Showing posts with label Lori D. Johnson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lori D. Johnson. Show all posts

Friday, September 15, 2023

My Family's History In "Old Whitehaven"

 Recently, I turned some of the research I've collected on my family's history into an article.  The article, "Tracing My Black Roots In Old Whitehaven" appears in the August 11, 2023 issue of StoryBoard Memphis.

The following are a few key points of "Tracing My Black Roots in Old Whitehaven."

--In 1989, I recorded my conversations with my 76-year old-grandmother about our family's history.  Among other things she shared with me--her family once lived and worked on "The McCorkle Place" which was then located in Whitehaven.

--Whitehaven is a community/residential aread located in the south-west section of Memphis, TN.  The McCorkles were one of Whitehaven's founding families.  The community's history wad documented in --TALES OF OLD WHITEHAVEN--a book written by Anna L. McCorkle in 1967.


Tales of Old Whitehaven
by Anna L. McCorkle


--One of the churches that served the Whitehaven community during the early days of its existence wad Edmondson Presbyterian Church.  In 1847, the congregation moved into a new building.  According to Anna L. McCorkle, "This building consisted of one room with a slave gallery in back.  There were twenty-five members, five of whom were colored."  

--Turns out, my grandmother's great grandmother (my 3rd great grandmother), an enslaved woman named Celia Plunkett (later Celia Plunkett Morgan) was one of the original five "colored" members of Edmondson Presbyterian Church.

--According to records compliled by David Ragland Davis in his publication EDMONDSON PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, 1844-1931, Celia, described as a servant of Dr. Plunkett (John Desire Plunkett), was baptized in the church in 1854.

Edmondson Presbyterian Church 1844-1931
by David Ragland Davis


--So many odd coincidences and baffling events occured during the course of my "discovery" of Celia, I'm almost convinced SHE WANTED ME TO FIND HER . . .

--For additional details, checkout the article--"Tracing My Black Roots In Old Whitehaven"




Wednesday, September 28, 2022

WORDS & IMAGES . . . Hattie Mae's Harvest by Lori D. Johnson

 Sometimes mere words aren't enough.  After I finished writing "Hattie Mae's Harvest" an essay that appears in the most recent issue of Midnight and Indigo, I was inspired to create an accompanying collage.  It's been years since I've felt inspired to create something that falls within the realm of the fine arts.  I'm not ashamed to admit that I'm kind of rusty, but the feeling that I got while I was in the throes of putting it together was nothing short of WONDERFUL.  

The following is a snippet from the essay . . . 

An old black and white photograph of seven smiling Black women is one of my favorites.  I discovered it in 2017 on a visit with my now ninety-some-year-old Aunt Rubylene.  I don't know who took the picture; what year it might have been taken, or for what occasion.  Even though my Aunt Rubylene is in the photo, she blames her failing memory for her inability to offer any of the pertinent details.  My aunt has always been gracious and forthcoming with me, so I want to take her at her word.

You can read the rest of the work here . . . HATTIE MAE'S HARVEST.


And if you look closely at the artwork below,  you will notice that a couple of the photos described in the essay are featured in the collage.



Hattie Mae's Harvest
by 
Lori D. Johnson

Monday, September 05, 2022

THE BROOKS AVENUE SCHOOL REUNION (August 28, 2022 / MEMPHIS, TN) & Lori D. Johnson's "Johnson Sub Research"

 

I'm still marveling that my research on the Johnson Sub community in Memphis, TN played a role in making this happen.  Wish I could have been there, but from all reports, the event was a smashing success!  The organizer, George R. Williams, Sr., gave a nice presentation at Riverside Missionary Baptist Church.  The folks at the National Civil Rights Museum were wonderful hosts and treated the Brooks Avenue School crew as honored guests.  According to my parents, the tour of the Rosenwald exhibit, the luncheon and the hospitality were all top-notch.


George R. Williams, Sr.

