ABSTRACT
Title of Dissertation: “JIM CROW, YANKEE STYLE”: CIVIL RIGHTS
AND WORKING-CLASS POTTSTOWN,
PENNSYLVANIA, 1941-1969.
Matthew G. Washington, Doctor of Philosophy, May 2019.
Dissertation Chair: David Taft Terry, Ph.D.
Department of History, Geography, and Museum Studies
Between 1941 and 1969, activists in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, a small working- class borough in Montgomery County, organized and conducted African-American civil rights work. Through the efforts of organizations like the Pottstown NAACP, YMCA,
Pottstown Civic League, and the Pottstown Committee on Human Relations, African
American and white civil rights activists coordinated such black-centered activism. Also important to these efforts toward combating racial inequality was the advocacy of the town’s major newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury. Although Pottstown, which sits approximately forty miles to the northwest of Philadelphia, was not a large city, this dissertation will demonstrate that it served as an important locale of civil rights activism all the same. Indeed, Pottstown activists’ work and influence even had national impact. By conceptualizing Pottstown as such, this dissertation strays from a dominant interpretive approach utilized by scholarship that examines civil rights work in the twentieth-century urban North. Generally speaking, these studies have stressed large northern cities as the
principal centers of civil rights activism. Yet, as this dissertation asserts, if Pottstown never exceeded 27,000 residents from 1941 to 1969, like other small locales in the North, its impact on the nation’s civil rights history was outsized.
“JIM CROW, YANKEE STYLE”: CIVIL RIGHTS AND WORKING-CLASS
POTTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, 1941-1969.
by
Matthew G. Washington
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy
MORGAN STATE UNIVERSITY
May 2019
ii
“JIM CROW, YANKEE STYLE”: CIVIL RIGHTS AND WORKING-CLASS
POTTSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA, 1941-1969.
by
Matthew G. Washington
has been approved
March 2019
DISSERTATION COMMITTEE APPROVAL:
______, Chair
David Taft Terry, Ph.D.
______
Robert W. Morrow, Ph.D.
______
Lawrence Peskin, Ph.D.
______
Peter Levy, Ph.D.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This dissertation has benefited from the help and support of many. I express a sincere thanks to Dr. David Taft Terry for chairing the work and his many insightful suggestions. I am also grateful to Drs. Lawrence Peskin and Robert W. Morrow, my committee members, for their recommendations. In addition, I express gratitude to Dr.
Peter Levy, the outside reader of this dissertation, whose expertise has benefited this work tremendously. Further, I am thankful to the many archivists at the Library of
Congress in Washington D.C., the Special Collections Research Center at Temple
University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and others, who have assisted me in the research of this dissertation.
Special thanks to the Benjamin A. Quarles Humanities and Social Science
Institute at Morgan State University for naming me a Graduate Fellow during the period of August 2018 to May 2019. I am appreciative of the funding received from the institute, which has allowed me to conduct extensive research for this dissertation. I am also grateful for participating in the institute’s fall 2018 conference as a presenter, where
I was able to share my research on Pottstown with a community of scholars. In addition, I express gratitude to the Department of History, Geography, and Museum Studies at
Morgan State for receiving the Isabel McConnell Memorial Scholarship, as well as the
School of Graduate Studies for funding, which has supported me during my time as a doctoral student.
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Finally, I express gratitude to family. I thank my parents, Deborah and Phillip
Washington Sr., for their unwavering support. Thanks also to my siblings, Jennifer and
Phillip Washington Jr., the extended Washington family, and friends.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...... 1
CHAPTER 2: WORLD WAR II AND THE DAWNING OF CIVIL RIGHTS
WORK IN POTTSTOWN ...... 39
CHAPTER 3: THE POTTSTOWN MERCURY AND THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL
RIGHTS ADVOCACY ...... 84
CHAPTER 4: THE PINNACLE OF INTERRACIAL CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISM
IN POTTSTOWN……………………………………………………………………..140
CHAPTER 5: THE POTTSTOWN NAACP AND THE NEW CHALLENGES OF
SMALL-TOWN CIVIL RIGHTS WORK IN THE NORTH ...... 199
CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSION...... 238
BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 245
1
CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
When thinking about civil rights history in the United States and its centers of geographical importance during the twentieth century, the working-class borough of
Pottstown, Pennsylvania, located in Montgomery County and approximately forty miles to the northwest of Philadelphia, does not usually come to mind.1 However, Pottstown was a paramount location of civil rights activism. Between 1941 and 1969, local activists
—black and white—mounted multiple campaigns centered upon ameliorating conditions of African Americans. Utilizing organizations both inside and outside of the borough— churches, civil rights groups, and the town’s main newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury— activists not only achieved success in Pottstown, but nationally as well. Capturing the ways local activists mobilized and implemented civil rights work, this dissertation demonstrates that Pottstown was an important locale of civil rights organizing and activism—just as important as other regions throughout the urban North, including those with larger populations.
From 1941 to 1969, Pottstown African Americans and whites organized and advanced civil rights initiatives that combatted racial prejudices indigenous to the region.
During World War II, local activist organizations worked to address civil rights needs of local African Americans. At the forefront of these efforts, of course, were black
1 Paul Chancellor, A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952 (Pottstown: Historical Society of Pottstown, 1953), 46. For quote in title of dissertation, see Normand Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
2 community institutions like Pottstown’s Second Baptist Church (founded in the mid-
1890s), and organizations like the Pottstown branch of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), which was established in November 1942. 2
Another organization whose efforts were heavily influenced by black activists was the
Pottstown Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and its “Negro Extension
2 Michael T. Snyder, “The history of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church,” Mercury, February 5, 2012, http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/MP/20120205/LIFE01/120209715; “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3; “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3.
Work” program, which launched in January 1945.3 Similarly, the black-led Pottstown
Civic League (PCL) was established in 1950, and tackled various issues relating to
African-American improvement. 4 Institutions like Second Baptist, and local organizations like the NAACP branch, the Negro Extension Work program of the
YMCA, and the PCL not only provided local civil rights work with grassroots activists, but also became an important proving ground for local African-American leadership.
These same leaders went forward to great success in future local civil rights endeavors.5
Whites, too, were activated in support of democratic racial change. Organized only months following Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954) the
Pottstown Committee on Human Relations (PCHR), for example, an interracial organization of advocates and activists, had great impact. The PCHR was a byproduct of both national and local civil rights work. Whereas Brown influenced the Pottstown
Mercury to begin publishing reports that exposed discrimination against African-
3 “Final Plans Made for Negro Center,” Pottstown Mercury, January 26, 1945, 10. Also see “Negro Activity Plans Pushed: Committee to Recruit Leaders for Groups to Be Sponsored by Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1945, 1, 14.
4 “Negro Leaders Form Pottstown Civic Group For Self-Improvement,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1950, 1.
5 “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3; “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; “Final Plans Made for Negro Center,” Pottstown Mercury, January 26, 1945, 10; “Negro Leaders Form Pottstown Civic Group For Self-Improvement,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1950, 1; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, Fellowship House (Philadelphia, Pa.) Records, SCRC 281, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania [hereinafter, FHPA_Temple].
3
Americans on the local front, the newspaper’s reporting, in turn, served as the impetus of the PCHR.6
The efforts of PCHR members and the impact of its programs were amplified by the Pottstown group’s connections to another, larger, reform organization located in
Philadelphia, Fellowship House. Starting in the early 1940s, Fellowship House continually fought for interracialism and integration, and promoted egalitarian values in the world. Beyond its headquarters in Philadelphia, Fellowship House also owned and operated a farm near Pottstown in Fagleysville, Pennsylvania.7 Fellowship House and
Farm enjoyed a number of affiliated organizations across the United States,8 and had the support of an extensive web of civil rights activists with national clout. Ultimately,
Fellowship House and Farm activists would utilize this expansive web to promote the
PCHR, specifically its “Pottstown Plan,” throughout the country.9
6 For local coverage regarding Brown v. Board, see “Supreme Court Rules Public School Segregation Must End: Further Hearings Set for Fall,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 2; “NAACP Hails Move As ‘Vindication’ of 45-Year Battle,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 2. Regarding PCHR establishing, see “Human Relations Group Will Meet Tonight,” Pottstown Mercury, July 28, 1954, 1; “Human Relations Group Will Meet,” Pottstown Mercury, July 14, 1954, 1.
7 Stanley Keith Arnold, Building the Beloved Community: Philadelphia’s Interracial Civil Rights Organizations and Race Relations, 1930-1970 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014), 3, 51.
8 [Recipient not identified] to Mae Gellman, 16 June 1955, Branches [MD] Baltimore, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/32, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Cornell Hewson, 12 May 1955, Branches [MO] Kansas City, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/42, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Henrietta C. Carry, Branches [NY] Brooklyn, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/57, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Alberta Morris, 12 April 1955, Branches [OH] Columbus, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 79/77, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Harold C. Lohren, 25 March 1955, Branches [Wash. D.C.] Washington, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/12, FHPA_Temple.
9 For example, see The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Pottstown Human Relations Council…for equality: The Pottstown Plan; What has happened in two years?, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. Regarding national clout, can see Marjorie Penney to William H. Gremley, 23 June 1955, Correspondence,
4
In support of such activism the most consistent local white-led advocate promoting African-American civil rights was the town’s major newspaper, the Pottstown
Mercury. The positive impact of the newspaper on the efforts of activists cannot be overstated. More than simply reporting news of civil rights developments, or even voicing support for racial reforms, through its editorials and its opinion pieces, the
Pottstown Mercury advocated the cause. Established in 1931, the Pottstown Mercury gave important visibility to civil rights activists and racial reformers in and around
Pottstown, especially during the critical years between 1944 and 1967. The newspaper used its reporting and op-ed pages at a number of important junctures to pressure what it deemed to be the local forces of racism and discrimination toward changing undemocratic practices. Some of the newspaper’s efforts went beyond Pottstown, influencing not only regional, but national developments as well.10
Despite the interracial—and at times national—nature of some of the most critical work done in the name of racial progress in Pottstown, the fact that borough blacks were consistently at the forefront of such work should not be ignored. Between 1941 and
1969, Pottstown blacks played instrumental leadership roles in local civil rights work and carried-out most of the activism by themselves. Despite the small size of their community, black Pottstown activists were generally the vanguard of local civil rights leadership from WWII into the late-1960s. Some of them were Pottstown natives, while
[M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/88, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Roy Wilkins, 23 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
10 Shandy Hill, Dear Sir: You Cur (Philadelphia: Whitmore Publishing Co., 1969), 17-19. For samples of the reporting, see Larry Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1, 16; Frank J. Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3; Normand Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
5 others were southern-born migrants to the city by way of the Great Migration. Whatever their origin, these activists helped bring about tangible change in and around Pottstown for themselves and the larger black community.
This dissertation is organized into six chapters. Following this introductory chapter, Chapter 1, the remainder of this dissertation explores the historical contexts by which Pottstown African Americans, sometimes in collaboration with whites, began challenging black inequality in and around the borough. Chapter 2, for example, “World
War II and the Dawning of Civil Rights Work in Pottstown” examines the beginning of modern activism in the borough. During this period, civil rights work related to activists and their efforts towards fighting local inequalities, which specifically targeted African
Americans. In this context, they incorporated a variety of initiatives such as meetings and public gatherings, canvassing for memberships, fundraising, organizing multiple programs, and even openly confronting the practice of racial bigotry within employment and by individuals themselves. Aligning with historian Richard M. Dalfiume’s assessment of WWII as a “watershed” in civil rights history, Chapter 2 explores the interplay between the resistance strategies of equalization and interracialism as the
Pottstown civil rights work began.11
Conceptually, “equalization” comprehends African-American activists’ work to produce opportunities for blacks even within circumstances that could ultimately be deemed racist and exclusionary. Black activists’ utilization of equalization to navigate
11 Kevin M. Kruse and Stephen Tuck, “Introduction: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement,” in Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement, ed. Kevin M. Kruse and Stephen Tuck (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 4-6; Richard M. Dalfiume, “The ‘Forgotten Years’ of the Negro Revolution,” Journal of American History, vol. 55, no. 1 (June 1968), 90-106, www.jstor.org/stable/1894253.
6 discriminatory patterns and habits was necessary because whites who held disproportionate political, economic, and social power would effectively blunt more democratic circumstances. Through equalization strategies, however, local African
Americans created opportunities for a sort of agency and autonomy into the WWII years.
Indeed, such an approach enabled them to implement their important civil rights work.12
After WWII, however, and its liberalizing domestic atmosphere in the face of emerging
“cold war” foreign policy against communism, some whites embraced an anti-racist interracial vision of the nation’s future, supporting reforms in support of that vision.
Recognizing this shift—which would produce, for example, federal court decisions like
Brown, and federal legislation strengthening civil rights—blacks also embraced interracial solutions.13
In Chapter 2, equalization will be explored from three perspectives: (1) through the history of efforts to secure a cemetery for African Americans by Pottstown’s Second
Baptist Church, including the leadership of its pastor, Rev. Heywood L. Butler; (2) from the vantage of black activists like William D. Corum, who operated through the “Negro
Extension Work” program of the Pottstown YMCA to meet the needs of underserved blacks in the community; and, (3) by interrogating the efforts of William’s older brother,
James H. Corum, who built up the local branch of the NAACP in the war years to be a force for democratic change on behalf of Pottstown blacks. James Corum’s work will
12 John A. Kirk, “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers' Salary Equalization: African American Women Educators and the Early Civil Rights Struggle,” Journal of African American History 94, no. 4, Special Issue: “Documenting the NAACP's First Century” (Fall 2009): 530, https://www.jstor.org/stable/25653977.
13 Doug Rossinow, Visions of Progress: The Left-Liberal Tradition in America (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008), 195, 212-32; Mary L. Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000), 12-13.
7 also be used to explore the emergence of the liberal interracialism strategy by examining his efforts in leadership of a Pottstown Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)- affiliated labor union, Local 2326, and to capture the ways that whites collaborated with blacks to promote and implement moves toward first-class citizenship for all.
Chapter 3, “The Pottstown Mercury and the Beginning of Civil Rights Advocacy” is like Chapter 2 in the sense that it illuminates civil rights advocacy, which started as the
Second World War raged. However, it focuses mostly upon the Pottstown Mercury and its beginning civil rights work. To conduct such activism, the borough newspaper collaborated with local African Americans on several projects. Essentially, they center upon four events. The first concerns African-American Thomas W. Corum, the middle brother of James H. and William D., becoming Pottstown’s pioneering black police officer, while the second focuses upon the all-black Allegheny Conference of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church buying land nearby Pottstown in Pine Forge,
Pennsylvania. Early on in Pine Forge, the Allegheny Conference met fervent white resistance. The third event, in turn, highlights the Pottstown Mercury’s civil rights advocacy regarding the Pottstown Bowling Association (PBA), the borough associate of the American Bowling Congress (ABC). Locally, the PBA aligned with the ABC and its discriminatory practice, which excluded African Americans from membership rolls.
From there the chapter finishes by examining a housing dilemma that almost took away many residential properties from local working-class African Americans. Regarding this latter residential issue, it also inspired the establishment of the PCL. Here, a central figure involved with the PCL was Pottstown doctor and African-American Daniel Lee. Finally,
8 the four civil rights projects that this chapter documents received important coverage and advocacy from the Pottstown Mercury.
Chapter 4, “The Pinnacle of Interracial Civil Rights Activism in Pottstown,” concerns how borough civil rights activism had its greatest national impact. Weeks following the United States Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown ruling, the Pottstown Mercury published reports from one of its employees, white journalist Normand Poirier, which threw light upon black inequality throughout the borough. The articles eventually gained national attention. Moreover, as Brown influenced Poirier’s reporting, his journalistic advocacy served as the impetus for establishment of the PCHR, another borough civil rights group that ultimately obtained national exposure. The PCHR also brought together seasoned activists—black and white—in Pottstown, as well as outside civil rights workers, particularly from Fellowship House, located in Philadelphia. They included white activists A. Herbert Haslam, Marjorie Penney, and Mitzi R. Jacoby.
Chapter 5, “The Pottstown NAACP and the New Challenges of Small-Town Civil
Rights Work in the North,” examines the revitalized borough NAACP. While the borough NAACP disbanded around the time the Second World War ended, it revitalized in late 1951. Shortly before the group revitalized, however, a local issue arose. In essence, the issue focused upon an African-American suspected perpetrator and gun- carrying whites who teamed up with local law enforcement. The notion of white vigilantism became a concern that eventually inspired the national NAACP in New York
City to directly act. From there, Chapter 5 spotlights local leadership and activism of the
Pottstown NAACP. Between 1951 and 1969, local African-Americans Charles Prince,
James H. Corum, and Newstell Marable led the NAACP branch. Ultimately, this chapter
9 analyzes their tenures and the civil rights work they conducted. It also highlights local white resistance to integration, particularly during the 1960s. Chapter 6, “Conclusion,” summarizes the main points of this dissertation.
“There are many unfortunate gaps in the full story of Pottstown,” local historian
Paul Chancellor observes in 1953, “many uncertain points to clarify, and many changes to record year by year.”14 As much as this dissertation adds to the literature of northern civil rights, at its core the work is local history. Following Chancellor’s suggestions, this dissertation hopes to paint a greater picture of the twentieth-century black experience in and around Pottstown.
Methodology
Organized chronologically as well as thematically, this dissertation moves away from the geographical focuses of both the America South and large northern cities.
Specifically, it centers the small northern locale of Pottstown and the civil rights work spearheaded there. Based upon a variety of primary materials—newspaper accounts, census records, organizational publications, reports and correspondences, to name a few—this dissertation captures the ways in which Pottstown activists conducted and orchestrated their important civil rights work. Like multiple histories on northern civil rights, it reconsiders the 1954 to 1968 timeframe.15 Rather than incorporate the traditional
14 Chancellor, A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, v.
15 This dissertation utilizes historian Yohuru Williams’ timeframe. Williams notes that “The dominant 1954 to 1968 paradigm” begins with the United States Supreme Court announcing Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas, in 1954. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 1968 killing, Williams continues, then concludes this same orthodox interpretation. See Yohuru Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement (New
10 timespan, this dissertation begins its analysis of civil rights in Pottstown in 1941, and concludes in 1969. By doing so, it goes against the traditional periodization of civil rights on both ends of the temporal continuum. By reconsidering the 1954 to 1968 period, it follows historian Jacqueline Dowd Hall’s influential 2005 essay, “The Long Civil
Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past.” Since Hall’s article, scholarship has reassessed the traditional fourteen-year period.16 In the end, this dissertation contributes another interpretive approach, centering upon a small northern borough and its direct contributions to effecting civil rights change. The perspective is not only beneficial to the historiography of twentieth-century civil rights, but Pottstown and Southeastern
Pennsylvania history as well.
Before going any further, a word on the rationale behind selecting Pottstown is warranted. The author chose to study Pottstown because he grew up near the borough in
Stowe, Pennsylvania. The genesis of this scholarship, however, began while completing master’s coursework at West Chester University of Pennsylvania (West Chester,
Pennsylvania). It was here that the writer first learned about Pottstown and its connection to twentieth-century civil rights. On the other hand, while taking doctoral classes in
York: Routledge, 2016), xi-xii. Historians Jacquelyn Dowd Hall and Brian Purnell periodize the traditional timeframe as 1954 to 1965. Although Williams’ timeframe is slightly lengthier than Hall and Purnell’s, it, nevertheless, aligns directly with the shorter timeframe. Specifically, Williams, Hall, and Purnell’s time periods emphasize the southern regional focus on the one hand, as well as the 1964 and 1965 civil rights legislations being the high-water marks on the other. See Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement xi-xii; Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” Journal of American History 91, no. 4 (March 2005), 1235, www.jstor.org/stable/3660172; Brian Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2013), 3.
16 Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1235; Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement xi-xii; Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3.
11 history at Morgan State University, the author was then first introduced to the historiography of civil rights and some of the recent interpretive approaches found within the scholarship.
That said, a challenge faced throughout writing this dissertation concerned the accumulation of sources, as there have been scant works examining civil rights in
Pottstown until now.17 Nevertheless, primary sources were ultimately located, and then gathered from several depositories. In fact, evidence from the Library of Congress (LOC) in Washington D.C., and the Special Collections Research Center (SCRC) at Temple
University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, contribute directly to this dissertation. The
LOC’s NAACP collection provides excellent background on the Pottstown NAACP during the Second World War, when the group revitalized in 1951, and information concerning Pottstown chapter associates.18 The SCRC at Temple houses Fellowship
House and Farm Records, which also documents activism conducted by the Pottstown
NAACP during the 1960s. Here, the work revolves around borough chapter initiatives to desegregate Sunnybrook Swim Club in Pottstown. Furthermore, the SCRC provides great
17 For two recent illustrations that highlight aspects of local civil rights, see Evan Brandt, “Black History Month: Pine Forge Academy celebrating 70 years of learning,” Mercury, February 27, 2016, http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/MP/20160227/NEWS/160229727; Mercury Staff, “Community icon Newstell Marable, longtime Pottstown NAACP president, dies at 84,” Mercury, January 26, 2015, https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/community-icon-newstell-marable-longtime-pottstown-naacp-president- dies-at/article_89e2abbc-de8d-54e6-ab1a-babdfb83abc7.html
18 For example, see Lucille Black to James Corum, Sr., 23 December 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, Records of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Library of Congress, Washington D.C. [hereinafter, NAACP_LOC]; “Seek To Advert Violence In Pennsylvania Town,” August 2, 1951, Box II: C354, Folder 5, “Flamer. John W., JAN. 18,-OCT. 10, 1951,” Branch File, NAACP_LOC; Doris M. Edwards to Thomas R. Ramsey, 17 November 1969, Box E7, “Phoenixville Y.C. PA., 1969,” Manuscript Division, Group IV, NAACP_LOC.
12 evidence regarding the PCHR, specifically its “Pottstown Plan” activism, as well as
Fellowship House and Farm’s connection to such work. 19
Long-time Pottstown Mercury editor Shandy Hill’s autobiography Dear Sir: You
Cur (1969), provides an excellent perspective on the local black experience from a white ally. Hill’s 1969 book not only throws light upon the Pottstown Mercury’s philosophical methodologies towards newspapering, which the longtime editor mainly cultivated, but the text also provides several illustrations regarding some of the publication’s particular activism towards advancing local civil rights.20
In addition to the physical archives and Hill’s autobiography, this dissertation has utilized several online depositories. Newspapers.com by ancestry holds many articles from the Pottstown Mercury, which provide excellent evidence that spans the entirety of the dissertation. The same online holding contains multiple other newspapers used, as does ProQuest, especially its collections regarding the Philadelphia Tribune and
Baltimore Afro-American. These latter newspapers give the dissertation important black- centered perspectives. At the same time, several other databases have been beneficial to this dissertation. FamilySearch.org from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints provides primary data in the form of census records and other biographical information.
Moreover, Census.gov provides further population statistics for the dissertation, while, on the other hand, evidence compiled from adventistarchives.org and blacksdahistory.org is
19 James E. Gaut to Harry Boyer, 5 September 1961, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple; “Report Of The Test Of The Sunnybrook Swimming Club August 27, 1961 Pottstown, Pennsylvania,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937- 1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
20 Hill, Dear Sir, 2, 17, 50-63.
13 utilized for the all-black Seventh-day Adventist group. Finally, another online depository worth mentioning is Google Books, which, among other primary sources utilized in the present dissertation, digitally archives the NAACP’s Crisis publication, which supplies data on the Pottstown NAACP, as well as the PCHR.
Theoretical Approaches
In Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North
(2008), historian Thomas J. Sugrue observes that “struggles for civil rights also reshaped small towns and suburbs—a part of the northern story that has been almost completely overlooked.”21 Historian Peter B. Levy notes an identical historiographical observation as
Sugrue in The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America during the 1960s (2018).
“The traditional narrative of the civil rights years has paid little attention to either the state of race relations or the struggles against inequality in small and medium size cities,”
Levy observes, “particularly those north of the Mason-Dixon Line.”22 Regarding
“midsize cities,” Levy categorizes them as populaces ranging from 25,000 to 150,000.23
In a somewhat similar vein, historian Todd E. Robinson, in A City within a City:
The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan (2013), specifies “secondary cities.” Even though “a host of monographs have parsed the black experience in large
21 Thomas J. Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North (New York: Random House, 2008), xxvii-xxviii.
22 Peter B. Levy, The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America During the 1960s (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018), 251.
23 Ibid., 228.
14 northern cities,” Robinson writes, “scholars have largely ignored the black freedom struggle in secondary cities, such as Grand Rapids, during the postwar era, except as an addendum to the main events that occurred in Chicago, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia,
Milwaukee, and Los Angeles.”24 To approximate an appreciation for “secondary cities,”
Robinson notes that as early as 1930, Grand Rapids had 165,000 inhabitants. Another secondary city he spotlights, Gary, Indiana, had 100,000.25
At the same time, because northern civil rights scholarship generally examines vast urban spaces above the Mason-Dixon Line, it simultaneously focuses upon locations where African Americans comprised sizeable portions of the populace—in the thousands as well as hundreds of thousands. Under this analysis vast cities such as Philadelphia and
Brooklyn receive much of the attention.26 While providing many insights, these spaces, particularly the size of their black populations, do not resemble most northern smaller locations. “In fact,” Robinson notes, “the majority of black Americans lived in nearly 150 midsize cities during the postwar era.”27 Similarly, Levy notes multiple examples from
1963 to 1972 regarding midsize cities. Specifically, these regions which experienced rioting, Levy reveals, had African-American populaces that were significantly low.28
24 Todd E. Robinson, A City Within A City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013), xiii.
25 Ibid., 7.
26 James Wolfinger, “‘We Are In The Front Lines In The Battle For Democracy’: Carolyn Moore And Black Activism In World War II Philadelphia,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 72, no. 1 (2005): 1-23, www.jstor.org/stable/2777865; Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings.
27 Robinson, A City Within A City, xiii.
28 Levy, The Great Uprising, 1, 228.
15
Taken altogether, this present history of Pottstown follows in a similar vein as the prior historiographical observations regarding smaller northern populations. To be sure,
Pottstown not only had a small population—between 1940 and 1970,29 the borough’s zenith population was 26,144 (1960)—but during the same timeframe, borough blacks were always a small minority. At their largest, Pottstown African Americans represented only nine percent of the entire populace (1970).30
This dissertation’s most significant contribution to the historiography of northern civil rights may relate to its complication of standard interpretations of the role played by mainstream, white-oriented, news media. It does this through an analysis of the
Pottstown Mercury. Political scientist Jeanne Theoharis argues in A More Beautiful and
Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History (2018) that “the national media,” stationed above the Mason-Dixon Line ironically handicapped northern civil rights work.31 Even though the Pottstown Mercury did not have nationwide circulation, its coverage of local civil rights issues contrasts sharply from Theoharis’ interpretation.
By far, the Pottstown Mercury was the most consistent white cooperator when it came to
29 For the populations, see Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940: Population Volume II: Characteristics of the Population, Part 6: Pennsylvania-Texas (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1943), 161; Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950: Volume II: Characteristics of the Population-Part 38: Pennsylvania (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 38-116; Bureau of the Census, Eighteenth Census of the United States, 1960: Volume I: Characteristics of the Population-Part 40: Pennsylvania (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1963), 40-191; Bureau of the Census, Nineteenth Census of the United States, 1970: Volume I: Characteristics of the Population, Part 40: Pennsylvania Section 1 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, April 1973), 40-16, 40-147.
30 Bureau of the Census, Eighteenth Census of the United States, 1960, 40-191; Bureau of the Census, Nineteenth Census of the United States, 1970, 40-16, 40-147.
31 Jeanne Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History (Boston: Beacon Press, 2018), 102-03.
16 local civil rights. Another point to note regarding the borough newspaper was its portrayal of local blacks involved in civil rights work. In a consistent fashion, the
Pottstown Mercury humanized the largely black activists for a largely white readership.
Again, this latter point regarding the Pottstown Mercury departs from Theoharis’ analysis too.32
While the role of the Pottstown Mercury in advocating civil rights contributed to many successes on the local front, this dissertation, nonetheless, privileges the part played by African-American activists in their own liberation. Indeed, the Pottstown
Mercury was able to have the reporting successes it had precisely because there was a local activist-driven black community. From the 1940s until the late 1960s, local African
Americans continually provided the newspaper information on the discrimination and challenges they faced in seeking first-class citizenship. Many times, Pottstown blacks even let their names be printed by the newspaper. By doing so, they most certainly risked social, economic, and political repercussions from the dominant white population.
Nevertheless, they put aside such tangible threats and advocated theirs and their community’s cause, while simultaneously lambasting local manifestations of white supremacy and inequalities that permeated the borough.
32Ibid., 100-02. For example of subscriber numbers to the Pottstown Mercury in 1954, see Pottstown Mercury, “The Standing Pat Has Only One Leg To Stand On—And Figures That’s Enough!,” advertisement, Pottstown Mercury, May 7, 1954, 31. See Chapter 3 of this dissertation for humanizing points.
17
Unlike many larger northern locales, Pottstown did not experience any large-scale racial violence, unrest or police brutality from the dominant white populace.33 Thus, the lack of such racial turmoil makes the borough an interesting place and space to examine.
For example, when compared to York, Pennsylvania, another smaller locale where
African-American radicalism and interracial violence mushroomed during the late 1960s,
Pottstown by and large escaped such pandemonium.34 That did not mean, however, borough African Americans never had trepidation about such mayhem ultimately manifesting from the dominant white population. In African Americans in the Furniture
City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids (2006), historian Randal Maurice
Jelks makes an argument concerning Grand Rapids having interracial peace prior to the mid-twentieth century. His rationale concerned the city’s black populace being tiny. This dissertation expands upon Jelks’s observation.35 From the 1940s until the late 1960s, it suggests that civil rights work launched in Pottstown was able to have the interracial success it had precisely because borough blacks never became numerically significant. It also asserts that the lack of large-scale racial turmoil related specifically to Pottstown’s
African-American population never expanding extensively. In the end, Pottstown’s
African-American populace, its smaller composition, and its relative stability only helped
33 Can see, for example, Matthew J. Countryman, Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006); Patrick D. Jones, The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009); Levy, The Great Uprising, 1-2, 253-78.
34 Levy, The Great Uprising, 1-2, 253-78.
35Randal Maurice Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006), xvi.
18 ease tensions among local blacks and whites. Therefore, racial violence and antagonisms infamously known throughout the twentieth-century industrialized North are not central components of this local history.36 While in 1969, the Pottstown NAACP would take part in soothing racial tensions in nearby Phoenixville, Pennsylvania (Chester County), following violent clashes between African Americans and whites there, the theme of racial violence is not central to this work.37
Pottstown is also an interesting place to study because, although it was drastically smaller than multiple northern metropolises, secondary cities, and on the low end of
Levy’s categorization of midsize cities, the borough resembled many of these larger regions in the North.38 For example, Pottstown was heavily industrialized, especially by the Second World War. Local historians such as Paul Chancellor, A.G. Strothers, and
Michael T. Snyder provide great insight into the rise and impact of mid-twentieth century industrialism in Pottstown.39 For example, Chancellor writes in A History of Pottstown
Pennsylvania, 1752-1952 (1953), that the borough was never purely “an industrial town.”
Rather, he continues, “it is a center of highly important industry.” Moreover, Chancellor adds that the main goods generated in Pottstown around mid-twentieth century included
36 Countryman, Up South; Jones, The Selma of the North; and Levy, The Great Uprising, 1-2, 253-78.
37 “Phoenixville Youths Riot Following School Skirmish,” Pottstown Mercury, May 9, 1969, 1.
38 For example, see Countryman, Up South; Jones, The Selma of the North; Levy, The Great Uprising, 228, 225-78; Robinson, A City Within A City.
39 Chancellor, A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 87-121; “Pottstown- Today And Tomorrow,” in Pottstown Sesqui-Centennial, 1965: 150th Anniversary of Formation of Borough, ed. A.G. Strothers, (Pottstown: Pottstown Sesquicentennial Committee, 1965), 5-7; Michael T. Snyder, Remembering Pottstown: Historic Tales from a Pennsylvania Borough (Charlestown, South Carolina: History Press, 2010), 11-13, 100.
19
“metal products; textiles; food products, and building materials.”40 During this time businesses like Bethlehem Steel Company, Stanley G. Flagg & Company, Doehler-Jarvis
Corporation, Firestone Tire & Rubber Company, and Mrs. Smith’s Pies, among many others, resided in and around Pottstown.41
Strothers’s Pottstown Sesqui-Centennial, 1965: 150th Anniversary of Formation of Borough (1965), pamphlet even brags how by the mid-1960s more than seventy
“major industries” on the local front had payrolls approximating 20,000 laborers.42
Furthermore, Snyder emphasizes in Remembering Pottstown: Historic Tales from a
Pennsylvania Borough (2010), how the borough had “scores of plants” working twenty- four-seven as the Second World War raged, contributing precisely to the United States war effort.43 Taken altogether, however, these local historians exclude the fact that borough blacks were overwhelmingly treated as second-class citizens, especially when it came to employment possibilities throughout the borough in both the private as well as public sectors.44
Like the twentieth-century black urban experience of the North generally, especially locations where civil rights activism fervently mounted, the Great Migration impacted Pottstown.45 Historian Charles L. Blockson’s chapter on African Americans in
40 Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 87.
41 Ibid., 94-96, 97-98, 104-05, 111-12, 116-17.
42 “Pottstown-Today and Tomorrow,” 5-7.
43 Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 100.
44 Chancellor, A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 87-121; “Pottstown- Today And Tomorrow,” 5-7; Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 11-13, 100.
45 For example, see Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty; Countryman, Up South.
20
Volume 2 of regional scholars Jean Barth Toll and Michael J. Schwager’s edited compilation, Montgomery County: The Second Hundred Years (1983), documents how directly before and over the early years of the Great Migration, African Americans relocated to Montgomery County from the South. Between 1900 and 1915, Blockson estimates that not only 1,000 made the trek, but that Pottstown was one of six main destinations within Montgomery County. Blockson also notes multiple factors that inspired many Dixie born African Americans in making the Pennsylvania county their home. They included “job opportunities, desire for higher wages and job protection, unsatisfactory living conditions, sentimental factors, interest in better education, injustice from southern courts, escape from the Ku Klux Klan, the wish to be close to their relatives, and the wish to establish their own business.” In addition,46 Blockson mentions how Montgomery County civil rights groups zealously fought towards improving
African-American conditions. In the end, however, Blockson’s chapter is only an overview of African Americans in Montgomery County. The specific history of
Pottstown blacks does not take center stage in Blockson’s assessment. They are only a part of the story.47
To examine Pottstown, this dissertation incorporates theoretical models already prevalent in civil rights scholarship as its central analytical approaches, the “freedom
North,” and the “long civil rights movement” models. Inspired largely by the work of political scientist Jeanne Theoharis, and historians Komozi Woodard and Jacquelyn
46 Charles L. Blockson, “Blacks,” in Montgomery County: The Second Hundred Years (Volume 2), ed. Jean Barth Toll and Michael J. Schwager (Norristown, Pennsylvania: Montgomery County Federation of Historical Societies, 1983), 910.
47 Ibid., 914-16.
21
Dowd Hall, these perspectives challenge the traditional southern-centered vantage point.
As historian Brian Purnell observes, works employing the freedom North model demonstrate how protestors fervently battled “local forms of racial discrimination outside the South before, during, and after civil rights movements emerged in southern cities and towns.” Moreover, by utilizing the long civil rights movement model, as Purnell describes, this dissertation reassesses the accepted timeframe regarding twentieth-century civil rights.48 That said, this dissertation expands upon, rather than fully discards, the period sweep of other scholarship. Mainly, this dissertation begins its analysis at an earlier point, the wartime 1940s.49
During World War II in Pottstown, one-way civil rights work manifested was through equalization. Commenting on black NAACP attorney Charles Hamilton
Houston, specifically how he changed “the NAACP’s legal strategy” into something emphatically unique to him, historian John A. Kirk notes that the lawyer specified “the focus of [the organization’s] attack to concentrate on gaining more resources for African
Americans in ‘separate and unequal’ public education.” As a result, Kirk continues, the black attorney implemented “a strategy for the equalization of conditions” juxtaposed with swift and speedy integration throughout “public” spaces.50
Although not dealing with educational inequality, black civil rights activists in
Pottstown pursued an equalization strategy to rectify localized discriminatory practices,
48 Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3. Also see Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1233-63; Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, ed., Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980 (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003).
49 For example, see Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom, xi-xii; Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3.
50 Kirk, “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers’ Salary Equalization,” 530.
22 specifically during the Second World War. Here, however, just because these African-
American activists worked with white-led organizations that otherwise practiced discrimination, did not mean blacks endorsed white bigotry. Instead, black activists should only be seen as pursuing what they understood to be the necessary partnerships that advanced the immediate African-American condition. In the end, their partnership with white Pottstown, and the equalization strategy, rested mainly in pragmatism rather than local blacks capitulating to a second-class status. At the same time, it is important to note that even as borough African Americans employed equalization, they believed themselves to be empowered, and demonstrating black agency, autonomy, and control over the well-being and advancement of their local community.51
In the post war era, however, Pottstown activists would move away from equalization towards a strategy informed by the rise of “liberal interracialism.” 52 Now, their civil rights activism called for complete desegregation as the path to equality and first-class citizenship for African Americans. In 1954, for example, the Pottstown
Mercury reported on, and advocated generally for, local civil rights initiatives, adding to a growing demand for full blown integration for local African Americans.53 As such, this
51 Ibid.
52 Harvard Sitkoff, “Racial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War,” Journal of American History 58, no.3 (December 1971): 662, doi:10.2307/1893729. Regarding illustrations of liberal interracialism in the post-war years, can see Kevin Daniel Ryan, “Catholic Liberal Interracialism in the Archdiocese of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s” (PhD diss., State University of New York at Buffalo, 2016), https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/1798467187?accountid=12557.
53 Concerning the reporting of the Pottstown Mercury in 1954, see Poirier: “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9; Normand Poirier, “Officer Training, Yes - - But What Job Chances?,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1954, 1, 16; Normand Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—III: Discrimination by ‘Necessity,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 1, 5; Normand Poirier,
23 dissertation identifies liberal interracialism as the actions, procedures and methods by which black and white activists from Pottstown collaborated on multiple occasions to advance integration. By doing so, they sought to ameliorate the discrimination faced by local African Americans. Moreover, those guided by liberal interracialism in and around
Pottstown had sincere motives when it came to such black-centered activism. To put it another way, they believed fully in integration and equality among African Americans and whites.54
To explain why civil rights work conducted in Pottstown was inevitably interracial, this dissertation suggests that the small size of Pottstown’s black community was directly connected to its biracial makeup. For African Americans to gain greater social, economic, and political opportunities in and around Pottstown—because they were overwhelmingly the demographic minority—they understood clearly the importance of collaborating with borough whites. Moreover, because local blacks comprehended how their small population size was a handicap, they sought the assistance of Pottstown liberal whites willing to cooperate with them in both promoting as well as improving local African-Americans conditions.
Ultimately, this dissertation stresses the connection between Pottstown’s small black populace—a population that remained much smaller than most northern locales already noted in the scholarship of civil rights—and its cooperation in interracial civil
“Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV: With End of School Pottstown Divides Into Two Worlds,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7; Normand Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.-V: They Learn Timidity, Fear,” Pottstown Mercury, July 2, 1954, 1, 2; Normand Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI: Is The Negro Happy Here?,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20; and Normand Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII: A Plan of Action for Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
54For works highlighting interracialism, see Jones, The Selma of the North; Countryman, Up South; Arnold, Building the Beloved Community.
24 rights work on the local front. Not having a large community essentially made civil rights work near impossible without interracial collaboration. In the end, if Pottstown African
Americans could find white allies and fellow participants in fruitful civil rights initiatives, then they could ultimately empower and better the conditions of local blacks.
Finally, the general thread of bigotry in Pottstown is worth emphasizing. Not surprisingly, Pottstown shared continuity with other locales above the Mason-Dixon Line between the early 1940s and late 1960s. Indeed, in the rest of the North, white racism manifested inconspicuously rather than the blatant legalized structure located throughout the South.55 So much so, that scholarship has identified the two systems in relationship to
African Americans enduring “de facto” racism in the North, a structure which was not lawfully pronounced, coupled with the overt legal “de jure” system of the South.
Recently, however, academics like Matthew Lassiter and Jeanne Theoharis sharply criticize the “de facto”/ “de jure” juxtaposition, which has long been prevalent within civil rights literature. Theoharis notes, “Many scholars and journalists since the 1960s have clung to this false distinction between a southern ‘de jure’ segregation and a northern ‘de facto’ segregation.” By doing so, she continues, they conceptualize
“Northern segregation more innocent,” thereby excluding “the various ways such segregation was supported and maintained through the law and political process.” This dissertation agrees with Theoharis’ remarks in the sense that white racism manifested above the Mason-Dixon Line was not innocuous when compared to the South. Rather, these parallel structures each oppressed African Americans. Ultimately, however, this
55 Can see, for example, Jones, The Selma of the North; Countryman, Up South; Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History, 34.
25 dissertation identifies white racism in Pottstown as generally manifesting in the form of inconspicuous rather than overt bigotry, which, therefore, aligns with the “de facto” construction.56
Review of the Literature
Even though Pottstown activists implemented such important work between 1941 and 1969, civil rights historians have overlooked Pottstown. To explain why, one must understand that Pottstown is outside two of the main geographical spaces highlighted within traditional as well as recent scholarship on civil rights. The first area is the
American South. Overwhelmingly, the South is the geographical space most associated with civil rights history, particularly from the traditional perspective. Political scientist
Jeanne Theoharis, in the beginning of her and historian Komozi Woodard’s landmark
2003 edited compilation, Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South,
1940-1980, reveals how “the dominant civil rights story remains that of a nonviolent movement born in the South during the 1950s,” which appeared “triumphant in the early
1960s.” However, Theoharis continues, such interpretation “then was derailed by the twin forces of Black Power and white backlash when it sought to move North after 1965.”57
Although she notes this historiographical observation in 2003, it still holds true, as recent scholars have demonstrated.58
56 Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History, 34.
57 Jeanne Theoharis, “Introduction,” in Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940- 1980, ed. Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 2.
58 For example, see Mark Speltz, North of Dixie: Civil Rights Photography Beyond the South (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016), 1-2; Levy, The Great Uprising, 251.
26
In concert with Theoharis and multiple other scholars, especially over the last two decades, the second geographical region targets vast northern cities. In fact, such recent works go directly against the traditional interpretation of civil rights history on two levels. To begin, this scholarship reveals conclusively that the South was not the sole place and space where activists conducted civil rights work. From coast to coast, northern civil rights activists fought black discrimination throughout metropolitan centers like
Philadelphia, New York City, Chicago, Detroit, and even as far West as Oakland and
Seattle, to name but a few.59
While over the last two decades some historians have begun reconsidering this large city emphasis by examining significantly tinier locations above the Mason-Dixon
Line, particularly their direct connection to civil rights activism,60 the fact remains that densely populated spaces in the North have overwhelmingly been the focus of the newer northern-centered scholarship on civil rights.61 Finally, in addition to the recent literature
59 For example, see Countryman, Up South; Clarence Taylor, ed., Civil Rights in New York: From World War II to the Giuliani Era (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011); James R. Ralph, Jr., Northern Protest: Martin Luther King, Jr., Chicago, and the Civil Rights Movement (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1993); Beth T. Bates, “Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946,” in Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980, ed. Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003), 17-39; Robert O. Self, American Babylon: Race and the Struggle for Postwar Oakland (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003); Quintard Taylor, “The Civil Rights Movement in the American West: Black Protest in Seattle, 1960-1970,” Journal of Negro History 80, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 1-14, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2717703. For another example, see Jones, The Selma of the North.
60 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, 200-02, 211-12, 220-28, 230, 232-33, 243, 446; Thomas J. Sugrue, “Jim Crow’s Last Stand: The Struggle to Integrate Levittown,” in Second Suburb: Levittown, Pennsylvania, ed. Diane Harris (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), 175-99, ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/wcupa/detail.action?docID=2039311; Thomas Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler: Wartime Activists Think Globally and Act Locally,” in Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement, ed. Kevin M. Kruse and Stephen Tuck (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014), 87-102; Jim Kalish, The Story of Civil Rights in York, Pennsylvania: A 250 Year Interpretive History (York, Pennsylvania: York County Audit of Human Rights, 2000); Levy, The Great Uprising, 223-313; Robinson, A City Within A City; Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City.
27 emphasizing vast northern cities as major geographical centers of civil rights, this same scholarship largely challenges the 1954 to 1968 timeframe, as historian Yohuru Williams has shown in Re-thinking the Black Freedom Movement (2016).62 Yet, to reconsider this fourteen-year period, they generally build upon the periodization argument laid out in historian Jacqueline Dowd Hall’s 2005 essay, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the
Political Uses of the Past.”63 Employing Hall’s “long civil rights movement” model, they expand civil rights activism before and after the orthodox timeframe on both ends of the spatial continuum.64
While Pottstown takes center stage in this dissertation, the current literature gives the borough no scholarly treatment at all in the realm of civil rights. Published mainly over the last two decades, however, the same scholarship does contribute tremendously to understanding civil rights as an issue just as paramount above as well as below the
Mason-Dixon Line. Generally following the lead of Theoharis and Woodard’s Freedom
North, the consensus literature not only reconsiders the southern-centered model associated with twentieth-century civil rights—showing conclusively that the racial circumstances experienced throughout the North mirrored oppression blacks endured in the South—but it also reassesses the 1954 to 1968 timeframe on both ends of the spatial continuum. A brief sample includes works like historians Clarence Taylor’s edited compilation, Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the Giuliani Era
61 Robinson, A City Within A City, xiii- xiv; and Levy, The Great Uprising, 251-52.
62 Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement, xi-xii.
63 Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1233-263.
64 Ibid., 1235.
28
(2011); Sugrue’s Sweet Land of Liberty; Matthew J. Countryman’s Up South: Civil
Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia (2006); and Stanley Keith Arnold’s Building the
Beloved Community: Philadelphia’s Interracial Civil Rights Organizations and Race
Relations, 1930-1970 (2014). Like Theoharis and Woodard’s Freedom North, however, the scholarship has produced a significant historiographical gap that further centralizes vast urban areas in the North as the main places and spaces of civil rights activism. By doing so, the consensus fails to provide any interpretation into the lived civil rights experiences of African Americans in smaller industrial locales of the North.65
That said, there has emerged scholarship which reassesses the majority viewpoint of northern civil rights, specifically its big city approach. In fact, historians Thomas J.
Sugrue, Jim Kalish, Peter B. Levy, Todd E. Robinson and Randal Maurice Jelks have already begun throwing light upon tinier urban spaces. Overall, Sugrue has done the most significant work when it comes to populations smaller, around the same size, or slightly greater than Pottstown. In addition to Sweet Land of Liberty,66 Sugrue addresses such disregarded northern spaces in “Jim Crow’s Last Stand: The Struggle to Integrate
Levittown,” an essay in historian Diane Harris’ Second Suburb: Levittown, Pennsylvania
(2010);67 as well as “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler: Wartime Activists Think Globally
65 See Clarence Taylor, ed., Civil Rights in New York City: From World War II to the Giuliani Era (Fordham University Press, 2011); Martha Biondi, To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights In Postwar New York City (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2003), http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=282269&site=eds-live&scope=site; Self, American Babylon; Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty; Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History; Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings; Jones, The Selma of the North; Countryman, Up South; Arnold, Building the Beloved Community.
66 Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3, fn 3 pg. 301.
29 and Act Locally,” a chapter of historians Kevin M. Kruse and Stephen Tuck’s edited compilation, Fog of War: The Second World War and the Civil Rights Movement
(2014).68
Throughout Sweet Land of Liberty, Sugrue provides his readership multiple illustrations that specify civil rights activism within smaller geographical spaces in the
North. Highlighting smaller northern locales such as Deerfield, Illinois, Chester and
Coatesville, Pennsylvania, as well as East Orange and Englewood, New Jersey, among many others, Sugrue demonstrates their part in the twentieth-century civil rights battles against white oppression in the North. In addition to challenging the geographical orthodox of twentieth-century civil rights, Sugrue begins examining such activism in the
1920s. By doing so, he reassesses the traditional 1954 to 1968 timeframe as well. While
Sweet Land of Liberty proves insightful and an excellent contribution to the historiography, Sugrue’s coverage of the smaller northern locations, particularly their relationship to such activism, are overviews. Lacking in-depth assessments, the northern locales do not take center stage in Sugrue’s illuminating work.69
Sugrue’s essays do, however, focus upon two specific smaller places in the North.
They include Levittown, Pennsylvania, and Hillburn, New York. From a periodization standpoint, Sugrue’s evaluation of Levittown falls within the traditional timeframe of civil rights, whereas Hillburn begins in the decade before the orthodox interpretation
67 Sugrue, “Jim Crow’s Last Stand,” 175-99.
68 Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler,” 87-102.
69 For examples, can see Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, 133, 152, 160, 163-69, 178, 200-02, 211-12, 220- 28, 230, 232-33, 243.
30 commences.70 In the late 1950s, Levittown’s population approximated more than
70,000.71 “For a few months in 1957, Levittown . . . attracted national attention as a civil rights battleground,” Sugrue writes, “but it was quickly forgotten, and our histories of the
African American freedom movement have remained disproportionately focused on the
South.” Evaluating activism that targeted the integration of housing in Levittown, Sugrue also contends that Levittown’s civil rights history was just “as important as its better- known southern counterparts.”72
In a similar vein, Sugrue goes against the dominant vantage point by highlighting
Hillburn, particularly civil rights activism to desegregate “the proud Main School,” while
World War II raged. “Hillburn was one of hundreds of wartime battlegrounds over the future of race, rights, and equality in wartime America,” Sugrue contends.73 Population wise, Hillburn was drastically smaller than Pottstown. In Hillburn, Sugrue notes, resided around 600 African Americans, alongside a white populace comprising 1400.74 Although
Hillburn’s populace was vastly smaller, like Levittown in 1957, it acquired notice from across the United States during the Second World War.75 In the end, however, Sugrue’s
70 Sugrue, “Jim Crow’s Last Stand,” 175-99; and Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler,” 87-102. It is worth noting that Sugrue examines these two regions in Sweet Land of Liberty as well. See Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, 163-69, 200-02, 211-12, 220-28, 230, 232-33, 243, 446.
71 Chad M. Kimmel, “Levittown, Pennsylvania: A sociological history,” (PhD diss., Western Michigan University, 2004), 157, 175, http://search.proquest.com/docview/305108767?accountid=12557.
72 Sugrue, “Jim Crow’s Last Stand,” 175.
73 Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler,” 87-88.
74 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, 164.
75Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler,” 88.
31 treatments of civil rights activism in Levittown and Hillburn are only chapter-length studies. Once again, his scholarship fails to extensively investigate the two tinier northern locales. Nor does it demonstrate the battle for racial justice over an extended period in both scope and breadth. Furthermore, unlike Levittown and Hillburn, the story of civil rights and Pottstown is not a story in which the political far left was heavily involved.76
In contrast to Sugrue’s groundbreaking scholarship, local historian Jim Kalish’s
The Story of Civil Rights in York, Pennsylvania: A 250 Year Interpretive History (2000), is a book-length study that examines activism within York, Pennsylvania. Between 1941 and 1969, York’s population more than doubled Pottstown’s.77 Like the recent northern literature, Kalish points out the traditional scholarship’s southern-centered bias.
Conceptualizing his work within the framework of “civil rights at the local level,”78 blacks are not the only group that Kalish emphasizes. Rather, he also includes groups like
Native Americans, individuals from the LGBTQ community, as well as the elderly. Thus, unlike this history of Pottstown, Kalish emphasizes a multicultural as well as multi- demographic approach to his scholarship, moving past the black/white premise largely stressed throughout civil rights literature.79
Nevertheless, York blacks’ civil rights experiences, as well as the racial hardships they endured throughout the twentieth century from the dominant white populace, receive
76 Sugrue, “Jim Crow’s Last Stand,” 175-199; and Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler,” 87-102.
77 Kalish, The Story of Civil Rights in York, Pennsylvania, 24, 89.
78 Ibid., ix.
79 Ibid., x, 1-3. Regarding works highlighting black/white premise, see Surgue, Sweet Land of Liberty; Countryman, Up South; Robinson, A City Within A City.
32 extensive attention by Kalish. Like other northern locals, he demonstrates how York blacks endured white racism within multiple sectors. One report published during the early 1960s even noted numerous illustrations regarding outright exclusionary methods employed “by real estate agents, bankers, physicians, nonprofit agency directors, retail store managers, restaurant owners,” to name a few.80 In response to such oppressive conditions, York African Americans and whites bravely challenged these manifestations of white supremacy through local branches of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), the NAACP, as well as organizations indigenous to York like the Crispus Attucks
Association.81 In The Story of Civil Rights in York, Pennsylvania, Kalish also reconsiders both the southern-centered vantage point, alongside the traditional periodization of civil rights activism—albeit he does not situate York within the long civil rights movement or
Freedom North models specifically. Regarding these latter points, and to Kalish’s defense, since the York County Audit of Human Relations printed his book in 2000, it came out prior to when scholars began really incorporating the theoretical models wholesale.82
Like Kalish, close to two-decades later historian Peter B. Levy’s The Great
Uprising illuminates some of the civil rights battles waged throughout York; however, they are only a part of his focus. In fact, Levy’s main topic concerns the York 1969 rebellion and its connection to a greater historical theme. According to Levy, from 1963 to 1972, the United States had more than seven-hundred and fifty “urban revolts.”
