They were three teens from Black neighborhoods in North Philadelphia where graffiti was more prevalent than Picasso. Like most children in insular neighborhoods, they never much ventured outside their area, hindered by little money and…
Category: African American women
Artist Ann Tanksley – ‘My voice is in my painting’
Posted in African American women, Art, and Black history
As a child, Gertrude Ann Graves had difficulty expressing herself. She stuttered. She wasn’t as lovely as her sister, whom relatives gushed over. She was a quiet girl who retreated to an apple tree on…
Authenticating a Black ancestor’s history by joining the DAR
Posted in African American women, Black history, Ephemera/Paper/Documents, slavery, and Women
An African American baker named Cyrus Bustill baked bread for George Washington’s troops during the Revolutionary War. That’s what the documents showed, but family historian Joyce Mosley wanted more verification. So she decided to join…
A bow and ‘tip of the cap’ to Negro Leagues baseball
Posted in African American women, Photos, Plays, and Sports
I’ve long been a fan of the Negro Leagues. Whenever I’d come across a T-shirt or cap or any other paraphernalia (most of them never at auction), I’d snap it up. I’m not much of…
Richmond’s black patients had a friend in Maggie L. Walker in 1918 pandemic
Posted in African American women, Black history, Businesses, and Health & Medicine
As the flu pandemic raged, a desperate call went out in Richmond, VA, in the fall of 1918. White doctors needed volunteers, particularly nurses, to help care for the endless flow of sick patients at…
1960s Christmas card aided black student activists
Posted in African American women, Black history, and Ephemera/Paper/Documents
As I flipped through a box of auction items I didn’t remember buying, I came upon a bulging tan envelope with a Christmas wreath at the top and the names of African American organizations under…
Telling the story of Toni Stone as 1st woman in Negro Leagues
Posted in African American women, Black history, Plays, and Sports
Some years ago when I met Mamie “Peanut” Johnson at one of those events where former Negro Leagues players sign autographs, I was surprised and delighted to learn that black women were Negro Leaguers, too.…
Sale items symbolize Saint Katharine’s calling
Posted in African American women, Auction, Figurines, and Religion
The auction at the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament’s building started at 9 a.m., and I sat through a long tedious online sale and five rooms of an on-site sale. That’s how bad I wanted…
Vanity jar ‘received’ a woman’s brushed hair
Posted in African American women, Beauty Products, collectibles, jewelry, and Trinket box
What a sweet little vanity jar I thought as I saw the squat white container adorned with pink roses and trimmed in yellow and lime green. It looked like one of those Nippon trinket boxes that…
Limiting black voting has always been a Georgia pastime
Posted in African American women, Black history, civil rights movement, and Politics
I don’t even remember what the white woman looked like, but I do recall her attitude. I was a junior at Paine College in Augusta, GA, a city on the tip of the northwest corner…