Brooks Avenue Reunion Organizer



Riverside Missionary Baptist Church

Brooks Avenue School Reunion

August 28, 2022



Brooks Avenue School Reunion
at National Civil Rights Museum
(August 28, 2022)


If you'd like to learn more about Brooks Avenue School and its designation as a Rosenwald School, as well as how a portion of my research on Johnson Sub contributed to the reunion, click on the link below for the Commercial Appeal newspaper feature (dated Aug. 24, 2022) about the event.





Thursday, June 16, 2022

MY CONNECTION TO TWO FREEDMEN SETTLEMENTS . . . by Lori D. Johnson

                                



                                       
       Calhoun County, MS
 

Have you ever heard of Freedom colonies, Freedmen settlements or Freedmen towns?  Probably not, huh? 

Freedom colonies and freedmen settlements/towns were the all Black communities established by the formerly

enslaved after the Civil War.  Apparently, I hold the honor of being a descendant of two such communities--

one on my mother’s side of the family and another on my dad’s.  


The one created by my mother’s side of the family was located in Calhoun County, MS near the town of

Paris (not far from Water Valley MS where my mother and her folks were born).  The community was

founded by a former slave (name unknown)  who’d been allowed to work for pay during his

enslavement.  After Emancipation, he purchased land in the area and from it grew a vibrant community. 

They established a school (Bryant School) and a church (Mt. Pleasant Church).  They had a cotton gin,

a blacksmith shop, a grist mill (a mill that grinds grain into flour) and they raised sheep from which

they spun wool and made clothing.  Some of their descendants (Hawkins, Pearson, Reese, Shipp & Steen) erected a marker near what once was the entrance of the church’s cemetery.  (See photo above) Sadly, not that long ago, that marker “mysteriously” disappeared.


JOHNSON CHAPEL, CME
Memphis, TN

The Freedmen settlement established by my dad’s side of the family was founded in 1903 by my great-great

grandfather, Prince Johnson who purchased 48 acres of land in Shelby County, TN (in the Peter Mitchell

Subdivision of Memphis) and resold individual lots to the formerly enslaved and their offspring.  The

residents of Johnson Sub formed a community that thrived well into the 1990s.  For me, Prince Johnson, the

man my grandmother called “The Mayor” of Johnson Sub’s 48 acres is a figure shrouded in mystery. In spite

of my research, I still don’t really know who he was or what he truly had in mind for Johnson Sub.  Given

Prince’s affiliation with The Knights and Daughters of Tabor, I suspect he may have had a self-sufficient

community like Mound Bayou, MS in mind. 


Even though today Mound Bayou is considered impoverished by many, it was once prosperous and even

described by Theodore Roosevelt as “the jewel of the Delta.”  Mound Bayou was a freedman settlement

founded in 1887 and at one point had dozens of Black businesses, 3 schools, 6 churches, a bank, a

Carnegie Library, and even a hospital.  


Nothing of that magnitude ever materialized in Johnson Sub, which for years was basically a farming

community and residential area. But the Sub was full of talented folks and crafts people, like brick masons

and carpenters, some of whom built or helped build many of the homes in and outside of the area.  In the

1920s, an uncle who lived in the Sub was instrumental in raising funds for a Rosenwald school,  Brooks

Avenue School (grades 1-8) which for decades educated Black children who lived in the Sub and

surrounding area. Several family members and residents with Johnson Sub ties taught at Brooks Avenue.

Johnson Sub also was once home to a church (Johnson Chapel CME) and in later years a small general

store (owned and run by my Aunt Vina & Uncle Fugerson) and a chartered civics organization (TheJohnson Subdivision Civics Club).


Not only is it sorta, kinda ironic that I descend from not one, but two Freedman settlements.  But even more

ironic, perhaps, is that my mother and father first met as children and while my mother was in Johnson Sub visiting her relatives. As it turns out, my mother’s relatives were Hawkins (yes, originally part of that freedmen community in Calhoun County, MS) who’d relocated from MS to TN only to settle in another freedmen settlement-- Johnson Sub.  


Just one of the many odd and interconnecting tidbits I’ve discovered in my research of my family’s history.  