80 Kalish, The Story of Civil Rights in York, Pennsylvania, 44-45.
81 Ibid., 26, 52, 54-62.
82 Ibid., viii-ix. Regarding the two analytical models, see Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3.
33
Moreover, greater than five-hundred industrialized locations endured such turmoil. So much so, that Levy notes that almost all regions where African-American populaces exceeded 50,000 had them. Ultimately, he conceptualizes the rebellions within the analytical framework of “the Great Uprising.” The Great Uprising, in Levy’s view, formed a historical phenomenon just as paramount as other twentieth-century events that shaped the United States such as the Great Depression. Identical to the Great Depression,
Levy argues that the rebellions, including York, impacted numerous citizens throughout the United States during the nine-year period.83
Nevertheless, according to Levy the York 1969 rebellion stemmed directly from
African Americans seeking for decades first-class citizenship, coupled with local whites pushing back against such egalitarian demands.84 In fact, Levy documents conclusively the ways in which York African Americans endured, as well as challenged, an array of discriminations from the dominant white majority. As Levy notes, sectors including
“housing, recreation, employment, education, and, especially, relations with the police” as well as local government, unquestionably treated local African Americans as second- class citizenry. Although more inconspicuous than the South’s legalized system, white racism throughout York was indeed ubiquitous.85 In response, therefore, York African
Americans, as well as cooperative whites, rose up and combatted bigoted practices that targeted the local black populace.86
83 Levy, The Great Uprising, 1-2.
84 Ibid., 227.
85 Ibid., 231.
86 Ibid., 246, 247, 250, 251.
34
Finally, it must also be stressed that Levy emphasizes how by the time of the 1969 rebellion, York African Americans were becoming “excessively militant” towards local injustices they faced. When juxtaposed with Pottstown and the civil rights work spearheaded there, from 1941 to 1969, however, such radicalism was not a central component of borough activism. In fact, unlike York blacks, Pottstown African
Americans did not employ large-scale radicalism or violence as a means to challenge local manifestations of white supremacy and oppression.87
Historians Todd E. Robinson and Randal Maurice Jelks’ monographs on civil rights activism in Grand Rapids, Michigan, concern a population significantly larger than
York. Yet similar to Kalish and Levy, their texts not only reconsider the southern- centered trajectory, but most importantly reassess the vast urban center approach found within the northern consensus literature. In A City within a City, Robinson stresses how northern “secondary cities” like Grand Rapids have thus far lacked ample scholarly treatment. He also utilizes the label “midsize cities” to identify Grand Rapids and other northern locales that fall within its population range. Whatever the case may be,
Robinson underscores how such populaces and their civil rights experiences are sorely overlooked within the scholarship.88
Jelks’s African Americans in the Furniture City, makes identical observations. It does so by spotlighting an African-American religious leader who grew up in Grand
Rapids. During the late 1960s, the black cleric emphasized how scholars ignored northern
African Americans residing within tinier urban spaces. Moreover, the minister described
87 Ibid., 252.
88 Robinson, A City Within A City, xiii, 178.
35
Grand Rapids’ populace, which was below one-hundred thousand, with an African-
American populace numbering in the hundreds. The African-American cleric’s populace approximation,89 however, appears drastically low. For example, in 1930, Robinson notes that Grand Rapids entire populace was 165,000.90 In the same year, both Robinson and
Jelks write that Grand Rapids African Americans comprised slightly under 2,800.91 In any case, while vast urban locales like Philadelphia, New York City and Detroit, to name a few, towered over Grand Rapids from a numbers perspective, the fact remained that
Grand Rapids dwarfed Pottstown. Indeed, between 1941 and 1969, Pottstown was nowhere near Grand Rapids’ populace totals—African American or white.
Like Sugrue, Levy, and Kalish, Robinson and Jelks challenge the 1954 to 1968 periodization of civil rights activism.92 “Despite relatively small numbers from 1900 to
1940,” Robinson writes, “the black community in Grand Rapids organized to resist northern Jim Crow.”93 Through civil rights groups like the Grand Rapids Urban League, the Grand Rapids Study Club, as well as the Grand Rapids National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People, black activists battled against local racial exclusionism.94 In fact, for decades before and after the Second World War, Grand
89 Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City, xii.
90 Robinson, A City Within A City, 7.
91 Ibid., 1-2; Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City, 80.
92 Robinson, A City Within A City, 22; and Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City, 120-48.
93 Robinson, A City Within A City, 7.
94 Ibid., 7-8.
36
Rapids’ civil rights activists—African American and white—waged such assaults.95
Finally, another piece to Robinson’s work concerns Grand Rapids being Republican dominated. According to Robinson, “conservative city officials and business leaders routinely sacrificed black needs and interests for the ‘good’ of the larger community.”96
In another comment focusing upon “Grand Rapids’ conservative culture,” Jelks ties it to the city having a small “labor movement.”97
Here, Pottstown contrasts from Grand Rapids’ dominant conservativism on two levels. First, Pottstown had a varied political past. For example, successive election results between 1920 and 1965 saw control of the local political landscape switch back and forth between Democrats and Republicans regularly.98 In Volume Two of regional scholars Jean Barth Toll and Michael J. Schwager’s edited compilation, Montgomery
County: The Second Hundred Years (1983), local historian William H. McCabe provides further elaboration upon Pottstown politics during the twentieth century. While McCabe made similar points regarding Pottstown having both “major parties” sharing political power on the local front, especially from around the end of the 1930s, he additionally throws light upon “national elections.” Because unionism dominated the borough,
95 Ibid., 20-21, 73.
96 Ibid., xi.
97 Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City, 103.
98 “Democrats Sweep All But Two Borough Offices: Suchoza Triumphs By 395; Knause Lone GOP Solon Shaner Write-in Edged by Zerbey; Marquette, Struckmann, Detar Gain School Board,” Pottstown Mercury, November 3, 1965, 1, 14.
37
McCabe argues, “the Democratic presidential candidate has a head start unless he alienates the voters.”99
Here, therefore, concerns the second point where Pottstown deviates from Grand
Rapids. Unlike the Michigan locale—and indeed similar to large industrial regions like
Philadelphia and Detroit (among many others)—Pottstown was largely unionized. “The friendly circle of Pottstown’s civic leaders has extended a warm welcome to labor to be an organic part of our community life in the social, cultural, and civic institutions of the town,” Chancellor argues. By the mid-twentieth century, he also asserts that the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) dominated borough unionism. Although Chancellor makes these points, he does not demonstrate the interracial, as well as civil rights component, regarding CIO activism in Pottstown, which certainly existed during the period.100
Finally, and as indicated prior, like many other locales throughout the North, civil rights activism conducted in Pottstown was inevitably interracial. While works by historians like Brian Purnell’s Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, Patrick D.
Jones’s The Selma of the North, and Stanley Keith Arnold’s Building the Beloved
Community, provide insight into the ways in which black and white civil rights activists combated African-American inequality throughout the North, their assessments all
99 William H. McCabe, “Pottstown,” in Montgomery County: The Second Hundred Years (Volume 1), ed. Jean Barth Toll and Michael J. Schwager (Norristown, Pennsylvania: Montgomery County Federation of Historical Societies, 1983), 539.
100 Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 121. Regarding union presence in Philadelphia and Detroit, can see, for example, Countryman, Up South; Bates, “‘Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946,” 17-39.
38 concern cities with enormous black populations—ones that comprised within the thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, which even rivaled their white counterparts.101
Thus, activism conducted by liberal interracialists in Pottstown, especially throughout the post-war years, helps to explain how it was that a significantly smaller African-American community conducted civil rights work.
101 Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings; Jones, The Selma of the North; Arnold, Building the Beloved Community.
CHAPTER 2:
WORLD WAR II AND THE DAWNING OF CIVIL RIGHTS WORK IN
POTTSTOWN
Shandy Hill, editor of the Pottstown Mercury, reflected on whether “the ‘Negro
problem’” was an issue in Pottstown. Differentiating between “the ‘Negro problem’”
(which he likely equated to southern-style race relations) and “discrimination,” (less
formal, less uniform traditions of anti-black racism outside of the South) Hill believed
“That . . . the ‘Negro problem’ didn’t exist to a noticeable extent in the early 1940’s. But
discrimination was ever present.”102 Indeed, like African Americans across the North,103
Pottstown blacks experienced racism on multiple fronts.104 Ultimately, it was in this
context of the Second World War that local activists, especially African Americans,
launched the most impactful era of civil rights work in Pottstown.
As on the national landscape, the Second World War era proved greatly significant in Pottstown regarding civil rights work. Specifically, the period was the launching point in which activists started conducting their important civil rights work on the local scene. As the war raged, local activists not only established newfound
102 Hill, Dear Sir, 50.
103 Bates, “‘Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946,” 17-39; Clarence Taylor, “To Be a Good American: The New York City Teachers Union and Race during the Second World War,” in Civil Rights in New York: From World War II to the Giuliani Era (New York: Fordham University Press, 2011), 10-31.
104 See Oscar Carter, “Discrimination Charged,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 7, 1943, 4; Hill, Dear Sir, 50, 58.
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organizations, but they also worked with existing borough institutions so that they could coordinate such black-centered activism. Even though recent scholars have countered historian Richard M. Dalfiume’s World War II “watershed” premise, the vantage point is still beneficial when understanding civil rights activism and its dawning in working-class
Pottstown.105 Building upon Dalfiume’s argument, this chapter shows that the Second
World War was when Pottstown activists—headed and organized mainly by blacks with collaboration by local whites—began conducting local civil rights work.
While historians examining northern civil rights fail to identify a consensus which shows when such activism generally launched, they have demonstrated conclusively that the traditional 1954 to 1968 periodization is not fully adequate in explaining the activism conducted above the Mason-Dixon Line.106 Moreover, their interpretations can mainly be broken down into three eras. The first illuminates “the pre-
World War II years” of twentieth-century America.107 Works such as historian Thomas J.
Sugrue’s Sweet Land of Liberty: The Forgotten Struggle for Civil Rights in the North
(2008), which historian Brian Purnell labels “The first narrative synthesis” incorporating
“freedom North” as its model, takes the launching point back as far as the 1920s.108 In her recent dissertation entitled “The Garden of Opportunity: Black Women Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey, 1912–1949” (2017), historian Hettie V.
105 Kruse and Tuck, “Introduction,” 4-6; Dalfiume, “The ‘Forgotten Years’ of the Negro Revolution,” 90- 106.
106 Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement, xi-xii.
107 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, xxi.
108 Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3, 301n3; Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, xix.
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Williams even begins in 1912.109 The second period, which this dissertation is a part of, builds upon Dalfiume’s “watershed” premise, arguing the Second World War’s significance in advancing civil rights work.110 Finally, the third era stresses the post-war period. Works by historians like Martha Biondi and Robert O. Self begin their interpretations of civil rights in the post-war years. All three groups of historians, however, essentially employ the “long civil rights movement” perspective, which simultaneously challenges the traditional 1954 to 1968 periodization, and the locale of the southern states as primary to the history.111
What made small cities like Pottstown different from their large northern counterparts was the fact that civil rights work was virtually nonexistent there prior to the
Second World War despite a long-standing black presence in the borough, and pervasive anti-black discrimination.112 Civil rights work in Pottstown encompassed the methods, procedures, and ways in which activists addressed inequalities to ultimately improve the quality of everyday life of local African Americans. Specifically, activists did so by implementing a variety of strategies such as meetings and public gatherings, formulating projects that catered towards local blacks, canvassing for memberships, accumulating
109 Hettie V. Williams, “The Garden of Opportunity: Black Women Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey, 1912–1949” (PhD diss., Drew University, 2017), https://search-proquest- com.proxy-ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/1899904773?accountid=12557.
110 Kruse and Tuck, “Introduction,” 4-6; Dalfiume, “The ‘Forgotten Years’ of the Negro Revolution,” 90- 106; Bates, “‘Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946,” 17-39; Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler,” 87-102; Taylor, “To Be a Good American,”10-31.
111 Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1235; Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement, xi-xii.
112 Regarding historical black presence in Pottstown, see, for example, Snyder, “The history of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church,” Mercury, February 5, 2012; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 63, 125-26. Concerning racism, see Carter, “Discrimination Charged,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 7, 1943, 4; Hill, Dear Sir, 50, 58.
42
capital, while even publicly challenging, if not lambasting, white racism indigenous to the borough.
Moreover, several factors help explain why effective and sustainable civil rights work did not emerge prior to the war. The first factor concerned the borough lacking a strong presence of interracial coalitions—less of a handicap in large northern cities such as Philadelphia. Historian Stanley Keith Arnold, in his analysis of interracial activism in
Philadelphia, for example, highlights black and white cooperation in improving the conditions of city African Americans through groups like the Young People’s Interracial
Fellowship, among others, before the Second World War.113 When Pottstown locals did, in fact, make some sincere attempts to establish such coalitions prior to WWII they proved limited in scope and short-lived in duration.114
The second factor related to the nature of local leadership among African
Americans. Borough blacks had an organized and vibrant community that predated the global conflict. However, black leadership before World War II mainly worked to build and strengthen internal community institutions like churches, and those organizations that were compelled by the discriminatory practices of the larger society to serve black- only constituencies. To be sure, these black leaders understood their most effective leadership to be helping blacks achieve measures of material equality and equality of
113 Arnold, Building the Beloved Community, 20, 15-25.
114 “Colored Girls Join White Y.W.C.A.,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 17, 1930, 13, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/hnpphiladelphiatribune/docview/531039436/DCE2075E435F47E5PQ/2?accountid=14971 ; Sallie Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, August 30, 1938, 11.
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opportunity with whites.115 Most direct challenges to white supremacy and anti-black discrimination did not seem promising because of broadly held agreement among whites on those issues before WWII, even outside of the South.116
A third factor contributing to the lack of civil rights work in pre-war Pottstown involved the size of the black population. Indeed, the lack of interracial coalitions and black leadership promoting civil rights work in the years before World War II was not helped by the fact that Pottstown’s African-American population only reached three percent of the total population in 1940. Nevertheless, while this percentage was drastically lower to the national black average of 9.8 percent in 1940,117 it did reflect substantial local growth. In fact, between 1910 and 1940, Pottstown’s African-American populace expanded from 341 to 608 or an approximate 78 percent increase.118
During the thirty-year period, the black population experienced its greatest spikes between 1910 to 1920, and 1930 to 1940. From 1910 to 1920, the population added 109
African Americans or almost 32 percent. The decade between 1920 and 1930 the
115 Snyder, “The history of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church,” Mercury, February 5, 2012; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 63; Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, August 30, 1938, 11; Sallie Sims, “Worth While Happenings of the Colored Folk of Pottstown and Vicinity,” Pottstown Mercury, April 16, 1935, 3; M.D. Skerrett, “Pottstown,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 24, 1935, 14, http://proxywcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest- com.proxywcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531365491?accountid=14971.
116 Grace Elizabeth Hale, Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 (New York: First Vintage Books Edition, June 1999).
117 Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, 161; Bureau of the Census, We the Americans: Blacks, by Claudette E. Bennett, Barbara M. Martin and Kymberly DeBarros (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1993), 2, https://www.census.gov/prod/cen1990/wepeople/we-1.pdf.
118 Bureau of the Census, Negro Population, 1790-1915, Part VII: General Tables (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1918), 773, https://www.census.gov/library/publications/1918/dec/negro- population-1790-1915.html; Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, 161.
44
borough only added four blacks or less than a one percent increase. However, from 1930 to 1940, Pottstown’s black community grew 154 African Americans, which was close to a 34 percent rise.119 Finally, it is worth revealing that beginning in 1940, and concluding in 1970, Pottstown’s black populace grew even more explosively, going from 608 to
2,235 —an enormous 267.6 percent over three decades.120
Thus, World War II had a tremendous impact on Pottstown, and created opportunities for blacks to shift their strategies for resisting discrimination there. Similar to other locales across the industrial North, Pottstown’s African-American population had been heavily impacted by southern black migration. According to the 1940 United
States Census, while most Pottstown African Americans were Pennsylvania born, a substantial amount claimed southern origins. By far, Virginia was the state that had the greatest representation of southern born African Americans in Pottstown, numerically followed by Georgia, then North Carolina. Smaller pockets of southern born blacks who moved to the borough were from Maryland, Alabama and South Carolina. Moreover, in
1940 several southern blacks came as far as from Tennessee, Kentucky, and even
Texas.121 To be sure, Pottstown’s increased African-American population reflected the
119 For the thirty-year period, see Bureau of the Census, Negro Population, 1790-1915, Part VII: General Tables, 773; Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930: Volume III, Part 2: Montana-Wyoming (Washington, D.C.: United States Government Printing Office, 1932), 690; Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, 161.
120 Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, 161; Bureau of the Census, Nineteenth Census of the United States, 1970: Volume I: Characteristics of the Population, Part 40: Pennsylvania Section 1(Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, April 1973), 40-233.
121 Pottstown African Americans resided in eight of Pottstown’s ten wards. These enumeration districts included 46-167, 46-169, 46-170, 46-171, 46-172, 46-173, 46-174, 46-175, 46-176, 46-177, 46-180A, 46- 180B, 46-181, 46-182, 46-183. For the online holding I consulted for this dissertation, see “1940 Census:
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expanded job opportunities available on the local scene.122 While Pottstown was relatively close to Philadelphia, “the center of Pennsylvania’s wartime activity,” borough manufacturing played its part in war production.123
During the Second World War, industrial powerhouse companies like Bethlehem
Steel, Firestone Tire and Rubber, Doehler-Jarvis, and Stanley G. Flagg, were found in and around Pottstown.124 Not surprisingly, therefore, the evidence captures the intrinsic role local African Americans—although a small population—played within Pottstown’s wartime labor force while the global conflict raged. Commenting weeks following D-Day on Pottstown African Americans residing “in the community bounded by Beech, Grant,
Jefferson and Sheridan streets,” the Pottstown Mercury noted how blacks “there are working day and night, employed in local war plants, helping to the best of their ability to produce the weapons of war that will ultimately plow under the Axis dictators.”125
Official 1940 Census Website,” National Archives, accessed March 24, 2019, https://1940census.archives.gov/.
122 “Pottstown- Today And Tommorrow,” 5-7; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752- 1952, 87, 94-98, 103-05, 107, and 109-11; Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 11-13, 100; Larry Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1. For general commentary regarding industrialized Pottstown’s relationship concerning the Second World War, see Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 100; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 87, 103, 105, 107, 109-11.
123 Merl E. Reed, “Black Workers, Defense Industries, and Federal Agencies in Pennsylvania, 1941-1945,” in African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives, ed. Joe William Trotter Jr. and Eric Ledell Smith (Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997), 367.
124 “Pottstown- Today And Tommorrow,” 5-7; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752- 1952, 87, 94-98, 103-05, 107, and 109-11; Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 11-13, 100.
125 Larry Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1. For general commentary regarding industrialized Pottstown’s relationship concerning the Second World War, see Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 100; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752- 1952, 87, 103, 105, 107, 109-11. For a brief essay on D-Day, see Thomas D. Morgan, “D-Day at
46
On the home front, blacks were as committed to the war effort as any other
Americans, and sacrificed in many ways to the cause. Indeed, late in the war, it was announced that “there will be no meeting of the [Pottstown] NAACP until further notice,” because “many of the members are now working on night shifts in local war plants.”126 Still, given their increased numbers, growing economic wherewithal through access to better paying jobs, and the expansive democratic and anti-racist language incorporated as part of the American wartime propaganda, it was not surprising that civil rights activism began mounting in Pottstown during the Second World War. Nationally,
Dalfiume noted African Americans’ main viewpoint while WWII raged concerned battling “for democracy on two fronts,” stateside and overseas.127 To be sure, the same sentiment manifested locally. On July 19, 1943, the Pottstown Mercury published a letter to the editor where one local black argued the importance of borough African Americans staying diligent in their equality mission. “In the past things good and bad have happened to us. I know when we pick up the [news] paper and read articles concerning the race riots and other mobster acts against our race, it makes our hearts ache and blood boil.”
However, he continued, “you know and I know that we will continue to work and fight for the four freedoms for which this nation is at war.”128
Normandy Revisited,” Army History no. 36 (Winter 1996), 30-35, http://www.jstor.org.proxyms.researchport.umd.edu/stable/26304560.
126 “NAACP Group Gives To Recreation Fund,” Pottstown Mercury, February 29, 1944, 1.
127 Dalfiume, “The ‘Forgotten Years’ of the Negro Revolution,” 95.
128 H.C.W., “Strength in Negro Unity,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 19, 1943, 4.
47
Finally, in addition to Pottstown African Americans contribution to the defense industry,129 it is worth stressing that they served in the United States military during
WWII. Indeed, the Pottstown Mercury spotlighted the names of local African Americans drafted and who also volunteered themselves for military duty.130 Born in Maryland in
1921, local African-American Milton Simms, an army private in the 13th Infantry
Regiment and Purple Heart recipient, even gave the ultimate sacrifice. In fact, Simms was the sole Pottstown black killed in action during the Second World War.131
129 Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1; “NAACP Group Gives To Recreation Fund,” Pottstown Mercury, February 29, 1944, 1.
130 See: “War in the Distance,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1941, 4; “12 More Selectees Called For April 3,” Pottstown Mercury, March 14, 1941, 1; “Five Draftees Rejected; 12 Called April 3,” Pottstown Mercury, March 26, 1941, 1; “16 Selectees, 5 Replacements Leave Tomorrow,” Pottstown Mercury, April 2, 1941, 1, 3; “Boro Bids Farewell To 16 More Draftees,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1941, 1, 17; “Age Limit Cuts 2 From Draft Group,” Pottstown Mercury, July 15, 1941, 1; “Parade Will Mark Draftee’s Departure,” Pottstown Mercury, July 25, 1941, 1; “Small Crowd Bids Farewell to Lone Draftee at Depot,” Pottstown Mercury, July 28, 1941, 1; “Draft Calls . . . Pottstown Board Sends 59 for Tests September 23,” Pottstown Mercury, September 3, 1941, 1; “2000 Drafted From Board, Official Says: Chairman Evans Speaks as Latest Group Leaves for Army,” Pottstown Mercury, April 24, 1943, 1; “Next Selectee Group Expected to Number More Than a Hundred: Half Married Men,” Pottstown Mercury, July 10, 1943, 1; “Seventy-Seven Pottstonians In Next Draft Contingent,” Pottstown Mercury, July 20, 1943, 1; “Citizens Join In Farewell To Inductees: School Bands, Patriotic Groups, Draft Board Members in Tribute Today, Train Leaves At 9:35 A.M. For New Cumberland,” Pottstown Mercury, August 2, 1943,1; “29 Selectees Leave Today For 2 Camps,” Pottstown Mercury, February 9, 1944, 1, 3; “More Veterans Join Send-Off For Selectees,” Pottstown Mercury, February 10, 1944, 1; “128 in 200 Here Taking Service Test Get War Duty Okay; Boro Aides Among Top Citizens Accepted in Record Call,” Pottstown Mercury, February 19, 1944, 1, 3; “Selective Service Announces Changes in Classifications,” Pottstown Mercury, April 20, 1944, 1.
131 “Simms, Milton,” Fields of Honor – Database, accessed March 21, 2019, https://www.fieldsofhonor- database.com/index.php/en/american-war-cemetery-margraten-s/65258-simms-milton; “Pottstown Negro, Limerick Man Die on Warfronts, Relatives Told,” Pottstown Mercury, April 20, 1945, 1; “Milton Simms Post Arranges Campaign To Build New Home,” Pottstown Mercury, January 27, 1948, 3.
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Equalization Strategy in Wartime Pottstown
Even in death, Pottstown blacks faced discrimination. In July 1954, the Pottstown
Mercury printed a letter to the editor from borough African-American Mary V. Reid, where she threw light upon white racism on the local front and its direct connection to
African-American death. “After living as a second-rate citizen, paying first rate taxes etc.,” Reid observed, an African American goes onto eternity. Local blacks, she added, did not have many options when acquiring a mortician, especially finding “one of the few who give colored patrons courteous service.” Moreover, Reid stated that black interment was even more discriminatory. In essence, Reid aligned local black burial with the
American South. “The funeral is over and the citizen who resided in Pottstown,
Pennsylvania, not Alabama, is buried in the one colored cemetery.” Remarking sarcastically, Reid even added: “I understand the others (white) are filled to capacity when a colored resident tries to purchase a lot.” Concerning this latter point, Reid was demonstrating how local racism manifested inconspicuously. In addition, the black graveyard she mentioned prior was Pottstown Second Baptist Church Cemetery.132
While the Pottstown Mercury printed those remarks from Reid in 1954, the origins of the all-black Second Baptist Church Cemetery dated back to the same month the United States officially entered World War II. Although the borough’s white-owned
Edgewood Cemetery served the burial needs of both races, each was accorded a finite number of plots. In December 1941, Edgewood faced a looming depletion of its black- designated plot quota. Rather than expand that quota, or eliminate the restrictions
132 Mary V. Reid, “Bigotry Offers a Challenge,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 10, 1954, 4. See also: “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3; “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7.
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altogether, the company approached the black Second Baptist Church about an initiative for a new cemetery exclusively for African Americans. One of several local black congregations, Second Baptist had been a fixture in Pottstown’s African-American community since 1895.133 Essentially, Second Baptist congregants named an internal group of church-goers by March 1942, whose sole purpose was to act upon Edgewood
Cemetery’s proposal. On June 18, 1942, following months of detailed planning, the congregation acquired roughly “four-and-a-half acres” in Douglass Township
Pennsylvania, just to the north of Pottstown. Ultimately, Second Baptist established a graveyard on this property.134
Edgewood’s solution reflected the older modes of racial reform prevalent among many whites, especially outside of the South. While not overtly hostile to African
Americans, or the idea of black advancement, they nonetheless protected the trappings of white privilege, and could seldom envision circumstances of true equality between the races. Understanding this perspective held by whites, blacks often sought solutions that provided some measure of “equalization,” or the best outcomes possible for themselves, even if seemingly it fell in-line with the tenets of white supremacy and racial discrimination. Thus, when Edgewood Cemetery Company approached Second Baptist with pledges of financial and other support necessary to acquire the land for an otherwise separate cemetery for blacks, the church accepted the offer as no concession to white
133 Snyder, “The history of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church,” Mercury, February 5, 2012. Regarding WWII’s timeframe, see “World War II Chronology,” Army History, no. 20 (Fall 1991): 22-23, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26302852.
134 “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3.
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supremacy. Instead, as with the other demands of an era in which only equalization seemed possible, the circumstance seemed a pragmatic necessity for the local black collective.135
When Edgewood Cemetery initially contacted Second Baptist, African-American minister Heywood L. Butler pastored the congregation. Butler was well-steeped in the equalization traditions of resistance to discrimination. Born in Luray, Virginia, in
1907,136 the minister had graduated from the historically black Storer College in Harpers
Ferry, West Virginia, before studying at the Philadelphia School of Bible. 137 Prior to his arrival in Pottstown at Second Baptist in 1938, 138 Butler had served in Virginia, New
Jersey, and elsewhere in Pennsylvania, including time as an associate minister with another “Second Baptist Church,” this one in the Frankford neighborhood in
Philadelphia.139 Assuming the leadership at Second Baptist of Pottstown, Butler did much
135 Ibid; Kirk, “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers’ Salary Equalization,” 530.
136 “Rev. Heywood L. Butler, Ecumenical Force Dies,” Pottstown Mercury, December 14, 1971, 1, 24.
137 “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7; “Rev. Butler Is Awarded For Service,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1952, 1, 5. For a backdrop of Storer College, see Stephanie Shapiro, “A black college closed in 1955, but its fading alumni fight to pass on a legacy,” Washington Post, October 22, 2015, https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/a-black-college- closed-in-1955-but-its-fading-alumni-fight-to-pass-on-a-legacy/2015/10/21/1a1a379c-67d1-11e5-9223- 70cb36460919_story.html?utm_term=.9c223686b807.
138 “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7. Also see “Man of God,” Pottstown Mercury, December 17, 1971, 4; “Rev. Heywood L. Butler, Ecumenical Force Dies,” Pottstown Mercury, December 14, 1971, 1, 24.
139 For example, see “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7; W. Phillips Jones, “Frankford,” Philadelphia Tribune, October 17, 1935, 14, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531411346?accountid=14971.
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to help ameliorate the church’s overall circumstance. As he found it, for example, Second
Baptist’s congregation was tiny.
Over Butler’s first decade of ministry, however, the congregation enlarged significantly.140 Butler even directed a church-based organization in Pottstown, the
Frankford Improvement Association (FIA). Named for an organization he had originally established during his time in Philadelphia, the Pottstown FIA helped African Americans acquire houses that they would own outright. In July 1949, the Pottstown Mercury reported that Second Baptist had helped African Americans buy seven standing houses locally. The same congregation, the newspaper added, had acquired twenty-seven additional building areas as well.141
Indeed, the secular aspects of Butler’s leadership concerned the material needs of black Pottstown. Apparently, his vision in this way even contemplated burial needs.
Before Edgewood’s offer in 1941, in fact, Butler had noted that Pottstown generally lacked adequate burial facilities for the black dead. His perception of this need helps to contextualize Second Baptist’s receptiveness to the Edgewood offer.142
From the beginning, then, Second Baptist understood the graveyard project as pragmatically meeting a local African-American necessity.143 Cooperation between
140 Snyder, “The history of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church,” Mercury, February 5, 2012; “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7; “Rev. Butler Is Awarded For Service,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1952, 1, 5.
141 “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7.
142 Ibid.
143 Ibid.
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whites and blacks that did not challenge the norms of white supremacy was not unknown during the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century. Around 1910, for example,
Pottstown’s white-led First Baptist Church assisted Second Baptist in acquiring a vacant church on Hale Street for use as its new church.144
Despite their ideological rejection of white supremacy, African Americans were regularly compelled by pragmatic necessity to work within the parameters of anti-black discrimination. Forcing the circumstance to yield what it could, for blacks like those in in Pottstown, equalization strategy provided the opportunity to exercise agency, control and autonomy. In the legal field, the National NAACP used this strategy in the federal courts to coax greater assets for blacks within southern “separate and unequal” schools and school teachers from southern states fearful of a more direct federal attack on school segregation.145
Outside of the South, in places like Pottstown, where discrimination was habit but not legally enforced, blacks knowingly engaged in discriminatory partnerships and programs with local white organizations because it afforded blacks platforms otherwise unavailable. With these opportunities, blacks desired to actively preside over and conduct endeavors that were black-centered, and black-focused. Therefore, the partnership between Edgewood Cemetery Company and Second Baptist Church must be viewed from the vantage point of equalization.146
144 Snyder, “The History of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church,” Mercury, February 5, 2012.
145 Kirk, “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers’ Salary Equalization,” 530.
146 Ibid; “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3.
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To be sure, the local graveyard initiative launched precisely because of
Edgewood’s discriminatory quota/spatial allocation system. The fact that when initially contacted by Edgewood Cemetery, Second Baptist did not demand that the white-owned company simply make available more interment spots to African-American should be taken in part, at least, as black assessment of the unlikelihood of such a result.
Pragmatically, instead, the black church voluntarily collaborative with Edgewood on a project that plainly extended the practice of anti-black discrimination.147
That said, the strategy of equalization gave local blacks the opportunity in the
Second Baptist Church Cemetery to demonstrate African-American autonomy, if not control, of their own space. In fact, because Second Baptist congregants sought out “a plot of ground for a separate cemetery” so that the African-American gravesite started formulating, they showed their power of choice, if not control, of the local civil rights project. “After several sites had been inspected,” congregants established their internal group, which culminated in the June 18, 1942, property acquisition in nearby Douglass
Township.148 Moreover, Second Baptist membership illustrated control over African-
American space precisely because the group virtually conducted “all the work on the hilly, wooded site.” Essentially, since congregants own labor drove the physical building and beautifying of the Second Baptist gravesite, it, therefore, gave them the ultimate power to create and structure the cemetery as they saw fit.149
147 “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3.
148 Ibid.
149 “Church Goes Into Business For Financing New Edifice,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1949, 7.
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Furthermore, because Butler and fellow Second Baptist congregants largely took part in the spatial creation and building of the church’s graveyard, they demonstrated a keen sense of black agency. Although Edgewood Cemetery provided Second Baptist administrative and economic assistance, the African-American congregation was the one that spearheaded the building and beautification project. “With Rev. Butler at their side,”
Second Baptist congregants “hacked a clearing out of the wilderness of brush and trees,” chopped “down the top of the hill,” reinforced “shoulders to prevent erosion, and constructed a cement block wall along a driveway they cut through the plot.” Regarding
Butler’s personal role, the African-American minister additionally operated “a bulldozer, mix[ed] cement,” dug run-off trenches while even constructing cemented structures direly needed for the gravesite.150
Another example of white efforts to assist blacks through equalization but maintain white supremacy and de facto racial separation involves the work of the Young
Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in Pottstown. As such, this simultaneously represents black efforts to extract practical equalization from plainly discriminatory circumstances. Organized in Europe in the 1840s, and initially operating in the United
States the following decade, the YMCA adhered to American traditions of racial segregation in its branch affiliates.151
150 Ibid.
151 “Negro Program Is Formulated: YMCA Council to Plan Recreational Activities Under Boys’ Department,” Pottstown Mercury, January 4, 1945, 1. Regarding YMCAs international history, see Nina Mjagkij, Light In The Darkness: African Americans and the YMCA, 1852-1946 (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994), 8-23, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jcnq.
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Around the mid-1920s YMCA operations in many large U.S. cities often offered services to black clientele through “Colored YMCA” subsidiaries.152 In smaller cities like Pottstown where the YMCA provided services to whites, but racist tradition prohibited integrated facility usage, and black population numbers prohibited the full- scale development of permanent Colored YMCA facilities, services were offered to blacks through “Negro Extension Work” programs. Launched in January 1945,153 the initiative (administered by the Extension Division of the YMCA Boys’ Department) catered specifically towards local African Americans. “The purpose of the Extension
YMCA,” the Pottstown Mercury reported, “is to provide YMCA services in Character
Education to the Negro Community.”154
Programs and services were offered in changing, ad hoc locations—whatever could be secured. Moreover, in addition to no permanent facilities, many Negro
Extension Work programs—like Pottstown—had only part-time staff. Nevertheless, as with their perspectives on other aspects of institutional discrimination during the equalization era, rather than reject separate YMCA services, blacks—it seems safe to
152 Ibid., 5, 66, 79. For “Colored YMCA” see Tim Prudente, “A Century of Swimming: Y in Druid Hill turns 100,” Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2016, 1, 14; “Colored Y.M.C.A. Expects Twenty-five Thousand,” Washington Times, May 1, 1911, 20.
153 “Negro Activity Plans Pushed: Committee to Recruit Leaders for Groups to Be Sponsored by Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1945, 1. For other articles concerning Negro Extension Work, see “Negro Program Is Formulated,” Pottstown Mercury, January 4, 1945, 1; “Council Will Consider Plans For Negro Program,” Pottstown Mercury, January 9, 1945, 10. Regarding black YMCAs throughout country, see Mjagkij, Light In The Darkness, 5, 66, 79. For an article that makes points about black participation in YMCA’s around the same time that Negro Extension Work activism launched in Pottstown, see Campbell C. Johnson, “Negro Youth and the Educational Program of the Y.M.C.A.,” Journal of Negro Education 9, no. 3 (July 1940): 354-62, DOI: 10.2307/2292606.
154 “Plans for Finance Campaign Completed At Meeting in YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 8, 1946, 6.
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assume—took a pragmatic view of Colored YMCA and Negro Extension opportunities to meet immediate needs, even as they found ways to press for the ultimate dismantling of the bi-racial set-up.155
Like Rev. Butler’s role in the Second Baptist graveyard project, YMCA Negro
Extension Work activism advanced because of effective African-American leadership.
Most notable was William D. Corum, who led the program at its inception.156 A
Pottstown native born in 1916, Corum worked at Stanley G. Flagg & Company, a manufacturer of brass and iron pipe fittings and castings, in nearby Stowe,
Pennsylvania.157 Corum was an active and involved member of the Pottstown black
155 “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946,1, 12; “Extension Work Among Negro Youth Explained to Rotary,” Pottstown Mercury, January 4, 1946, 1, 6; “Extension Program Activities Increasing,” Pottstown Mercury, January 12, 1946, 12; “Activities of YMCA For Negro Children Draw 378 in One Week,” Pottstown Mercury, February 20, 1946, 12; “Activity Participation In ‘Y’ Work Totals 459,” Pottstown Mercury, February 26, 1946, 2; “Teen-Age Boys, Girls Stage Summer Dance,” Pottstown Mercury, July 18, 1946, 12; “Give Report on Work Of ‘Y’ Extension Unit,” Pottstown Mercury, August 2, 1946, 20; “‘Y’ Extension Attracted 1092 in September,” Pottstown Mercury, October 2, 1946, 3; “Christmas Laughter Fills Bethany Center,” Pottstown Mercury, December 25, 1946, 32; “A Sign of Progress,” Pottstown Mercury, January 6, 1947, 4. Regarding when YMCA started dismantling segregationism from within, see Mjagkij, Light In The Darkness, 126-27. For dismantling of segregationism in Pottstown, see “Extension Division Work at ‘Y’ Ends as Economy Step,” Pottstown Mercury, July 29, 1949, 2; “Pottstown ‘Y’ Lowers Race, Religious Bars,” Philadelphia Tribune, February 1, 1949, 13, http://proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search- proquest-com.proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531860781?accountid=14971.
156 “Rev. William Corum Accepts Charge at Bethlehem Church,” Pottstown Mercury, October 24, 1949, 1, 3; “Negro Activity Plans Pushed: Committee to Recruit Leaders for Groups to Be Sponsored by Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1945, 1, 14; “Negro Program Is Formulated: YMCA Council to Plan Recreational Activities Under Boys’ Department,” Pottstown Mercury, January 4, 1945, 1.
157 “United States Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VM5Q-PZS : 20 May 2014), William Corum, Mar 1976; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing); “William Corum, 60, dies in Bryn Mawr,” Pottstown Mercury, March 29, 1976, 2. For overview of Flagg, see Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752- 1952, 97-98.
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community: he played and managed a number of all-black athletic teams in Pottstown 158; was an active member of Bethel AME Church 159; worked with the borough’s “Colored
Community Hospital auxiliary”160; and, the local all-black Keystone Lodge of Masons, where, among other duties, he sang with “The Keystone State quartet.”161
Indeed, Corum constantly advocated for the black cause. “Our greatest problem is that of procuring a building in which to conduct club meetings, recreational programs, and counselling services to carry on a character building program for our young people,” he argued in 1946. With no such facilities Negro Extension Work activists could only program “through the kindness of other social organizations” that made space available to the YMCA work. However, Corum often made it plain that Pottstown blacks fully desired to have “a building in our own community” to coordinated Negro Extension
Work. It seems safe to assume, again, that at this juncture, the early-postwar years, the aim that black activists believed feasible was not yet the full breaking down of discriminatory barriers at the white-only YMCA facility, but still the equalization
158 “Neville’s Club Awaits Opening Baseball Tilt: All-Stars Will Start Campaign April 16; Jim Corum is Business Manager,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1933, 10; “Colored All-Stars Meet Franklin In Opener,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1934, 8; “Eureka Meets First Baptist In Church Loop Game: Colored Nine Seeks 3d Straight Win,” Pottstown Mercury, May 29, 1939, 8; “Pottstown Colored Quintet Organizes,” Pottstown Mercury, November 17, 1939, 19.
159 Sallie Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, August 18, 1937, 9; Sallie Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, January 5, 1938, 11.
160 Sallie Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, October 25, 1938, 3.
161 “Zion’s Young People to Hear Talk,” Pottstown Mercury, February 24, 1934, 6; “Needle-Eye Social Club Holds First Dinner: Keystone State Quartet Sings; Paul Green Gets Fan,” Pottstown Mercury, May 6, 1935, 10.
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solution whereby blacks would have facilities of their own, and under their direction.162
The relation of the Negro Extension Work program to the main (whites-only) YMCA was not exclusion. But neither was its purpose to challenge white supremacy or break the traditional barriers of racial separation. Thus, blacks in the program often connected with white entities—Pottstown clubs like the Rotary, Lions, Optimists, and American
Business —but the point was only informal and educative, designed to garner financial support for the YMCA and its work. 163
YMCA Negro extension work attracted the service of many black activists committed to service. As such, Negro extension work had an all-black advisory “council
. . . composed of 12 leaders of the Negro community and each year six members” were
“elected to serve a two year term beginning May 1.”164 Moreover, African-American extension activists themselves named the all-black council.165 From a structural and organizational standpoint, the all-black council oversaw the YMCA Negro Extension
Work activism program. Underneath it was an organizational structure of unpaid, part- time African-American workers. Alongside the African-American council, these laborers principally implemented YMCA Negro Extension Work activism into black
162 “Greatest Problem Faced by Adult ‘Y’ Club Is Need of a Building to Conduct Programs,” Pottstown Mercury, May 3, 1946, 8.
163“Extension Work Among Negro Youth Explained to Rotary,” Pottstown Mercury, January 4, 1946, 1, 6; “Wilke Elected President Of The Lions Club: Race Relationships Discussed by YMCA Extension Workers,” Pottstown Mercury, June 5, 1946, 1,7; “Frank F. Thomas Addresses Optimist,” Pottstown Mercury, June 5, 1946, 7; “William Corum Speaks At Meeting of ABC,” Pottstown Mercury, April 11, 1946, 1.
164 “William D. Corum Is Renamed Head of YMCA Council,” Pottstown Mercury, April 23, 1946, 5.
165“Six to Be Elected To Extension Work Council of YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1946, 7.
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Pottstown.166Some initiatives orchestrated under Negro Extension Work activism concerned interracial outreach at both secular and clerical locations, internal fundraising to sustain the black-centered endeavor,167 “the organization of six educational club groups, the organization of the Adult Y club, the planning and carrying out of a recreational program including Teen Age dances, basketball, softball, indoor programs, and special trips for young people, and participation in youth study courses and forums.”168 Regarding Negro Extension Work activism overall, both local African-
American men and women were directly involved.169
YMCA Negro Extension Work activists got many local African Americans directly involved in their programs. For example, in 1946, activists reported the involvement of several hundred over a range of activities.170 For September, the program served 1,092 in Pottstown’s Bethany Recreation Center. The monthly total broke down into 323 participating in sports, 220 in club-related activity, 120 for films, and 429 in
166 “Negro Activity Plans Pushed: Committee to Recruit Leaders for Groups to Be Sponsored by Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1945, 1, 14; “Programs for 100 Children Set Up,” Pottstown Mercury, March 2, 1945, 14; “176 Negro Boys, Girls Signed For YMCA Club Work Here,” Pottstown Mercury, February 9, 1945, 7; “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946, 1, 12.
167 “Negro Youth Work Is Discussed,” Pottstown Mercury, March 6, 1945, 8; “Extension Work Among Negro Youth Explained to Rotary,” Pottstown Mercury, January 6, 1946, 1, 6; and “Summer Membership Drive is Planned by YMCA Movement,” Pottstown Mercury, May 14, 1946, 1; “Plans for Finance Campaign Completed At Meeting in YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 8, 1946, 1, 6; “Army Leading Navy In Campaign for Negro YMCA Work,” Pottstown Mercury, January 29, 1946, 1. 168 “William D. Corum Is Renamed Head of YMCA Council,” Pottstown Mercury, April 23, 1946, 5.
169 “Programs for 100 Children Set Up,” Pottstown Mercury, March 2, 1945, 14; “Negro Activity Plans Pushed,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1945, 1, 14; “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946, 1, 12.
170 “Activities of YMCA For Negro Children Draw 378 in One Week,” Pottstown Mercury, February 20, 1946, 12; “Activity Participation In ‘Y’ Work Totals 459,” Pottstown Mercury, February 26, 1946, 2; “‘Y’ Extension Attracted 1092 in September,” Pottstown Mercury, October 2, 1946, 3.
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recreational activity. 171 Moreover, that December, the Negro Extension Work initiative served 2,648, which, once again broke down into several specific categories.172 To be sure, YMCA Negro Extension Work programming was multi-layered and popular, assisting large segments of the small population. In fact, around the time William D.
Corum stepped down from his leadership position, Negro Extension Work activism was
“serving the character education needs of 262 Negro families in Pottstown with a population of more than 1,500.”173 Ostensibly, because the estimate given by the
Pottstown Mercury is somewhat high—especially since, according to United States
Census records, the borough only had 608 African Americans in 1940 and 844 in 1950— the approximation suggests that Negro Extension Work activism had an appeal that transcended the borough. The estimation also shows that Negro Extension Work aided and assisted numerous African Americans.174
On the other hand, it is worth stating that Negro Extension Work and its equalization activism would exist in Pottstown for only a few more years. By the summer of 1949, the borough YMCA was fully desegregated, thus allowing African Americans
171 “‘Y’ Extension Attracted 1092 in September,” Pottstown Mercury, October 2, 1946, 3.
172 “YMCA Extension Leader Gives December Report,” Pottstown Mercury, January 2, 1947, 16.
173 “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946, 1, 12.
174 “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946, 1, 12; “A Sign of Progress,” Pottstown Mercury, January 6, 1947, 4. Regarding Pottstown’s African- American populace numbers in 1940, see Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, 161. In a correspondence from late 1942, Pottstown NAACP president James Corum’s populace estimation regarding Pottstown blacks is close to the 1940 census data mark. See James Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, NAACP_LOC; Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, 38-116.
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complete access to the local organization’s total amenities. Although this revolutionary change transpired by the summer of 1949, the Pottstown YMCA initially conveyed it in mid-December 1948.175
Equalization strategy appears to contradict what scholars suggest was a consensus
of black leadership, for example, inside the YMCA as well as outside. Before World
War II, blacks connected with the YMCA essentially pursued equalization strategies,
which some contemporaries have dismissed as little more than “accommodationism and
gradualism.”176 Yet, the global conflict proved landmark “for African Americans in the
United States and in the YMCA,” historian Nina Mjagkij argues. Mjagkij stresses that
black YMCA heads were influenced by the widespread civil rights activism of African
Americans, generally, to denounce greater attempts within the YMCA at further
“interracial cooperation without the elimination of segregation.”177 Adamant, black
YMCA heads even collaborated alongside civil rights groups such as the National Negro
Congress and the NAACP. Ultimately, black YMCA activists’ labor during the Second
World War pressured the YMCA into beginning the dismantling process of its almost
century-old discriminatory protocols.178
175 “Extension Division Work at ‘Y’ Ends as Economy Step,” Pottstown Mercury, July 29, 1949, 2; “Pottstown ‘Y’ Lowers Race, Religious Bars,” Philadelphia Tribune, February 1, 1949, 13, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531860781?accountid=14971.
176 Mjagkij, Light In The Darkness, 124.
177 Ibid., 123-24.
178 Ibid., 126-27, 8-23.
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Ostensibly, therefore, black YMCA leadership in the WWII era dismissed the old model of equalization, or “interracial cooperation without the elimination of segregation.”179 Yet Negro Extension Work, like Colored YMCA’s, were well-used, well-regarded pillars of every urban black community in the country. Thus, like the
Second Baptist graveyard project, the pragmatism of equalization strategy represented in
Negro Extension Work allowed black Pottstown to experience a real sense of autonomy, agency, and control of a vital community service entity. Furthermore, despite the pragmatic attention to immediate needs and services represented by the Negro Extension
Work program, that is, by concurrently pressing for the complete elimination of race discrimination and white supremacy in YMCA programs, without surrendering the moral authority to challenge the future of white supremacy.180
At the same time, Negro Extension Work activists were “helping produce programs on race relations,” William Corum revealed in early February 1946, and were
“supplying speakers to churches and clubs, and doing an all-around race education program.” To be sure, under Corum Negro Extension Work activists participated in initiatives that sought to foster better relationships among local blacks and whites. Some examples of the activism seeking to build greater interracial relationships concerned its involvement in “Race Relations Sunday and Brotherhood Week,” both of which
179 Ibid., 121, 124.
180“Programs for 100 Children Set Up,” Pottstown Mercury, March 2, 1945, 14; “176 Negro Boys, Girls Signed For YMCA Club Work Here,” Pottstown Mercury, February 9, 1945, 7; “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946,1, 12. Regarding the equalization example, see Kirk, “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers' Salary Equalization,” 530. Black YMCA’s, see Mjagkij, Light In The Darkness, 5, 66, 79; Prudente, “A Century of Swimming,” Baltimore Sun, June 4, 2016, 1, 14.
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promulgated egalitarianism among peoples of diverse backgrounds and ethnicities.181
Corum even joined an “Inter-racial Commission” as a main representative of black
Pottstown.182 In February 1946, Corum argued that Negro Extension Work planned on further pursing initiatives that ameliorated the relationship between African Americans and whites.183
A third perspective on an organization grappling with changes brought by WWII was the Pottstown chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP). Founded in November 1942, the Pottstown NAACP advocated the same civil rights platform as the mother organization based in New York City.
Specifically, the borough NAACP desired that African Americans overall livelihood— economic as well as social—not only drastically improved, but that blacks’ relationship with the dominate white population bettered too. Furthermore, the Pottstown NAACP launched so that it could protest any manifestations of white bigotry directed at local
African Americans.184
In January 1943, one-hundred individuals flocked into Second Baptist in honor of the local branch’s launch. During the gathering, white Pottstown lawyer Joseph L. Prince spoke. Here, Prince articulated points that aligned with the NAACP’s civil rights
181 “Rev. H.H. Goeringer To Deliver Address At Mass Meeting,” Pottstown Mercury, February 23, 1946, 1.
182“Inter-Racial Commission Organized in the Borough,” Pottstown Mercury, January 31, 1946, 1, 18.
183 “Race Relations Discussed by Council,” Pottstown Mercury, February 12, 1946, 1.
184 “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3.
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platform. For example, structuring his remarks around scripture found in the book of
Malachi, “Have we not all one Father,” Prince gave an exposition regarding “equality.”
In his view, equality had dire importance, precisely because of WWII. However, the white attorney also argued the need of black self-help and self-improvement. “Any group,” Prince announced, “to earn respect of others, must first come to respect its own members.”185 Ironically enough, his emphasis upon black self-help and development seemed to favor that local African-American activists continue the traditional strategy of equalization. Indeed, rather than argue that the Pottstown NAACP should begin fully challenging manifestations of white supremacy and inequality on the local front, Prince stressed the importance of borough African Americans examining the black community and thereby fixing conditions within it. Only then, alluded Prince, would acceptance from those outside black Pottstown sincerely and honestly manifest.186
While blacks and whites had jointly established the National NAACP decades earlier, the organization’s branches across the nation, were organized, supported, and led by African-Americans.187 As the global conflict raged, the organization experienced exponential growth “as an increasing number of communities throughout the nation were
185“Negro Organization is Given Charter,” Pottstown Mercury, January 18, 1943, 3.
186 For the January 16, 1943, gathering, see “Local Colored Group Plans Mass Meeting,” Pottstown Mercury, January 15, 1943, 1. Also see Thomas Sr to [recipient not identified], 15 January 1943, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC, for corroborative evidence regarding the January 16, 1943, gathering. For background data on Prince, see “Local Lawyer Joseph Prince Dies at 78,” Pottstown Mercury, December 12, 1972, 1.
187 Charles Radford Lawrence, “Negro Organizations in Crisis: Depression, New Deal, World War II” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1952), 41-47, 102-04. https://search.proquest.com/docview/302041869?accountid=12557.
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being exposed directly to the work of the NAACP.”188 Between 1941 and 1945, the number NAACP branches enlarged, from 383 to 894. In these same years, NAACP membership expanded from 72,021 to 351,131. 189 The Pennsylvania State Conference of
NAACP Branches desired an NAACP youth council started inside Pottstown as early as
1941.190 By the following year, momentum for a full branch initiated, and was achieved
by the end of 1942. 191 This growth, however, ceased around the Second World War’s conclusion.192
Once established the Pottstown NAACP branch had no physical office space; therefore, branch president James Corum and branch secretary, Frank W. Thomas, Sr., worked out of their respective residences, both on the 700 block of Beech Street in
Pottstown.193 Moreover, Second Baptist Church served as an occasional meeting space, as did Bethany Recreation Center.194
188 Ibid., 104.
189 Ibid., 102-03.
190 “N.Y.A. Survey,” Crisis, June 1941, 201, https://books.google.com/books?id=xloEAAAAMBAJ.
191 “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; “Branch News,” Crisis, January 1943, 28; Lucille Black to James Corum, Sr., 23 December 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
192 “NAACP Chapter Receives Charter, Elects New Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, October 8, 1951, 1, 20.
