Soul food and civic clubs show up
As the African Americans flocked to Bremerton during WWII from the North and from the South, where the vast majority of African Americans had migrated from in the 1920's to escape the inhuman grip of Jim Crow, they brought with them customs, regional traditions and music. The Black southerners brought to the Northwest the “Down Home Blues” and “Dr. Watts” hymns, while northerners brought “Big City Blues” and jazz. Both groups brought other forms of art, rituals and history both oral and written. The meshing of these two groups in Bremerton provided a stable and close knit community in the Sinclair Heights Projects.
Blacks from both the North and the South brought techniques for preparing soul food. The term soul food was popularized in the 1960s, during the Black Power movement, sending a message that the foods we had to eat during slavery were essential for our survival and part of our history. Soul food often features the meat from the pig or the cow that the plantation owner would discard and not feed to his family. The slave woman would gather those pieces of meat -- pig's feet, tails, snouts, intestines(chitterlings) and ears, from the cow it was the hoofs and the tails -- add various herbs and spices to enhance the flavor, and feed her family. Slave women would also pick the greens along with the “poke salad” that grew wild on the edge of the plantations to add to the meal. Babies were fed “pot liquid” (the juice from the greens) which contained nutrients. Soul food was cooked with soul and love.
The newly arrived Blacks established a church that was instrumental in providing the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of the community. Other civic groups, such as, but not limited to, the Black Masons, National Association of Colored Women's Inc, NAACP and Black Elks accompanied them to the Northwest.
In my column today, I will highlight the history and purpose of two of these groups. The first is The Prince Hall Masons, and the second is The National Association of Colored Women's Clubs.
The Black Masons were established in 1775 in Boston, Massachusetts, after Prince Hall and 15 other Black Freemen were denied admission to the Boston Mason Lodge due to their race. In turn, they started their own lodge. Prince Hall, the leader of the group of Freemen, was an abolitionist who worked to advance the rights of Blacks, end slavery and protect freed Blacks from being kidnapped and returned to slavery. He went so far as to propose a “Back to Africa” movement for Blacks that was later championed by Marcus Garvey in 1914. Garvey gave us the Black liberation flag, with the colors red, black and green, representing the
Black people who spilled their blood in the making of this country.
Prince Hall Freemasonry is the oldest and continuously active organization founded by African Americans. Prince Hall Freemasonry proved to be an empowering force for the vulnerable Black community following the Civil War. Since its inception, the Prince Hall Masons have helped establish community institutions, provided leaders and gave the Black community the means to organize a continuous push for equality. In Bremerton, there is a Prince Hall Masonic Temple that holds so much of Bremerton’s Black history. The lodge is located on Burwell Street, just west of Warren Avenue, across from the shipyard, and recently suffered fire damage. My hope is that once the building is restored it would become a historic landmark.
The next organization to highlight is the Carver Colored Women’s Civic Club. This club was under the umbrella of the National Association of Colored Women’s Clubs. This is the oldest Black women’s organization, whose start illustrates the resilience of the African American spirit of equality and justice. In 1895, a letter appeared in a Missouri newspaper, asking American journalists to help battle lynchings. A reply to the letter by the editor attacked Black women. The editor wrote: “The Negroes in this country are wholly devoid of morality. They know nothing of it except as they learn by being caught for flagrant violations of law and punished. They consider it no disgrace but rather an honor to be sent to prison and to wear striped clothes. The women are prostitutes, and all are natural liars and thieves. Out of 200 in this vicinity, it is doubtful if there are a dozen virtuous women of that number who are not daily thieving from the white people.”
This letter ignited a fire that catapulted Black women into action. Across the country Colored Women’s Clubs were established to promote the uplifting of Black women, children, families, the home and the community through service, education, scholarship assistance and the promotion of racial harmony among all people. The Carver Colored Women’s Club of Bremerton, which was started by Gertrude Joseph in Sinclair Heights, impacted the Bremerton community as a whole. As my columns conclude for Black History Month, I would encourage people to learn more about African American history. It’s one way to fight against the watering down of our history, which is American history.