Friday, February 24, 2017

The History of The Negro Church

Early Spanish and French missionaries proselyted the Indian population but regarded Negroes as
infidels, not belonging to the community of christianity. When the Indians failed to be the necessary labor supply for the explorers in the Americas the missionaries had to consider whether the Negro should be given the same consideration as the Indians. An unwritten law held that a christian could not be enslaved.The exploiting class was opposed to proselyting Negroes. The planter feared too much enlightment would inspire hope of liberation.

Thursday, February 16, 2017

Moton School-Marianna, Arkansas

During the fall of the 1956-57 school year, I did my student-practice teaching at R. R. Moton School. I was a senior at AM&N College with a major in sociology and a minor in secondary education. Located in Lee County, Marianna had a population of 4, 560. The principal of Moton School was the highly respected and legendary Mrs. Anna P. Strong. The school was named in honor of Robert Russa Moton, president of Tuskegee Institute. I taught American History and World History.

Table 1. Total Enrollment of Moton School Students, Marianna, Ark by Grade Level and Sex:
               1956-57

Grade Level   Total                 Male                    Female
                        804                   384                      420
12th                   46                    13                        33
11                       62                    26                        36
10                       86                    49                        37
  9                     115                    49                        66
  8                       34                    20                        14
  7                       38                    13                        25
  6                       47                    19                        28
  5                       54                    29                        25
  4                       79                    38                        41
  3                        66                   34                        32
  2                        95                   55                        40
  1st                      82                   39                        43

World History Class Roll            
Allison, Overt                                     Love, Claudia
Baker, Otis                                          Mobley, Clinton
Barnes, Mildred                                  Mosley, Leotis
Brown, Willie                                     Nabors, Faye
Brooks, Arthur                                    Rice, Flossie
Buford, William                                  Robinson, William
Burnett, Harold                                   Shepherd, Kennith
Burse, Claude                                     Smith, Gladys
Burse, Joyce                                       Smith, Novel
Bursey, Barbara                                  Tillman, Carol
Chaney, Ewen                                     Walker, Robert
Crenshaw, Maxine                              West, Marie
Davis, Loretta                                     Williams, Garland
Edwards, Theodore                             Williams, Audie
Douglas, Willie                                   Wilson, Precious
Gates, Doris                                        Yarbrough. James
Hope, Julius                                         Smith, John C.
Houston, Dorothy                                Wilson, O. T.
Huddleston, Ivory                                Sauls, Percy
Johnson, Elgre                                     Saunders, Charles                                    
Lloyd, Holmes                                     Harvey, Jamie                              
                                                       
My father drove me to Marianna carrying a supply of my favorite foods to begin my practice teaching. I was a 21 year old senior at AM&N College with a major in sociology and a minor in secondary education. I had heard of Marianna and its principal from students at AM&N but had never visited.The first two night I stayed in the home of the principal, Mrs. Anna M. P. Strong until she found me housing with a family. I was awed by her presence but nervous.

I could discern from my early observations that Moton High School was orderly and well-run. I did not  have any significant student disciplinary problems. Mrs. Strong knew the students, their parents and grandparents because of her long tenure at Moton and residence in the community. I was initially surprised by the young male students opening doors and assisting me down the stairs. Mrs. Strong respected the students, the students respected her and their teachers. Mrs. Strong walked the hallways. I could sense when she was observing from the rear of the classroom from the extreme stillness and silence.

Expectations of Teachers: Teachers at Moton were expected to live in the community, attend church services, participate in the activities/events of the school, arrive a half hour before the students arrived and remain a half hour after students departure, eat lunch with their students and model table etiquette. I complied with all expectations, had a valuable and successful teaching experience. My supervising teacher in history was outstanding, a young male teacher whose name I no longer remember. He helped sharpen my skills in lesson planning.

While at Moton a female teacher took leave to marry. Mrs. Strong hired me as substitute teacher for her, reportedly at the same rate. I was pleasantly surprised. I returned to AM&N having completed the requirements for my degree and unexpected money in my pockets. I received my BA degree in May of 1957. Mrs. Strong retired in May of 1957 after thirty-one years as principal at Moton High School following a long and illustrious career as an educator with many well-deserved honors. Mrs. Strong died in 1966.