SN: If you want to know more about Freedom colonies and Freedmen settlements, check out THE

BLACK TOWNS (1979) by Norman L. Crockett or FREEDOM COLONIES: Independent Black

Texans in the Time of Jim Crow (2005/2010) by Thad Sitton.   If you want to know more about

that Freedmen community in Calhoun County, MS, check out the book BLACK HERITAGE SITES: The South (1996) by Nancy C. Curtis, Ph.D. If you want to know more about Johnson Sub, you need to pray or keep your fingers crossed that I find a publisher for my manuscript. 😏I’ll keep you posted. 



 





Saturday, October 30, 2021

PUB DROP: A Long Overdue Update of Recent Publications by Lori D. Johnson

My apologizes for being so lax when it comes to adding new blog posts or sharing

news about my latest publications.  In some respects, my life these days resembles one

huge juggling act with balls dropping, left and right.  Even though most time I’ve

managed to keep a smile on my face, I can’t say that I’m always having fun.

But enough with the sob story.


I am proud and pleased to announce the following:


1) My short story Shepherd’s Hell” is the lead story in Coolest American Stories 2022, an anthology that’s scheduled for publication in January of 2022.  Coolest American Stories includes stories by such heavyweights as S.A. Cosby (author of Blacktop Wasteland), Frances Park (When My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon) and Lee Martin (The Bright Forever).  The collection of cool stories is currently available for pre-order via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Itascabooks.

To be honest, I’m still trying to wrap my brain around the fact that a story of mine

is included in the lot.  A recent review of Coolest American Stories by Wayne Coster Cooper on the

College Standard includes a few highlights and descriptions of a few of the stories in the collection,

my contribution “Shepherd’s Hell” among them.


2) In May of 2021, An excerpt (chapters 2-3) from my unpublished novel

A LITTLE LIGHT was selected as one of 5 winners in the Novel Slices 2021 Contest.  You can read a portion of my excerpt as well as the excerpts of the other winners on Novel Slice’s website. 

The full excerpts are also available for purchase--$12.00 for Issue #2.


3) My essay  “Future, Past Present, And All of the Days of Infamy and Grace In-between” appeared in the May 15, 2021 issue of Adelaide Literary Magazine. 


4)  My essay “Loss of Contact” appeared in the March 3, 2021 issue of Storyboard Memphis. 

The essay is the same one that placed third in a 2019 nonfiction contest sponsored by The Charlotte Writers’ Club.


Have I covered all of the bases?  I think so.  If not, or if any additional late publication wins appear in my in-box, I will meet you back here with another update. 



Wednesday, February 03, 2021

NEW FICTION: STILL MY BABY . . . by Lori D. Johnson (SFWP Quarterly)

For those who’ve enjoyed my brand of humor in the past, the following is a link to a somewhat humorous girl-meets-boy tale called “Still My Baby.”  You can find my story in a special BIOPIC issue of the Santa Fe Writers Project Quarterly.   


The theme of this special BIOPIC issue of SFWP Quarterly centers around the concept of pleasure.  So, keep that in mind as you are reading and hopefully enjoying the work. 😉  Also, if you do enjoy, be sure to show a sister some love by either leaving a comment, by sharing the link, or depositing a bit of something in the tip jar (located on the site at the end of the piece), if you’re so inclined. 


The following is a brief excerpt of “Still My Baby” (by Lori D. Johnson).   See the most recent issue of SFWP Quarterly to read the rest of the story.


Thursday 9:47 p.m.


Her phone rings.  She contemplates ignoring the call, but a second before it rolls to voicemail, she picks up.  “Hello.”

“Hey baby, it’s me.  How’s it going?”

She smiles and shakes her head.  “I’m fine Darrell.  How are you?”

“I’m great, babe, but then, you already know that.”  His laughter is longer and louder than the joke warrants.  “Listen, I want you to go to this party with me tomorrow night.” 

“Sorry, I’m not--”

“Hold on, let me finish.  A lot of important people are scheduled to be there.  I could introduce you to some very influential--”

“As I was about to say,” she says, her agitation obvious. “I’m not interested. I already have plans.”