193 Corum to [recipient not identified], [unknown date], Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC; Corum Sr. to [recipient not identified], 9 November 1942, NAACP_LOC; Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, NAACP_LOC; Frank Thomas Sr. to The Board of Directors NAACP, 1 December 1942, NAACP_LOC; Frank Thomas Sr. to [recipient not identified], [unknown date], NAACP_LOC.
194 “Five Join Group,” Pottstown Mercury, December 29, 1942, 1; “NAACP To Discuss Anti-Poll Tax Bill,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1943, 3; “Local Negro Organization Discusses Discrimination,” Pottstown Mercury, March 23, 1943, 3; Thomas Sr to [recipient not identified], 15 January 1943, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC; See, for example, “Association to Meet,” Pottstown Mercury, November 25, 1944, 12; “Negroes Plan
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While the borough NAACP membership numbers paled in comparison to large northern city chapters like Philadelphia and Detroit during the Second World War,195 the
Pottstown group, nevertheless, did experience growth, particularly in its beginning phase.
“We have had a fairly successful campaign here as the number shows as compared to our total population of about 600 colored residents,” noted James Corum in a correspondence from late November 1942.196 Indeed, membership grew steadily. So much so, that by
January 1943, the local NAACP had one-hundred and seventy-five enrolled members,197 which equated to approximately twenty-nine percent of the local African-American population during the Second World War. Here, is it worth noting that from a percentage standpoint, Pottstown had a larger representation of NAACP membership from its black community than Philadelphia or Detroit.198
Increased Part in Public Affairs,” Pottstown Mercury, October 30, 1944, 1; “Negroes Revive Advancement Assn.,” Pottstown Mercury, July 31, 1944, 1.
195 Wolfinger, “We Are In The Front Lines In The Battle For Democracy,” 6; Lawrence, “Negro Organizations in Crisis,” 92, 375.
196Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942- 43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
197 “Negro Organization is Given Charter,” Pottstown Mercury, January 18, 1943, 3. The increase of Pottstown NAACP members is documented in the following sources. See James Corum Sr to [recipient not identified], 9 November 1942, Box II: C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC; “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; and “Branch News,” Crisis, January 1943, 28; Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, Box II: C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, , NAACP_LOC. Frank W. Thomas Sr. to The Board of Directors NAACP, 1 December 1942, Box II: C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” , NAACP_LOC; “Five Join Group,” Pottstown Mercury, December 29, 1942, 1; “Local Colored Group Plans Mass Meeting,” Pottstown Mercury, January 15, 1943, 1; “Negro Organization is Given Charter,” Pottstown Mercury, January 18, 1943, 3.
198 Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942- 43,” NAACP_LOC; “Negro Organization is Given Charter,” Pottstown Mercury, January 18, 1943, 3; Lawrence, “Negro Organizations in Crisis,” 375.
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Like black communities in highly industrialized zones across the wartime United
States,199 Pottstown NAACP membership was generally laboring-class. This marks a break from the earlier middle-class dominance of chapter NAACP’s in places like Detroit and Philadelphia,200 and a signal of shift toward mass membership and mass concerns in war years.201 Indeed, Corum described Pottstown to the national office, in his late
November 1942 correspondence, as “being a working man’s town as most [members] are on defense work.”202 Furthermore, the class homogeneity of the Pottstown NAACP bears mention, as its leadership conducted similar labor as the rank and file membership. This fact set Pottstown apart from many chapter profiles in larger northern cities like Detroit and Philadelphia during the war years, where even as working-class blacks joined the membership, leadership was still in the hands of professionals and elites. Indeed, during
World War II, Pottstown NAACP leadership had no dominant representation from the black professional classes. Nor did it have any full-time employees on the branch staff who earned their living from the civil rights organization.203 Along with James Corum
199 Reed, “Black Workers, Defense Industries, and the Federal Agencies in Pennsylvania,” 363-87; Bates, “‘Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946,” 17-39.
200 “McClendon Reelected Detroit NAACP Pres.,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 9, 1943, 15, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531664945?accountid=14971; Wolfinger, “We Are In The Front Lines In The Battle For Democracy,” 1-23; Karl Ellis Johnson, “Black Philadelphia in Transition: The African-American Struggle on the Home Front during World War II and the Cold War Period, 1941–1963” (PhD diss., Temple University, 2001), 99, 127, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/304729908?accountid=12557.
201 Lawrence, “Negro Organizations in Crisis: Depression, New Deal, World War II,” 102-03.
202 James Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
203 Karen R. Miller, “‘We Cannot Wait for Understanding to Come to Us’: Community Activists Respond to Violence at Detroit’s Northwestern High School, 1940-1941,” in Groundwork: Local Black Freedom
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(the factory worker who served as branch president), for instance, Pottstown NAACP positions of vice president, treasurer, and secretary were all held by African-American blue-collar workers.204
Even though the Pottstown NAACP had this intrinsic laboring-class composition among leadership, as well as its rank and file, organizational records prove that chapter membership would be faithful throughout the war years concerning monetary obligations.
On November 9, 1942, James Corum reported that “there were 100 signed paid
Movements in America, ed. Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard (New York: New York University Press, 2005), 240-241; Patrick Flack, “Tensions in the Relationship between Local and National NAACP branches: The Example of Detroit, 1919-41,” in Long Is the Way and Hard: One hundred Years of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), ed. Kevern Verney and Lee Sartain (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2009), 156, 162-164, http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=906887&site=eds-live&scope=site; “McClendon Reelected Detroit NAACP Pres.,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 9, 1943, 15; Wolfinger, “We Are In The Front Lines In The Battle For Democracy,” 1-23; Johnson, “Black Philadelphia in Transition: The African-American Struggle on the Home Front during World War II and the Cold War Period, 1941– 1963”, 99, 127.
204 Regarding working-class composition of Pottstown NAACP leadership, Isaiah Glenn, for example, the vice president of the group, was a laborer. See “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQC6-841 : 15 March 2018), Isiah E Glenn, Ward 7, Pottstown, Pottstown Borough, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 46-177, sheet 10B, line 74, family 184, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3583; “United States Public Records, 1970-2009,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KRY7-TMB : 23 May 2014), Isaiah E Rev Glenn, Residence, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information; and “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3. Frank Thomas was the secretary. Thomas was, according to census data, a “Grinder” who labored in “Pipefitting.” See “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQC6-WCR : 15 March 2018), Frank Thomas in household of Bertha Thomas, Ward 7, Pottstown, Pottstown Borough, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 46-177, sheet 13A, line 30, family 229, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3583; “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3. Finally, general laborer Clarence Gilles was the Pottstown NAACP treasurer. See “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; R.L. Polk & CO., Inc., Boyd’s Pottstown (Montgomery County, PA.) Directory, 1942-43: Including Kenilworth, Sanatoga, South Pottstown and Stowe (Boston: R.L. Polk & CO., Inc., Publishers, 1943), 92, https://phspa.org/portfolio-item/city-directories/.
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[membership] cards turned in.”205 Several weeks later branch secretary Thomas sent the
NAACP Board of Directors in New York City $79.25 “as payment for 146 adult members and 3 junior members.”206 In mid-January the following year, Thomas shipped funds for 12 adult and four junior memberships.207 Finally, on June 17, 1943, Thomas sent more funds to New York for memberships and at least one subscription so that a local received “Crisis magazine.” Moreover, Thomas proudly announced that the borough NAACP was “still making progress.”208
Meanwhile, despite the national organization’s ideological commitments to racial integration, the Pottstown branch still worked within aspects of equalization strategy when pragmatically useful for delivering services otherwise unavailable to black constituents. For example, the borough chapter worked with both the Pottstown
Recreation Commission, as well as Bethany Recreation Center, in search of solutions that ultimately did not challenge white supremacy or discrimination, especially when seeking to gain better access to recreational space for the local African-American collective.
Specifically, the borough NAACP asked the Pottstown Recreation Commission, the public agency governing public recreation space, “that a playground be established for
205Corum Sr. to [recipient not identified], 9 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942- 43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
206 Thomas Sr. to The Board of Directors NAACP, 1 December 1942, Box II: C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
207 Thomas Sr to [recipient not identified], 15 January 1943, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942- 43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
208 Thomas Sr. to [recipient not identified], [unknown date], Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942- 43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC (Source has stamped date of June 17, 1943, on it).
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use of the colored, with a colored leader.” In response, the recreational group authorized the Pottstown NAACP’s inquiry.209 The following February, in turn, the Pottstown
NAACP demonstrated its approval of the Pottstown Recreation Commission’s assistance in promoting equalization by donating one-hundred dollars towards the NAACP’s utilization of Bethany Recreation Center.210 In the end, it seems safe to assume that rather than challenge black exclusion—at the risk of being rebuffed and turned down— the local NAACP (like the Negro Extension Work program, and the cemetery project mentioned above) sought some approximation of equality as the pragmatic and best solution available in the moment.211
The Limits of Equalization and the Advent of Civil Rights Work in Pottstown
One challenge connecting the Second Baptist graveyard project, Negro Extension
Work activism through the YMCA, and the borough NAACP, concerned economics and
Pottstown’s working-class composition. While not stated explicitly, the fact that Second
Baptist willingly accepted monetary assistance from Edgewood Cemetery, which practiced racial discrimination with its quota/spatial allocation system, suggests that the black church had trouble acquiring enough capital on its own to obtain the property without help from a better-financed organization like the white-led Edgewood Cemetery.
It also suggests that such an inability was characteristic of the broader black community
209“Report Given On Recreation Activity Here,” Pottstown Mercury, June 8, 1943, 1. Regarding the Pottstown Recreation Commission, see Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 181.
210 “NAACP Group Gives To Recreation Fund,” Pottstown Mercury, February 29, 1944, 1.
211“Report Given On Recreation Activity Here,” Pottstown Mercury, June 8, 1943, 1.
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in Pottstown (and, perhaps, other similarly situated small-town black populations), who might have otherwise extended financial assistance to the black church for such a publicly-oriented project as a cemetery.212
Negro Extension Work activism, like most other iterations of the equalization strategy endured the challenge of acquiring the necessary capital to conduct YMCA programs sufficiently.213 Governments collected taxes in a color-blind fashion but often discriminated against black citizens’ access to the resources those taxes supported.214
Likewise, in the case of private entities (like the YMCA), citizens and charitable interests donated money in support of programs in the public interest, but racism curtailed the full benefit of this largesse for blacks in need. Thus, the equalization strategy seldom yielded sufficient resources. Indeed, though part of the YMCA, the all-black board of Negro
Extension Work programs often performed their own fundraising and financing.215
Interestingly enough, under William S. Carden (William Corum’s successor as head of
Negro Extension Work in Pottstown), the leadership of the program was accorded full- time status. Now, it was able to direct more time and YMCA resources to programs before the entire bi-racial system was dropped in Pottstown in 1949.216 As the
212 “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942, 3.
213 For example, see “Plans for Finance Campaign Completed At Meeting in YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 8, 1946, 1, 6; “Army Team Leads In Finance Drive Being Held by ‘Y’,” Pottstown Mercury, January 22, 1946, 1; “Army Leading Navy In Campaign for Negro YMCA Work,” Pottstown Mercury, January 29, 1946, 1.
214 For some examples in the scholarship, see Robinson, A City Within A City; and Countryman, Up South.
215 “Extension Work Among Negro Youth Explained to Rotary,” Pottstown Mercury, January 6, 1946, 1; “Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946, 1, 12.
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Philadelphia Tribune observed, “service and programs increased when a full-time extension division secretary [Carden] was appointed in February” 1947.217 “It was mainly through [Carden’s] influence,” the newspaper argued unequivocally, “that colored men and boys may belong to the YMCA in Pottstown [on a desegregated basis].” 218
While the Philadelphia Tribune is correct in its point that during Carden’s tenure the Pottstown YMCA ultimately desegregated, one cannot lessen the crucial part played by William Corum. Corum not only headed Negro Extension Work activism into black
Pottstown for its beginning years, but it was during this time that the black-centered initiative established its base. Thus, when Carden replaced Corum, he came into a situation where the activism’s foundation had already been framed. Corum must also receive credit for his direct contribution to the dismantling of segregation at the
Pottstown YMCA precisely because he was in fact hands on, and intimately involved, with Negro Extension Work activism. During Corum’s tenure, for instance, he stayed busy attending Negro Extension Work activists’ gatherings; frequently visited local outside groups—African-American and white—to not only spread word regarding what the black-focused activism was about, but also concerning monetary support to help
216“Full-Time Extension Director Appointed for Local YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, December 31, 1946, 1, 12; “Negro Activity Plans Pushed,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1945, 1; “Negro Program Is Formulated,” Pottstown Mercury, January 4, 1945, 1; “William D. Corum Is Renamed Head of YMCA Council,” Pottstown Mercury, April 23, 1946, 5; Mjagkij, 124-27; “Pottstown ‘Y’ Lowers Race, Religious Bars,” Philadelphia Tribune, February 1, 1949, 13; “A Sign of Progress,” Pottstown Mercury, January 6, 1947, 4; “Progress Is Shown Under YMCA’s New Extension Director,” Pottstown Mercury, February 18, 1947, 3; “Extension Division Work at ‘Y’ Ends as Economy Step,” Pottstown Mercury, July 29, 1949, 2
217 “Pottstown ‘Y’ Lowers Race, Religious Bars,” Philadelphia Tribune, February 1, 1949, 13.
218 “City Couple at Post in Pottsville,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 6, 1949, 14, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531908084?accountid=14971.
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sustain it; provided internal encouragement and motivation towards extension work activists themselves; while additionally seeking out the black volunteers needed to ultimately advance the black-centered activism.219
Of all the activists involved in the launch of the Pottstown NAACP branch, James
Corum’s brief time as its president (1942–1944) would hold significance for several reasons. 220 First, under Corum, the Pottstown NAACP established its working-class and labor relations footings, helping African Americans obtain employment in the war industry.221 As he quickly built-up Pottstown’s membership (and thus revenues to New
York222), his talents were appreciated by the national office as well, which throws light upon an interesting historiographical point concerning the national NAACP’s connection
219 For example, see “William D. Corum Is Renamed Head of YMCA Council,” Pottstown Mercury, April 23, 1946, 5; “Negro Youth Work Is Discussed,” Pottstown Mercury, March 6, 1945, 8; “Extension Work Among Negro Youth Explained to Rotary,” Pottstown Mercury, January 6, 1946, 1, 6; and “Summer Membership Drive is Planned by YMCA Movement,” Pottstown Mercury, May 14, 1946, 1; “Plans for Finance Campaign Completed At Meeting in YMCA,” Pottstown Mercury, January 8, 1946, 1, 6; “Army Leading Navy In Campaign for Negro YMCA Work,” Pottstown Mercury, January 29, 1946, 1.
220Corum’s tenure as NAACP president officially began in late November 1942. See “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3. The Pottstown Mercury identifies James Corum as NAACP president up until July 29, 1944. See F. Thomas and J. Corum, “NOTICE!,” Pottstown Mercury, July 29, 1944, 1. Two days later it identifies him as “retiring president.” See “Negroes Revive Advancement Assn.,” Pottstown Mercury, July 31, 1944, 1.
221“Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; Frank Thomas Sr to [recipient not identified], 15 January 1943, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
222For example, see Corum Sr. to [recipient not identified], 9 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP-LOC; Thomas Sr. to The Board of Directors NAACP, 1 December 1942, Box II: C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC; Thomas Sr to [recipient not identified], 15 January 1943, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
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with subordinate branches.223 Historian Patrick Flack revealed that the Detroit chapter constantly clashed with NAACP headquarters over “priorities” in the Motor City. Such conflict, he argued, was essentially there from around the time that the Detroit NAACP formulated.224 Conversely, the Pottstown NAACP, in its early organizational conduct and activism, cordially followed the protocol and procedure of its national organization. In fact, Corum’s early administrative updates on NAACP activism in Pottstown impressed
African-American Lucille Black, the executive assistant of NAACP chapters in New
York City. So much so, that Black even praised “the fine success” Corum and other
Pottstown African Americans had with organizing early on.225
Second, even as the Pottstown NAACP’s cache’ with the community slipped after
Corum’s departure, Corum’s willingness to re-engage NAACP work when the local chapter re-organized in 1951 meant that the new effort would enjoy a foundation and familiarity with working-class folk. Relatedly, the third significance of Corum’s early tenure with the Pottstown NAACP would frame the later re-engagement of the group as living connection to the past.226
223 Corum to [recipient not identified], [unknown date], Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC. Penciled in date of November 4, 1942, on this document.
224 Flack, “Tensions in the Relationship between Local and National NAACP branches,” 156, 155-56.
225 Black to Corum, 13 November 1942, Box II: C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC. For a brief background of Lucille Black, see “Lucille Black, Former Aide Of the N.A.A.C.P., 66 Dies,” New York Times, May 22, 1975, 42.
226 “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; “Dead or Inactive Branches in Eastern Pennsylvania,” July 31, 1951, Box II: C354, Folder 6, “Flamer. John W. NOV. 1.,- Dec. 26, 1951,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC; “NAACP Group To Be Formally Organized Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 5, 1951, 18; “NAACP Chapter Receives Charter, Elects New Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, October 8, 1951, 1, 20.
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Meanwhile, during the war, local NAACP activism can be seen as clearly tied to working-class needs, such as access to the bustling war industries in Pottstown. Indeed,
Pottstown NAACP secretary, Frank W. Thomas, Sr., revealed in mid-January 1943 that the branch’s Industrial Committee had helped multiple African Americans obtain employment at a local factory that “never hired” blacks previously. Thomas also boasted that the same factory now typically employed twelve blacks. In fact, he continued, it even pledged “to hire more” African Americans.227 “Often it was the initiative of black workers that was decisive,” historian Beth T. Bates asserts, “turning the war effort into an opportunity for making inroads into war industries.”228
On the other hand, Thomas’ prior remarks could possibly relate to the connection between pragmatism and the hiring of local blacks. Commenting on borough companies during WWII, local historian William H. McCabe argued that they severely lacked workers. Therefore, interpreting Thomas’ remarks through this vein would suggest that
Pottstown’s labor deficiency was the ultimate rationale behind the local factory desegregating, thereby making the decision more pragmatically based rather than egalitarian or for the greater good of society.229
Monetary challenges stemming from the working-class profile of its constituents likely contributed to the Pottstown NAACP’s temporary disbanding by WWII’s
227Frank Thomas Sr to [recipient not identified], 15 January 1943, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC.
228 Bates, “‘Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946,” 17.
229 McCabe, “Pottstown,” 533.
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conclusion.230At the same time, borough residents experienced “post-war layoffs in industry,”231 which probably had something to do with the economic component of the
Pottstown NAACP’s brief disbanding in the late-1940s.232 Indeed, if the NAACP lost track of working-class black needs after the war, those inclinations were likely handed down from the national office more so than grown up from the grassroots. James Corum noted as much. Like Rev. Heywood L. Butler of Second Baptist, Corum was very much concerned with class and economic aspects of black life in Pottstown. Corum assessed that the Pottstown NAACP’s demise spoke to the challenges that laboring-class blacks endured, particularly in relationship to the financial component of supporting civil rights activism.
Though he used, perhaps, harsh terms in framing the situation—“the failure of
Negroes in Pottstown to [support] a chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People”—his insights nonetheless captured the nature of the problem. The local black population was extremely small, and generally working-class.
The economic struggle was thus more perplexing than in other locales where African
Americans had not only greater amounts of capital to disperse for NAACP activism, but also greater representations from more affluent classes. “The fault lies right here with
230 Frank J. Dostal, “Hemlock Row Defies Threat to Raze Homes: Strong Aid Pledged: Decision Rests With County Housing Unit,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1950, 1, 16. For when Pottstown NAACP disbanded, see “NAACP Group To Be Formally Organized Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 5, 1951, 18.
231 “Family Welfare Society Reports Increase in Cases,” Pottstown Mercury, October 10, 1945, 1, 3. Can also see McCabe, “Pottstown,” 534.
232 Dostal, “Hemlock Row Defies Threat to Raze Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1950, 1, 16. For when Pottstown NAACP disbanded, see “NAACP Group To Be Formally Organized Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 5, 1951, 18.
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us,” he observed. “Too many of us were concerned only with the fact that we would have to pay $1 a year for membership.”233
Meanwhile, the tension between the pragmatism of equalization strategy and the moral correctness of refusing all but racial integration as a response to racial discrimination was alleviated in the immediate postwar years with the emergence of a new liberalism in the national life that professed to embrace interracialism. “During the early years of the cold war,” historian Doug Rossinow writes, “liberals at first accepted
American capitalist democracy as a permanent framework for social improvement.”
These same individuals additionally started more concretely “to celebrate this society, while redefining liberalism as a movement for the inclusion of previously excluded groups in its bounties,”234 with African Americans being one.235 While the cold war raged, however, promoting acceptance among prior disregarded peoples had a grander agenda. And that, historian Mary L. Dudziak argues, concerned how the United States was perceived globally, ultimately to thwart communist expansion.236
Departures from traditional positions taken up by labor unions in the New Deal
1930s, and by the federal government, particularly the presidency and the federal courts beginning in the 1940s, laid the ground work for African Americans generally, and
233 Dostal, “Hemlock Row Defies Threat to Raze Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1950, 1, 16. For when NAACP disbanded, see “NAACP Group To Be Formally Organized Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 5, 1951, 18.
234 Rossinow, Visions of Progress, 195.
235 Ibid., 212-32.
236 Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights, 12-13.
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organizations like the NAACP specifically to shift from strategies of equalization and adopt a willingness for liberal interracialism. Within this context, the civil rights work era in Pottstown commenced.237
By far, James Corum would have the greatest, single-handed impact on civil rights work in Pottstown during the Second World War, and in the years following.238
Born in 1902, in Pottstown,239 Corum had direct ties to many of the activists and initiatives in Pottstown during the war. In addition to his work with the Pottstown
NAACP, for example, he was one of the black organizers of the Second Baptist graveyard project,240 and served in administrative capacities with the church congregation.241 James was also the older sibling of William Corum, who spearheaded the YMCA’s Negro Extension Work activism in Pottstown. Moreover, James and
William both worked for Stanley G. Flagg and Co. (James, however, was there first).242
237 Rossinow, Visions of Progress; Dudziak, Cold War Civil Rights; Kirk, “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers’ Salary Equalization,” 529-52.
238 Can see, for example, “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3; Dostal, “Hemlock Row Defies Threat to Raze Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1950, 1, 16; “NAACP Chapter Receives ChaFrter, Elects New Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, October 8, 1951, 1, 20.
239 “United States Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J2SM-N24 : 20 May 2014), James Corum, Dec 1978; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
240 “Negroes Here Plan Cemetery,” Pottstown Mercury, November 4, 1942; “Negroes Organize Group in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1942, 3.
241Sallie Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, January 11, 1938, 9; James Corum, “Trustees of Second Baptist Church thank all members and friends who helped make their rally on Sunday a success,” Pottstown Mercury, July 16, 1940, 1; Sallie Sims, “Happenings of the Colored Folks,” Pottstown Mercury, January 22, 1941, 12.
242 Robert Dunphy, “‘Jim’ Corum Is Loyal Employee of Flagg’s, 100% Labor Man,” Pottstown Mercury, December 24, 1948, 1, 18; “Corum Elected By Flagg Union: Wins His Fourth Term By Defeating Kochel
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Both James and William were in the union, United Steel Workers (USW), Local 2326,
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), but James was a union leader and organizer,243 whose history with unionism at Flagg dated back to 1936.244 This aspect of his leadership profile—work with Local 2326—perhaps more so than any other positioned him to play an influential role in advancement of liberal interracialism in
Pottstown, with its particular impact on the advent of civil rights work there.245
“The half million black workers who joined unions affiliated with the Congress of
Industrial Organizations (CIO)” of the 1940s, historians Robert Korstad and Nelson
Lichtenstein assert, “were in the vanguard of efforts to transform race relations.”246 James
Corum was no exception. In fact, by the end of the 1940s, Local 2326 unionists had already named Corum president multiple times.247 However, his fifteen-year period in office, which spanned three-decades (the 1940s to the 1960s), is especially fascinating
in Biennial USW Voting,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 1, 21; “Corum Elected By Flagg Union,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 1. For James and William Corum being blood brothers, see “Rev. William Corum Accepts Charge at Bethlehem Church,” Pottstown Mercury, October 24, 1949, 1, 3.
243 Norman B. Reed, “Pottstown Portraits: A Quick Look at Your Neighbor,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1955, 9; Dunphy, “‘Jim’ Corum Is Loyal Employee of Flagg’s, 100% Labor Man,” Pottstown Mercury, December 24, 1948, 1, 18; “Corum Elected By Flagg Union,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 1, 2; “Corum Elected By Flagg Union,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 1; “Rev. William Corum Accepts Charge at Bethlehem Church,” Pottstown Mercury, October 24, 1949, 1, 3.
244Reed, “Pottstown Portraits,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1955, 9.
245 “Corum Elected By Flagg Union: Wins His Fourth Term By Defeating Kochel in Biennial USW Voting,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 1.
246 Robert Korstad and Nelson Lichtenstein, “Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement,” Journal of American History 75, no. 3 (December 1988), 787, doi:10.2307/1901530.
247 Dunphy, “‘Jim’ Corum Is Loyal Employee of Flagg’s, 100% Labor Man,” Pottstown Mercury, December 24, 1948, 1, 18; “Corum Elected By Flagg Union,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 1, 21; “2 Flagg Workers Retire After 94 Years of Service,” Pottstown Mercury, April 28, 1967, 1, 9.
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from a local standpoint concerning liberal interracialism and “race relations.” Because
Corum was an African American who led an interracial union of hundreds— predominantly white—on the local front, his position of power, as well as his service concerning Local 2326, is quite an aberration, specifically when understood in the racist culture of the period, coupled with the minute size of local blacks juxtaposed to
Pottstown’s white population. To be sure, since white unionists dominated the rank and file of Local 2326, the very fact that they named Corum president time and again certainly demonstrates an anomaly of mid-twentieth century “race relations” in America.
Here, this dissertation suggests that Corum was a deviation of the norm of the day.248
It should thus not be surprising, then, that upon retirement with Local 2326 in
1962, the Baltimore Afro-American praised Corum’s longstanding tenure, boasting how the black unionist presided over thirteen-hundred whites as union chief (the black newspaper noted that Corum was currently heading the Pottstown NAACP too).249 This was a considerable increase from the 950 overall unionists reported by the Pottstown
Mercury in late December 1948 that Corum headed.250 In late July 1962, while commenting on Corum recently vacating his Local 2326 office, the Pottstown Mercury additionally categorized the African-American factory worker as “One of the area’s
248Korstad and Lichtenstein, “Opportunities Found and Lost,” 787; “The Week’s Newsmakers,” Afro- American, May 12, 1962, 1, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/532069062?accountid=12557.
249“The Week’s Newsmakers,” Afro-American, May 12, 1962, 1; Korstad and Lichtenstein, 787; Corum to [recipient not identified], 25 November 1942, Box II:C172, Folder 2, “Pottstown, PA., 1942-43,” Branch File, Manuscript Division, Group II, NAACP_LOC; Chancellor, 47.
250 Dunphy, “‘Jim’ Corum Is Loyal Employee of Flagg’s, 100% Labor Man,” Pottstown Mercury, December 24, 1948, 1, 18.
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outstanding unionist.”251 It also celebrated Corum’s reign, precisely because he strongly advanced “labor-management relations.”252
Moreover, Corum had several leadership traits, which reveal why he was appealing to both black and white members of Local 2326. First, Corum was fully dedicated. “His life is generally centered in the union. He belongs to virtually no other organizations and has no other hobbies.”253 Second, the African-American leader believed fervently in personal interaction for those he served. In 1955, Corum declared:
“Unionism means more than just sitting around a table and negotiating with management.” Rather, the black factory worker continued, “you have to look after the well-being of your members.”254
Third, and certainly most appealing towards local African-American unionists,
Corum did not divorce his labor activism at Stanley G. Flagg from his advocacy of empowerment within black Pottstown; nor did he condone or support any form of bigotry while on the job.255 For example, commenting in December 1948, Corum stressed his personal discontent towards any such practices. “There is no room for discrimination,” the black unionist sharply affirmed. Corum also pointed out that Local 2326 had an
251 “James Corum is Honored As He Leaves Union Post,” Pottstown Mercury, July 25, 1962, 1.
252 “James Corum is Honored As He Leaves Union Post,” Pottstown Mercury, July 25, 1962, 15; Dunphy, “‘Jim’ Corum Is Loyal Employee of Flagg’s, 100% Labor Man,” Pottstown Mercury, December 24, 1948, 1, 18.
253 “Corum Elected By Flagg Union,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 21.
254 Reed, “Pottstown Portraits,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1955, 9.
255 Dostal, “Hemlock Row Defies Threat to Raze Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1950, 1, 16; “Corum Elected By Flagg Union,” Pottstown Mercury, June 23, 1950, 21.
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excellent record in supporting anti-discriminatory policies, precisely because of its CIO association.256 Consequently, the black laborer demonstrated such commitment to
African-American civil rights.
In late May 1946, Corum and roughly two-hundred other black CIO representatives traveled to Atlantic City, New Jersey, for a USW conference. Captured in the Philadelphia Tribune, at the large-scale gathering, these CIO African Americans not only announced that they supported the Fair Employment Practice Committee, but they also collectively endorsed “the anti-Poll Tax Bill” that was gaining momentum in
Washington D.C. by congressional progressives.257
There are several points to take away from the black activism in Pottstown during the Second World War. Equalization strategies remained pragmatic necessities as the war began. Despite representing a continuation and expansion of racial discrimination, the financial and administrative assistance provided by Edgewood Cemetery was critical to
Second Baptist Church’s ability to acquire the black graveyard in Douglass Township.
Similarly, black activists involved in the local YMCA’s Negro Extension Work program used a patently racist policy—separating blacks from whites, and providing blacks with inferior facilities and funding support—as an opportunity to build agency and autonomy without ceasing efforts to end discrimination in the organization. Finally, regarding the
256 Dunphy, “‘Jim’ Corum Is Loyal Employee of Flagg’s, 100% Labor Man,” Pottstown Mercury, December 24, 1948,1, 18; “Corum to Represent Local At Civil Rights Session,” Pottstown Mercury, January 12, 1950, 10; Radford Crouse, “Junior High Boundary Line Decisions are Postponed: Schoolmen Will Await Suggestions, NAACP Explains Segregation Charge, Fosnocht Denies Intentional Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, March 7, 1961, 1,7.
257 “FEPC Supported By Steel Workers,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 21, 1946, 3, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=http://search.proquest.com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531764685?accountid=14971. Can also see, “Corum Slated As Head Of Steelworkers: Re-nominated for Office Without Opposition; Other Nominees Are Announced,” Pottstown Mercury, June 12, 1946, 1.
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Pottstown NAACP, more so, than in the South, where de jure segregation had the principal attention of activists, the Pottstown branch’s successes and failures demonstrate the centrality of economic, working-class concerns to the black struggle against discrimination and white supremacy.
Although YMCA Negro Extension Work activism disbanded in the summer of
1949, Pottstown activists were only getting started in their struggle for civil rights and equality on the local front. Negro Extension Work activism—like the Second Baptist cemetery project and the Pottstown NAACP—revealed the dawning of local activists orchestrating initiatives that looked to improve African-Americans circumstances and conditions. Ultimately, what these activists began during the Second World War only served as the impetus of multiple civil rights endeavors to come out of Pottstown in the years that followed. Interestingly enough, that same activist spirit held solidarity with the borough’s main newspaper, the Pottstown Mercury, which came into its own during
World War II as well.
CHAPTER 3:
THE POTTSTOWN MERCURY AND THE BEGINNING OF CIVIL RIGHTS
ADVOCACY
In late June/early July of 1944, the Pottstown Mercury published several articles that highlighted another Corum brother, African-American factory laborer Thomas W.
Within the “series,” Corum identified an issue that had the attention of many in
Pottstown.258 Indeed, “juvenile delinquency” was not solely a Pottstown concern during the Second World War. But it left citizens across the United States feeling anxious, seeking ways to combat it. While juvenile delinquency was also an issue for whites in
Pottstown, Corum monitored local black youths. Since he feared that juvenile delinquency had the strong possibility of causing racial tensions among blacks and whites on the local front, Corum offered a pragmatic solution to the dilemma. Put simply, he demanded the sanctioning of an African-American “special police officer” by the
Pottstown government.259
Reflecting the traditions of equalization strategies as the approach to resistance that compensated for discriminatory neglect without fundamentally altering the culture of discrimination, Corum firmly emphasized the imperative of the police officer being black. In his mind, only an African-American officer could “speak to his people in their
258 Larry Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1, 16; Larry Davis, “Extra Policing Is Volunteered In Beech Street,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1944, 1, 12; Larry Davis, “Burgess, 7 Councilmen O.K. Negro Policeman To Check Delinquency,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1944, 1, 10. For family connection of the Corum brothers, see “Bad Heart Cause of Corum Death: Autopsy Shows Policeman Succumbs of Natural Causes, Patrolmen Dies While Arresting Man,” Pottstown Mercury, January 22, 1964, 1.
259 Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1, 16.
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own language.” Moreover, only an African-American special policeperson truly reason with black youths. Ultimately, Corum affirmed that he had the borough’s black youths’ best interest in mind. He rationalized that an African-American special police person would help them move towards proper citizenship, especially since the individual was to serve as the “authority” which these black youths desperately needed. On the other hand,
Corum was adamant that white law officers were not equipped for such policing work within black Pottstown. The way he saw it, they could not fully “meet the Negro on a common field”; nor could they have blacks “common betterment” in mind.260
Overall, Corum stressed that the special police officer would confront delinquency among African-American juveniles and work fervently to check it. A man of action, Corum was so passionate about curbing juvenile delinquency in black Pottstown that he offered his own service for the special police officer position over several-months
—free of charge—so that the issue was not only addressed firsthand, but by an African
American like himself.261
In addition to the Pottstown Mercury highlighting what Corum passionately sought, it painted the black laborer in a highly favorable, if not humanizing light.
Specifically, it did so by capturing the Pottstown African American through a politics of respectability lens. Corum was not only cordial, married with children, gainfully employed with Stanley G. Flagg like his brothers in nearby Stowe, Pennsylvania, and self-reliant, but he also owned his own home.262 The Pottstown Mercury series also
260 Ibid.
261 Ibid.
262 Ibid; Davis, “Extra Policing Is Volunteered In Beech Street,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1944, 1, 12.
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demonstrated Corum’s social ranking within black Pottstown. Observing the black worker’s interactions among fellow African Americans, it noted that when strolling
“through the Negro section of town,” Corum acknowledged “everyone he passes.
Passers-by can usually determine where some of their acquaintances are or have gone, just by asking Tom Corum.”263 Moreover, the series revealed that Corum was on a first name basis with “everyone in the [African-American] community . . . and” that the black homeowner understood clearly “how to speak, with authority, to his own people.”264
At the same time, the Pottstown Mercury sharply criticized the local government and how it handled blacks who sought assistance regarding their juvenile delinquency dilemma. Essentially, the newspaper argued that the Pottstown government had been failing African Americans because local policing efforts were lacking. Utilizing satire, it asserted that the local government was essentially telling the borough’s African-
American population that “You’re no part of us. We can’t give you the same services whites are accorded. The problem’s yours. Solve it yourself. At your own expense! Don’t ask . . . for” any assistance from local government whatsoever.
Finally, the Pottstown Mercury painted the black juvenile delinquency and special police officer matter in the framework of civil rights and equality. It emphasized that the
Pottstown government was unequivocally discriminating against African Americans because their tax dollars afforded them such policing protection. Pottstown was not, therefore, holding up its governmental obligations, specifically towards African
Americans and their community patrolling needs.
263 Davis, “Extra Policing Is Volunteered In Beech Street,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1944, 1, 12.
264 Davis, “Beech St. Brews Trouble, Negro Worker States,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1944, 1, 16.
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In addition, the Pottstown Mercury urged the local government that if it employed an African-American special police officer, the individual should receive identical benefits and respect, as his white counterparts. By doing so, the newspaper argued,
Pottstown would be demonstrating its forward-thinking as a local governmental authority. Such progressivism was certainly needed, the Pottstown Mercury added, particularly because the United States was currently fighting overseas against similar racist practices. Yet, the treatment of Pottstown blacks as second-class citizens contradicted American values and ideological war objectives, aligning more with Nazi
Germany. Thus, anticipating the emerging new liberalism of the postwar years, by advocating greater sincerity toward the traditional black strategy of equalization, the
Pottstown Mercury was in effect preparing local whites for interracial liberalism, and the eradication of racial discrimination.265
Scholarship on the impact of media in American life has paid extensive attention to both the black and white press. While WWII raged, they have shown how African-
American newspapers were at the forefront of lambasting Jim Crow and white supremacy in the United States. For example, beginning with the Pittsburgh Courier’s “Double ‘V’ war cry—victory over our enemies at home and victory over our enemies on the battlefields abroad,”266 scholars have demonstrated the paramount role played by the black press in exposing racial discrimination, both in the North and the South.267 In the
265 “The Negro Seeks To Solve A Problem,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1944, 4.
266 “The Courier’s Double ‘V’ For A Double Victory Campaign Gets Country-Wide Support,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 14, 1942, 1.
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postwar years, African-American newspapers only continued such fervent activism in the pages of their circulars, intimately capturing and examining the period black civil rights activists Bayard Rustin (which goes hand in glove with the 1954-1968 timeframe emphasized in this dissertation268) identified as “the ‘classical’ phase” of civil rights activism, 1954 to 1965.269
Only recently have scholars begun to calculate the effect of white-oriented, or mainstream print and broadcast journalism on the civil rights movement. Where consensus exists on this point, however, it holds that the advocacy of white-oriented news media in the postwar years greatly contributed to the emergence of the liberal interracialist agenda, shaping public opinion in support of civil rights protests and legislation. However, most studies of white-oriented news media only concern themselves with civil rights events in the American South. 270
267 Aurora Wallace, Newspapers and the Making of Modern America: A History (Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 2005), 53-75; John C. Walter and Malina Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” Afro-Americans in New York Life & History 35, issue 4 (January 2011): 7-32, http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=59285411&site=eds-live&scope=site; “The Courier’s Double ‘V’ For A Double Victory Campaign Gets Country-Wide Support,” Pittsburgh Courier, February 14, 1942, 1.
268 Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement, xi-xii.
269 Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1234; Charlotte G. O'Kelly, “Black Newspapers and the Black Protest Movement, 1946-1972,” Phylon 41, no. 4 (Winter, 1980): 313- 24, doi:10.2307/274856.
270 Gene Roberts and Hank Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: First Vintage Books Edition, 2006); Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History, 102-04.
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Conversely, scholars have been very critical of northern white newspapers for their failure to capture civil rights activism above the Mason-Dixon Line.271 Political scientist Jeanne Theoharis, for example, argues that northern white media “often stood in the way of the struggle for racial justice” there.272 In a similar vein, in an examination of
“busing,” historian Matthew F. Delmont contends that white agitators against busing
“received the vast bulk of media attention,” elevating their perspective vis-à-vis their black counterparts in the eyes of news consumers.273 Pottstown’s main newspaper, however, the Pottstown Mercury, was a northern white-owned and operated press that consistently advocated against racial discrimination in its own backyard—thus shifting the geographical locus of civil rights advocacy by the northern white press from the
American South to the North—but it also bridges together the Second World War and postwar era.
As such, the Pottstown Mercury helped sway the local government (and local white public support) in favor of authorizing an African-American special police officer.274 Feeling the galvanizing pressure from the borough newspaper, on July 17,
1944, Pottstown officials approved Thomas Corum’s special policing position.275 “Mr.
271 Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History, 103.
272 Ibid. Also can see Theoharis, “Introduction,” in Freedom North, 5, 12; Mark Speltz, North of Dixie: Civil Rights Photography Beyond the South (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 2016), 3.
273 Matthew F. Delmont, Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to the School Desegregation (Oakland: University of California Press, 2016), 11.
274 “Corum Gets Council Ok As Officer: Negro Special Policeman Begins Duties at Once,” Pottstown Mercury, July 18, 1944, 1; “Badge for Mr. Corum,” Pottstown Mercury, July 20, 1944, 4.
275“Corum Gets Council Ok As Officer: Negro Special Policeman Begins Duties at Once,” Pottstown Mercury, July 18, 1944, 1.
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Corum, within the memory of present-day borough hall employees,” the Pottstown
Mercury declared, “is the first Negro to be appointed to the Pottstown force.” Most importantly, however, “the biggest news is that his appointment broke down racial prejudice that prevailed in the department for years. For the courage in breaking tradition,” the local newspaper concluded, “the Pottstown force is to be congratulated.”276
Corum held this important policing position (which earned him sixty and a half cents hourly277) in conjunction with his employment at Stanley G. Flagg.278 By the following June, however, Pottstown officials named Corum a full-time “regular” officer, making him the pioneering African American with borough law enforcement.279 While
Corum had a nineteen-year career with the Pottstown Police, most notable about the tenure was the black cop’s interactions regarding local African Americans. “Mr. Corum pretty well knew how to handle obstreperous members of his own race. That’s where he served his department best; he was able to keep the peace. His own race respected him
276 “Badge for Mr. Corum,” Pottstown Mercury, July 20, 1944, 4.
277 “Borough Yet Lacks Negro Special Police Officer Applications,” Pottstown Mercury, July 17, 1944, 1.
278 “Corum Gets Council Ok As Officer: Negro Special Policeman Begins Duties at Once,” Pottstown Mercury, July 18, 1944, 1; Nick Cammero, “Flaggsmen Whip Patriots, 4-2: Zezenski Hurls Three-Hitter,” Pottstown Mercury, July 22, 1944,8; and “Corum Finds AWOL Lad,” Pottstown Mercury, October 4, 1944, 3.
279 “Water Company Committee Agrees to Recommend Sale: Stockeholders Will Be Asked To Approve Deal: Ordinance on Garage Referred to Sanitary Committee of Council,” Pottstown Mercury, June 6, 1945, 1, 3; “Local Policeman Dies While Making Arrest,” Pottstown Mercury, January 21, 1964, 1. The June 6, 1945, article misspells Corum’s name “Thomas H. Corum.” Should be “Thomas W. Corum”; “Boro Council Will Discuss Garbage Law: Manager Sears Receives Proposed Ordinances From United Workers Council,” Pottstown Mercury, June 5, 1945, 1; “Two Men Pass Police Exams: Commission Will Ask For Their Appointment; Three Fail to Appear,” Pottstown Mercury, May 15, 1945,1.
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for it.”280According to historian Charles L. Blockson, Pottstown was one of the initial boroughs in Montgomery County to desegregate local law enforcement.281
In the end, while Corum, himself, played the primary part in landing the position, the Pottstown Mercury’s advocacy was just as paramount. In fact, its advocacy and news coverage not only shaped local white opinion in support of Pottstown’s pioneering black policeman but anticipated its approach to the borough’s broader agenda on black civil rights for the remaining postwar years.282
To understand the Pottstown Mercury’s civil rights advocacy on behalf of local
African Americans, one must understand its history and guiding philosophies, which one of its founders, white journalist and longtime editor, Shandy Hill, largely cultivated.283
Born in 1901, in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, Hill co-established the Pottstown Mercury
(1931) during the Great Depression with white entrepreneur William M. Heister. A journalism graduate of the prestigious Lehigh University in Bethlehem, in 1923, as well,
Hill had around eight-years of professional newspaper experience before the Pottstown
Mercury.284
280“In Line of Duty?,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23 1964, 4; “Pottstown Borough Officer Thomas W. Corum E.O.W. 1/20/1964,” Montgomery County Pennsylvania Website, accessed June 5, 2018, https://www.montcopa.org/DocumentCenter/View/9422/WebpageTextCORUM.
281 Blockson, “Blacks,” 915.
282 “Corum Gets Council Ok As Officer: Negro Special Policeman Begins Duties at Once,” Pottstown Mercury, July 18, 1944, 1.
283 Hill, Dear Sir, 2.
284 “United States Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J2SB-W28: 20 May 2014), Shandy Hill, 30 Sep 1992; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical
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While Heister largely financed the establishment of the borough paper, capital stemming from family inheritance, Hill brought “the enthusiasm and knowhow” to the partnership.285 Consequently, Hill became the central driving force behind the Pottstown
Mercury and its philosophies towards journalism. Indeed, Hill, not Heister, was the main architect of these viewpoints. For example, from the beginning Hill fashioned the local press a “crusading and campaigning” type.286 “The newspaper exists only for public service,” the editor once declared.287 Similarly, he noted at another time how “public service” constantly fueled his ambitions.288 Indeed, Hill’s trajectory and perspective went hand in glove with what communications scholar Aurora Wallace observes as the penchant for newspaper owners “to play a greater role in making change.”289
Under the editorship of Hill, the Pottstown Mercury also cultivated a perspective on unequivocally supporting “the underdog.”290 In the end, Hill’s genuine concern “for the little guy,” so to speak, coupled with his immense hatred of racism, explain why the
Information Service, ongoing); Hill, Dear Sir, 17-18; “Obituary: Shandy Hill, 91, Journalist,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 3, 1992, A10.
284 Hill, Dear Sir, 17-18. “Obituary: Shandy Hill, 91, Journalist,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 3, 1992, A10.
285 Hill, Dear Sir, 17.
286 Hill, Dear Sir, 2.
287 “Obituary: Shandy Hill, 91, Journalist,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 3, 1992, A10.
288 Hill, Dear Sir, 189.
289 Wallace, Newspapers and the Making of Modern America, 2.
290Hill, Dear Sir, 2.
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Pottstown Mercury consistently advocated African-American civil rights initiatives over his thirty-six-year tenure as editor.291
While the Pottstown Mercury and its early advocacy is a central focus, this chapter simultaneously emphasizes the integral role local African Americans had in conducting and implementing civil rights work. To be sure, the Pottstown Mercury’s success in the realm of civil rights advocacy rested largely upon cooperation and collaboration from local African Americans. While the newspaper played its part in advocating for Pottstown blacks—without direct African-American participation—the local press would have not been able to have the editorial and reporting success that it had. At the same time, because Pottstown African Americans, like Thomas Corum, and others, involved themselves by serving as sources for the Pottstown Mercury’s civil rights reporting, and serving as willing collaborators and agitators, they most certainly risked retaliation from the dominant white population on multiple levels, economic, social, and political. In the end, this chapter stresses that while the Pottstown Mercury played its paramount role in civil rights advocacy, it was only able to do so because of the determination and courage of African Americans, who were, indeed, at the forefront of local civil rights work.
Shandy Hill and his staff at the Pottstown Mercury maintained a tone of journalistic advocacy across three decades. Three episodes occurring between 1945 and
1950 highlight this. The first episode concerned Pine Forge, Pennsylvania, a community close by Pottstown, where in the months following the end of WWII, congregants from the all-black Allegheny Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church began
291 “Obituary: Shandy Hill, 91, Journalist,” Philadelphia Inquirer, October 3, 1992, A10.
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acquiring five-hundred and seventy-five acres of farmland for use, meeting staunch and racist resistance from local whites affiliated with the Valley Improvement Association
(VIA).292 The second civil rights saga that the Pottstown Mercury advocated for concerned black access to recreational opportunities. Specifically, the newspaper supported calls and protest actions against the racist policies of the whites-only Pottstown
Bowling Association (PBA), and its parent entity, the American Bowling Congress
(ABC), an organization which “by 1940 . . . was the most powerful bowling association in the country.”293 Finally, an episode from 1950 shows the newspaper advocating in support of local black property owners in their attempted to prevent displacement, and destruction for their homes, as would have resulted from a federally-funded public housing project being pushed by the Montgomery County Housing Authority (MCHA), whose jurisdiction included Pottstown.
Pine Forge
In December of 1945, the all-black Allegheny Conference of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church began the acquisition stages of the massive Rutter Estate in Pine Forge,
292 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: News from the President,” Columbia Union Visitor, December 27, 1945, 4, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19451227-V50-52.pdf. For the VIA, see “Local Residents Protest Rutter-Potts Land Sale,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1946, 1, 12; “Association Taking Steps About School: Group Plans Meeting Tonight to Discuss Zoning Possibilities,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1946, 1; “Mass Meeting Is Held To Discuss School Site: Residents Of Section Balk Project, Say School Would Cause Antagonism, Loss in Taxes; Church Group Represented,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1946, 1, 14.
293Patricia L. Dooley, “Jim Crow Strikes Again: The African American Press Campaign against Segregation in Bowling during World War II,” Journal of African American History 97, no. 3 (2012): 271- 72, doi:10.5323/jafriamerhist.97.3.0270.
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Pennsylvania, from white medical doctor Thomas B. Snyder. During this period, Pine
Forge was a predominantly white community of about four-thousand.294 Situated in
Douglass Township and largely rural,295 in the century prior white Underground Railroad activist John P. Rutter occupied Pine Forge—aiding and abetting enslaved Africans on their path to freedom. By the time the Allegheny Conference started obtaining the Rutter
Estate, however, liberal sentiments like Rutter’s regarding African Americans largely escaped the area.296 For example, once “word of the sale leaked out,” Snyder “was the target of criticism from nearby farm owners,” respected “officials and run-of-the-mill citizens,” precisely since he sold his property to the all-black group. Indeed, the medical doctor was the individual responsible, many local whites believed, in drastically altering the racial landscape of Pine Forge.297
Upon news emerging about the Rutter Estate’s sale, news accounts also circulated regarding racially restrictive “secret agreements” between local whites. The stories,
Shandy Hill asserted, stated “that no home owner ever would sell to a Negro, no real
294 Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, December 27, 1945, 4; “Church Group To Establish School Here,” Pottstown Mercury, January 10, 1946, 1, 18; Hill, Dear Sir, 51; Jacob Justiss, Angels in Ebony (Toledo: Jet Printing Service, 1975), 55, http://blacksdahistory.org/files/101257366.pdf. For brief biographical data on Snyder, see “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQNZ-VZ7 : 9 March 2018), Thomas B Snyder, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publication M1936, M1937, M1939, M1951, M1962, M1964, M1986, M2090, and M2097 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
295 Hill, Dear Sir, 51. Regarding Douglass Township, see Bureau of the Census, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 85.
296 William J. Switala, Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001), 155.
297 Hill, Dear Sir, 51.
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estate dealer would rent or sell living space to a black man.” While Hill was not able to fully certify such gossip, he supported its validity, specifically because of the absence of
African Americans in Pine Forge when the black-Adventist group arrived.298
Simultaneously, it should also be understood that the Allegheny Conference was less than a year old when it began acquiring the Rutter Estate. Officially organized on
January 1, 1945,299 black Adventists throughout Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey,
Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, and Washington D.C., made up the conference’s membership. A faction within the Columbia Union Conference—one of several organizational groups of the overall Seventh-day Adventist Church, with its central office located in Washington D.C.—African-American minister John H. Wagner first headed the Allegheny Conference. A North Carolinian by birth,300 Wagner was formerly the
Columbia Union’s “Colored Secretary.”301 Upon the university-trained302 black minister taking the helm of the Allegheny Conference, its African-American membership
298 Ibid.
299 “African American Seventh-Day Adventist Timeline 1945-1989, Compiled by Benjamin Baker,” blacksdahistory.org, accessed April 21, 2017, http://blacksdahistory.org/1945-1989.html. The Columbia Union Visitor— the Columbia Union Conference’s official publication— initially mentions the Allegheny Conference on February 1, 1945. See “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, February 1, 1945, 7, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19450201-V50-05.pdf.
300 See “John H. Wagner (1902-1962),” blacksdahistory.org, accessed September 17, 2017, http://www.blacksdahistory.org/john-wagner.html.
301Justiss, Angels in Ebony, 54.
302 H.D. Singleton, “Journey’s End,” North American Informant, November-December 1962, 5, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/NAI/NAI19621101-V16-85.pdf.
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numbered around four-thousand.303 In addition to his responsibilities as the conference’s president, Wagner was largely behind the Rutter Estate transaction as well.304
The Seventh-day Adventist Church practiced structural and systemic, racism towards its African-American congregants. Black Adventists, however, did not just lay down and fully accept such racist protocol. Instead, they fought back on several occasions. During April 1944, for example, at a gathering of top-brass of the Seventh-day
Adventist Church, African-American congregants disseminated the report, “Shall the
Four Freedoms Function Among Seventh-day Adventists?.” Supported by another black- centered Adventist group, their document argued “for the complete and immediate integration of the church.” White Adventist leadership in attendance, however, generally did not want desegregation within their pews. Ultimately, the leadership created the
Allegheny Conference—along with the other African-American “regional conferences.”305
According to black Seventh-day Adventist minister Jacob Justiss, African-
American Walter Caution was the first to hear that the Rutter Estate was for sale. At the time Caution worshipped some forty miles away from Pine Forge at Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania’s Ebenezer Seventh-day Adventist Church, which black minister Frank L.
303“Allegheny Conference,” in A Star gives Light: Seventh-Day Adventist African-American Heritage Teacher's Resource Guide, ed. Norwida A. Marshall and R. Steven Norman, III (Decatur: Office of Education Southern Union Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, 1989), 50, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/ASGL1989.pdf.
