No tour of South-View Cemetery would be complete without talking about the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was initially buried at South-View after his untimely death. Several of his family members are buried there that greatly influenced his path in life.

The Rev. Adam Daniel (A.D.) Williams was the grandfather of Martin Luther King, Jr. As the son of slaves Willis and Lucretia Williams in Greene County, Ga., he was probably born in 1861 but celebrated his birthday on January 2, 1863, the day after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. His hopes of following his father into preaching were evident from an early age. Taught by several ministers in the community, Rev. Williams earned his license to preach in April 1888.

In January 1893, he was called to the pastorate of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. Although Ebenezer had only 13 members when he arrived, the congregation grew to 400 members by 1903. Williams enrolled at Atlanta Baptist College (later named Morehouse College) and in May 1898, received his certificate from the ministerial program. Rev. Williams married Jennie Celeste Parks in 1899. In 1903, they welcomed their only surviving daughter, Alberta, who later became the mother of Martin Luther King, Jr.

In September 1895, Rev. Williams joined 2,000 other delegates and visitors at Friendship Baptist Church to organize the National Baptist Convention, the largest black organization in the U.S. By 1904, Rev. Williams was president of the Atlanta Baptist Ministers’ Union, and chairman of both the executive board and finance committee of the General State Baptist Convention.

In 1906, Rev. Williams helped organize the Georgia Equal Rights League to protest the white primary system. Twelve years later, Williams became branch president of the NAACP chapter he helped found. During his tenure, the branch grew to 1,400 members within five months and spearheaded a major effort to register black voters.

Daughter Alberta married Martin Luther King, Sr. (known as “Daddy King”) in 1926. Rev. Williams’ son-in-law succeeded him as pastor of Ebenezer in 1931 after his death.

Near the front gates of South-View is the tomb of Rev. King Sr. and Alberta. After Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. in 1968 by James Earl Ray, his body was placed in this tomb until the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (known as The King Center) opened in the 1970s when his remains were moved to a new tomb there. His wife, Coretta Scott King, joined him there when she died in 2006.

The son of sharecroppers Delia (Linsey) and James Albert King, Dr. Martin Luther King Sr. was born Michael King in Stockbridge, Ga. in 1899. As a young man, he moved to Atlanta, where his sister Woodie was boarding with Rev. A.D. Williams. After Dr. King Sr. started courting Alberta, her family encouraged him to finish his education and become a preacher.

In 1926, Dr. King Sr. started his ministerial degree at the Morehouse School of Religion and married Alberta at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The couple had three children: Willie Christine King (Farris), Martin Luther King, Jr. (born Michael King, Jr.), and Alfred Daniel Williams King.

Dr. King Sr. became leader of Ebenezer Baptist Church in March 1931 after the death of his father-in-law. By 1934, he’d become a much respected leader of the local church. He changed his name (and that of his eldest son) from Michael King to Martin Luther King after becoming inspired during a trip to Germany by the life of theologian Martin Luther, although he never changed his name legally.

Dr. King Sr. was the pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church for 40 years. In 1948, his son, Martin Jr., joined him at Ebenezer as an associate pastor. Despite theological differences, father and son would later serve together as joint pastors at the church.

Dr. King Sr. headed Atlanta’s Civic and Political League, and NAACP branch. After his son’s assassination in 1968, he lent his support to former Georgia governor Jimmy Carter during his 1976 Presidential campaign.

Dr. King Sr. endured more than one family tragedy. On June 30, 1974, while Dr. King Sr. was out of town, Alberta was playing the organ at Ebenezer Baptist Church during a service when she was shot and killed. The gunman, Marcus Wayne Chenault, claimed he planned to shoot Dr. King Sr. because of his hatred for Christians but in his absence, had shot his wife instead. Cheanualt was given a life sentence and died of a stroke in prison in 1995.

