"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : VALENA C. M. JONES

While researching this week’s Black Pioneer, it came to my attention that there use to be “a rule” in Louisiana, and other states that actually “prohibited married women” from teaching in public schools. It didn’t matter how popular or how professional the teacher may have been. According to the rule, once a women married, she couldn’t teach at a public school anymore! Surprisingly, as late as 1911, the rule remained in effect. With that said, let’s get to this week’s Black Pioneer! Her name is Valena C. M. Jones. Valena was born in in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi in 1872. Not much was recorded about her early schooling in Mississippi. However, it was reported that she moved to New Orleans, Louisiana to attend Straight University in 1892. After graduating Straight University, Valena moved back to Hancock County, Mississippi to become the “principal of the Bay St. Louis Negro School.” Her tenure as principal lasted approximately 4 years. In 1897, Valena decided to return to New Orleans to teach in the public school system. One of the highlights of her teaching career in New Orleans was when she was voted as the “Most Popular Colored Teacher!” Along with being recognised, Valena was awarded a nice bicycle! In 1901, she got married to Reverend Robert R. Jones. However, she had to leave the teaching profession, because of a standing rule that prohibited married women from teaching in public schools in Louisiana. Among the things Valena enjoyed as a wife was helping her husband in his duties as editor of the religious newspaper, the Southwestern Christian Advocate. The newspaper was published by the Methodist Episcopal Church in New Orleans. It was widely read by Negroes as well as White people throughout the southern region of the the United States. It was strongly suggested that the success of the Southwestern Christian Advocate newspaper was mainly due to her tireless dedication and efforts! If she would have lived a few years longer, she would have got to experience the joy of teaching in public schools again as well as the passage of women’s suffrage in America. However, her life was cut short. On January 13, 1917, Valena C.M. Jones passed away quietly and peacefully. Her husband, Robert R Jones had her buried in the city of New Orleans, Louisiana. After her death, a school in New Orleans Louisiana was named after her in 1917. Also, in 1947 , the city where she began her teaching career, Bay St. Louis also honored her by naming a school after her!

“OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : JOHN STEWART ROCK

             Not too long ago I read a quote that said,”Pass The Truth To The Next Generation ; We Must Teach Them Early What We Learn Late!” The quote was talking about teaching our Black children the truth about things that happened before they were born. However, there’s a funny thing about the “TRUTH.” You see, you can have three different people witness an incident, and still  get three different scenarios about what actually happened. A good example is the incident that occurred last year at a Carroll High School football game. The Carroll football coaches gave their version of the Truth, the Sheriff gave his version of the Truth, and a bystander even video-recorded the incident. By Sadly, the Truth in many cases is that the Truth simply gets lost in the police report that’s submitted to the police department and the court. Nevertheless, let’s turn our attention to this week’s Black Pioneer, John Stewart Rock.       John was born on  October 13, 1825 in Salem, New Jersey to free negroes, John and Maria (Willett) Rock. John did so well in school that by the age of 19, he had qualified to become a school teacher. In 1844, he began teaching at a one-room school in Salem. After four or five years of teaching, and studying medicine on the side,John decided to try his hand at dentistry. Back then, there was a thing called an “Apprenticeship.” John chose to take an apprenticeship with a White  doctor by the name of Dr. Harbert. Next, he applied to attend medical school. In 1852, John graduated from American Medical College in Philadelphia!  He became one of the first Negroes in America to gain a medical degree. Before the age of 28, he had 

 become a successful teacher, dentist, and a noted physician.Wow,              quite an accomplishment for a Negro in that period of history! Later on, John became an abolitionists and civil rights leader. Also, on September 14, 1861, T. K. Lothrop, a White lawyer, persuaded a local Judge to allow John the opportunity to take the law examination. John passed the exam with flying colors and gained admittance to the Massachusetts Bar.  He was thrilled that he had finally achieved one of  the last items on his bucket list!                One of the highest honors he ever received, occurred on February 1, 1865, the day after the approval of the 13th Amendment. A White man named Charles Sumner introduced a motion that made John Stewart Rock the first Negro attorney to be admitted to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court!Furthermore, he became the first Negro to be received on the floor of the United States House of Representatives. Sadly,on December 3, 1866, John S. Rock died from tuberculosis. He was only 41 years old.

“OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : FANNIE C WILLIAMS

 “OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : FANNIE C WILLIAMS                  It will come as a big surprise to some, but maybe not much of a surprise to others. The surprise is what a few states are starting to go back to, in order to deal with the teacher shortage situation. You see, there was a time in New Orleans, Louisiana that a person did not have to have a four-year college degree in order to teach in Louisiana public schools. Before 1940,  a person could graduate high school, receive their diploma, and attend what was called a “Normal School” for about 2 years.Normal School were developed and built primarily to train elementary-level teachers for the public schools systems. Once they had received their certificate, they could teach in a Louisiana public school. Which happens to bring us to this week’s  Black Pioneer,” Fannie C Williams!          Fannie was born on March 23, 1882 in Biloxi, Mississippi. She attended high school in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1904,  Fannie graduated from Straight College in New Orleans, which later became Dillard University. The bulk of her career as an educator was in New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1921, Fannie was appointed principal of Valena C. Jones Elementary School. In addition to acting as the principal of the elementary school ; in 1931 she also became head principal of the Valena C Jones Normal & Practical School, which certified Negro teachers for the New Orleans Public Schools. A few of her accomplishments included starting a health day at the elementary school, where children were treated by local Black medical professionals for free of charge, starting the first Negro Troop of Girl Scouts ; Troop 99, in the city of New Orleans, and she personally trained & certified thousands of Negro public school teachers during her 30 plus years as an educator. Fannie C Williams died in 1980 at the golden age of 98. Note : thanks to funds from FEMA and other contributors, there is now a New Fannie C Williams Charter School located in New Orleans 7th Ward!

