CHISUM’S PILGRIMAGE II: MELVIN JACKSON CHISUM, SR., LOUIS HARLAN’S “SPY” UNRAVELLED IN BIOGRAPHY 1873-1945 By CECELIA RENA BROOKS Bachelor of Arts in General Studies Virginia Commonwealth UniVersity Richmond, Virginia 1990 Master of Arts in History Oklahoma State UniVersity Stillwater, Oklahoma 2014 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State UniVersity in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY December 2018 CHISUM’S PILGRIMAGE II: MELVIN JACKSON CHISUM, SR., LOUIS HARLAN’S “SPY” UNRAVELLED IN BIOGRAPHY 1873-1945 Dissertation ApproVed: Dissertation AdViser Dr. James Huston Dr. Bill Bryans Dr. Michael Logan Dr. Jean Van Delinder ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS One time is not enough. I must say “thank you” many times for the support I have been given over the years. Nothing is achieved on one’s own. I have crossed the globe in order to research and understand the American Black experience. I can never say thank you enough to my mentors Royal Henderson, Eunice and Henry Ponder, L. J. Galloway, Jane and Henry Fenner, Betty and Jack Graves, Daddy Dawe and my “mom” Nancy Dawe. I would not haVe made it without my running buddies Tracie and Brian Stewart, Paul and Michael Epstein, and E. Cheryl Ponder. Like the spiritual says, “Never could have made it,” without June, Gary, John, and Travis Chubbuck, my sister Deidra, Bettye Black, and Mary Ann Blochowiak. Thanks to OSU Phi Alpha Theta and the History Department at OSU for support. I am grateful to Dr. Clifford Edwards and Dr. Darryl Dance for their support. I Praise God that at Union Theological Seminary in Virginia the late Donald Gilbert Dawe, introduced groomed me in the works of Richard Niebuhr, Karl Barth, Sojourner Truth, James Cone, and Liberation Theology. Through my research of the Leonelle HargroVe – Dr. Isaac William Young papers I met the late Dr. Joy HargroVe and the Chisum family. Thank you, to the late Dr. MelVin Chisum, Jr. and Dr. Gloria Chisum. Thank you to Anne Johnson, Angela Peters, Diane Johnson, and Steve Archer. A special thanks to Oklahoma State UniVersity professors for sharing their knowledge with me: Susan, Dr. James Huston, Dr. Jason LaVery, Dr. DaVid De Andrea, Dr. Bill Bryans, Dr. Jean Van Delinder, Dr. L. G. Moses, Dr. Richard Rohrs, Dr. Amy Carreiro, Dr. Douglass Miller, Dr. Richard Boles, and Dr. Michael Logan. Thank you for the support given to me oVer the years at the G. Lamar Harrison Library at Langston UniVersity, the National ArchiVes Research Center in Washington, D.C., the Moorland-Springarn Research Center at Howard University in Washington, D.C., the Library of Congress, and to Dana at the Tuskegee Library ArchiVes Repository. To my family at Trinity United Methodist Church Muskogee, Oklahoma, thanks for your prayers and support. iii Acknowledgements reflect the views of the author and are not endorsed by committee members or Oklahoma State University. Name: CECELIA RENA BROOKS Date of Degree: DECEMBER, 2018 Title of Study: CHISUM’S PILGRIMAGE II: MELVIN JACKSON CHISUM, SR., LOUIS HARLAN’S “SPY” UNRAVELLED IN BIOGRAPHY 1873-1945 Major Field: HISTORY Abstract: No man’s life and work should be based on the ethics and morality of his employer, especially when the employer was the controVersial leader of American Blacks in the late-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries Booker T. Washington (BTW). In the groundbreaking biographies written by Louis Harlan about BTW, that is what happened to MelVin Chisum’s life. While black historians and journalists wrote about Chisum as charismatic and idiosyncratic during his lifetime; in the 1970s historian Harlan used Chisum’s life story in juxtaposition to BTW’s, in order to highlight the work ethic he thought BTW portrayed. Calling Chisum no more than a villainous “spy” and “proVocateur” of the era, Harlan left historians and their students with a Void in ProgressiVe Era history because Chisum represented so much more in social and political endeaVors during his lifetime. This dissertation uses Harlan’s own achieVed records, the insight of Chisum’s family members, and personal letters between Chisum and colleagues. While this dissertation does not describe all of Chisum’s deeds during his lifetime, it does giVe an oVerView of Harlan’s perceptions, a background of Chisum’s early life, corrects myths, offers a black social gospel perspectiVe of Chisum, and fills gaps in historiography. This dissertation describes and enhances both black history and American history. Unknown inter and intra race alliances are revealed that were once thought of as unheard of in American history. Chisum’s Pilgrimage II places the end of BTW’s administration of accommodation, which Harlan belieVed ended in 1916, squarely in President Franklin Delano RooseVelt’s New Deal Administration. Groundbreaking research shows that Chisum, once a spy for the American black leader BTW, became an inVestigator for the Public Works Administration for two consecutiVe terms of the New Deal. From there the dissertation briefly indicates of how Bookerites like Chisum supported the CiVil Rights moVement by backing the National Association for the AdVancement of Colored People (NAACP). iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................................. 