Dr. King Sr.’s younger son, Rev. Alfred Daniel Williams King. Jr., died in 1969 at the age of 39 when he drowned in the swimming pool at his home. After suffering a stroke in 1984, Dr. King Sr. died and was buried at South-View beside his wife.

There are two other graves I’d like to mention. The first is Carrie Cunningham and her son, McAllister “Red” Riggins. Had it not been for Red’s outrageous behavior, Atlanta’s famed Royal Peacock club might never have opened in 1949.

“Mama” Cunningham already owned and managed the Royal Hotel on Auburn Avenue. Hoping to keep her wayward musician son out of trouble, she opened the Royal Peacock (formerly the Top Hat, where the Whitman sisters performed). Cunningham already had experience in the entertainment world, having worked in large traveling vaudeville troupes as a girl.

Thanks to Cunningham’s business skills, the Royal Peacock became the hot spot for up and coming talent. Artists like James Brown, Ray Charles and Nat King Cole played there as relative unknowns who went on to become stars.

Cunningham was also a confidante and adviser to Martin Luther King, Jr. and newspaper columnist Ralph McGill. She also enjoyed the company of Joe Louis, Jackie Robinson, Mohammed Ali and other African-American celebrities.

Carrie Cunningham died in 1973 and the Royal Peacock’s fortunes have ebbed and flowed since that time. Currently, it’s a hip hop club but the Royal Peacock has yet to recapture the status it had once up on a time.

The last person I’d like to talk about is a man most known for an iconic picture in a magazine. In it, he’s weeping as he plays the accordion, mourning for his lost friend. But there was much more to Graham Jackson, Sr. than a photo.

A native of Portsmouth, Va., Jackson could master almost any instrument, giving piano and organ concerts at high school age. Sponsored by a wealthy patron, Jackson studied at the college level but when the patron died, Jackson stopped his formal training until he moved to Georgia.

During his early days in Atlanta, Jackson attended Morehouse College and Atlanta University. In 1928, he joined the faculty at Washington High School and served as its music director until 1940.

Jackson became a personal friend of Eleanor and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, having played command performances in Washington, D.C. He was present in Warm Springs, Ga., when Roosevelt died on April 12, 1945. The two had been collaborating on a version of Antonin Dvorak’s “Goin’ Home” the day before.

Jackson became a national icon when Life photographer Ed Clark took a photo of Jackson playing “Goin’ Home” as Roosevelt’s funeral train left Warm Springs.

Jackson served in the Navy from 1942 to 1945, receiving six honorary citations for his war bond fundraising (yielding more than $3,000,000 in sales) and Navy recruitment work.

Jackson went on to appear on Ed Sullivan’s Toast of the Town and formed the Graham Jackson Choir, which toured extensively. He also made guest appearances playing the huge Moller organ at Atlanta’s Fox Theater (nicknamed the “Mighty Mo”).

In later years, Jackson entertained with a combo and as a solo Hammond organ artist at Atlanta’s Johnny Reb’s Restaurant and Pittypat’s Porch. He was named Official Musician of the State of Georgia by then-Governor Jimmy Carter in 1971 and was inducted posthumously into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame in 1985.

There’s so much more to South-View Cemetery than what I’ve written in these three installments, so I’m returning next week to wrap things up in Part IV.

Last week, I introduced you to some of the history of Atlanta’s South-View Cemetery and featured a few of its more notable residents. Today, we’ll continue on our tour.

On the far side of the cemetery, John led me to the grave of one of Atlanta’s most successful businessmen. The story of how he went from a slave to Atlanta’s first black millionaire is well worth telling.

Born into slavery in 1858, Alonzo Franklin Herndon was the son of his white master, Frank Herndon, and a slave, Sophenie. Like many former slaves after the Civil War, the Herndon family (Alonzo, his mother, maternal grandparents and brother) became sharecroppers. Herndon worked as a farmhand in his teens and learned the barbering trade, opening his first shop in Jonesboro where he developed a thriving business.

