Biography of James "Jim" Bluford

By Gladys Turner Finney

Preface
Researching my Bluford and Turner families was a labor of love. It was my intent
to connect my family from 1870 when African-Americans first appeared in U.S.
Population Census, by name, to my generation. And, so I have done. Perhaps, more
research could have been done, were resources available, as seen on popular television
programs: African-American Lives, Who do you think you are, Researching Your
Roots.

Only one branch of the Bluford Family was researchable and that was George Bluford,
my maternal great grandfather, who was born in South Carolina about 1866, migrated
to Louisiana, and eventually to Arkansas about 1909.

I can only imagine how great the the research was hindered by lack of the 1890
Federal Population Census, destroyed by fire. The disconnect of 20 years 1880 to
1900 is a very long time in the lives of families. Many were lost, died or disappeared.
My disappointment was the inability to connect with present day descendants of
other lines of the Bluford Family.

The oldest family member found on the Bluford Family Tree was Betsey Simkins,
born about 1820 in South Carolina, 200 years ago.

I had the good fortune to know 3 of 4 of my grandparents and 4 of my great
grandparents. This is a blessing when one consider the impact of slavery on the
African-American family. I represent the third generation post slavery.

Biography of James "Jim" Bluford
James, "Jim" Bluford is believed to have been born in the state of South Carolina.
The county of his birth is unknown. He is the earliest known progenitor of my Bluford
family. His birth may have been, 1830, 1832 or 1840. His parents and siblings are
unknown, as well as any events pertaining to their lives, birth or death. His wife
Mary Bluford's maiden name is inferred to have been Simkins, based on her mother's
name, Betsey Simkins.

In 1870, James and Mary, according to the Federal Population Census for South Carolina,
lived in Saluda Division, Edgefield County South Carolina with their children, Jessie 14;
Harry or Horry, 12, Emma 10; Jim 8; Will 6; and George 4.

Mary Bluford was born about 1840 in South Carolina. There is no history of her family. In
the 1900 Louisiana Federal Population census, she is recorded as "Mary Bliffard," a sixty
year old widow, living in Madison Parish, Ward 4 with her son, his wife Savannah, and two
grandsons, Ebbie and James Bluford. The census worker reported that she was the mother
of thirteen children but only four were still living. George Bluford and his descendants
are the only known descendants of James, "Jim," Bluford and Mary Simkins Bluford.

It is unknown when and under what circumstances the Bluford Family migrated to
Louisiana from South Carolina and what family members migrated with them. It
seems that James "Jim" Bluford is deceased by the time of the 1900 Louisiana Census.
He is not reported as part of the family. It is also unknown if any other Bluford family
members migrated to Lincoln County Arkansas in 1907 with George Bluford besides his
nuclear family.

James "Jim" Bluford was born during slavery and the question of his slave master has been
an ongoing matter of research. There were no Blufords listed in the 1850 South Carolina
census records. There were six caucasians, "white," Bluford families listed in the 1860
South Carolina Census. I've been told the Bluford name is  "not"common in South
Carolina.

Not until 2019, I learned a Bluford Plantation existed in Pineville, St Stephens Parish,
now Berkeley County. The Bluford Plantation dated back to the 1700s, owned by
Philip Williams and later purchased by Peter Sinkler. Peter Sinkler died childless and
left the plantation to his sister, Elizabeth Sinkler Dubose and or/her son, William Dubose.
Julian Dubose was the next owner. In 1903 the house was purchased and developed into
a Hunt Club.  Library of Congress (HABS-SC-236. South Carolina Historical Society.

James Bluford Timeline:
Slavery-1830-1863- Bluford Plantation?  No documentation.
                                 Berkley County, South Carolina                                               
Post Slavery-
1870-Saluda, Edgefield County, S.C.
1880 Cooper, Edgefield County  S.C.