“Our Rich Black Heritage” : JOSEPH LEE

               I recently read about a company called,”The Black Bread Company.” The company was founded in 2021 by three Black men from Chicago. Speaking of bread, how many of you all knew that in 1894 a Black man named “Joseph Lee” invented the first  automatic bread-making machine in America?  The next year, on June 4, 1895, he followed-up his previous invention with the invention of a machine for making breadcrumbs. Joseph made a fortune by selling the rights to his inventions. Furthermore, his two fantastic inventions helped revolutionize  the Bread Industry!

Joseph Lee was born in Charleston , South Carolina on July 4,1848 to two Negro slaves, Henry and Susan Lee. From an early age, Joseph had taken an interest in baking. He ended up working at a bakery in Beaufort, South Carolina. On May 12, 1875, Joseph married Christina Howard ; they had four children. Not long after then, Joseph and his family settled in Needham, Massachusetts. In 1882, he  opened a restaurant and The Woodland Park Motel. Prominent guests at his motel included Presidents of the United States, Benjamin Harrison and Chester A Arthur, and Grover Cleveland. Also, he ran a successful catering business as well as managing other restaurants,in and around the Boston area. After he invented his bread machine in 1894, it was being used by many of America’s leading hotels, restaurants,and catering  establishments.  Additionally, Joseph was active in Civil Rights issues  of his day as well. In 1890, he attended  the Convention of Colored Men. Near the end of his life, Joseph  fell ill with pulmonary tuberculosis. On June 11, 1908, Joseph Lee died at his home. 

In 2019, Joseph Lee was inducted into the American National Inventors Hall of Fame! 

“Our Rich Black Heritage” : EARTHA M. M. WHITE

    A little  over a century ago, a Tornado swept through Jacksonville, Florida. However, this was no ordinary Tornado. This Tornado came in the form of a little Black lady by the name of EARTHA M.M. White. By the time she died in 1974,she had accomplished quite a bit! From establishing a Mercy Hospital for tuberculosis, to helping found a half-way house for alcoholics in recovery, to creating a Boy’s improvement club, to help curve juvenile delinquency. You name it, there wasn’t much that she left untouched! Additionally, Eartha was instrumental in getting the land & lumber donated  to build the first public school for Negroes in the Black community of Bayard, in 1899. Also, before her adopted mother, Clara White died in 1920, they started the Clara White Old Folks Home. Eartha M.M. White was born on November 8, 1876 in Jacksonville, Florida. She ended up getting adopted by a Black lady name Clara White. In 1893, Eartha graduated from Stanton High School in Jacksonville. In 1896, she returned  to being Jacksonville, after being away for 3 years,due to the yellow fever breakout. She continued her studies and graduated from Florida Baptist Academy. Later when the school was built in Bayard, Eartha taught at the school for about 16-18 years. Eartha M.M. White died on January 18,1874 in Jacksonville, Florida at the ripe old age of  97!

“OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE” : ANDERSON BONNER

When many people think of Dallas, Texas, they think of things like the Dallas Cowboys, the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, the movie North Dallas Forty, or even the Medical City Dallas Hospital, which is located in North Dallas. Surprisingly enough, this week’s Black Pioneer, Anderson Bonner once owned the land that The Medical City Dallas Hospital now sits on! In addition to the land that the hospital is on, Anderson ended up owning thousands of acres of land in what is now North Dallas( including the Dallas suburb of Richardson ). Anderson Bonner was born a slave in Alabama around 1839. Also, it is rumored that he was possibly a member of the 100,000 Negro refugees that were forcibly transported to Texas by their White slave owners,during the American Civil War to keep the Union Army from freeing them. Furthermore, it was reported that on “June 19, 1865,” Union General Gordon Granger and Union Troops under his command arrived in Galveston, Texas and pronounced the end of slavery[ on June 7, 1979, more than a century after the abolition of slavery in Texas, Texas House Bill 1016 passed in the 66th Legislature  Regular Session, declaring June 19, "Emancipation Day in Texas]! The following year,on “June 19, 1980,” Texas became the first  state in America to officially and legally make Juneteenth a national holiday! Not too long after being freed, Anderson got married to a  young Black lady named Eliza{ to this union were born 10 children }. Mainly, because slaves weren’t allowed to learn how to read and write, Anderson,his wife, nor his brother or his sister could read or write well. In 1870, when Anderson and the rest of the Bonner family first arrived in Dallas, Texas, they found work on a farm in an area known as White Rock Creek. With the money Anderson earned from working on the farm, he was able to buy 60 acres of land in North  Dallas( he purchased the land on August 10, 1874, since he never learned how to read , they let him sign the deed with an “X” ). Although he was thought of as an illiterate man, he was intelligent enough to see that he could split up the 60 acres of land[ keeping part for him and his family members, and renting out the rest to Negro sharecroppers ]. Anderson’s plan proved to be quite profitable, and he was able to use some of the money from his rental properties to buy more land. Over a period  of years, he had accumulated over two thousand acres of land in what is now North Dallas and the Dallas suburb of Richardson. On a bitter note,his dear wife Eliza, the mother of his 10 children, died in a oil lamp explosion in the family home in 1903. Around 1920, Anderson decided to get married  again{ her name was Lucinda, and she was from Waxahachie, Texas }. Within a year or two after the marriage, Anderson Bonner died. He was buried in White Rock Colored Union Cemetery ( which is now White Rock Garden of Memories Cemetery) in Addison, Dallas County, Texas. Hey, I  strongly feel that it is worth mentioning  again that “even though Anderson Bonner could  not read or write, “ he was able to “come up with a plan” that helped make him one of the largest Negro landowners in Dallas Texas! Needless to say, his vast estate and holdings went to his wife and children living at the time of his death. In his honor, his family established the Anderson Bonner Endowment scholarship, which assists RISD graduates who attend Prairie View A&M University. Also of worthy mention is that the first public school for Black children in the North Dallas[ the Vickery and Hillcrest school ] was renamed The Anderson Bonner School. At the time, it was the only school  for Blacks in the area.  The school was eventually closed in 1955, when the Hamilton-Park School was built. Furthermore, the city of Dallas named the park west of Medical City Hospital, Anderson Bonner Park in 1976{ the park consists of 44.1 acres of Anderson’s original land }. In closing, I would like for you to think about “ALL” of the land in the city of Monroe, West Monroe, Sterlington, Bastrop, and Ruston, Louisiana that was “ONCE OWNED BY BLACK PEOPLE!“

"OUR RICH BLACK HERITAGE" : MARITA O.B. OCCOMY

Certainly, we all know how devastating the loss of a loved one can be. Thankfully, we can choose to do as Marita did, and turn to things such as writing to help us get through it. In 1924, Marita had moved from where her parents lived to Washington D.C. to take a teaching position. However, within a year of her moving away, both of her parents died unexpectedly. It was at this time that Marita used writing as a way to deal with her grief. Although many Black People don’t know it, Marita was a writer, and playwright who is often associated with the “Harlem Renaissance Era.”  Marita O.B. Occomy was born on June 16, 1899 in Boston, Massachusetts to Joseph Andrew and Anne Noel Bonner. Marita attended Brookline High School, a place where she first began to take an interest in writing( she helped put together the school magazine called the Sagamor ). After graduating from Brookline in 1918, Marita attended Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she majored in Comparative Literature and English. By the way, she had to commute back and forth[ from the city of Brookline and Radcliffe College ], because Black students were not allowed to live in campus dormitories. In addition to doing well in academics, Marita could make the piano sing{ she won two music competitions when she attended Radcliffe College }. Not only was Marita a member of the “Delta Sigma Theta Sorority,”she was founder of the Boston-Area Chapter! Once she graduated from college in 1922, Marita began teaching at Bluefield Colored Institute (now Bluefield State University) in Bluefield, West Virginia. Two years later, she decided to leave Bluefield and take a teaching position at Armstrong High School[ an all-Black high school in Washington, D.C. ]. Sadly, this was when both of her parents died and she turned to writing to give her consolation from her grief. To her delight, her first essay, “Being Young-A Woman- And Colored” got published in The Crisis magazine{ in December of 1925 }. Her essay immediately catapulted her into the limelight. Following the publishing of her essay, Marita was invited into a group of distinguished Washington, D.C. writers, poets, playwrights, and composers( they met regularly at the “S” Street Salon, owned by composer, poet, and playwright Georgia Douglass Johnson ). The thing that made Marita’s essays and writings standout is that they emphasized “self-improvement through education!” While attending events in Washington and enjoying her success as a writer, she ended up meeting a man named, William Almy Occomy[ who would later become her husband ]. They were married in 1930, and a year later they moved to Chicago, where Marita was well accepted as a writer. As time moved on, her family had grown from two to five[ the couple now had 3 children ]. In 1941, Marita decided to return to teaching and focus more on taking care of her family. Up until she retired in 1963, she taught in Chicago’s public school system. Regretfully, in 1971, Marita was caught in a fire at her Chicago apartment. On December 7,1971, Marita O.B. Occomy died of smoke inhalation from the fire in her apartment. In closing, I would like to say how disappointing it is that “the selectors” of the books that go to the schools in our “Black Communities” have failed to include more of the writings of Black Writers like Marita and those who wrote during the “Black Renaissance Era” and “The Harlem Renaissance Era“ in the school textbooks.