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KELSEY L. PHARR, NEGRO
UNDERTAKER
(Florida)
Kelsey L. Pharr, Miami's Negro
undertaker and welfare worker, disclaims all credit for anything he has
achieved, individually, or as a factor in racial uplift. On May 30, 1939
he will have been a resident of Miami for twenty-five years, all of which
have been spent in working for his people. Reluctantly he told the bare
outlines of his own history, but when he begins to discuss the topics of
welfare among Negroes, he loses his diffidence and his face glows with
earnestness.
He is a youngish looking man, clean cut and dressed in a business suit
that in well fitting and he always looks well groomed. His voice is rather
low and his accent and choice of words show culture. His office is simply
furnished with good taste and very clean, and the young secretary who
presides at the information desk is alert, business-like and courteous; in
short, there is nothing about the Pharr office that indicates a Negro
atmosphere; the dark faces of the professional man and his assistant are
the only facts that indicate anything racial.
Pharr was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, not quite fifty years ago.
His parents, born free, were from South Carolina, where three of his
grandparents were slaves. One grandfather was an Indian, but there is no
record to show to what tribe he belonged. As Kelsey is the name of the
master to whom his slave ancestor owes a name, he figures that Pharr must
have been the Indian name, but he has no way of verifying names or dates.
His mother died when he was six weeks old, and he was cared for by his
grandmother and later by other female relatives or by a hired nurse. He
attended school in Salisbury, where his father was employed in the
railroad yards. On account of his keen sense of hearing, he was made a car
inspector and served in that capacity for 26 years, being the only colored
inspector in North Carolina.
Living in Salisbury gave the boy an opportunity to go to school. There was
a good Negro school, grade and high school courses, and after that the
Negro Normal School and the A.M.E. Zion College. Young Pharr did well in
his classes and was ready for the college when he found himself facing
financial problems.
"How did you earn the money?" we asked.
"Well, I cleaned three offices every day,- a doctor, a dentist and a
lawyer, and received $1.50 per month from each one. Then I kept a barber
shop in order, and part of the time I drove a taxi, and had a little piece
of ground outside of town where I raised the feed for my horse." He had
some help from home, but not enough to enable him to attend school without
earning part of his expenses. He was living again with his grandmother,
and she lived to see him finish his junior year at college.
"She lived to see me a man, and had helped me to a place where I could
take care of myself." "She was a good Christian woman," he continued, "and
it pleased her to see her grandson making good. I became superintendent of
the A.M.E. Sunday School when I was sixteen years old. and continued in
that office until I moved from Salisbury. That also was a pleasure and a
comfort to my grandmother."
He took his Bachelor's degree at Trinity Methodist College and then
entered Tuff Medical College in Boston, with the intention of serving his
race. He came to Miami to work as a waiter and bell hop in the old Royal
Palm Hotel in 1914, in order to finish his medical course.
While in Miami, the colored undertaker died and Pharr, with three of his
follow waiters, bought out the undertaking business, he giving his service
and his partners furnishing the capital. He went north immediately and
took a course in embalming. In six weeks' time he was able to pass the New
York State examination for embalming and came back to Miami and took
charge of the business. It took three years to pay his three silent
partners and take over the whole business for himself. Then he realized he
must expand.
And at this point he revealed a fact that few people knew until a short
time ago. "I needed a little money to expand my undertaking business. I
went to Mr. Roddy Burdine and told him all about it, and asked him to loan
me some money. He said I had an honest face, and he loaned me nine hundred
dollars without any security except my word. That's the kind of friend he
was. He never said very much about what he did, but I am not the only one
he has helped, both white and black. I paid him back as quickly as I
could. What he loaned me made it possible for me to improve my business
and give a better service, and that of course increased my income. It
enabled me to get a more and better paying patronage and I have been
successful because Mr. Burdine was my friend. Few people know anything
about all the good he did and how often he gave a helping hand to those he
befriended."
Asked about the prevalence of voodooism in colored town, he said there is
lots of it. Where does it come from and why does it have such a hold on
the Negro?" "It comes from the Bahamas and from Jamaica and especially
from Haiti, and it holds the Negro because he is naturally a superstitious
creature. That in one of the things which the church and the school must
persistently and strenuously resist. We have to educate our children to
know how foolish these things are, and give them religious instruction
that will turn their hearts to the true God and the teachings of Christ.