Teachers at Grady Colored School (Arkansas) Oral History Project

By Dr. Gladys Turner Finney

Mrs. Humphery (President L.A. Davis, Sr. Sister
Mrs. Boulware
Gladys McGill
Bob White
Miss Patton
Mrs. Mamie Holmes
Vesta Johnson
Mrs. Berthala Austin
Miss Emma Bell Lee
Rose Marie Ward
Mrs. Molette, wife of Dr. Molette
Miss Marshall, wife of Dr. Marshall, UAPB Dean of Freshman
Silver T. Holmes Smith
Miss Long
Miss Ruby Phillips
Mr. Jim Phillips (Principal)
Mr. Lawson (Principal)
Mr. Nixon (Principal)
Professor C.F. West (Principal

Source: Ivory Donaldson
             Earnest Donaldson
             November 19, 2018

The Bend School Teachers
Mrs. Alphanie Murphy
Mrs. Ella Moore
Rev McKissic
Mattie Williams
Consolidated with Grady Colored School

Source: Mrs. Jearline Williams, May 13, 2020
              Dr. Charles O. Davidson, May 15, 2020 Additions/> July 13/2021/> Owen Freeman; Stanley Scott I; Mrs. Rennie Bea DeBruce; Elesteen Pratt, Cafeteria; Hazel Seale, Cafeteria Zelda Pearce, Music Teacher; Mary Harris, English Teacher; Zeretha Daniels, Elementary Teacher Mrs. Dorothy Geater
Source: Odell Seale

Professor Samuel Vaster, Educator & Principal, Vaster School, Moscow, Lincoln County, Arkansas

Dr. Lawrence A. Davis, Sr. left and Mr. Samuel Vaster, right

By Gladys Turner Finney

Since 2002 I had hoped to obtain enough documented material to write an article
on the esteemed Principal of Vaster School, Professor Samuel Vaster, without
success. Each time I visited my Aunt Earnestine Bluford Johnson who lived on
Bitely Road at Moscow, across from the crumbling school, and whose children
had attended Vaster, the urgency was rekindled.

Professor Vaster was a respected teacher of African-Americans growing up
in the vicinity of Tamo and Moscow.  My earliest recollection of him is
before school age when I walked one day with my maternal aunts Earnestine
and Savannah Bluford and their brother Jerry Bluford to school. It was a long
trek from my maternal grandparents' country farm home. That particular day the
older kids at recess were playing "pop whip" which did not hold and a number of
the students collided with me who was on the side line. I remember Professor
Vaster disciplining them.  My mom always said the school was five miles distance
as she had walked it as a child.

I recalled that every obituary or funeral program mentioned Professor Vaster
including my parents. And so did just about everyone who died from the two
communities of Tamo and Moscow who had attended school under him.

I do not know the chronology of Vaster School. I believe its precursor may have
been Union School where I started first grade in 1941.

The school which became known as Vaster High School during racial segregation
was built on Bitely Road at Moscow and had its demise after the desegregation of
public schools in Arkansas stood there exposed to the elements and crumbling.
The cornerstone and name were gone. The Jefferson County School District said
it did not know what became of the records. Others surmised that the last principal
Professor Peter Daniels may have known. I was never able to access Professor
Daniels prior to his death.

Professor Vaster and the dedicated teachers of Vaster School should not be lost
to history. Thus, it is my intent to preserve the oral history information I have
obtained through interviews and other research.

Telephone Interview: Dr. Charles O. Davidson, December 30, 2017.
Dr. Davidson was at Vaster High School, 1955-56; 156-57 School Years.

Dr. Davidson graduated from AM&N College (now the University of
Arkansas at Pine Bluff) After Professor Vaster retired, Davidson became
Assistant Vice-Principal to the new Principal, Professor Peter Daniels
School Superintendent was Mr. Dial.

