GA-JCTS Newsletter

The newsletter of the Gilmore Academy-Jackson County Training School Alumni Association, Inc.

GA-JCTS Alumni Association, Inc.

Vol. 3 No. 1
October 2000

Roy L Roulhac, Editor e-mail Roy L Roulhac
Sheryl J. McGriff - Associate Editor

Correction

On page 103 of the recently published, Jackson County, Florida, Willie Thomas was inadvertently listed as being a member of the 1958 JCTS basketball team which won the State Championship. Waymon Speights, who was a a member of the team, was omitted. The history and publication committee regrets any anxiety caused by its error.

Annual Meeting Annual Meeting Minutes

The GA-JCTS Alumni Association met on Saturday, July 1, 2000 at St. James A. M. E. Church at 10:00 a.m. The meeting was called to order by the president, Judge Roy L. Roulhac. Following a prayer, the agenda was approved. Roulhac expressed his appreciation to the group for their attendance and support.

Linda Darby Jones, treasurer, reported a balance in the treasury of $3,246.79. [The current balance is $7,727.00.]

Sarah Speights Pender, chairperson of the history and publication committee reported on the December 1999 publication of Jackson County, Florida. She expressed appreciation to everyone for their cooperation. The idea for the publication was conceived during the 1998 reunion. President Roulhac was cited for his untiring dedication,extensive research, organization of materials, and hard work. Other publication committee members who received special recognition for their work were: Queen Bowers Brown, co-chairperson, Lucy Speights Hawthorne, secretary, and Barbara Harley Dixon, Eulice Thomas Bryant, Gwendolyn Pittman Godwin, and Elmore Bryant. Special thanks were extended to Mattie Fagan Berrian and Linda Darby Jones for their vision in organizing the first all school reunion in 1996.

The officers and members of the board of directors shown in the left column of this publication were elected. After much discussion, Association members agreed that the GA-JCTS Reunion Committee and the GA-JCTS Alumni Association, Inc., would operate and function as separate and distinct organizations. The Reunion Committee (alumni who initiated plans for the all-school reunion in 1996) will continue to plan and organize the reunion's social activities and worship service. The GA-JCTS Alumni Association, consistent with its non-profit tax-exempt status as a 501(c)(3) corporation, will concentrate on sponsoring programs of an educational and charitable nature.

Association members discussed potential projects to implement during the next two years. Consideration was given to publishing family histories of African Americans in Jackson County; establishing a youth involvement program for girls in grades 6-8; purchasing land and/or a building; and publishing a cookbook to provide scholarship funds. The members decided to implement a youth involvement program involving ten to twelve boys and girls in grades 6-8. The project will be designed to teach social skills, self-esteem, and provide assistance in maximizing their potential. Members also decided to publish a cookbook to generate scholarship funds for needy and deserving students.

Members of the youth involvement program include: Sarah Pender, Queen Brown, Barbara Dixon, Valeria Davies, Mary A. Barnes, Elmore Bryant, and Dan Hester. The cookbook committee/scholarship, chaired by Rev. Frances Menchion, includes Eulice Bryant and Mary A. Barnes. [The youth involvement program will be implemented in January 2001.]

Queen B. Brown, Secretary

Barnes Praises Bryant

William "Billy" Barnes, best known for his days as a professional basketball player, commentator for CBS Sports, and member of the Harlem Globetrotters, was in rare form as it presented a plaque to Eulice Thomas Bryant to recognize her selection as Jackson County's nominee for the Burdine's Teacher of the Year Award for 2000. His remarks, edited and condensed, delivered during the 2000 reunion follows:

To paraphrase the late Mrs. Annie Long Barnes, who would have been one hundred fifteen years old this millennium year, in her grand motherly fashion, "If you have anything to say, say it and sit your tail down!" My grand mom was an enjoyably humorous, kind, and loving lady; not an acidulous octogenarian who notoriously anathematized people with foul language.

To the Gilmore Academy-Jackson County Training School alumni, families, friends and guests, good evening. Without promoting the Chamber of Commerce, welcome back to Marianna. It is good to see you again. The JCTS emblematic black unspotted panther is extinct. However, the retrospective remnants of Jacksonians reveal a collective manifestation of durability and dignity, fully drenched in torrential prosperity. Yet, one must be ever so mindful of an unjust past, because it is poignantly reminiscent of a turbulent lifetime of discriminatory scars which continue to fester and traumatize the healing process.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me level with you, my intrusively defiant reason for standing before you is to bring about an awareness of an extraordinary lady in our midst who has taught in the Jackson County Public School system forty years; the last twenty-eight at Marianna High School. Deservingly, she was honored at the 12th Annual Burdine's Florida Teacher of the Year Award last month in Orlando. She is a contemporary and familiar to many of us.

