The late Mollie Mae Smith (1932-2009) had a long, historic history. Many people know of her life, and she was my 2nd cousin. She was born in Halifax County, North Carolina. Her transition came about on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. She retired from Newport News Public Schools after her 30 years of service there. Mollie's brothers are Samuel Lee Smith (1930-1984), Ernest Smith (1933-2007), and George Smith Junior. Her late sister was Argerie Smith (1934-1937). Mollie's mother Eartie Lou D. was my 1st cousin, and her father was George Smith (b. 1866). Eartie's parents were Daniel D. (1866-?) and Mollie Demry (1868-?). Mollie Mae Smith's great grandfather was Alfred D. (b. 1828-?) or my 3rd great grandfather. Mollie Mae Smith had the following children with Alphonso Smith: Angie Marie Smith (b. 1949), Mary Jane Smith (b. 1954), Diana Smith Brown (b. 1955), Reginald Smith, and Mildred Smith. Mollie also married Willie Richard Smith on April 10, 1958 at Newport News, Virginia. Their child was John Smith (1961-1962).
It is important to remember the legacy of James Emmanuel Claud. He lived from April 11, 1941 to June 1, 2020. He was born in Branchville, Virginia at Southampton County. His parents are Guy Franklin Claud and Viola Rogers. He was the youngest son of the 13 brothers and sisters (of 7 boys and 6 girls) including a great sister Gwendolyn. James Emanuel Claud's first wife was Emma Jean Allen (1943-present). They married on March 2, 1963 at Greensville, Virginia. Their 3 children are Sonja Faye Claud (b. 1963), Anthony James Claud (b. 1969), and Obadiah Emanuel Claud (b. 1971). Later in life (after 1981), James Emanuel Claud married Pearlie Mae Smith on July 14, 1995 at Emporia, Virginia. James worked as a farmer, he had a job on the CSX Railroad, and he joined Ebeneezer Baptist Church at Portsmouth, Virginia. His brothers and sisters are Doris Virginia Claud Moody (1918-2007), Naomi Claud (1920-1950), Mildred Claud (b. 1921), Oliver Theodore Claud (1923-2016), Guy Claud Jr. (1925-1972), Frank Claud (1926-present), Sudie Odell Claud (1927-2003), Lilia Lorraine Claud Hayes (1928-2005), Beady Gabrilla Claud (1930-2004), Obadiah Claud (1931-2014), Webster Claud (1933-1997), Israel Claud (1936-present), and Lula Viola Claud (1937-2013). James' daughter Sonja Claud Kearney lives in Suffolk, Virginia and is married to Haywood Lee Kearney on November 11, 2006 at Suffolk, Virginia. James' son Anthony Claud (b. 1969) is married to Janice Henderson, and James Claud's other son of Obadiah Claud (b. 1971 and he has studied martial arts) is married to Stephanie Yvonne Moore (of Porstmouth, Virginia. Their children are Kwanna Teesha Claud born in 1991, Kiana Miasia Claud born in 2000, and Kayla Jeanette Claud born in 2006). My 3rd cousin Israel Claud married Carrie Elizabeth Parker (b. 1939) with the following children: Valerie Lorraine Claud (b. 1958), Veronica Denise Claud (b. 1959), and Stanley Israel Claud (b. 1960).
My 1st cousin Everett Lee Cousins Jr. (b. 1965) have parents named Everett Lee Cousins and Louise Blanch Peeples (b. 1941). Everett Lee Cousins Jr.' sisters are Lisa M. Cousins (b. 1963) and Wanda Yvette Cousins Thomas (b. 1966). Everett Lee Cousins Jr. married a woman named Cheryl Ruth Fuller (b. 1962). Their children are Alex J. Cousins (b. 1992) and Avery S. Cousins. This family lives in Georgia. Everett and Cheryl grew up at Westchester, NY. Now, Cheryl Fuller Cousins is an expert interior design specialist in the state of Georgia. My 4th cousin Lisa M. Cousins was born on December 24, 1963 at Mount Vernon, New York. Her son is the basketball player Isaiah Cousins (b. 1994).
Fareedah Zarinah Moore (b. 1978) is my 3rd cousin, as we are related to the Peeples family of Southampton County, Virginia. She was born in Norfolk, Virginia and lives in Fairfax, Virginia. Fareedah Moore is married with Billy Jones Moore II with their daughter Lailah Moore (b. 2017). Fareedah's parents are Abbas Fatih Mahdi (formerly David King Bullock) and Khayriyyah Tuaheedah Peeoples Mahdi (formerly Janette Peeoples. b. 1953). Kharyriyyah Mahdi's parents are James Wilson Peeoples Sr. (1929-1979) and Mary Hannah Lampley (1925-2001). James Peeples Sr.'s father and mothers are Glaster W. Peeoples (1904-1956) and Irene Lashey. Glaster W. Peeples's parents are my 2nd great grandfathers Charles Peeples (1855-1922) and Fannie Fronianna Susanna Virginia Brown (1857-1946).
