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| Major contributions of African Americans should be recalled |
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By: MIKE PIRTLE
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Posted: Sunday, March 15, 2009 8:59 am
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The contributions and accomplishment of African Americans appear throughout the history of Rutherford County, including, of course, leaders in civil rights but ranging from a brave doctor all the way back to a solider in the American Revolutionary War.
Compiling a list of notable African American citizens soon produces a lengthy recitation, but with help from community and history sources, here’s a Top 10 (11 because getting down to that number was hard enough), all citizens should recognize.
1. Dr. J.S. Bass – He was born a slave in Giles County in 1848, went through the Civil War as a cart boy to Capt. Summer, went through the Reconstruction period, Ku Klux Klan and the drawbacks that followed his freedom. He immediately began to acquire an education, taught school for a while, and became an ordained minister in the African Methodist Church. Then he began to study medicine. Dr. Bass lived in Tennessee until 1902.
Having finished the medical course at Meharry Medical College, he practiced medicine in Murfreesboro until he moved to Iola, Kan. Dr. Bass was one of the volunteers that went to Chattanooga during the yellow fever epidemic, for which service he was highly complimented by the public in many published and oral communications.
2. William Butler Sr. – During the critical civil rights period from 1957-84, Butler was president of the local chapter of the NAACP, providing community guidance as Rutherford County and Murfreesboro schools were integrated.
A career educator, he also served for four years at state vice president of the NAACP. Butler served on the Senior Citizen Advisory, Wee Care Day Care Center and Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship boards, as well as the Chamber of Commerce. At a difficult and contentious time for race relations, he stepped into the role of chapter president upon the death of the previous president.
3. Luther T. Glanton was a native of Murfreesboro. He left Tennessee in 1939 to pursue a law degree and became the first African American law student at Drake University. After graduating, Glanton began an extensive career in the Iowa judiciary system. During his many years of service, Luther Glanton’s career continued to be distinguished by a series of “firsts.”
Glanton was the first African American to serve on numerous legal and community boards and committees, and in 1951 he became the first African American to be appointed as an assistant Polk County attorney. He was elected to serve as a municipal court judge in the late 1950s, and from there was appointed to the position of district associate judge and district court judge for the state of Iowa. He was also the first black high-ranking officer in the Iowa National Guard.
4. Peter Jennings – Jennings served in Varnum’s Regiment, the 1st Rhode Island, which was an all African-America volunteer unit organized by Gen. James Mitchell Varnum. The unit saw action in one of the most famous Revolutionary War battles of them all at Bunker Hill.
After the war Jennings moved to Murfreesboro and ran a bakery from his home at the corner of Vine and Church. He applied for and received an annual pension of $250 in 1833 at age 81, apparently still bearing the scar from a wound suffered in battle during the Revolutionary War.
5. Myrtle Lord – Mrs. Lord became known in her later years as an energetic advocate of reading, especially for children, and for her community in general. Her 42 years as a teacher continued to guide her passion well after her classroom days. She is credited with the vision and powerful advocacy that saw creation of the Patterson Center and later the Patterson Park Community Center where a community library is named in her honor.
6. James R. Patterson – The man for whom the Patterson Center is named “was well known for his work for improved human relations,” wrote the Rev. Melvin E. Hughes, Sr., in “A History of Rutherford County’s African American Community.” He helped to organize as well as serve on the Rutherford County Voters’ Council and the Murfreesboro Human Relations Commission.
Dr. Patterson was well beloved in the community as the only black dentist in the region and was respected for his service to and support of the community.
7. Emma G. Rogers Roberts – She the first African American educator named to the Tennessee Teachers Hall of Fame in 1995. Her teaching career began in the rural schools of the county in 1936, and she later joined the City of Murfreesboro system. Roberts served with great distinction and provided leadership as principal for Bradley Academy Elementary School from 1955 through 1972.
She was instrumental in establishing the school's high standards of academic excellence and its tradition of serving the wider community. In 2001, the city recognized her contributions by naming an expansion of Bradley the Emma G. Roberts Center for the Arts and Communications.