304 Charles D. Brooks, “Founding Of Pine Forge Academy,” (unpublished and undated), 3, https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2722235/Pine-Forge-History.pdf.
305Samuel G. London Jr, Seventh-Day Adventists and the Civil Rights Movement (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2009), 144-45.
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Brand pastored. Caution notified Brand about the real estate opportunity. Thus, Brand contacted Wagner. Once Wagner received such pertinent information, he and several
Allegheny Conference blacks traveled to Pine Forge so they could closely examine the
Rutter Estate (before their travels, “the [Columbia] Union and the General Conferences had voted to allow the Allegheny Conference to purchase a piece of property for a permanent camp ground, junior camp site, and boarding school”306). Following a vote of
Wagner and five other Allegheny blacks, the group ultimately went forth with the Rutter
Estate endeavor, which was a forty-thousand and five-hundred-dollar venture. Here, it is worth noting that a black Adventist woman (and Philadelphia doctor) advanced the
Allegheny Conference some desired capital, which, therefore, served as the down payment for the massive Rutter Estate.307
Although the Allegheny Conference started purchasing the Rutter Estate in late
1945, black Adventists had long-desired some sort of place and space that they could identify as their own. Wagner even constructed poetic verse which articulated such long- standing ambition. “Of a northern school we dreamed,” he wrote, “For a century it seems.” 308 Wagner himself, another source noted, “had a burning desire to establish a boarding school somewhere in the northern states for the Black young people of the church.”309
306 Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, December 27, 1945, 4.
307 Justiss, Angels in Ebony, 55. For a brief backdrop on Justiss, “Jacob Justiss (1919-1978),” blacksdahistory.org, accessed June 11, 2018, http://www.blacksdahistory.org/jacob-justiss.html.
308 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: A Reminder,” Columbia Union Visitor, August 29, 1946, 3, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460829-V51-35.pdf.
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Moreover, when reflecting upon the Rutter Estate full transaction in April of
1946, Wagner declared, “We [the Allegheny Conference] are now anxious to lay plans to start a school for our young people in order to meet a demand that has been evident for some time.”310 Even though Wagner stressed this extended goal embraced by black
Adventists, it was only articulated via print in the month prior to the beginning acquisition stages of the Rutter Estate. Published in the November 8, 1945, edition of the
Columbia Union Visitor—the conference’s official publication—the periodical revealed that during a Newark, New Jersey, Allegheny Conference “workers” gathering, “the subject that had priority was that of the prospective Allegheny Academy site.”311
The Allegheny Conference’s acquisition of the Rutter Estate was initiated on
December 14, 1945,312 which put the all-black group on its eventual path of complete ownership; however, the Adventist faction still had to raise a good amount of capital.313
In late December 1945, although the Columbia Union Visitor mentioned that “officers of
309 “Allegheny Conference,” in A Star gives Light: Seventh-Day Adventist African-American Heritage Teacher's Resource Guide, ed. Norwida A. Marshall and R. Steven Norman, III (Decatur: Office of Education Southern Union Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, 1989), 77, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/ASGL1989.pdf.
310J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: Camp and School Site Purchase,” Columbia Union Visitor, April 18, 1946, 6, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460418-V51-16.pdf.
311 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: Workers’ Meeting in Newark, New Jersey,” Columbia Union Visitor, November 8, 1945, 5-6, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19451108-V50- 45.pdf.
312 Justiss, Angels in Ebony, 55; “Pine Forge Academy: The School in the North,” in A Star gives Light: Seventh-Day Adventist African-American Heritage Teacher's Resource Guide, ed. Norwida A. Marshall and R. Steven Norman, III (Decatur: Office of Education Southern Union Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists, 1989), 77-78, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/ASGL1989.pdf.
313 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: Special Dollar Day Offering, April 6, 1946,” Columbia Union Visitor, March 21, 1946, 6, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460321-V51-12.pdf.
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the Conference signed for the purchase of this site at the price of $42,500,” it additionally emphasized how much cash was still desperately needed.314
Around the same time, the Afro-American reported “the purchase agreement” being signed among the Adventists and Snyder,315 whereas the Pottstown Mercury in early January 1946, noted how the all-black group was not going to fully “take possession of the property” until months later.316 For the interim period, therefore, the
Allegheny Conference needed to raise substantial capital to obtain full and complete ownership of the Pine Forge property.317 To address this massive task, Wagner utilized the Columbia Union Visitor as the place to not only report the Allegheny Conference’s progression regarding the complete acquisition of the Rutter Estate, but he (and fellow colleagues) also solicited monetary donations from its black congregants for the property.318 “Please,” Wagner pleaded, “if you have not already done so do your best to finish your quota so that we can take possession” of the Pine Forge holding.319
314 Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, December 27, 1945, 4.
315 “Adventists Buy Estate for Pennsylvania College Site,” Afro-American, December 29, 1945, 1,2, https://search-proquest-com.proxy-ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/531495744?accountid=12557.
316 “Church Group To Establish School Here,” Pottstown Mercury, January 10, 1946, 1, 18.
317 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: Workers’ Meeting,” Columbia Union Visitor, March 14, 1946, 8, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460314-V51-11.pdf.
318 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: Items from the President: Northern School,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 31, 1946, 5-6, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460131-V51-05.pdf; J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny : A Good Year,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 17, 1946, 5, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460117-V51-03.pdf; J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, March 14, 1946, 8,
319 Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 17, 1946, 5.
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Moreover, the black minister encouraged and inspired Allegheny Conference congregants in the large-scale endeavor through the press. “Newspapers the country over are filled with news about our acquisition of this historic property and our intention of using it for a boarding school. WE CANNOT RETREAT,” announced Wagner in a militant tone, “WE MUST GO FORWARD! Everyone, arise and do your bit!”320
Ostensibly, Wagner’s tactics seemed to work. “After engaging in a campaign of about three and a half months’ duration,” reflected the black minister in April of 1946, “the
Allegheny Conference, by the help of God, was able to pay for this property and take the deed.” On March 22, 1946, the Allegheny Conference finally secured the massive Rutter
Estate.321
While the Allegheny Conference tackled this large financial battle so that the group could completely obtain ownership of the Rutter Estate, it concurrently had to participate in another conflict gaining momentum. Over a month after the Allegheny
Conference began its acquisition, there were already audible rumblings from whites locally, which concerned the all-black group. Adventist scholars have stressed that the
Allegheny Conference wanted an educational institution in the North, precisely so its black youth would have the possibility to study in an area away from the deep embedded
320 Wagner, “Allegheny ,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 31, 1946, 5-6.
321 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny : Camp and School Site Purchase,” Columbia Union Visitor, April 18, 1946, 6, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460418-V51-16.pdf; J.L. Moran, “Allegheny : Good News,” Columbia Union Visitor, April 11, 1946, 4, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460411-V51-15.pdf; Harper Photo, “Historic Site Bought for School,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 6, 1946, 18, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531826461?accountid=14971.
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racism of the American South. Here, these scholars also fall in line with the generalized dichotomy of the racist and bigoted South on the one hand, juxtaposed to the liberating and progressive-minded North on the other. Although this dichotomy is largely prevalent in civil rights scholarship overall,322 it is not totally factual when assessing the Allegheny
Conference and its experience regarding the Rutter Estate venture. In fact, Wagner and other blacks of the conference soon learned that racism strongly permeated the beliefs of multiple whites in Pine Forge as well.323
To be sure, the greatest organized resistance from local whites towards the
Allegheny Conference and its Rutter Estate venture was the Valley Improvement
Association (VIA).324 First conceived on the frigid night of January 22, 1946, local white
I. Grant Irey was the central organizer and president of the VIA. Irey resided near Pine
Forge in Douglasville, Pennsylvania.325 On that January night two-hundred whites, including Irey, gathered at Pine Forge in “the Amity township high school auditorium and voiced concerted opposition to the sale of the” property. Individual testimonies began the assembly. In solidarity, they declared that the Allegheny Conference and its place in
Pine Forge was indeed horrible for area whites.326
322 For example, see Justiss, Angels in Ebony, 84; and “Pine Forge Academy,” 77. Regarding civil rights scholarship, can see, for examples, Theoharis, “Introduction,” 5, 15 fn 11.
323 Hill, Dear Sir, 51.
324 “Local Residents Protest Rutter-Potts Land Sale,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1946, 1, 12; “Association Taking Steps About School,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1946, 1; “Mass Meeting Is Held To Discuss School Site,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1946, 1, 14.
325 “Association Taking Steps About School,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1946, 1; “Mass Meeting Is Held To Discuss School Site,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1946, 1, 14.
326 “Local Residents Protest Rutter-Potts Land Sale,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1946, 1, 12.
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On the one hand, they believed the ultimate transaction “would deprive the townships of [Amity and Douglass] much need tax money,” while, on the other hand, be
“detrimental to property owners” within the region. Eventually, Irey took over the gathering. He not only proposed the VIA’s establishment so that “the reported sale” of the Rutter Estate was thoroughly examined, but Irey wanted preventative steps in place that stopped the acquisition, providing, of course, whether such an initiative was viable or not. Moreover, that same night the massive crowd chosen Irey as VIA president.
Alongside Irey, there were five other VIA officials nominated. The officials resided in either Amity or Douglass Townships. In fact, white resistance towards the Allegheny
Conference had centralized within these two Berks County townships.327
It is worth mentioning that the Pottstown Mercury published an article earlier the same month, which highlighted the salient points regarding the Allegheny Conference and its beginning Rutter Estate transaction. In turn, this essay galvanized local whites into direct dissent.328 In fact, the newspaper report was the catalyst of the large-scale gathering on January 22. At the same time, during the massive assembly, one of the
VIA’s vice presidents (the group had two) emphasized how the issue was “not a matter of race discrimination. Certain things are damaging to a community and this sale is one of them.”329 Although the individual stressed his argument was no way racially driven,
327 Ibid.
328 “Church Group To Establish School Here,” Pottstown Mercury, January 10, 1946, 1, 18. The newspaper published its first article regarding the Allegheny Conference and Rutter Estate on January 9, 1946. However, the article speculated on the transaction. See “Historic Rutter-Bailey Premises May Be Converted Into School,” Pottstown Mercury, January 9, 1946, 1.
329 “Local Residents Protest Rutter-Potts Land Sale,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1946, 1, 12.
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someone else present had another viewpoint, which was indeed diametrical. White
Douglass Township resident Harper Diener, who headed Pottstown’s Congress of
Industrial Organizations (CIO)-affiliated union, Local 644, could “not see how any property owner can be prevented from selling” providing the individual wanted. When commenting directly on the notion regarding the VIA being prejudice, Diener identified the vice president’s argument as unequivocally racist.330
Moreover, weeks later the Pottstown Mercury captured similar racist remarks from the same VIA leader. In fact, the vice president made them when the group met leadership of the all-black Allegheny Conference, including Wagner, for the first time in person during another evening assembly; this gathering also brought together many. On
February 14, the VIA leader centralized his argument around “the [proposed] school” impacting nearby proprietors. Regarding the role played by racism in the Rutter Estate equation, however, the VIA chief maintained that “real estate men” informed “him [that] the presence of Negro schools depreciated real estate values.” Not surprisingly, Wagner rejected this racially charged argument. In the end, while Wagner rebutted the thesis centering upon black educational institutions lowering property worth, overall the
February 14 gathering left the African American minister with a general sense of disenchantment. In some concluding remarks on the entire affair, Wagner announced
330 “Association Taking Steps About School,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1946, 1. For biographical data on Diener, see “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ87-1WK: 15 March 2018), Harper Diener, Douglass Township, Berks, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 6-28, sheet 15A, line 19, family 288, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3433.
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cynically how he and his Allegheny Conference colleagues “came here for an understanding.” However, the black minister felt that the VIA (and other local whites’ presence during the massive gathering who were also combative towards the Allegheny
Conference setting up shop in the region) did not give them one.331
All evidence regarding the February 14, 1946, gathering indicated that the VIA- led resistance was not going to budge an inch on its hostility towards the Allegheny
Conference.332 However, the VIA eventually capitulated by the end of March 1946. On
March 26, the VIA (and others) gathered in front of another massive crowd, where it reversed its stance on the Allegheny Conference. In fact, the group now collectively endorsed (as did many others present) the Allegheny Conference’s prospective educational site. The endorsement, however, was a direct byproduct of both sides compromising. On the VIA-led side, supporters decided that Amity and Douglass citizens had to fully cooperate regarding the Allegheny Conference’s Pine Forge undertaking.333
On the Allegheny Conference side, Wagner and team agreed to three crucial points. Foremost, the Alleghany Conference recognized it “would pay the equivalent of taxes” currently taken “from the farm property.” The Amity and Douglass authorities would also sit directly “on the board of governors of the [prospective] school,” thus making them involved with and partially “responsible for the orderly conduct of the enterprise.” The last point was essentially a contingency plan. Providing that the
331 “Mass Meeting Is Held To Discuss School Site,” Pottstown Mercury, February 15, 1946, 1, 14.
332 Ibid.
333 “Township Citizen Meeting Approves Working Program On Site Sale for School,” Pottstown Mercury, March 27, 1946, 1, 6; “Victory for Democracy,” Pottstown Mercury, March 28, 1946, 4.
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Allegheny Conference decided to not build an educational facility, it had to give local authority the earliest opportunity to acquire the vast landholding.334
Even though the Pottstown Mercury praised the VIA’s about-face regarding the
Allegheny Conference’s Pine Forge initiative—stressing how sound judgement luckily triumphed over “blind opposition”—it still concurrently provided an appraisal which sharply criticized the faction. “In this day and age,” the Pottstown Mercury declared,
“when we are preaching the necessity for getting along with all peoples of the world, it was a sad commentary on the present-day trend to see a local group opposing such a laudable venture as the founding of a preparatory school.” The newspaper continued by demonstrating how egregious the VIA’s racist policy was when contextualized within the recently ended Second World War, particularly concerning why the United States conducted the global conflict from an ideological standpoint. Essentially, the paper asserted, “tolerance, equal rights and all the liberties millions of Americans fought, bled and died for, were forgotten for a moment in a narrow, community, prejudicial fight.”
Nevertheless, the Pottstown Mercury article celebrated the VIA’s ultimate capitulation, arguing that good prevailed over evil. The paper also conceptualized the local civil rights affair within the framework of the Cold War. In particular, it did so by entitling the article, “Victory for Democracy.”335
In his 1969 autobiography Dear Sir, Shandy Hill throws extensive light on how black Adventists praised him and the Pottstown Mercury for their civil rights agitation on
334 “Victory for Democracy,” Pottstown Mercury, March 28, 1946, 4. Also see “Township Citizen Meeting Approves Working Program On Site Sale for School,” Pottstown Mercury, March 27, 1946, 1, 6.
335 “Victory for Democracy,” Pottstown Mercury, March 28, 1946, 4.
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behalf of the Allegheny Conference in Pine Forge. As noted by Hill, one black Adventist leader reflected how “The [Pottstown] Mercury”—under the white editor’s direct supervision—advocated for the conference’s “entrance into” Pine Forge. “We needed a friend in a desperate way and you came forward to help us.” Moreover, because Hill guided the Pottstown Mercury towards addressing the situation in the early postwar years
—encouraging its “reading public to know that they should not judge a group before giving them a chance to prove themselves”—the black faction, wrote the African-
American Adventist, remained eternally grateful. Another esteemed black Adventist argued that Hill and his advocacy newspaper had simply been “our champion,” specifically because it fervently combatted the mounting dissent of the VIA and friends.336
The Pottstown Mercury’s civil rights advocacy on behalf of the Allegheny
Conference even caught the attention of nationally renowned black activist, and central leader of the National Council of Negro Women, Mary McLeod Bethune, who publicly celebrated it. During the summer of 1949, Bethune responded337 to a recap published by the Pottstown Mercury weeks earlier, which highlighted the VIA-led resistance against the Allegheny Conference in Pine Forge. Not surprisingly, the article lambasted the white faction and stressed to its audience, “so long as any minority among us is not free, all of us are” endangered.338 In response, Bethune, who labeled the account “a beautiful story,”
336 Hill, Dear Sir, 52.
337 Mary McLeod Bethune, “In Praise of Editorial,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 2, 1949, 4.
338 “Brotherhood at Home,” Pottstown Mercury, July 9, 1949, 4.
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declared, “It just shows us that we can live together in peace if we are willing to let the other fellow have his right to live and work in order that he might obtain for himself some of the good things of this life.”339
Meanwhile, as the VIA-led resistance was gaining momentum, the Allegheny
Conference, under the leadership of Wagner, had simultaneously been organizing and coordinating initiatives on behalf of its Pine Forge landholding. The Allegheny
Conference especially wanted its projected education center, Pine Forge Institute, up and operating that September 1946. In the interim, Wagner spearheaded a militant drive in the pages of the Columbia Union Visitor, so that the Allegheny Conference utilized its
Pine Forge property sooner rather than later. Ultimately, the prospective school became the central focus of Wagner’s radical campaign. “Our slogan in Allegheny is,” the black minister zealously declared, “HEED THE CALL, A SCHOOL BY FALL!”340
Although Wagner (and others) militantly organized and inspired his African
American congregants in the Columbia Union Visitor,341 the Pottstown Mercury kept its readership abreast with updates concerning the Allegheny Conference’s on-going
339 Bethune, “In Praise of Editorial,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 2, 1949, 4.
340 J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: An Ancient True Story,” Columbia Union Visitor, February 7, 1946, 5-6, http://documents.adventistarchives.orgs/CUV/CUV19460207-V51-06.pdf/Periodical. Can also see, J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny : News from the President,” Columbia Union Visitor, February 21, 1946, 6, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460221-V51-08.pdf; J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny: It Is Almost Too Late,” Columbia Union Visitor, March 28, 1946, 8, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460328-V51-13.pdf.
341 Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, December 27, 1945, 4; J.H. Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 17, 1946, 5; J.L. Moran, “Allegheny: Historic Pine Forge to Become School Campus,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 24, 1946, 3-4. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19460124-V51-04.pdf; Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, January 31, 1946, 5-6; , Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, February 7, 1946, 5-6; Wagner, “Allegheny,” Columbia Union Visitor, February 21, 1946, 6.
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developments locally, culminating with Pine Forge Institute officially starting on
September 9, 1946, with a coeducational roster that exceeded one-hundred.342 Early the following June, Pine Forge graduated its initial six pupils.343 In time the Pine Forge property even became the Allegheny Conference’s center of operation and activism. The massive landholding also served as the place of the Allegheny Conference’s annual camp meetings, which brought together Adventists from not only across the United States, but the world.344
The establishment of Pine Forge Institute (now called Pine Forge Academy) is one of the greatest long-lasting achievements for civil rights and black equality that the
Pottstown Mercury helped attain on the local front. “In many newspaper campaigns there is no recognition when a battle is” successful, Hill observed. However, he continued,
“Not so in this case.” For multiple Adventist congregants celebrated the advocacy of the
Pottstown Mercury.345 On the other hand, while the conflict in Pine Forge ended soon after it started, it was not the last civil rights struggle that the Pottstown Mercury illuminated and advocated during the early postwar years. In 1949, the newspaper
342 “No Action Reported At Pine Forge Site of Proposed School,” Pottstown Mercury, April 13, 1946,1; “School Site Occupied By Church Agents: Mr. and Mrs. R.L. Handy Take Up Quarters On Historic Rutter Farm,” Pottstown Mercury, May 25, 1946,1, 2; John K. Binder, “Negro Pastors Wield Shovels and Hammers To Rush Opening of Pine Forge Institute,” Pottstown Mercury, July 26, 1946, 1,3; “Pine Forge Institute To Open on Sept. 9,” Pottstown Mercury, August 12, 1946, 1; Roland B. Smith, “Mind, Heart and Hand Rule Guides Pine Forge Institute,” Pottstown Mercury, August 15, 1946,1, 12; “Pine Forge Institute Opens; More Than 100 Are Registered,” Pottstown Mercury, September 10, 1946, 1.
343 Ruth E. Mosby, “Allegheny: Highlights and Commencement Events at Pine Forge Institute,’ Columbia Union Visitor, July 10, 1947, 5, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19470710- V52-28.pdf.
344 A.V. Pinkney, “Allegheny: Camp Meeting Report,” Columbia Union Visitor, July 28, 1949, 4-5, http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Periodicals/CUV/CUV19490728-V54-30.pdf;
345 Hill, Dear Sir, 52. Regarding Pine Forge Academy, see Brandt, “Black History Month,” Mercury, February 27, 2016.
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examined a local recreational access issue, which was essentially a part of a greater civil rights affair that was being challenged at the national level.
The Pottstown Bowling Association
During the fall of 1949, the Pottstown Mercury and local representatives from the
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) took on the Pottstown Bowling Association
(PBA) because of its racist provision that prevented African Americans from joining.
The PBA was the local associate of the American Bowling Congress (ABC). Not surprisingly, the PBA followed the ABC’s national exclusionary provision. Since 1916, the ABC’s governing charter possessed “a ‘white male sex’ clause,” which guaranteed that the organization’s authorized competitions remained fully segregated.346 In May of
1950, the ABC removed the provision.347 The ABC only did so, however, because several activist groups on the national level applied pressure.348 While the CIO was also active combatting the ABC’s discriminatory provision during World War II, it continued similar work in the years following the conflict. Moreover, like the CIO, the Catholic
Youth Organization was another group that went against the ABC’s longstanding racist policy both during and after the Second World War.349
346 Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 7.
347 Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 8. Also see “American Bowling Congress Drops Restrictive ‘White Male’ Rule,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 16, 1950, 10, http://proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search- proquest-com.proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531971505?accountid=14971.
348 Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 7-32.
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During the early to mid-twentieth century, Americans as a whole had a passion for bowling and Pottstown residents shared that same enthusiasm.350 To satisfy such interest on the local scene, they organized the sport mainly “in . . . church, industrial, and veterans’ leagues.”351 By the late 1940s, Pottstown had multiple bowling alleys, located in places such as the local Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) and Arrow
Recreation Bowling Alleys, which was by far the borough’s biggest.352 Several fraternal organizations also had alleys at their establishments.353 As far as the ABC went, however,
Pottstown’s inauguration with the group occurred in 1934, when local bowlers traveled to
Peoria, Illinois, to participate in an ABC sponsored competition.354 From thereafter,
Pottstown bowlers remained active with the national organization,355 especially through
349 Dooley, “Jim Crow Strikes Again,” 280, 285-86; Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 7.
350 Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 7; Dooley, “Jim Crow Strikes Again,” 272. Regarding bowling’s popularity in Pottstown, see “In Retrospect: 50 Years Ago Dec. 21, 1903,” Pottstown Mercury, December 21, 1953, 4; Mary Neiburg, “Pottstown Did Its First Bowling in the Eighties: Teak Wood Balls; As Large as Basketballs Were Used, Binder Relates,” Pottstown Mercury, February 3, 1938, 1; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952,179-80.
351 Chancellor, A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 179-180.
352 Ibid, 171; “Gerald Dietrich Announces Purchase Of Pottstown’s Arrow Bowling Alleys,” Pottstown Mercury, August 3, 1955, 13; “All Around the Town: There Is No Santa!...Pastime Switch,” Pottstown Mercury, August 2, 1946, 4.
353 “System Is Changed For Collection of Bowling Alley Tax,” Pottstown Mercury, February 5, 1949, 14.
354 “Pottstown ABC Team Defeats North Penn: Local Keglers Rally To Cop Second Verdict: Glaes and Teammates Wind Up With 1102 to Total 2948,” Pottstown Mercury, March 28, 1934,8; “Keck Bowls 600 In ABC Singles At Peoria: H.C. Creswell Hits 599; Local Doubles Teams Fail: Glaes Rolls 244 Then Slumps In Final Fray,” Pottstown Mercury, April 10, 1934, 8; “Retiree Keeps Hand in Selling Field; Now Prefers Shuffleboard to Bowling,” Pottstown Mercury, April 23, 1962, 7; “Hey, Hey Bowlers,” Pottstown Mercury, January 22, 1934, 10.
355 Don Rigg, “That’s My Story,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1935, 9; “Keglers Enter ABC Tourney In Detroit,” Pottstown Mercury, April 23, 1948, 25.
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its local associate, the PBA. In fact, by the time that the Pottstown Mercury and local
CIO leadership challenged ABC policy, most bowling establishments in Pottstown held authorization from the powerhouse organization.356At the same time, Pottstown’s ABC associate, the PBA, noted that it represented two hundred and twenty “teams in 23 leagues” on the local scene.357
Although the Pottstown Mercury would not address the ABC’s racial provision in
Pottstown until the fall of 1949, it began covering the organization’s policy on the national level and its oppositional groups earlier that year. In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the ABC held another competition under its policy of racial segregation. Taking place in
March, while the newspaper documented several Pottstown bowling teams currently participating in the contest, it also illuminated how ABC leadership in Atlantic City once again kept in place the discriminatory provision. Even following protest from multiple activist groups such as the Anti-Defamation league, the Japanese-American Citizens league, the NAACP, and the CIO United Autoworkers, the ABC leaders still maintained the decades-old clause.358 Moreover, days later in Atlantic City “delegates to the ABC convention” supported “the white male” article as well.359
356 “Discrimination Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 4.
357 “Bowlers Stew Over ABC Racial Clause, But No Action Is Taken,” Pottstown Mercury, October 10, 1949, 13.
358 “ABC Directors Retain ‘White Man’ Charter,” Pottstown Mercury, March 10, 1949, 18. Also see “Bowlers Advised To Keep ‘Color’ Ban: Directors Call on Convention of National Body to Vote Against Liberalization,” New York Times, March 10, 1949, 40; “Bowling Group Still Refuses to End Ban,” Philadelphia Tribune, March 12, 1949, 1, http://proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest- com.proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531864555?accountid=14971; “Pottstown Bowlers In ABC Tournament,” Pottstown Mercury, March 10, 1949, 18; “Four Local Teams Enter ABC Joust,” Pottstown Mercury, February 22, 1949, 9.
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It is worth stating that the Pottstown Mercury’s initial coverage of the ABC on the national level inspired an African American who resided near Pottstown to write an interesting letter to the editor of the local press. In the correspondence, he placed the phenomenon of the ABC’s discriminatory article in a broader context.360
From 1948 to 1950, the Pottstown Mercury published a total of four letters to the editor from James H. Downing. Downing’s writings, which heavily utilized Christian themes, focused upon the plight of contemporary African Americans.361 To be sure, his correspondence published by the newspaper on March 30, 1949, regarding the ABC was by no means any different. In the letter, Downing stressed that the ABC’s policy should not be taken as abnormal. But the ABC’s bigoted provision reflected multiple well- respected “civic, political, educational, fraternal, social, charitable and religious organizations” across the United States. Thus, Downing continued, singling out the ABC was simply foolish. Rather, the real issue at hand related to “American hypocrisy and insincerity.” In his mind, specifying the ABC only failed at illuminating the larger
359 “ABC Reaffirms Ban on Negroes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 12, 1949, 11. Also see “Bowlers Bar Non-Whites Again, But the Issue's Out in Open Now,” New York Times, March 12, 1949, 19.
360 James H. Downing, “Cites ‘American Hypocrisy’,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1949, 4. For background on Downing, see “United States World War II Draft Registration Cards, 1942,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VQFJ-NDP : 9 March 2018), James Henry Downing, 1942; citing NARA microfilm publication M1936, M1937, M1939, M1951, M1962, M1964, M1986, M2090, and M2097 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).
361 James H. Downing, “Prejudice Is Disease of Mind,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 16, 1948, 4; Downing, “Cites ‘American Hypocrisy’,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1949, 4; James H. Downing, “Price of Leadership,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, June 13, 1949, 4; James H. Downing, “Accolade for Dr. Bunche,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 29, 1950, 4.
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societal practice and acceptance, of exclusionism regarding African Americans.362
Downing made similar claims about insincerity when it came to addressing racism in the
United States the year prior in his correspondence to the Pottstown Mercury editor, where he wrote that “racial prejudice is a disease of the mind” and that “America has a prolific endemic.”363 In his 1950 letter, Downing further lambasted the United States. Centering his argument within the context of the current Cold War, Downing asserted, “It is high time that some of the millions being spent to combat Communistic aggression be used to fight our national policy of racial segregation and discrimination.”364
When the Pottstown Mercury and local CIO leaders took on the ABC’s racial provision in Pottstown, the national activist strategy concerning the bowling organization revolved largely around the premise of fighting the group in the court system. In fact, the
“legal approach” was what ultimately ended the ABC’s racist practice.365 Locally, however, activists addressed the ABC mainly through the Pottstown Mercury on the one hand, coupled with sit-down discussions between local CIO and ABC associates on the other. 366
362 Downing, “Cites ‘American Hypocrisy’,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1949, 4.
363 Downing, “Prejudice Is Disease of Mind,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 16, 1948, 4.
364 Downing, “Accolade for Dr. Bunche,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 29, 1950, 4.
365 Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 9.
366 “Bowlers Stew Over ABC Racial Clause, But No Action Is Taken,” Pottstown Mercury, October 10, 1949, 13; “ABC Sanction Sought By Spicer’s Bowlers,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1949, 16; “Discrimination Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 4.
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Not surprisingly, the Pottstown Mercury advocated the anti-racist position, publishing an article in early October of 1949 that illuminated the ramifications of ABC protocol and how it directly affected borough African Americans. Like Downing’s letters, the article, entitled “Discrimination Here,” contextualized ABC racism within late
1940s America. It did so, however, by noting the backwardness regarding ABC’s provision, especially when juxtaposing it and other sports—professional and amateur— and how they had been integrating rather than excluding African Americans. “In this day of tolerance,” the Pottstown Mercury remarked, “when even the major leagues don’t draw the line, when northern college football teams now go into the deepest South and use Negroes, it is hard to imagine Pottstown discriminating against any bowler.” The article also pointed out that “industrial leagues” were the ones mainly affected because
African Americans were in their rank and file. The Pottstown Mercury radically suggested, then, that they “should rebel when this discrimination is mentioned at a local
ABC” gathering.367
Additionally, the Pottstown Mercury threw light on some positive news in
Pottstown concerning the ABC’s national provision, which, in fact, came from one of the local bowling establishments themselves. The Pottstown YMCA,368 which recently desegregated its entire facility in the borough,369 revealed publicly that African
367 “Discrimination Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 4. Regarding Downing, see Downing, “Cites ‘American Hypocrisy’,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1949, 4.
368 “Discrimination Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 4.
369 “YMCA Directors to Modify Constitution And Eliminate Racial, Religious Barriers,” Pottstown Mercury, December 16, 1948, 32; “Extension Division Work at ‘Y’ Ends as Economy Step,” Pottstown Mercury, July 29, 1949, 2; “Pottstown ‘Y’ Lowers Race, Religious Bars,” Philadelphia Tribune, February 1, 1949, 13.
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Americans would certainly be granted bowling privileges there. Although the YMCA’s bowling lanes were ABC sponsored in Pottstown, the local branch noted that it did not plan on enforcing and following, the organization’s racist charter. Furthermore, like the
Pottstown Mercury’s coverage of the Allegheny Conference and VIA, the newspaper painted the bowling struggle on the local front in terms of postwar liberal interracialism.
“It will take courage to fight the ruling.” However, the paper concluded, “it will be a battle for tolerance and brotherhood” in the end.370
In his 1969 text Dear Sir, Shandy Hill, while not naming the business directly, revealed how “a Pottstown labor leader” informed him about an establishment which refused African Americans bowling privileges. This local organization, Hill continued, was “Pottstown’s only public alley.” Although the white editor left out the business’s name, he was most likely referencing Arrow Bowling Alleys, which was, as indicated prior, the borough’s biggest.371
Days following the Pottstown Mercury’s “Discrimination Here” article,372
Pottstown CIO representatives from United Auto Workers Local 644 entered the civil rights struggle when they held a verbal sparring match with ABC workers and the
370 “Discrimination Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 4. Regarding the ABC revamping its discriminatory practice, see “True Test of Loyalty,” Pottstown Mercury, December 15, 1950, 4.
371 I make this claim because Arrow Recreation Bowling Alleys, in advertisements, mentioned how it was “Open To The Public.” See Arrow Bowling Alleys, advertisement, Pottstown Mercury, August 14, 1947, 18; Arrow Bowling Alleys, advertisement, Pottstown Mercury, January 20, 1950, 19. In early August 1955, the Pottstown Mercury noted that Arrow Bowling Alley was Pottstown’s biggest bowling establishment. See “Gerald Dietrich Announces Purchase Of Pottstown’s Arrow Bowling Alleys,” Pottstown Mercury, August 3, 1955, 13.
372 “Discrimination Here,” Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 4.
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Pottstown Bowling Association during the association’s yearly gathering at the West End
Fire Company in nearby Stowe.373 Following in similar footsteps of the CIO’s national take on the ABC, the two white unionists wanted the PBA to immediately depart from the bowling organization. The PBA should return, they demanded, solely when the ABC removed its bigoted provision. One of the leaders even stressed, “You are not only discriminating against Negroes and other racial groups but against all other bowlers in non-sanctioned leagues.” The second CIO activist lambasted ABC policy because it sharply contrasted with “American principles in the world of sports.” He also noted that since most athletic organizations in the United States had stopped excluding African
Americans, ABC policy was, therefore, essentially archaic. Finally, the white unionist demonstrated how hypocritical the provision was when juxtaposed with the fact that
African Americans served in the US military, yet the ABC excluded them from its rank and file. “If a man goes to fight for his country,” the white unionist declared, then “he should have equal rights in sports” too.374
Both the PBA and ABC officials provided direct rebuttal arguments to the white unionists. Regarding the Pottstown Bowling Association needing to leave the ABC, the
PBA chief argued that the position was fundamentally flawed, specifically because “all affiliated leagues in the local association” signed up fully knowing about the ABC’s exclusionary article. Indeed, since the provision was not some covert pact hidden from
373 “Bowlers Stew Over ABC Racial Clause, But No Action Is Taken,” Pottstown Mercury, October 10, 1949, 13; Pottstown Bowling Association, advertisement, Pottstown Mercury, October 7, 1949, 22.
374 “Bowlers Stew Over ABC Racial Clause, But No Action Is Taken,” Pottstown Mercury, October 10, 1949, 13.
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Pottstown ABC associates, then there should thus be no debate surrounding its blatant exclusionism, countered the PBA head.375
When the ABC leaders responded, they defended the organization’s decades old provision, emphasizing choice. First, it was noted that during “the past three national conventions,” ABC delegates upheld the exclusionary article “by overwhelming majorities.” It is also interesting to mention that one of the ABC officials even juxtaposed the bowling congress with “fraternal or other” groups who excluded within their rank and file membership. In the end, therefore, because ABC representatives had consistently backed the organization’s bigoted article, it was essentially their choice as Americans.376
Another ABC officer posed the second rebuttal point. He did so by directly questioning one of the unionists themselves, inquiring whether the individual “would resign from a fraternal organization” since the association excluded African Americans.
Paradoxically, the labor leader responded no. His justification was even more contradictory. Essentially, the white unionist argued that that was the group’s prerogative.
His voice and authority in their exclusionary decision, was thus immaterial.377
Even though the CIO leader’s remarks were indeed inconsistent, the white unionist, nevertheless, remained committed to the fight to allow Pottstown African
Americans to bowl alongside whites.378 Well over a month following the PBA’s yearly gathering, the labor official continued demanding that the Pottstown group protest the
375 Ibid.
376 Ibid.
377 Ibid.
378 Ibid; “ABC Sanction Sought By Spicer’s Bowlers,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1949, 16.
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ABC’s exclusionary provision. Simultaneously, however, the Pottstown Mercury reported on how local bowling athletes were largely positioning “themselves” in solidarity “behind repeal of the Negro discrimination clause.” A PBA representative from
Pottstown, the newspaper additionally noted, was “very likely” going to Columbus, Ohio, the following May to attend the ABC gathering. The PBA’s president also stressed two reasons why the representative was going. First, the rep was to travel there because
Pottstown bowling athletes were planning on competing. Second, and most important to
African-American civil rights, the PBA leader stressed how “the delegate will be advised to vote for repeal of the discrimination clause if it is put to vote.”379
While the Pottstown Mercury captured local bowlers’ competitive endeavors during the ABC affair in Columbus the next year, it failed to mention anything about how the Pottstown representative ultimately lined up with the national decision regarding the
ABC’s discriminatory provision. However, the New York Times announced that out of the five-hundred and eighteen “delegates” present, those supporting the ABC’s long-standing policy were not the majority. In fact, it divulged, “Only a few delegates shouted nays.”380
While there is no evidence regarding the PBA rep’s direct vote, taking the evidence altogether, it seems safe to assume that the Pottstown rep not only followed the will of
379 “ABC Sanction Sought By Spicer’s Bowlers,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1949, 16.
380 Special to The New York Times, “Bowling Congress Ends Color Bar Under Fire in Courts of 4 States,” New York Times, May 13, 1950, 1; Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 8, 27; “American Bowling Congress Drops Restrictive ‘White Male’ Rule,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 16, 1950, 10, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531971505?accountid=14971.
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the PBA majority, but that he was also in direct concert with the majority of ABC comrades during the historic Columbus gathering that May 1950.381
Because the Pottstown Mercury and local labor collaborated on the bowling civil rights struggle in Pottstown, the newspaper once again demonstrated its commitment to
African-American equality. In 1949, however, the Pottstown bowling story was not the lone issue discussed and debated, which would eventually center upon civil rights and local blacks. Indeed, this activism that the Pottstown Mercury found itself involved with was essentially a byproduct of state and federal governmental forces looking to remove local African Americans from their properties in the name of progress and modernity.382
Hemlock and Cottage Rows
Following the Second World War, many Americans faced the challenge of obtaining adequate living quarters. So much so, that the United States Government responded directly. “The housing shortage continues to be acute. As an immediate step,”
President Harry S. Truman declared in early January of 1949, “the Congress should enact the provisions for low-rent public housing, slum clearance, farm housing, and housing
381 “Bowlers Stew Over ABC Racial Clause, But No Action Is Taken,” Pottstown Mercury, October 10, 1949, 13; “ABC Sanction Sought By Spicer’s Bowlers,” Pottstown Mercury, November 23, 1949, 16; Special to The New York Times, “Bowling Congress Ends Color Bar Under Fire in Courts of 4 States,” New York Times, May 13, 1950, 1; Walter and Iida, “The State of New York and the Legal Struggle to Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950,” 8, 27; “American Bowling Congress Drops Restrictive ‘White Male’ Rule,” Philadelphia Tribune, May 16, 1950, 10.
382 Fred Selby, “300 Low Rent Homes to Be Sought for Pottstown Under U.S. Aid Plan: Housing Committee Asks Early Survey,” Pottstown Mercury, August 25, 1949, 1, 10; and “Preview Asked On Census Data: Housing Agency Approves Agreement as Help In Plans for Local Project,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1950, 1, 3; Frank J. Dostal, “They’ll Raze His Cottage Row ‘Castle’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1950, 1, 3.
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research which I have repeatedly recommended.”383 That July Truman authorized and approved the Housing Act of 1949. Ultimately, the main purpose behind the act, the president contended, was that all United States residents had sufficient housing.384
While Pottstown’s housing situation mirrored the national landscape of postwar
America,385 it was especially troubling for local African Americans. In fact, for quite some time, these borough blacks lived in deplorable abodes. For example, the Pottstown
Chamber of Commerce reported in 1941 how local African Americans—over seventy- five percent—resided in structures classified as “sub-standard” in relationship “to their physical condition of over-crowding.”386
In 1943, the Pottstown Mercury published a letter to the editor from African-
American Oscar Carter that sharply criticized the housing plight endured by local blacks like himself. “Where can we rent a place to live? In some shack down along the river,”
Carter continued, “that isn’t for a human being to live in or out in the country somewhere?” The Pottstown African American also threw light upon local whites and how, he believed, they felt about residing nearby blacks. Put bluntly, Carter argued that
383 Harry S. Truman, “Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union,” January 5, 1949, Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=13293.
384 Harry S. Truman, “Statement by the President Upon Signing the Housing Act of 1949,” July 15, 1949, online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project, http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=13246.
385 “Pottstown Allotted 200 Federal Housing Units: Funds Reserved To Await Survey,” Pottstown Mercury, September 30, 1949, 1, 12.
386 Final Report of the Pennsylvania State Temporary Commission on the Conditions of the Urban Colored Population to the General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania (Harrisburg: The Pennsylvania General Assembly of the State of Pennsylvania, January 1943), 114-15, https://archive.org/details/finalreportofpen00penn_0.
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Pottstown whites wanted no blacks neighboring them.387 “The only blot is the slum area in which many” local blacks reside, declared a Pottstown white in early August of 1949; however, she continued, “that isn’t their fault.”388 Later the same month,389 a local
African American, while present during a gathering of Pottstown officials regarding prospective government living quarters being constructed, stressed how Pottstown
African Americans had issues, which pertained directly to obtaining “decent homes.”390
Simultaneously, it is worth noting that locals outside Hemlock and Cottage Rows, a predominately black neighborhood in Stowe, even utilized negative connotations such as “slums” or “sub-standard” when identifying the properties there.391 “A lot of effort is being spent in getting rid of the slums in Cottage and Hemlock Rows so that new homes can be built. Sure,” wrote a Pottstown resident in early February 1950, “this will help clean up Pottstown.”392 Indeed, the Pottstown Mercury was also guilty when describing
387 Oscar Carter, “Discrimination Charged,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 7, 1943, 4.
388 Mrs. C.K., “Response Encouraging,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 4, 1949, 4.
389 Selby, “300 Low Rent Homes to Be Sought for Pottstown Under U.S. Aid Plan,” Pottstown Mercury, August 25, 1949, 1, 10.
390 Selby, “300 Low Rent Homes to Be Sought for Pottstown Under U.S. Aid Plan: Housing Committee Asks Early Survey,” Pottstown Mercury, August 25, 1949, 1, 10.
391 Selby, “300 Low Rent Homes to Be Sought for Pottstown Under U.S. Aid Plan,” Pottstown Mercury, August 25, 1949, 1, 10; “Small Towns Seen As First To Be Affected: Housing Expediter Reveals Plan To Cut One-Third Off Present Regulation List,” Pottstown Mercury, August 18, 1949, 1, 6; F.S., “Says It Breeds Immorality,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, February 1, 1950, 4; Howard J. Kline, “Question of Accuracy,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, March 17, 1948, 4; “Pottstown Allotted 200 Federal Housing Units,” Pottstown Mercury, September 30, 1949, 12; Selby, “300 Low Rent Homes to Be Sought for Pottstown Under U.S. Aid Plan,” Pottstown Mercury, August 25, 1949, 10; “Preview Asked On Census Data,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1950, 1, 3. Regarding the racial makeup of Hemlock and Cottage Rows, see, for example, Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
392 F.S., “Says It Breeds Immorality,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, February 1, 1950, 4.
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the residencies as such in its reporting.393 These labels, of course, bothered the African-
American residents. While the brandings did bare warrant to an extent, it was the
Pottstown government, nevertheless, that enabled some of these low-quality conditions in the first place.394
On the one hand, the local government failed at building an adequate drainage system for Hemlock and Cottage Row buildings. Left with no indoor plumbing, black residents utilized outdoor lavatories. On the other hand, the Pottstown government did not pave the roadway of Hemlock and Cottage Rows. In fact, that was precisely why the
African Americans manufactured concrete pathways that surrounded their properties. The unmodern roadway also had ramifications upon waste collection. “Since it is not an ordained street, [waste] collectors” simply ignored the properties. To neutralize trash accumulation among their properties, however, Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks worked as a collective unit during the summertime, thereby removing the waste.
Ultimately, because Hemlock and Cottage Rows lacked modern trash disposal—a direct consequence of the roadway—it only contributed to the low-quality identifications bestowed upon them. Conversely, because of the local authority neglecting these buildings, Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans responded by doing all in their own power to modernize the residencies. In the end, African Americans made these refurbishments so the buildings were habitable and respectable, living places.395
393 “Preview Asked On Census Data,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1950, 1, 3.
394 Frank J. Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’: ‘Row’ Families See Initiative Broken,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16.
395 Frank J. Dostal, “They’ll Raze His Cottage Row ‘Castle’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1950, 1, 3.
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Moreover, while outsiders constructed negative opinions, Hemlock and Cottage
Row African Americans held contrasting sentiments towards their residencies; indeed, pride was the strongest. African-American Robert Parsons, who worked for Stanley G.
Flagg and resided at no. 27 Cottage Row, illuminated such prideful feelings by stressing how much time and effort he made modernizing his place and space. Growing “up on
Cottage Row,” Parsons understood clearly “the task of turning a house into a modern home would not be an easy one when he started buying four years ago.” However,
Parsons “bowed to his job and began the long years of work which lay ahead.”396
Black homemaker and Georgia native Corrine Nixon lived at Forty Hemlock Row with her spouse, African-American Walter Nixon (a North Carolinian by birth), a local steel mill worker. Like Parsons, she threw light on the extreme sacrifices she and Walter made for their humble abode. Here it is worth highlighting that the Nixon’s situation represented Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks housing plight overall. “They purchased half of the double house in which they live for $850 and then began buying the other half by paying $30 each month. In six months, both halves of the house will be theirs.” Even though “the purchase of their home used up their savings and has continued to be a constant fight, they have tried to improve their property over the years.”397
Indeed, the economics of buying and renting Hemlock and Cottage Row properties were not the sole financial hardships that these local African Americans
396 Ibid.
397 Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3. For biographical data on Corrine and Walter, see Corrine (McMichael) Nixon obituary, Pottstown Mercury, July 13, 1951, 3; “Walter R. Nixon dies at center,” Pottstown Mercury, August 31, 1976, 2.
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experienced; fixing-up and modernizing the residencies, were the others. As indicated, multiple blacks manufactured concrete walking paths, which bordered their properties so
“mud and dirt” were not tracked within them.398 Moreover, other exterior enhancements they completed included shingling sides, roofing restoration, alongside window and patio replacements; interiorly speaking, some added sleeping and living quarters, lavatories, and cooking rooms, among other refurbishments.399
These expenditures, of course, were not cheap. So much so, that African-
American Columbus Massey, the breadwinner of no. 23 Cottage Row, talked about how pricey such renovations had been.400 An employee of Pottstown’s Doehlar-Jarvis plant,
Massey’s restorations left him nearly dead broke. In fact, the black breadwinner approximated that his enhancements priced out over four-thousand dollars. Nonetheless, that did not stop him or African-American Elizabeth Massey (Columbus’s spouse) from zealously restoring no. 23 Cottage Row. In fact, all the Massey’s had left around the time that the black housing plight was reported by the Pottstown Mercury concerned some minor stuccoing.401
398 Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
399 Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16.
400 Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16. Dostal initially identifies Columbus’s last name “Matthews.” However, some subsequent articles identify his last name “Massey.” I also, then, change Elizabeth “Matthews” to “Massey.” For subsequent articles regarding Columbus, see Frank J. Dostal, “Veterans, Masonic Groups Joins Fight for Hemlock Row: Ministers Ask Congregations To Aid Families; Heavy Support Expected At Meeting to Protest Order for Razing Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 27, 1950, 1,5; “Hemlock Row Plans To Organize Pushed,” Pottstown Mercury, March 31, 1950, 1.
401 Dostal, “They’ll Raze His Cottage Row ‘Castle’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1950, 1, 3.
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Regarding shingling outdoors, Parsons revealed that he spent $450. Indeed,
Parsons’s amount was a hefty price, especially because “the seasonal nature of his work” with Stanley G. Flagg and Co. meant it was not steady capital. Nevertheless, the African-
American worker scraped together the little monies he had so that the restoration got done.402 Ultimately, residents like the Nixons, Masseys, and Parsons, made these efforts precisely because they took pride in modernizing and revamping their properties.403
Meanwhile, in early March of 1950, news spread from Norristown, Pennsylvania
—Pottstown’s county seat—that the Montgomery County Housing Authority (MCHA) started drafting the preparation stages for the building of an additional two-hundred public housing units adjacent to Pottstown’s William Penn-Village, a federally funded residential complex.404 The two-hundred “low cost public housing units” had initially received sanction by the Public Housing Administration, a department associated with the
Federal Housing and Home Agency, roughly six months prior.405 Thus, the MCHA approved several steps, which launched the initial phase of the massive building task.
One step in this undertaking concerned “the demolition of sub-standard homes on
Cottage and Hemlock Rows.” 406 Essentially, these structures included eighteen houses as
402 Ibid.
403 Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16; Dostal, “They’ll Raze His Cottage Row ‘Castle’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1950, 1, 3; Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
404 “Preview Asked On Census Data,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1950, 1, 3.
405 “Pottstown Allotted 200 Federal Housing Units,” Pottstown Mercury, September 30, 1949, 1, 12.
406 Ibid. Also see “Preview Asked On Census Data,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1950, 1, 3.
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well as Mount Herman Baptist Church’s building (another African-American congregation407).408 In Pottstown, local government organizations openly cooperated with the MCHA’s clearance endeavors.409 Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans, however, fervently resisted them.410
Even though Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans faced such housing expulsion in early 1950, they had already crossed this path prior. Shortly after World War
II, they endured possible residency loss when their proprietor wanted to sell the buildings away. Although Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks did not own these properties, Corrine
Nixon revealed that the proprietor gave them two choices. Namely, they could purchase their residences “or get out.” Because “there was no place for us to go,” Nixon stressed that they acquired the dwellings. Given “first choice” before additional prospective buyers, these blacks also had two courses in which they could obtain property ownership.
Option one was that the African Americans paid the full price for their properties, thereby having complete ownership. Option two, on the other hand, equated to them putting one- tenth of the money down, then overtime completely purchasing the buildings with rental
407 “Fate of These Hemlock Row Homes Rests With County Housing Authority,” Pottstown Mercury, March 24, 1950, 22.
408“Hemlock Row Plans To Organize Pushed,” Pottstown Mercury, March 31, 1950, 1; and Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
409“Preview Asked On Census Data,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1950, 1, 3.
410 “Surveying Job Begins On Site For New Homes: Housing Unit Secretary Tells Residents They Need Not Fear Eviction,” Pottstown Mercury, March 18, 1950, 1; Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3; Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizens Out of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16; Dostal, “They’ll Raze His Cottage Row ‘Castle’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1950, 1, 3; Frank J. Dostal, “Loses Faith In Right To Own Home: ‘If They Take This, God Help the Poor,” Pottstown Mercury, March 23, 1950, 1, 10.
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monies. Generally, these African Americans—as illuminated by the Nixon’s example above—selected option two. Of course, this latter option was still financially taxing upon the working-class African Americans.411
In addition to Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks’ holding civil rights solidarity, they felt a keen sense of cohesiveness. An institution that helped cultivate such African-
American unity was Mount Herman Baptist Church. Located at no. 41 Hemlock Row,
Mount Herman congregants constructed their place of worship in the early 1940s.
African-American minister Daniel Charles, a Virginia native, pastored Mount Herman.412
Moreover, while Mount Herman worshippers resided in both Stowe and Pottstown,
Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans sole economic activism was the main reason that the physical house of God existed. Specifically, these black families made their capital work in tandem so that Mount Herman was ultimately finished.413
Furthermore, Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans highlighted their respectability as local citizenry, which gave further credence to the nobility and honor of their housing cause. For example, these local blacks emphasized how they broke no laws but were, rather, good, upright people. Employed as “a truck dispatcher” with the local
411Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
412 Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1 3; Frank J. Dostal, “Pastor Enters Hemlock Row Fight: Calls Mass Meeting; Legal Aid Is Offered,” Pottstown Mercury, March 25, 1950, 1, 7; “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ7H-H48: 15 March 2018), Daniel Charles, West Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 46-235, sheet 14A, line 8, family 257, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3586.
413 Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1 3.
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Doehlar-Jarvis factory, John H. Harper of no. 38 Hemlock Row illuminated such an argument. Born in Alabama. Harper also argued the decency of Hemlock and Cottage
Row African Americans. Specifically, he stressed two influential factors. Not surprisingly, the first was Mount Herman. The congregation’s presence, he noted, continually affected the black families there for the greater good. Here, it is interesting to note that Nixon celebrated Mount Herman in a similar vein as well. In her view, she stressed that the house of worship created a real sense of safety and security—something nonexistent prior to its Hemlock Row occupancy, especially when individuals traveled the area during the evening time. 414
In addition to Mount Herman being a place of neighborhood importance, Harper spotlighted the property enhancements of Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans as the second impactful component among the small black community. In fact, the way
Harper shingled no. 38 Hemlock Row’s exterior served “as a model for other residents.”
Harper’s standing among Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans, however, went farther than an outdoor refurbishment. Neighborhood blacks categorized Harper a leader, and generally a highly regarded individual. Moreover, Harper’s reputation transcended
Hemlock and Cottage Rows. Not only Doehlar-Jarvis’s pioneering African American in
414 Frank J. Dostal, “Loses Faith In Right To Own Home: ‘If They Take This, God Help the Poor’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 23, 1950, 1, 10. For biographical data on Harper, see “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ7H-DRR: 15 March 2018), John Harper in household of Alberta Harper, West Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 46-235, sheet 12B, line 70, family 235, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3586.
