10. “Slave Pension Scheme Exposed,” Tennessee American, August 4, 1916. No mention has been found of Callie House or the association by Booker T. Washington, but he opposed any activity that differed from his advice to blacks. In September 1900, at a Tuskegee conference where he reiterated his “Stay in the South and cooperate with your former masters” admonition, he warned blacks against paying attention to exslave pension or emigration agents who would seduce them from these views; “Tuskegee Negro Conference Declarations Regarding the Best Interests of the Negro Race,” The Washington Post, February 22, 1900.
11. On August 11, J. L. Pemberton reported to George Stewart at the Pension Bureau in Washington that “she is still in jail.” On August 19,1916, special examiner A. R. Smith reported to M. Whitehead, chief of the division, that she had made bond, no. 520. Thomas House and pawnbroker-bondsman Myer Morris had acted as sureties for her as principal, saying they were indebted to the United States for $3,000, to be levied on their “goods and chattels, lands and tenements” if she should not appear in court on the first day of the term, the fourth Monday of September 1916, Bond Form 94, August 14, 1916, National Archives and Record Administration, R.G. 21, Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, criminal file no. 520, Southeast Region, Atlanta, box no. 17; 1916 Nashville City Directory.
12. “Aunt Callie Was Whole Cheese in Ex-Slave Pension Body,” The Nashville Tennessean, October 10, 1917, p. 5, identifies defense counsel; Nashville Colored Directory 1925, Biographical, Statistical, compiled by R. C. Grant names lawyers J. P. Rhines, Napier, and Burnely. U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, March term 1916, criminal action no. 521, Criminal Docket no. 520, Reports of Lee Douglas, Office of Postmaster General, Office of Solicitor, Fraud Order Case Files 1894—1951, case file no. 3839.
13. Aside from The Nashville Tennesseans reports, there is no trial transcript or other record in the files on the court proceedings.
14. Stanley A. Cook, “Path to the High Bench: The Pre—Supreme Court Career of Justice Edward Terry Sanford,” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1977, p. I and note 1, p. 83. During the Senate debate in the spring of 1970 on the failed confirmation of Judge G. Harold Carswell, nominated to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court, Senator Thomas Eagleton, Democrat of Missouri, cited Sanford as an example of mediocrity on the Court. “I realize that men of limited capacity have served on the court in the past,” the future temporary 1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate told the Senate. “For every Oliver Wendell Holmes, we can dredge up an Edward T. Sanford.” Senate minority leader Howard Baker of Tennessee replied that he found the statement “inappropriate,” even though Sanford, a “competent jurist,” of course suffered by comparison with the preeminence of Oliver Wendell Holmes, with whom he served on the Supreme Court.
15. Cook, “Path to the High Bench,” pp. 14—17, 59—60.
16. Mark Curriden and Leroy Phillips, Jr., Contempt of Court: The Turn of the Century Lynching That Launched 100 years of Federalism (New York: Faber and Faber, 1999), pp. 199, 292—302, 340; Clark, “Path to the High Bench,” pp. 66—67. Sanford resigned before the trial was over, became a federal judge, and later supervised the implementation of the Supreme Court order implementing the convictions in the case; J. S. Doherty, special examiner, to commissioner of pensions, October 6, 1916.
17. Clark, “Path to the High Bench,” p. 83; Curriden and Phillips, Contempt of Court, p. 341.
18. Order of Judge Sanford, entered November 30, 1917, book 1, p. 616.
19. Special examiner Biller to commissioner of pensions, August 7,1915.
20. The Handbook of Texas on Line from the Dallas Morning News, April 29, 1927, www.tsha.utexas.edu; E. W. Winkler, Platforms of Political Parties in Texas (Austin: University of Texas, 1916).
21. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Texas, Docket no. 239, p. 177, filed November 1916, April 10, 1917, includes letter to Clark from House; Gordon James Russell, www.fjic.gov/servlet/GetInfo?jid=2075. Russell resigned from active duty on the Court in 1918 after contracting tuberculosis. He died on September 14, 1919. “Judge Russell Dies at Kerrville,” Houston Post, September 16,1919. Russell, a Republican, had been a county judge, district attorney, and member of Congress before President Taft nominated him to the district court. The government relied on the case of United States v. Barnow, which established that even if no office existed it was a crime to claim to be an official implementing such an office. Lamar v. United States, 240 U.S. 60, is also cited. The Beaumont newspaper reported the proceedings, for which no transcript has been found; “Ex-Slaves to Tell of Scheme That Defrauded Them; U.S. Grand Jury Gets Busy Today,” Beaumont Enterprise and Journal, April 9, 1917; “Ex-Slave Pleads Case and Jury Acquits Him,” Beaumont Enterprise and Journal, April 11, 1917.