8. Nannie Rucker — A teacher for five decades, Mrs. Rucker was elected a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1972, returning in 1976 and 1980. She had a lengthy term of service on the Rutherford County School Board and was also elected a Democratic Executive Committeewoman, representing a 15-county district.
9. Mary Ellen Vaughn – Originally from Alabama, Mary Ellen Vaughn was an entrepreneur and skilled nurse who used her talents to promote the interests of Murfreesboro's African American community in the first half of the 20th century.
Vaughn's extensive education included Tuskegee Institute, Chicago Business College and Tennessee A&I State College. She established the African American newspaper Murfreesboro Union in 1920 and Vaughn's Training School in 1933. During the 1920s, she worked as a nurse in the Commonwealth Fund's nationally significant effort to improve rural public health in Rutherford County. Her school provided home health-care instruction and adult education, and served as a clearinghouse for civil rights information and activism. Murfreesboro's Vaughn Street continues to honor her memory.
10. Robert “Tee-niny” Scales – The first African American elected to a city council in an at large race since Reconstruction, Scales played a major role in the civil rights movement here and in easing the process with his mantra of “Let us reason together.
Owner and operator of a longtime family funeral business, he was the first black Murfreesboro City Councilman and the first black vice mayor of Murfreesboro. Scales Elementary School is named in honor of him and his widow, Mary Scales, who also served on the city council. Scales played an active role early on in promoting civil rights in Murfreesboro (see below).
11. Ewell Willis – The president of the local chapter of the NAACP form 1946-1957, Willis was “instrumental in opening the General Electric and Samsonite plants for minority employment, writes Rev. Hughes.
The African American historian also credits Willis and Scales with conducting the first sit-ins of city lunchrooms that were then segregated. Willis, Hughes wrote, “would order coffee and Scales would order a (soft) drink and dessert.” Willis became the target of threatening phone calls, and white citizens began to boycott his shoe finishing and dyeing business on the public square. |
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Member Opinions:
By: archosignis on 3/16/09
The fact that we like to make an extra effort to acknowledge the contributions of "African-Americans" (read black) individuals has never made sense to me. Sure, we would be in the dark ages were it not for their ideas and inventions, but it seems that we are almost disregarding their brilliance by overshadowing it with their skin color. It's like they're black people first, who just happened to make great contributions to society. Instead of "Major contributions of African Americans should be recalled", why couldn't this article be titled "11 Great Tennesseans We Should All Know", for example. In my eyes, it seems like we're told to remember the black contributions because for some reason we don't expect great things from people with dark brown skin. It just frustrates me that the only reason these great people are being remembered today is because of their skin color, the fact that they worked hard to make the world a better place is just a foot note. Why do you and I, in the 21st century, continue to be labeled and categorized based on how much melanin our cells contain? Why cant I be me, you be you, and we all be Americans? (Without all the 'politically correct' prefixes)
By: roxie on 3/16/09
I agree with this also and i think if this was going to be about the African Americans then it should have been recognized last month for Black History Month. One thing my mother always taught me it dont matter what your race is but if someone stick a needle in us we all bleed the same but i know this article was not about race or nothing but sometimes we just need to be reminded of things.
By: Duvics on 3/16/09
the only issue I have is the word "recalled." Its use rather than "remembered," makes the article seem pejorative rather than ameliorative.
By: justdance on 3/16/09
Archosignis, Is it just African Americans you feel shouldn't be acknowledged for their accomplishments to history? If so, you have some serious issues; if that's not what you meant, you should rethink your opening statement. And read the newspapers or go on the internet and look around, there are a LOT of people around who don't expect great things from people with skin color other than white. Roxie, I agree this article should have been in one of the February Post issues during Black History Month, but still a great article. and Duvics okay, "remembered" would be a better word than "recalled", but the rest of your comment.....are ya kidding me......?! :)
By: Boo on 3/17/09
I loved this article! I've known all along that my African American brothers and sisters played a huge part in the physical and mental building of our great country, but when I was learning history in school (before dirt was invented) there was very little info on any contributions made by African Americans. This article put names to some of these great people. Thank you, Post, for writing it.
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