American History- 1st Section Class Roll
Rosie M. Moore
Maggie Smith
Olly Neal
Mildred Smith
George Crawford
Ora Murdock
Sallie Ramsey
Bernice Roberts
Louise Talbert
Arlene Dupree
Virgil Wyatt
Connor Little
William Lee Walker
Elizabeth Nickerson
Annie L, Veasley
Curtis Taylor
Elbert Tate
Fred Mobley
Henry Smith
John Walker
Gemojar Rovale Cornelius Owens
James Parker




Friday, January 13, 2017

Black "CCC" Camps in Arkansas

My father, Willis Turner, was born in 1914 in the small rural farming community of Grady in Lincoln County, Arkansas. By 1930, he was living in the community of Tamo in Jefferson County with his stepfather, Aaron Shelton, who was a farm owner at the beginning of the Great Depression. I heard post Depression stories such as "we always had plenty of food because we grew our own and how my father who was a "a big boy  was hired out by his stepfather to aid other farmers." The most disturbing story was the exploits of a local merchant who sold "government food meant for the people." The story that intrigued me the most was the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) and the work it performed. My parents remembered young men signing up for the CCC Camps and often cited their work on improving Highway 65 South near Grady. To my knowledge no family members served in the CCC Camps.

The CCC was a national relief recovery program set up by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1933 as part of the New Deal to address massive unemployment of the Great Depression. The major "objective of the Civilian Conservation Corp were to give jobs to hundred of thousands of discouraged and undernourished young men, idle through no fault of their own, to build up these men physically and spiritually and to start the nation on a sound conservation program which would conserve and expand our timbered resources, increase recreational opportunities and reduce the annual toll taken by forest fires, disease, pests, soil erosion and floods."1

The President's Executive Order establishing the CCC was issued on April 5, 1933. Robert Fechner,
Vice-President of the American Machinists, was appointed by the president to direct the CCC. Its organization and administration was delegated to four governmental departments: The Labor Department which "recruited the young men, War Department which operated the camps, and Agriculture and Interior Departments which organized and supervised the work projects." A CCC Advisory Council was composed of representatives from each of the supervising departments. In addition the Office of Education and Veterans Administration participated in the program.2

The public work relief program operated from 1933 to 1942. More than 2,900 camps were established and more than one million young men participated. "The typical CCC enrollee was an unemployed, unmarried male 18-25 whose family was on relief." Originally for young single men 18 to 23, the age requirement was later changed to 17-28 and expanded to include veterans.3

The young men enrolled in the CCC camps were required to serve a minimum of six months but could re-enroll up to a maximum of two years. They worked forty hours a week and were paid $30.00 a month "with a compulsory allotment between $22.00-$25.00" sent home to their family. Food, housing, clothing, and medical care were provided.4

Within the CCC's work classification system CCC enrollees performed some three hundred jobs within a ten level classification system. Among the jobs performed were structural improvements to bridges and buildings; erosion control; flood control such as irrigation and drainage; reforestation (planting trees and shrubs); fire fighting; landscaping; wildlife protection and control; and miscellaneous emergency work.5

In researching this article, it became clear why my father did not meet the requirements of the CCC. Although, his farm family was poor, they were not destitute of food and managed to grow their own food.  Furthermore, my father was a farm laborer, therefore, not unemployed. He was also married by 1934 before the CCC camps in Arkansas were established.

The CCC Camps were racially- segregated. 200,000 Blacks were enrolled in black segregated camps
throughout the country. Where to locate CCC Camps in Arkansas for Blacks was obviously a question. Of the thirteen CCC Camps in Arkansas four were black. It is interesting to note that none of the four was in Pine Bluff or Little Rock where there was a large Black population. However, there were enrollees from southeastern Arkansas in each of the camps, especially from Pine Bluff.