22. “Ex-Slave Pleads Case and Jury Acquits Him,” Beaumont Enterprise and Journal, April 11, 1917.
23. Nashville Tennessean, October 9,1917, p. 4. According to federal prison records upon her incarceration two weeks later, House weighed 170 pounds and was 5 feet, 4½ inches tall; State of Missouri, Office of Secretary of State, Records Management and Archives Services, microfilm no. S232; Jefferson City Prison-Register of Inmates Received, Numerical Register no. 18593-20573, July 6, 1916, to March 18, 1918, p. 228, Register Number 20188, Callie D. House; one-year sentence from October 12, 1917, discharged August 1, 1918; pp. 654, 662.
24. “Aunt Callie Was the Whole Cheese in Ex-Slave Pension Body,” Nashville Tennessean, October 10,1917, p. 5.
25. Ibid.
26. “Aunt Callie Ruled with an Iron Hand,” Nashville Tennessean, October 11, 1917, p. 8.
27. “Aunt Callie Was the Whole Cheese in Ex-Slave Pension Body.”
28. The prosecution, to reduce any exculpatory effect of the handwritten letter presented in Clark’s case, introduced several similar letters that seemed to indicate that House thought the bills had “passed.” Unlike the other letters from House in the government’s files, all of which were handwritten, these letters were typed. Even if one assumes they had been typed from her actual handwritten letters to present at the trial, there were no handwritten originals in the files. One typed letter, purportedly hers, said that an ex-slave bill had passed in 1913 but had not been signed into law and that she did not know “the Exact time when they would be paid” but she thought it “will not be long.” Another typed letter, of August 1915, said that the Ex-Slave claim had been allowed in 1913 but that Taft had not signed it “because it was mixed up with other things he vetoed.” The letters contradicted her handwritten letters if they were taken to mean she thought something had “passed.” U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, March term 1916, Criminal Action no. 521, Criminal Docket no. 520, Copy Judgment, October 1917, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, Criminal Docket Number 521, October 1920, nolle prossed. The letter to Clark is referred to several times in the government case; see letter from U. J. Biller after letter from commissioner of pensions to Douglas, August 11, 1916, identifying the letter to Clark and quoting the relevant language. Biller, special examiner for the Pension Bureau in Texas, to Lee Douglas, March 3, 1917. Biller, who was in New Orleans, said that he had received his subpoena and would be in Nashville in time with the papers from the trial of Clark. See also commissioner of pensions to Lee Douglas, February 27,1917, which refers to the letter to Clark. The commissioner told Douglas that the Pension Bureau had certificates signed by House and “a letter in the hand writing of Callie D. House”; Douglas wrote the commissioner, on August 18, 1916, saying the letter to Clark “doubtless” would be valuable evidence; “Fraud Charges Are Sustained.”
29. Nashville Banner, October 12,1917.
30. The headlines on the day of her sentencing focused exclusively on war-related matters: “Negro Women Car Washers Take Men’s Places in Chicago Plant.” The only talk of civil rights was “Civil Rights Bill Hearings Closed,” a story about efforts to pass a bill guaranteeing insurance for men
who had paid no premiums during the war or up to one year thereafter; Chicago Daily Tribune, October 27, 1917; The Evening Star (Kansas City), September 25, 1917.
31. “Callie House Gets One Year Sentence,” Nashville Tennessean, October
32. Douglas to Gregory, November 12, 1917; Thomas Gregory, attorney general, to Lee Douglas, November 15, 1917; Order to Execute Judgement, U.S. District Court, Middle District of Tennessee, Edward Sanford, district judge, after a verdict of guilty by a jury on October 12, Callie D. House sentenced to one year and one day from October 12, 1917; judgment modified to change place of imprisonment from Atlanta to Jefferson City, Missouri; Record Group 15, Pension Bureau, Department of the Interior, Ex-Slave Pensions, National Archives (hereafter referred to as R.G. 15). State of Missouri, Office of Secretary of State, Records Management and Archives Services, microfilm no. S232; Jefferson City Prison-Register of Inmates Received, Numerical Register no. 18593-20573, July 6, 1916, to March 18, 1918, p. 228. Register no. 20188, Callie D. House; one-year sentence from October 12, 1917, discharged August 1, 1918; pp. 654, 662; Lawrence M. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History (New York: Basic Books, 1993), p. 269; Mary Ellen Curtin, Black Prisoners and Their World: Alabama, 1865—1900 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 2000).