Primary Grade Teachers:
Miss Mamie Johnson, Miss Johnnie Johnson (sisters)
Mrs. Dorothy Jeters
Miss Evangeline Crawford, 4th & 5th Grades
Mrs. Ruby Daniels (wife of Principal)
Miss Rennie Bea, 1st Grade
Dorothy Kelley, 2nd Grade

High School Teachers
Mrs. Carrie Gilbert. English
Mrs. Marinda Henderson Buckner, 58-59; 59-60, English
Mr. Charles O. Davidson, Mathematics & Science, Boys Coach
Orange Freeman, Coach
Professor Peter Daniels, Mathematics & Science
DeArthur Grice, Assistant Principal

Bus Drivers
Roy Collins, Jr.
Otto Hall
Rev. Willie Nolton
Stanley Scott

Dietitian & Food Service, Ms. Mary Brown
Lunch Program started?
1956 Gymnasium was built

School operated on a split session, Summer Session
& October to April Session.

Source: Charles O. Davidson, 12/30/17
              James Dade, 5/22/20

Professor Vaster Masonic & Community Affiliation
"Republican Mass Meeting"
Negro Republicans endorsed R.M. Galbraith for appointment as postmaster
of the Pine Bluff Post Office.
Samuel Vaster, Secretary of meeting.
Daily Graphic, Pine Bluff, April 3, 1921.

"Leading and distinguished masons 50th Anniversary"
50 years ago the first grand lodge of Colored Masons in the state of Arkansas
was organized in the city of Little Rock. Fourth Grand Master M.A. Clark is the only
still donating his time. He is in attendance. John H. Johnson was the second. Professor
Joseph Corbin was the third grand master, 23,000 members. Owns 200,000 real estate
in Little Rock. Samuel Vaster of Moscow in attendance.
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, 11 August 1922, p.6.

"650 Visitors Will Be in City of Ceremonies"
Samuel Vaster of Moscow in attendance.
Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, August 6, 1922, p.7.

Negro Republicans Endorse Captain R.M. Galbraith for city appointment as postmaster of Pine Bluff Post Office. The mass meeting was held at the Miller Theater Building on State Street. Rev. A.W. Winston in attendance. H.M. Thomas, Chairman; Samuel Vaster was Secretary of Meeting Source: Pine Bluff Daily Graphic, 03 April, 1921, p. 2. -------------------------------------
World War I Draft Registration Card, 1917-1918, Jefferson County Arkansas, 17December, 1880, Black, FHL, Roll Number 1530467 Draft Board 2

Sergeant John H. Corbin

By Dr. Gladys Turner Finney

Sergeant John H. Corbin was born free in Ohio about 1842. His parents, William Corbin,
born about 1798, and Susan Mordecai Carter Corbin, had been enslaved in Virginia. His mother
was born in 1804 and was emancipated at age nineteen by John Parkhill of Henrico County
Virginia. William and Susan were married, January 23, 1825 in Ross County, Ohio. Susan Corbin
died February 9, 1874 in Cincinnati, Ohio. William Corbin died January 29, 1875 in Cincinnati,
Ohio.

John H. Corbin enlisted in the military October 16, 1861, at Camp Wood, Fond du Lac,
Wisconsin. He fought as part of the 14th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, Company A.
The 14th Wisconsin was mustered into federal service of the United States, January 30, 1862.
John H. Corbin was promoted to Quartermaster Sergeant on August 31, 1862. He reenlisted on December 12, 1863, and was reappointed Quartermaster Sergeant. He was discharged on
October 9, 1865 at Mobile, Alabama.

The circumstances of how John H. Corbin came to be a member of the Wisconsin Company 14-A
are unknown. "Company F of the 29th Wisconsin Infantry was the only African-American Unit
credited to Wisconsin. It was composed of Black soldiers who agreed to take the place of white
Wisconsin residents. Most came from Illinois or Missouri. A handful also joined from other states"
according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.

John H. Corbin married Virginia C. Baker on February 8, 1871 in Cincinnati, Ohio. They
had three children.

He migrated to New Orleans and shortly after his arrival obtained employment as teacher in the public schools. He soon became principal of McDonough School, Number 5. The school was
located in the historic West-bank Algiers Neighborhood.

John H. Corbin died September 19, 1878 in New Orleans during the Yellow Fever Epidemic
along with his brother, Henry A. Corbin, who had been Private Secretary to Governor P.B.S.
Pinchback. "The high estimate in which he was held by all who knew him was attested by the large number of people who attended his funeral and evinced in their sorrowful faces how deeply they
felt the loss they had sustained." Honorable William G. Brown said of the two brothers in a
condolence to a cousin in Cincinnati: "With different dispositions, straight-forwardness and integrity
will inevitably command esteem."

