Oberlin College Hosts International Filmmaker Branwen Okpako-March 14-16-2014

At a two day film screening on the grounds of historic Oberlin College, noted for its Conservatory of Music and early education of women and African-Americans-faculty, students, community residents, and invited guests met filmmaker, Branwen Okpako, and screened three of the filmmaker's films. Born in Nigeria, Filmmaker Okpako studied film making at the German Film & Television Academy in Berlin where she now lives.

The film screening, an original idea of Professor Sabine Marina Jones-Faculty-in Residence and German Lecturer, was sponsored by the Jantz Foundation, the Max Kade Foundation, the German Language and Literature Department, and the Afrikan Heritage House.

My presence at the screening was that of an invited guest with Mrs. Elveria Goolsby of Trotwood, Ohio. We had met Professor Jones two years ago when she traveled to Trotwood to interview Mrs. Goolsby regarding the "German Brown Babies."

Two of the films were in German with English subtitles and one was in English. The first film told the life of Auma Obama, President Barack Obama's sister, from her homestead in Kenya during the 2008 USA Presidential Election. The second film screened told the life of an Afro-German police officer, "cop turned robber" due to psychological pressures. The third film was about an Afro-German woman who was transferred from Frankfurt to Dresden and discovers her forgotten past.

There was a Reception for the Filmmaker and dinner with invited guests at Weia-Teia Restaurant. There were many cultural lessons learned from the films and the Question & Answer Sessions.

We stayed at Schurleff Cottage, a Bed & Breakfast. It was once the home of General Giles Waldo Schurleff who rose to Brigadier General during the Civil War, and commanded the 5th U. S. Colored Troops of Ohio that earned four congressional Medals of Honor. A bronze stature of General Schurleff stands on the grounds near the corner of Morgan and Professor Streets.

Oberlin, the college and town, were founded in 1833. Inspired by the idealism of French clergyman, John Frederick Oberlin, who devoted his life to educating impoverished people, John Shipherd and Philo Stewart (two christian evangelists) started Oberlin to produce ministers and teachers for missionary work.
The town was a "hotbed" of abolitionists and primary stop on the  "Underground Railroad."

50th Anniversary of President Lyndon B. Johnson's Great Society and War on Poverty

Many of our nation's poor were helped by the various War on Poverty programs.
When I graduated from college in 1957 there was no Title 18 (Medicaid) or Title 19
(Medicare) to the Social Security Act. There were no Pell Grants or Student Loans.
These programs have made life better for many. Yet, many still remain in poverty.
The War on Poverty did not go far enough. There is a tendency for short-term thinking-
solutions to long-term problems. There is no economic safety net for the poor.

As a social worker, I saw poor children in Dayton see a pediatrician, a pediatric dentist
for the first time through the Children & Youth Project at Children's Medical Center, and
attend the newly created Head Start Program. In 1960, 95% of Dayton's African-
American population lived in Inner West Dayton where there was high poverty, infant
mortality, and unemployment.

As a backdrop of the urban riots of the 1960s, Dayton was designated and funded in 1966
as a "Model City" Project under Title I of the Demonstration Cities and Metropolitan Act.
It was the first time those residents had access to their government and a voice directly
affecting their lives and conditions. Forming a new approach to planning and working
with city leaders, The Manpower Programs, The Charles R. Drew Health Center, and
Project Cure were founded; the latter two remain the most visible from the Model Cities
Program.

A2C Frederick M. Finney United States Air Force (15683577)

Born: November 18, 1941, Troy, Pike County, Alabama to Marshall and Lucille
Mc Nair Finney. 

     Place of Entry      Fort Thomas, Kentucky
                                  November 2, 1962

     Assignment /Location  Lackland Air Force Base Texas
                                          Amarillo Air Force Base Texas
                                          Greenville Air Force Base Mississippi
                                          University of Omaha
                                          Mather Air Force Base California
                                          Tan Son Nhut Air Force Base, Republic of Vietnam

     Place of Separation     Mather Air Force Base California
                                         3535 Supply Sq.
                                         December 31, 1965

     Awards                         Good Conduct Medal

     Ohio National Guard     January 1966 to January 1971, Springfield, Ohio
                                        
     Date of Death                August 16, 2008, Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio

     Buried                           V. A. National Cemetery, Dayton, Ohio
                                           Section 38, Grave 545
                                       
                                           (c) copyright 2013                                   

Soliloquy on Professor Joseph Carter Corbin included in Des Plaines' River Anthology

A soliloquy on Professor Joseph Carter Corbin, the founder of the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, has been included in the Forest Park Historical Society's Des plaines' River Anthology.