After Herndon settled in Atlanta, he worked in a shop owned by William Dougherty Hutchins and later purchased half interest in the shop. By 1904, he owned three shops in Atlanta. His famous “Crystal Palace” shop at 66 Peachtree Street was advertised as the largest and best barbershop in the region.

Following racial practices of the time, African-American barbers served an exclusively white clientele composed of the city’s leading lawyers, judges, politicians, and businessmen. As Herndon’s success grew, he invested in real estate in Atlanta and in Florida.

In 1905, Herndon purchased a failing mutual aid association, which he incorporated as the Atlanta Mutual Insurance Association. The small association expanded its assets from $5,000 to more than $400,000 by 1922. In the same year, the company became the Atlanta Life Insurance Company and achieved legal reserve status, a position enjoyed by only four other black insurance companies at that time.

In the 1920s, Herndon expanded Atlanta Life into a half dozen new states. Seeking to save failing black enterprises whenever possible, he re-insured policyholders and merged the faltering business into Atlanta Life to maintain confidence in black businesses while saving jobs for African-Americans.

As a result of Herndon’s wealth and business stature, the African-American community looked to him for leadership. He knew many of the leading black intellectual and political leaders in the country, and participated in several organizations with a national political or economic focus.

On the local level, Herndon generously supported the YMCA, Atlanta University, three orphanages, the Herndon Day Nursery and the First Congregational Church. He also supported commercial activities, including the Southview Cemetery Association and the Atlanta State Savings Bank.

Herndon’s wife, Adrienne, was a drama professor at Atlanta University when they met. She was also admired for her beauty, intelligence and good taste. Along with her husband, she helped design and decorate their new Beaux Art-style residence that became the Herndon Home. Although she died shortly after the home was completed in 1910, it still stands today and is a museum.

Located not far from the Herndon family plot is a marker that’s quite different by contrast. George “Union” Wilder’s grave is believed to be the only existing marker for a black victim of the 1906 Atlanta Race Riot. This 2006 article by Jim Auchmutey goes into greater detail.

On Sept. 22, 1906, Atlanta newspapers were featuring extras with wildly exaggerated reports of rapes by blacks. An estimated crowd of 5,000 whites downtown started assaulting blacks at random. By the time the violence ended four days later, between 25 and 50 people were dead. One of them was 70-year-old George “Union” Wilder.

When the Civil War began, Wilder was a slave working for the Wilder family in Macon. On April 8, 1865, (the day before Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox), Wilder enlisted in Selma and became part of the 137th U.S. Colored Troops, a regiment of former slaves from Alabama and Georgia. Wilder was so proud of his service that he apparently adopted “Union” as a middle name.

After Wilder and his wife returned to Atlanta in the 1880s, he guarded leased convict labor at the Chattahoochee Brick Co. He applied for an invalid’s pension in 1890, complaining of rheumatism, heart disease and pain behind one eye burned by gunpowder during the war.

On the night her husband died, Wilder’s wife was working as a servant in a private home. But she had seen his corpse. She gave the cause of death as “cuts by knives and gun and pistol shots … in the hands of a mob.” Wilder’s death resulted in no charges. The Atlanta Constitution listed him as a riot fatality in a short brief, but none of the city’s newspapers bothered to write an obituary.

Seven of the riot victims lie in unmarked pauper’s graves at South-View. Only Wilder’s is marked with a broken piece of granite with an inscription that’s almost impossible to read. Below his name, age and affiliation with the Odd Fellows fraternal organization are three lines:

A soldier of the Civil War
was killed in the riot
of Atlanta Sept. 26, 1906 

Our next stop was the grave of Lieutenant Walter Drake Westmoreland, member of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen. The son of a letter carrier, Westmoreland was a graduate of Class 43-G. He earned his pilot wings at Tuskegee in 1943 and flew a P-51C fighter, nicknamed “Dopey”.