After John H. Corbin death, his widow, Virginia C. Corbin, applied for a Civil War
Widow's pension which she received until her death July 4, 1903.

Sergeant Corbin was the brother of Professor Joseph Carter Corbin, founder of Branch Normal
College, now the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. He was the maternal uncle of Cyrus
F. Adams and John Quincy Adams, prominent newspaperman of the late 19th and early 20th Century.

Sources:
Roster of Wisconsin Volunteers, War of the Rebellion, 1861-1865, Volume 1, p. 772.
Civil War Widows Pension Application
The New Orleans Weekly, 30 November, 1878, p.2.


   

My Identity Story

                                                       
                                                     
Lately, I’ve been thinking about my identity after having AncestryDNA which estimated my ethnicity to be 88% African; 48% Nigerian. An earlier mtdna concluded my maternal ancestry was Sierra Leone.  I was not surprised and delighted by the results. However, I cannot trace my family to Nigeria or Sierra Leone.

When I was born in 1935 my Arkansas birth certificate identified me as “C.” for Colored.
The 1940 Census identified me and my parents as Negro.

My 1955 Arkansas driver’s license when I was nineteen identified me as “colored” as did other documents of that era including my father’s Cotton Belt Railroad pass. I am not exactly certain when my identity changed.  I did not self-select these designations and do not remember my parents telling me I was Colored or Negro. So, who told me I was Colored or Negro? Who designated me to be Colored or Negro?

A “Negro” is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary as a “member of the Negroid ethnic division of the human species, especially one of various people of central and southern Africa… characterized by brown to black pigmentation and often by tightly curled hair.”  I do have these physical characteristics.  I am African by ancestry, history, and DNA.  I am certain my ancestral family also came from the Niger Region of Nigeria.
The word Negro is a Spanish and Portuguese term for black.

I was born in the United States which makes me a national or citizen of the United States of America. My ancestors were enslaved Africans who did not gain U.S. citizenship until the 14th Amendment to the Constitution in 1868 after the Civil War.

The Europeans who colonized and settled the United States of America were not a monolithic “white race” in Europe but transformed themselves into a new national and cultural identity in the United States where being white was superior to Colored, Negro, Black, Brown, Red, or Yellow. Being white meant not “contaminated” by Negro blood.

The idea that there existed a white superior race of Europeans and a black race of Africans considered inferior and chattel property was well crafted in the origin of the founding of the United States of America. My family was not immigrants. My family did not choose freely to come to the USA to make a new life. My family came enslaved in chains as free labor. They were stripped of their name, origin and language. All of this has made it impossible for me and countless others to trace their ancestry to the shores of Africa, except now through DNA.

I am also an American because I share the North American Continent with other inhabitants. But the history of race supremacy and power has made this identity synonymous with being from the United States. The internet identifies me as “American.”

So, who told me I was Colored?
The power of white oppression told me I was colored through Colored Waiting Signs, Colored Water Fountains, and Colored Sections on buses/trains, segregated Colored schools, segregated communities, segregated churches. All of this was dictated by the laws of segregation. My designated identity had nothing to do with my ancestry but to ensure that I stayed in my designated place.

So, where does the US Census fit in?

Since 1790, the United States has taken a census every ten years. In 2020 the Census Bureau will undergo this ritual again. The original purpose was to count the population necessary for drawing congressional districts. The population schedule which genealogists and family researchers use to help trace their family history remains confidential for 72 years, unless under special family circumstances. The first Census categories included:
  Free white males under 16
  Free white males 16 years and upward
  Free white females
  Other free people
  Number of slaves

“… slavery was no mere accident of history but rather a near universal practice in the Western Hemisphere from the sixteenth century onward to the eighteenth, shaping the very legal foundation of citizenship and property rights, as well as the idea of civilization.”