There were seventy-eight nominees chosen from more than 120,000 Florida public school teachers by the Florida Department of Education's selection committee. My fellow old-timers and guests, Mrs. Eulice Jean Thomas Bryant, in the parlance of sports vernacular, "made the cut!" She was Jackson County's lone representative at the Teacher of the Year Gala. This plaque is presented to her in recognition of her selection as a Burdine Teacher of the Year nominee. 4

Guardian Appointed for Free Mulatto

During a recent visit to Marianna I made my usual stop at the courthouse. This time I was looking in the deed books to find evidence of the sale, purchase or mortgage of my ancestors during the days of slavery. I found several instances of such transactions by Francis Roulhac Ely, and John Gray and Joseph B.G. Roulhac, all of whom enslaved operated large plantations in Jackson County. When I returned to Detroit, I discovered that the clerk had copied the wrong page for one transaction. Initially, I was upset; but after reading it, it turned out to be the 1849 appointment of Joseph Russ, a White man, as guardian of Samuel H. Ireland, a free mulatto, and an deed executed by Russ on Ireland's behalf. It sheds light on the trials and tribulations that even free Blacks endured in Jackson County during the antebellum period. The January 8, 1848 law, enacted 3 years after Florida was admitted to the Union, required free Blacks to select a guardian. The letter of appointment and deed are found in Deed Book A, Page 363. They read:

To Joseph W. Russ

Samuel Ireland a free Mulatto over the age of twelve years has come before me and selected you as his guardian and I the Judge of Probate of said County being satisfied as to your fitness do hereby certify that I have committed as directed by law the guardianship of the person and property of the said Samuel Ireland to you the said Joseph W. Russ you being (by virtue of this appointment and by the act authorizing judges of probate of the several counties in the State to appoint guardians for free Negroes approved by the Governor of this State on the 8th day of January 1848), empowered "to see for and recover all such sums of money as are or may hereafter be owing to the said Samuel Ireland and to take the same control over the said Samuel Ireland as is possessed by guardians in other cases.

In testimony, whereof I have hereto set my hand and affixed my seal of office this 20th day of July A D 1849. Signed Rich H Long, Judge of Probate of Jackson County.

* * *

This Indenture made and entered into this the twenty?first day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and fifty by and between Joseph W. Russ Guardian of Samuel H. Ireland of the one part and Emily Thomas of the other part, both of the County of Jackson and State of Florida.

Witness that the said Joseph W. Russ guardian as aforesaid for and in consideration of the sum of Two hundred and thirty nine dollars and forty two cents to him in hand paid at and before the sealing and delivery of these presents by the said Emily Thomas the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged hath granted bargained and sold . . . unto the said Emily Thomas her heirs and assigns all that interest in a certain lot or parcel of land lying being and situated in the Town of Marianna and known and more particularly described upon the map of said town as lot numbered one hundred and sixty three (163) fronting on Main Street one hundred feet and running back one hundred and twenty feet . . .

And the said Joseph W. Russ guardian for the aforesaid Samuel H. Ireland for himself his heirs executors administrators and assigns the aforesaid granted lot or parcel of land unto the said Emily Thomas her heirs and assigns shall and will warrant and by these presents defend. In testimony whereof the said Joseph W. Russ guardian of the said Samuel H. Ireland has hereunto set his hand and affixed his seal the day and year first above written. Signed, Joseph W. Russ, Guardian for Samuel Ireland.

Witnesses: Thomas M. White and John G. Russ

* * *

Samuel H. Ireland is listed in the 1850 U.S. Population Census for Jackson County (household 522) as a 39 year old trunk maker living within the town of Marianna with 35 year old Eliza and four children: Harriet, 8; Susan, 5; Catherine, 3, and Samuel 6 month. Samuel was born in Maryland and Eliza and the children were all born in North Carolina. All were described as mulatto.

[Editor's note: Some free Blacks in Pensacola, FL, voluntarily left their homes and settled in Tampico, Mexico rather than comply with the 1848 guardianship law. An 1858 Florida law was even more onerous. It allowed free Blacks to select their own master and become slaves.]

Heritage to Publish Jackson County Family Histories

Heritage Publishing Company is preparing to publish histories of families in Florida's panhandle counties, including Jackson County. The second in a series of meetings will be held 7 P.M., Thursday, Nov 30, at the Jackson County Commission Meeting Room, Marianna. Heritage plans to publish, at no charge, family histories, ranging from 500 to 1,000 words. For more information, contact me or go on-line at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~fljackso/Heritagebook.html
Chairman: Gil Roberts (850) 526-5555 gilann@wfeca.net
or Roy L Roulhac rlroulhac@hotmail.com

GA-JCTS Website Established

On May 21, 2000, the GA-JCTS Website was created by Roy L. Roulhac and Betty Mae Smith. The site contains information about GA-JCTS and Jackson County history. It Includes information about Benjamin Franklin Livingston (April 27, 1841-February 8, 1926), politician, member of the FL House of Representative, City and County Commissioner, and Marianna postmaster; Emanuel and T. Thomas Fortune; the West Florida Industrial College; surveys of Jackson County African American cemeteries; African American church histories; a list of 1860 Jackson County slave holders; index and past issues of the GA-JCTS newsletters; a membership application; a listing of Association officers and board of directors; and links to important African American resources.

