Tag Archives: Asheville

Slave Deeds of Buncombe County

When you visit Pack Square in downtown Asheville, you can’t help but notice that monument to Zeublon Vance, Confederate military officer, and former slave owner. It is less well known that the site of Vance monument also marks the location of the courthouse, where slave auctions were once held.

Since the late 1700’s the records of the buying and selling of slaves as property were kept in the Buncombe County Deed Books. These books have now been scanned and digitized by the office of the Register of Deeds. Drew Reisinger, Register of Deeds, and Deborah Miles of the Center for Diversity Education worked to have these records indexed so that this history: the names of the enslaved people, and those who bought and sold them, is no longer hidden away.

The Buncombe County Register of Deeds has produced a video about these deeds and the importance of exposing them to the light of day. These are valuable for family historians, for historians seeking to learn about Western North Carolina’s slaveholding past, and for ordinary citizens, black and white to have a full picture of their community history.

Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection 1888-1972

One of UNC Asheville’s collections at Ramsey Library is the Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection. This collection includes photos, oral histories, biographies. Stories of community leaders and common people, churches, schools, businesses, community and social groups. Although a visit to the library would be wonderful, there is a great deal to see on the website itself. Our history is too important for us not to embrace it and learn what we can from the past in order to direct our future steps.

Asheville African American Heritage Commission Vote TUESDAY NIGHT!

On Tuesday, January 14, 2014 there will be a presentation encouraging Asheville City Council to approve a joint City-County resolution establishing an Asheville African American Heritage Commission. We’re hoping for a packed gallery – need the community to be present. Please come out and support this worthy cause. The presentation will be done towards the end of the Agenda. See under VI. NEW BUSINESS on the link below. You will also find a link to the Resolution there. It’s difficult to determine what time we’ll get to present. We are asking folks to arrive by 6 – 6:30 at the latest. Spread the word.

Martin Luther King Jr. – Asheville Events

Thanks to Jackie Simms for sharing these events with me. They are also included in our calendar. We’ve got a vibrant community of activists, cultural events, people working hard to make our community a place of uplift and opportunity. Let’s all SHOW UP!

  • The MLK, Jr. Breakfast – This is truly a multicultural event held at the Grove Park Inn, Saturday, January 18th, 8:30 A.M.  This year there are two speakers.  One, an attorney turned filmmaker, Dawn Porter, founder of Trilogy Films and director of Gideon’s Army.  (Gideon’s Army, will be screened at UNCA on Friday night.)  The second speaker is Travis Williams, featured in the film as one of three public defenders who dedicate their lives and careers to seeking justice for those most in need.  An interview with Attorney Williams can be seen on Democracy Now, episode dated January 24, 2013, search under Gideon’s Army.  The Ethical Society of Asheville has requested a reserved table.  Tickets are $30 each    Additional information: www.mlkasheville.org
  • “Fulfilling Dr. King’s Dream Through Education” will be the subject of the Sunday, January 19th meeting of the Ethical Society of Asheville, 2:00-3:30 PM at the Friends Meeting House, 227 Edgewood Road in North Asheville (off Merrimon Avenue near UNCA). Two programs will be highlighted in the panel presentation: Read To Succeed, and the MacNolia Cox Spelling Bee sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta Sorority.
    Marjorie Locke will discuss the range of after-school enrichment programs offered by Delta House, highlighting the spelling bee, which is named in honor of the first black child to become a finalist in the national spelling bee in 1936; in an apparent attempt to keep her from winning, the judges assigned her a word that had not been among those studied by all participants. Locke has an extensive background in the financial sector and, since retirement, has been active on the YWCA Board of Directors and as a volunteer, board member, and tutor with Delta House and its programs. 
    Read To Succeed (R2S) will be presented by three speakers: Isaac Coleman, focusing on the origin and founding of the program; Catherine Alter, discussing the current program’s goals, objects, and methods; and Pat Bastian, who will describe her experiences as an R2S tutor.  Coleman has an extensive resume in human services and housing issues as well as many years serving on community boards; he is the founder and chair of R2S. Alter is a retired Dean of Social Work, author of four books, and expert in helping at-risk children, and Bastian is currently an active community volunteer.
  •  Following the Day of Service clean up project of the Burton Street Peace Garden January 20th, volunteers are invited for food and fellowship in honor of Fred Simms, who recently became unexpectedly ill and passed on December 16th.  This Day of Service project is sponsored by Green Opportunities.  Fred was a Green Opportunities Ambassador.  (His memorial service will be held February 15th 1:00 PM at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Asheville building.)
  • At the MLK, Jr. Weekend culminating event, The Candlelight Service,  6 PM Monday, January 20th, the Reynolds-Miller Chorale will provide the music.  The Chorale has been in existence almost 45 years and originally consisted of graduates of Stephens-Lee High School, the segregated African American High School in Asheville.  It has a rich history.

UNCA Asheville to Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Week with Community Service, Special Events

UNC Asheville will celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. with a series of special events January 17-24. Although classes will not be in session on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, student volunteers will turn their day off into “A Day On,” by contributing a day of service to community organizations on January 20, and the week includes films, workshops and other special activities.