For the first six censuses (1790-1840) enumerators recorded only the names of the heads of households. Beginning in 1850, all members of the household were named on the census.

“Race and ethnicity in the United States Census, defined by the federal Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the United States Census Bureau, are described as self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races, they most closely identify. One may indicate whether or not they are Hispanic or Latino origin (the only categories for ethnicity).”

The Census currently acknowledge that “the race or races that respondents consider themselves to represent is a social-political construct and generally reflect a social or anthropological definition and takes into account social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry, using appropriate scientific methodologies that are not primarily biological or genetic in reference. The race categories include both racial and national-origin groups.”

A review of race and ethnicity in the United States Census is informative.

1820 Census added the term “colored” and number of foreigners not naturalized.”

1830 Census added number of White persons who were non- naturalized foreigners.

1850 Census was “first time free persons were listed individually instead of by head of household. The question on the free inhabitant schedule about color was a column left blank if a person was white, marked “B” if a person was black, and “M” if a person was mulatto. Slaves were listed by owner, and classified by gender and age, not individually, and question regarding color was to be marked with a B or M.

1870 Census was my maternal family entry in South Carolina Census and is the first Census slaves were listed by name. I cannot trace my maternal family prior to this date.

1890 Census: Enumerators were instructed to write “White, Black, Mulatto, Quadroon, Octoroon, Chinese, Japanese, or Indian.”

1900 Census: Enumerators instructed to use a special expanded questionnaire for American Indians living on reservations or family groups off reservation that included “Fraction of person’s lineage that is white.

1910 Census reinserted Mulatto and asked question about respondent “mother tongue.”

1930 Census:
  Mulatto Classification discontinued.
  Interracial persons with white and black blood were to be recorded as “Negro”
  No matter the fraction. (The one drop rule).
  Mixed Black and American Indian was to be recorded “Negro” unless he was considered to be   “predominantly” American Indian and accepted as such within the community.

Mixed White and American Indian were to be recorded as” Indian” unless his American Indian ancestry was small and he was accepted as white in the community. In all situations in which a person had White and some other racial ancestry, he was to be reported to that race.

1940 Census:
President Roosevelt sought a “good neighbor” policy with Mexico after a federal judge ruled that three Mexican immigrants were ineligible for citizenship because they were not white, as required by federal law. To circumvent the decision and make sure the federal agencies treat Hispanics as white, all federal agencies were to uniformly classify people of Mexican descent as white.

1950 Census removed the word “color” from the racial designation.

1970 Census included “Negro” or “Black.”

1990 Census “was not designed to capture multiple racial responses, and when an individual marked the Other race option and provided a multiple write in, the response was assigned and coded according to the race written first.” Black-White, White-Black.

2000 Census defined “White” as a “person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.”  Black or African American was defined as “a person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.”

I have had strong debates with those who abhor the designation/classification, identity “African-American.” They say they never been to Africa, have no connection to Africa and do not represent the people of Africa. Some wish to be known only as “American.” Others preferred Colored or Negro.

What term to identify ourselves as an ethnic group has been a matter of debate dating back to the Black abolitionists who identified themselves in African terms, “Sons of Africa, African Lodge, Free African Society, and African Baptist Church.” Some Philadelphia leaders urged Blacks “to abandon use of the word “Colored” and removal of African from our institutions.” Martin R. Delaney said “no people could gain respect unless they retained their identity.”

An informal survey of friends, relatives, church members regarding their self identification was informative.
One respondent who checked the “Other” box on the Census said he did so “because I don’t know who the hell I am.”  The “Other” box was also used by those who considered themselves “bi-racial.”  One native born naturalized Nigerian considered himself “Nigerian American.”  One respondent who was 55% European according to DNA
with European characteristics, a maternal and paternal great grandfather who were “white, self-identified as “African American.” She said she had been “segregated and socialized to be African American.” She cited an incident when a physician attending her in a hospital refused to accept and write in her medical chart her self identity “African American” and implied that she was mentally ill. She continued by saying her self-identity “African American” is often changed in her records to “white.”
Another respondent said she had been “Colored,” “Negro,” “Black” but now self-identify herself as “Afro-American.”

