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Henrietta Vinton Da\1s (1860-1941)
Charles Drew (1904-1950)
by Robert C Devlin
Hospitals, clinics, and blood banks all over
our nation need blood. They use it for patients
in surgery, blood transfusions, and medical
emergencies. The blood banks have been saving
lives for over fifty years, ever since they were
first introduced during the second World War
by Dr. Charles Drew.
Charles Richard Drew was bom on June 3,
1904, in W ashington, D.C.
He attended
Amherst CoDege, graduating with a B. A.
degree, and went on to McGill University where
he received a M D. and C. M. (mastery o f
surgery) degrees. He later received a doctorate
in medical science'fi'om Columbia University’s
College o f Physicians and Surgeons in 1940. Dr.
Drew strove to show that plasma lasted longer
than whole blood, and in 1941 he became the
first Hirector o f the American Cross Blood Bank.
Not only did Dr. Drew strive to open blood
banks nationwide, he tried to make the public
aware that there was no need to segregate blood
or blood banks. It would be years, though,
before the blood o f Afiican Americans would be
allowed in American blood banks at aU. Dr.
Drew’s criticism, joined by thousands of
supporters, finally led to the acceptance of
African American blood into the blood banks.
However, it was still stored separately.
Dr. Drew’s efforts for the blood banks
proved to be a very valuable asset to the Allied
efforts in World War 11. That asset could very
well have been greater had blood not been
separated, many have speculated. If the blood
had not been separated, it could have been used
by any serviceman or woman, regardless o f race.
But it would be years before racial tides in the
country would change. Nevertheless, Drew
helped pave the way for racial equality.
Drew won many awards, including the
diplomate o f surgery by the American Board o f
Surgery, Johns Hopkins University, in 1941, and
the Springam Medal o f the National Association
for the Advancement o f Colored People
(NAACP) as the Outstanding Negro o f the Year
in 1944.. He continued to practice medicine and
surgery throughout his career, alongside his
work with blood banks. On April 1, 1950, Dr
Drew was injured in a car accident near
Burlington, North Carolina. He bled to death
before he could be transported to a hospital.
Charles Drew, while striving for racial
equeJity in the blood banks, strived for racial
equality in society. His work is as iinportant
today as it was when it was first introduced.
by Dr. Paul F. Wilson
Henrietta Vinton Davis,”the m ost eminent
interpreter o f the histrionic art that the colored race has
produced,” appeared at the Zion M. E. Church m
Goldsboro on 15 May, 1905. Davis began as a teacher
in Maryland and Louisiana schools, then took a jo b as a
copyist in the Washington, D. C., Recorder o f Deeds
OfBce under Frederick Douglass, who encouraged her
to study drama. She made her debut as an elocutionist
in Washington in 1883, intioduced by Douglass. She
founded her own company, which produced black
playwright William Edgar Easton’s Dessalines in
Chicago in 1893, and later produced and starred in
Easton’s Christophe and John E. Bruce’s Our Kentucky
Home. Davis’ performances generally took the form of
readings and scenes viith other black actors, featuring
selections fi’om Shakespeare. Her career lasted until
about 1919, when she retired to work with Marcus
Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association.
Davis became Secretary General o f the UNIA in 1929
and president in 1934, yet she died in obscurity in 1941.
Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones “Black Patti” (1869-1933)
by Dr. Paul F. Wilson;
The Black Patti Troubadours were part concert
company, part minstrel company, and part vaudeville.
Several factors made them unique among touring
attractions during the 1904-1905 season. For one thing,
they were headlined by a woman, Matilda Sissieretta
Joyner Jones, called “ Black Patti” in reference to the
white operatic star Adelina Patti. For another, the tioupe
was black, there being few black touring companies.