Augie Alesky, President of Forest Park, Illinois Historical Society and owner of Forest Park Centuries and Sleuths Bookstore, was inspired by Edgar Lee Master's 1915 Spoon River Anthology and lives of people, buried in local cemeteries, to create both an anthology and soliloquy work. He found local authors to contribute to the soliloquies which are told in first person and meant to be historical in nature. He envisioned the project "as a creative way to talk about local history and raise money for the Historical Society."

The anthology includes thirty-one historic voices including Clarence and Grace Hemingway, the parents of Ernest Hemingway, Michael Todd, a husband of Actress Elizabeth Taylor, and Albert and Lucy Parsons.

Professor Corbin's Soliloquy was written by John Rice, a Forest Park columnist for the Forest  Park Review, and French Teacher. John Rice became acquainted with the life and work of Professor Corbin earlier in the year when he covered the Memorial Dedication Ceremony of a headstone for Professor Corbin at Forest Home Cemetery. His soliloquy of Professor Corbin is attention catching and inspirational.

Des Plaines' River Anthology had its world premiere and live adaptation on October 26, 2013 as a fund raiser for the Forest Park Historical Society,

Des Plaines River Anthology $10.00 + $6.95 (out of state orders)
Publisher: Forest Park Historical Society in association with Allium Press of Chicago.
Available at Centuries & Sleuths Book Store: 7419 Madison Street, Forest Park, IL,  60130
708-771-7243; Amazon.com, and Forest Park Historical Society

Mom Taught Me How To Become The Person I am Today

                                         Growing up as the only child, my mom and
                                          I shared a special relationship of 67 years.

                                          This is not uncommon since women tend
                                    to outlive men, and the longest relationship a
                                    woman is likely to have is with her mother. "One
                                    of every three women who celebrate a 60th
                                     birthday will have a mother who is still alive,"
                                     according to Vern Bengston, gerontologist at the
                                     University of Southern California.

                                           My mom taught me many valuable life
                                       lessons, and made me the person I became. I
                                       learned to work by her side and to give a full day's
                                       work, even if the wages were unfair. I learned
                                       responsibility and the work ethic. Through church
                                       attendance, I learned about God and self-
                                       discipline, even if the sermons were boring (as
                                       they sometimes were). By helping with the
                                       cultivation of the vegetable garden and canning in
                                       the fall, I learned about nature and the future,
                                       which depended on the harvest. I also learned to
                                       appreciate the order of the universe by getting up
                                       to watch the sunrise.

                                             The best gifts my mom gave to me were
                                       unconditional love and daring to stand her ground
                                       and say "no" when my pleas and whines were not
                                       in my best interest. I did not know it at the time.

                                            One of my best memories is my 76 year-
                                       old mother tenderly caring for her 95-year-old
                                       mother. It is an image that will always remain in
                                       my memory. It was a bittersweet moment. It
                                       reminded me of the distance the two had traveled
                                       together and how near their their journey's end.
                                       My mother was my role model on how to
                                       care for one's mother. And both my mother and
                                       grandmother were role models for me on how to
                                       live independently with dignity and purpose in
                                       widowhood.

                                       My relationship with my mom was strong,
                                     enduring, and adaptable. Over the years, it
                                     changed from adult-and-child, to adult-to-adult,
                                     and occasionally reversed roles as she aged. But
                                     mutual love and respect were the glue that held it
                                     together.


                                       

I Love Autumn

     I love autumn. I love autumn in the springtime, summer, and winter. I
 love autumn all year long. Not because the leaves begin to fall which
reminds me that winter is coming but because it is my glorious birth month.

     It was a perfect September day in the middle of the Depression
when my parents welcomed their newborn baby daughter into
the world. It was the first day of school in the small rural community in
Tamo, in southeast Arkansas, and students were being welcomed back
to school. Junius Marion Futrell was the governor of Arkansas. Franklin
Delano Roosevelt was the President of the United States.

     My father, Willis, all of twenty-one was nervously expectant as
he waited on the front porch of his small country home. Mama
Chester, my maternal grandmother, was there to give comfort to Mary
and assist the midwife. She would not have missed welcoming her first
grandchild into the world for all the gold in Fort Knox.

     A lot of people in the cities were out of work. The stock market
crash had thrown the country into a depression. But Willis and Mary
were tenant farmers. They continued to farm, grow their own food and
were never hungry.

     To get the country out of the depression, FDR, as the president
 was called, started a lot of alphabet programs like the WPA( Works
Progress Administration) and CCC, (Conservation Civilian Corp.),
under the New Deal to get people back to work again. Social Security
was born and shares my birth year.