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Pottstown—initially employed in 1943—but over Harper’s outstanding tenure the company sought his advice. In turn, Harper supplied Doehlar-Jarvis with names from local African Americans seeking employment.415
It is also worth noting that Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans utilized militant discourse when protesting the potential loss of their properties. More specifically, they did so in response to the frustration they felt regarding investing so much energy and capital towards their residencies, then having to vacate them, specifically because of the projected two-hundred federally funded homes. Massey’s frustration related directly to the fact that his place was nearly finished—notwithstanding some brief stuccoing—and now government forces threatened to snatch it right out of his hands. He stated cynically, therefore, “why the devil should I put any more money into it?” In addition, Massey out rightly criticized the Pottstown government’s failure towards providing Hemlock and Cottage Rows an adequate roadway. The black worker also called out local officials who solely cared about the neighborhood African Americans during ballot season. Thereafter, Massey continued, these same borough officers totally neglected the needs of Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks. Ultimately, however, Massey’s most militant assertion came when he stressed how African-American residents would not tolerate their local government’s second-rate treatment anymore. He did so by using metaphor. “If they insist on treating us like dogs,” Massey proclaimed, “they should remember that a dog will take only so many lickings before he bites back.”416 African-
American domestic Neva L. Goffigon of no. 46 Hemlock Row utilized another radical
415 Dostal, “Loses Faith In Right To Own Home,” Pottstown Mercury, March 23, 1950, 1, 10.
416 Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16.
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metaphor, enslavement, when demonstrating the plight of Hemlock and Cottage Row
African Americans. Focusing upon the situation, an angered Goffigon announced,
“You could almost call these two row slavery.”417
A last fascinating point Corrine Nixon illuminated went directly against an argument conveyed by a MCHA representative. Specifically, the MCHA rep suggested how qualified Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks, like whites, had an identical chance at residing within Penn Village.418 Here, Nixon’s remarks further demonstrated the tangible challenges endured by local African Americans in the realm of civil rights and sufficient housing during the postwar years. The way Nixon saw things, “she doubted strongly that the families from the home on both Hemlock and Cottage Rows would be given room in the new [Penn Village] units anyway,” particularly since “all are Negroes.” Nixon continued: “I know people who have applied for rooms there and they are still waiting.”419 Such racial discrimination concerning Penn Village, however, did not end there. Indeed, Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks noted quite a few racially charged episodes involving Penn Village. First, even though neighborhood kids attended “school with the children in Penn Village,” the youths “were prohibited from crossing the project’s property to get the school bus”; moreover, Penn Village had “a summer playground” and the complex asked Hemlock and Cottage Row residents that they “keep
417 Dostal, “They’ll Raze His Cottage Row ‘Castle’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 22, 1950, 1, 3.
418 “Surveying Job Begins On Site For New Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 18, 1950, 1.
419 Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
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their children” away. Concerning using Penn Village as a short cut, Hemlock and Cottage
Row adults faced similar discriminatory constraints as the younger people. In fact, Penn
Village also barred them from travelling on its land.420
While it was the Pottstown Mercury that provided a forum where Hemlock and
Cottage Row African Americans intimately and passionately revealed their housing grievances, the newspaper additionally advocated several points regarding the local black residents. First, the newspaper painted Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans in a specific way that its readership could sympathize with them. Defenseless “before the onward sweep of government progress, a little group of Pottstown families are watching their chance to be independent homeowners and a credit to their community rapidly disappear.”421 In another passage, it declared that the “tragic loss of the homes for which they have strived so long is not the only price the residents of Hemlock and Cottage
Rows must pay for government progress.”422
Second, the Pottstown Mercury utilized a politics of respectability lens. Woven throughout its coverage on Hemlock and Cottage Row blacks was the fact that these working-class African Americans were not only gainfully employed, hardworking, God- fearing and church going, family-oriented,423 but “law-abiding” as well.424 Third, the
420 Ibid.
421 Ibid.
422 Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16.
423 Dostal, “Loses Faith In Right To Own Home,” Pottstown Mercury, March 23, 1950, 1, 10.
424 Ibid.
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newspaper stressed the failure of Pottstown government providing Hemlock and Cottage
Row blacks an adequate roadway. The Pottstown Mercury asserted how the borough government unequivocally neglected the neighborhood’s African Americans since it
“failed to run a sewer line” for the residencies. Corrine Nixon even noted how the neighborhood African Americans had no quarrel with “pay [ing] his share if a sewer was put through here for us.”425 Moreover, the newspaper revealed that local government never finished constructing the street. “The past year,” it additionally noted, “tarvia was spread over the ‘street’ which wanders over the household properties.”426 Hemlock and
Cottage Row African Americans were not, however, satisfied with such second-class refurbishment.427
Simultaneously, Pottstown Mercury editor Shandy Hill directly inserted himself into the local civil rights struggle. Around this time, the newspaper informed its readership about the Montgomery County Housing Authority revamping its original position regarding Cottage Rows. Now, the MCHA announced, Cottage Rows were remaining intact. Thus, Hill turned his energies towards the plight of Hemlock Rows. Hill did so by personally corresponding with the MCHA, informing it about “several alternative sites” where “the proposed 200-unit expansion of Penn Village” could potentially be placed. Hill included a map with these various locations as well. The
MCHA, then, forwarded such pertinent information to Philadelphia’s Public Housing
425 Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
426 Dostal, “Make ‘Bad Citizen Out Of You’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1950, 1, 16.
427 Ibid.
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Administration branch. In addition to Hill’s correspondence,428 the Pottstown Mercury published passionate editorials like “Save Hemlock Row” and “Hemlock Row—
Pottstown’s Sin.”429
The Pottstown Mercury was not, however, the only group working on behalf of
Hemlock Row African Americans; in fact, local blacks outside the neighborhood inserted themselves directly into the conflict too. Second Baptist’s Heywood L. Butler was the earliest. The African-American minister cared deeply about Hemlock Row blacks.
Butler even advised some African Americans, who ultimately purchased houses in the neighborhood. As an activist with Pottstown’s Frankford Improvement Association,
Butler was also fervently supportive of black homeownership, which further sheds light on why the African-American minister involved himself in the local civil rights affair.430
Pottstown African-American leaders James H. and William D. Corum also backed
Hemlock Row blacks. President James Corum’s biracial Local 2326 put forward “The first offer of financial as well as moral help for the residents of Hemlock row who are threatened with the loss of their homes.” Corum even added how some blacks residing there not only worked at Stanley G. Flagg, but that the African-American laborers were card-carrying Local 2326 unionists too. Moreover, Corum basically endorsed Corrine
428 Frank J. Dostal, “Decision on Saving Hemlock Row Asked of PHA by County Authority: Group Studies Plea For Other Project Sites: Mercury Executive Cites Other Possible Locations On Virgin Land in Area,” Pottstown Mercury, March 24, 1950, 1, 22.
429“Save Hemlock Row,” Pottstown Mercury, March 24, 1950, 4; “Hemlock Row—Pottstown’s Sin,” Pottstown Mercury, March 29, 1950, 4.
430 Dostal, “Pastor Enters Hemlock Row Fight,” Pottstown Mercury, March 25, 1950, 1, 7.
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Nixon’s claim regarding Penn Village being discriminatory towards local African
Americans seeking occupancy there.431His younger brother, William Corum, celebrated how local African Americans, especially church-goers, came together in solidarity. In his view, that was how things get done.432
In addition to Local 2326, Hemlock Row blacks had backing from Local 138, another Pottstown CIO union.433 Moreover, the American Legion “all-Negro” Milton E.
Simms Post 955 (Milton Simms, as mentioned prior, was the sole Pottstown African-
American combatant slain during the Second World War), Pottstown’s black-led Masons organization, alongside local African-American congregations, had united on behalf of
Hemlock Row blacks and their housing quandary.434
Ultimately, the fervent advocacy mounted by the Pottstown Mercury and local collaborators, especially everyday African Americans, paid Hemlock Row blacks real dividends. Most importantly, the cooperative civil rights work pressured the MCHA into leaving Hemlock Row properties completely intact. In fact, the MCHA relocated the projected Penn Village additions, finalizing the decision on April 6, 1950.435 Moreover, it
431 “Flagg Unionist Offer Funds To Aid Hemlock Row Battle,” Pottstown Mercury, March 28, 1950, 1, 5.
432 Dostal, “Hemlock Row Defies Threat to Raze Homes,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1950, 1, 16.
433 “Flagg Unionist Offer Funds To Aid Hemlock Row Battle,” Pottstown Mercury, March 28, 1950, 1, 5; “Union Officially Backs Hemlock Row Families,” Pottstown Mercury, April 6, 1950, 19.
434 Dostal, “Veterans, Masonic Groups Joins Fight for Hemlock Row,” Pottstown Mercury, March 27, 1950, 1, 5. Regarding “all-Negro” Milton Simms Post, see “Charter Given Milton Simms Legion Post: Commander G.C. Jones Presented Colors at Official Ceremonies,” Pottstown Mercury, January 19, 1948, 1, 10. Concerning Simms being sole Pottstown black slain in the Second World War, see “Milton Simms Post Arranges Campaign To Build New Home,” Pottstown Mercury, January 27, 1948, 3.
435Frank J. Dostal, “Hemlock Row Wins Fight for Homes; Project Site Shifted,” Pottstown Mercury, April 7, 1950, 1, 24.
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is worth noting that about three weeks after the April 6 judgement, Penn Village welcomed its initial African-American residents.436
The Pottstown Civic League and Equalization
What also materialized from the Cottage and Hemlock Rows housing struggle was the Pottstown Civic League (PCL). Established on April 3, 1950,437 the PCL emphasized an equalization strategy of “bettering the educational, economic, social and moral advancement of [local blacks]” in spite of discrimination.438 Fervently supporting the Stowe African Americans endeavors “to obtain borough facilities,”439 the PCL was
“a formal non-profit corporation with receipt of its charter from the State.”440 Finally, it is worth stressing that the PCL’s initial establishment caught the Pennsylvania government’s attention. So much so, that the State’s Department of Internal Affairs published an article regarding the PCL in September 1950.441
436 “Housing Agency Fails to Air Race Discrimination Charge: Negro Family Finally Gets Project Home: Move Made Few Days Before County Authority Was to Hear Accusations,” Pottstown Mercury, April 29, 1950, 1, 3.
437 “Negro Leaders Form Pottstown Civic Group For Self-Improvement,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1950, 1.
438 Larry Davis, “Understanding Is Urged For Better World: Closer Relations Pressed At Charter Presentation To Local Civic League,” Pottstown Mercury, October 12, 1950, 1, 19.
439 “Negro Leaders Form Pottstown Civic Group For Self-Improvement,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1950, 1.
440 Davis, “Understanding Is Urged For Better World,” Pottstown Mercury, October 12, 1950, 1, 19.
441 Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, “Pottstown Group Organizes For Civic Rights,” Department of Internal Affairs 18, no. 10 (September 1950): 24, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068488249.
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Rev. Butler, James and William Corum, and eleven other local African Americans helped establish the PCL. James Corum was even the group’s initial secretary. Yet, the most notable PCL official was African-American physician Daniel Lee, the body’s first president.442 Born in Georgia (1918), but raised in Philadelphia,443 Lee attended the historically black Lincoln University in Chester County Pennsylvania, graduating in 1940 with a biology degree. About two years after Lee completed his undergrad, he enrolled into another historically black institution, Howard University School of Medicine
(Washington D.C.). Lee finished there in 1945. Before residing in Pottstown, however,
Lee additionally spent time interning with New York City’s Harlem Hospital (1946), followed by a stint working with his alma matter Lincoln (1946 to 1948).444 Ultimately,
Lee migrated to Pottstown in June 1948. And later that same month Pottstown Hospital hired him, making Lee its pioneering African-American physician.445
Upon arriving in Pottstown, Lee did not waste time getting involved in the local
African-American community. In addition to working at Pine Forge Institute as its doctor, Lee gave his time to YMCA Negro Extension Work programs, the local NAACP,
442 “Negro Leaders Form Pottstown Civic Group For Self-Improvement,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1950, 1; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, “Pottstown Group Organizes For Civic Rights,” 24.
443 Larry Davis, “Pottstown Portraits: A Quick Look at Your Neighbor,” Pottstown Mercury, June 26, 1952, 10.
444 Davis, “Pottstown Portraits,” Pottstown Mercury, June 26, 1952, 10; and “Lee, Daniel,” in Who’s Who Among Black Americans, 2nd Edition 1977-1978 Volume 1 (Northbrook, Illinois: Who’s Who Among Black Americans, Inc., 1978), 544.
445 “25 Years Ago: June 22, 1948; Receives Appointment,” Pottstown Mercury, June 22, 1973, 4.
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as well as Pottstown’s Second Baptist Church.446 Later in life, he also worked with the
Pottstown Committee on Human Relations.447 However, Lee would make his greatest contributions through service to the PCL.448
Overall, the PCL emphasized academics.449 It not only directed local educational competitions, but provided black pupils academic funding.450 The PCL purchased a facility—the Scout House—so that local black boy scouts had a space to work. Lee’s PCL funded the Boy Scout group, too.451 Furthermore, the PCL sponsored public discussions from regional leaders, including several African Americans.452 Still, in
446 “Lions Day Campers Travel for Outing,” Pottstown Mercury, July 14, 1948, 14; “Education Director Presents Charter To NAACP Chapter,” Pottstown Mercury, December 27, 1951, 5; “100 Persons Hear Top Local Officials At Baptist’s Meeting,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1949, 22.
447 Normand Poirier, “Borough Forms New Committee For Equality: Area Leaders Discuss Plans to Form Group,” Pottstown Mercury, July 15, 1954, 1, 7; “Committee Studies Plan To Combat Racial Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, September 9, 1954, 1; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. The Pottstown Committee on Human Relations is the local civil rights group examined at length in Chapter 4.
448 “Negro Leaders Form Pottstown Civic Group For Self-Improvement,” Pottstown Mercury, April 4, 1950, 1; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, “Pottstown Group Organizes For Civic Rights,” 24.
449 “Dean Stresses Need for Help To Community,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1952, 1, 16.
450 “Beech Street Girl Wins First Prize In Local Civic League’s Spelling Bee,” Pottstown Mercury, November 24, 1950, 1, 26; “Chestnut Street Girl Wins Spelling Bee, Presented With Cup,” Pottstown Mercury, December 28, 1950, 7; Julia Douglass, “Pottstown and Stowe News,” Philadelphia Tribune, January 29, 1952, 13, http://proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/531948285?accountid=14971; “Civic Unit Concert Clears $189 for Scholarship Fund,” Pottstown Mercury, February 5, 1951, 12.
451 “Civic League Men Authorized to Buy House For Troop 17,” February 11, 1952, 3; “Scouts Plan New Activities For Fall, Winter Session,” Pottstown Mercury, September 16, 1952, 1, 6; “Civic League Elects Dr. Lee New President,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1954, 20.
452 For example, see “Dean Stresses Need for Help To Community,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1952, 1, 16. For brief background on the African American speaker, see Martin Kilson, Transformation of the African American Intelligentsia, 1880–2012, http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=772319&site=eds- live&scope=site.“League Celebrates First Anniversary; Dr. Gray Speaks,” Pottstown Mercury, July 2,
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the immediate postwar years, civil rights initiatives in Pottstown became demonstrably interracial as the Pottstown Mercury’s journalistic work demonstrated a greater participation in local civil rights from borough whites than witnessed prior. Collaborating with multiple local African Americans, the interracial advocacy of the borough newspaper helped attain civil rights achievements that were directly indigenous to area blacks.
Moreover, the Pottstown Mercury humanized and dignified the local African
Americans it reported about to the local white majority. The newspaper not only illuminated the humanity of local blacks, but it provided them the opportunity to voice their grievances and arguments. Here ultimately, the Pottstown Mercury remained a steadfast advocate in local civil rights endeavors. In 1954, following the United States
Supreme Court declaring public school segregation illegal in Brown v. Board of
Education of Topeka, Kansas, once again the Pottstown Mercury demonstrated its ongoing commitment to civil rights. Collaborating with local African Americans, the newspaper would focus its reporting on discrimination and civil rights home-grown to
Pottstown. 453
1951, 5. For further data concerning African-American Gray, see “Rev. William H. Gray Jr. Dies at Age 60,” Philadelphia Daily News, January 27, 1972, 14. “Civic League Holds Founders Day Fete,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1955, 7. Background concerning African-American speaker, see “Dr. J.H. Duckrey Dies; Ex-Cheyney President,” Delaware County Daily Times, April 12, 1968, 4.
453“Supreme Court Rules Public School Segregation Must End: Further Hearings Set for Fall,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 2; “NAACP Hails Move As ‘Vindication’ of 45-Year Battle,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 2; Charles J. Russo, J. John Harris III and Rosetta F. Sandidge, “Brown v. Board of Education at 40: A Legal History of Equal Educational Opportunities in American Public Education,” Journal of Negro Education 63, no. 3 (Summer, 1994): 297-309, https://www.jstor.org/stable/2967182.
CHAPTER 4:
THE PINNACLE OF INTERRACIAL CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVISM IN
POTTSTOWN
Although the litigants of the United States Supreme Court's May 17, 1954, decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas—which announced public- school separation among blacks and whites as manifested through the de jure structure illegal—would not completely feel its direct effect until years, even decades later, the
African-American civil rights experience in Pottstown proved substantially different.454
Approximately five weeks following the historic ruling, the Pottstown Mercury published an expose’ on local discrimination. Subsequently, what emerged from these fascinating reports being disseminated was the pinnacle of interracial civil rights activism in
Pottstown.
From a legal perspective, Brown had no bearing on public education in Pottstown.
In fact, Pennsylvania had legally barred racial segregation within its public-school system in the late nineteenth century.455 Nevertheless, while the public-school system in the state was technically desegregated, segregation still manifested within it. In fact, school segregation was firmly entrenched throughout the American North by the time the U.S.
454 Russo, Harris III and. Sandidge, “Brown v. Board of Education at 40,” 297-309; “Supreme Court Rules Public School Segregation Must End,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 2; “NAACP Hails Move As ‘Vindication’ of 45-Year Battle,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 2.
455 Normand Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV: With End of School Pottstown Divides Into Two Worlds,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7; Edward J. Price, Jr., “School Segregation In Nineteenth- Century Pennsylvania,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 43, no. 2 (April, 1976):134-37, https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/23908/23677.
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Supreme Court announced Brown. While northern activists waged battles towards such institutional racism before the historic case—especially within tinier populaces similar to
Pottstown, for instance—following the decision, agitators from large urban centers additionally came into the fold, radically protesting this “Jim Crow” practice above the
Mason-Dixon Line.456 It should not be surprising, then, that the topic of school segregation has remained on the radar of historians focusing upon northern civil rights.
Moreover, these same historians have demonstrated how pervasive racism was throughout the American North.457
To be sure, the influence and impact of Brown in Pottstown transcended discriminatory practices in education. While the Pottstown Mercury illuminated injustices within the borough’s public educational system, the newspaper additionally provided a more expansive and elaborate, analysis of white racism indigenous to Pottstown.
Ultimately, the case served as the impetus for the Pottstown Mercury to conduct its civil rights investigation throughout the borough. In fact, because Brown ruled against white supremacy, the borough newspaper, in turn, demanded to know whether Pottstown
African Americans themselves encountered similar manifestations of bigotry.
Unequivocally, the Pottstown Mercury proved that local blacks endured white racism
456 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, 174.
457 See Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty; Davidson Douglas, Jim Crow Moves North: The Battle over Northern School Segregation, 1865-1954 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005); Delmont, Why Busing Failed.
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along multiple fronts, as African Americans did in other northern locales Such racism, however, was more inconspicuous than overt.458
For this local civil rights investigation, the Pottstown Mercury approximated
Pottstown’s black populace at twelve-hundred in early summer 1954. The following
March, the Baltimore (Maryland) Afro-American wrote that Pottstown had one-hundred more (thirteen-hundred) African Americans than the Pottstown Mercury’s prior assessment. When compared with the number the black newspaper gave for Pottstown’s overall 1955 populace (25,000), borough African Americans comprised roughly five- percent. In any case, both estimations seem plausible, particularly because the numbers are in-between the 1950 and 1960 United States Census tallies. Concerning the 1950 number, Pottstown had eight-hundred and forty-four African Americans, which equated to almost four-percent of the overall populace (22,598). The 1960 US Census recorded
1,633 blacks, or a little over six percent of the entire Pottstown population (26,144).459
A Regular Community of the North
The civil rights advocacy and activism begun in Pottstown following the US
Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown, reflected the emerging liberal interracialism of the
458 Poirier: “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9; Poirier, “Officer Training, Yes - - But What Job Chances?,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1954, 1, 16; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—III,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 1, 5; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.-V,” Pottstown Mercury, July 2, 1954, 1, 2; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3. For commentary on racism other northern blacks experienced, see Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty.
459 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9; “Pottstown Quietly Ending Jim Crow,” Afro-American, March 5, 1955, 9, https://search-proquest- com.proxy-ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/531954308?accountid=12557; Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, 38-116; Bureau of the Census, Eighteenth Census of the United States, 1960, 40-191.
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postwar era. Emblematic of this, the white-oriented local newspaper, the Pottstown
Mercury, documented the legitimacy of Pottstown blacks’ grievances, and advocated for their cause. From late June to early July 1954, the local newspaper published another
“series” that threw light on the local black circumstance. As throughout the postwar years, the Pottstown Mercury incorporated journalistic techniques that humanized
African Americans and the tangible issues they faced in the realm of civil rights.
Moreover, the newspaper additionally provided them a public space where they could articulate said experiences. In the end, such activism mushroomed into other local civil rights developments.460
In comparison to previous civil rights advocacy conducted by the Pottstown
Mercury, its summer 1954 series departed from early approaches along several lines. To begin, the African Americans whose perspectives the borough newspaper utilized in the reports remained nameless. Ostensibly, the Pottstown Mercury did this so that the local
African Americans who voiced their complaints did not face any social, economic or political repercussions from the dominant white populace. Moreover, the borough newspaper did the same for the whites it spotlighted within the reporting. These whites, however, were not necessarily supporting local civil rights. Rather they were simply
460 Poirier: “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9; Poirier, “Officer Training, Yes - - But What Job Chances?,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1954, 1, 16; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—III,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 1, 5; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.-V,” Pottstown Mercury, July 2, 1954, 1, 2; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3. Regarding works highlighting liberal interracialism, see, for instance, Countryman, Up South; Arnold, Building the Beloved Community.
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remarking on such prejudice home-grown to Pottstown. So much so, that a local white, when asked directly whether borough whites practiced prejudice towards African
Americans, the individual remarked, “I believe in letting sleeping dogs lie.” For many,
Pottstown was simply, “an average Northern community.”461 Finally, the most obvious difference between the summer 1954 and previous Pottstown Mercury civil rights reporting was that it was indeed more ambitious. The reporting was not only of greater depth in both scope as well as research, but such advocacy once again saw collaboration between the Pottstown Mercury and borough African Americans interested in combating racism indigenous to the area.462
White Pottstown Mercury journalist Normand Poirier wrote the summer 1954 series. Born in 1928 in Worcester, Massachusetts, Poirier obtained a journalism degree from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. A US naval veteran of the Second World
War, by the time Poirier landed his newspapering gig in Pottstown, he had already labored with the Worcester Telegram and Gazette, located in his hometown, as well as the Lafayette Daily Advertiser in Lafayette, Louisiana.463 After the Pottstown Mercury,
Poirier had employment with Life, Newsday, and the New York Post. It was at Esquire,
461 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
462 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9; Poirier, “Officer Training, Yes - - But What Job Chances?,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1954, 1, 16; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—III,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 1, 5; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.-V,” Pottstown Mercury, July 2, 1954, 1, 2; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20; and Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
463 “Normand Poirier is Dead; Wrote About Vietnam War,” Muncie Star, February 2, 1981, 10; “Truman Stacey Heads State AP Sports Scribes,” Alexandria Daily Town Talk, August 18, 1952, 12; “Louisiana Sportswriters Select Double-A Elevens,” Shreveport Times, December 1, 1952, 14.
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however, where he conducted his most celebrated journalism. Before Esquire printed
Poirier’s “An American Atrocity”—“one of the first” accounts highlighting Vietnam War cruelties in August 1969, the white journalist composed another galvanizing investigation. Rather than focus abroad,464 he targeted black inequality on the
Southeastern Pennsylvania home front. Moreover, instead of a large northern city like nearby Philadelphia taking center stage, Poirier set his reporting sniper scope, so to speak, directly upon the small borough.465
It is not surprising that Brown helped inspire the summer 1954 Pottstown Mercury articles on local civil rights. During this period, white journalist Charles D. Treleven was the local newspaper’s “managing editor.” Decades later Treleven penned reflections in the Arizona based Prescott Courier, which highlighted the connection between Brown and the Pottstown Mercury’s subsequent civil rights investigation. According to
Treleven, who identified Poirier as “a man of razor-sharp intellect and acute powers of observation,” the two had been discussing Brown shortly after its ruling. Inspired, Poirier then put several inquiries directly to his managing editor. “We have only a few small black areas in town,” Poirier said, “but do they really have equality of opportunity in
464 “Normand Poirier is Dead; Wrote About Vietnam War,” Muncie Star, February 2, 1981, 10.
465Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9; Poirier, “Officer Training, Yes - - But What Job Chances?,” Pottstown Mercury, June 29, 1954, 1, 16; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—III,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 1, 5; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.-V,” Pottstown Mercury, July 2, 1954, 1, 2; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20; Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
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employment, in leadership, in housing?” The white journalist continued, “Aren’t we discriminating?”466
Next, Treleven recalled how he and Poirier gathered alongside their “managing editor,” brainstorming “a series of articles,” which threw extensive light upon racist practices “long embedded in the fabric of the community.” Here, Treleven must have meant “manager” Shandy Hill and not the Pottstown Mercury’s managing editor, precisely because he held the position;467 in 1955, Poirier identified his “editor” as the one who initially conceptualized an account regarding Pottstown African Americans and their local status/treatment.468 Finally, Treleven argued, “the newspaper had no reporter other [than] Norman[d] Poirier qualified for such a sensitive assignment.” In fact, it was
Poirier’s audaciousness, Treleven remembered, which made him perfect “to withstand the wrath of the 90-percent white population that the articles seemed certain to arouse,” even if his findings proved valid. Ultimately, the animosity Treleven and Poirier had eventually manifested from local whites. In fact, following the Pottstown Mercury initially disseminating the civil rights reports, whites frequently sent hostile correspondences directly to the two journalists. Most protestors targeted Poirier
466 Chuck Treleven, “Story Stirs Memories Of A Real Pro: Epilogue prompts prologue of newspaper casualty,” Prescott Courier, March 1, 1981, 4A, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=mJ5OAAAAIBAJ&sjid=o0wDAAAAIBAJ&pg=3435%2C23641 94.
467 Ibid. For background on Treleven, see Charles Treleven obituary, Daily Tribune, June 1, 1995, 2A; Hill, Dear Sir, 36. For Treleven and Hill’s professional titles, see “Pottstown Mercury and The Pottstown News,” Pottstown Mercury, May 18, 1954, 4; “Pottstown Mercury and The Pottstown News,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 4; “Pottstown Mercury and The Pottstown News,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 4.
468 “200 Hear Poirier Trace Pottstown Plan At Headliner Banquet,” Lincoln Clarion, April 22, 1955, 1, http://digital.shsmo.org/cdm/ref/collection/LUClarion/id/2426.
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specifically. Nevertheless, Treleven reflected, Poirier handled their racist remarks skillfully.469
Although Treleven does not mention the following point, it is worth stressing that two days following the US Supreme Court ruling Brown (May 19, 1954), the Pottstown
Mercury interviewed prominent African Americans and whites in the borough, inquiring about their feelings on the historic case. One notable among the crowd was black physician Daniel Lee, local activist who was on a hiatus as president of the Pottstown
Civic League; about two months later in June, Lee would reclaim the PCL presidency. In
Lee’s view, Brown was “the greatest thing since the Emancipation Proclamation.”470
Moreover, his sentiments were echoed by other prominent African Americans from the borough, as well as the Pottstown NAACP. Taken altogether, the public statements provide a glimpse into how Pottstown blacks were in fact processing and viewing the high-court announcement. At the same time, they show that Brown was certainly in the hearts and minds of borough African Americans. Ultimately, Pottstown blacks acted out their support by collaborating with the Pottstown Mercury and other civil rights developments within the borough.471
469 Treleven, “Story Stirs Memories Of A Real Pro,” Prescott Courier, March 1, 1981, 4A.
470 “Civic Leaders Hail Ruling by Supreme Court: Segregation Decision Lauded by Local Officials,” Pottstown Mercury, May 20, 1954, 1, 14. For Lee’s PCL affiliation, see “Civic League Elects Dr. Lee New President,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1954, 20.
471 “Civic Leaders Hail Ruling by Supreme Court: Segregation Decision Lauded by Local Officials,” Pottstown Mercury, May 20, 1954, 1, 14; “NAACP Executive Board Endorses Court Action,” Pottstown Mercury, May 26, 1954, 6.
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Throughout Poirier’s examination into white racism in Pottstown, he utilized the
American South as his comparison point or barometer. In fact, Poirier entitled his inaugural report, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown.” Within the series, Poirier also labeled Pottstown racism “under the name of Mister James P. Crow,
Esquire.”472 Moreover, newspapers across the United States used similar brandings.
Roughly eight-months following the Pottstown Mercury series being published, they encapsulated Pottstown’s own racism “as a Northern style Jim Crow system and an informal—but airtight—form of segregation.” Ultimately, such juxtaposition illuminated direct continuity between the South’s formal de jure structure and the North’s “informal” de facto construction,473an argument, which, Poirier articulated at the time too.474
In addition to Poirier drawing continuity between white racism in the North and
South, he constructed his investigation to demonstrate a larger societal premise above the
Mason-Dixon Line. The Pennsylvania borough, Poirier argued, “might be called an
472 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
473 “Pennsylvania Town Seeks Segregation Problem End,” Plainfield Courier-News, February 22, 1955, 6; “Pottstown Segregation Going Quietly,” Indiana Evening Gazette, February 22, 1955, 4; “Pottstown Launches Its Own Attack On Jim Crow,” Manhattan Mercury, February 22, 1955, 2; “Pottstown Launches Campaign To Correct Unsuspected Segregation,” Plain Speaker, February 23, 1955, 14; “Pennsylvania Town Is Jolted Into Action By Series On Segregation: Yankee Style Jim Crow System Hit,” Lubbock Evening Journal, February 22, 1955, 10; “Unaware Of It’: Pennsylvania Town Goes To Work On Non- Segregation,” Bryan Daily Eagle, February 27, 1955, 5; “In Pottstown, Pa.: Northern Town Tries To End ‘Jim Crowism,” Daily Independent Journal, February 22, 1955, 5; “City Launches Plan to Solve Discrimination: Quietly Starts Work To Eliminate Subtle Form of Segregation,” Moberly Monitor-Index, February 22, 1955, 3; “James P. Crow, Esquire: City Launches Integration Plan,” Raleigh Register, February 23, 1955, 4; “Pottstown Takes Action When It Finds Segregation Practiced At Home, Too,” Gazette and Daily, February 24, 1955, 1, 25; “Town Takes Steps to Erase Its Own Jim Crow System,” St. Cloud Daily Times, February 23, 1955, 5; “Newspaper Series Sparks Crusade Pennsylvania City Crusade,” Rapid City Daily Journal, February 23, 1955, 11; “Pottstown Quietly Ending Jim Crow,” Afro-American, March 5, 1955, 9.
474 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
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average Northern community.” By Poirier identifying Pottstown as such, he set out to illuminate the investigation’s grander relationship. In other words, Poirier affirmed that the borough’s discriminatory practices, which targeted its African-American population, were similar to those in other so-called normal locales in the North.475
The questions which drove Poirier’s reporting concerned how segregated
Pottstown was on the one hand, coupled with how far or whether local blacks had integrated within the borough’s social, economic and political life on the other.
Regarding African Americans being excluded within white Pottstown, on the front page of the Pottstown Mercury’s June 26, 1954 edition, the newspaper asked its readership of approximately 22,000 subscribers, “Does Jim Crow Live in Pottstown?”476 Two days later it began publishing the summer 1954 civil rights reports. On June 28, following his extensive examination into local civil rights, Poirier revealed multiple startling illuminations, which focused solely upon African Americans being excluded.
Overall, Poirier’s central thesis demonstrated how white racism permeated multiple sectors throughout Pottstown. He did so by first illuminating “service clubs” in
Pottstown, which included American Business, Lions, Rotary, Optimists, Kiwanis
, and how local blacks did not hold affiliations with them. Nor did African Americans hold memberships with local fraternal or social groups like the Eagles, Owls, Knights of
Columbus, Maria Assunta, Elks, Doehler Die-Caster Club, Odd Fellows, Moose, and
475Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
476“Does Jim Crow Live in Pottstown?,” Pottstown Mercury, June 26, 1954, 1. For example of subscriber numbers to the Pottstown Mercury around the time, see Pottstown Mercury, “The Standing Pat Has Only One Leg To Stand On—And Figures That’s Enough!,” advertisement, Pottstown Mercury, May 7, 1954, 31.
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Orioles. Even so-called veterans’ associations such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and
American Legion, excluded African Americans, as did Pottstown’s firehouses, and
Brookside Country Club.477
In addition to Pottstown African Americans being socially excluded because of white racism, they endured bigotry through local employment sectors. According to
Poirier, borough blacks generally held custodial positions with Pottstown Rapid Transit,
Philadelphia Electric, and Bell Telephone—“the three Pottstown public utilities.” African
Americans did similar work with the Pottstown school system. Ironically, however, that same institution excluded them as educators. Local blacks also faced full-occupational exclusion when it came to being postal carriers, and retail sales staff. At the same time,
Poirier lambasted the fact that “only one Negro girl [held] an office job in all of
Pottstown,” and that “only one Negro girl has ever worked as a nurse in either Pottstown or Memorial hospitals.” 478
Finally, regarding African-American students themselves, Poirier noted further local discrimination. “Only one Negro Senior High school graduate,” he found, was
“ever. . . sent out on job interview from the school’s job placement office.” Concerning another local institution, Poirier announced that “No Negro girl has ever been admitted to the Pottstown Hospital School of Nursing.”479 Ultimately, Poirier argued that
477 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
478 Ibid. Can also see Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
479 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1,9. Can also see, Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
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Pottstown’s exclusionary practices had manifested along “subtle methods” rather than the southern de jure structure, which was, indeed, publicly exposed and conspicuous.480 In other words, Pottstown’s “color line” existed inextricably throughout the borough. That is, Poirier added, aside from “school and work.” 481
Yet, even though the local job market and educational situation illuminated spaces where blacks experienced integration, Poirier revealed that these same institutions still discriminated against African Americans in more inconspicuous fashions. Regarding livelihood, for example, a local African American approximated a little under two- hundred blacks had borough industry jobs. He identified Stanley G. Flagg and Co. as mostly likely having the highest number of black employees, followed by Concrete
Products of America. Local factories like these, Poirier stressed, while they included
African Americans, they covertly excluded them, too. Moreover, nailing down such exclusionary policies was indeed challenging, he continued, precisely because staff supervisors running these places denied that they discriminated. Of course, local African
Americans argued otherwise. The same blacks even contended that “one of the largest plants in town” solely employed African Americans as “janitorial and maintenance” laborers.482
In addition to these so-called integrated spaces, Poirier illuminated several local occupations which nearly fully excluded African Americans. Essentially, these were white-collar professions. According to Poirier, merchant-related jobs principally excluded
480 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3.
481 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
482 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7.
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African Americans. He also singled out public education in Pottstown—namely, its teaching profession—which never had an African American. Like the local factory that employed African Americans solely to conduct custodial-related tasks, “only one Negro has ever worked for the Pottstown school system. He was a janitor.” Finally, like merchant-related occupations, Poirier revealed how local blacks—particularly African-
American women who generally conducted domestic-based jobs—had issues obtaining clerical-related occupations.483
While the local schools never had an African American occupying the teaching profession, Poirier did stress that the borough’s public institution granted African-
American youths access within it. In fact, he added, black students received similar guidance as their white counterparts. However, unlike their white classmates, younger
African Americans had to deal with blatant racism. Poirier even emphasized how emotionally damaging such racism was on the youth’s subconscious. For instance, younger African Americans could not escape texts like “Little Black Sambo” that utilized racist black typecasts (Poirier did note, however, that once local African Americans informed the proper educational authority about them, it revised such practices). Another example Poirier spotlighted concerned a local white proprietor. The individual had a school sponsored gathering on his Pottstown property; yet, he refused access to the group’s black students. The proprietor, Poirier revealed, claimed that “business reasons” influenced his decision.484
483 Ibid.
484 Ibid.
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Poirier also threw light upon Pottstown African Americans and certain housing challenges they endured. Here, Poirier’s illustration aligned with the Pottstown Mercury’s examination of Hemlock and Cottage Row African Americans, especially those who were trying to get into the federally funded William Penn-Village residential project.
According to Poirier, an African American “applied for admission to a housing development in Pottstown.” However, the development’s supervisor eventually informed the African American that his application was denied. Inquisitive, Poirier found out that the manager’s judgement rested largely upon race, particularly because multiple whites residing there wanted no part in having black neighbors whatsoever. Regarding this racist residential dilemma, Poirier even stressed continuities between Pottstown and his days reporting in Louisiana.485
On the other hand, while Poirier illuminated elements of racism which local
African Americans encountered, borough blacks, he determined, needed to do more on their end to help with the integration process. Specifically, Poirier argued that local blacks “fear of rejection” handicapped them “from striving to become an integral part of the community.” In several instances, he stressed how borough African Americans never sought opportunities—even employment—within Pottstown, precisely because they had trepidation about the organizations declining them. This mentality, Poirier affirmed, therefore explained aspects of why the post office, as well as the Pottstown Hospital
School of Nursing, to name a few, generally lacked African-American occupants.
Poirier’s harsh appraisal, however, also criticized whites. Specifically, it lambasted their
485 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—III,” Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 1, 5. Regarding earlier illustration connected to Hemlock and Cottage Rows, see Dostal, “Slum Razing Plan to Hit Borough’s ‘Forgotten Folk’,” Pottstown Mercury, March 20, 1950, 1, 3.
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longstanding oppression of African Americans. In fact, Poirier suggested that such persecution was what gave blacks an “inferiority complex.” Moreover, providing African
Americans fully escaped their mental bondage, he continued, whites could still be hostile towards integration. In the end, though, Poirier stressed that local African Americans—as well as their counterparts throughout the nation—needed to make the effort. If blacks failed to do so, it implied that they were only reciprocating similar bias towards whites in general—even those who demanded full-blown African-American integration and civil rights. Regarding local whites, however, Poirier made two central observations. First, he argued that Pottstown whites denied the borough practiced any forms of bigotry towards local African Americans.486 Commenting directly upon Brown, Poirier even noted that most identified it as solely a southern concern, precisely because the borough, and the rest of the American North, were indeed integrated spaces.487
Second, Poirier found whites to believe that Pottstown African Americans were— on all occasions—content with their local existence. In a sense, Poirier supported this latter assertion since, in his view, borough blacks had reservations concerning fully integrating within Pottstown. However, he understood the motive behind them exhibiting such sentiment. Bluntly stated, Pottstown African Americans wanted no part in so-called integration, Poirier observed, precisely because borough whites had no desire in fully accepting them in terms of being equal.488
486 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20.
487Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
488 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—VI,” Pottstown Mercury, July 3, 1954, 1, 20.
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Consequently, even though borough whites argued that their African-American neighbors had the same opportunities afforded them in Pottstown, Poirier countered such an argument by throwing light from another black viewpoint. African Americans, remarked an unnamed black leader, had no connection to Pottstown, outside being taxpayers. The same African American also highlighted Pottstown’s black collective and what its local existence centered around. According to the African American, borough blacks navigated only a few places—“his church, his job, his house.” Such isolation even supported Poirier’s comments regarding Pottstown African Americans preferring to remain by themselves. However, it additionally spoke towards their perceived status in
Pottstown, which a second leading African American commented directly upon. “It’s not a bad town at all,” the African American declared. “But we are treated as Negroes.”
Interpreting these remarks, Poirier emphasized that the white populace, while it
“tolerated” Pottstown African Americans “on some levels,” it saw them as far from being their counterparts. Rather, he continued, these local blacks were second-class citizens to the majority group.489
Finally, although Poirier’s journalism threw light upon white racism in Pottstown, that was not its sole objective. Its other purpose was to galvanize residents into combatting borough prejudice. Indeed, Poirier’s seventh article in the summer 1954 series, subtitled “A Plan of Action for Pottstown,” stressed just that. Summoning locals, he informed his readership that all they needed to launch such “a movement” was several committed individuals. Poirier let them know that Pottstown activist and PCL president
Daniel Lee was the main contact. At the time, in fact, Lee had an idea about establishing
489 Ibid.
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“a committee on human relations” similar to those forming in the wake of Brown in many southern states so that local prejudice was combatted firsthand.490
The Pottstown Mercury’s 1954 investigation on borough civil rights galvanized a local liberal interracialist response. Specifically, dialogue emerged within the newspaper’s “Readers Say”/letter to the editor section, which appraised the borough’s civil rights issues. While the Pottstown Mercury published some local responses prior to the reporting,491 it printed most “Readers Say” responses both during and following
Poirier’s local civil rights investigations. Moreover, the majority of “Readers Say” letters backed Poirier’s findings. On the other hand, it is worth noting that many authors did not sign their full names. In a vein similar to the white and black participants that Poirier utilized within his civil rights reports, most likely individuals left out their full identities so that they did not receive any form of local reprisals—whether economic, social or political. Yet, there were some locals—mainly identifying as African Americans—who certainly risked retaliation by penning their full names. In the end, these responses provide excellent insight into Pottstown African Americans and the home-grown racism they endured.492
490 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3; “Civic League Elects Dr. Lee New President,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1954, 20. Regarding an example of committee in the South, can see, John A. Kirk, Beyond Little Rock : The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2007), 116-38.
491 June Graduate, “Not Even Considered,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, June 18, 1954, 4; Two June Graduates, “On Stenographic Jobs,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 28, 1954, 4; One Of The Majority, “Really Practice It,”, letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 22, 1954, 4.
492 Thinker, “Courageous Approach,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 4; Shirley L. Jackson, “Color Line Stopped Her,” letter to the editor, July 12, 1954, 4; Mrs. M.L.R, “Time for a Change,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 7, 1954, 4.
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Out of the multiple “Readers Say” responses, African-Americans Frances Young
Williams and Mary V. Reid’s correspondences paint the best picture of local blacks and the racial hardships they endured. Both women not only grew-up in Pottstown but were also a product of the borough’s educational system. Moreover, they agreed how
Pottstown African Americans began battling racism from early on.493 Williams even correlated her own experience with southern African Americans. However, she found her plight in Pottstown worse, precisely because the borough—unlike those communities below the Mason-Dixon Line—masked its own racism, whereas the southern brand was not covert. “As a child,” Williams remembered, “I was reared and received my schooling in Pottstown. Let me say that there were times during my childhood that lead [sic] me to believe that conditions for Negroes in Pottstown were not half as good as they were for
Negroes in the South.” Specifically, she believed that “at least in the South a Negro knew where he stood and he did not have to face embarrassment by attempting to seek social life, entertainment or jobs above a certain level or field.”
What really bothered Williams, therefore, concerned the belief about local
African Americans having identical “opportunity as the other races for betterment of his conditions.” In her view, however, she found the borough only wanting African
Americans within the capacities of “labor, factory or domestic type” work. In other words, Williams declared, blacks were wanted solely in unskilled employment and not white-collar employment.494
493 Frances Young Williams, “Good Marksmanship,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 17, 1954, 4; and Mary V. Reid, “Bigotry Offers a Challenge,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 10, 1954, 4. For a similar piece, see Jackson, “Color Line Stopped Her,” letter to the editor, July 12, 1954, 4.
494Williams, “Good Marksmanship,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 17, 1954, 4.
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Reid, Williams’s African-American counterpart, articulated similar points. She even added that such discriminatory practices permeated all facets of black life throughout Pottstown—“from birth until death in our little borough.” Regarding her youth, Reid recalled: “I lived next door to white children and we went to the Jefferson playground together. The colored children were called into a group and told that they were being given a colored supervisor and special times to use certain facilities at the playground.” Reid also lambasted Pottstown’s educational system, arguing fervently that local African Americans time was largely filled with “humiliating experiences, bitter disappointments and a nauseous fear of being rejected.” Interestingly enough, Reid sharply criticized Pottstown public school teachers too, which, therefore, challenged
Poirier’s assessment in the series. Finally, like Williams, Reid illuminated her own challenge in obtaining white-collar employment in Pottstown. Eventually, Pottstown left her feeling disenchanted. Thus, Reid moved to Philadelphia, where she found, in her view, better racial treatment.495
While Pottstown resident Raymond C. De Wald did not fully back Poirier’s findings, he affirmed that providing the investigations proved true, then such prejudices demanded fixing. At the same time, De Wald lambasted whites who were directly against
African Americans obtaining civil rights advancements. In his view, “intelligent, fair- minded people certainly must realize that ‘separate citizenship is second-class citizenship’ and should want to see that their Negro neighbors are guaranteed the same rights and privileges as they have.” He continued: “If these conditions do exist, those who
495 Reid, “Bigotry Offers a Challenge,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 10, 1954, 4. For Poirier argument, see Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq.—IV,” Pottstown Mercury, July 1, 1954, 1, 7.
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object to their correction must either be blindly prejudiced or else completely indifferent
to the principal of equal rights for all citizens.” Ultimately, even though De Wald never
fully celebrated Poirier’s civil rights assessment, he did at least concur with its
fundamental premise, which demanded that whites and blacks both had equality.496
Meanwhile, shortly after the Pottstown Mercury published its final civil rights piece, PCL president Lee got the local “human relations” organization he so passionately desired.497 While Lee played an instrumental role in the establishment of the Pottstown
Committee on Human Relations (PCHR), the black-advocacy reports disseminated by the borough newspaper served as its impetus.498 In March 1956, the PCHR reflected upon such establishment, stressing that “following the publishing of a series of articles in the Pottstown Mercury describing the local human relations situation,” it was founded.499
Furthermore, like the summer 1954 Pottstown Mercury series, scholars have fully ignored the PCHR’s proper place in northern civil rights history.
The PCHR was established mid-July 1954. Although Lee was the central organizer and early leader, over the next two years or so multiple activists—black and
496 Raymond C. De Wald, “End Inequalities,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, July 10, 1954, 4.
497 Poirier, “Mister James P. Crow, Esq. — —VII,” Pottstown Mercury, July 5, 1954, 1, 3; “Human Relations Group Will Meet,” Pottstown Mercury, July 14, 1954, 1; “Civic League Elects Dr. Lee New President,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1954, 20.
498“Human Relations Group Will Meet Tonight,” Pottstown Mercury, July 28, 1954, 1; and “Human Relations Group Will Meet,” Pottstown Mercury, July 14, 1954, 1.
499 The Pottstown Committee On Human Relations, March 14, 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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white—would join the local civil rights group as well.500 In June 1955, one writer described the PCHR as thus: “The organization is totally a lay man group. They do not even represent organizations. They do represent the people who are concerned and who want to do something to make the town a better place for all.”501 Some notables among the PCHR included African-American brothers James H. and William D. Corum; black
Seventh-day Adventist ministers A.V. Pinkney and Ercell I. Watson from nearby Pine
Forge Institute; and Pottstown Mercury journalist Poirier. Moreover, white civil rights activists Marjorie Penney and A. Herbert Haslam joined the PCHR early on as representatives from Fellowship Farm in Fagleysville. In fact, these two-seasoned activists, through Fellowship Farm and their main location, Fellowship House in
Philadelphia, would play a fundamental role in helping the PCHR have an impact locally
(as well as regionally and nationally).502 Overall, the PCHR was radically committed “to building a world free from race hatred and religious” discrimination.503
500 Normand Poirier, “Borough Forms New Committee For Equality: Area Leaders Discuss Plans to Form Group,” Pottstown Mercury, July 15, 1954, 1, 7; “Committee Studies Plan To Combat Racial Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, September 9, 1954, 1; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
501 [Recipient not identified] to Mae Gellman, 16 June 1955, Branches [MD] Baltimore, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/32, FHPA_Temple. Although this correspondence has no signature on it regarding who sent it, it is attached to a letter which Gellman wrote Ohrenstein on June 2, of the same year. The June 16, correspondence refers to the June 2 letter. In fact, Gellman asks Ohrenstein several inquiries in the June 2 letter, which the author of the June 16 correspondence, which I suggest is Ohrenstein, responds to. For the June 2, 1956, letter, see Mae R. Gellman to Mrs. D. Ohrenstein, 2 June 1955, Branches [MD] Baltimore, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/32, FHPA_Temple.
502 See The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple
503 Proposed preface page to “Count Me In,” Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple.
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Fellowship House officially established in Philadelphia during the early 1940s and had direct origins with Philadelphia’s Young Peoples Interracial Fellowship (YPIF), which established early the decade prior.504 Yet, by the time the PCHR launched,
Fellowship House’s farm was only about three-years old. Started in late June 1951, the farm was a pivotal organizational space. In fact, historian Stanley Keith Arnold has argued that the location was an essential “training ground” where “a generation of civil rights activists” received instruction in promoting equality.505 A November 1955 report from Fellowship House noted that it was “a summer training, workcamp, and conference center.” Inextricably interracial, from an organizational standpoint the farm was directly tied to Fellowship House. Moreover, in the year following the PCHR’s launch,
Fellowship House and Farm had eleven-other affiliated organizations situated in
Pennsylvania, New York, Ohio, Tennessee and Missouri.506
The “Pottstown Plan” and the Politics of Liberal Interracialism
By far, the PCHR’s greatest civil rights initiative was “the Pottstown Plan.”507
Yet, the only mentioning of the Pottstown Plan outside contemporary sources is found in
regional scholars Jean Barth Toll and Mildred S. Gilliam’s massive anthology, Invisible
504 Arnold, Building the Beloved Community, 19-25, 31.
505 Ibid., 6.
506Fellowship House: An Approach In Human Relations (November 1955), 7-8, Fellowship House/Farm Human Resources, 1955, Series 2: Accession 1026, circa 1952-1994, 2/13, FHPA_Temple
507 The Pottstown Committee On Human Relations, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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Philadelphia: Community Through Voluntary Organizations (1995). This account, however, is extremely brief. Moreover, it does not document the origins of the Pottstown
Plan in relationship to the Pottstown Mercury civil rights series, or its connection to the
PCHR itself. Rather, the version solely emphasizes Fellowship House and Farm’s part in implementing the Pottstown Plan.508
Even though the PCHR was completely “a lay man group” that did “not even represent organizations,”509 the fact remained that it still needed organizational backing, especially in promoting the Pottstown Plan. In late February 1955, the PCHR, in collaboration with both the Pottstown Mercury and Fellowship House and Farm, disseminated over ten-thousand booklets that conveyed the Pottstown Plan’s central aims.510 Entitled “The Pottstown Plan: A First Step,” the pamphlet’s front cover illustrates what the PCHR demanded regarding borough civil rights. While the backdrop itself has scattered clippings of the summer 1954 Pottstown Mercury series, in the center of the cover are two young children. One is black and the other white. Holding hands, this simple gesture symbolizes the PCHR and Pottstown Plan’s grand objectives: full-
508 Helen Stark Tomkins, “Fellowship House Farm,” in Invisible Philadelphia: Community Through Voluntary Organizations, ed. Jean Barth Toll and Mildred S. Gilliam (Philadelphia: Atwater Kent Museum, 1995), 608.
509 [Recipient not identified] to Mae Gellman, 16 June 1955, Branches [MD] Baltimore, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/32, FHPA_Temple.
510 Normand Poirier, “Plan Drafted Here In Fight On Prejudice: Every Person, Organization Asked to Take ‘First Step’ Project To Attack ‘All Forms Of Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, February 21, 1955, 1, 7; Fellowship House: An Approach In Human Relations (November 1955), 5 Fellowship House/Farm Human Resources, 1955, Series 2: Accession 1026, circa 1952-1994, 2/13, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to William Hastie, 8 September 1954, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1954, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935- 1985,14/82, FHPA_Temple.
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blown African-American integration on the one hand, coupled with unapologetic civil rights promotion and egalitarianism, on the other.511 Interestingly enough, Penney articulated a similar viewpoint months earlier. In a correspondence dated September 8,
1954, Penney wrote black justice and civil rights activist William Hastie, who also sat on
Fellowship House’s board, about the pamphlet’s prospective civil rights imagery.
