St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1949-06-03

months well, thaEs just TWO
months of headaches.
But, readers, you saw it last
week. The shorts, the filters, the
stories, all relating to you, Min
nesota Negro history.
Two months. Why, / thought at
first, in two months can't decide
who came here when. First, III
make an outline an outline on
what? I've been In the state only
seven months, now how am go
ing to be able to begin an outline?
Material that's what / need,
material Now, Butler, where
are you going to begin :?
The Minnesota Historical So
ciety was my first stop. There
were a few ready references on
the Negro in Minnesota in the
libraray division, but nothing con-
crete enough or long enough to
fin one column.
So, took peak at. the old
newspapers. There were a few re-
ferences here and there, but there
were possibilities. So, in the news
paper section Of the Minnesota
Historical Building, life became n
continuous stream Of research.
Weekends were spent searching
through copy after copy Of old
newspapers newspapers that
had gathered dust newspapers
that had grown brown and were
cracking with age.
Question after question raced
through my mind i. F.. What about
the early Negro settlers? The first
Negroes here what did they
do for a living. how did they get
here in the first place what
was the sentiment Of the white
settlers toward them what
about their education, religion,
business, work, politics $50. &?
Day after day, night after night
Things began to develop
1 interviewed some Of the old
timers in the city >. some Of the
relatives Of other oldtimers e..
There were Mr.. and Mrs. George
Wills, Mrs. Jennie Kelly Mrs.
Courtney Hilyard Mrs. A. Nc
Farland, Mrs. Nina Crosby, Mrs.
John Hickman, o. c. Hall.
Mrs. John Hickman. Mrs. HEX
man had a scrapbook, prepared
by her husband, son ( Robert
Hickman, Of clippings and stories
of early life of the Negro in Min
nesota. But 1t was in the attic,
buried behind all sorts Of furni-
ture, pictures, magazines and the
like
But she finally consented to dig
it out for me At least, her
son-in-law, Albert Harper, waded
through the material to get the
scrapbook for me.
Sister Helen Angela Hurley,
who consented to write a history
of the Catholic leaders and the
Negro, was a great aid in running
down material for the stories.
Many of the pictures of early
Negro settlers in this special cen
tennial issue were obtained from
old newspapers in the Historical
Society. The staff on this paper
wishes to acknowledge this, and to
thank the workers in the news
paper and library department of
the Society for their help and CO.
operation. Buz Brown, local photo
grapher, reproduced the pictures
from the papers.
In the final analysis, space Hmi-
tation prevented q comprehensive
picture Of the 100 years Of
Negroes in Minnesota. We neces-
sarily had TO digest and skim over
many of the interesting facts. and
the contributions Of many persons
could not be covered. II would
have taken 40 pages at least in
stead of the 20 pages we had.
However, a. Minnesota COM
pletes her Centennial year, this
paper win. from time to time.
print accounts Of individual and
collective progress Of the Negro
in this state from 1s40 to lO40.