The African-American Community and the Cuba Pageant of 1898

Page 15 Winter, 1999 Volume 33, Number 4

Timber, Steel, Law, Politics St. Paul’s Pioneering Lawyers—Page 4

The signing of the Briand-Kellogg Pact in Paris on August 27, 1928. Frank B. Kellogg is seated at the table. This copy of a painting of the historic event is from the Minnesota Historical Society. See article beginning on page 4. RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Executive Director ■W" "W" RAMSEY COUNTY Priscilla Famham Editor Virginia Brainard Kunz History RAMSEY COUNTY Volume 33, Number 4 Winter, 1999 HISTORICAL SOCIETY BOARD OF DIRECTORS Laurie A. Zenner CONTENTS Chair Howard M. Guthmann 3 Letters President James Russell 4 Timber, Steel, Law, and Politics First Vice President Anne Cowie Wilson St. Paul’s Pioneering Attorneys and Second Vice President Their More Interesting Cases Richard A. Wilhoit Secretary Samuel H. Morgan Ron Zweber Treasurer 1 4 More About the Life and Times of Frank B. Kellogg W. Andrew Boss, Peter K. Butler, Charlotte H. John M. Lindley Drake, Mark G. Eisenschenk, Joanne A. Eng- lund, Robert F. Garland, John M. Lindley, Ju­ 1 5 ‘300 Afro-American Performers’ dith Frost Lewis, George A. Mairs, Marlene Marschall, Richard T. Murphy, Sr., Bob Olsen, The Great Cuba Pageant of 1898 Linda Owen, Fred Perez, Marvin J. Pertzik, And the Struggle for Civil Rights Vicenta D. Scarlett, Glenn Wiessner, Charles H. Wilhams, Jr.. Dave Riehle EDITORIAL BOARD 21 Growing Up in St. Paul John M. Lindley, chair; Thomas H. Boyd, Thomas C. Buckley, Pat Hart, Virginia Brainard Eleanor Joins the Family at the Fish Hatchery Kunz, Thomas J. Kelley, Tom Mega, Laurie Murphy, G. Richard Slade, Vicenta Scarlett, Muriel Mix Hawkins Laurie Zenner. 23 Books HONORARY ADVISORY BOARD Elmer L. Andersen, Olivia I. Dodge, Charlton Dietz, William Finney, Otis Godfrey, Jr., Publication of Ramsey County History is supported in part by a gift from Robert S. Hess, Fred T. Lanners, Jr., D. W. Clara M. Claussen and Frieda H. Claussen in memory of Henry H.Cowie, Jr. “Don” Larson, George Latimer, Frank and by a contribution from the late Reuel D. Harmon Marzitelli, Joseph S. Micallef, Robert Mirick, Samuel Morgan, Marvin J. Pertzik, J. Jerome Plunkett, James Reagan, Solly Robins. Ros­ A Message from the Editorial Board alie E. Wahl, Donald D. Wozniak. he winter issue of Ramsey County History opens with a fascinating account RAMSEY COUNTY COMMISIONERS of how some pioneering lawyers who were involved in cases relating to the Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chairman T Commissioner Susan Haigh timber and steel industries helped shape and change the practice of law and pol­ Commissioner Tony Bennett itics in Minnesota. Written by Samuel H. Morgan, a retired St. Paul attorney, Commissioner Dino Guerin Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt this article ranges from President Theodore Roosevelt persuading Frank B. Kel­ Commissioner Janice Rettman logg and Cordenio A. Severance to represent the government in key anti-trust Commissioner Jan Wiessner cases in the first decade of this century to the great 1962 election recount in­ Terry Schütten, manager, Ramsey County volving incumbent governor Elmer L. Anderson and his challenger, lieutenant Ramsey County History is published quar­ governor Karl F. Rolvaag. terly by the Ramsey County Historical David Riehle’s article examining the reaction of the African-American com­ Society, 323 Landmark Center, 75 W. Fifth Street, St. Paul, Minn. 55102 (651-222- munity in St. Paul to the fighting in Cuba in 1898 reminds us that the struggle of 0701). Printed in U.S.A. Copyright, 1999, African-Americans in Minnesota to obtain full civil rights didn’t begin in the Ramsey County Historical Society. ISSN 1960s. By using information culled from the pages of St. Paul’s articulate and Number 0485-9758. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reprinted influential African-American newspaper, The Appeal, Riehle demonstrates that or otherwise reproduced without written the decision to go to war with Spain in 1898 brought out complex reactions permission from the publisher. The Soci­ from the local African-American community. What Riehle finds in the cover­ ety assumes no responsibility for statements made by contributors. Fax 651-223-8539; age of the pageant in The Appeal is clear-cut ambivalence as to the meaning of e-mail address [email protected].; web site the war for the civil rights of African-Americans in St. Paul. address www.rchs.com John M. Lindley, Chair, Editorial Board