Specifically, she notes how the document had “an attractive front-page picture of a Negro and a white baby taking first steps toward each other,” thereby visually promulgating borough interracialism.512
On the inside jacket, the pamphlet mentions how the Pottstown Plan ultimately spring boarded, emphasizing Poirier’s civil rights reporting. Moreover, because certain prejudices barred Pottstown African Americans “from sharing fully in community life,” the pamphlet summons local organizations. Specifically, it asserts, “The Pottstown Plan is simply to have the community flex its muscles and take the first step—that is, that every group in town, from the Chamber of Commerce to the smallest Cub Scout den, is asked to consider the problem,” speak “about it, and come up with one project, no matter how small, which will help build a fairer, friendlier Pottstown.”513 Before going any further, a note on the language of the Pottstown Plan pamphlet is worth emphasizing. In essence, the document utilizes broader inclusive statements rather than explicitly
511 The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple
512 Marjorie Penney to William Hastie, 8 September 1954, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1954, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985,14/82, FHPA_Temple. “Report On Survey Of Fellowship House (May 1955),” Fellowship House/Farm Committee Survey Reports, 1954-55, Series 2: Accession 1026, circa 1952-1994, 3-32, FHPA_Temple. For brief background on Hastie, see “William Henry Hastie,” The Philadelphia Award, accessed April 22, 2019, http://philadelphiaaward.org/william-henry-hastie/.
513 The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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identifying that Pottstown’s African-American population was the group receiving the brunt end of racism indigenous to the borough. In his 2014 text, Building the Beloved
Community: Philadelphia’s Interracial Civil Rights Organizations and Race Relations,
1930-1970, Arnold throws light upon Fellowship House and Farm’s utilization of inclusive discourse in promoting civil rights. Fellowship House and Farm, Arnold even suggests, put in place an able foundation “for a philosophy” eventually recognized “as multiculturalism,” thus further demonstrating the organization’s unprejudiced objectives.514
Since the PCHR collaborated with Fellowship House and Farm and had activists from the Philadelphia group as well—it should not be surprising the way the Pottstown
Plan document was configured. However, even though the Pottstown Plan booklet is arranged in such a way, the fact remains that the Pottstown Mercury’s summer 1954 civil rights series demonstrates what local people were most certainly experiencing the bulk of inequality in Pottstown. Unequivocally, they were borough African Americans.
The Pottstown Plan document also suggests how the borough initiative could not only possibly assist individuals “in other towns,” but that the local civil rights endeavor, providing how borough organizations directly involved themselves, might even have international reach. Here, the international argument also goes hand in glove with
Fellowship House and Farm’s inclusive message.515
514 Arnold, Building the Beloved Community, 3.
515 The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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While the PCHR disseminated the Pottstown Plan booklet in early 1955, the organization really started working on the initiative shortly after its establishment. In fact, the PCHR initially announced the Pottstown Plan roughly four-months earlier.516 Outside of the PCHR itself, as indicated, the two main organizations that promoted the Pottstown
Plan were Fellowship House and Farm and the Pottstown Mercury. While Fellowship
House and Farm workers Penney, Haslam, and another white colleague named Mitzi R.
Jacoby, labored in promoting the Pottstown Plan, Poirier, Hill and Treleven did the same through the Pottstown Mercury.
Last—and certainly not least—the evening before the PCHR and collaborators released the Pottstown Plan booklets, Lee publicly endorsed it. In fact, he made egalitarian arguments like the ones found in the document itself. Unequivocally, the
African-American physician declared “that the big majority of the people in Pottstown feel just as we do about discrimination. Most people realize how ignorant and unjust it is.” Lee then juxtaposed his assessment concerning Pottstown with the United States overall. According to Lee, the borough’s “majority” population and its contempt regarding inequality actually represented “most” Americans disgust too. Thus, because
Pottstown had such a plurality who held egalitarian views, it was, therefore, only logical these borough residents should receive the PCHR’s proposal cheerfully. “We think this plan will give us all the chance that we’ve been” wanting desperately, Lee affirmed.517
516 “Anti-Bias Plan Gets Approval: Local Leaders Will Present Brochure Aimed at Discrimination,” Pottstown Mercury, October 21, 1954, 1, 26. Regarding the PCHR’s establishment, can see Normand Poirier, “Borough Forms New Committee For Equality: Area Leaders Discuss Plans to Form Group,” Pottstown Mercury, July 15, 1954, 1, 7.
517 Poirier, “Plan Drafted Here In Fight On Prejudice,” Pottstown Mercury, February 21, 1955, 1, 7.
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Lee also demonstrated the PCHR’s fervent commitment to inclusion by highlighting the fact that people from various ethnicities and backgrounds have experienced bigotry firsthand, while simultaneously they have also dished it out. Thus, he saw the real issues which plagued the day relating to “human” concerns rather than solely
“racial.” Indeed, by Lee further painting the PCHR along these inclusive lines, he was only helping the group in having a larger appeal to the borough’s entire population.518
Among the Fellowship House and Farm workers, Haslam was the most involved in conceptualizing the Pottstown Plan. Born in 1897, in Norristown, Pennsylvania, he attended Bucknell College (Lewisburg, Pennsylvania) and Columbia (New York City)
University, as well as Andover Newton Seminary (Newton Centre, Massachusetts). A cleric by vocation and fervent advocate of African-American civil rights, doctor Haslam started working with Fellowship House in the late 1940s. Before his Fellowship House tenure, however, Haslam pastored in Pennsylvania and Ohio too. Moreover, he had a history laboring within civil rights-minded organizations like the American Civil
Liberties Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
(NAACP), and Philadelphia Fellowship Commission, among others.519 “THE
518 Ibid. In terms of Pottstown’s entire population, see Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 47.
519 “United States World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918,” database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K6V3-1SW : 13 March 2018), A Herbert Haslam, 1917-1918; citing Carbon County no 2, Pennsylvania, United States, NARA microfilm publication M1509 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,877,832;“Dr. A.H. Haslam Dies at Age of 56,” Philadelphia Inquirer, February 14, 1955, 5; “Release: Dr. A. Herbert Haslam,” Individuals: Haslam, A. Herbert, undated, Subseries 1.2: Individuals, 1921-1988, 11/120, FHPA_Temple.
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POTTSTOWN PLAN for integrating small communities,” however, “was Dr. Haslam’s last project.”520 In fact, when the PCHR and collaborators initially disseminated the plan’s booklet on February 21, 1955, Haslam had already been dead about a week.521
Consequently, following Haslam’s death, Penney and Jacoby were Fellowship
House and Farm’s main promoters of the Pottstown Plan. Born in 1908, in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, Penney was one of the main leaders and organizers of both the YPIF, as well as Fellowship House and Farm. Like Haslam, Penney had an extensive history as a civil rights activist. So much so, that she received the Philadelphia Award—a distinguished honor that celebrated initiatives which directly ameliorated conditions in the City of Brotherly Love—in 1947. More precisely, Penney obtained the honor because of her activism that assisted in launching the Fellowship Commission over the Second
World War.522
Like Haslam and Penney, much of Jacoby’s professional life centered upon civil rights and communal-based activism, especially while working with Fellowship House and Farm (and beyond). A Philadelphia native like Penney, and born in 1931, Jacoby was
520“The Pottstown Plan,” Fellowship House and Farm: Dedicated to the Proposition That All Men Are Created Equal, March 1955, Branches: Fellowship House, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943- 1967, 79/137, FHPA_Temple.
521 Poirier, “Plan Drafted Here In Fight On Prejudice,” Pottstown Mercury, February 21, 1955, 1, 7; and “Dr. A.H. Haslam Died On Sunday,” Jim Thorpe Times News, February 17, 1955, 1.
522 “United States Census, 1910,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MGDR-YS3 : accessed 23 April 2019), Marjorie Penney in household of Maurice Penney, Philadelphia Ward 15, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 235, sheet 10A, family 192, NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1982), roll 1391; FHL microfilm 1,375,404;“Marjorie P. Paschkis; founded 2 Fellowship Houses in Phila.,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 30, 1983, 4-B; “Memory Stream: Historical Society Of Pennsylvania; Growing peace and tolerance,” Philadelphia Inquirer, July 13, 2014, C2.
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the youngest of the three white activists. College educated, Jacoby completed her degree at Temple University in the city as well.523
When the Pottstown Mercury publicly announced on February 21, 1955, that the
Pottstown Plan was being disseminated that day, the newspaper simultaneously informed its readers that it demanded to know what they thought. In fact, the Pottstown Mercury continued, they should utilize the newspaper’s “Readers Say” section to articulate their
“pro and con” remarks concerning the PCHR, as well as the Pottstown Plan.524 Here, two responses are worth mentioning, since they demonstrate both sides of the debate. First,
Pottstown African-American Bessie M. James definitively praised the PCHR’s proposal.
“In a civilized world there is born into the life of all mankind a hope—a hope of a better life, a hope of a better world in which to live.” Therefore, James continued, “The
Pottstown Plan is a step forward in making that hope become a reality in our community,” specifically because it promoted borough egalitarianism. The African-
American woman also summoned all locals to fully take part in the Pottstown civil rights project.525
Second, Pottstown resident Bert Dobry represented a voice of dissent concerning the PCHR’s egalitarian initiative. Interestingly enough, Dobry rationalized his argument by drawing attention to the current Cold War. “Segregation and integration is only to promote Socialism.” Moreover, he continued his analysis by criticizing African
523 “Mitzi's Obituary,” Mitzi Rona Barnes: March 17, 1931 - April 21, 2018, http://www.monarchsociety.com/obituary/mitzi-barnes.
524 Poirier, “Plan Drafted Here In Fight On Prejudice,” Pottstown Mercury, February 21, 1955, 1, 7.
525 Mrs. Bessie M. James, “Praises ‘Pottstown Plan,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, February 26, 1955, 4. For another celebratory response, see, for example, Just A Bystander, “For An Honest Discussion,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, February 28, 1955, 4.
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Americans directly, asserting that blacks—as well as Jews—were hypocrites regarding racial exclusion. “Truthfully,” Dobry complained, “how many Negroes do we see going to the synagogue and how many Jews do we see going to the Negro church?” Finishing his short response, Dobry announced: “First, let them practice what they preach and stop blaming others for the very same thing they are doing—segregating.” While Dobry did not name the PCHR or its proposal directly, he did indirectly criticize the egalitarian principles it promulgated.526 In a similar vein, shortly after the Pottstown Mercury started printing the summer 1954 civil rights series, another “Readers Say” author sharply lambasted the reports too, declaring that such rabble-rousing would only create animosities between local whites and African Americans.527
For the most part, however, the PCHR and its progressive civil rights endeavor was unequivocally embraced throughout Pottstown. Concerning the Pottstown Plan in particular, the colorful pamphlet’s back page illuminates some of the organizations, as well as their leadership, which were in direct solidarity with the innovative scheme. In addition to borough clerics (Protestant and Catholic) and government, the Pottstown Plan received local public approval from the leadership of Pottstown Memorial Hospital, the
United Auto Workers of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Salvation Army, the Pottstown School Board, the Young Women’s Christian Association, the Kiwanis
Club, as well as the Pottstown Council of Girl Scouts (among others).528
526 Bert Dobry, “Minorities Segregate, too,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 4.
527 Club Member, “Let Well-Enough Alone,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, June 30, 1954, 4.
528 The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; “Give Full Endorsement: ‘Pottstown Plan’
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“The Pottstown Plan . . . an anti-bigotry movement,” additionally had local bipartisan support. “Our party has always been in the forefront in the struggle for equal rights,” local white Republican William J. Boden announced, “we welcome [the
Pottstown Plan], and will do all we can to help.” Not to be outdone, leading white
Democrat Maurice Miller echoed Boden’s sentiments. Asserting how his political party consistently labored “in human relations” too, Miller emphasized the Pottstown Plan’s importance for forging in the borough “a community of true opportunity” for all its members, no matter their individual background. 529
In addition to Fellowship House and Farm directly collaborating with the PCHR in organizing and implementing the Pottstown Plan, the organization conducted excellent civil rights work at the national and regional level. In fact, Penney and Jacoby’s correspondences regarding the Pottstown Plan demonstrate how far of a reach Fellowship
House and Farm had within its expansive civil rights web. Alongside Justice Hastie, for example, Penney corresponded with national African-American NAACP leader Roy
Wilkins. “Fellowship House has been greatly concerned as to what a small community, not big enough to maintain a Fellowship House or other human relations agency with
Gets YWCA, Grange Aid,” Pottstown Mercury, February 25, 1955, 1, 19; “Kiwanis Members Vote Endorsement To Pottstown Plan,” Pottstown Mercury, March 2, 1955, 5; “Continuing Project Promised: Foreman, Girl Scouts Back ‘Pottstown Plan,” Pottstown Mercury, February 24, 1955, 1, 16.
529 “Anti-Bigotry Plan Gets Solid Backing,” Newspaper clipping, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. For background on Boden and Miller, see “W.J. Boden Is Named To County Post: Appointed Commercial Appraiser of Board; Pottstown Held Office 8 Years,” Pottstown Mercury, February 2, 1960, 1, 18; “Ex-Democratic Leader Maurice Miller Dies,” Pottstown Mercury, March 30, 1971, 1-2. Locals emphasized Pottstown as the “Community of Opportunity.” For example, see “Community of Opportunity’: Housewife Wins $500 for Slogan,” Pottstown Mercury, July 8, 1955, 1, 15; “Display Ad: Forward with Pottstown—The ‘Community of Opportunity,” Pottstown Mercury, November 11, 1961, 11; “Doehler’s to Aid Slogan Publicizing,” Pottstown Mercury, August 9, 1955, 1, 5.
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staff, might do in the integration picture.” Penney continued: “We think that this [“the
Pottstown Plan”] may be a partial answer which will at least build atmosphere in which real changes can take place” (In multiple other letters sent out by Penney, she essentially conveyed the same points).530
In response, Wilkins was impressed by the Pottstown Plan. “I can say only that this is the kind of work that needs to be done, and the way you are going about it should be a lesson to hundreds of communities.” The NAACP activist continued: “You are too experienced in the field of human relations for me to more than mention that if profound and permanent changes are to take place in community thinking and living they” most certainly needed direct action engendered “by painstaking work on the community level as a follow-up to the spectacular ‘break-throughs’ by national organizations in the field. I shall be glad to have you advise me from time to time on the developments in
Pottstown,” Wilkins optimistically concluded.531
Dedicated to the liberal interracialist cause, Penney utilized Fellowship House and
Farm’s expansive web of connections to inform other white organizational leaders concerning the Pottstown Plan. Three notable civil rights activists among them were
530 Marjorie Penney to William H. Gremley, 23 June 1955, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/88, FHPA_Temple; Penney to Gremley, 25 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Penney to Wilkins, 23 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Roy Wilkins, 18 November 1954, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1954, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935- 1985,14/82, FHPA_Temple.
531 Roy Wilkins to Marjorie Penney, 7 March 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. For biographical data on Wilkins, see “Roy Wilkins, civil rights leader, dies in New York,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 9, 1981, 1A, 12A.
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William H. Gremley, who directed Kansas City’s (Missouri) Mayor’s Commission on
Human Relations; Marshall Bragdon, who led Cincinnati’s (Ohio) Mayor's Friendly
Relations Committee (MFCR); as well as George Schermer, who held a similar leadership position as the prior two with Philadelphia’s Commission on Human
Relations.532
Interestingly enough, both Bragdon and Schermer made identical points in their response letters to Penney. Bragdon was the first, however, who penned back. In early
March 1955, he corresponded: “Thanks so much for the Pottstown material, which is mighty interesting in itself and also strikes me as a partial answer to the important question, What can the small community do in this direction?” From there Bragdon expressed why he had such expertise regarding civil rights within smaller locales like
Pottstown. Essentially, the white activist contributed such knowledge with his MFCR activism, alongside his involvement regarding the National Association of Intergroup
Relations Officials (NAIRO). Concerning NAIRO, Bragdon even continued by adding that it talked through “this problem on the Board, in the Local Public Service department,” ultimately seeking “to be helpful to the Local Private Service
532 Penney to Gremley, 23 June 1955, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/89, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to William H. Gremley, 25 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Penney to Marshall Bragdon, 18 November 1954, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/89, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Marshall Bragdon, 25 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; George Schermer to Penney, 7 April 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. Also see Penney to Schermer, 26 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. For brief data and photos of the three white activists, see “Urban League To Mark Its 25th Anniversary,” Evening Independent, May 17, 1961, 2; “Relations Unit Warned Against Influx of Bigots,” Miami Daily News, March 27, 1957, 7A; “Schermer Feted For Race Work,” Philadelphia Daily News, June 13, 1963, 8.
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department.”533 Roughly a month later, Schermer wrote Penney a similar letter that celebrated the Pottstown Plan. Specifically, he loved how it called upon all individuals, whatever age or socioeconomic background, in taking part within the local civil rights activism. Like Bragdon, Schermer also demonstrated his professional familiarity regarding tinier populaces such as Pottstown. “The venture interests me very much because I have had some experience with efforts in smaller cities and have been impressed with what a small group of concerned people can do.” While laboring prior
“with a handful of people in Grand Rapids, Michigan--a town that is famous for its conservatism,” Schermer remembered, “There were times when, as a ‘big city’ man, I tended to reject some of their ideas as being too much for a small voluntary organization.” However, he continued: “In time I had to take back what I had said because that little group put out two of the most expert community studies that I have seen anywhere.” Finally, it is worth mentioning that within the same correspondence,
Schermer let Penney know how Haslam had already informed him of the Pottstown civil rights endeavor, particularly during its early phase.534
In addition to the NAACP and the three civil rights-centered organizations spotlighted above, Penney contacted, for example, national leadership within the
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC), the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai
533 Marjorie Penney to Marshall Bragdon, 9 March 1955, Correspondence: Speakers, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 13/73, FHPA_Temple. Regarding NAIRO, see Daryl Michael Scott, “Postwar Pluralism, Brown v. Board of Education, and the Origins of Multicultural Education,” Journal of American History, 91, no. 1 (June 2004): 73-74, doi:10.2307/3659614.
534George Schermer to Marjorie Penney, 7 April 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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B’rith (ADL), as well as the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United
States of America’s (NCCUSA) Department of Racial and Cultural Relations, concerning the Pottstown Plan. By doing so, Penney further demonstrated Fellowship House and
Farm’s vast civil rights web.535 “A good many groups across the country . . . are watching to see what can happen,” Penney wrote Gremley in late June 1955, regarding the
Pottstown Plan.536 In two separate correspondences, Penney also noted how it got “so much interest from other states” and that her organization mailed out scores of the
Pottstown Plan document throughout America.537
Ultimately, Penney identified why the Pottstown Plan had such potential, specifically because this “human relations” initiative “for small communities” had so many prospects nationwide. “There are literally hundreds of towns all over the United
States faced with the business of changing the moral climate. We think the Pottstown
Plan is a door opener, nothing more,” Penney wrote white Philadelphia governmental worker William Rafsky in late March 1955.538 Similarly, in a Fellowship House report
535 Marjorie Penney to Phillip Buskirk, 4 June 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Rabbi Arthur Gilbert,1 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to J. Oscar Lee, 15 June 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple;
536Penney to Gremley, 23 June 1955, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935- 1985, 14/89, FHPA_Temple.
537 Marjorie Penney to Lewis Stevens, 3 November 1955, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/89, FHPA_Temple ; Penney to Phil Buskirk, 12 July 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
538 Marjorie Penney to William Rafsky, 31 March 1955, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/89, FHPA_Temple. For biographical data on Rafsky, see “Obituaries: William L. Rafsky, 81, urban planner,” Philadelphia Inquirer, June 13, 2001, Section B11.
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from November 1955, while it identified where the civil rights program originated—
Pottstown—the survey also emphasized how its creators arranged the initiative with
“small communities” as their utmost priority. Moreover, the report stressed that the
Pottstown Plan demanded local participation when it came to further ameliorating
“human relations” among borough residents. Two examples the survey utilized concerned “an interracial event,” fully integrating institutions that formerly discriminated, along with “other tangible” partnerships that promulgated civil rights and equal fairness, among African Americans and whites.539
Regionally, another individual with whom Penney corresponded regarding the
Pottstown Plan is worth emphasizing. In late February 1955, she wrote white sociologists
Milton M. Gordon from prestigious Haverford College (Haverford, Pennsylvania), who responded roughly a month later. Throughout his life, Gordon published extensively on assimilationism and its relationship to American minorities. In fact, one of his notable works is Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins
(1964). Like the previous white activists, Gordon celebrated the PCHR’s scheme. “This kind of action is greatly needed, and I am happy to add my hearty endorsement of the plan.” However, Gordon additionally articulated his utmost desire “that minority group organizations in Pottstown will also be invited to initiate action.” More specifically, he believed “it is important to stress the cooperative effort for a common goal and to avoid the idea that this is entirely a one-way affair with one group ‘doing something’ of a charitable nature for another less privileged group.” Within the same correspondence,
539 See Fellowship House: An Approach In Human Relations (November 1955), 5, 1955, Series 2: Accession 1026, circa 1952-1994, 2/13, FHPA_Temple
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Gordon also found the PCHR’s civil rights program an excellent commemoration regarding Haslam. Gordon even lamented that Haslam’s departure “was a great loss to the cause of justice and brotherhood for all people,” whatever background.540
While Penney communicated the Pottstown Plan with outside organizations,
Jacoby was mainly the one marketing it to the affiliated Fellowship House and Farm works in Baltimore, Kansas City, Brooklyn, Columbus, and Washington D.C. Moreover, she publicized the Pottstown Plan in regional Fellowship House and Farm affiliations, which included Media, West Chester, and Reading, all in Pennsylvania. 541
Regarding the Fellowship House affiliate in Media, it is worth mentioning that when Jacoby penned a representative there in early May 1955, she emphasized how
540 Marjorie Penney to Milton Gordon, 23 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Milton M. Gordon to Marjorie Penney, 12 March 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Milton M. Gordon, Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins (New York: Oxford University Press, 1964). For biographical data on Gordon, see “Milton M. Gordon,” John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s website, accessed March 30, 2019, https://www.gf.org/fellows/all-fellows/milton-m-gordon/.
541 [Recipient not identified] to Mae Gellman, 16 June 1955, Branches [MD] Baltimore, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/32, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Cornell Hewson, 12 May 1955, Branches [MO] Kansas City, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/42, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Henrietta C. Carry, Branches [NY] Brooklyn, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/57, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Alberta Morris, 12 April 1955, Branches [OH] Columbus, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 79/77, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Harold C. Lohren, 25 March 1955, Branches [Wash. D.C.] Washington, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 78/12, FHPA_Temple. The last name Lohren is not legible. However, it is corroborated with another source. See Polk’s Silver Spring, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Kensington, Takoma Park And Wheaton (Montgomery County, M.D.), City Directory 1958 (Richmond, Virginia: R.L. Polk & C0., Inc., Publishers, 1958), 548, Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. For Pennsylvania affiliations, see Mitzi R. Jacoby to Dorothy James, 12 May 1955, Branches [PA] Media, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 1955, 79/98, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Joseph Fugett, 18 May 1955, Branches [PA] West Chester, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 79/118; Mitzi R. Jacoby to Donald Warrington, 12 April 1955, Branches [PA] Reading, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 79/113, FHPA_Temple.
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“Pottstown . . . begun this year a human relations program unique in the country.”542
Similarly, white Pottstown Burgess John B. Hartenstine authorized October 27, 1955, officially as “The Pottstown Plan Day,” boasting via newsprint how Pottstown was “the first small community” throughout America that constructed such an initiative, which demanded full-blown civil rights advancement and treatment, “of its citizens”—whether black or white. “The future of the success of the Pottstown Plan,” Hartenstine announced,
“is, in its very nature, in the hands of each resident of our Town.”543
Like Fellowship House and Farm, the Pottstown Mercury demonstrated that the
PCHR’s proposal was indeed gaining recognition on both the national and regional front.
In fact, the borough media-outlet noted on March 1, 1955, how “newspapers from coast- to-coast have printed the story of the plan—and what it hopes to accomplish.” These presses did so, the Pottstown Mercury continued, precisely because the Associated Press
[AP] first disseminated an account focusing upon the Pottstown-based civil rights initiative across “its national wires.”544 For instance, newspapers located in Wisconsin,
Maryland, Michigan, Georgia, Texas, California, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Florida,
542 Mitzi R. Jacoby to Mrs. Dorothy James, 12 May 1955, Branches [PA] Media, 1955, Subseries 1.7: Branch Offices, 1943-1967, 79/98, FHPA_Temple.
543 “Proclamation: ‘The Pottstown Plan’ Day,” Newspaper clipping, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. For biographical data on Hartenstine, see “Ex-Mayor Hartenstine Dies at 59,” Pottstown Mercury, April 29, 1970, 1-2.
544 “Project Attracts Attention of the Nation: Cities, Papers From Coast to Coast Show Interest in the Pottstown Plan,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1, 6; “Pottstown Plan Prompts Letter From GI,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1.
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West Virginia, South Dakota, and New Jersey, all grabbed the AP account.545 In
Pennsylvania, publications such as the Gazette and Daily (York), the Wilkes-Barre Times
Leader, the Evening News (Wilkes-Barre), the Indiana Evening Gazette (Indiana), and the Plain Speaker (Hazleton) also publicized the Pottstown civil rights endeavor.546
Simultaneously, Fellowship House and Farm revealed how organizations throughout America passionately inquired about obtaining numerous printings of the
Pottstown Plan document itself. For example, a representative from the Northern
California Regional Office of the AFSC wrote Penney in June 1956, requesting one- hundred additional duplicates of the text from the initial ones it had.547 The previous
545 “Project Attracts Attention of the Nation,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1, 6; “Pennsylvania Town Is Jolted Into Action By Series On Segregation: Yankee Style Jim Crow System Hit,” Lubbock Evening Journal, February 22, 1955, 10; “Unaware Of It’: Pennsylvania Town Goes To Work On Non- Segregation,” Bryan Daily Eagle, February 27, 1955, 5; “In Pottstown, Pa.: Northern Town Tries To End ‘Jim Crowism,” Daily Independent Journal, February 22, 1955, 5; “Small Town Launches Anti- Discrimination Plan,” Bakersfield Californian, February 23, 1955, 6; “Pottstown Seeks End of Informal ‘Jim Crowism,” Great Bend Daily Tribune, February 23, 1955, 13; “Pottstown Launches Its Own Attack On Jim Crow,” Manhattan Mercury, February 22, 1955, 2; “Town Takes Steps to Erase Its Own Jim Crow System,” St. Cloud Daily Times, February 23, 1955, 5; “City Launches Plan to Solve Discrimination: Quietly Starts Work To Eliminate Subtle Form of Segregation,” Moberly Monitor-Index, February 22, 1955, 3; “Desegregation Plan Starts Tomorrow In Pottstown,” St. Petersburg Times, February 23, 1955, 26; “Pennsylvania Town Tackles Race Problem,” Fort Lauderdale Daily News, February 26, 1955, 12-B, 13- B; “James P. Crow, Esquire: City Launches Integration Plan,” Raleigh Register, February 23, 1955, 4; “Newspaper Series Sparks Crusade Pennsylvania City Crusade,” Rapid City Daily Journal, February 23, 1955, 11; “Pennsylvania Town Seeks Segregation Problem End,” Plainfield Courier-News, February 22, 1955, 6.
546“Pottstown Takes Action When It Finds Segregation Practiced At Home, Too,” Gazette and Daily, February 24, 1955, 1, 25; “Pottstown Seeking To End Discrimination,” Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, the Evening News, February 22, 1953, 21; “Pottstown Segregation Going Quietly,” Indiana Evening Gazette, February 22, 1955, 4; “Pottstown Launches Campaign To Correct Unsuspected Segregation,” Plain Speaker, February 23, 1955, 14.
547 Phil Buskirk to Marjorie Penney, 26 June 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. For related correspondences, see Penney to Buskirk, 4 June 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Phil Buskirk, 12 July 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949- 1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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June, black executive director and Ph. D., J. Oscar Lee of the NCCUSA’s Department of
Racial and Cultural Relations, located in New York City, sought roughly one-hundred
Pottstown Plan booklets from Penney as well. Lee even let Penney know via letter how
Interracial News Service, an organizational publication, already printed data regarding
“the Pottstown project.”548 Ultimately, however, Penney wrote both organizational representatives back that Fellowship House and Farm was not able to fulfill such large- scale requests at those specific junctures in time, citing document shortages.549
Similar to Fellowship House and Farm, shortly after the PCHR disseminated its booklet in late February 1955, the Pottstown Mercury informed its readership that it was already getting attention throughout the United States. In fact, four inquiries—stemming out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Ann Arbor, Michigan, Columbus, Georgia, and nearby
Baltimore, Maryland —contacted the Pottstown Mercury, seeking the local civil rights booklet itself. Regarding Baltimore, for example, the Maryland Congress of Parents and
Teachers first heard about the PCHR’s scheme through the city’s Evening Sun.550
Similarly, when the Baltimore newspaper publicized the AP’s Pottstown Plan account, white army soldier David Chaplin wrote the Pottstown Mercury directly. Interestingly
548 J. Oscar Lee to Marjorie Penney, 3 June 1956, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/88, FHPA_Temple. For a related correspondence, can see Marjorie Penney to J. Oscar Lee, 15 June 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. For brief biographical data regarding J. Oscar Lee, see David P. Cline, “Revolution and Reconciliation: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Protestantism, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1970” (PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010), 43, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/746486377?accountid=12557.
549Penney to Buskirk, 12 July 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; and Penney to Lee, 15 June 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple,
550 “Project Attracts Attention of the Nation,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1, 6.
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enough, Chaplin correlated the borough’s racial struggles as captured by Poirier and the
PCHR in general with his alma mater, Amherst College (Amherst, Massachusetts). Here,
Chaplin’s remarks aligned with thoughts articulated prior. Specifically, they correlated the manifestations of “Jim Crow” racism above and below the Mason-Dixon Line.
Summarizing his bachelor’s degree experience, Chaplin recalled how “race relations” there were similar to all northern small-communities. Within these locations, Chaplin continued, they were “governed by a subtle Jim Crow line, as fixed as the obvious one down South.” In the end, however, Chaplin finished his analysis by sincerely wishing the
PCHR and its supporter’s good luck.551
Two national presses—the Christian Science Monitor (Boston, Massachusetts), as well as the Pittsburgh Courier—additionally made specific requests to the Pottstown
Mercury regarding the Pottstown Plan. On the one hand, the Christian Science Monitor asked the Pottstown Mercury for “a special 800-word” piece on the PCHR’s initiative.
The Pittsburgh Courier, on the other hand, wanted the illustration the PCHR utilized on its Pottstown Plan booklet. 552Eventually, the black newspaper disseminated the cover page within its April 30, 1955, Magazine Section. Moreover, on the same page, it is worth mentioning that the Pittsburgh Courier Magazine Section identified the PCHR’s civil rights activism as “the crusade.”553
In a vein identical to the imagery found on the front page of the Pottstown Plan booklet, the Pottstown Mercury captured other symbolic gestures concerning the local
551 “Pottstown Plan Prompts Letter From GI,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1, 6.
552 “Project Attracts Attention of the Nation,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1, 6.
553 “Pottstown Plan Wiping Out Prejudice,” Pittsburgh Courier Magazine Section, April 30, 1955, 7.
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scheme. On the front page of its March 1, 1955, edition, the borough newspaper printed an illustration that truly symbolized the main justifications behind the launching of the
PCHR, as well as its Pottstown Plan. Indeed, the illustration has several salient points to take away from it. First, a billboard is in the picture. Within the advertisement is a circle.
Engraved inside the object is the phrase “POTTSTOWN PLAN” (right above and outside the circle is the word “THE”). Pottstown is at the top of the circle, while the word plan is at the bottom. Most moving, however, is what is inside the circle’s middle. Illustrated in the center of the object are black and white hands, which are shaking each other. Here, the gesture further symbolizes the Pottstown Plan’s unequivocal objective, which was full-blown racial integration. On the other hand, it is worth stressing that directly outside the circle are two American flags on each side, as well as an eagle right above the circle.
Here, such images both conceptualize and visualize how the Pottstown Plan was in direct concert with American ideals and values.554
A last powerful graphic found on the Pottstown Mercury’s front-page article goes hand in glove with the cover page of the Pottstown Plan document itself. Captured in the image are two young people (a little older than the ones illustrated on the Pottstown Plan booklet). One of them is black while the other is white. Dressed in the fashions of the day, they are holding hands and directly gazing upon the billboard constructed at Penn
Village. Again, by holding hands, they are further symbolically showcasing what the
PCHR and the Pottstown Plan demanded in the borough, precisely when it came to
African-American advancement and civil rights. Moreover, by looking upon the
554 “Village Asks a Question,” Pottstown Mercury, March 1, 1955, 1.
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enormous poster, the gesture demands that everyone else on the local front follow suit as well.555
“Count Me In”556
Interracial response to the Pottstown Mercury’s summer 1954 reports on local civil rights resulted in prestigious honors. In February 1955, the National Conference of
Christians and Jews (NCCJ) gave the Pottstown Mercury and thirty-four other media outlets prizes. Specifically, the NCCJ acknowledged their “outstanding contributions [to] promoting the cause of good-will and understanding among the people of our nation.” As noted by the New York Times, the NCCJ praised the borough newspaper because it
“painstakingly and fairly” analyzed Pottstown blacks’ second-class status. Moreover, the
NCCJ placed the Pennsylvania newspaper in its “top ten.” Accompanying the Pottstown
Mercury on this prestigious list were many other reputable organizations, such as the
United Nations (New York, New York), the Christian Science Monitor (Boston,
Massachusetts), and Columbia Broadcasting System (New York, New York), to name a few. That same year, Poirier’s civil rights investigation even shared space with white anti-apartheid activist and South African author Alan Paton.557 In addition to the NCCJ,
555 Ibid. For the Pottstown Plan document itself, see The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
556 Fellowship House Farm, Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are, Correspondence, High Sch F-ship-- Work Camp, 1953-55, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/79, FHPA_Temple.
557“Goodwill Prizes To Be Given To 35: Winners in Mass Media Are Chosen by Conference of Christians and Jews,” New York Times, February 13, 1955, 46. Can also see, “Be a Better Brother,” Pottstown Mercury, February 19, 1955, 4. Hill also talks about the National Conference of Christians and Jews honor that the Pottstown Mercury obtained. See Hill, Dear Sir, 56. For further background on Paton, see Herbert
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weeks following the publication of the Pottstown Mercury series, the NCCUSA commended the civil rights reporting.558 Moreover, the Pennsylvania Society of
Newspaper Editors honored the Pottstown Mercury with “an editorial excellence award” for its compelling civil rights activism.559
In April 1955, Lincoln University in Jefferson City, Missouri, personally acknowledged Poirier’s journalistic work on African-American civil rights in Pottstown.
Specifically, the historically black institution invited him to speak about it during the university’s “Headliner Banquet.” In fact, Lincoln University made Poirier the main speaker of the special program, where he addressed more than two-hundred individuals.
Moreover, the education center gave the Pottstown Mercury its “Award for Significant
Contributions to Better Human Relations,” which acknowledged how the newspaper was
“a model, vigorous, and resourceful newspaper whose enlightening exposure of subtle race discriminatory practices stems from a publishing enterprise of high motive.”560 The
Lincoln University honor continued, the newspaper was in fact aiding and assisting
Mitgang, “Alan Paton, Author And Apartheid Foe, Dies of Cancer at 85: Alan Paton, Author Who Fought Policy of Apartheid, Dead at 85,” New York Times, April 12, 1988, A1, D35.
558“Mercury Wins Acclaim Of Church Council: ‘Jim Crow’ Series Lauded As Prophetic Venture,” Pottstown Mercury, July 19, 1954, 1, 14.
559Hill, Dear Sir, 57.
560 “200 Hear Poirier Trace Pottstown Plan At Headliner Banquet,” Lincoln Clarion, April 22, 1955, 1; “Pottstown Plan to Highlight Headliner Banquet Address,” Lincoln Clarion, April 15, 1955, 1, http://digital.shsmo.org/cdm/ref/collection/LUClarion/id/2419. Also see “Wins Lincoln U Award For Series On Jim Crow,” Philadelphia Tribune, April 26, 1955, 5, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/532073724?accountid=14971; “Education Notes: School And Colleges; Lincoln University,” New York Age Defender, April 23, 1955, 22.
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Pottstown towards racial egalitarianism, thereby promoting “a model of neighborly love and justice.”561
The civil rights advocacy spearheaded by the Pottstown Mercury’s summer 1954 reports also greatly assisted in another victory on the borough home front in its fight towards eradicating racism. In 1956, Elaine Hill became Pottstown’s pioneering black teacher, where she taught geography in local public education. As noted by the
Philadelphia Tribune, Hill visited an event the PCL sponsored. While there, the group acquainted her with multiple borough chiefs.562 Originally from Darby, Pennsylvania,
Hill obtained her bachelor’s degree from West Chester State Teachers College (now West
Chester University of Pennsylvania) in 1956.563 While working as an educator in
Pottstown, it is also worth mentioning that Hill served with the Pottstown Human
Relations Council, another appellation of the PCHR.564
In Dear Sir, Shandy Hill reflected on this prior civil rights achievement and the
Pottstown Mercury’s direct relationship to it. While addressing Seventh-day Adventists about Elaine Hill’s hiring and its egalitarian significance over Summer 1956, the white editor emphasized—whether consciously or subconsciously—how the black educator’s
561 See Hill, Dear Sir, 56.
562 “Darby Girl to Teach in Pottstown School,” Philadelphia Tribune, August 21, 1956, 5, http://search.proquest.com/docview/532079217?accountid=14971; Gertrude Tibbs, “Darby Doings,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 15, 1956, 4, http://proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search- proquest-com.proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/532090454?accountid=14971.
563 “Parent Handbook: History of the University,” West Chester University, accessed February 15, 2016, http://www.wcupa.edu/_services/stu.nsp/parentHandbook/history.aspx; “Hill-Molock, Elaine,” pressofAtlanticCity.com, January 5, 2016, http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/obituaries/hill-molock- elaine/article_0d1ca12f-b2e9-5624-b3c5-6c1d65edd14b.html; Tibbs, “Darby Doings,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 15, 1956, 4.
564“Human Relations Council Conducts Elections of Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, May 5, 1958, 1, 7.
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teaching position related broadly to Pottstown chipping away at previously entrenched biases there. “A few years ago,” Shandy Hill remembered, “the superintendent of public schools recoiled in horror when” the editor and his newspaper staff revealed that their
“crusade for anti-discrimination would be helped considerably if the school board were to hire” an African-American educator. Hill then recalled how the same educational leader continued in trepidation a while. Ultimately, however, the Pottstown Mercury’s labor was not in vain, precisely because Elaine Hill got appointed. Moreover, speaking of the
Pottstown Mercury staff overall, the white editor asserted that it did not conceptualize
Elaine Hill’s hiring “as [a] personal” victory. Rather, continued Shandy Hill in an optimistic retelling, it foreshadowed ultimate racial equality throughout employment. 565
In addition to the Pottstown Plan booklet, the PCHR printed another pamphlet- style document later, which highlights the group’s civil rights achievements in and around the borough. The document’s entitled “The Pottstown Plan: What Has Happened
In Two Years?” In essence, it provides excellent insight into the PCHR’s history, as well as its successes as a local activist organization. Like the Pottstown Plan booklet, this document stresses how the Pottstown Mercury series was the impetus, which led concerned residents to launch the PCHR.566
Regarding the PCHR’s accomplishments, while not mentioning Elaine Hill’s name explicitly, it mentions that the borough had already employed an African-American educator. The text also documents how borough government employed an African
565Hill, Dear Sir, 56.
566 Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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American. Like Hill, he was another black pioneer; however, he initially held the position within the local “municipal authority.” Like Hill, his name is not revealed in the PCHR pamphlet itself. But the Pottstown African-American and Pennsylvania State University
(State College) alumnus was William D. Barber.567 While Barber eventually obtained governmental employment in York, Pennsylvania, it must also be noted that he helped establish the PCHR, thereby demonstrating his proper place in local, as well as northern civil rights history.568 Similarly, Penney wrote glowing reference letters for Barber in late
August and November 1955, which additionally praised his role as an activist within
Pottstown.569 Barber, Penney wrote in late August, “is the kind of leadership I seldom see.”570
Hill and Barber’s pioneering work, however, were not the only local accomplishments emphasized by the PCHR pamphlet. It also boasts that Pottstown’s
School of Nursing finally had an African-American pupil. Moreover, every important job-sector throughout the borough employed individuals “without prejudice or discrimination.” Demonstrating the degree to which the post-Brown black struggle had
567 “Frank Thomas Named To Council: GOP Appoints First Negro To Position; Replaces Councilman Who Died in Accident; Nominee Cited For Party Service,” Pottstown Mercury, September 26, 1961, 1, 12; Marjorie Penney to William Rafsky, 25 August 1955, Correspondences: Speakers, 1951-58, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 13/66, FHPA_Temple.
568 “William Barber Is Recipient of Fellowship,” Pottstown Mercury, May 7, 1965, 23; Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?; and The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Levy, The Great Uprising, 247-48.
569 Marjorie Penney To Whom it May Concern, 28 November 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; Penney to Rafsky, 25 August 1955, Correspondences: Speakers, 1951-58, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935- 1985, 13/66, FHPA_Temple.
570 Penney to Rafsky, 25 August 1955, Correspondences: Speakers, 1951-58, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 13/66, FHPA_Temple.
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tapped into white Pottstown’s liberal interracialist sensibilities the PCHR even had a designated committee that kept a watchful eye over local grievances and “rumors of discrimination,” expecting such matters to receive redress. According to the document, moreover, other groups within the PCHR had already promulgated its civil rights objectives, precisely when they addressed multiple local crowds.
Both PCHR booklets illuminate how the borough civil rights organization impacted multiple institutions and groups throughout Pottstown. For instance, they reveal that local Parent Teacher Associations, congregations, the Young Men’s Christian
Association, as well as the Junior Chamber of Commerce, among others, started conducting initiatives precisely because the PCHR launched its innovative and inclusive, civil rights-centered work.571 “One churchmen’s group began a now famous Forum which unites one hundred men out of every racial, religious and nationality group in town for regular supper meetings to work for understanding in their community,” notes the initial PCHR pamphlet.572
Along with the two small-booklets, another PCHR document dated March 14,
1956, provides further light into the group’s civil rights activism. While this evidence supports the pamphlet’s assertions, it also suggests that the PCHR had an influence and reach that transcended Pottstown. At this time, the report states that the PCHR was already creating connections among different “Human Relations Committees in
571 Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
572 The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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Montgomery County.” Moreover, locations outside the borough were not only “following the lead of Pottstown,” but “exchange relationships” were also transpiring. Regarding the
PCHR conducting outreach, while the paper corroborates the two booklets, it also reveals that such activism even occurred outside Pottstown and Pennsylvania—in Baltimore,
Maryland, and Wilmington, Delaware.573
Moreover, the same document from March 1956, sheds light about the PCHR being “an informal information center.” Historians have already begun stressing the role of various networks in organizing, implementing, and ultimately promoting civil rights activism throughout the twentieth century. Thus, this examination of the PCHR falls in line with their assessments.574 In fact, within the PCHR’S civil rights network/web, activists remained diligent in swapping news regarding local issues. These activists stayed vigilant, the report continues, because they wanted better insight towards
“problem areas” in Pottstown.575
Finally, the PCHR had two other civil rights achievements that were directly linked to a late October 1955 gathering, where well-over five-hundred spectators convened.576 News of the PCHR gathering even caught the attention of the NAACP.
573The Pottstown Committee On Human Relations, March 14, 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
574 The Pottstown Committee On Human Relations, March 14, 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. Regarding networks, see, for instance, Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty; and Countryman, Up South.
575 The Pottstown Committee On Human Relations, March 14, 1956, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
576 “Pottstown Plan,” Crisis, December 1955, 62, no. 10, 610-11, https://books.google.com/books?id=9VsEAAAAMBAJ. Regarding the arranging stages, can see Marjorie Penney to Mrs. Walter F. Spiegel, 31 October 31 1955, Correspondence, [M.P.], 1955, Subseries
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Fascinated by the entire affair, the national civil rights organization documented it in its
December 1955, edition of Crisis. The article revealed that the PCHR not only promoted
“the town meeting,” but it emphasized how the borough organization began “the nationally-known ‘Pottstown Plan’” the previous October. The NAACP also noted that thus far, representatives in “38 states” had already contacted the PCHR regarding its civil rights program.577
Held in Pottstown Junior High School (PJHS), Justice Hastie served as the principal orator. Overall, the black justice centered his evening talk on dismantling
“religious and racial” hurdles. In his view, such obstacles were the main culprits behind keeping individuals from living together in harmony. Although Hastie delivered an insightful oration, the PCHR had another initiative on full display in PJHS. “For all of
Hastie’s eloquence and charm,” the Crisis noted, “the spotlight was stolen by the premiere production of an original musical-play based on the formation of the Pottstown
Committee and the Pottstown Plan.” While not identified in the NAACP publication, the pioneering artistic endeavor alluded to was “Count Me In.” 578 A June 1955 pamphlet from Fellowship House Farm entitled “Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are,” describes Count Me In as “an original musical drama” which reveals “the story of the
1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/89, FHPA_Temple. Also see Penney to Bragdon, 25 February 1955, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
577 “Pottstown Plan,” Crisis, December 1955, 610-11.
578 “Pottstown Plan,” Crisis, December 1955, 610-11; Fellowship House Farm, Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are, Correspondence, High Sch F-ship--Work Camp, 1953-55, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/79, FHPA_Temple.
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Pottstown Plan, a program that citizens of Pottstown worked out to make their city a friendlier place in which to live.”579 Moreover, it is worth noting that the Crisis report revealed that Count Me In lasted sixty minutes in duration.580
Scholars have thrown light upon Fellowship House’s integrated “Singing City” chorale, which established during the late 1940s.581 However, they fully ignore the events and people surrounding Count Me In, and its proper place in northern civil rights history.
Although Count Me In was a PCHR creation, the fact was that Fellowship House and
Farm activists were intimately involved in both organizing and implementing the artistic endeavor.
To begin, white Fellowship House associate Nettie Mae Hare composed Count
Me In’s musical and lyrical content.582 Born in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1923, Hare was also a part of Singing City, where she labored directly under its nationally esteemed leader, conductor, and establisher, white civil rights activists Elaine Brown (not to be confused with the African American activist associated with the national leadership of the
579 Fellowship House Farm, Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are, Correspondence, High Sch F-ship-- Work Camp, 1953-55, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/79, FHPA_Temple.
580 “Pottstown Plan,” Crisis, December 1955, 610-11.
581Arnold, Building the Beloved Community, 48. Can also see Janet Yamron, Sonya Garfinkle, and Amanda Bumgarner, “Elaine Brown: Breaking Down Barriers through Song,” Choral Journal 58, no. 5 (December 2017): 24–32, http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=126188872&site=eds-live&scope=site.
582 Marjorie Penney to Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, 10 October 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple; “Fellowship House Choir At JCC Tomorrow,” Standard Sentinel, May 1, 1954, 17; “Churches and Synagogues Sponsor Conert Featuring Fellowship House Choir Feb. 24,” Vineland Times Journal, February 18, 1955, 16.
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Black Panther Party for Self-Defense583). By the time Hare constructed Count Me In, she had already obtained several college degrees.584
Like the PCHR booklets, Count Me In makes egalitarian points. Specifically, it stresses how Pottstown African Americans, as well as other local minority groups, experienced discrimination firsthand; thus, such bigotry should not be tolerated.
“Prejudice overflows like a river and hurts ev’ry single person in this town.” Unlike the two PCHR brochures, however, Count Me In directly illuminates examples of the racism endured by borough African Americans. The following sample taken from Count Me In demonstrates the latter points most cogently:
Newsboy (sung) Extra, extra, read all about it! (yelled) Jim Crow, Yankee-style,
stalks the streets of our town! (sung) Northern town with a
Southern exposure. (yelled) Nurses needed desperately!
Girl’s voice, Our hospital is not training negro nurses. reading slowly,
Newsboy (sung) Secretaries needed in vital industries.
2 people reading Our businessmen refuse to hire Negro secretaries. together
Newsboy (sung) Student counsellors advise Negro students, “take a general high
school course.”
583 “Former Black Panthers Who Have Turned to Higher Education,” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 21 (Autumn 1998): 63, doi:10.2307/2998992.
584 Mrs. Nettie Mae Hare obituary, Burlington Free Press, February 16, 1965, 11; “Nettie Mae Merritt: Nettie Mae Merritt Wins Master’s Degree,” Vineland Times Journal, May 31, 1951, 5. For a background on Elaine Brown, see “About Us,” Singing City Choir’s Website, accessed March 21, 2019, http://www.singingcity.org/about.html; Yamron, Garfinkle, and Bumgarner, “Elaine Brown,” 24–32.
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3 people reading White counsellors refuse to to [sic] recommend Negro students for
white collar jobs after high school.
Newsboy (sung) Only menial jobs open to Negros. (pause) Housing and churches
segregated.
5 people Average Negro in our town is fearful of his white neighbors
because of treatment he has received.
Newsboy (sung) Fearful.
7 people Fearful
Newsboy (sung) Jim Crow
9 people Jim Crow!
Newsboy (sung) In our town.
All (spoken) IN OUR TOWN!585
Activists associated with High School Fellowship, an educational civil rights endeavor that Fellowship House initially launched during the early 1940s, were the ones responsible for publicly executing Count Me In.586 Jacoby even supervised High School
Fellowship while Count Me In was being staged.587 Moreover, on September 1, 1956,
Penney informed Lee of the NCCUSA’s Department of Racial and Cultural Relations
585 Fellowship House Farm, Cast Down Your Buckets Where You Are: “Count Me In,” JUNE 20-27, 1955, 3, Correspondence, High Sch F-ship--Work Camp, 1953-55, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/79, FHPA_Temple.
586Mitzi R. Jacoby to Carol M. Gabler, 23 January 1956, Correspondence [Jacoby, Mitzi], 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/94, FHPA_Temple; Arnold, Building the Beloved Community, 37.
`587 Mitzi R. Jacoby to Carol Gabler, 14 February 1956, Correspondence [Jacoby, Mitzi], 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/94, FHPA_Temple.
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that over 6,000 “teen-agers and adults, in public and private schools, churches and synagogues, town meetings, and department stores” had witnessed Count Me In being performed. Indeed, most notable among the thousands was African-American vocalist and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte. Galvanized by the Pottstown-inspired “musical,”
Belafonte fervently desired “to make a recording of the song, ‘There are People’,” which stemmed directly from Count Me In.588
Like their promotional work regarding the Pottstown Plan, Jacoby and Penney utilized Fellowship House and Farms civil rights web so that Count Me In was extensively marketed. In fact, between the two of them, they not only informed individuals about when and where Count Me In was being performed, but struggled diligently so that the civil rights musical might obtain sponsorship for printing as well.589
Within the September 1, 1956, letter, for example, Penney informed Lee of the
NCCUSA’s Department of Racial and Cultural Relations that her organization was
“receiving requests from groups and individuals across the country - for copies of the
[Count Me In] script.” Because Penney’s Philadelphia-based organization had no economic means to sponsor Count Me In, she asked Lee whether the NCCUSA “or any
588Marjorie Penney to Dr. Oscar Lee, 1 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple. For data on Belafonte’s activism, see Colin Campbell, “Belafonte reflects on civil rights, King at UB: ‘He wanted much more than money’, Belafonte said, ‘He wanted my life’,” Baltimore Sun, May 6, 2014, 2.
589 For example, see Mitzi R. Jacoby to Carol Gabler, 14 February 1956, Correspondence [Jacoby, Mitzi], 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/94, FHPA_Temple; Mitzi R. Jacoby to William M. Duncan, 26 April 1956, Correspondence [Jacoby, Mitzi], 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935- 1985, 14/94, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Dr. Oscar Lee, 1 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple. Marjorie Penney to Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, 1 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple.
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other group you know” could. Indeed, Penney explained why Count Me In was worth such economic investment. “There is a sad scarcity of simple, pointed plays on human relations,” she wrote Lee, “and this is eminently useable with both adult and youth groups.” Concluding her letter to Lee, she bluntly stated: “Do help us - if you can.”590
On the same day, Penney wrote Jewish Rabbinical scholar and ADL activist
Arthur Gilbert an identical letter.591 Gilbert, as well as white NCCUSA worker Robert A.
Elfers, wrote Penney back on her sponsorship inquiry concerning Count Me In. Although both showed interest, nothing materialized.592 Eventually, Hare copyrighted Count Me In herself.593
Even though Penney expressed the real economic challenge that Fellowship
House faced in sponsoring Count Me In, the civil rights organization did compile a prospective “preface page” for the artistic work. Like the PCHR’s two previous booklets, the preface stresses the objective as well as the origin behind Count Me In. “This is a musical that got written not because the composer sat down to write a musical,” the document reads, “but only because there was a true and wonderful story to be told, and
590 Marjorie Penney to Dr. Oscar Lee, 1 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple.
591Marjorie Penney to Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, 1 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple. For background on Gilbert, see “Rabbi Arthur Gilbert, 49, Dead; Promoted Interreligious Amity,” New York Times, May 18, 1976, 29.
592 Arthur Gilbert to Marjorie Penney, 25 September 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple; Marjorie Penney to Robert A. Elfers, 26 November 1956, Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935- 1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple. For background regarding Elfers, see “Elfers Editor For Church Group,” Poughkeepsie New Yorker, October 22, 1955, 5.