He’s silent for so long, she wonders if he’s hung up.  Finally, he says, “You know, I could do things for you.  You want to take a trip?  I’ll send you anywhere you want to go.  You need clothes? Shoes? Furs?  You name it, I can get it for you.”

“I bet,” she says.  “In exchange for?”

“I’ve got a Jag,” he says, leaving her question hanging.  “A nice apartment, a nice bank account and lots of friends in high places.  I mean, what more could any woman ask for?”

“A little humility might be nice,” she says. “Besides, since you already seem to have everything you need, what could you possibly want with somebody like me?”


FOLLOW THE LINK BELOW IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN FINDING OUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.

“STILL MY BABY”


Monday, December 21, 2020

Tis The Season To Share Gift Ideas & Reading Suggestions

 If you are in need of a last minute Christmas or Kwanzaa gift or just want a little something for yourself, I invite you to consider ordering the latest copy of Midnight & Indigo:Celebrating Black Female Writers (Issue #3).  You can order a copy (or copies) directly from their website or Amazon.  They also showcase stories and essays on their website.





Plus, if you are interested in reading more of my fiction, I have a short story featured in Midnight & Indigo’s latest edition.  My story “The Easter Speech” is a bitter-sweet glimpse of the bond between a little boy and his grandmother and how the grandmother’s love serves as an anchor in the little boy’s life.  


If you get a chance to read “The Easter Speech” please feel free to come back here and share your thoughts about it with me. 





Saturday, November 28, 2020

THE BUCK STOPS HERE!

 Not long ago, I shared the following on Facebook . . .


Rutting Season? (Is that sorta like Cuffing Season?)

How many of you know anything about “rutting season”?  I’d never heard the term until last Friday when my morning walk was interrupted by the appearance of a buck. Yeah, you know, a male deer (aka those jokers with those horns on their heads).  Given that it was barely 7:30 in the morning, and kind of overcast, I blinked a couple of times to make sure my eyes weren’t deceiving me.  Yeah, it was a buck all right.  And not only was he standing in the middle of the street in front of my house, he was staring straight at me and looking right perturbed.

  

Now, had it been a doe, I might have kept right on walking towards my house.  But I’m not taking any chances with a creature that has horns growing out of its head, be it a deer, moose, elk, devil or what have you.  I’m saying,  I’ve already fallen once this year and dislocated a shoulder.  The last thing I need is to be out in the middle of the doggone street trying to throw hands with a buck, if not run from one at 7:30 in the morning.  


Can’t you hear that call to 911?  “Um, yeah one of my neighbors--a tall, middle-aged Black woman, who looks like she could stand to lose a few pounds-- is rolling around in the street with what appears to be a deer.  Yes, and you’d better hurry.  Looks like the deer has her in a headlock.”


So, after hurriedly backtracking to the corner, I call the hubby and say, “There’s a buck standing out in front of our house.”  Instead of saying, “Hold on honey, I’m coming to get you” this man heads for the front door and starts asking a bunch of questions.  And even has the nerve to tell me he doesn’t see any dang buck and yada, yada, yada.”  I was like, “Man, if you don’t stop yacking and come and get my behind off this corner . . .”


After arriving safely back home is when I discovered that Mr. Buck was now  hanging out in our backyard and trying to woo a shy Miss Doe, who he’d obviously pursued there.  On sharing the story with my son, he was like, “Oh, so what you’re saying Ma, is that our backyard was the hook-up spot!”  Ah, yeah, whatever.  I’m not trying to have a bunch of amorous deer all up in the bushes in my backyard.  Take that mess on somewhere else. 


Anyway, since then, I’ve learned that it’s rutting season--the time of year in these parts that deer commonly mate.  So, guess who won’t be going out on her morning walk for a while?  In the meantime, I’ve added a walking stick, a can of mace and a whistle to my Christmas list.   



The screen and the blinds on the window kept me from getting a clear picture.  And you’d best believe dude (aka Mr. Buck) was straight up mean-mugging me the whole time I was trying to snap this shot.