic] City, N.J.,” 1918 NNBL Report, unnumbered page at end of report.
On Her Own Ground Page 50