593 Library of Congress, Catalog of Copyright Entries: Summer 1954 Series, Volume 13, Part 5, Number 2, Music (Washington D.C.: Copyright Office, the Library of Congress, July-December 1959), 1210, https://books.google.com/books?id=AD0hAQAAIAAJ.
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there just had to be songs to go with it: The story is really more important than the music,” specifically since “it’s the story of Americans, folks like you and me, who got together to solve the very real human relations problems of their town.” While “the names of people in the musical are fictitious,” the document continues, “the musical itself tells what really happened in 1954 in Pottstown, Pennsylvania.” The paper then emphasizes what served as the impetus of Count Me In, “a crusading newspaper” uncovering local “Jim Crow-ism,” which, in turn, motivated large-scale civil rights activism among borough residents. Ultimately, therefore, “a small group of citizens consulting with Fellowship House (a nearby human relations agency) worked out its own plan for a friendlier, more democratic town.”594
At the same time, Fellowship House saw Count Me In’s content as having tangible potential in personally inspiring its viewership towards conducting further activism along the lines of the work in Pottstown. “We hope you’ll enjoy this musical,” the preface asserts, “but more than that, we hope you’ll use it in your own community to help more Americans get together and discover how exciting and rewarding the practice of democracy really is.”595 Moreover, like the two-previous PCHR booklets, Count Me
In’s preface makes arguments centered upon egalitarianism, once again demonstrating
Fellowship House and Farm’s direct influence upon PCHR-inspired civil rights work.596
594 Proposed preface page to “COUNT ME IN,” Correspondence, RE: “Count Me In,” 1956, Subseries 1.3: Correspondence, 1935-1985, 14/92, FHPA_Temple.
595 Ibid.
596 Ibid; Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple.
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The PCHR remained a local civil rights organization over the 1950s and 1960s in
Pottstown.597 Yet, the group never again matched the same impact as its civil rights activism in the two years or so following Brown. It is worth noting, however, that leadership within the PCHR went on and had success in other civil rights ventures. For example, by the end of the 1950s, Lee was working in Coatesville, Pennsylvania (Chester
County), under African-American physician, civil rights activist, and fellow Howard
University Medical School graduate Whittier Atkinson. During the late 1930s, Atkinson launched a pioneering medical facility in Coatesville, which accommodated local African
Americans within a city that blatantly discriminated. Soon after Lee branched out from
Atkinson, providing medical services for many Coatesville blacks. In addition to his professional life, Lee labored with the NAACP following his PCL and PCHR activism in
Pottstown. In the end, Lee was one of several activists from the PCHR who went on and continued similar civil rights work in and outside Pottstown. 598
597 “Human Relations Council Conducts Election of Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, May 5, 1958, 1; and “Russell Barbour Speaks To Jewish Women’s League: Human Relations Council Official Advises Facing Racial Problems Without Fear,” Pottstown Mercury, April 6, 1967, 34.
598 “Pottstown Civic League Pays Honor to Dr. Daniel Lee at Farewell Fete,” Pottstown Mercury, May 2, 1955, 7; Anne L. Boles, “He was ‘everybody’s doctor’— a job that has no takers now: An era ends with Dr. Lee,” Philadelphia Inquirer Metro, March 1, 1993, B1-B2; Andy Wallace, “Dr. W.C. Atkinson, 97; physician founded a Coatesville hospital,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 5, 1991, 9-C; “Easton NAACP Installation, Speaker Listed,” Morning Call, December 31, 1964, 21; “Active 1965 Seen: Easton NAACP Seats Slate, Recommends Junior College,” Morning Call, January 4, 1965, 21; “Negro Physician Speaks in Easton: Nation Seen Living in Shadow of Past Injustices,” Morning Call, February 13, 1969, 15. Other notables include Newstell Marable and William D. Barber. For Marable and Barber, see “Local NAACP joins campaign to raise $1.5 million bond,” Pottstown Mercury, September 22, 1976, 3; “Human Relations Council Conducts Election of Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, May 5, 1958, 1; The Pottstown Plan: A First Step, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949- 1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple; “Instructions Given On Participating In Freedom Day,” Gazette and Daily, August 26, 1963, 1, 34; “Endorsement Of Civil Rights Meeting Sought From Ministerial Association,” Gazette and Daily, October 10, 1963, 3. For more on Barber, see Levy, The Great Uprising, 247-48.
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Although the Pottstown Mercury stepped out and illuminated local civil rights issues in the aftermath of Brown, it was not alone in such activism. To be clear, without the direct participation of Pottstown African Americans—taking part in the process by directly sharing their lived experiences and know-how—the work would have never materialized and gone on to having the large-scale impact that it ultimately did. The civil rights reporting disseminated by the Pottstown Mercury obtained reactions from across the United States. When it came to the realm of civil rights, this was the Pottstown
Mercury’s first time having such large-scale attention and impact. In some sense, the closet resemblance to the borough newspaper’s activism captured above was when it focused upon Hemlock and Cottage Rows African Americans in early 1950. That activism, while it influenced governmental authorities to leave the Stowe properties alone, it was nowhere near as far reaching as the work the Pottstown Mercury involved itself with earlier following Brown.599
Like the PCL, the PCHR was another homegrown civil rights organization. Yet, what made the PCHR different from the PCL was that it had fervent and consistent, organizational backing, particularly from the Pottstown Mercury and Fellowship House and Farm. Such support allowed the PCHR to have the local, regional as well as national impact that it ultimately had. Fellowship House and Farm contributed to the PCHR’s success precisely because of its vast civil rights web. It utilized this network to promote the PCHR’s local civil rights work, namely, the Pottstown Plan. In a similar sense, because the Pottstown Mercury allowed other newspapers to pick up its summer 1954
599 See Chapter 3 for Hemlock and Cottage Rows comparison.
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series on civil rights, and because it eventually promoted the Pottstown Plan as well, the local press contributed to the rapid success and impact of the PCHR.
While the PCHR commanded national attention, it was still able to transform conditions for African Americans on the local front. Here, the PCHR continued the work started by previous activists’ groups in Pottstown like the borough NAACP, the black- centered YMCA activism, and the PCL. Therefore, even though the PCHR began during the traditional timeframe of civil rights—a period already well-documented within the scholarship—it was essentially continuing that “long” fight of civil rights work that began mounting in Pottstown during the Second World War.600
600 Regarding the historiography, see Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1234; Williams, Rethinking the Black Freedom Movement, xi-xii; Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 3.
CHAPTER 5:
THE POTTSTOWN NAACP AND THE NEW CHALLENGES OF SMALL-
TOWN CIVIL RIGHTS WORK IN THE NORTH
In summer 1951, law enforcement in Stowe, West Pottsgrove Township
(Montgomery County), was on a manhunt for an African American reportedly
“terrorizing” the area in recent weeks. To supplement its police force in this exercise, some two dozen armed white citizens were allowed to take part.601 Understanding the possible risk of utilizing local citizens in such a capacity, one of the white police officers,
James V. Guadagno, cautioned them “to shoot only to cripple the man if they have to use their weapons.”602 Protesting the wisdom of using “vigilantes” in this way, the nearby
Pottstown Mercury pointed out that wiser, more legal options were available. “The armed men had [not] been deputized as police officers,” the newspaper warned, and thus could not, under any circumstances, “take the law into their own hands.” County and
State police forces, for example, were far better choices. Taking direct issue with
Guadagno’s advice, which stressed shooting “to cripple” the alleged black perpetrator, the newspaper cautioned that bloody mayhem could result. “Let there be a ‘trigger- happy’ man in that patrol,” the Pottstown Mercury continued, “and there’s likely to be a mass killing!” 603
601“Bold Prowler Alarms Stowe: 25 Armed Men Aiding Township Policeman in Effort to Nab Stranger,” Pottstown Mercury, July 31, 1951, 1, 3.
602 Ibid.
603 Ibid.
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In addition to laying out practical reasoning which lambasted the promotion of radical vigilantism, the Pottstown Mercury brought up the very tangible threat the militant gang posed to local African Americans. Rational minds, the newspaper argued, should obviously acknowledge “the danger of angered mobs looking for a Negro of vague description. There is danger that any Negro, large or small, thin or fat, might be harmed if mob psychology rules a horde of angered townsmen.”604 Here, the local black community’s connection to the Great Migration (as shown in previous chapters) is worth stressing. Indeed, not too distant memories of lynchings perpetrated by southern white terrorists had to have been in the hearts and minds of local blacks as this episode of race and potential violence took center stage in Stowe.605 At the same time, Pennsylvania had its own history with such racial violence. Earlier in the twentieth-century, white terrorists lynched and then dismembered African-American Zachariah Walker in Coatesville
(Chester County Pennsylvania), a region close by Pottstown that had a similar working- class composition.606
In addition to the trepidation likely on the conscious of local blacks, the Pottstown
Mercury pointed out that the white band prospectively threatened everyone’s safety as well as security in Stowe. In the end, the borough newspaper vehemently encouraged
604 “Don’t Take Law Into Own Hands!,” Pottstown Mercury, August 1, 1951, 4.
605 For a brief article on lynching in the American South, see Campbell Robertson, “History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names,” New York Times, February 10, 2015, https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/us/history-of-lynchings-in-the-south-documents-nearly-4000- names.html.
606 “The Lynching of Zachariah Walker Historical Marker,” ExplorePAhistory.com, accessed March 21, 2019, http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-3DB.
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West Pottsgrove law enforcement not only to demobilize the radical gang immediately, but to also apprehend all individuals not licensed to bear arms in the area. It also demanded that the district attorney of Montgomery County get involved and suspend “the movement” posthaste.607
The National NAACP headquarter in New York City learned of the racial dilemma in West Pottsgrove, which it essentially characterized as explosively dangerous, and dispatched newly-hired black assistant field secretary John W. Flamer to the scene.
608 Ultimately, Flamer’s visit helped ease tensions in West Pottsgrove. After conferring with local police and township officials, the vigilante group was disbanded, and the search continued using legitimate law enforcement. 609 Indeed, the black man ultimately apprehended was eventually released because the evidence against him collapsed. 610
Meanwhile, Flamer’s visit coincided with an effort by the national office and
Pennsylvania State Conference of NAACP branches to organize or reconstitute several branches in the state, including the nonfunctioning Pottstown organization. 611 The
607 “Don’t Take Law Into Own Hands!,” Pottstown Mercury, August 1, 1951, 4.
608 “Armed Search in Stowe Gets NAACP Attention: Agent Ordered Here to Probe Hunt for Negro,” Pottstown Mercury, August 1, 1951, 1, 3. Regarding Flamer being recently employed by the NAACP, see Walter White to John Flamer, 20 March 1951, Box II: C354, Folder 5, “Flamer. John W. Jan. 18-Oct. 10, 1951,” Branch File, NAACP_LOC; and “Miscellaneous,” Crisis, May 1951, 331, https://books.google.com/books?id=91cEAAAAMBAJ.
609 “Seek To Advert Violence In Pennsylvania Town,” August 2, 1951, Box II: C354, Folder 5, “Flamer. John W., JAN. 18,-OCT. 10, 1951,” Branch File, NAACP_LOC Regarding evidence that places Flamer visiting Pottstown during the summer 1951 crisis, see “John W. Flamer, Assist. Field Secretary, NAACP, Period: July 29th, to August 9th, 1951,” Box II: D166, Folder 6, “Expense Accounts, Staff, Flamer, John, 1951-53,” Financial File, NAACP_LOC
610 “Stowe Police Nab Prowler Suspect: Man, 25, Held For Court, But Denies Charge; Defendant Is Identified At Hearing; Witness Says He Tossed Rock at Car,” Pottstown Mercury, August 2, 1951,1, 12; “Freedom Is Granted To Prowler Suspect,” Pottstown Mercury, September 7, 1951, 12.
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Pottstown branch officially re-launched in October 1951.612 The work of revitalizing the branch was taken up by a local committee that include such activists as James Corum and
Charles Prince, who each would serve as president of the reformulated Pottstown
NAACP.613
The revitalization of the Pottstown NAACP was a necessary and important development in the civil rights history of the area. As demonstrated prior, the NAACP had been instrumental to wartime developments. In particular, the local NAACP’s leadership linked the organization to the needs and goals of working-class blacks in the industrial town during a pivotal time. The traditional equalization strategy of black resistance was responding to developments in postwar liberalism. Newly engaged white- led entities like the Pottstown Mercury, and Fellowship House and Farm, were showing
611 “Dead or Inactive Branches in Eastern Pennsylvania,” Box II: C354, Folder 6, “Flamer, John W. Nov 1.- Dec. 26, 1951,” Branch File, NAACP_LOC; “Field Schedule Pennsylvania & New Jersey, John Flamer, August 20th, - October 20th,” Box II: C354, Folder 6, “Flamer, John W. Nov 1.-Dec. 26, 1951,” Branch File, NAACP_LOC; “Presentation of Scholarship To Highlight Youth Rally,” Pottstown Mercury, August 27, 1951, 1, 3.
612 “NAACP Chapter Receives Charter, Elects New Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, October 8, 1951, 1, 20; “Presentation of Scholarship To Highlight Youth Rally,” Pottstown Mercury, August 27, 1951, 1, 3.
613 “Presentation of Scholarship To Highlight Youth Rally,” Pottstown Mercury, August 27, 1951, 1, 3. For articles concerning their presidencies, see “NAACP to Campaign For Hemlock Row Garbage Collection,” Pottstown Mercury, September 17, 1954, 12; “Row Residents Win Long Fight: Sewer Facilities Approved For Hemlock Row Residents,” Pottstown Mercury, June 2, 1955, 1, 30; Radford Crouse, “Junior High Boundary Line Decisions are Postponed: Schoolmen Will Await Suggestions; NAACP Explains Segregation Charge; Fosnocht Denies Intentional Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, March 7, 1961, 1, 7. For further background on Prince and Corum, see “United States Census, 1940,” database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KQ7H-88K : 15 March 2018), Charles Prince, West Pottsgrove Township, Montgomery, Pennsylvania, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 46-235, sheet 11A, line 24, family 206, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 3586; “United States Social Security Death Index,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J2SM-N24 : 20 May 2014), James Corum, Dec 1978; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
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themselves to be advocates and willing allies to the black cause in pursuit of a liberal interracialist agenda. Early on in its revitalization, the local branch was led by men well established in black Pottstown’s blue-collar roots. 614
By 1963, however, the Pottstown NAACP came to be led by another esteemed
African American, Newstell Marable, especially capable of connecting with both the traditional black base of constituents, and the steadily opening interracial world of advocates and activists. A veteran of the United States Army, Marable was relatively new to Pottstown. Born in 1930, in Birmingham, Alabama, he eventually migrated to
Pottstown after college (Alabama A&M University), where he quickly became active in local civil rights projects. During the 1950s and early 1960s, for example, Marable worked with both the interracialist PCHR, and the black-led borough NAACP. For a time, he was even an officer of the PCHR, serving as treasurer.615
Illuminating many of the basic assertions of the “freedom North” interpretive model like the prevalence of housing and employment discrimination, an examination of
614 Regarding Prince and Corum’s tenures see, for example, “NAACP Chapter Receives Charter, Elects New Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, October 8, 1951, 1, 20; “Prince is Re-elected President of NAACP,” Pottstown Mercury, January 28, 1958, 1; “Corum to Head NAACP Chapter,” Pottstown Mercury, December 12, 1960, 1; “NAACP Hears of Advances In Job Opportunities,” Pottstown Mercury, April 16, 1962, 5. For Pottstown NAACP during WWII, see Chapter 2 of this dissertation.
615 Mercury Staff, “Community icon Newstell Marable, longtime Pottstown NAACP president, dies at 84,” Mercury, January 26, 2015, https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/community-icon-newstell-marable-longtime- pottstown-naacp-president-dies-at/article_89e2abbc-de8d-54e6-ab1a-babdfb83abc7.html; General Assembly of Pennsylvania, Senate Bill No. 1156, Session of 2018, introduced May 7, 2018, https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/PN/Public/btCheck.cfm?txtType=PDF&sessYr=2017&sessInd=0 &billBody=S&billTyp=B&billNbr=1156&pn=1793; “Human Relations Council Conducts Election of Officers,” Pottstown Mercury, May 5, 1958, 1; Pottstown Human Relations Council, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949-1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple. Concerning Marable’s early NAACP activism, see James E. Gaut to Harry Boyer, 5 September 1961, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
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Marable’s tenure leading the Pottstown NAACP (1963–1969) demonstrates the importance for the new scholarship to also de-center the large northern city approach to civil rights scholarship.616 Small northern towns like Pottstown experienced civil rights change during the 1960s in a way that continuously promoted liberal interracialism. Even with the rise of black radicalism in the mid and late 1960s throughout the industrialized
North, Pottstown NAACP activists remained committed to advancing a liberal interracialist agenda. In 1969, while local NAACP workers led activism near Pottstown in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, which employed aspects of militancy, the work itself was peaceful. Such activism, therefore, only followed suit with the decades-long tradition of
Pottstown activists’ advancing liberal interracialist work. Furthermore, during the late
1960s, Marable publicly lambasted radicalism that led towards any interracial violence, which once again proves his personal commitment to liberal interracialism.617
Thus, assessment of the revitalized Pottstown NAACP ultimately provides further insight into the neglected space of smaller northern communities. Like previous African-
American-led activism in Pottstown, the revitalized borough NAACP frequently utilized local black spaces to conduct its racial justice work—Bethel AME, Mount Herman
Baptist, the House of God, and Friendship Baptist churches, for examples. 618 However,
616 Purnell, Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings, 2. Also see Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, concerning northern civil rights activism and themes.
617 James E. Shapiro, “Local Negroes Sure They’ll Be No Riot,” Pottstown Mercury, August 7, 1967, 1, 2. For examples of militancy within the scholarship, see Levy, The Great Uprising, 1-2, 253-78; Countryman, Up South.
618 “NAACP Drive Results In 36 New Members: Committee Chairman Appointed by President,” Pottstown Mercury, October 14, 1959, 10; “NAACP Hears Delegates Report On Convention,” Pottstown Mercury, June 10, 1963, 3; “Local NAACP Hears Achievement Talk At Monthly Meeting,” Pottstown Mercury, April 20, 1953, 5; “NAACP Executive Board Endorses Court Action,” Pottstown Mercury, May 26, 1954,
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the role of white-led interracialist entities was critically important as well.619 Still, many whites—most, perhaps—did not fully welcome the changes that had come. Many resisted the perceived black assaults on white privilege in housing, education, employment, and similar arenas, wishing to keep blacks in their historically inferior circumstances. In fact, local white resistance to integration efforts began surfacing during the early 1960s. Such resistance, which predated the national civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965, may explain why some of the desegregation attempts conducted by the Pottstown NAACP—at the time the principal civil rights organization for local democratic change—were frustrated during the decade.620
From June 11 to 21, 1963, the Pottstown Mercury ran another civil rights “series” by white journalist Paul F. Levy entitled, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire . . . . A Sequel.”
Picking up on its namesake impactful reports by Norman Poirier from 1954 (see Chapter
4),621 one aspect of Levy’s work focused on the role local white real estate workers
6; “Freedom Rider Raps Kennedy: Calls on President To Take Three Steps; Pottstown NAACP Sponsors Speaker,” Pottstown Mercury, June 3, 1963, 1, 15; “Local NAACP Observes Desegregation Day,” Pottstown Mercury, May 24, 1965, 8; “Two Are Appointed To NAACP Committee,” Pottstown Mercury, June 15, 1955, 6; “NAACP Hears Speech By Funeral Director,” Pottstown Mercury, June 10, 1958, 3; “Local Doctor Named NAACP Board Head,” Pottstown Mercury, October 9, 1951, 9; “NAACP Youth Group To Attend Conference,” Pottstown Mercury, May 5, 1966, 20.
619 “Presentation of Scholarship To Highlight Youth Rally,” Pottstown Mercury, August 27, 1951, 1, 3; and “Fellowship House Raises Funds,” Pottstown Mercury, August 29, 1960, 3.
620 Hill, Dear Sir, 59; M.C.F., “NAACP Should Slow Down,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 7, 1961, 4; Stie, “Suggestion to NAACP,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 4, 1963, 4; Mr. and Mrs. John H. Ivory, “Fight Prejudice With Prejudice?,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 25, 1963, 4; LMM, “Paying for Riot Damage,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 28, 1965, 4. Regarding civil rights legislation, see Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” 1234.
621 “Mercury Will Revisit James P. Crow, Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, 10, 1963, 1. For the series, see Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire . . . . A Sequel: Same Old Fellow? No, He’s Plain Jim Crow Now,” Pottstown Mercury, June 11, 1963, 1, 6; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire
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played in African-American ghettoization. In his reporting, Levy argued that white realtors had an “unwritten—but unbroken code,” which residentially segregated
Pottstown African Americans. Here again, the newspaper’s civil rights advocacy toward greater interracialism activated local groups.622
Housing discrimination against African Americans had a long history in the nation, including the Pottstown area, and was firmly entrenched. Levy highlighted residential apartment complexes such as Brookside Gardens, Belmont, and Colonial that practiced exclusionism towards local blacks.623 As such, since at least its revitalization in
1951, local issues concerning housing and residential amenities received consistent attention from the local NAACP. The branch even branded its activism in this way, informing local blacks that the group was there so they could receive assistance in ameliorating “living conditions.”624 More than simply the ability to buy or rent housing,
. . . A Sequel: That Home’s Rented, Just Few Minutes Ago,” Pottstown Mercury, June 12, 1963, 1, 9; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.: Invisible Wall Separates Negroes from ‘Friends’; They Can’t Scale Barrier,” Pottstown Mercury, June 13, 1963, 1, 24; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire: Not Even Tax Dollar Will Aid Him,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1963, 1, 8; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire: ‘We Operate Under The Constitution: Private Organizations, Public Funds; Still No Negroes in Fire Companies,” Pottstown Mercury, June 15, 1963, 1, 3; Paul F. Levy, “Mister James P. Crow Esquire: Alone in the Crowd . . . . Not That No One Wants Him . . . . But Because He Doesn’t Ask! . . . .,” Pottstown Mercury, June 17, 1963, 1, 11; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.: Education Salvation of Negro, But Few Here Take Advantage of It,” Pottstown Mercury, June 18, 1963, 1, 11; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.: Good Enough to Spend Money, But Not Good Enough for Job,” Pottstown Mercury, June 19, 1963, 1, 9; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.: Firms Within Law, Must Just Make It,” Pottstown Mercury, June 20, 1963, 1, 14; Paul F. Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire: Equal Opportunity Leads To End of Discrimination,” Pottstown Mercury, June 21, 1963, 1, 8.
622 Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire . . . A Sequel,” Pottstown Mercury, June 12, 1963, 1, 9.
623 Ibid. For the larger sphere of black housing discrimination, as well as in Pottstown, see Theoharis, “Introduction,” 9; Oscar Carter, “Discrimination Charged,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 7, 1943, 4.
624Ed Zumach, “Residents of Hemlock Row Will Take Petition to Council For Paving, Sewers, Lights,” Pottstown Mercury, August 15, 1952, 1, 14.
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anti-ghettoization initiatives taken up by the Pottstown NAACP and its allies in these years addressed quality of life services as well, including “sewage, street and water” upgrades, and perhaps most vigorously, access to quality schools. 625
For example, in early 1961, the Pottstown School Board put together an initiative that tried separating Pottstown’s two Junior High schools. By doing so—whether purposely or not —many black “children and those of low income families” would comprise the population of solely one of the schools, Central Junior High. Ultimately, the
Pottstown NAACP protested the Pottstown School Board’s ruling, identifying it as discriminatory. Another episode of discriminatory education policy brought the
Pottstown NAACP into protest actions in Pine Forge in late 1960.626
625 “NAACP to Campaign For Hemlock Row Garbage Collection,” Pottstown Mercury, September 17, 1954, 12. Can also see “Row Residents Win Long Fight: Sewer Facilities Approved For Hemlock Row Residents,” Pottstown Mercury, June 2, 1955, 1, 30.
626 “School Argument Underway—: Are Orphans Legal Residents In Foster Parents’ Community?,” Indiana Evening Gazette, September 22, 1960, 12; “Orphans Barred From Pine Forge, Pa., School,” Evening Sun, September 22, 1960, 15; “Berks School Denies Entry by 5 Negroes,” Morning Call, September 22, 1960, 31; “Schooling For Orphans In Controversy,” Evening Standard, September 22, 1960, 17; “School Refuses Foster Children As Non-Residents,” Warren Times-Mirror, September 22, 1960, 2; “School Board Bars Children Because They Are Orphans,” Plain Speaker, September 22, 1960, 19; “Status Of Orphans Is In Dispute,” Gettysburg Times, September 22, 1960, 16; “School Board Bars Children Because They Are Orphans,” Standard-Sentinel, September 23, 1960, 18; and “Status of Orphans In Foster Homes Poses Question,” Progress, September 29, 1960, 22; For Philadelphia Tribune, see “Race Issue Not Involved In Pine Forge School Ban,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 24, 1960, 1, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/532414031?accountid=14971; “Forced Vacation’ Ends: Pine Forge School Ordered To Admit 5 Negro Children,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 8, 1960, 9, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/532240788?accountid=14971. For Pittsburgh Courier, see “Ban Negro Children From School in Pa.,” (Special to the Courier), Pittsburgh Courier, October 8, 1960, 3 ; “5 foster children barred from class,” Afro-American, October 8, 1960, 9, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/532125948?accountid=12557; “Family Fare,” Afro-American, November 12, 1960, 10, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/532116731?accountid=12557 “School Doors Open to Foster Children: State Reverses Board’s Decision; Raps Reason for Banning Youngsters,” Pottstown Mercury, October 28, 1960, 1, 15; William Randall, “Five Orphans Barred From Classes By Pine Forge School Board Order: No Room, Says Panel Solicitor; Children Missed Two Weeks Of Studies; Ruling Miffs Foster Parents,”
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At the same time, when a white school administrator in early 1961 explained away the high-density of a black school population as resulting from black propensity to be “congregated in one area,” borough NAACP President Corum corrected the misrepresentation. The situation was by no means “a matter of choice,” he declared, before continuing, “We don’t confine ourselves to certain ghettos because we’re clannish.” Rather, noted another Pottstown NAACP activist, black minister Foster H.
Worten, Sr., blacks’ residential difficulties were inextricably linked with their “income brackets, race and locality.”627
Confrontation and Opposition
During the 1960s, the Pottstown NAACP also protested three establishments in the borough that excluded African Americans. It did so by not only marching the organization’s premises but lambasting their racist policies in public discourse too.
Moreover, these establishments included two private clubs, Die Casters and Sunnybrook
Swim, as well as North End Fire Company.628White journalist Normand Poirier initially
Pottstown Mercury, September 22, 1960, 1, 2 ; “Race Issue Not Involved In Pine Forge School Ban,” Philadelphia Tribune, September 24, 1960, 1, http://proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search- proquest-com.proxy-wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/532414031?accountid=14971 ; “Ban Negro Children From School in Pa.,” (Special to the Courier), Pittsburgh Courier, October 8, 1960, 3; “W.B. Herbein Succumbs; Ex-Berks Schools Chief,” Morning Call, May 8, 1969, 83 ; “No Room For Them,” Pottstown Mercury, September 23, 1960, 4 ; “No Room For Them,” Pottstown Mercury, September 23, 1960, 4; Radford Crouse, “Junior High Boundary Line Decisions are Postponed: Schoolmen Will Await Suggestions; NAACP Explains Segregation Charge; Fosnocht Denies Intentional Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, March 7, 1961, 1, 7.
627 Radford Crouse, “Junior High Boundary Line Decisions are Postponed: Schoolmen Will Await Suggestions; NAACP Explains Segregation Charge; Fosnocht Denies Intentional Bias,” Pottstown Mercury, March 7, 1961, 1, 7.
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threw light upon the practice of racial exclusionism conducted by the Die-Caster Club in the inaugural report of the Pottstown Mercury’s 1954 civil rights series, “Jim Crow,
Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown”629 Interestingly enough, the local Die Casters allowed African Americans the ability to hold gatherings inside the establishment
(providing they paid, of course). Black performers worked there as well. However,
Pottstown’s Die Casters never admitted an African American as a member. In fact, white
Die Casters associates blocked several blacks from enrolling. During this time, fifty-two associates took part in the decision; only one supported black acceptance into Pottstown’s
Die Casters.630
The way leadership of Die Casters, Sunnybrook, and North End rationalized such exclusionism policies was that they grasped onto their organizations being “private” entities. This, in turn, meant that their members decided who they included. On June 29,
1963, the Afro-American captured remarks illuminating such an assessment. At the time,
628 Regarding Die Casters, see “NAACP Group Pickets Club in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 8, 1965, 13; “NAACP Seeks Boycott Of Borough Club: Charges Discrimination By Die Casters Group,” Pottstown Mercury, April 13, 1965, 1, 11; “NAACP Youths Bar Die Casters As Party Site,” Pottstown Mercury, April, 15, 1965, 1. Concerning Sunnybrook, see Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 21, 1963, 1, 8; “NAACP Maps Drive To Upset Town’s Discrimination: Will Wage Total Campaign To End Local Inequalities; Anti-James Crow Esq. Campaign Planned This Summer,” Pottstown Mercury, April 14, 1965, 1, 9; “Area Swim Club Is Picketed by NAACP Group,” Pottstown Mercury, May 31, 1966, 5; “Pickets Again Demonstrate at Swimming Pool,” Pottstown Mercury, June 6, 1966, 11. Regarding North End, see “Council Seeks Repeal of Pottsgrove Work Tax: School Levy Is Termed ‘Big Mistake’; Councilman Proposes Similar Measure In Borough; Solution Is Asked For BB Menace,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1966, 1, 8; “Business on Wheels Irks Storeman; Seeks Council Help,” Pottstown Mercury, July 12, 1966, 1.
629 Normand Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
630 “NAACP Seeks Boycott Of Borough Club,” Pottstown Mercury, April 13, 1965, 1, 11. Regarding Gaut’s NAACP connection, see Crouse, “Junior High Boundary Line Decisions are Postponed,” Pottstown Mercury, March 7, 1961, 1, 7.
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local white Richard Moser headed the borough’s firehouses. Moser conceded how the firehouses—North End, Empire Hook and Ladder, Good Will, as well as Phillies—had no desire at all in admitting African Americans.631
Weeks earlier Levy captured Moser’s opinion on the same matter in the Pottstown
Mercury series from 1963. Moser argued that because the firehouses were “private institutions charted by the State,” then their membership had privileges as American citizens. More specifically, he continued, membership had the final say on who it included. To the same point, Moser made remarks which, he felt, further justified exclusion. He even boastfully cited the United States Constitution. The document, Moser argued, fully endorsed individual members of private organizations and their ability to include—as well as exclude—other individuals. Whatever Moser’s own personal beliefs were on African Americans, the fact remained that his position on private organizations and choice, supported racial exclusionism. As long as whites desired organizational separation from African Americans, Moser believed, then they were only exercising their rights as US citizens—not bigots.632
Conversely, the Afro-American explained that the Pottstown NAACP’s main vantage point rested on the fact that these “private” firehouses depended on “public funds.” By late June 1963, for example, Pottstown firehouses took in almost $80,000 in
631 “Tax supported fire unit never private:’ NAACP,” Afro-American, June 29, 1963, 14, https://search- proquest-com.proxy-ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/532242099?accountid=12557. For biographical data on Moser, see “Mayor: ‘He Was a dedicated man’: Fire Chief Moser dies; served in post 19 years,” Pottstown Mercury, May 6, 1977, 1,7. Regarding similar commentary concerning Pottstown’s firehouses, see Hill, Dear Sir, 59.
632 Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 15, 1963, 1, 3.
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tax-financed support from the government. Thus, local NAACP leader Marable criticized the organizations for grasping onto any claim of being private. In his view, since the firehouses unbiasedly took government dollars that African Americans and whites both gave, then the organizations forfeited the privilege of identifying as private. 633
Similarly, the Pottstown NAACP countered Sunnybrook and North End’s private enterprise arguments during the 1960s by emphasizing their relationship to the “public” sphere. Interestingly enough, Levy initially criticized Sunnybrook and its exclusionary practice in the Pottstown Mercury series from June 1963. Similarly, Marable argued in late May 1966, because Sunnybrook was “a ‘public space’,” it landed below
Pennsylvania “law which requires that such facilities provide equal service to all.”634
About two months later during a local government meeting, white Pottstown NAACP activist James Gaut also publicly lambasted Sunnybrook, arguing how banning African
Americans from utilizing “the pool . . . was done by ‘an ingenious evasion of the law on public accommodations.”635
Fellowship House and Farm records throw even greater light upon the Pottstown
NAACP and its integrationist efforts regarding Sunnybrook Swim Club.636 In fact, the
633 “Tax supported fire unit never private:’ NAACP,” Afro-American, June 29, 1963, 14.
634 “Area Swim Club Is Picketed by NAACP Group,” Pottstown Mercury, May 31, 1966, 5.
635 “Business on Wheels Irks Storeman; Seeks Council Help,” Pottstown Mercury, July 12, 1966, 1.
636 Can see, for example, [Undated and Unidentified Document, “The record of John Henry . . .,”], “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937- 1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple; James E. Gaut to Harry Boyer, 5 September 1961, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple; “Report Of The Test Of The Sunnybrook Swimming Club August 27, 1961 Pottstown, Pennsylvania,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club,
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evidence reveals that the borough NAACP initially tried desegregating the club under
Corum’s presidency (Marable was currently the group’s treasurer).637 During both Corum and Marable’s reigns as Pottstown NAACP president, however, it is important to note that Gaut was intimately involved in the desegregation endeavors.638 Born in 1921, near
Pottstown in Shenkel, Pennsylvania (Chester County), Gaut was an United States Navy veteran of the Second World War.639 Like Corum, Gaut was largely involved in borough unionism. Employed by Doehler-Jarvis, he worked directly in a leadership capacity with the company’s union, Local 1056 of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) of the
American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), even regarding civil rights issues.640 In further relationship to local civil rights, it is worth
1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple; “Open Letter To People At Sunnybrook,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple. 637 Gaut to Boyer, 5 September 1961, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
638 Gaut to Boyer, 5 September 1961, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple; and “Business on Wheels Irks Storeman; Seeks Council Help,” Pottstown Mercury, July 12, 1966, 1.
639 Regarding when Gaut was born, see “United States Public Records, 1970-2009,” database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KRYQ-PXB: 23 May 2014), James E Gaut, Residence, Pottstown, Pennsylvania, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information. Concerning his navy background, see “James Edwin Gaut | 1921 - 2012 | Obituary,” Warker- Troutman Funeral Home, accessed January 6, 2019, http://www.warkertroutmanfuneralhome.com/.
640Regarding Gaut’s employment, see R.L. Polk & Co., Polk’s Pottstown (Montgomery County, PA.) City Directory Vol. 1961 XXXVI Including Kenilworth, Sanatoga, South Pottstown and Stowe and Boyertown Including Morysville (Boston, Massachusetts: R.L. Polk & CO., Publishers, 1961), 155, https://phspa.org/portfolio-item/city-directories/; R.L. Polk & Co., Polk’s Pottstown (Montgomery County, PA.) City Directory 1964 Including Kenilworth, Sanatoga, South Pottstown and Stowe and Boyertown Including Morysville (Boston, Massachusetts: R.L. Polk & CO., Publishers, 1964), 181, https://phspa.org/portfolio-item/city-directories/. Concerning his involvement with borough unionism, see “Pottstown Civic League Head Is Renominated,” Pottstown Mercury, March 10, 1952, 3; “Nine Pottstown Unionists Hear Reuther Speak,” Pottstown Mercury, March 21, 1960, 1, 9.
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revealing that Gaut was a part of the Pottstown Human Relations Council (PHRC), another appellation of the PCHR as well.641
Fellowship House and Farm evidence approximates that between 1961 and 1968, local African Americans tried utilizing the Sunnybrook location on several occasions.642
Gaut even wrote the chairman of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (HRC),
Harry Boyer, in early September 1961, about the borough NAACP’s own investigation concerning “public accommodations” and whether the organization was in compliance.
“The recent test was arranged so that a white person first gained admission to show the routine used,” Gaut noted. “Then a Negro group tried to swim and different treatment resulted,” he continued. “Two whites next tried, but did not get in; perhaps the management was wary of a test by that time.” Moreover, Gaut provided Boyer with further detailed accounts concerning the August 27, 1961, incident, even penning one of them himself. 643
Entitled “Report of the Test of the Sunnybrook Swimming Club August 27, 1961
Pottstown, Pennsylvania,” Gaut captured his own direct participation in trying to desegregate the space. The white NAACP activist, accompanied by his stepchild Eddie
Augustine (who was also white), did not hold memberships with Sunnybrook Swim Club.
641 Pottstown Human Relations Council…For Equality: The Pottstown Plan; What Has Happened In Two Years?, Other Orgs: Pottstown Human Relations Council, 1955, Subseries 1.8: Other Organizations, 1949- 1986, 82/84, FHPA_Temple;
642 [Undated and Unidentified Document, “The record of John Henry . . .,”], “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
643 Gaut to Boyer, 5 September 1961, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
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However, the organization let them purchase visitor passes, which gave them access inside.644 Shortly after two Pottstown African-Americans tried entering Sunnybrook.
Randolph Henry was the current vice president of the Pottstown NAACP. At this time, he was with his child Aubrey. Personal testimony from Randolph Henry additionally documents how Sunnybrook Swimming Club denied their request. “We can only admit members,” an associate there informed the Henrys. In response, Randolph inquired about
Sunnybrook’s “requirements to become a member,” which the helper answered, “You will have to get an active member to recommend you.”645 Following the Henrys being barred, “two [white] girls, Barbara Richards and Judy Becker,” were also denied entrance. Now, white Sunnybrook associate Ray Hartenstine Jr., who was the space’s supervisor, took notice.646
Hartenstine’s father, Raymond Sr., established the Sunnybrook organization, which included other amenities such as its nationally renowned ballroom where esteemed musical performers like Bob Crosby, Benny Goodman, and Bunny Berrigan, to name some, entertained everyday people.647 Essentially, the younger Hartenstine met with
644 “Report Of The Test Of The Sunnybrook Swimming Club August 27, 1961 Pottstown, Pennsylvania,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
645 Randolph Henry, personal testimony, 27 August 1961, “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
646 “Report Of The Test Of The Sunnybrook Swimming Club August 27, 1961 Pottstown, Pennsylvania,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple. Also see Randolph Henry, personal testimony, 27 August 1961, “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
647 “Sunnybrook Founder R.C. Hartenstine, Dies,” Pottstown Mercury, July 27, 1972, 1, 27.
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Gaut privately, giving him back the payment that Sunnybrook collected earlier. However, the supervisor also kicked Gaut (as well as Eddie) out. Before Gaut left, moreover,
Hartenstine informed him about the process “to make application for membership” with the Sunnybrook Club.648 In the end, the Pottstown NAACP lambasted Sunnybrook because the organization had “a double standard of admission” regarding whites and
African Americans.649 Its activism even ended up getting black NAACP Tri-State Field
Director Phillip H. Savage involved, as well as the Pennsylvania HRC (as mentioned previously).650
Interestingly enough, Sunnybrook Swimming Club was similar to Die Casters in the sense that it allowed African-American musical performers there. Nationally famous blacks such as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong, among many others, entertained fans.651 Similarly, an undated document entitled “Open Letter to
648 “Report Of The Test Of The Sunnybrook Swimming Club August 27, 1961 Pottstown, Pennsylvania,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
649 “Open Letter To People At Sunnybrook,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
650 Phillip H. Savage to Marjorie Penney, 2 February 1967, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple. To see the Pennsylvania HRC’s response, see Elliot M. Shirk to Phillip H. Savage, 9 February 1967, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple. For an image of Savage, see “24 iconic images that were taken on July 23; 1963: Civil Rights Churches,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 23, 2018, https://www.stltoday.com/news/archives/iconic-images-that-were-taken-on-july/collection_b8688d53- 4c7b-5fbf-b13e-d620f91facf8.html#15.
651 Thomas Sephakis, The Sunnybrook Ballroom (Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing, 2007), 7, https://books.google.com/books?isbn=0738550302.
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People at Sunnybrook,” notes that “The Sunnybrook facilities - - such as the Ballroom,
Restaurant, and cocktail lounge - - ” were totally desegregated, even during the 1960s.652
Like the Die Casters Club, Poirier initially revealed in 1954 that North End—as well as Pottstown’s other firehouses—excluded African Americans from membership.
Levy followed similar course with the Pottstown Mercury series from 1963. While Levy noted how the borough NAACP publicly lambasted Pottstown’s fire stations racist practices in June 1963, the local civil rights group became intimately involved in civil rights work about three years later, demanding that North End integrate. In 1966, the
Pottstown Mercury documented the borough NAACP’s integrationist efforts. Pottstown native Sage E. Glenn, an African-American employed by the local Firestone Tire and
Rubber Company who was also an ex-serviceman with “fire fighting” experience, tried becoming affiliated with North End. However, the firehouse denied him. Marable responded during a local government meeting in June. “[T]he fire company discriminated against Glenn because of his race,” Marable asserted, and the local government had an obligation “to withhold taxpayers’ money being appropriated” there.653 The following month during an identical assembly, the local NAACP president took the floor again regarding North End. Marable noted how a local interracial consensus had emerged. Like
652 “Open Letter To People At Sunnybrook,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
653 “Council Seeks Repeal of Pottsgrove Work Tax: School Levy Is Termed ‘Big Mistake’; Councilman Proposes Similar Measure In Borough; Solution Is Asked For Bb Menace,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1966, 1, 8.
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the Pottstown NAACP, it believed firmly that the firehouse refused Glenn precisely since he was African American.654
Meanwhile, if not necessarily employing direct confrontational tactics like public marches and picketing, when juxtaposing the three borough NAACP presidents, the revitalized chapter conducted its best civil rights work in demanding employment opportunities for African Americans under Marable. Like the 1954 Pottstown Mercury series, Levy’s 1963 reports provided excellent insight into the employment plight of borough blacks. Within the series, moreover, Levy captured commentary from Marable, which lambasted how African Americans were marginalized in local governmental jobs, especially among “white collar” positions.655
Regarding the private sector, Marable articulated similar points. In his view,
“there is almost complete discrimination in white collar jobs in local industries and only ‘token employment’ in production jobs.” To the latter point, Marable contended that such posts were essentially dead-end, specifically because they did not have any growth possibility.656 In 1965, Marable once again chastised Pottstown businesses that continued exercising “token” desegregation. As Marable viewed the situation, because these companies capitulated in employing African Americans symbolically rather than an earnest, sincere effort, their actions were essentially perfunctory, if not superficial.
654 “Business on Wheels Irks Storeman; Seeks Council Help,” Pottstown Mercury, July 12, 1966, 1.
655 Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.,” Pottstown Mercury, June 20, 1963, 1, 14. See Chapter 4 for Poirier’s series.
656 Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.,” Pottstown Mercury, June 20, 1963, 1, 14.
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Furthermore, the Pottstown NAACP president even publicly called out borough companies such as Dana Corporation, Firestone Tire and Rubber, as well as Mrs. Smith’s
Pie, among others. Specifically, Marable condemned the small number of African
Americans they had on their payrolls.657
Conversely, the local NAACP leader praised borough companies like March
Brownback, Stanley G. Flagg, and Bethlehem Steel, to name a few. According to
Marable, these companies practiced true democracy, generally because they executed colorblind policies in the hiring of African Americans.658 On the other hand, Marable, in comparison with Prince and Corum, unquestionably spearheaded more civil rights work that incorporated direct confrontational methods on the local scene. In fact, one of the earliest civil rights initiatives that Marable directed concerned the Collegeville Fire
Company, located near Pottstown in Collegeville, Pennsylvania (Montgomery County).
In late January 1963, the Pottstown NAACP notified the firehouse about modifying “its annual minstrel show.” The chapter argued that such presentations not only demeaned
African Americans, but that they also perpetuated interracial animosity. Therefore, providing the firehouse did not comply, then the borough NAACP, in cooperation with the Norristown chapter, would “picket the show.”659
Because Marable’s tenure occurred during the explosive 1960s, the Pottstown
NAACP had to address the real probability that the borough could erupt into large-scale
657 “Unionists’ Help Seen For Naacp: Campaign For Equality Is Aimed At Local Companies; Meany Gives Support To Equal Employment,” Pottstown Mercury, April 15, 1965, 1, 2.
658 Ibid.
659 “NAACP Asks Fireman To Change Show: Objects to Minstrel Performance in Collegeville,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1963, 1, 5.
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racial pandemonium rapidly, and without warning. Historian Peter B. Levy notes that from 1963 to 1972, the United States had more than seven-hundred and fifty “urban revolts.” These many uproars throughout the nine-year period, what Levy identifies “a
‘Great Uprising’,” certainly had to have influenced Marable and other borough NAACP activists during the 1960s.660 So much so, that the Pottstown Mercury reported on July
27, 1967, regarding Marable and the borough NAACP creating an initiative to avert potential interracial conflict.661
Marable’s decision to establish Teenagers Organization for a Productive Summer
—TOPS—followed consultation with higher NAACP leadership. Ultimately, he wished that TOPS would alleviate interracial conflicts on the local scene.662 Earlier in July, the
Afro-American captured remarks from NAACP Tri-State Field Director Savage—who oversaw group work in Pennsylvania, among two other states—and, who proposed
TOPS. Aligning with Marable’s comments from later in the month, Savage believed
TOPS could serve as an important subdivision of local NAACPs, specifically in curbing interracial conflicts, as well as violent flare-ups.663
Finally, the Pottstown Mercury article from late July 1967, questioned Marable if
Pottstown might potentially erupt in “racial violence.” In his view, he did not believe
660 Levy, The Great Uprising, 1-2.
661 “Local NAACP Organizes Unit to Combat Rioters,” Pottstown Mercury, July 27, 1967, 1.
662 Ibid.
663“NAACP eyes ‘preventive’ riot program,” Afro-American, July 1, 1967, 12, https://search-proquest- com.proxy-ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/532186087?accountid=12557. For Pottstown TOPS, see “Local NAACP Organizes Unit to Combat Rioters,” Pottstown Mercury, July 27, 1967, 1.
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that “a militant spirit” strongly existed throughout the borough. However, Marable continued, never say never, especially because all locals needed was an unfavorable event to ignite interracial chaos.664 Months earlier during a local governmental gathering,
Marable made an identical point. Regarding Pottstown government constructing “two stop signs” where African Americans largely resided, Marable suggested that “something as serious as a race riot could result from auto injuries” occurring there. He continued later by elaborating on “how a traffic incident can set things off, and I wouldn’t like to see it happen down in this neighborhood because some child is struck or killed.”665 A few days later the Pottstown Mercury identified Marable’s assertion as essentially hyperbole, which possibly suggests a disconnect between the advocacy newspaper and borough blacks. At the same time, Marable’s remarks surely illuminate the challenging relationship among African Americans and whites, even within a smaller northern geographical region, in the United States during the chaotic 1960s.666
In 1968, the Philadelphia Inquirer captured remarks that went hand in glove with
Marable’s own trepidations. On March 17, the newspaper printed an article entitled
“‘Clean Up Penn Village’: A Teen Evaluates Pottstown,” which illuminated some of the challenging circumstances that younger African Americans, particularly those living in
Penn Village, endured at the time. In addition to the housing development’s economic
664 “Local NAACP Organizes Unit to Combat Rioters,” Pottstown Mercury, July 27, 1967, 1. Regarding similar points, see James E. Shapiro, “Racial Violence: Is Pottstown Kindled for a Spark?,” Pottstown Mercury, August 5, 1967, 1, 9; and James E. Shapiro, “Local Negroes Sure They’ll Be No Riot,” Pottstown Mercury, August 7, 1967, 1, 2.
665 “Traffic Controls Approved As Plea for Sign is Made,” Pottstown Mercury, April 11, 1967, 1, 6.
666 “Safety and Riots Don’t Mix,” Pottstown Mercury, April 14, 1967, 4.
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and social issues, the essay highlighted commentary from an African-American sixteen- year-old Penn Village local, Gary Walton. Interestingly enough, Walton took his opinion much further than Marable’s concern, contending that Pottstown would unequivocally have an uprising. In his view, however, “outsiders” would probably start it. Here, Walton envisioned black radicals conducting the uproar.667
While radicalism was not a central component to the ways in which the Pottstown
NAACP operated, the branch did eventually take part in civil rights work that exhibited elements of militancy. In late March 1969, the borough branch, now identified as “the
Pottstown-Phoenixville NAACP” (during the late 1960s, the Pottstown Mercury started identifying the local NAACP as such668) waged an all-out assault towards combatting
African-American inequality near Pottstown in Chester County. Marable identified the large-scale “sit-in” that transpired Monday, March 31, in Phoenixville Area Senior High
School as “an ‘orderly demonstration to secure our just demands’.”669 The event received coverage throughout Pennsylvania from various media outlets such as the Pottstown
Mercury, Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, Hazelton Standard-Speaker,
Indiana Evening Gazette, Kane Republican, and Pottsville Republican, among others.670
667 Martin Kirby, “Clean Up Penn Village’: A Teen Evaluates Pottstown,” Philadelphia Inquirer, March 17, 1968, 3.
668 Shapiro, “Local Negroes Sure They’ll Be No Riot,” Pottstown Mercury, August 7, 1967, 1, 2; “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled: Protest Halted With Arrest of 53,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18.
669 “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled: Protest Halted With Arrest of 53,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18.
670 “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled: Protest Halted With Arrest of 53,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18; Al Haas, “53 Arrests End School Sit-In At Phoenixville,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1969, 1, 24; “Black Demands Place Emphasis On That Color,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18; “53 Freed in
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It was also documented by the Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence at Brandeis
University (Waltham, Massachusetts) in its publication entitled, U.S. Race-Related Civil
Disorders, January - June, 1969, as well as the NAACP’s Annual Report (1969).671
Before going further, it is worth noting that Phoenixville pupils conducted an identical “sit-in” the previous Friday, March 28. Such activism, however, ceased following “a brief counter-demonstration by white students.” Phoenixville’s School
Board then got involved. On April 1, the Philadelphia Daily News noted how between
Friday and Monday, it embraced an uncompromising position, which “would not tolerate disruptions of school operations and would prosecute” wrongdoers.672
Ultimately, the March 31 sit-in represented the culmination of recent African-
American student activism, which sought that the Phoenixville School Board fully endorse fourteen “demands.” Captured in the Pottstown Mercury on April 1, the activists’ first and foremost militantly requested “That black students expelled from school last Fall be asked to return immediately” (the article does not elaborate upon why the pupils got
Bail After School Sit-In At Phoenixville,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 1, 1969, 4. Can also see “53 Arrested in Sit-in At Phoenixville High,” Hazelton Standard-Speaker, April 1, 1969, 12; “Arrest 50 Students Phoenixville Sit-in,” Pottsville Republican, April 1, 1969, 1; “53 Persons Arrested In Phoenixville Sit-In,” Delaware County Daily Times, April 1, 1969, 3; “53 Arrests Made In Negro Sit-In At Phoenixville,” News-Item, April 1, 1969, 14; “50 Students Arrested At Sit-In,” Indiana Evening Gazette, April 1, 1969, 12; “State High School Sit-In Results In 43 Arrests,” Latrobe Bulletin, April 1, 1969, 7; “Arrests End Phoenixville Black Sit-in,” Leader-Times, April 1, 1969, 2; “53 Arrested For Sit-In At Pa. School,” Progress, April 1, 1969, 13; “Arrest Forty Black Students At School Sit-In,” Lebanon Daily News, April 1, 1969, 3; “Sit-In At High School,” Kane Republican, April 1, 1969, 1; “School sit-in ends with arrest of 43,” New Castle News, April 1, 1969, 10; “Pottstown Area High In Unrest,” Daily Intelligencer, April 1, 1969, 2; “53 Arrested For Sit-In at Pa. School: 14 Demands Made By Black Students,” Evening Journal, April 1, 1969, 6.
671 Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence, U.S. Race-Related Civil Disorders, January -June, 1969 (Waltham, Massachusetts: Brandeis University, 1969), 47; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Annual Report 1969 (New York: June, 1970), 47.
672 “53 Freed in Bail After School Sit-In At Phoenixville,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 1, 1969, 4.
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kicked out, however). Outside this initial urging, their dictates broke down into consciousness efforts, greater employment possibilities, and everyday African-American student initiatives. Regarding consciousness, the activists wanted Phoenixville High
School to have “a course in Swahili,” coupled with African-American “history on all grade levels.” Moreover, they desired for Phoenixville public schools to have an
“assembly program dealing with black culture,” precisely “so that both white and black pupils can ‘be made aware of black contributions to our society’.” Their next request stemmed directly from what happened in April 1968. Because of Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr’s murder, the African-American students wanted his “birthday . . . as a school holiday.” The employment appeals rested in both white-and blue-collar work. Regarding white-collar employment, the student activists demanded that Phoenixville employ an
African-American guidance “counselor ‘so that black students can be assured of a counselling service that adequately meets their needs’.” They wanted additional African-
American educators, “a black athletic director,” as well as “a black administrator and a black principal.” As far as blue-collar labor went, the student activists believed firmly that Phoenixville needed greater amounts of African-American kitchen workers.
