By Arthur Foulkes
TERRE HAUTE — When I was in school, I remember reading Ralph Elison’s poem “Invisible Man” and not understanding why he thought of himself as “invisible.” But in studying a little about local black history I believe I got a glimpse of what he meant. I think for hundreds of years there was a feeling among the majority of Americans that this land was a white, European nation and black people, native Americans and other non-Europeans were aliens who should be kept out of sight — made “invisible” — by being placed on reservations, deported back to Africa, or legally kept in legally segregated schools or in different neighborhoods.
For example, an old Terre Haute newspaper article I found from around 1940 on the Glenn orphans’ home described the home in detail, but somehow completely failed to mention the “colored orphanage” that was actually a large part of the same Glenn home facility at that time.
Studying black history gave me a glimpse into another time but also helped me understand a little better the present. But my favorite part of studying this history was learning about or speaking with interesting and remarkable people, such as James Anderson, Winton “Doc” Jones, Wynona Batton, Cynthia Perry, Nila Pettiford Manuel and many others.
I hate to use advertising slogans in this reflection on Black History Month, but one advertising slogan that hit me more than a few times during this project was “attitude is everything.” One common thread in all the people I studied or spoke with was they all had a willingness to persevere despite obstacles they faced.
Another thing that impressed me was a short story I read told by Demetrius Ewing, a local musician who eventually opened the first black-owned business — a tailoring shop — on Wabash Avenue in the 1940s. He told an interviewer with the Vigo County Oral History project of being in Valdosta, Ga., in the 1930s with his employer at the time, Ed Walsh. Ewing knew that Chick Webb’s band, featuring Ella Fitzgerald, was playing at a dance in a nearby tobacco warehouse and Ewing wanted to attend, which he did.
The dance was a “Negro dance,” Ewing told the interviewer, so there was a rope keeping white people off the dance floor. “But after the band was playing so well,” Ewing said, “those white people forgot about that rope … jumped over that rope and started dancing.” Ewing concluded the story, saying, “which shows you that these laws that they have … if they let the people alone, they’ll get along.”
“Let nature take its course?” the interviewer asked.
“That’s right. That’s right.”
Arthur Foulkes can be contacted at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
