Topic: CRS Version
Claire Lovejoy changed from an ordinary girl on the Georgia Piedmont to someone quite extraordinary when she was around 14 in 1916. As mentioned in the post for 18 October 2020, her childhood was spent shuttling between her grandmothers living in Meriwether and Monroe counties. Then, she recalled, she was sent to “high school in Cordele (Crisp Co.), and from 16 on in Troup Co.” [1] Cordele was some 75 miles south below the fall line on the coastal plain. [2]
She had little choice. At the time, 14 high schools existed in Georgia for African Americans. [3] Of these, only one was publicly funded. [4] Two private schools existed in Cordele. Unless she had kin in the area, the adolescent Lovejoy was a boarding student.
The better known today was Gillespie Normal School. In 1915, the Presbyterian-sponsored institution reported 14 secondary students and 12 boarders. Thomas Jesse Jones said “twelve grades are claimed, but only a limited amount of secondary work is provided. There is some instruction in sewing.” [5]
The other was the Horsley Normal and Industrial Institute. In 1915, it had eight students in three secondary grades, a larger number of boarders (40), and “meager furniture for classrooms and dormitories.” The South Georgia Colored Methodist Episcopal Conference was the sponsor. [6]
Neither school offered a full high school program. Her obituary said:
“She began her teaching career at the age of 17 while attending Georgia State Teacher’s College. There she received her junior college degree and a Life Professional Teacher’s Certificate. She continued to take summer courses throughout her career.” [7]
Teacher education was limited in the South for both Blacks and whites. Three levels of certification were awarded by examinations and/or experience. Lovejoy probably began at the third level, based on her secondary education, and rose by taking summer classes. [8]
Georgia State Teacher’s College is a bit of an error. It was part of the segregated University of Georgia. [9] The only state college for Blacks at the time was Georgia State Industrial College for Colored Youth. In 1932, it became part of the University System of Georgia and was renamed Georgia State College. [10]
Most likely Claire met her husband, Madison Lennon, while she was teaching in Troup County where LaGrange was the county seat. He was born in Meriwether County five years after she was, but grew up in Savannah. He went to high school in Daytona Beach, Florida, and a Methodist junior college in Morristown, Tennessee. He then “entered Wilberforce University, Ohio., where his music career began.” His first teaching job was in LaGrange. [11]
Times were difficult for African Americans who raised cotton on leased land. The boll weevil appeared in Troup County in 1915. [12] While prices per pound rose during World War I to a high of 35.3 cents in 1919, they dropped to 15.9 cents the next year. They rose to twenty-some cents in the early 1920s, [13] but the weevil had all but destroyed the crops. [14] With no cotton crop, there was little money to pay teachers.
During the late Depression, Claire began working at the Colored Orphanage in Oxford, North Carolina, as the matron for forty-some elementary and junior high-aged boys. At age 35, she was described as “a kindly young women with years of teaching experience.” [15]
Claire was hired after the previous matron resigned. [16] Madison already was working at the orphanage “as a regular teacher, for which service he draws his salary. For his lodging and meals, he trains our singing groups and is at present training a band.” [17]
The next year Claire’s sister, Lenore, joined the staff as matron for the girls. She had married Grady Gidney, [18] who supervised the orphanage farm. [19] Children were expected to work in the fields and grew most of their food. The Rotary Club gave the orphanage some musical instruments, and Madison began raising money with concerts by the band. [20]
The report for the spring semester of 1939 recorded Claire had spent five summers at Georgia State Teachers College, while Lenore had completed six. [21] Madison’s pay was still room and board, with a percentage of the money his musicians collected playing on the streets. [22]
The superintendent, who hired them, died 15 October 1940. [23] The next fall, the Lennons moved to Asheville, North Carolina, where Madison was hired to teach music at the segregated Stephens-Lee High School. [24] It had opened in the spring of 1923. [25]
Claire’s obituary indicated they joined Berry Chapel Methodist Church, [26] which was affiliated with the Allen School. [27] The boarding school for African-American girls was established in 1887 by the Woman’s Home Missionary Society of what was then the northern Methodist Episcopal Church. [28]
Asheville had grown as a resort for people with tuberculosis after the arrival of the Western and North Carolina Railroad in 1880. The Southern Railway took it over in 1894. [29] George Vanderbilt’s mother came for the climate, [30] and in 1895 he invited friends to his new summer estate. [31]