2 RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY Books

American history at Yale; and his ap­ has never recovered.” The doors of the Reluctant Dissenter— An Autobiography pointment, in 1965, as an auxiliary church began to close for him. Finally, bishop in the archdiocese of St. Paul. finding himself unable as a priest to James Patrick Shannon The mid-1960s, however, were an support Humanae Vitae (Of Human New York: The Crossroad intensely difficult time for Americans, Life), the issued in 1968 by Publishing Company as well as for the Catholics among Pope Paul VI which prohibited birth 228 pages, index ($19.95 cloth) them, and Shannon writes vividly of control among Catholics, Shannon that era. He marched shoulder-to-shoul- knew he had to resign from his office. Reviewed by Virginia Brainard Kunz der with Martin Luther King in Selma, He found a new life as a college ad­ protested the Vietnam War before it ministrator, as a lawyer after earning a nce—and still—a Roman Catholic was acceptable to do so, and served as law degree and, finally back home in bishop, lawyer, historian, and pres­ the spokesman for the National Confer­ O Minnesota, as an executive of philan­ ident for twelve years of St. Thomas ence of Bishops. For the Roman thropic foundations, work he saw as a College (now the University of St. , those were the years continuation of his lifelong ministry Thomas), Jim Shannon, as he is so also of Vatican II, a profoundly threat­ The loneliness he experienced without widely and affectionately known, occu­ ening event for many of the church’s pies a special place among the people of traditionalists but for Shannon the ses­ the supportive congeniality of the Minnesota. Now he has written the sions were “the most exciting and sus­ priesthood was eased by a happy mar­ story of his extraordinary journey, a tained spiritual and intellectural experi­ riage to Ruth Wilkinson, whom he had moving first-person account by the first ence of my adult life.” met in 1964 in Washington, D. C. Roman Catholic bishop in the United He writes that, “In the category of This is a gently written book. Shannon States to resign from his office over a other providential events during the describes a fellow bishop as “the kind of matter of conscience. twentieth century, I would, without hes- bishop Jesus Christ had in mind when he While his book sheds light on an im­ titation, cite the Second Vatican Coun­ put together the original team.” More portant aspect of the unsettling years, cil convened by Pope John XXIII in than that, it’s a riveting book in his ac­ for Catholics, that followed Vatican n, 1962, as the single most graphic illus­ counts of the sometimes Byzantine poli­ it will be much more than that for many tration of divine intervention in human tics of the Catholic church as he experi­ readers. Shannon describes a seemingly affairs in this century. It is, by a wide enced them in the 1960s a time when idyllic childhood in South St. Paul with margin, the most remarkable religious American Catholics were striving to fol­ a strong mother and a father who placed event in my lifetime.” low Rome at the same time as they strag­ a high premium on education—clearly The changes Vatican II created for gled to serve their own people. The hurt, the contributors, along with the church, American Catholic parishes, however, bewilderment, and anger over his own to a strong moral compass that guided set off an anguishing series of events treatment is clear, but so is his love for his him through a troubled period in his that changed Shannon’s life. His partic­ faith and his commitment to it. life. ipation in an NBC documentary, “The Shannon notes that he completed the He takes his readers through his New American Catholic,” televised na­ manuscript for this book in 1979 but, years at the Christian Brothers’ Cretin tionally in 1968, aroused the wrath of after two publishers had rejected it, set High School and St. Thomas Military the powerful and vindictive Cardinal it aside, uncertain about “going public” Academy, which he entered on scholar­ Francis McIntyre of Los Angeles. The ship when he decided to study to be a most reactionary of the American at that time. It is gratifying that he has priest. St. Paul Seminary followed, as church prelates, McIntyre attacked done so now. This is an important auto­ did a steady progression through ordi­ Shannon directly. As Shannon saw his biography. It should be widely read. nation, assignment to the St. Paul support among his peers crumble under Cathedral parish; the St. Thomas Col­ McIntyre’s “iron fist,” “My great pride Virginia Brainard Kunz is editor of lege presidency (the youngest college in being an American Catholic bishop Ramsey County History. president in America); a doctorate in suffered a blow that day from which it

RAMSEY COUNTY HISTORY 23 •f

99 - A Drama of Freedom....

BENEFIT OF M y n League ot Minnesota.

TO REPRESENTED AT

WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY, LYCEUM THEATER. NOVEMBER 2d and 3d. Hennepin Are., near 7Mb* 'Minneapolis.

' « ' i ....WEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY.. »•••* NOVEMBER 9th and lOtii- Cor. Tth *nd tVAbasha Sts., St. Paul.

MUSIC, AIT, ■ Dll AM A, COMEDT. p r

iReserveO Seats. Galleru, Boxes and Looes, 41.00.756,506. 256, $8 and SIO.

The four-act pageant presented as a benefit for the American League of Min­ Secure Reserved Seats at‘the METKQPOWTAN MUSIC CO., Minneapolis, or CONOVER MUSIC CO., nesota in November, 1898. See Dave 8i.i*anl. £11 who^ifccure EXCHANGE TICKETS of Patronesses, Riehle’s article about St. Paul’s African- Performers or at Music, Book and Drug Stores can reserve, their seats American community and the Spanish- ON* DAY IN ADVANCE OF PEGUI.AR SALE. American War beginning on page 15■

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