     Later when my mother would point out to me my birthplace from
Highway 65 South, near a thicket of trees, I was in awe. "You kept me
alive!" I would say. Of course it was not just my young parents. It was
Cuz who came to feed me when I would not eat; it was Uncle Jerry,
my father's brother, who bought my first store bought diapers; and
Mama Chester, who hand made me all those pretty clothes.

     Autumn brings back memories of school days at St. Peter's
Catholic School in Pine Bluff. The beginning of school was full of
excitement and welcoming back by the nuns and Father Kempinski.
the principal. I would arrive the first day in my new saddle oxfords,
bobby socks, and the latest sweater set and skirt.

     The first social event of the school season was my birthday
party. Kids came from miles around. My sister, Jettie and I knew every
kid from Main Street to Ohio. My mother baked the cakes. Sometimes
Aunt Margaret, my mother's sister, would come up to Pine Bluff from
her country home in Grady to assist with the preparation. The ice
cream was made in the hand cranked freezer; it was always vanilla.
Today, my favorite ice cream remains vanilla.

     I love autumn because the leaves dazzle in a parade of colors:
red, orange, rust. I look out into the woods in my back yard and see
the trees on the creek next to my neighbor. I marvel at the breathtaking
sight. Only God can make those colors, I say.

     I love autumn. What a relief from the oppressive Ohio summer
heat. The temperature cools down. The sky is azure blue. It's a time
for Halloween and trick-or-treat, with little ones dressed in their
colorful and sometimes, scary costumes. It's a time for Thanksgiving
turkey and all the trimming and giving thanks, for family, friends, and
so many blessings.

     During the snowy cabin fever days of winter, I day dream about
autumn. It is indeed a long, long way from December to September. But
autumn will  surely come again.

Professor C. F. West (Principal) Life and Work, Grady (Arkansas) Colored School

                                                

Clifton F. West was principal of Grady Colored School in rural southeast Arkansas.

He was born December 20, 1880, near Bolton, Hinds County, Mississippi. He began public community school at the age of eight. His widowed mother, with the cooperation of the other children, sent him in 1896 to Alcorn A&M College, then Westside, now Alcorn State University.
Alcorn State University was founded in 1871, and named in honor of Mississippi Governor, James L. Alcorn.

Clifton F. West graduated from the Industrial Department (1901) at Alcorn as a painter, and from the Normal Department in 1903. He was "given the management of the family farm and served in that capacity (1903-1912) when he began teaching."

Professor West was a teacher at Winterburn School in Hinds County for eight years (1912-1920) until he came to Arkansas in November, 1921, and began teaching at Cady School at Varner, in Lincoln County. Arkansas. Cady School was a one teacher school, and in 1924 became a two teacher school due to increased enrollment to about 120 pupils. During his administration, there were "fourteen to graduate from the eighth grade. Three of these went to Merrill High School in Pine Bluff. Two finished there and went on to attend Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. The other was in the eleventh grade.  One went to Dunbar High School in Little Rock." At this time, there were no high schools for African-American children in Lincoln County, and few in the state.

In 1936, Professor West "was elected principal of Grady Colored Junior High School, a four teacher school. The enrollment was about 180 and increased to about 270 " by 1938. Between 1936 and 1939,  he recorded that there had been twelve graduates. One entered the Wendell Phillips School, Chicago, Illinois; one was attending high school in St. Louis, Missouri; one entered Merrill High School in Pine Bluff.  In 1939, " in the State Basketball Tournament, our Boys Team won the State Junior Championship, bringing home the Trophy given by the State for such distinction."

Grady, Arkansas, was the ancestral home of my Bluford, Turner, Williams, and Johnson families.
Professor West was  married  to my paternal great aunt, Drucilla Turner, on December 20, 1925
until her death October 16, 1955 at Grady. Drucilla Turner West was also a teacher.
    
 I spent a lot of time in Grady, visiting family, during my youth. From my paternal grandmother's back door, I could look into the entrance of Grady Colored School. I attended there for a short time
when I was in the second grade. My mother, at one time, attended there, and also volunteered at the school-helping in the kitchen, planting flowers, and helping with the Easter Egg Hunt. Five of my mother's nephews attended school there. Children of my paternal great uncle were also students of Professor West. It was my mother's brother, mentioned in the report, who attended Wendell Phillips High School in Chicago.

Sources: Across the Horizon, by Cornelia Kirkley Foster
and Recollections of Gladys Turner Finney

The image is from the cover of a Grady High School diploma.