We have to lift them out of their superstition and give them new ideals."
We mentioned that it was rumored that Father Devine expects to establish a
"Heaven" in Miami. He said, "I would not be surprised if he did; he has a
large following here."
"Is it true that he was in Miami a year ago?" He replied, "I think it is;
many of our people are carried away with him, and there are some who
follow him who are not colored."
"What is your opinion of him?" we asked. "Oh, he is just another racket.-
just another scheme to get ignorant, easily impressed victims into the
net. Nobody knows, and nobody seems to be able to find out where he gets
his money, but he gets it and keeps on going. We have to reach our people
through the church and school; charlatans like Father Divine work upon the
credulous and the only way to save them is to cure them of their
credulity."
"What can you tell us about the Funeral
Insurance Plan to which so many Negroes adhere?" "Well," he said, "that is
another racket. It was started as a means to help colored people save
towards a fund that would pay funeral expenses when needed. We found that
funerals were costing too much, and people were being fleeced and being
made to pay often more than double what the funeral really cost, and
unless they fulfilled every requirement laid down in a contract hard for
them to understand, they did not got any benefits at all. For instance,
the contract required that the death must occur in Dade County. If you
happened to be in another county and met with an accident, your contract
was void. If you were all paid up except for one payment which was not due
yet, you lost everything because you were not paid up at the time of
death. The racketeers were so persuasive that you could not keep our
people from signing up with them. We got up a committee and went to
Tallahassee and tried to have the racketeers dealt with by legislation on
the ground that they were doing an insurance business without a license.
The effort failed because it had white backing."
"Then," continued Pharr, "we saw that we must fight fire with fire. I, at
once, organized a funeral benefit society of my own, had canvassers all
over colored town, and registered hundreds of subscribers. But I also did
this: I gave them a square deal, so that they got the worth of their
money, and I also made it a leading item in my plan, that if they dies
before their contract was paid up, they were properly buried and the
family had time to pay the balance, and no matter where they died, they
were given burial. They did not have to die inside of Dade County; that's
how we got rid of that racket. There are many more partial payment and
installment payment plans that must be taken care of. I intend to serve my
people in this way as long as I live." He has over five hundred members of
his funeral benefit organization, upon which he about breaks even, for he
has overhead expense that takes the small profit.
Regarding his family, Pharr said his wife was from South Carolina, and a
graduate of Clifton Collage. She died eleven years ago and he does not
care to remarry. His one son is now a senior at Northwestern University,
Chicago, and will graduate this coming June with music as his major. He
has already had auditions at Hollywood and is also signed up for a concert
tour. He received the medal this year for being the most outstanding
student.
"Did he attend the Miami schools?" I asked.
"Just the grade school," he answered, "the colored high school was not
good enough when he was here. We have a different man this year and he has
brought the standard up and is still building a school where we can send
our children with perfect confidence."
He referred to Moseley Meredith, who was appointed to the principalship of
the Booker T. Washington school to succeed Austin. All fifty-four teachers
in this colored high school have college degrees, and all will eventually
have life certificates. This is a project for which Pharr has worked
energetically.
The work among the young people of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion
church is also a major project with him; he is president of the society of
his own church in Miami, which is exerting a strong influence upon the
young Negroes of this area, especially giving them social activities to
keep them away from evil associations, encouraging them to make the most
of their school and especially to abstain from gambling devices and occult
practices. For twenty-three years he has been at the head of the young
people's work of his denomination throughout the south, and has lent his
influence to the development of the spiritual life among the young people
of the several states where this church is working.
References
Material for this article comes almost entirely from an interview with
Kelsey L. Pharr at his office in colored town.
His name was furnished me by Rev. Daniel Iverson, pastor of the Shenandoah
Presbyterian Church, who in Chairman of the Conference on Interracial
Relations, an organization of white and colored workers in the Miami area.
They seek to arbitrate differences, help the colored workers by advice and
by interceeding with officials, etc. Dr. Iverson was unanimously chosen
for the chairmanship of this important body because he is a southerner,
from an old South Carolinian family, and knows the Negro. "I love them" he
says, "for I was born among them and have been associated with them all my
life. I know them and they know me."
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
Miami, Florida
LIFE HISTORY
January 11, 1939
Kelsey L. Pharr (Negro)
1025 N.W. 2nd Ave
Miami, Fla
(Undertaker)
Bertha R. Comstock, Writer
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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