After World War II, Josephine Baker was a woman in a new era of time. She returned in triumph to the Folies Bergere in 1949. Baker was a war hero. Her success grew to be one of Paris' preeminent entertainers. By 1951, she was invited back to America for a nightclub engagement in Miami. After winning a public battle over desegregating the club's audience, Baker followed up her sold out run at the club with a national tour. She was praised by rave reviews. Many enthusiastic audiences accompanies her everywhere. There was a parade in front of 100,000 people in Harlem, NYC of her new title of NAACP's Woman of the Year. She was hired to crown the Queen of the Cavalcade of Jazz for the famed eighth Cavalacade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles at 1952. It was produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. on June 1. Roy Brown and His Mighty Men, Ann Mae Winburn and Her Sweethearts, Toni Harper, Louis Jordan, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Jerry Wallace performed there. There was one incident at the Stork Club that interrupted and overturned her plans. Baker criticized the club's unwritten policy of discouraging Black patrons, then scolded columnist Walter Winchell, an old ally, for not rising to her defense. Winchell responded swiftly with a series of harsh public rebukes, including accusations of Communist sympathies (a serious charge at the time). The ensuing publicity resulted in the termination of Baker's work visa, forcing her to cancel all her engagements and return to France. It was almost a decade before U.S. officials allowed her back into the country. In January 1966, Fidel Castro invited Baker to perform at the Teatro Musical de La Habana in Havana, Cuba, at the 7th-anniversary celebrations of his revolution. Her spectacular show in April broke attendance records. In 1968, Baker visited Yugoslavia and made appearances in Belgrade and in Skopje. In her later career, Baker faced financial troubles. She commented, "Nobody wants me, they've forgotten me"; but family members encouraged her to continue performing. In 1973 she performed at Carnegie Hall to a standing ovation. The following year, she appeared in a Royal Variety Performance at the London Palladium, and then at the Monacan Red Cross Gala, celebrating her 50 years in French show business. Advancing years and exhaustion began to take their toll; she sometimes had trouble remembering lyrics, and her speeches between songs tended to ramble. She still continued to captivate audiences of all ages.
Josephine Baker always had a life long commitment to promote Civil Rights. She was in the Civil Rights Movement for decades. In the 1950's, she came to New York with her husband Jo. They were refused reservations at 36 hotels because of racial discrimination. Baker was so upset by this treatment that she wrote articles about the evil segregation in the United States. She traveled into the South too. She gave a talk at Fisk University, a historically Black college in Nashville, entitled, "On France, North Africa, and the Equality of the Races in France." She refused to perform for segregated audiences in America. Although, she was offered $10,000 by a Miami club. The club later met her demands. Her goals helped to integrate live entertainment shows in Las Vegas, Nevada. After this incident, she was receiving threatening phone call from people claiming to be from the Klan, but she publicly said that she wasn't afraid of them. In 1951, she made charges of racism against Sherman Billingsley's Stork Club in Manhattan, where she had been refused service. Actress Grace Kelly, who was at the club at the time, rushed over to Baker, took her by the arm and stormed out with her entire party, vowing never to return (although she returned on January 3, 1956 with Prince Rainier of Monaco). The two women became close friends after the incident.
When Baker was near bankruptcy, Kelly offered her a villa and financial assistance (Kelly by then was princess consort of Rainier III of Monaco). However, during his work on the Stork Club book, author and New York Times reporter Ralph Blumenthal was contacted by Jean-Claude Baker, one of Baker's sons. (Having read a Blumenthal-written story about Leonard Bernstein's FBI file, he indicated that he had read his mother's FBI file and, using comparison of the file to the tapes, said he thought the Stork Club incident was overblown). Obvious, that incident was not overblown as racism is a serious problem in the world.
Baker worked with the NAACP. Her reputation as a crusader grew to such an extent that the NAACP had Sunday, May 20, 1951 declared "Josephine Baker Day". She was presented with life membership with the NAACP by Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Ralph Bunche. The honor she was paid spurred her to further her crusading efforts with the "Save Willie McGee" rally. McGee was a Black man in Mississippi convicted of raping a white woman in 1945 on the basis of dubious evidence, and sentenced to death. Baker attended rallies for McGee and wrote letters to Fielding Wright, the governor of Mississippi, asking him to spare McGee's life. Despite her efforts, McGee was executed in 1951. As the decorated war hero who was bolstered by the racial equality she experienced in Europe, Baker became increasingly regarded as controversial; some Black people even began to shun her, fearing that her outspokenness and racy reputation from her earlier years would hurt the cause. Yet, these things never hurt her cause, because freedom for black people is a global affair. All black people worldwide must be liberated in order for the human race to be free.
In 1963, she spoke at the March on Washington at the side of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Baker was the only official female speaker. While wearing her Free French uniform emblazoned with her medal of the Légion d'honneur, she introduced the "Negro Women for Civil Rights." Rosa Parks and Daisy Bates were among those she acknowledged, and both gave brief speeches. Not everyone involved wanted Baker present at the March; some ignorantly thought her time overseas had made her a woman of France, one who was disconnected from the Civil Rights issues going on in America. That argument is false, because many freedom lovers have traveled the world to send the world the lessons about justice. In her powerful speech, one of the things Baker notably said was:
"I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee, and that made me mad. And when I get mad, you know that I open my big mouth. And then look out, 'cause when Josephine opens her mouth, they hear it all over the world ..." After Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, his widow Coretta Scott King approached Baker in the Netherlands to ask if she would take her husband's place as leader of the Civil Rights Movement. After many days of thinking it over, Baker declined, saying her children were "too young to lose their mother."
By Timothy
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