The seasonal trade declined when the automobile offered other possibilities, and the city suffered financially during the Depression. [32] During World War II, the federal government revived the economy when it used the largest resort hotel as a rehabilitation center for returning soldiers. [33]
The cash spent in local stores allowed individuals to increase their support for schools. The white Julia Titus had been named principal for the Allen School in 1937. In 1943, she hired Claire to teach home economics. During the war Titus also was serving as the school’s superintendent. She promoted Claire to that position in 1945. [34] Claire’s sister was the school’s housekeeper. [35]
The Lennons’ lives became woven into the Black Community. He directed music groups for Berry Temple, [36] while she sometimes was song leader for its Sunday evening fellowship hour. [37] Most important was Stephens-Lee. One student remembered:
“Under the direction of Madison ‘Doc’ Lennon, the Stephens-Lee marching band, used to thrill WNC residents with its jazzy music and high-stepping drum major supported by a corps of pretty majorettes.” [38]
Another student, Stanley Baird, remembered Lennon disapproved of rhythm and blues, and insisted they learn to read music and “play legitimate concert music.” Clifford Cotton said he hit “us on the head if he caught us playing ‘Honky-Tonk.’ He didn’t really go for that.” They named their band The Untils because Lennon always said “until you do better.” [39]
The idyl ended with desegregation. Stephens-Lee was closed in 1967, and Madison was assigned to the newly integrated South French Broad High School. [40] The next year he accepted a position as assistant professor of music at the all-girls, Black Spelman College in Atlanta. [41] He had managed to earn a masters’ degree from Ohio State University in 1950. [42]
At Spelman, Claire was given a familiar role. She was employed as “official hostess” responsible for “campus social activities, such as teas, dinners and receptions.” [43]
Madison retired in 1973, [44] and they returned to Asheville where he gave private music lessons. [45] He died in 1976. [46] Years later he was “inducted into the North Carolina Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame.” [47]
Claire remained active in Church Women United. She moved into the Brooks-Howell Home in 1984, [48] where Titus had been living since 1975. [49 It had been founded as a retirement home for Methodist deaconesses and missionaries. [50]
She died in 1992, leaving two nieces and a nephew. Three generations of ministers from Berry Temple spoke at her funeral. [51] Maxine West, who had been active in United Methodist Women, [52] joined two of them at the Brooks-Howell memorial service. [53]
End Notes
1. Claire M. Lennon. Letter to Mr. Rohrbough. 19 November 1956. WAS. In both typescript and original handwritten letter. Handwritten version used for quotation. A more complete quotation appears in the post for 18 October 2020. Details on the source of the letter are provided in the post for 14 October 2020. The map posted with the entry for 18 October 2020 shows the locations of Cordele and Troup County. Her photograph appears on the Photos K tab.
2. “Distance from Cordele, GA to Forsyth, GA.” Distance Cities website.
3. Loretta Funke. “The Negro In Education.” The Journal of Negro History 5:1–21:1920. 12. Her source was Monroe N. Work. The Negro Year Book. Nashville, Tennessee: Sunday School Union Print, 1915. 216.
4. Thomas Jesse Jones. Negro Education; A Study of the Private and Higher Schools for Colored People in the United States. United States Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, 1917. 190
5. Jones. 207.
6. Jones. 207–208. The formation of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church is mentioned in the posts for 18 October 2017 and 15 November 2020.
7. Claire Lennon. Obituary. Asheville [North Carolina] Citizen-Times. 20 August 1992. 14.
8. Some details on this process and the affects it had on individuals can be gleaned from Richard L. Saunders. Never Been Rich. Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 2001. 22, 23, 26, 28. The subject was a white teacher in Marengo County, Alabama, Harry Harrison Kroll. He is mentioned in the post for 24 January 2020.
9. “History of the College of Education.” University of Georgia website. The school was not integrated until 1961. [54]
10. Wikipedia. “Savannah State University.” The name was changed to Savannah State College in 1950, and Savannah State University in 1966.
11. Madison C. Lennon. Obituary. Asheville [North Carolina] Citizen-Times. 25 April 1976. 39.
12. Carleton Wood. “Cotton Farming, Mill Villages and Fancy Parterres: The Woven Landscapes of LaGrange, Georgia.” Magnolia 22:3–7:Summer-Fall 2008. 4.
13. “All Cotton Area Planted and Harvested, Yield, Production, Price, and Value – United States: 1866-2019.” 39–62 in Crop Production Historical Track Records. United States Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, April 2020. 39.
14. Erin Burnett. “How Georgia Restored Cotton to the Throne.” Farmers and Consumers Market Bulletin 100:1,12:30 August 2017. “By 1917, every cotton-producing county in Georgia reported boll weevils, and cotton production dropped 30 percent. This decline continued and in 1921, Georgia losses had reached 45 percent, the worst in the United States.”
