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Herbert Lewis and
Frances Bryant
On the
Occasion of Herbert's 75th Birthday
9 August 2008
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Fran ushers Herbert into his surprised
birthday party
at Shoney's in Emporia,
Virginia, where family and friends have
assembled to celebrate his 75th.
Fran greets Chapel Hill
Baptist Church's Reverend Bradley and his
"first lady." Herbert is one of Chapel Hill's
most respected deacons. |
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Son of Arthur Lewis and
grandson of Daniel Robinson and Mary Lewis, Herbert
Lewis (born 7 August 1933) is the father of three sons
and two daughters: Caroline Lewis Coleman,
Herbert Lewis, Jr. (wasn't present; wife was ill; lives in Florida); Michael Lewis, Sharon Lewis; and
Shawn Lewis.
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Uncle Arthur and His Lady Friend
(unknown) |
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Arthur Lewis ("Uncle
Arthur") had three children: Martha Lewis Teagle (5 February
1935; died 1 November 2002); Mary (Foodie)
Lewis
Faison (born 5 January 1939); and Herbert Lewis
(born 7 August 1933). I have
known all three all of my life, though we have not been
very close. I have always been very
fond of Foodie, as a young woman she was fine, really
pretty, and humorous. Martha and Mary spent most of
their lives in Philadelphia, while Herbert remained in
southern Virginia most of his life, except for that period in Philly from
December 1951 to May 1963.
I was especially fond of Uncle
Arthur's children because it was their father who taught
me my letters and numbers. When I was a little boy, he
bought me a blackboard and chalk and taught me to focus.
I remember my lessons taking place out in
the front yard (1953). Because of him I was well
prepared for the first grade and excelled all my
classmates and skipped the third grade and graduated
high school when I was sixteen.
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Chontel Coleman, son of Carolyn Lewis
Coleman; Jennifer (Sparkle) and daughter
Genesis
Jennifer (Sparkle);
daughter Genesis, and her grandmother
Carolyn Coleman
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Herbert and his
buddies: Peter Givens, in
front of Herbert; Leslie Eldridge (friend
& neighbor), against the
wall |
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Leslie Atkins, Herbert's
stepson
Darlene Atkins (Fred's
wife) |
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Carolyn sent an
email informing me of Herbert's surprise birthday party.
I had not met any of the children of Martha, Mary, and
Herbert, though Caroline and I have been emailing each
other for sometime and she has been supporting the work
of ChickenBones. I think she got to know me from the
"family stories" I had published on the website. Calvin,
Martha's son, had also discovered the stories as well.
On their paternal grandfather's side of the family it
was a blank, damn near. So they have been very pleased
with the work I have done to keep our ancestors alive in
such stories as Conjuring & Doctoring
(which includes Uncle Arthur); Black
Mama, White Son (tale told from the view of Mary Lewis, the Queen
Mother of the Lewis Family), and then there is Father Son and Mary
(which includes the man who raised me, William "Pompsie" Lewis, and his father George Graves).
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Fran (Herbert's lady),
Mary (Herbert's sister), Herbert; Calvin
(Martha's son),
and his wife Wanda |
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Left to
right in photo: Calvin Lewis, Martha's
son; Wanda Lewis (Calvin's wife); Caroline
Lewis Coleman (daughter),
Mary (Foodie) Faison (sister);
Herbert Lewis, Sr;
Michael Lewis (son); Sharon Lewis
(daughter); Shawn Lewis (son). |
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Fran and Herbert
Alester Teagle (Martha's
daughter) |
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Herbert's 75th birthday was a joyous and
simple occasion. He was in good form. I got to meet and be with
my folks. They were kind and received me as
a celebrity. Calvin bought me
dinner and we had a long talk and reviewed
some of the stories he had read on
ChickenBones. We also talked about the
family cemetery in back of where Grandma
Mary used to live, near the edge of the
woods. Calvin has begun his own family
project, working up a book that will include
the family tree beyond what I have in my
family stories.
Herbert (left) and Rudy (right) |
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Calvin wants to leave a tree
behind for his children and his cousins. I
encouraged him to check out the old family cemetery.
All of Mary's sons are not there, Daddy (William
Lewis) is buried here at Jerusalem. Richard is
buried in some cemetery in Baltimore. Percy became
white and disappeared in the 50s. Edward and Irvin
were buried on the Owens farm, where they all worked
as semi-slaves. Their bones have been plowed under,
probably, to enrich the earth on which they gave
their lives.
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Lewis Cemetery
Below are those
I know buried there. Some were buried in wooden
boxes with their names on tin plates. Those graves
are sunken and have not been well attended. Exactly
where Mary is buried there I don't recall. Mama when
she was able built the graves back up and cleaned
around them. It probably would be very nice if a
stone or metal placard was set there with all their
names inscribed. That would be a nice project for
the young folk. It could be a sacred place for
family to meet and refresh their ties with their
ancestors.
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Mary Jones Lewis King, mother of William
Lewis
Arthur Lewis, brother of William Lewis
Joe Roy Lewis, brother of William Lewis
John Willie Lewis, son of Edward Lewis
(brother of William Lewis)
Ernest Myrick, “Blind Dick," nephew of Mary
Lewis
Theodore “Billy” Lewis, brother of William
Lewis
Toy Lewis, wife of Billy
Ernest King, Sam Jackson’s stepson
Nathaniel King, husband of Mary Lewis
Edward King (“Ned,” son
and grandson of Nathaniel King) |
Mary Lewis had
eight sons: Edward, Irvin, Joe, William, Richard,
Arthur, Percy, Theodore.
May her
generations live forever.
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 |
Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
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
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
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 |
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* * * * *
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)
* *
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
* * * * *
Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
1950
1960
1965
1970
1975
1980
1985
1990
1995
2000
____ 2005
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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posted 21 August 2008
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