These events will also be included in our calendar.

Ethel Pearson Dailey (1906-1992)

Ethel Pearson Dailey made history – perhaps not in the usual way, but in many small ways. She left behind scrapbooks full of images, clippings and remembrances of her life. She and her husband had no children, and at some point Ethel’s keepsakes were donated to the YMI. As a YMI volunteer I have been searching for and digitizing materials to share with the community, and was thrilled to discover Ethel’s scrapbooks.

Ruben & Ethel Daily

Ethel was born November 11, 1906,1 the eldest of five children born to John F. Pearson, Jr & Emma C. Clayton. She grew up in Asheville with her parents and four siblings. She was married some time before 1930 to a William H. Marsh,2 and then on December 24, 1939 married Ruben Jasper Dailey.3  When I first saw Ethel’s name, I imagined she was related to E. W. Pearson, another notable Asheville resident, but in researching Mrs. Dailey’s & E. W. Pearson’s ancestry I haven’t found any connections between their families.

The sad thing about Ethel’s scrapbooks is that all of them are damaged (some worse than others) by aged, unstable paper, dirt, mold, and perhaps water damage. In some of them, the pages are all broken and disintegrating, but the images she attempted to preserve are a beautiful remembrance of her life, and I am glad for the chance to have seen them and helped preserve them.

Ethel became a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in 1953, and she kept a handmade and hand painted scrapbook of some of her sorority memories.  I have posted some photos from this scrapbook in an album on YMI’s Facebook pageAKA Scrapbook

She also kept a personal scrapbook of greeting cards and ephemera, but that one was unfortunately the most damaged scrapbook, and the contents are mold stained and damaged.

Another scrapbook Ethel kept was a collection of the obituaries of African Americans of Asheville. The earliest clipping is from Jan 1, 1950 and the latest appears to be from Sept 11, 1967. Most of the earlier clippings feature local Asheville residents, although later clippings include statewide and nationwide news of African Americans. They are not strictly chronologically placed, and often no date is included with the clipping. Some clippings are layered over others. As a whole, this scrapbook is a beautiful collection celebrating the lives of African Americans of Asheville. Some of the obituaries are accompanied by newspaper stories, particularly if a crime was involved. These are often sensationalized, and racially derogatory, but typical of writings from the time, especially in the southern states. As a genealogist, I treasure obituaries for the family history information they contain. In the case of many African American people who lived quiet lives in their communities, the obituary or death notice may have been the only time their name appeared in print. While these obituaries are available in the newspaper, Ethel’s act of collecting them, and preserving them in her scrapbook created a new story, and a new view of history. I have been transcribing and additionally researching histories of the people featured in the obituaries in Ethel’s scrapbook. Two obituaries I included on my personal blog are here.

a sample page from Ethel's scrapbook

a sample page from Ethel’s scrapbook

Ethel also kept a travel scrapbook of a trip to California that she made while Ruben was stationed in Sacramento in 1945. This is such a treasure! Ethel saved programs from entertainments they attended, napkins from the restaurants, newspaper clippings, telegrams, few photos, but lots of ephemera to remember her travels.

In June, 1945, Ethel (and Ruben?) attended church services with the Fellowship Church of All Peoples in San Francisco.  She kept three programs and a newsletter from their church. As their website states:

The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples is an interfaith, interracial, intercultural community of seekers dedicated to personal empowerment and social transformation through an ever deepening relationship with the Spirit of God in All Life.”

One church newsletter Ethel saved was called, UNIQUE: Published “Every Now and Then” by the Young People of the FELLOWSHIP CHURCH OF ALL PEOPLES, dated March 15, 1945.  It was full of encouragement for the congregation in support of  Japanese American citizens at a time they were under intense scrutiny, being rounded it up and sent to interment camps, being discriminated in every facet of life. It included a story about Time Magazine’s U.S. “Hero of the Week” a Nisei soldier killed in Leyte.

Frank T. Nachiya, 25, native of Hood River, Oregon, where American-Japanese soldiers’ names were erased from the memorial honor roll by the American Legion Post has been named US Hero of the Week by Time Magazine. February 26. (1945)

I can’t help but wonder how Ruben and Ethel were influenced as a young couple having grown up in segregated North Carolina by this progressive, integrated, diverse congregation and their work for social justice. Was it hard to return to Asheville and face Jim Crow attitudes? I hope that they felt empowered to continue pushing for greater civil rights and inclusion for all people.

Prior to joining the Navy, Ruben was employed as a bellhop, and Ethel was a teacher. In her scrapbook, Ethel saved the 1942 letter of recommendation to Asheville’s Draft Board from Ruben’s employer at the George Vanderbilt Hotel, commending his work as a bellman for the past  fourteen years. Ruben had told his employer he wanted to volunteer for the Army and apply for Officers Candidate School and asked for a letter of recommendation. His employer wrote the following of Ruben:

For the first four years, he worked with us during the summer in order to earn money to go to school; the next two years he caught school during the winter and worked with us during the summer. For the past eight years, he has been with us continually.