33. Emma Goldman, Living My Life, edited by Richard and Anna Maria Drinnon (New York: New American Library, 1977), pp. 625, 652.
34. Ibid., p. 653; Alice Wexler, Emma Goldman: An Intimate Life (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), p. 248; The quotes are from Paul W. Garrett and Austin H. MacCormick, eds., Handbook of American Prisons and Reformatories (New York: National Society of Prisons and Reformatories, 1929), p. 539.
35. Goldman, Living My Life, p. 653.
36. Ibid., p. 653-654.
37. Ibid., pp. 658, 660.
38. Ibid.
39. Ibid., p. 653.
40. Ibid., Goldman refers to him as Captain Gilvan, but according to the Official Manual of the State of Missouri, published by the secretary of state, G. R. Gilvin was acting warden in 1917 and Porter Gilvin was warden beginning in 1919. It’s not clear whether they are the same person.
41. Ibid., pp. 654-655.
42. Ibid., pp. 660-661.
43. Ibid., pp. 662-663.
44. Ibid., p. 138.
45. State of Missouri, Office of Secretary of State, Records Management and Archives Services, microfilm no. S232; Jefferson City Prison-Register of Inmates Received, Numerical Register no. 18593-20573, July 6, 1916, to March 18, 1918, p. 228. Register no. 20188, Callie D. House; one-year sentence from October 12, 1917, discharged August 1, 1918; Goldman, Living My Life, pp. 654, 662. After Callie House left, Goldman remained in the prison until August 1919 with four months subtracted from her two-year sentence for good behavior.
46. Davidson County Deed Books, roll 181, vols. 388-389 (1909-10); roll 243, lots 518-519, 519 (1918-19), Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville, Tennessee.
9 Passing the Torch
1. For example, her son Thomas worked as a laborer, her son William as a porter and then a presser, and her daughter Annie took in washing at their Tenth Avenue home. The 1910 United States Manuscript Census ED 60, sheet 12, L 30, lists the house as owned but mortgaged, but there is no record of a deed to the Houses in the Tennessee State Library and Archives deed records.
2. Mary Frances Berry, Black Resistance/White Law: A History of Constitutional Racism in America (New York: Penguin, 1994), pp. 122—128.
3. Bobby L. Lovett, ed., From Winter to Winter: The Afro-American History of Nashville, Tennessee, 1870—1930 (Nashville: Department of History and Geography, Tennessee State University, 1981), pp. 176—185.
4. Ibid., pp. 187—198.
5. Ibid., pp. 118—124.
6. Ibid., pp. 129—130.
7. State of Tennessee, Board of Vital Statistics, registration no. 21901, file no. 1391, death certificate no. 13311, Tennessee State Library and Archives, Nashville. The death certificates states her age as sixty-three, but records made when she was alive indicate she was born in 1861 or 1862; 1928 Nashville City Directory.
8. Lovett, Winter to Winter, pp. 108—109.
9. Charles Guy was listed in Nashville city directories until his death as a laborer. On his death certificate his wife, Amanda, described him as a minister; Nashville city directories 1916—1934; death certificate, October 6,1933, Nashville, State of Tennessee, Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics.
10. Reavis L. Mitchell, “Zema W. Hill (1891—1970),” www.instate.edu/library/digital/hill.htm.
11. Zema Hill died on February 5,1970, after a long illness and was buried in Mt. Ararat Cemetery; Reavis L. Mitchell, “Zema W. Hill (1891—1970),” www.instate.edu/library/digital/hill.htm.
12. Nashville city directories from 1928 to 1940; Delphia disappeared from the records; Thomas Ross and Annie later moved to Olympic Avenue in the same neighborhood. Mattie House, death certificate, March 7, 1971, Nashville, State of Tennessee, Department of Health, Division of Vital Statistics.