Westmoreland was a member of the 332nd Fighter Group, 305th Fighter Squadron based in Italy during World WWII. To identify themselves in combat, they painted the tails of their fighters bright red, which earned them the nickname “Red Tails.”

On Oct. 13, 1944, Westmoreland’s plane was shot down by enemy ground fire near Lake Balaton, Hungary, while returning from an escort mission to Blechhammer, Germany. First designated as missing in action, Westmoreland’s remains were not returned from Europe until December 1948 and he was laid to rest at South-View.

We’re not done with our tour yet so come back next week to continue the journey in Part III.

 

 

Ever have the best intentions of doing something but keep getting derailed? That’s the story of my wish to visit Atlanta’s historic South-View Cemetery.

Those intentions might have stayed just that had it not been for fellow “hopper” and author John Bayne. He’d bring up going there once in a while since he’s writing a book about South-View but something always came up. Over the summer, we found a Friday that worked and I picked him up in front of the King Center before we headed out.

South-View Cemetery has a rich history that few Atlantans know about and if not for John, I wouldn’t have discovered it either. I hope to share this local treasure over the next few weeks so more people will visit and learn.

After the Civil War, former slaves and their free-born children hoped to establish a new way of life for their families throughout the South. It wasn’t easy and they faced many obstacles. Those living in Atlanta were no exception.

African-Americans often had to enter cemeteries through back gates and even wade through swamps to hold funeral services. They were told “If you don’t like it, start your own cemetery.” In 1886, they did just that. Nine black businessmen (most of them former slaves) petitioned the State of Georgia for a charter to establish a cemetery and it was granted in April of the same year.

Today, South-View is the final resting place for many of Atlanta’s African-American elite. Civil rights icons, successful entrepreneurs and influential ministers can be found within footsteps of each other. About 70,000 people are buried at South-View and it’s still an active cemetery, with hundreds of burials a year.

During our visit, I had the honor of meeting South-View’s current president, Winifred Watts Hemphill. She is the great-granddaughter of one of the cemetery’s founders, Albert Watts, Sr. An accomplished attorney, Ms. Hemphill is dedicated to preserving and sharing South-View’s history. You can watch a video of her touring the cemetery here.

Thanks to a recently created audio tour, you can learn about some of South-View’s more notable residents. John and I tried it out using my iPhone and found it easy to follow.

The first stop was the grave of Geneva Haugabrooks, an icon in the African-American community. As founder (1929) and owner of Haugabrooks Funeral Home, which is still operated by family, she was one of the early African-American pioneers of Atlanta’s black business community and one of the few black female entrepreneurs on Auburn Avenue.

Geneva Haugabrooks was also recognized as an accomplished community leader who interacted with Atlanta’s nationally and internationally-known political figures, and local personalities.

Our next stop was the grave of John Wesley Dobbs. Often caled the unofficial mayor of Auburn Avenue, Dobbs was one of several distinguished African-American civic and political leaders who worked to achieve racial equality in segregated Atlanta during the first half of the 20th century.

Dobbs believed African-American suffrage was the key to racial advancement. Hoping to reach a goal of registering 10,000 black voters in Atlanta, he preached the importance of voter registration wherever he spoke. Dobbs also founded the Atlanta Civic and Political League in 1936 and, with attorney A. T. Walden, co-founded the Atlanta Negro Voters League in 1946.

Dobbs was also the grandfather of Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson (1972-82 and 1990-94). In 1994, Jackson honored him by changing Houston Street to John Wesley Dobbs Ave. I was working at United Family Life at the time (located on that street) and remember it well.

The next grave we came to is not on the tour but John stopped me to tell me about it. Without John Harden, Atlanta African-Americans might not have enjoyed several seasons of exciting baseball in the 1930s and 1940s.

From 1937 to 1949, John Harden and his wife, Billie, owned and managed the Atlanta Black Crackers, the city’s famed Negro Southern League baseball team. Harden owned a filling station on Auburn Avenue and was already well known in the community.