Finally, though the company’s performances included
elements o f “ darkey” and “coon” humor, Madame
Jones seems to have worked hard to avoid stereotyping
herself; she disliked the name “Black Patti” for its
condescending tone, and as far as can be determined she
did not participate in the more blatantly racial portions
o f the com pany’s performances (she did, however,
perform Stephen Foster’s “Old Folks at Home,” bowing
to public pressure). The Troubadours began touring ia
1896, at first adopting the standard format o f a minstrel
show - - grand entrance, first part, walkaround, olio,
second part, and so forth - - but by 1904-1905 the first
part had become a burlesque on Coney Island,’’Looney
Dreamland,” and the second part had become “The
Operatic Kaleidoscope,” in which Madame Jones and
the company performed scenes from such operas as
Lucia de Lairunermoor, II Trovatore, and John Philip
Sousa’s El Capitan - - performed straight, it should be
added, not as camped-up “ darkey” versions. The
Troubadours toured until 1916, after which Madame
Jones retired to her hometown o f Providence, RI.
In the 1904-1905 season, after playing Greenville,
SC, on 14 April, the company played Asheville on the)
15th, Florence and Spartanburg, SC, on the 16th and!
17th, two performances in Charlotte on the 18th
Chester Sumter, Dariington, and Florence, SC, 19-22
April, a Sunday layoff on the 23rd. then Wilmington or
the 24th, New Bern on the 25th, Raleigh on the 26th,
Durham on the 27th, Winston-Salem on the 28th, and
Greensboro on the 29th, before a Sunday layoff on tha
30th and then two weeks o f performances in Virginia ini
May.
For more information about Madame Jones,
Henrietta Vinton Davis. North Carolina Theater at
the turn o f the century, or the 1904-190S season, see
Dr. Paul F. Wilson’s dissertation, soon to be
published.
Bessie Smith (1894-1937)
by Robert C. Devlin
In the 1920s, her ever-present voice could
be heard in clubs all over the south, dem andii^
attention from everyone. She w ould smg the
blues, and she could sing it better than anyone.
She was Bessie Smith, quite possibly the
greatest blues singer o f all time.
Bessie Smith was bom in Chattanooga,
Tennessee, on April 15,1937. Living in poverty,
she first began to sing in clubs all over the South,
entertaining the patrons with her deep voice.
Eventually she was assisted by Ma Rainey, an
early blues singer, in her career. She toured
throughout the South until 1923, when she went
to New York to begin her professional career.
In New York, Bessie gained her reputation
by working with the best. She recorded with
jazz musicians, incltiding Louis Armstrong,
James P. Johnson, and Benny (jb'odrnaii. From
then on, she would no longer be singing in small
clubs. She became an instant success, and over
the next decade she would tour extensively,
undaunted by anyone or anything. The same
expression she used to drive her voice also drove
her life.
Success has a way o f catching up with
everyone sooner or later, however, often with
tragic results. Bessie Smith became one o f the
m ost popular singers o f her time, earning a
reported $200 a week at the height o f her
popularity. She still toured excessively, and
began to drink almost as excessively. The
American audiences who once packed crowded
clubs to hear her began to veer away from ja 2z
in the early 1930s, causing Bessie’s career to
felter. Hollywood music and the rise o f the radio
made big band popular.
Still undaunted,
Bessie’s drinking increased. She still toured the
country, brmging her music to audiences that
would listen.
On September 26, 1937, Bessie Smith was
riding in a car with her driver in Clarksdale,
Mississippi, when a car side-swiped theirs
Bessie, who had her arm out the window, was
seriously injured by the accident, and was
bleeding badly. The driver drove her to the
nearest hospital, a white hospital, where she was
reflised medical attention. Bessie reportedly
died on the way to the next hospital due to blood
loss. She was 43. The story o f her death and its
circumstances was later turned into a play by
Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward
Albee.
Bessie Smith was a pioneer in blues music,
where her voice continues to have an effect
today. Many jazz/blues artists today owe a lot
to the her power and creativity. Bessie Smith, a
woman who helped change the face o f music.