From Civil War to Civil Rights: African American Heritage in Western New York Is A Year-Round Source Of Pride For All.

Just over eighty years ago, in February 1926, the first formally organized celebration of African American Heritage was launched as “Negro History Week.” That same year, the first black female aviator, Bessie Coleman plunged to her death while preparing for an air show. Growing up in a Texas town where most black women spent their lives picking cotton or working as a domestic or in a factory, Bessie Coleman rejected all of it and moved to Chicago to become a manicurist in a Chicago barbershop. During that time, this young and adventurous girl had the opportunity to listen to stories of veterans from World War I, many relating their tales as pilots in the newly organized Amy Air Forces. Their stories inspired Coleman to leave this country for France (she was not allowed to attend aviation schools here) where she obtained her pilot license in 1921. Bessie did eventually return to the United States after she had established her reputation as a premier stunt flyer. Coleman’s tragic and premature death at age 30, unlike that of Amelia Earhart had been largely overlooked until 1995 when the US Postal Service issued a first class stamp in her honor and a book was published on her life by a former University of Rochester alumna, Elizabeth Hadley Freydberg. The book, “Bessie Coleman: The Brownskin Ladybird,” is available through most local bookstores. More information about Coleman’s courageous efforts to achieve an education and a career in a field that was largely cut off to not only African-Americans but to women as well is featured among the exhibits at the nearby Curtiss Museum of Flight in Hammondsport, New York (http://www.glenncurtissmuseum.org/). This region’s connection to true stories of challenges and adventures for African Americans like those of Bessie Coleman can be found from Lewiston to Westfield. Take for example, the story of Jermain Wesley Lougen (1814-1872), a runaway slave from Tennessee who became a nationally-known writer and lecturer and one of the most openly active “conductors” of the Underground Railroad. Lougen escaped to Canada (Hamilton and St. Catherines area), eventually returning to the United States, and settling in Syracuse. It was there that he began writing his reflections on his perilous journey to freedom, “The Rev. J. W. Lougen, as a Slave and as a Freeman. A Narrative of Real Life,” was published in 1859. An original copy of his work was scanned by the “Documenting the American South” project and is available at: http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/loguen/menu.html. You can also find Lougen’s biography, along with those of many other prominent abolitionists at: http://americanabolitionist.liberalarts.iupui.edu/ or at: http://www.nyhistory.com/central/loguen.htm Lougen met Caroline Storum, the daughter of William and Sarah Storum, an African- American couple who ran a farm in Busti, near Jamestown in Chautauqua County. The Storums were actively involved in the Underground Railroad. Caroline married the Reverend Lougen and she eventually joined him in Syracuse, where Lougen continued his work to abolish slavery. Their daughter, Sarah (Marinda S.) Lougen (1850-1933) became one of the nation’s first African-American women physicians, graduating from Syracuse University Medical College in 1876. In 1882 she traveled with her husband to the Dominican Republic and became the first woman doctor there! Another daughter of the Lougens’, Amelia, married Lewis Douglass, son of Frederick Douglass in 1869. The activities of the Storum and Loguen families, and their involvement in national anti-slavery activities, are currently being documented at the Fenton History Center in Jamestown (http://www.fentonhistorycenter.org/). The Town of Busti website (http://www.townofbusti.com/underrr.html) includes a brief description of the Storum family. Another excellent website is maintained by the Circle Association, with a comprehensive description of the history of African Americans in New York State, from Fredonia to Buffalo to Niagara Falls, and beyond. The site is at: http://www.math.buffalo.edu/~sww/0history/hwny.html. The southern tier was known as a major center of abolitionist activity in the mid-19th century. There is a publication available at many local libraries called, “Sketches in the History of the Underground Railroad,” written by Eber M. Pettit as a series of reminisces of himself, his son and others who took part in the covert activities of helping slaves escape to the North. The original articles appeared in a local paper, The Fredonia Censor in 1870, reprinted as a book in 1879 and once again reprinted in 1999 with an introduction by local teacher, Paul Leone. The stories describe the various people and places to which escaped slaves would travel as they made their way North, usually eventually into Canada. Because of the covert nature of the activities surrounding the anti-slavery movement, the authenticity of some accounts may be uncertain, but the stories continue to be retold over and over! There is a collection of material not published but just as intriguing and inspiring with its stories of people struggling to establish freedom for all. The Elial Todd Foote Papers are a compilation of essays, letters, news articles, tracts (Foote was an early member of the American Tract Society, which got its start along the eastern seaboard) and notes compiled by Foote, a physician and judge who lived in Jamestown, New York from about 1815 to 1845. Foote was also an ardent abolitionist as evidenced in the voluminous papers he wrote and collected! Included in the Foote Papers are lists of names of known locals active as abolitionists, abolition songs and poems, and a single copy of a printed sermon given by a Reverend Rufus Murray from a church in Toledo Ohio in 1845. With the sermon is a handwritten note from Murray to Foote, indicating he was sending the copy at Foote’s request. That the two knew each other is likely, especially since with more information coming to light, it was discovered that Reverend Rufus Murray was active in several upstate churches, from as far east as Utica, to Lewiston to Westfield and Jamestown! The Lewiston Historical Association (http://www.historiclewiston.org) has burial records of St. Stephens Episcopal Church, from the time of