We have always found him to be honest, trustworthy, and a hard-working employee. His intelligence is far above the average colored employee.5

For me, the last sentence only serves to illustrate further the kind of attitudes black people all over the south faced. Exceptional people (then, as now) were considered exceptions to the rule, and their success often seemed to justify systems that held the bulk of the black community as second class citizens. Ruben completed the Navy Training Course for Steward second class in December of 1944. Like many of the male leaders in Asheville’s African American community, Ruben returned from military service with pride and authority and a great drive to improve conditions for his fellow citizens.

Ruben became the first black attorney to practice in Buncombe County, NC. He was instrumental in bringing about the integration of Transylvania County schools. Ruben helped form the Legal Aid Society of Buncombe County in 1967,6 then in 1969 he became Asheville’s first black City Council member.4  Ethel worked as a teacher, and was also a chairman with the YWCA of Asheville in 1941.7 She also was a member of the service sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha in Asheville’s Gamma Gamma Omega chapter. Although I haven’t found records of Ethel’s involvement with YMI, I have to think she supported YMI’s efforts to uplift the race. Ethel and Ruben Dailey worked throughout their lives to improve conditions for Asheville’s African American community.  Ethel died November 21, 1992, but before her death, she entrusted her personal scrapbooks to the YMI in the hopes of leaving a record of her life as an inspiration to those who follow.  And so she has.

Ruben & Ethel

circa 1945

Notes

  1. Ancestry.com. North Carolina, Death Indexes, 1908-2004 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2007.
  2. Year: 1930; Census Place: Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina; Roll: 1675; Page: 20B; Enumeration District: 0001; Image: 279.0; FHL microfilm: 2341409.
  3. “North Carolina, County Marriages, 1762-1979 ,” index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/VXTQ-47Y : accessed 05 Jan 2014), Reuben Dailey and Ethel Pearson, 1939.
  4. “Ruben J. Dailey.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 17 Nov. 2013. Web. 05 Jan. 2014.
  5. Jones, Leonard. Letter to Eugene Ward, Chairman, Draft Board #2. 18 Nov. 1942. TS Ethel Pearson Daily Scrapbook. YMI Archives, Asheville.
  6. Pro Bono Teamwork: A tradition of the Buncombe County Bar. 28th Judicial District Bar. Web. http://bit.ly/1hpnSYj 05 Jan 2014.
  7. “Yesterday and Today.” YWCA of Asheville 100 Years, 2007. Web. 05 Jan 2014.

 

RiverSong A Capella Chorus – Info Session and Auditions

Do you love to sing?  Do you enjoy spitting beats and flowing in your spare time?  Do you wish to surround yourself around a group of positive women of color?  Do you want to get paid doing what you love?  If this sounds like you and you are 18 or over, attend the info session and sign up for an audition!

RiverSong is a new a capella chorus forming here in Asheville.  Comprising exclusively of women of color from various backgrounds, RiverSong’s mission is to inspire women from racially oppressed and economically disadvantaged communities to affirm their voices through song and performance.  Many of the songs we will perform are considered traditional power songs, spanning the cultures and histories embodied in the group.  As examples of high caliber art and self-affirmation, we can uplift our communities and inspire social justice through:

  • Singing songs of cultural power and healing
  • Exhibiting high-level professionalism and dedication to the art
  • Demonstrating commitment and responsibility to the success of the group
  • Being leaders and role models in our communities
  • Getting paid at market level rates for our performances

Info session is Thursday December 12, 2013, 7pm-8pm in Hillcrest 17A.  Auditions will be scheduled at the info session.

Childcare will be provided.

Women who are also bilingual or know American Sign Language are highly encouraged to come.  Sign language interpretation will be provided.

I look forward to seeing you there!

Anastasia Yarbrough

If you have any additional questions, don’t hesitate to call me on my cell (901) 355-6225 or email me at anastasia.yarbrough@gmail.com.

Black Pages of Asheville

Thanks to Mr. Thomas Joyce, of Smooth’s DO Drop In for giving me this Black Pages directory from 2005. The Black Pages of Asheville was published by DSI Black Pages, who ran a website and published a directory that covered not only Asheville/WNC, but also Orlando/Lakeland & the Tampa Bay area. In looking through the ads and the directory I didn’t see any designation for black owned businesses, but there certainly are several. It’s a great snapshot of Asheville businesses at the time, and it’s a nice piece of history to be able to share.

Black Pages

African American Clubs & Officers in Asheville – date unknown

African American clubs in Asheville, NC

African American clubs in Asheville, NC

The date of this list is unknown, but what an amazing piece of history! Asheville has long had a rich network of formal and informal social groups among the African American community. Only a few of these groups still exist, but there are many new groups, church families, neighborhood groups, intergenerational family ties, and now online groups to add to the networks of connection in Asheville’s African American community.

As with any other large group of people, they represent a wide range of opinions, points of view, political thoughts and life experiences that make for a diverse, multi-dimensional community.