A respondent who self identified himself as “bi-racial” said he identifies himself as Black
when binary thinking of the computer does not allow him to be both Black and White and when there is a group benefit or personal benefit such as receiving more scholarship aid.  He never checks “Other race because other does not matter.”

A respondent who self identified himself as “Israelite” who can walk his ancestry from then to now” said “I do not appreciate anyone telling me who I am, I tell them.”

“When it comes to models of second-class citizenship for non-whites, the United States led the way and the Nazis eagerly followed.” The U.S. government has spent an inordinate amount of time and energy promoting racism defining who is non-white. When the federal government defines citizens’ identity on the basis of skin color it is discriminatory. My ancestral identity is part of my national and personal identity as an African United States person of America.

How Data on Race and Ethnicity Are Used
The decennial census is required by the Constitution and used to determine the number of seats each state has in the House of Representatives, as well as how federal money is distributed to local communities. Today’s Census Bureau markets itself as more than a head count operation but a purveyor of demographic data authorized by Congress that determine how congressional seats are apportioned, how federal dollars are distributed. And oversee federal civil rights compliance for certain demographic groups, programs/statures.


Sources: United States Census, Wikipedia.
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America.
“And He Is Us: The Land of Cotton Meets the Third Reich,” Guy Lancaster, Arkansas Review, Volume 48, Issue 2, August 2017.
Self-reflection.

Bluford Family Reunion

Trotwood was the site of the Bluford Family Reunion, September 13 to 15, hosted by
Dr. Gladys Turner Finney. Organized around the theme, "Cousins United," the goal
was to unite first cousins of the children of James "Jimmy" Bluford and Chester Lee
(Johnson) Bluford of Jefferson County, Arkansas. Of the 19 original first cousins,
13 still survive, and 8 were able to attend the reunion along with children and grandchildren.

This was the first Bluford Reunion. The majority had never met. They came from
Arkansas, California, Indiana, and Illinois. The oldest cousin, Dr. Finney, presented
the Bluford Family History. The family is now centered in Chicago.

The Bluford Family traces its origin to James/ Jim Bluford, born enslaved about 1830
 in South Carolina. James/Jim Bluford and his wife, Mary Simkins Bluford had six
 children when the 1870 Census was taken in Saluda, Edgefield County, South Carolina:
Jessie (14), Harry (12), Emmer (10), Jim (8), Will (6), and George (4).

 After emancipation, James' son, George, the progenitor of this branch of the Bluford
 Family, moved to Madison Parish (Tallulah) Louisiana where his two sons, Ebbie
 and James "Jimmy" Bluford were born. George and his two sons migrated to Linclon County, Arkansas around 1908.

A picnic was held at John Wolfe Park. Reverend Doctor Darryll Young gave the invocation. Recognition was given to the following category: Traveled the farthest, Most grandchildren,
The youngest. Those born in September were saluted with a Birthday Cake. Community
activities were planned.

Remembering Mitchell W. Wood, better known as "Bootie," Jazz Trombonist, 100th Anniversary Year of His Birth

Bootie Wood, born December 27, 1919 died in Dayton, Ohio on June 10, 1987.
He is buried in Woodland Cemetery.

This is a photo of "Bootie at conclusion of 1987 Ellington concert/Toronto."
 (Handwritten on back of photo). The photographer is Paul J. Moeffler.

How nice it is to experience the serendipity of a valuable discovery when least expected.
Such was the case and my good fortune on finding this unnamed, framed photo when
its owner brought it for sale at our church's annual flea market. I was attracted to the
photo of the handsome African American man with broad happy smile holding a
trombone. My intuition led me to think it was a local musician lost in history.
Well, it turns out that the musician, Bootie Wood, was locally and internationally
renowned, and certainly not lost in history.

For information on Bootie Wood see:
allmusic.com
Biography Encyclopedia of Jazz
Dayton Daily News Obituary
"The Randolph Leader," Vanessa Sorrell Burnside
Wikipedia