13. Hilary Howse’s Confederate pension application no. 39815, Microfilm Division, National Archives.
14. “Movement Is Started to Care for Ex-Slaves,” Atlanta Constitution, December 25, 1917; “Ex-Slaves Need Christmas Help from Atlantans,” “Negro Mammies and Old Black Joes Object of Charity,” Atlanta Constitution, December 19, 1922;” Funds Asked for Ex-Slaves Atlanta Constitution, December 15, 1918; “Will Help Ex-Slaves, Tag Day Is Now Planned by Negroes of Atlanta,” Atlanta Constitution, November 20, 1920; “Churches Seek Funds for Former Slaves,” Atlanta Constitution December 5, 1931; “Churches Individuals Aid Funds for Ex-slaves,” Tuskegee Clippings file, Slaves. Brusey, Kizzie, and Savannah Holmes are listed in the Atlanta City Directory at the Holmes Institute, but I have not found them listed in the 1920 or 1910 Census, although the 1930 Soundex has a listing that appears to be “Nrunsey” misspelled. Atlanta City Directory, reel 11, 1921—1922, Microfilm Reading Room, Library of Congress.
15. Works Progress Administration Papers, Ex-Slave, box 83 (1934—37), Moorland-Spingarn Collection, Howard University Library.
16. Ibid.
17. Ibid.
18. Broxton to Department of Information, Department of the Interior, October 29, 1937; Joseph Greenberg, chief, Division of Bookkeeping and Warrants, Treasury Department, to Broxton, November 23, 1937; Brien McMahon, Assistant Attorney General, to Broxton, December 9, 1937; Division of Records, Department of Justice.
19. House to acting assistant attorney general Harrison Barrett, September 29, 1899.
20. See, e.g., Craig Jenkins and Charles Perrow, “Insurgency of the Powerless: Farm Worker Movements (1946-1972),” American Sociological Review 42, April 1977, pp. 249-268; David Blight, Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory(Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. i-5.
21. Blight, Race and Reunion, pp. i-5.
22. Ibid., p. 65; Mary Frances Berry, Military Necessity and Civil Rights Policy: Black Citizenship and the Constitution, 1861—1868 (Port Washington, N.Y.: Kennikat Press, 1977), pp. 75-84.
23. Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address, March 4, 1865.
24. Nina Silber, The Romance of Reconstruction: Northerners and the South, 1865—1900 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1992); Blight, Race and Reunion, pp. 1-5.
25. Blight, Race and Reunion, p. 220.
26. Ibid., pp. 383, 387, 390.
27. Thomas Cripps, “The Reaction of the Negro to the Motion Picture Birth of a Nation,” The Historian 25 (May 1963): 344-362; Cripps, Slow Fade to Black: The Negro in American Film, 1900—1942 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1977), pp. 41-69.
28. See, e.g., “Favor Ex-Slave Pensions,” The New York Times, February 8, 1903; June O. Patton, J. S. Strickland, and E. J. Crawford, “Document, Moonlight and Magnolias in Southern Education: The Black Mammy Memorial Institute,” Journal of Negro History 65 (1980): 149-155. Samuel Harris, principal of the Athens, Georgia, black
high school, according to the tenets of Booker T. Washington, had whites charter a Mammy Memorial Institute for industrial education that would teach domestic chores.
29. Rayford Logan, The Negro in American Life and Thought: The Nadir, 1877—1901 (New York: Dial Press, 1954).
Epilogue: The Reparations Movement Still Lives
1. Cathy Cohen and Michael Dawson, “Neighborhood Poverty and African American Politics,” American Political Science Review 87 (June 1993): 286-302.
2. See, e.g., Randall Robinson, The Debt: What America Owes to Blacks (New York: Penguin, 2000); Raymond A. Winbush, ed., Should America Pay? Slavery and the Raging Debate on Reparations (New York: Amis-tad HarperCollins, 2003).
3. Mary Frances Berry and John W. Blassingame, Long Memory: The Black Experience in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 409-411; E. David Cronon, Black Moses: The Story of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1955); Robert A. Hill, ed., The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. I (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), xxxv—cxvii; Tony Martin, Race First: The Ideological and Organizational Struggles of Marcus Garvey and the Universal Negro Improvement Association (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1976).
4. Robert A. Hill, The Marcus Garvey and Universal Negro Improvement Association Papers, vol. 5 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), pp. 182—187; quote from Randolph is on p. 183.
5. Berry and Blassingame, Long Memory, pp. 409-411.
6. Lawrence Levine, “Marcus Garvey and the Politics of Revitalization,” in John Hope Franklin and August Meier, eds., Black Leaders of the Twentieth Century (Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1982), pp. 105—138; Berry and Blassingame, Long Memory, pp. 409—411.
7. Berry and Blassingame, Long Memory, p. 410.
8. Ibid, p. 411.
9. William Loren Katz, preface to Philosophy and Opinions of Marcus Garvey, edited by Amy Jacques-Garvey (New York: Arno Press, 1968), first published 1923—1925, p. xii.
My Face Is Black Is True Page 25