Like their white counterparts, the Black Crackers played at Ponce de Leon Park. On days when the white Atlanta Crackers were scheduled to play a home game, the Black Crackers played their games at either Morehouse College or Morris Brown College. Over the years, the team often suffered severe financial setbacks that kept them from playing but they were a hot ticket when they did. The team officially disbanded for good in 1952.

Upon first appearance, the Whitman family plot doesn’t indicate the depth of history involved with the occupants buried there. The largest stone is for the Rev. Albery Allson (A.A.) Whitman and his wife, Caddie. Born into slavery in Kentucky, Rev. Whitman became a prominent African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church pastor and a noted author. During his life, he was acclaimed as the “Poet Laureate of the Negro Race”.

While Rev. Whitman was well known in certain circles, the successful entertainment careers of his daughters would at the time far outshine that of their father.

While the upbringing of Mabel (May), Alberta, Essie and Alice Whitman was understandably strict, it included musical training and they often accompanied their father at gospel jubilees at various churches. Some say he taught them dances as a form of exercise. He probably wasn’t thrilled when the three oldest decided to start a vaudeville act in 1899, but the fact that he left them a sizable legacy after his death indicates he supported them.

The Whitman Sisters were unusual not only because they outlasted other black companies, but also because it was solely owned and managed by an African-American woman, May Whitman.

Because they were light skinned and sometimes performed in blackface, white audiences thought they were white. The Whitman Sisters started their show business career touring in many white vaudeville shows. They toured in Europe at one point and eventually made Chicago their home base, focusing on black audiences. The Whitman Sisters would become the highest paid black act on the black vaudeville circuit.

May successfully directed and ran the production company that sometimes employed as many as 30 people. In an environment dominated by male white theater owners and booking agents, Mabel stood apart and was dubbed the “Tiger Show Woman”. Her business savvy in negotiating contracts while keeping her show clean and respectable was admirable. Ever a preacher’s daughter, she insisted that all performers attend church services on Sundays.

Alberta (“Bert”) was an agile dancer who worked as a male impersonator in her acts. She handled all the show’s finances and composed much of the music. Essie, a big-voiced singer, was in charge of designing and making the costumes for the group. Her comedy routines were audience favorites.

Alice, the youngest, was regarded by many as the “Queen of Taps” and performed many dances of the day, including the Shim Sham Shimmy, Ballin’ The Jack and Walkin’ the Dog. Her son, Albert, joined the show as a child and grew to become a talented dancer.

The Whitman Sisters’ fortunes waxed and waned over the decades but thanks to May’s financial planning, they retired to an elegant 15-room home in Chicago by 1940. All had been married a few times by this point.

May died in 1942 while planning the troupe’s next show. Essie (who became a full-time evangelist in later years) died in 1963 from smoke inhalation when the Chicago home burned and Alberta died a year later. Alice died in 1969, having made sure her older sisters were all buried in South-View beside their parents.

Sadly, the Whitman Sisters’ individual grave markers have not stood the test of time well. They are the temporary markers from African-American owned funeral homes that often remained their only marker since a permanent one was never purchased. I was only able to make out the ones for Alberta and Essie.

Today, few pictures remain of the Whitmans Sisters and no audio/video recordings of their performances survive. I’m hopeful that someday, a memorial to these four remarkable women will be placed to honor their special niche in vaudeville history.

Next week, we’ll continue our tour of South-View in Part II.

I photographed so many great portraits at Chicago’s Mount Carmel Catholic Cemetery that it seemed unfair to relegate them to a file on my computer, never to be seen. So I pulled out some I like most and made today’s post a simple pictorial.

I tried to do some research on the people pictured here but it didn’t yield much useful information. As I discovered in doing research on my own family tree, immigrants did not always divulge accurate information to census takers, if they told them anything at all.