Rev. Murray, indicating burials of “strangers” in the 1840s and 1850s. The use of “strangers” in burial records was a commonly known term for runaway slaves whose identities were withheld to protect surviving family members from recapture! Foote’s awareness of his own New England pre-Revolutionary heritage (he came from a Revolutionary War era family Connecticut) made him keen to preserve the records documenting local happenings during the tumultuous period preceding the Civil War. The Foote collection, along with an amazing collection of correspondence between two brothers (both Union officers) during the Civil War are housed at the McClurg Museum, operated by the Chautauqua County Historical Society in Westfield (http://www.mcclurgmuseum.org/). After the American Civil War most African-Americans found that their lives were not improving much since their days as slaves. Every day in every part of the country, African- Americans were facing social, political and economic hurdles that would have made the strongest of people feel crushed under such oppressive conditions. One American author and lawyer, Albion Tourgee was determined to help enforce the rights of all citizens, regardless of color. Tourgee was born in Ohio and studied law at the University of Rochester. He served briefly in the Union Army during the Civil War and afterward moved his family to North Carolina where he became a “carpetbag” lawyer and judge. Tourgee was a prolific writer and soon gaimed a reputation as a radical Republican. He wrote for national magazines (such as the Inter Ocean) and published several books. His most popular novel of that time – and one that is still used in classrooms today, “A Fool’s Errand” reflects his ideologies of racial equality and his experiences living in the Reconstruction South. Tourgee purchased a home in Mayville, NY about 1881, calling the property, “Thorheim.” He and his family lived there during much of his writing years. Tourgee left Mayville in 1897 when he was appointed US consul to France. He died in France in 1905, but his remains were brought back to Mayville for burial. He was eulogized by many former acquaintances, including W.E.B. DuBois and Ida B.Wells. The McClurg Museum holds a large collection of letters that were sent to Tourgee by people all around the country, black and white, telling him of the humiliating and horrifying conditions in which they were often forced to live and work - including their exclusion from hotels, restaurants and public transport; losing homes and jobs; and even worse, being heckled, tortured and having family members killed in racially motivated attacks. Tourgee tried to assist these people, either directly with legal advice or representation - or by writing books, or by discussing these situations with many Congressmen he knew and hoped would make the legislative changes to enforce and uphold the freedom of all people. In 1891 he founded the National Citizens’ Rights Association, an organization devoted to equality for African-American citizens. Before the organization ultimately died out, it did succeed in obtaining the insertion of a civil rights clause in the New York constitution. Tourgee also influenced a then governor William McKinley of Ohio to enact the first state level legislation intended to prevent lynchings of African Americans. In 1892, Tourgee was retained by a small group of black professionals in New Orleans who set up an incident to test the constitutionality of the “Separate Car Law” in Louisina, which forbade black passengers from sitting in train cars occupied by white passengers. Tourgee was hired to represent Homer Plessy, the defendant who was a person of mixed color. The case eventually landed at the federal level and became the landmark U. S. Supreme Court case of Plessy v. Ferguson. Ultimately, in 1896, eight of the nine justices disagreed with Tourgee’s arguments (John Marshall Harlan was the only dissenting judge) setting the precedent that would legally justify racial segregation for over 50 years. Tourgee’s original argument is at the McClurg Museum along with the many heart wrenching letters from those he could not help. Tourgee’s manuscript collection was organized, microfilmed and indexed by a graduate student at Kent State University in 1964, with copies of the microfilm available for research. In addition to the abolitionist and Underground Railroad materials, both the Fenton History Museum and the McClurg Museum, hold many fascinating materials relating to the Civil War era, including records of Ladies Political Equality Clubs, Civil War soldier diaries, photos, correspondence and artifacts, and much more! Like the Loguen materials, the Tourgee collection is also maintained as part of the “Documenting the American South” project, with most materials accessible through the libraries at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (http://webcat.lib.inc.edu/search/). This past year, a conference was held at the Robert H. Jackson Center for Justice in Jamestown to consider the legacy of Tourgee. “Justice Deferred” was highlighted with an appearance by the author of a recent book about Tourgee’s life and work. Mark Elliott’s “Color Blind Justice” – available in all bookstores, includes a good deal of source materials from the McClurg Museum! There is another collection in Western New York, ironically also in Chautauqua County, documenting the life of a US Supreme Court Justice who was present when the “separate but equal” interpretation of the 14th Amendment was successfully challenged in1954 in the U.S. Supreme Court case, Brown v. Board of Education. Robert H. Jackson, a former lawyer from Chautauqua County was one of the Supreme Court Justices at the time the Plessy v. Ferguson decision was overturned. Just prior to this event, Jackson had been involved in another historically significant turning point in the history of human and civil rights. Jackson was the Chief Prosecuting Attorney presiding over the Nuremburg War Crime Trials of 1947. Jackson’s decisions were instrumental in setting the precedent for applying international law to war crimes and crimes against humanity – many of which are standards being applied in the trial of Saddam Hussein. The Robert H. Jackson Center for Justice (www.roberthjackson.org/), also in Jamestown, supports many educational programs that reflect the principles of Jackson himself in relation to international