15. Colored Orphanage of North Carolina. “A Partial Report. February 1, 1937—December 31, 1937.” 9. In T. K. Borders. Report of the Superintendent. The Colored Orphanage of North Carolina. February 1, 1937 to June 30, 1940. Oxford, North Carolina. It’s a bound collection of individually paged reports. She had 42 charges in June 1939, [55] and 41 in June 1940. [56]
16. Colored Orphanage, December 1937. 9 in Borders.
17. Colored Orphanage, December 1937. 12 in Borders.
18. Colored Orphanage. “Report for Year January 1, 1938—December 31 , 1938.” 12 in Borders.
19. Colored Orphanage. “Report for Half Year. January 1, 1939—June 30, 1939.” 50 in Borders.
20. Colored Orphanage, December 1938. 12 in Borders.
21. Colored Orphanage, June 1939. 61 in Borders.
22. Colored Orphanage, June 1939. 53 in Borders.
23. Colored Orphanage. “A Partial Report. February 1, 1937—December 31, 1937.” 5 in Borders.
24. Madison Lennon, obituary.
25. Zoe Rhine. “The Faculty of Stephens-Lee High School: A Tribute.” Pack Library North Carolina Room, Asheville, North Carolina, website. 20 February 2018.
26. Claire Lennon, obituary.
27. Sarah Williams. “Berry Temple United Methodist Church Closes.” The [Asheville, North Carolina] Urban News website. 12 July 2019. It was named for Mary Ann Marriage Allen, [57] who paid for the first dormitory. [58]
28. “Guide to the Allen High School Records, 1899 - 2008.” Belk Library, Appalachian State University website.
29. Wikipedia. “Asheville, North Carolina.”
30. “Asheville as a Health Retreat.” United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service website.
31. Wikipedia. “Biltmore Estate.”
32. Wikipedia, Asheville.
33. Elizabeth Scheld Glynn. “Grove Park Inn.” NC Pedia website. 2006. The resort also was used for other purposes but this was the one most likely to have generated revenue in the city.
34. Belk Library. Titus was responsible for redirecting the school from the industrial training program with home economics, which was influenced by Booker T. Washington, into the prestigious high school it became in the 1950s. Perhaps the best-known student was Nina Simone. She is discussed in the post for 18 October 2017. Titus’ photograph in the post for 4 November 2020.
35. Look on the Fields, White Unto Harvest. New York: The Methodist Church. Woman’s Division of Christian Service of the Board of Missions and Church Extension. Annual Report for 1945-1946. 67.
36. Madison Lennon, obituary. He was the “former director of the Senior Choir of Berry Temple, director of Male Chorus, and Brass Ensemble.”
37. Claire Lennon, letter, typed and handwritten versions.
38. Henry Robinson. Asheville [North Carolina] Citizens-Times. 13 February 1994. Quoted by Betty Jamerson Reed. School Segregation in Western North Carolina: A History, 1860s-1970s. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland and Company, 2011. 176. WNC is western North Carolina.
39. Dan Kochakian. “‘Motown of the South’ and the Illustrious Mason James Agency.” The [Asheville, North Carolina] Urban News. 10 February 2016.
40. Rhine. She has a photograph of him.
41. Item. Ohio State University Monthly. October 1966.
42. Jerry Baughman. “Class Personals.” Ohio State University Monthly. May 1974. Lennon was not usual. According to Zoe Rhine: “Of the 34 faculty members in 1964, with all of them having Bachelor’s Degrees, twenty faculty members including the principal held master’s degrees, which is 59%. Of the fourteen thought not to have master’s degrees, six of them were taking graduate level courses. Of the twenty with a master’s degree, nine were taking additional graduate-level study, and three more had taken further graduate study at three universities, one person has a second Master’s. One of the teachers with a master’s degree was four hours short of his doctoral degree when he died unexpectedly. It seems plausible that faculty who were working on further degrees may have attained either a master’s, a second master’s, or a doctorate at a later period.” [59]
43. “Spotlight on: Mrs. Claire Lennon.” Spelman Spotlight 40:3:April 1973.
44. Rhine.
45. Item on “Doc Lennon Day A Special Tribute.” Asheville [North Carolina] Citizen-Times. 2 July 1982. 40.
46. Madison Lennon, obituary.
47. Kochakian.
48. Claire Lennon, obituary.
49. Julia P. Titus. Obituary. Asheville [North Carolina] Citizen-Times. 29 July 1990. 20.
50. “Our Story.” Brooks-Howell website.
51. Claire Lennon, obituary. James T. Jones became pastor in 1963. He was followed by M. C. Hickman in 1973 and Carl Arlington 1992 [60]
52. Louise Wright. Journeying with Methodist Women 1966 to 1986. The United Methodist Church United Methodist Women, Western North Carolina Conference, 1986. Especially 55 and 59.
53. Claire Lennon, obituary. The others were Jones and Arlington.
54. Wikipedia. “University of Georgia.”
55. Colored Orphanage, June 1939. 47 in Borders.
56. Colored Orphanage. “Report for “July 1, 1939—June 30, 1940.” 63 in Borders.
57. Item. Friends’ Intelligencer 56:590:1899.
58. Jackie R. Booker. “Allen High School (Asheville, North Carolina): 1884–1974.” Oxford University Press, Oxford African American Studies Center website.
59. Rhine.
60. Williams.
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