The tradition of placing a portrait of the deceased on the grave marker was embraced and cherished by the Italian immigrants that came to Chicago and made it their home. Their gazes are often solemn, attired in their best clothes. We are blessed to have these mementos of their lives.

Maria Campo Rosone (spelled Rosoni in some records) came from Italy with her parents, Tom Campo and Margaret Gatagopa Campo. Her death record lists her as a housewife but I couldn’t find her husband’s name. She was only 40 when she died.

The only record for Sophie Rosone that I could find was that in 1928 she was living with her husband, Joseph, who was a candy maker. I don’t know if she was related to Maria Rosone.

I am 95 percent sure that this young man is Carmen Pintozzi but his name is not on the monument he shares with Vito Pintozzi (whom I believe was his father). It’s on a ground level marker, however. Vito (who was a newspaper dealer) died only three years after Carmen, who was a florist and married to Ruth Pintozzi. Carmen and his parents came to America from Salerno, Italy.

Three members of the Angelico family share one monument. Antonio and Rafaella both came from the village of Brienza in Italy and lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina before moving to the U.S. sometime after 1900.

Antonio is listed in the 1910 as a laborer. He looks rather well to do in his photograph.

I’m certain Rosina was greatly missed by her parents. In her portrait she is wearing her first communion dress. She was only 14 at the time of her death. The Angelicos had several other children who lived well into adulthood.

Rafaella Mautone came from Marigliano, Italy and was married to Sebastiano Mautone, who is listed as a laborer. She shares a marker with him and what appear to be two of her children who died in their 20s. But her face is the most interesting of the four. She most likely never became a U.S. citizen. Her husband died about 20 years before she did.

I wanted to include Onofrio Taglia’s mausoleum because it is a good example of how Italian immigrant families honored their beloved sons. His mausoleum features a statue and two portraits of him.

His parents, Vincenzo and Angelina, were from Italy but Onofrio was born in Chicago and worked for the city’s sewer department before he was drafted during World War I.

He died at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas in January 1919. I discovered that Camp Logan fell victim to the massive Spanish Flu pandemic. Military bases were especially susceptible to Spanish Flu outbreaks, so it is highly likely that Onofrio died from it.

The Sorianello monument leaves more questions than answers. This is Francesco “Frank” Sorianello, the son of Francesco Sorianello, Sr. He died at the age of 32. One record for him concerns a will indicating he left an estate of around $10,000 behind.

Even less is known about Francesco Sorianello, Sr., who died at the age of 50. He was probably an Italian immigrant. His wife is not buried with him but the words “Ricordo di Vittoria Sorianello” are on the base of the monument.”Ricordo” usually means “memory” or “remembered by” in Italian.  The only record I could find for him was that he died intestate and the amount of his estate was undetermined.

Vittoria later remarried and was the wife of Rocco Petiffo, a butcher.

This portrait is on the side of the Sorianello monument and there are no names or dates under it. The only clue to whom it might be is that one more name is listed under those of the father and son. Franco Sorianello died at the age of one. But are these two different pictures of him? I don’t know.

This last portrait has to be one of the…well…creepiest I’ve ever seen. I was walking through the cemetery and looked up to see Pasquale staring back at me. It’s the first “post mortem” photo I have seen up close on a monument. I’ve seen a few online but never one in person. A post-mortem photo is taken after the person has died.

Pasquale’s name is a bit of a puzzle. The monument lists him as Pasquale Marcandento but the children listed below him are all Mercadante. I’m thinking perhaps his name was changed after he came through Ellis Island, as many Italian names were (remember The Godfather?).

I found a will for Pasquale that states he had an estate worth $20,000 when he died, so he must have been prosperous in his day. I have no idea why his family chose to have him photographed like this but perhaps no photos were taken of him when he was alive.

While I could post several more of these portraits, I’ll end it here. I hope you’ve enjoyed my Chicago rambles.

Arrivederci e che Dio vi benedica.