law. There are many more stories like these to be found throughout the region. The Niagara County Historical Society in Lockport (http://www.niagara-county.org/) is attempting to enhance their collection of materials documenting the experiences of an African-American man, Aaron Mossell, who fought for and eventually won the right of his family’s children to attend a “white” school that was nearer to his residence than the “black” school in the years following the Civil War! Mossell amd his wife were children of former slaves who had left Baltimore for Hamilton, Ontario, where they hoped for better opportunities for their children. After the Civil War, the Mossell’s returned to the United States where Aaaron soon owned his own bricklaying business in 19th century Lockport. His standing in the community was acknowledged in the local press, as were his persistent appeals to the local school board and even the State Commissioner of Education to exercise his rights as a taxpaying citizen. Like the Loguen family, Mossell’s descendants went on to become prominent professionals by having the opportunity to achieve the education they aspired to. The Mossell family history is available online from Penn State at: http://www.archives.upenn.edu/people/1800s/mossell_aaron_a.html Aaron’s eldest son, Charles, became a missionary in Haiti and wrote a biography of Haitian revolutionary, Louis Toussaint L’Overture. His next son, Aaron, Jr. became the first African American graduate of Penn State Law School. The youngest son, Nathan, became the first African American graduate of Penn State Medical School. Aaron’s granddaughter (from Aaron, Jr.) was Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander. Sadie became the first African American female PhD graduate at Penn State. But even more, she went on to serve on three separate presidential commissions in her lifetime – one under Truman, one under Kennedy and the last under Carter! The story of the Mossell family precedes many significant civil rights accomplishments by nearly a century. Records at the Niagara County Historical Society include images of the family, a copy of Aaron, Sr.’s original petition to the City of Lockport School Board, several newspaper articles including one from about 1871 that contained a petition from a group of African- Americans, stating they would not allow their children to attend the “black” school any longer in protest of the School Board’s decision. The Monroe Fordham Regional History Center at Buffalo State College is named after Dr. Monroe Fordham, a retired professor and former Chair of the College’s History Department who has also served on the New York State Historical Records Advisory Board and has been deeply involved in the community for a long time, including being the founder of the Afro- American Historical Association of the Niagara Frontier which has published the African- American Journal of the Western New York Frontier since 1977. The Monroe Fordham Regional History Center (http://www.buffalostate.edu/fordhamcenter/) is presently engaged in helping to preserve many historical records of historically black churches (such as the Bethel AME Church ca. 1920s-1960s), African-American owned businesses (including the Buffalo Criterion newspaper), community organizations (from the Colored Musicians Association, ca 1917-1968 to the Buffalo Branch of the NAACP and the Urban League), and records of individuals (Eva Noles a writer and nurse, Robert W. Easley a labor leader, musician and activist from Olean) all documenting the experiences of African Americans in the region. One of the most significant collections is that of the Nash Family Papers (1868-1957). Reverend Jesse Nash, Sr. was an early Civil Rights activist from Buffalo. He was acquainted with Dr. Martin Luther King as well as many other local and national activists. Nash wrote prolifically about the struggles and the efforts of African-Americans to take on the rights and responsibilities they were entitled to. The Nash House Museum (http://www.nashhousemuseum.org/) is the former residence of the Nash family in Buffalo. The staff and volunteers have developed wonderful exhibits and programs that tell the story of the Nash family and the African American Experience in Buffalo to its visitors. The Michigan Street Baptist Church in Buffalo is another well-known landmark often associated with the Underground Railroad. A lesser known element in that structure’s history is that of a former pastor, James Storum (relation to the Storums in Jamestown not known). James Storum was born in Buffalo in 1847. His grandfather, Charles Storum, was thought to be a Revolutionary War soldier. James eventually joined the Michigan Street Baptist Church. From there, he went on to become a teacher at the Wayland Seminary in Virginia. According to the records of the Seminary, Storum taught a class there at the time George Washington Carver was a student and his records indicate he had taken the class - so that in all likelihood, the two were acquainted! So there are many local stories - some with national significance, but all with compelling human strength and determination. Whether you are part of the listening and watching audience, or an active researcher and writer of the stories, taking part in their telling and re-telling is exciting and a wonderful way to bring families, friends and communities together in new and unique ways. These stories can be especially important for our young people - just as Bessie Coleman found inspiration from the stories told by war veterans, our children will learn invaluable lessons in compassion and tolerance from what happened here - hundreds of years ago or during the generations of their parents and grandparents. Perhaps there is inspiration from another source, poet Lucille Clifton. Clifton was born to working class parents in Depew, New York. She left home at 16 for college, and has made brief returns to the area over the years. Clifton has written many books – for both children and adults, in addition to her award-winning poetry. Much of her work is based on her own life experiences blended with her observations on the impact of history upon the present. Many of her critics write that the optimism that shapes her mournful poetry is nourished by her deep spiritual beliefs, including her belief in the individual’s ability to remain positive and inspired – just like Bessie Coleman!