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Harrison
to celebrate 100th Birthday
By Mile
Staniford, Managing Editor
The
Oklahoma Eagle
Thursday November 3, 1988
Emma Rentie Harrison will celebrate her 100th birthday on
Nov. 4, complete with a proclamation from mayor Rodger Randle declaring
Friday "Emma Rentie Harrison Day" in Tulsa. According to
employees at Chamor Nursing Center, where Harrison lives, State Senator
Maxine Horner will be present at the birthday party to give the
centenarian a citation.
Harrison, who looks remarkably well for her age, is shy about letting
anyone know about her approaching birthday, and she has her doubts about
having the event put into print. She jokingly says, " When everyone
finds out how old I am, I'll never get another husband."
"I don't remember myself, but they tell me I was born Nov. 4,
1888, in Indian Territory," Harrison begins the account of her
life.
Harrison says her father, Henry Jacob, was a Creek freedman who owned
a farm and operated a ferry north of Muskogee near the little town of
Clarksville, which is no longer listed on the official state
transportation department's map. She says her father used the ferry to
carry horses, buggies, wagons, and people across the Arkansas River.
Harrison's mother was Rebecca Jacob. In addition to raising Emma and her
brothers and sisters, Rebecca helped her husband farm the 160 acres they
owned on the north side of the river. Emma says they raised corn,
cotton, hogs, chicken, ducks, geese, and "everything like
that."
For entertainment, Emma says she used to play baseball with her
brothers. On Sunday, the whole family used to attend the Blue Creek
Baptist Church where Emma's father was a deacon and her uncle, Eli
Jacob, was the pastor.
Harrison remembers, "I was a home girl. they were strict on me.
I came up the old way. I never got into much trouble. . . I helped
mother with my twin brothers. . . . I'm no 'goodtime' woman. I get tired
of foolishness."
Harrison says when she was young she had to have a chaperone
accompany her on dates. She attended school at Jangston university.
While still in her teens, Emma Jacob married James Rentie, who owned
a farm west of Tullahassee. According to Harrison, she and her new
husband made their home for a short while in Muskogee. Mr. Rentie taught
school at the Tullahassee mission. She says her husband was a deacon.
She says her first husband "passed away quite awhile
ago."—she couldn't remember the exact date. Emma Harrison is the
last living member of her immediate family. her brothers and sisters
have all passed away.
According to Harrison's—legal guardian, her cousin Gaza Newby,
Harrison never had any children of her own, but many nieces and nephews,
and other relatives fondly call her "Aunt Emma." Newby says in
her later life, Emma Rentie married Manuel Harrison. This marriage
lasted only a short time, ending in Mr. Harrison's death.
Mrs. Harrison has lived at Chamor for eight and one-half years. She
says, "This here is my home."
Chamor employees report Harrison dresses herself every morning and,
though she can still walk, she spends much of her time in a wheelchair
at the door of her room visiting with other residents.
Chamor Social Service Director Pamela beard says all the residents
and the staff are looking forward to the big celebration because
"Emma is one of our favorite people."
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 |
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By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
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you happy." |
* * * * *
|
The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
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public benefits. Most provocatively, she
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colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
 |
* * * * *
The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
* *
* * *
Ancient African Nations
* * * * *
If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
* *
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
* * * * *
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update 15 December
2011
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