Archive for June, 2024
Small Newspapers Help Tell the Vaders’ Story
from Tales from Pioneers and Soldiers Memorial Cemetery By SUE HUNTER WEIR 223rd in a Series Work on the pillars of the Cemetery’s fence has begun. Built in 1928, the fence has been in need of substantial repairs for at least a decade. Some of the soft limestone blocks and the mortar that held them together for almost 100 years need to be replaced. The restoration will take several months and is expected to be completed by fall. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an estimated 30% of children did not live to see their fifth birthdays. Of those, the majority did not reach their first birthdays. Cemetery records, census information, and death records tell part of the story, but other sources, especially newspapers, help fill in some of the blanks. Around that time, there were two newspapers, The Appeal and the Twin Cities Star, that served Minneapolis’ early African-American community. Although their stories were often brief, they help bring us closer to [...]
Juneteenth
from the series Something I Said By DWIGHT HOBBES Dwight Hobbes Rabble rouser cum activist Al Flowers will be on hand for a good, old-fashioned Juneteenth joint over north at Bethune/Phyllis Wheatley on the 15th. Bet money mainstream notables, stylin’ and profilin’ to see and be seen, will swing by for a foto-opp, maybe sign some autographs. Then, get back to living the boozhie life. Flowers, though, didn’t trade the Civil Rights Era clarion call, “We Shall Overcome” in for “I Have Overcome”. Still grounded in the grassroot, he’ll be there not for show but for grow – as in helping the community honor our past, while putting a foot down about the future.Juneteenth celebrates how Texas slaves, after being hoodwinked for two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, learned they were free and had a real good time! Albeit belatedly - baseball games, fishing, rodeos, street fairs and, of course, tradition that stands to this day. Cookouts.You’ll have the [...]