The four Black CCC Camps were: Company 3776 "Camp La Grue," Dewitt, Arkansas; Company 3793, Ashdown, Arkansas; Company 4734 Forrest City, Arkansas; Company 4735, Charlotte, Arkansas. Camp La Grue was organized at De Luce, Arkansas on July 1, 1935 in northwest Arkansas near Batesville. Of the nearly two hundred young men on the roster was "Son Gray of Grady". Son Gray would eventually marry my father's maternal aunt.

Camp Forrest City was opened July 16, 1935 in east central Arkansas. Camp Ashdown was opened around the 15th of October, 1935 in southwest Arkansas. Camp Charlotte was opened August 7, 1935 in northeast Arkansas.

The 1930 Census shows Aaron Shelton, age 49, living on his farm in Richland Township with his wife of 2 1/2 years, Arned Shelton, my paternal grandmother, age 30. Members of the household were four of Aaron Shelton's children by a previous marriage, Samuel, age 21; Captain, age 18, Vernice, age 16, and Alberta, age 14. Step-sons in the household were my father, Willis Turner, age 16, and his brother, M.J. Turner, age 14. The makeup of the family showed adequate farm labor support.

The war years of World War II would propel the Shelton family away from the farm to the city for jobs. In 1942, Aaron Shelton migrated to Los Angeles. There he would find work and retire from the Pacific Fruit Express Company. He died in Los Angeles on January 28, 1974 at the age of ninety-three and was buried in Lincoln Memorial Park. M.J. Turner, my uncle, migrated to Oakland, California and worked in the Navy Shipyard. He died in Oakland on April 23, 1997 following retirement from Alameda County and was buried in Rolling Hills Memorial Park, Richmond, California.  My father, Willis J. Turner, moved to Pine Bluff, initially worked for the U.S. Army Arsenal and retired after thirty years from the Cotton Belt Railroad. He died March 31, 1989 in Pine Bluff and was buried in Randolph Cemetery, Grady, Arkansas.

The CCC helped lessen the hardship of the depression for many destitute families and the war industry jobs helped my parents to emerge from the depth of the Great Depression.

Pictures of Camp Forest City






Sources:

1. What the CCC is and Does by Guy D. McKinney, Assistant to the Director
    Emergency Conservation Work, Department of the Interior, Washington, D. C.
2. Ibid.
3. "Civilian Conservation Corps, Wikipedia.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.

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Friday, November 4, 2016

Presidential Election 2016-Trotwood

Hillary Clinton's Campaign Office is located at 838 East Main Street adjacent to Trotwood Foodtown.
The vacant building space, turned into an office by the organizing staff, held its opening on September 6, 2016, the day after Labor Day. There was a good turn out of the Democratic Party's faithful. Former Dayton Mayor, Rhine McLin, gave a rousing speech of support for Hillary.
Gospel Singer, Shirley Murdock, shared her musical gifts.

Prior to the office opening, volunteers convened in local homes. I began volunteering August 8th phone banking at two Trotwood residences.

The campaign is near its end. Four days are left before the election. I am waiting to be a witness to history, to see Hillary Clinton become the first woman president of the United States. I was a witness to history when President Barack Obama became the first African-American elected and reelected President. I volunteered at the Trotwood Office to elect President Obama.

Volunteering in a major political campaign one becomes connected with others who support the same political candidate. An unanticipated benefit of such endeavors is the opportunity to meet and take pictures with noted politicians and distinguished persons I would not normally come in contact.
During this election, I have had the good fortune to meet and take pictures with Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City, Georgia Congressman  and Civil Rights Icon, John Lewis, and Anne Holton, the wife of Senator Tim Kaine. I have been inspired by all three. Congressman Lewis reminded us of how sacred the right to vote in a democracy and how he almost died to achieve this right.  You get the opportunity to meet with such wonderful young organizers as Peter Li, Chris Dingus, and Jesse Vogel whom I expect one day will be national leaders.