1 Discerning the Truth From the Dead ....................................................................................... 1 Review of Literature ......................................................................................................................22 Forward .............................................................................................................................................. 43 II. CONCEPTS IN BLACK HISTORY .....……………………………………………………………..45 Faithful Witness, Chisum, Black Social Gospel, and Black Civil Religion .............. .45 Chisum and The Christology of Isabella’s Journey to become Sojourner Truth. 61 III. BACKGROUND ........................................................................................................................... 85 It is Not the Size of the Dog in the Fight but the Size of Fight in the Dog……...85 Chisum’s Unique Links to Afro-Texans ........................................................................... 92 LeaVing Mexia: Finding A Way Out ................................................................................. 107 From Pullman Porter to Pugilist to Journalist ........................................................... 125 IV. THE STROKE OF A PEN: THE VILLAINIZATION OF MELVIN CHISUM ............. 142 Wizards, Genies, and Jim Crow: Harlan Redraws Chisum .................................... 148 Chisum The Entrepreneur .................................................................................................. 162 V. CHISUM’S PILGRIMAGE IN OKLAHOMA ......................................................................... 184 When the Wind Comes Sweeping Down the Plains…………………………………..184 A New Army for Black Indians In Oklahoma .............................................................. 191 MelVin Chisum Versus Inman Page at Langston, Oklahoma ................................ 204 v Chapter Page VI. MELVIN CHISUM IN THE 1920s ....................................................................................... 227 Service, Service, Service ...…………………………………………………………………….. 227 Another Look At Emmett Scott ......................................................................................... 232 Chisum; A Black Civil Religion Cult Hero? ................................................................... 239 To Chicago: Chisum, Oscar De Priest, and Samuel Insull ...................................... 254 VII. THE TUSKEGEE VETERANS HOSPITAL CRISIS ........................................................ 266 You May Come This Far But No Further (Job 38:11).............................................. 266 White Conflict Over the Veterans Hospital ................................................................. 275 Uncovering Black Political Espionage at Tuskegee ................................................. 290 “Oklahoma: Sit alone, talk and watch a hawk make lazy circles in the sky!”300 VIII. CROSSING OVER, TRIPPING UP, THE END OF ACCOMMODATION 1930s . 311 Chisum Versus HooVer ........................................................................................................ 318 Farley’s Check Mate: The Big Four .................................................................................. 329 Chisum = Big Four + Young + Oklahoma ..................................................................... 345 Crossing Over, Tripping Up, and Ending Accommodation ................................... 360 A Mystery Remains. Was Chisum Murdered? ............................................................ 372 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................... 379 APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................... 396 vi CHAPTER I DISCERNING TRUTH FROM THE DEAD “The story of my father will neVer be told, because the details are shrouded in clouds of history and the people who lived those events have gone on to their rewards in another world. Louis R. Harlan’s reference to Dad as “Booker T. Washington’s spy” is an example of this. Referring to him in this way