The URL for the site is: http://www.rootsweb.com/~flgatsaa/Newsletter.html

Contributions for the site may be sent to me at: rlroulhac@hotmail.com

African American Cemetery Surveys

Alumni Association members have surveyed the following Jackson County African American cemeteries as part of a project to remember our dead and preserve our history.

Bellamy - Roy Roulhac (with Betty Smith and Judy Riley)

Carter's Mill - Joseph Fagan

Gray - Roy Roulhac and Barbara Johnson (with Andrew and Gazette Thompson)

McChapel - Roy Roulhac and Hazel Morris (with Willie Gibson, and Freddie and James Bellamy)

Orange Hill - Sarah Pender and Joseph Fagan

Pope Chapel - Sarah Pender and Robert Johnson

Riverside - Roy Roulhac (with Betty Smith and Judy Riley)

Roulhac - Roy Roulhac and Hazel Morris (with Betty Smith and Kenneth Pope)

Spears - Roy Roulhac (with Betty Smith and Judy Riley)

Union Hill - Joseph Fagan

The following African American cemeteries have also been surveyed:

Bethel Missionary - Wayne Carpenter

Ealy - Myrtle Martin

Ebeneezer - Doris Pamplinon-Dyer

Evergreen - Wayne Carpenter

Freeman - Wayne Carpenter

Friendship (NE of Cottondale) - Fanny Miles and Betty Mae Smith

Gainer - Wayne Carpenter and Betty Mae Smith

Hinson - Wayne Carpenter and Betty Mae Smith

Macedonia - Wayne Carpenter and Betty Mae Smith

Mt Ararat - Betty Mae Smith

Mt Calvary - Wayne Carpenter and Betty Mae Smith

Mt Cello - Wayne Carpenter

Mt Sinai - Wayne Carpenter

Robinson - Wayne Carpenter

Round Lake - James Nelson and Wayne Carpenter

Shiloh - Wayne Carpenter and Betty Mae Smith

Snelling - Jason and Charles Miles and Betty Mae Smith

All of the surveys, some with photographs, are on-line at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~fljackso/cemeteries/AfricanAmericanall.html

If you are interested in participating in this project, let me know the name and location of the cemetery, and the people who will conduct the survey. Volunteers are needed to type surveys. Cemetery surveys represent a lasting tribute to our ancestors.

Wandering Soul Finds Rest

An October 6, 2000, article in the New York Times reports that in 1888, an African was stolen from his grave in Gaborone, Botswana and mounted and displayed in a museum in Banyoles, Spain. Reportedly, a practical guide published in the 1830's, stated that to stuff a dead human "it is necessary to make a circular incision around the fingertips and peel back the skin as if it were a glove." The Verreaux brothers allegedly stole the body from a grave, stuffed it with vegetable fibers and inserted glass eyes.

The New York Times reported that for decades, the African was know simply as El Negro, dressed in feathers and skins and ogled by generations of white children at the Darder Museum of Natural History. Africans were said to have viewed the display as a symbol of racism which has lingered from a time when Blacks were paraded as freaks in vaudeville shows and natural history museums in Europe and America.

After eight years of protest, the unknown African, believed to have been Tswana, was finally re-buried in a state funeral in Gaborone. It is reported that hundreds of people waited for hours to view the remains and try to right the wrongs of history by paying respect to a stolen ancestor and a wandering soul. Medical examinations suggest that El Negro was 27 when he died of a lung infection around 1830. A brochure from the 1888 exhibit describes him as a chief, and says the Verreaux brothers attended his funeral and returned that night to steal his body.

African who practice traditional religion believe that the dead join a spirit world of ancestors who continue to support their living relatives. According to the Times, anthropologists estimate that thousands of skeletons and other human remains still lie in the world's museums. South African is hoping for the return of Saartjie Baartman, known as the Venus Hottentot, who was paraded through Europe when she was alive. Her skeleton and genitals remain in France.

[Reported by Rachael L. Swarns for TNY , 10/6/2000.

2000 Contest Winners

Spelling Bee winners: 3?5 grade: 1st, Dray Boykins, $75; 2d, Neddrick Wingfield, $50; 3rd, Phillip Sylvester, $25. 6?8 grade: Cornell Dixon, $75. Oratorical Contest: Elliott Curry $150. Essay Contest: 1st, April Williams, $150; 2nd, Abraham Johnson. Jr., $100.

Newsletter Committee

Roy L. Roulhac - Editor
Sheryl J. McGriff - Associate Editor

This issue of the newsletter was only sent to Association members. Share your copy with alumni who have not yet joined the Association and invite them to join. The next newsletter will be published in April 2001. Items for the newsletter should be sent to the editor not later than March 15, 2001. Send to 4730 Commonwealth, Detroit MI 48208 or by e-mail at: rlroulhac@hotmail.com Phone (313) 833-0675.

Gilmore Academy-Jackson County Training
School Alumni Association, Inc.
4730 Commonwealth
Detroit MI 48208

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