Sometimes, you get interviewed by the media as I did on Thursday, November 3, 2016,
and your comments and opinions appear in the Dayton Daily News: Wife of Dem VP Nominee visits Trotwood : "Gladys Turner-Finney, 89 (error) said she is a part of the campaign because of what it would mean for women to have the next president be a female, and Holton helps project that message. "Her speech reminds-not only me but everyone here and in my area-the importance of having someone in the White House who supports women's issues; the things that women care about,"

Trotwood Campaign Office

Monday, October 3, 2016

Frederick Marshall Finney Memorial Scholarship

Frederick Marshall Finney Memorial Scholarship was established by Gladys Turner Finney in 2013
to commemorate the 40th anniversary of his graduation from Wright State University with a Master of Science degree in Economics.

The scholarship is awarded annually to a Junior or Senior student in the Department of Economics who demonstrates an interest in applying economic theories and thought to under served populations.


Thursday, June 16, 2016

Reflections: "Just Mercy" by Bryan Stevenson



Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson- A Story Of Justice And Redemption is the second book our College Hill Peace & Social Justice Ministry has read with members of Harmony Creek Church. The format remained the same as the previous book review, four sessions, alternating between the two congregations. The group was diverse but majority white. Harmony Creek also has a Justice and Witness Ministry.

This is a powerful book. It chronicles the legal defense by Attorney Stevenson and the Equal Justice Initiative of  cases of African-Americans, the poor and wrongfully condemned caught up in the injustice of the US prison system. Their cases are heart wrenching. Several times, I had to lay the book aside because I could not read through the tears.  The book brought forth memories from the past. My family lived near Cummins State Prison in Arkansas. As a child I heard my parents speak of "convicts going missing" in the prison. When we drove pass, we saw "trustees" guarding the prisoners as they worked the fields. Once, men from our baptist church went to play softball with the prisoners. When my mother disciplined me, she often referred to "Cummins" as a means of deterrent. I learned to fear the prison as a consequence of poor choices and parental disobedience.

My opposition to the death penalty or capital punishment is on religious grounds, the commandment that thou shall not kill. My first exposure to the death penalty came shortly after I graduated from high school in the summer of 1953. It was the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg espionage case. I followed the events leading up to the execution in the newspaper and on television. I was very sad when they were put to death.

Michelle Alexander powerfully enlightening book, The New Jim Crow helps us understand the institutional processes of enslaving  African-American males through mass incarceration. In the new Jim Crow there are more African-Americans today under correctional control ( in prison or jail, on probation or parole) than were enslaved in 1850, a decade prior to the Civil War due to disparities in drug law enforcement and mass incarceration.  In the new Jim Crow of today disenfranchisement laws disenfranchise more African-American males than in 1870 when the 15th Amendment was ratified.

Stevenson's Just Mercy adds flesh and blood, soul and death. No one can read Just Mercy and still be for the death penalty.

Stevenson says: "I do what I do because I'm broken too... You can't effectively fight abusive power, poverty, inequality, illness, oppression, or injustice and not be broken by it." To be broken, in my opinion, is a metaphor, for sacrifice of one's life for the salvation of others.

Brian Stevenson was the 2015 Dayton Literary Peace Prize non fiction winner for Just Mercy.

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Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Gladys Turner Finney Social Work Scholarship-Wright State University Recipients


                   
                                    Preparing Social Work Scholars for the future


Condalisa Smith        March 22, 2001
                               
Mary David               March 2002

Rita Mack                  March 27, 2003

Raquel Gregory          March 2004

Pamela Byrd               March 12, 2005

Michanne Davis          March 2006

Shantae West               March 2007

Kamesha Johnson        March 2008
                                                                                    
Christopher Benjamin  March 9, 2009

Dyemekka Wilborn       March 22, 2010
Korine Starkey              March 10, 2011

Tonya Barnes                March 26, 2012

Regina West                   March 28, 2013
                                                                                                  
Danielle Jackson            2013-2014

Gwendolyn Reynolds      2014-2015                                               

NaQasia Lewis               2015-2016 

Sandra Wiley                  2016-2017 

Ty McHardy                    2017-2018 

MacKenzie Lane             2018-2019

Kayla Lee                        2019-2020

Pam Baugham                 2019-2020