Finally, the third grouping of their fourteen requests was directly linked to everyday life of the African-American student body. Outside coursework, students sought African-
American female cheerleaders, alongside “black leadership representation in all school clubs and activities.” They also pleaded for equal treatment of African American and white students, specifically regarding punishment administered by schooling officials.
However, the activists additionally petitioned for “representation in all discussions involving pupil suspensions and expulsions” from both groups. The students last of the
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fourteen requests concerned their sit-in activism itself. Put bluntly, they wanted schooling officials to not penalize them. In their view, they did nothing wrong. But were only engaging a peaceful “expression of our rights.” 673
In response to the sit-in, Phoenixville law enforcement detained fifty-three
African-American activists on March 31. It gave them all “disorderly conduct” violations. Marable, and two other Phoenixville blacks named Nathan Moffat and Ginnie
(Virginia) Ramsey, received a “trespassing” infraction as well. Marable, Moffat,
Ramsey, and two other Phoenixville African-Americans, Bruce L. and Orlando P.
Jacksons, however, were the only adults apprehended. Although the Jacksons were technically adults, they still went to Phoenixville High. Moreover, forty-eight minor students comprised the rest seized by law enforcement. Finally, Marable, Moffat, and
Ramsey spearheaded the sit-in.674 Like Marable, evidence links Moffat, Ramsey, and her family to the Pottstown-Phoenixville NAACP.675
The Phoenixville High School sit-in of March 31, 1969 was so vast that almost the entire Phoenixville police force was on scene to handle the situation.676 Soon after
673 “Black Demands Place Emphasis On That Color,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18.
674 “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1,18.
675For evidence regarding Moffat and Ginnie (Virginia) Ramsey, see “Phoenixville Situation Stays Tense,” Pottstown Mercury, May 12, 1969, 1; “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1,18. For data, particularly regarding Ramsey and her family, see Doris M. Edwards to Thomas R. Ramsey, 17 November 1969, Box E7, “Phoenixville Y.C. PA., 1969,” Manuscript Division, Group IV NAACP_LOC; and President Kenny Johnson, Assist. Secretary Sandra Ramsey, and Youth Advisor Mrs. Thomas R. Ramsey, to Whom It May Concern, November 10, 1969, Box E7, “Phoenixville Y.C. PA., 1969,” Manuscript Division, Group IV, NAACP_LOC.
676 “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18; Al Haas, “53 Arrests End School Sit-In At Phoenixville,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 1, 1969, 1, 24; “Black Demands Place Emphasis On That Color,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18; “53 Freed in Bail After School Sit-In
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being detained, however, Marable, Moffat, and Ramsey posted their separate one- hundred-dollar bonds. Jackson and Jackson, since they were eighteen-year-old students, their bond was twenty dollars. The remaining underage blacks fee was only five.677
The Phoenixville sit-ins of March 28 and 31, particularly the role black students played, coincided with the emergence of the Black Studies Movement of the late 1960s.
Throughout the United States, African-American students in both secondary and higher education vigorously sought that educational institutions begin providing curriculum, which specified and centered upon the black experience. They also wanted more representations from blacks like themselves in multiple positions throughout education.
Understanding these points, therefore, is indeed crucial to contextualizing the late March
1969 Phoenixville sit-ins within the larger historical narrative of black student activism.678
At Phoenixville,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 1, 1969, 4. Can also see “53 Arrested in Sit-in At Phoenixville High,” Hazelton Standard-Speaker, April 1, 1969, 12; “Arrest 50 Students Phoenixville Sit- in,” Pottsville Republican, April 1, 1969, 1; “53 Persons Arrested In Phoenixville Sit-In,” Delaware County Daily Times, April 1, 1969, 3; “53 Arrests Made In Negro Sit-In At Phoenixville,” News-Item, April 1, 1969, 14; “50 Students Arrested At Sit-In,” Indiana Evening Gazette, April 1, 1969, 12; “State High School Sit-In Results In 43 Arrests,” Latrobe Bulletin, April 1, 1969, 7; “Arrests End Phoenixville Black Sit-in,” Leader-Times, April 1, 1969, 2; “53 Arrested For Sit-In At Pa. School,” Progress, April 1, 1969, 13; “Arrest Forty Black Students At School Sit-In,” Lebanon Daily News, April 1, 1969, 3; “Sit-In At High School,” Kane Republican, April 1, 1969, 1; “School sit-in ends with arrest of 43,” New Castle News, April 1, 1969, 10; “Pottstown Area High In Unrest,” Daily Intelligencer, April 1, 1969, 2; “53 Arrested For Sit- In at Pa. School: 14 Demands Made By Black Students,” Evening Journal, April 1, 1969, 6.
677 “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18.
678 For a backdrop of the Black Studies Movement, see Peniel E. Joseph, “Dashikis and Democracy: Black Studies, Student Activism, and the Black Power Movement,” Journal of African American History 88, no. 2 (Spring, 2003): 182-203, www.jstor.org/stable/3559065.
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While black militancy played a direct role in the Phoenixville School sit-ins of late March, there were no manifestations of violence.679 The same cannot be said for what transpired in Phoenixville a little over a month later, causing the Pottstown-Phoenixville
NAACP to become directly involved. On May 8, soon after Phoenixville Area High
School dismissed students for the day, violence erupted among white and African-
American students. A rock launched by an individual served as the catalyst that ignited the brawl. Later in the night forty young whites continued the mayhem when they entered Phoenixville’s African-American portion of town. There, further interracial violence ensued. Soon after, however, Phoenixville law enforcement intervened. While the local cops handled the first skirmish quite easily, others would eventually erupt throughout Phoenixville. Law enforcement, therefore, remained occupied that night disbanding “gangs” throughout Phoenixville, as well as adverting additional situations.
Ultimately, it took eighty law enforcement officers, many from outside Phoenixville in neighboring communities located in Chester and Delaware counties, to assist in controlling the uprising. Before the pandemonium ended, however, it hospitalized several whites involved—a byproduct of the interracial violence. The uprising also damaged some vehicles.680
On May 9, 1969, the Philadelphia Daily News suggested that the impetus which caused the uprising was Phoenixville’s yearly “Dogwood Parade.” African-American
679 “53 Freed in Bail After School Sit-In At Phoenixville,” Philadelphia Daily News, April 1, 1969, 4; “Phoenixville Classes Cancelled,” Pottstown Mercury, April 1, 1969, 1, 18.
680 “Phoenixville Youths Riot Following School Skirmish,” Pottstown Mercury, May 9, 1969, 1.
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pupils contacted borough authorities, demanding that they consent to them holding “their own parade” prior to “the traditional” exhibition. The local administrators, however, denied them, the Philadelphia Daily News revealed.681 Ultimately, when examining the uprising that transpired in Phoenixville, local black participation aligns directly with many other African Americans across the United States who displayed similar militancy and radicalism during the late 1960s.682
While law enforcement played an important component in settling down the May
8 ruckus, so too did the Pottstown-Phoenixville NAACP. Because Pottstown-
Phoenixville NAACP activist Ramsey resided in Phoenixville, she was directly present.
On location, Ramsey assembled alongside local authorities such as Phoenixville’s mayor,
Joseph E. Dougherty, among others. The time was now 12:00 A.M., May 9.683
The early-morning conference proved fruitful. Satisfied, Ramsey went back “to a mass meeting” where the NAACP activist addressed three-hundred African Americans.
Ultimately, her words helped ease tensions. So much so, that around one in the morning
Phoenixville had peace. Against manifestations of interracial violence like local NAACP president Marable, Ramsey took it upon herself to make sure local African Americans remained calm. Generally speaking, Phoenixville stayed peaceful during the early morning—notwithstanding some brief incidents.684 Sunday evening Pottstown-
681 “4 Phoenixville Students Hurt In Racial Clash Over Parade,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 9, 1969, 6.
682 “Phoenixville Youths Riot Following School Skirmish,” Pottstown Mercury, May 9, 1969, 1; “4 Phoenixville Students Hurt In Racial Clash Over Parade,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 9, 1969, 6. For example of militancy in scholarship, see Levy, The Great Uprising, 253-78.
683 “Phoenixville Youths Riot Following School Skirmish,” Pottstown Mercury, May 9, 1969, 1.
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Phoenixville NAACP activists Marable, Moffat, and Ramsey additionally gathered with
Dougherty and associates, game planning on keeping interracial peace throughout
Phoenixville, once again demonstrating the local NAACP’s rejection of violence.685
Evaluating the Work
The revitalized Pottstown NAACP was most active by far under Marable; however, that did not mean the group had its greatest success during his presidency. In fact, while his predecessors Charles Prince, and James Corum, respectively, conducted fewer civil rights projects in and around Pottstown, they had higher tangible achievement rates than Marable. For example, in 1955, NAACP activism under Prince’s leadership saw the Pottstown government finally construct Hemlock Row’s sewer lines.686
Similarly, in 1960, Prince’s NAACP successfully pressed the Pennsylvania government to intervene in the Pine Forge Elementary school affair, where it overruled a local choice initiative designed to discriminate against black students. 687 Under Corum, the local
684Ibid. Can also see “4 Phoenixville Students Hurt In Racial Clash Over Parade,” Philadelphia Daily News, May 9, 1969, 6; “Delaware Valley Affairs: The Schools: Fights and Arson,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 11, 1969, 3; Lemberg Center for the Study of Violence, U.S. Race-Related Civil Disorders, January - June, 1969, 47.
685 “Phoenixville Situation Stays Tense,” Pottstown Mercury, May 12, 1969, 1.
686 “Two Sink in Mud: Downpour Opens Trap for Trucks,” Pottstown Mercury, August 12, 1955, 1. For Pottstown NAACP activism over time, can see, for example, “Residents of Hemlock Row Will Take Petition to Council For Paving, Sewers, Lights,” Pottstown Mercury, August 15, 1952, 1, 14; “Prince Re- Elected President of NAACP In Baptist Church,” Pottstown Mercury, November 26, 1952, 11; “Hemlock Row Complaint To Bring Council Action,” Pottstown Mercury, August 19, 1954, 1, 19; “Two Are Appointed To NAACP Committee,” Pottstown Mercury, June 15, 1955, 6.
687 “School Doors Open to Foster Children: State Reverses Board’s Decision; Raps Reason for Banning Youngsters,” Pottstown Mercury, October 28, 1960, 1, 15. Can also see, for example, “Boehm Orders School To Admit 5 Negro Orphans Immediately,” Progress, October 28, 1960, 8; “5 Negro Pupils Enrolled Under Order by State,” Philadelphia Inquirer, November 1, 1960, 8; and “New Order For School,”
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NAACP lambasted the Pottstown School Board in early 1961, concerning its attempt to separate “the borough’s pupil population between two Junior High school buildings on grounds that the boundary embodied ‘unintentional racial and social segregation.”
Corum’s leadership proved effective when, shortly afterward “the board adopted a revised line,” which configured such student-age populace “more diagonally across the borough” rather than its previous scheme deemed exclusionary by the Pottstown
NAACP.688
Although Marable conducted more civil rights work as Pottstown NAACP president than Prince and Corum, his tenure during the 1960s realized fewer immediate achievements—Die Casters, Sunnybrook Swim, and North End Firehouse are examples of his frustrations.689 White appetites for interracialism seemed to wane, or rather the lengths some seemed willing to go to be rid of race discrimination were tested.
Evening Standard, October 29, 1960, 12; Paul Levy, “School Board Accepts State Order on Foster Children: Panel Starts Plans To End Crowding; Decision By Official Is Unanimously Accepted; Budget Problem Faces Board,” Pottstown Mercury, November 2, 1960, 1, 9; “5 Foster Children Start Classes at Pine Forge,” Pottstown Mercury, November 1, 1960, 1.
688 Radford Crouse, “School Boundary Praised by Minister,” Pottstown Mercury, October 3, 1961, 1, 20.
689 Regarding Die Casters, see “NAACP Group Pickets Club in Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, November 8, 1965, 13; “NAACP Seeks Boycott Of Borough Club: Charges Discrimination By Die Casters Group,” Pottstown Mercury, April 13, 1965, 1, 11; “NAACP Youths Bar Die Casters As Party Site,” Pottstown Mercury, April, 15, 1965, 1. Concerning Sunnybrook, see Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 21, 1963, 1, 8; “NAACP Maps Drive To Upset Town’s Discrimination: Will Wage Total Campaign To End Local Inequalities; Anti-James Crow Esq. Campaign Planned This Summer,” Pottstown Mercury, April 14, 1965, 1, 9; “Area Swim Club Is Picketed by NAACP Group,” Pottstown Mercury, May 31, 1966, 5; “Pickets Again Demonstrate at Swimming Pool,” Pottstown Mercury, June 6, 1966, 11; “Newstell Marable Sr. remembered as champion of civil rights,” Mercury, February 9, 2015. Regarding North End, see ““Council Seeks Repeal of Pottsgrove Work Tax: School Levy Is Termed ‘Big Mistake’; Councilman Proposes Similar Measure In Borough; Solution Is Asked For BB Menace,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1966, 1, 8; “Business on Wheels Irks Storeman; Seeks Council Help,” Pottstown Mercury, July 12, 1966, 1; “Negro Joins North End; Not Glenn: Rejected Applicant Plans Fight For Membership,” Pottstown Mercury, November 30, 1966, 1, 2.
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Regarding Sunnybrook Swim, for example, the Pennsylvania Human Relations
Commission ruled in November 1966 690 (following a complaint filed on behalf of a black teen by the Pottstown NAACP691) that the club was “a bona fide private club and hence outside the jurisdiction of the commission under the State public accommodations act.”692 Here, it is even worth noting that NAACP leader Savage wrote the Pennsylvania
HRC in early February 1967. Unfiltered, he expressed that the NAACP hated the HRC’s resolution on Sunnybrook Swim being a private organization.693
Furthermore, where Pottstown Mercury exposes and opinion pieces during the
1950s and early-1960s had worked as calls to liberal interracialist action, by the late-
1960s, they seemed only frustrating reminders of the durability of discrimination. In
August 1967, for example, journalist James E. Shapiro revealed several damnable practices continually transpiring, noting that many “clubs, social organizations and fire companies still” excluded blacks.694 This was taking a toll as black optimism was turning
690 Phillip H. Savage to Lou Gaut, Marjorie Penney, C. Delores Tucker, Henry R. Smith and Newstell Marable, 31 March 1967, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961- 73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
691 “Open Letter To People At Sunnybrook,” “Jim Gaut” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
692 “Sunnybrook Swim Club Ruled ‘Private’ By State Commission,” December 9, 1966, Newspaper clipping, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple;
693 Phillip H. Savage to Marjorie Penney, 2 February 1967, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple. To see the Pennsylvania HRC’s response, see Elliot M. Shirk to Phillip H. Savage, 9 February 1967, “Jim GAUT” Activities Programs, [Test Cases] Sunnybrook Swim Club, 1961-73, Subseries 1.4: Activities, 1937-1989, Undated, 28/491, FHPA_Temple.
694 Shapiro, “Racial Violence: Is Pottstown Kindled for a Spark?,” Pottstown Mercury, August 5, 1967, 1, 9. For other article in series, see Shapiro, “Local Negroes Sure They’ll Be No Riot,” Pottstown Mercury, August 7, 1967, 1, 2.
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once again to cynicism of white capacities for fairness.695 “I think Pottstown is a pretty town. Yes, I do,” an African-American informed Shapiro, but Pottstown “ain’t going to change [local] housing, and you’re kidding yourself if you think [otherwise],” she scoffed.696
Marable’s tenure as Pottstown NAACP president, however, did have some tangible accomplishments. In collaboration with the Norristown branch, under Marable the Pottstown NAACP’s condemnation regarding the Collegeville firehouse utilizing
“blackface” during its yearly “minstrel show” succeeded. In fact, shortly after the
Pottstown NAACP first publicly lambasted the firehouse, it ceased using the racist greasepaint.697 The Philadelphia Inquirer even reported the following January 1964, how the Collegeville Fire Station planned on not incorporating “blackface” for its upcoming yearly presentation.698 Furthermore, the calming of the Phoenixville uprising in early
May 1969, can in fact be attributed to the Pottstown-Phoenixville NAACP while Marable was its president.699
695 “An Editorial: End All Injustices,” Pottstown Mercury, August 7, 1967, 1.
696 Shapiro, “Racial Violence,” Pottstown Mercury, August 5, 1967, 1, 9.
697 Stephen R. Allen, “Firemen Give Minstrel But Keep Off Blackface,” Pottstown Mercury, January 26, 1963, 1, 3. Can also see, for example, “Show Change Is Agreed To By Fireman: Collegeville Company Abides by NAACP Request,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1964, 1, 24; “NAACP Asks Fireman To Change Show,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1963, 1, 5.
698 “Collegeville Minstrel Keeps Blackface Ban,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 26, 1964, 6. Regarding the same presentation, see “Minstrel Given Western Theme,” Philadelphia Inquirer, January 30, 1964, 6.
699 “Phoenixville Youths Riot Following School Skirmish,” Pottstown Mercury, May 9, 1969, 1; and “Phoenixville Situation Stays Tense,” Pottstown Mercury, May 12, 1969,1.
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At the same time, the multiple civil rights projects that Marable spearheaded as president of the Pottstown NAACP, whatever his success rate, did not go unnoticed. On
November 2, 1965, the Philadelphia Tribune revealed that Marable and five others received awards “for civil rights achievements” during a gathering of the Pennsylvania
NAACP in Norristown.700 In a related vein, while Pottstown NAACP president, the
Montgomery County Opportunity Board appointed Marable to a position in early March
1967. Ultimately, these two awards demonstrate that Marable’s ongoing activism in the realm of civil rights during the 1960s certainly caught the attention of others.701
As noted prior, although the Pottstown NAACP had some success under Marable, it faced hurdles such as the integration of Die Casters and Sunnybrook Swim Clubs, as well as the North End Fire Company. One way to comprehend the failure of these integrationist efforts relates specifically to resistance from local whites. In fact, coinciding with Marable’s presidency was white resistance on the local front.702
While the pinnacle of interracial civil rights work conducted out of Pottstown began almost a decade before the civil rights legislation of 1964 and 1965, white
700 “Cited for Civil Rights Achievements,” Philadelphia Tribune, November 2, 1965, 5, http://proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy- wcupa.klnpa.org/docview/532357049?accountid=149. Can also see “Opportunity Board Names N. Marable,” Pottstown Mercury, March 9, 1967, 1, 25; and “Local Chapter Of NAACP Gets Three Awards,” Pottstown Mercury, October 25, 1965, 2.
701 “Opportunity Board Names N. Marable,” Pottstown Mercury, March 9, 1967, 1, 25.
702 Hill, Dear Sir, 59; M.C.F., “NAACP Should Slow Down,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 7, 1961, 4; Stie, “Suggestion to NAACP,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 4, 1963, 4; Mr. and Mrs. John H. Ivory, “Fight Prejudice With Prejudice?,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 25, 1963, 4; LMM, “Paying for Riot Damage,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 28, 1965, 4.
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resistance to local civil rights started formulating before those laws had passed. Most noticeably, public enthusiasm and response to Paul Levy’s 1963 civil rights essays did not come anywhere close to what transpired out of Pottstown in the two years or so following Normand Poirier’s 1954 articles being published. By far, when juxtaposing these two periods, Pottstown’s racial climate for civil rights change was more apparent following Poirier’s reports and the activism that began mobilizing shortly thereafter than in the aftermath of Levy’s “Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire . . . . A Sequel.”703In Dear Sir, for example, Shandy Hill captures the following passage from Levy, which illuminates white response towards his 1963 essays. “As each article was written and printed, the town seethed a little more,” Levy asserts, “and by the time the fifth or sixth one arrived on the doorsteps, the communications had become a two-way street.” Moreover, Levy reveals how many correspondences where sent “to Hill, to the Letters to the Editor column, and” himself. “Mine started off almost identically,” Levy recalls, “as if they had been punched out on a mindless Xerox machine” with the racist introduction, “Dear
Nigger Lover.”704
703 Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire . . . . A Sequel,” Pottstown Mercury, June 11, 1963, 1, 6. For remainder of series, see Levy, ““Mr. James P. Crow, Esquire . . . A Sequel,” Pottstown Mercury, June 12, 1963, 1, 9; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.: Invisible Wall Separates Negroes from ‘Friends’; They Can’t Scale Barrier,” Pottstown Mercury, June 13, 1963, 1, 24; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 14, 1963, 1, 8; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 15, 1963, 1, 3; Levy, “Mister James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 17, 1963, 1, 11; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq,” Pottstown Mercury, June 18, 1963, 1, 11; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.,” Pottstown Mercury, June 19, 1963, 1, 9; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow, Esq.,” Pottstown Mercury, June 20, 1963, 1, 14; Levy, “Mr. James P. Crow Esquire,” Pottstown Mercury, June 21, 1963, 1, 8. See Chapter Four of this for Poirier’s reports.
704 Hill, Dear Sir, 59.
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Further evidence of a local white resistance to liberal interracialism is documented in the “Readers Say” section of the Pottstown Mercury. Although the writers did not outrightly identify themselves as white, the tone and language of their letters strongly suggests so.705 Interestingly enough, the borough newspaper published a correspondence in early September 1961, which criticized the NAACP itself. “I think it’s about time the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People slow down and quiet down,” argued a Pottstown resident who signed the letter with the initials
“M.C.F.” While the writer believed in equality among African Americans and whites, he or she felt strongly in “a limit as to how to go about the advancement.” Finishing off the essay, the author stated hostilely: “The NAACP is trying to force the colored people into everything too rapidly.”706
In early May 1963, the Pottstown Mercury printed another letter in its “Readers
Say” section that chastised the NAACP. Here, a Pottstown resident who went by the name “Tom Stie” lambasted the NAACP because, in his view, the group failed ordinary
African Americans daily existence.707 “With all the money behind its powerful organization,” Stie argued, “instead of promoting grandstand plays for desegregation and paying its lawyers to fight such trivial things as minstrel shows and books like
Huckleberry Finn, the NAACP take some of its seemingly unlimited supply of money
705 M.C.F., “NAACP Should Slow Down,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 7, 1961, 4; Tom Stie, “Suggestion to NAACP,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 4, 1963, 4; Mr. and Mrs. John H. Ivory, “Fight Prejudice With Prejudice?,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 25, 1963, 4; LMM, “Paying for Riot Damage,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 28, 1965, 4.
706 M.C.F., “NAACP Should Slow Down,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 7, 1961, 4.
707 Stie, “Suggestion to NAACP,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 4, 1963, 4.
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and spend some of it in a constructive way” like assisting “to pay for their people’s share of hospital expenses.”708 Essentially, Stie’s point aligns with Pottstown’s working-class composition. Specifically, it emphasizes a tangible class-based concern—eradicating medical debts among ordinary African Americans—rather than initiatives, he felt, which had no pragmatic impact on their everyday life. Published by the Pottstown Mercury in late January 1963, and related to Stie’s remarks concerning “minstrel shows,” white King of Prussia (Pennsylvania) married couple, the Ivory’s, saw the Pottstown and Norristown
NAACPs threat in publicly demonstrating against the Collegeville Firehouse’s “minstrel show” as also focusing upon something inconsequential—if not frivolous.709
A further example of local white resistance to civil rights change is captured by a
“Readers Say” writer in late August 1965. This letter, however, lambasts the recent Watts uprising. The Pottstown author, who only signed the letter with the initials “LMM,” wrote in frustration about an African-American Los Angeles official seeking “the government to send $100 million to the riot area.” The writer then demonstrated his or her distaste for “my tax money going to this kind of people,” suggesting that civil rights groups like the Congress of Racial Equality or even the NAACP spend their own capital so that Watts was put back together.710 Ultimately, the evidence compiled from Dear Sir
708 Ibid.
709 Mr. and Mrs. John H. Ivory, “Fight Prejudice With Prejudice?,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 25, 1963, 4. For Stie, see Stie, “Suggestion to NAACP,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 4, 1963, 4. Regarding the Pottstown NAACP, in cooperation with the Norristown NAACP, see Allen, “Firemen Give Minstrel But Keep Off Blackface,” Pottstown Mercury, January 26, 1963, 1, 3; “Show Change Is Agreed To By Fireman,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1964, 1, 24; “NAACP Asks Fireman To Change Show,” Pottstown Mercury, January 23, 1963, 1, 5.
710 LMM, “Paying for Riot Damage,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 28, 1965, 4.
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and the “Readers Say” correspondences suggest local whites were dissatisfied with aspects of civil rights.711 While the Pottstown NAACP had white allies locally, the fact remained that not all whites were on board with the group’s civil rights projects, thereby potentially explaining some of the integrationist failures under Marable’s presidency.
Beyond its important local work, the revitalized Pottstown NAACP demonstrated its solidarity with civil rights activists in the South. One of the first acts in this way following its revitalization in 1951 was joining other NAACP branches in sending formal protest to the U.S. attorney general in response to the December 1951 murder of Florida
NAACP activists Harry T. and Harriette Moore.712 More dramatically, perhaps, responding to the June 1963 assassination of Mississippi NAACP activist Medgar Evers, slightly over thirty locals, donning “a black armband of mourning,” quietly paced borough streets.713 A few months later, Pottstown NAACP membership joined over
200,000 demonstrators in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in the nation’s capital.714
711 Hill, Dear Sir, 59; M.C.F., “NAACP Should Slow Down,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, September 7, 1961, 4; Stie, “Suggestion to NAACP,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, May 4, 1963, 4; Mr. and Mrs. John H. Ivory, “Fight Prejudice With Prejudice?,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, January 25, 1963, 4; LMM, “Paying for Riot Damage,” letter to the editor, Pottstown Mercury, August 28, 1965, 4.
712 “Local NAACP Protests Death Of Fla. Leader,” Pottstown Mercury, January 24, 1952, 7. Regarding Moore, can see Caroline Emmons, “Somebody Has Got to do that Work:’ Harry T. Moore and the Struggle for African-American Voting Rights in Florida,” Journal of Negro History 82, no. 2 (Spring 1997): 232- 243, www.jstor.org/stable/2717518.
713 “33 Join NAACP March As Tribute to Slain Evers,” Pottstown Mercury, June 24, 1963, 1. For background on Evers, can see Michael Vinson Williams, Medgar Evers: Mississippi Martyr (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2011).
714 “Local Rights Marchers Are Elated at Success,” Pottstown Mercury, August 29, 1963, 1, 9.
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The Pottstown NAACP orchestrated a number of actions which sent money, supplies, and statements of support to theatres of the movement through these years.715
Perhaps the ultimate show of solidarity with the larger struggle, however, came in the aftermath of the killing of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in Memphis. On April 8,
1968, four days following King’s murder, the local NAACP joined 1,200 others assembled at Pottstown Senior High School for a tribute. Pottstown branch head Marable informed the audience that they were now accountable “to carry on the fight for justice and freedom for all” that King championed. Continuing King’s peaceful approach towards such activism, Marable argued, “It is our responsibility,” he continued, “to see that his dream is [completed].” 716
715 “NAACP Sends Clothes To Sharecroppers,” Pottstown Mercury, February 21, 1961, 7. For a backdrop regarding “Freedom Village,” see Richard L. Saunders, “Encouraged by a little progress: Voting rights and the contests over social place and civil society in Tennessee's Fayette and Haywood counties, 1958–1964” (PhD diss., University of Memphis, 2012), 134-137, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/1422012007?accountid=12557; “NAACP Names Three Delegates,” Pottstown Mercury, April 15, 1963, 3. Regarding Corum’s tenure, see “NAACP Schedules Drive for funds,” Pottstown Mercury, May 15, 1961, 6; “NAACP Celebrates 52d Anniversary,” Pottstown Mercury, February 13, 1961, 3; “Local NAACP Group Conducts March,” Pottstown Mercury, March 8, 1965, 12.
716 “1200 at Memorial Service Mourn Death of Dr. King,” Pottstown Mercury, April 8, 1968, 9.
CHAPTER 6:
CONCLUSION
Although a small community, Pottstown was able to serve as an important place and space that ultimately effected civil rights change during the twentieth century. Local activists, working through various borough organizations, took it upon themselves to fight against inequality and other manifestations of second-class citizenship, which specifically targeted local African Americans. While some of their civil rights initiatives did not have tangible successes, many were able to break down local walls of bigotry and prejudice.
Civil rights work by local activists commenced in Pottstown during the Second
World War, a time when black resistance still pursued an equalization strategy. Local entities like Second Baptist Church, the Pottstown branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and those connected to the “Negro
Extension Work” program of the Pottstown’s Young Men’s Christian Association
(YMCA), each demonstrated this historical starting point of civil rights organizing and activism in the borough. Even though local black activists utilized the equalization strategy, an approach that had them work for reform within discriminatory circumstances, they nonetheless were poised to shift to more confrontational approaches when opportunities arose in the postwar years. Moreover, activists who got their start during the era of equalization in Pottstown would later play integral roles in local civil rights work.
While early on black activists pursued an equalization strategy, the advent of a cold war domestic agenda (and other factors) after WWII encouraged the rise of a liberal
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interracialism. This greatly influenced civil rights activism in Pottstown and beyond.
Beginning in the 1940s, and concluding during the late 1960s, the trajectory of liberal interracialism defined civil rights work, and shaped how black and white activists approached such initiatives.
To acknowledge the importance of whites adopting liberal interracialist outlooks, however, should in no way diminish the continual role played by African Americans in
Pottstown civil rights work. Local blacks were always involved—both as orchestrators, and as implementers of civil rights work. In fact, as has been shown, Pottstown blacks never let the small size of their population handicap them from consistently pressing for first-class citizenship. In addition to supplying grassroots activists, the black community provided local civil rights work with its many leaders. In fact, when examining Pottstown and civil rights work in its entirety, black activists composed a consistent element that made the liberal interracial work sustainable.
When comparing black and white organizations in Pottstown, particularly their involvement in liberal interracial civil rights work, there are several points to consider.
The first concerns organizational consistency. Although black activists remained a constant in civil rights work over three-decades, they did so through multiple borough groups. During the time-period, there was not one main local organization through which
African Americans worked directly to impact civil rights change. With that said, local blacks’ civil rights work with the Pottstown NAACP was by far the most consistent.
While the Pottstown NAACP incorporated aspects of the equalization strategy during
WWII, when it revitalized in 1951, the branch advanced, if not promulgated, liberal interracialism in and around the borough.
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At the same time, it is important to note the connection between the Pottstown
NAACP initially establishing during the Second World War, and when the local organization revitalized in 1951. Essentially, because the borough NAACP had a history dating back to 1942, when the time came to revitalize some nine-years later, the group already had a relationship, specifically an administrative one, with the organization’s headquarters in New York City. Thus, the Pottstown NAACP was not starting from scratch.
When comparing the Second World War Pottstown NAACP and the revitalized post-war group, the extent of activism was by far greater during the latter time frame. As in the Second World War era, the Pottstown NAACP of the post war impacted the local black community for the better in the realm of civil rights advancements. Under the presidencies of local African Americans Charles Prince, James H. Corum, and Newstell
Marable, the revitalized Pottstown NAACP fought against inequalities in local housing, employment, education, as well as public and private spaces. The organization also challenged negative portrayals of African Americans. In the end, when conceptualizing
Pottstown and civil rights activism, particularly the role played by African Americans in local organizations, by far the borough NAACP was the most consistent.
What has also been demonstrated regarding local African Americans was the function played by multiple black institutions in sustaining civil rights activism. Indeed, local civil rights work mobilized and organized African Americans to utilize their
own spaces, precisely so such labor ultimately got done. As demonstrated, African
Americans incorporated multiple local black institutions such as Second Baptist, Bethel
African Methodist Episcopal, and Mount Herman Baptist Church to advance civil rights
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work. Moreover, local African Americans used their own residences for similar purposes.
This dissertation has also highlighted how local blacks utilized spaces from the majority community like the Pottstown YMCA and Bethany Recreation Center, among others, to implement black-centered activism on the local scene.
While local African Americans integrated various institutions from black and white Pottstown to advance civil rights work, by far the Pottstown Mercury was at the forefront of activism among the borough majority in the spirit of liberal interracialism. To be sure, when reflecting upon Pottstown’s white population and its actual commitment to furthering first-class citizenship among African Americans, the local newspaper certainly had a leading position in borough civil rights activism. Even though this dissertation has captured several white journalists from the newspaper and their specific work in advocating local civil rights, the overall role played by Shandy Hill was what largely empowered them. Indeed, because Hill was the central architect behind the Pottstown
Mercury being an advocacy-centered newspaper, the work compiled by journalists like
Normand Poirier and Paul F. Levy (in addition to the many articles utilized throughout this dissertation) would follow suit. In other words, because Hill had already set the philosophical standard of the Pottstown Mercury from early on, when the time came for the journalists to construct their work, they knew what type of reporting was demanded.
Ultimately, Hill would not accept anything less from his journalists than full exposure of the racial injustice that plagued local African Americans.
Of course, a crucial component to the civil rights successes of the Pottstown
Mercury was its collaboration with local African-American activists in advancing liberal interracialism. As demonstrated, the local newspaper continuously cooperated with
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African Americans. By doing so, it threw light upon many of the discriminatory conditions they experienced. Moreover, since the Pottstown Mercury provided a public forum, where local African Americans could freely express the racial hardships they endured, the newspaper’s journalistic work made it quite an outlier.
As noted, the Pottstown Mercury’s local civil rights work regarding African
Americans contrasted sharply from “the national media” that also resided above the
Mason-Dixon Line.717 Although these newspapers captured “Southern Black people and the movements they built” to advance civil rights, political scientist Jeanne Theoharis argues, the news outlets simultaneously diminished “Northern Black people and the movements they built,” identifying them as “marginal, unreasonable, and disruptive.”718
Conversely, from the 1940s to the late 1960s, this dissertation has proven that the
Pottstown Mercury was an advocacy press, which fought with the objective of local
African Americans fully receiving the rights and privileges guaranteed them as United
States citizens. Moreover, as the Pottstown Mercury conducted liberal interracialist civil rights work, it humanized local blacks. Ultimately, by doing so, the newspaper provided local African Americans a platform where they could articulate their humanity and dignity to the community. Meanwhile, the civil rights work of the Pottstown Committee on Human Relations (PCHR) is the best example of local liberal interracialism reaching the national sphere. The PCHR not only mobilized local activists, but inspired civil rights workers from outside the borough to get directly involved.
717 Theoharis, A More Beautiful and Terrible History, 103.
718 Ibid., 102.
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In addition to arguing that the small size of Pottstown’s black community related to the absence of the borough experiencing large-scale violence, racial unrest or police brutality—indeed, unlike many other urban locales above the Mason-Dixon Line—this dissertation also suggests that the long-standing commitment of local activists—black and white—to liberal interracialism possibly explains why the borough did not experience such antagonisms. At the same time, the lack of militancy among local activists played a direct role in the absence of wide-reaching interracial friction in the borough. Here, this work departs from much of the current literature, which emphasizes the relationship between such radicalism and racial unrest. Even though Pottstown lacked serious interracial strife, especially in comparison to other urban locales across the industrialized North, that did not mean activists from both the white and black community never had any anxieties about such chaos unleashing with fury on the local front.719
Furthermore, the potential impact of this dissertation on local historiography is worth stressing. For the first time, the African-American experience in Pottstown has been captured at length. Prior scholarly treatments, generally speaking, have given only cursory accounts of local blacks and their relationship to the community. One hope of this dissertation is that it serves as an impetus to further study of the African-American community in Pottstown. African Americans have been present in the area for several
719 Regarding radicalism in the scholarship, see, for example, Levy, The Great Uprising, 253-78; and Countryman, Up South.
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hundred years, and their part in local history is sorely neglected throughout the entire time-period.720
More broadly, another ambition of this current work is that it inspires others to look away from large urban centers of the North and thus begin focusing upon smaller regions above the Mason-Dixon Line. While recent scholarship has started throwing light upon such locales, greater work is still needed. Did equalization manifest within these other communities? Was liberal interracialism a staple there? What role did militancy play in these spaces? Did these communities have a local newspaper that continually promulgated liberal interracialism? Or did their newspapers pay no attention to local civil rights work? In the end, only until areas like Pottstown and those even smaller are fully incorporated into the literature of northern civil rights, will a better picture begin to emerge of the twentieth-century African-American struggle for dignity and first-class citizenship in the North. 721 Only then will the scholarship gain a greater understanding of who “Jim Crow, Yankee Style,” really was, and, perhaps, still is.722
720 Regarding local blacks throughout the centuries and scholarship capturing them, can see, for example, Linda McCurdy, “The Potts Family Iron Industry In The Schuylkill Valley” (PhD diss., The Pennsylvania State University, 1974), 47, 57, 147, https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/302728143?accountid=12557; Chancellor, A History of Pottstown, Pennsylvania, 1752-1952, 47, 58, 60, 63, 125-26; “History Of Religion In Pottstown,” in Pottstown Sesqui- Centennial, 1965: 150th Anniversary of Formation of Borough, ed. A.G. Strothers,(Pottstown: Pottstown Sesquicentennial Committee, 1965), 13-14; Blockson, “Blacks,” 910, 913-15, 917; Snyder, Remembering Pottstown, 69, 107-11.
721 Sugrue, Sweet Land of Liberty, 200-02, 211-12, 220-28, 230, 232-33, 243, 446; Sugrue, “Jim Crow’s Last Stand,” 175-199; Sugrue, “Hillburn, Hattiesburg, and Hitler: Wartime Activists Think Globally and Act Locally,” 87-102; Kalish, The Story of Civil Rights in York, Pennsylvania:; Levy, The Great Uprising, 223-313; Robinson, A City Within A City; Jelks, African Americans in the Furniture City.
722 Poirier, “Jim Crow, Yankee Style, Stalks Streets of Pottstown,” Pottstown Mercury, June 28, 1954, 1, 9.
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R.L. Polk & Company. Polk’s Pottstown (Montgomery County, PA.) City Directory Vol. 1961 XXXVI Including Kenilworth, Sanatoga, South Pottstown and Stowe and Boyertown Including Morysville. Boston: R.L. Polk & CO., Publishers, 1961. https://phspa.org/portfolio-item/city-directories/.
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R.L. Polk & Company. Polk’s Silver Spring, Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Kensington, Takoma Park and Wheaton (Montgomery County, M.D.), City Directory 1958. Virginia: R.L. Polk & CO., Inc., Publishers, 1958. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
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Alexandria Daily Town Talk (Alexandria, Louisiana)
Columbia Union Visitor (Washington D.C.)
Bakersfield Californian (Bakersfield, California)
Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, Maryland)
Crisis (New York City, New York)
Bergen Evening Record (Hackensack, New Jersey)
Bryan Daily Eagle (Bryan, Texas)
Burlington Free Press (Burlington Vermont)
Daily Independent Journal (San Rafael, California)
Daily Intelligencer (Doylestown, Pennsylvania)
Daily Tribune (Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin)
Danville Register (Danville, Virginia)
Delaware County Daily Times (Chester, Pennsylvania)
Democrat and Chronicle (Rochester, New York)
Evening Independent (Massillon, Ohio)
Evening Standard (Uniontown, Pennsylvania)
Fort Lauderdale Daily New (Fort Lauderdale, Florida)
Gazette and Daily (York, Pennsylvania)
Gettysburg Times (Gettysburg, Pennsylvania)
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Great Bend Daily Tribune (Great Bend, Kansas)
Greenville News (Greenville, South Carolina)
Hazelton Standard-Speaker (Hazelton, Pennsylvania)
High Point Enterprise (High Point, North Carolina)
Indiana Evening Gazette (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
Jim Thorpe Times-News (Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania)
Kane Republican (Kane, Pennsylvania)
Latrobe Bulletin (Latrobe, Pennsylvania)
Leader-Times (Kittanning, Pennsylvania)
Lebanon Daily News (Lebanon, Pennsylvania)
Lincoln Clarion (Jefferson City, Missouri)
Lincolnian (Lincoln University, Pennsylvania)
Lubbock Evening Journal (Lubbock, Texas)
Manhattan Mercury (Manhattan, Kansas)
Miami Daily News (Miami, Florida)
Moberly Monitor-Index (Moberly, Missouri)
Morning Call (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
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New Castle News (New Castle, Pennsylvania)
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Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Philadelphia Daily News (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
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Philadelphia Inquirer Metro (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Philadelphia Tribune (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Plainfield Courier-News (Plainfield, New Jersey)
Plain Speaker (Hazelton, Pennsylvania)
Pottstown Mercury (Pottstown, Pennsylvania)
Pottsville Republican (Pottsville, Pennsylvania)
Poughkeepsie New Yorker (Poughkeepsie, New York)
Prescott Courier (Prescott, Arizona)
Progress (Clearfield, Pennsylvania)
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Rapid City Daily Journal (Rapid City, South Dakota)
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Spin (New York City, New York)
Standard-Sentinel (Hazelton, Pennsylvania)
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Newspaper Articles Published Online
Brandt, Evan. “Black History Month: Pine Forge Academy Celebrating 70 Years of Learning.” Mercury, February 27, 2016. http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/MP/20160227/NEWS/160229727.
Robertson, Campbell. “History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names.” New York Times, February 10, 2015. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/us/history-of-lynchings-in-the-south- documents-nearly-4000-names.html.
Shapiro, Stephanie. “A black college closed in 1955, but its fading alumni fight to pass on a legacy.” Washington Post, October 22, 2015. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/a-black-college-closed-in- 1955-but-its-fading-alumni-fight-to-pass-on-a-legacy/2015/10/21/1a1a379c-67d1- 11e5-9223-70cb36460919_story.html?utm_term=.9c223686b807.
Snyder, Michael T. “Edgewood Cemetery: Buried history tells Pottstown stories.” Mercury, August 2, 2014. http://www.pottsmerc.com/lifestyle/20140802/edgewood-cemetery-buried- history-tells-pottstown-stories.
______, “The history of Pottstown's Second Baptist Church.” Mercury, February 5, 2012. http://www.pottsmerc.com/article/MP/20120205/LIFE01/120209715.
Staff, Mercury. “Community icon Newstell Marable, longtime Pottstown NAACP president, dies at 84.” Mercury, January 26, 2015. https://www.pottsmerc.com/news/community-icon-newstell-marable-longtime- pottstown-naacp-president-dies-at/article_89e2abbc-de8d-54e6-ab1a- babdfb83abc7.html.
“Hill-Molock, Elaine.” pressofAtlanticCity.com, January 5, 2016. http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/obituaries/hill-molock- elaine/article_0d1ca12f-b2e9-5624-b3c5-6c1d65edd14b.html.
“Newstell Marable Sr. remembered as champion of civil rights.” Mercury, February 9, 2015. https://www.pottsmerc.com/opinion/newstell-marable-sr-remembered-as- champion-of-civil-rights/article_2efbb170-dca2-590e-847c-186a7599e044.html.
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Arnold, Stanley Keith. Building the Beloved Community: Philadelphia’s Interracial Civil Rights Organizations and Race Relations, 1930-1970. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2014.
Bates, Beth T. “‘Double V for Victory’ Mobilizes Black Detroit, 1941-1946. “ In Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980, edited by Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, 17-39. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
Biondi, Martha. To Stand and Fight: The Struggle for Civil Rights In Postwar New York City. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003.
Blockson, Charles L. “Blacks.” In Montgomery County: The Second Hundred Years (Volume 2), edited by Jean Barth Toll and Michael J. Schwager, 910-18. Norristown, Pennsylvania: Montgomery County Federation of Historical Societies, 1983.
Chancellor, Paul. A History of Pottstown Pennsylvania, 1752-1952. Pottstown: Historical Society of Pottstown, 1953.
Countryman, Matthew J. Up South: Civil Rights and Black Power in Philadelphia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006.
Delmont, Matthew F. Why Busing Failed: Race, Media, and the National Resistance to the School Desegregation. Oakland: University of California Press, 2016.
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Flack, Patrick. “Tensions in the Relationship between Local and National NAACP branches: The Example of Detroit, 1919-41.” In Long Is the Way and Hard: One
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Gordon, Milton M. Assimilation in American Life: The Role of Race, Religion and National Origins. New York: Oxford University Press, 1964.
Hale, Grace Elizabeth. Making Whiteness: The Culture of Segregation in the South, 1890-1940 New York: First Vintage Books Edition, June 1999.
Jelks, Randal Maurice. African Americans in the Furniture City: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Grand Rapids. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006.
Jones, Patrick D. The Selma of the North: Civil Rights Insurgency in Milwaukee. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2009.
Justiss, Jacob. Angels in Ebony. Toledo: Jet Printing Service, 1975. http://blacksdahistory.org/files/101257366.pdf.
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Kirk, John A. Beyond Little Rock: The Origins and Legacies of the Central High Crisis. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2007.
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Levy, Peter B. The Great Uprising: Race Riots in Urban America During the 1960s. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2018.
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Mjagkij, Nina. Light In The Darkness: African Americans and the YMCA, 1852-1946. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1994. http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt130jcnq.
Purnell, Brian. Fighting Jim Crow in the County of Kings: The Congress of Racial Equality in Brooklyn. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2013.
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Reed, Merl E. “Black Workers, Defense Industries, and Federal Agencies in Pennsylvania, 1941-1945.” In African Americans in Pennsylvania: Shifting Historical Perspectives, edited by Joe William Trotter Jr. and Eric Ledell Smith, 363-87. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1997.
Robinson, Todd E. A City Within A City: The Black Freedom Struggle in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2013.
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Switala, William J. Underground Railroad in Pennsylvania. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001.
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______.“To Be a Good American: The New York City Teachers Union and Race during the Second World War.” In Civil Rights in New York: From World War II to the Giuliani Era, edited by Clarence Taylor, 10-31. New York: Fordham University Press, 2011.
Theoharis, Jeanne. A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights History. Boston: Beacon Press, 2018.
______. “Introduction.” In Freedom North: Black Freedom Struggles Outside the South, 1940-1980, edited by Jeanne Theoharis and Komozi Woodard, 1-15. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.
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“Lee, Daniel.” In Who’s Who Among Black Americans, 2nd Edition 1977-1978 Volume 1, 544-45. Northbrook, Illinois: Who’s Who Among Black Americans, Inc., 1978.
“Pine Forge Academy: The School in the North.” In A Star gives Light: Seventh-day Adventist African-American Heritage Teacher's Resource Guide, edited by Norwida A. Marshall and R. Steven Norman, III, 77-79. Decatur: Office of Education Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 1989. http://documents.adventistarchives.org/Books/ASGL1989.pdf.
Journal Articles
Dalfiume, Richard M. “The ‘Forgotten Years’ of the Negro Revolution,” Journal of American History, vol. 55, no. 1 (June 1968): 90-106. doi:10.2307/1894253.
Emmons, Caroline. “‘Somebody Has Got to do that Work:’ Harry T. Moore and the Struggle for African-American Voting Rights in Florida.” Journal of Negro History 82, no. 2 (Spring 1997): 232-43. doi:10.2307/2717518.
Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd. “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” Journal of American History 91, no. 4 (March 2005): 1233-1263. doi:10.2307/3660172.
Johnson, Campbell C. “Negro Youth and the Educational Program of the Y.M.C.A.” Journal of Negro Education 9, no. 3 (July 1940): 354-62, DOI: 10.2307/2292606.
Joseph, Peniel E. “Dashikis and Democracy: Black Studies, Student Activism, and the Black Power Movement.” Journal of African American History 88, no. 2 (Spring 2003): 182-203. doi:10.2307/3559065.
Kirk, John A. “The NAACP Campaign for Teachers' Salary Equalization: African American Women Educators and the Early Civil Rights Struggle.” Journal of African American History 94, no. 4, Special Issue: “Documenting the NAACP's First Century” (Fall 2009): 529-52. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25653977.
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Korstad, Robert and Nelson Lichtenstein. “Opportunities Found and Lost: Labor, Radicals, and the Early Civil Rights Movement.” Journal of American History 75, no. 3 (December 1988): 786-811. doi:10.2307/1901530.
Morgan, Thomas D. “D-Day at Normandy Revisited.” Army History no. 36 (Winter1996): 30-35. http://www.jstor.org.proxyms.researchport.umd.edu/stable/26304560.
Price, Jr., Edward J. “School Segregation in Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 43, no. 2 (April 1976): 121-137. https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/23908/23677.
Russo, Charles J., J. John Harris III and Rosetta F. Sandidge. “Brown v. Board of Education at 40: A Legal History of Equal Educational Opportunities in American Public Education,” Journal of Negro Education 63, no. 3 (Summer 1994): 297- 309. doi:10.2307/2967182.
Scott, Daryl Michael. “Postwar Pluralism, Brown v. Board of Education, and the Origins of Multicultural Education.” Journal of American History, 91, no. 1 (June 2004): 69-82. doi:10.2307/3659614.
Sitkoff, Harvard. “Racial Militancy and Interracial Violence in the Second World War.” Journal of American History 58, no.3 (December 1971): 661-81. doi:10.2307/1893729.
Taylor, Quintard. “The Civil Rights Movement in the American West: Black Protest in Seattle, 1960-1970,” Journal of Negro History 80, no. 1 (Winter 1995): 1-14. doi:10.2307/2717703.
Walter, John C., and Malina Iida. 2011. “The State of New York and the Legal Struggleto Desegregate the American Bowling Congress, 1944-1950.” Afro-Americans in New York Life & History 35, no.: 7–32. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=31h&AN=59285411&site eds-live&scope=site.
Wolfinger, James. “‘We are in the Front Lines in the Battle for Democracy’: Carolyn Moore and Black Activism in World War II in Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 72, no. 1 (2005): 1-23. https://journals.psu.edu/phj/article/view/58612/58299.
Yamron, Janet, Sonya Garfinkle and Amanda Bumgarner. “Elaine Brown: Breaking Down Barriers Through Songs.” Choral Journal 58, no. 5 (December 2017): 24- 50. http://search.ebscohost.com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=126188872&site =eds-live&scope=site.
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Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. “Pottstown Group Organizes For Civic Rights.” Department of Internal Affairs 18, no. 10 (September 1950): 1-32. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/mdp.39015068488249.
“Former Black Panthers Who Have Turned to Higher Education.” Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, no. 21 (Autumn 1998): 62-63. doi:10.2307/2998992.
“World War II Chronology.” Army History, no. 20 (Fall 1991): 22-23. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26302852.
Dissertations
Cline, David P. “Revolution and Reconciliation: The Student Interracial Ministry, Liberal Protestantism, and the Civil Rights Movement, 1960-1970.” PhD diss., University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2010. https://searchproquestcom.proxyms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/746486377?ac countid=12557.
Johnson, Karl Ellis. “Black Philadelphia in transition: The African -American struggle on the homefront during World War II and the Cold War period, 1941–1963.” PhD diss., Temple University, 2001. https://search- proquestcom.proxyms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/304729908?accountid=125 57.
Kimmel, Chad M. “Levittown, Pennsylvania: A sociological history.” PhD diss., Western Michigan University, 2004. http://search.proquest.com/docview/305108767?accountid=12557.
Lawrence, Charles Radford. “Negro Organizations in Crisis: Depression, New Deal, World War II.” PhD diss., Columbia University, 1952. https://search.proquest.com/docview/302041869?accountid=12557.
McCurdy, Linda. “The Potts Family Iron Industry in the Schuylkill Valley.” PhD diss., The Pennsylvania State University, 1974. https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/302728143?accountid=12557.
Ryan, Kevin Daniel. “Catholic Liberal Interracialism in the Archdiocese of Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s.” PhD diss., State University of New York at Buffalo, 2016. https://search-proquest-com.proxy- ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/1798467187?accountid=12557.
Saunders, Richard L. “Encouraged by a little progress: Voting rights and the contests over social place and civil society in Tennessee's Fayette and Haywood counties, 1958–1964.” PhD diss., University of Memphis, 2012. https://search-proquest- com.proxy-ms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/1422012007?accountid=12557.
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Williams, Hettie V. “The Garden of Opportunity: Black Women Intellectuals and the Civil Rights Movement in New Jersey, 1912–1949.” PhD diss., Drew University, 2017. https://search- proquestcom.proxyms.researchport.umd.edu/docview/1899904773?accountid=12 557.
Unpublished
Brooks, Charles D. “Founding of Pine Forge Academy.” unpublished and undated. 1-12. https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2722235/Pine-Forge-History.pdf.
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“About Us.” Singing City Choir’s Website. Accessed March 21, 2019.http://www.singingcity.org/about.html. blacksdahistory.org. “African American Seventh-day Adventist Timeline 1945-1989, Compiled by Benjamin Baker.” Accessed April 21, 2017. http://blacksdahistory.org/1945-1989.html.
______. “Jacob Justiss (1919-1978).” Accessed June 11, 2018. http://www.blacksdahistory.org/jacob-justiss.html.
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West Chester University. “Parent Handbook: History of the University.” Accessed February 15, 2016. https://www.wcupa.edu/_services/Stu.nsp/parentHandbook/history.aspx.