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Mr. Thomas J. Henry
(Georgia)
The interview took place in Mr. H's law
office which consists of two rooms, simply furnished but attractive.
"I am a child of the late Flora (Thompson) and Thomas J. Henry, Sr. My
mother moved to Georgia from South Carolina a few years after the War
Between the States. She was a very ambitious woman and took advantage of
the meager opportunities offered for study and improvement. She was among
the first students to attend Spelman College, when it was located in the
basement of Friendship Baptist Church. Her family was very poor. She was
unable to pursue her studies very long at Spelman. After a short
attendance in Spelman she then secured work for the then President of
Atlanta University, Edmond Asa Ware. While working for his family she did
part-time study in Atlanta University. This gave her a good background,
and she was able to write letters to her friends and relatives, a thing
she liked to do, and also to do some literary work in connection with her
church and clubs. An ardent Christian woman, she was a member of Big
Bethel African Methodist Church for more than sixty years and took a
leading part in the church work.
"My father came to Atlanta from Morgan County, Georgia, a few years after
the war. His father's name was Cudger, but after the war my father and two
of his brothers went to the courthouse in Mor an County and had their
names changed to Henry, as they didn't like the named Cudger. His
grandfather was one of the late slaves brought over from Africa and was a
man who never was conquered by slavery. It seems that father inherited
some of the courage of his ancestors because he was a man that always
stood for what he thought was right. He too took advantage of what
schooling he could obtain and attended night school under Mrs. Norris, the
same woman who gave Atlanta University the clock which is now in the tower
of Stone Hall. With this night school training and with the work which he
did himself at home, he was able to read well, a thing he liked to do, and
out loud. I can picture him now sitting there at night by the lamp light
with his newspaper, reading aloud, unmindful of his disturbance to the
other members of the family, no matter what they were trying to
concentrate on. The joy, however, he got from his reading compensated us
in pleasure, for we knew how proud he was of his ability to read, so we
didn't complain. He was also able to learn enough mathematics, from his
untiring efforts to get an education, to take care of his business
affairs.
"Very soon after coming to Atlanta my father obtained a job with a firm
known as the Franklin Plumbing and Tinning Company, for whom he worked
more than twenty years. During these years he was able to learn both the
plumbing and tinning trades well, as the Franklin Company did much work
along both lines. However, as he was colored he was very poorly paid for
the work he was doing and finally decided to go out and start business for
himself. After two or three years in business for himself and after having
built up a fairly good trade, a law was passed requiring all plumbers to
get licenses. He was ordered to report for an examination on several
occasions, but for one reason or another the examiners always found that
he almost passed but never quite passed. Having a growing family at that
time it was necessary for him to work. He never stopped working although
he was violating the law. Finally, one day while working for a white
friend of his, Attorney W. A. Fuller, he was arrested and thrown in jail.
"Attorney Fuller, realizing the injustice of his arrest and being a man of
high character, undertook his defense and was so successful that the law
was declared unconstitutional, and thus the door was opened not only for
my father to work at his trade but for a large number of other colored and
poor whites who had been denied the privilege because of an unfair
examining board.
"At the time of this incident I was just entering high school, and I was
so impressed by what could be done by a lawyer that I decided then and
there if I ever had the chance I would study law. I wanted to be a great
lawyer like Mr. Fuller.
"My earliest recollections were when I was living in the neighborhood
called "South Atlanta." This neighborhood was located just beyond the city
limits in Atlanta and was settled by a mixed population, having both white
and colored people living in it. Ninety per cent of the folks were in very
ordinary circumstances and the other ten per cent were what we might call
poor folks and was about equally divided between white and black.
"The playmates in the neighborhood were both white and colored and, though
there were occasional spats, all neighbors lived together fairly well.
"It was necessary for me to attend Clark University because I lived
outside the city and from that school I finished the grammar school, or
the eight grades. Many of the teachers at the school were white and their
children attended the school along with the colored children. When I was
in the first grade, my very best friend and chum was Norman Thirkield, son
of Bishop Thirkield of the Methodist Episcopal Church. Because of this
friendship I was able to go inside of a cultured home and really see what
there was to be had in life.
"My boyhood days were quite happy due to the fact I was not living in a
crowded city area but was surrounded by woods, fields, branches, and
streams. There were berries to be picked in the spring, nuts in the fall,
and trips to be made to the woods for violets and other wild flowers.
There was an old wash hole in the branch where the boys would go and swim
in their birthday suits. There was the Junior League at Clark University,
which at that time was banded by a Miss Marie Hardwick, a teacher there.
This league had very interesting meetings on Sunday afternoons and always
had various social functions, which were a source of delight to all of the
children.
"Among my playmates at the time were
Dr. Louis G. Wright, now head of the Harlem Hospital; Mr. J. T. Arnold, on
the staff of the Y. M. C. A. in Harlem; and Mr. W. T. Cunningham, a
prominent business man and realtor of Atlanta, Georgia.
"My mother had lived for a number of years on the west side of Atlanta
prior to her marriage and during the first years of her marriage and never
reconciled herself to living any other place, so in 1905 my father began
purchasing a two-room house on Mitchell Street in the southwest section of
Atlanta. In the year of 1906, when the famous riot occurred, the family
added three rooms to the two-room house on Mitchell Street and moved from
South Atlanta.
"I then entered Atlanta University in the year of 1906 and seven years
later was graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Arts.
"The teacher who impressed me most while in school was George Howe, who
had charge of the manual training department of the school. So well did
Mr. Howe impress me with his ability that I undertook his course after
completing the high school department. I took the course of English and a
professional teacher's course and became so proficient that during my last
two years in college I was made instructor of the first year high school
department.
"During the year of 1913, when I graduated, there was a depression in the
country which made jobs not only scarce but unprofitable. I first taught
manual training in Fessenden Academy in Florida and was paid $30.00 per
month. Out of this salary I had to pay laundry fee and contribute to the
Sunday School at least $1 per week. Board was supposed to be free but was
of such caliber that it was necessary to supplement heavily the meals
served in the dining room. It was here that I learned about 'boarding
school gravy' which could be made without any sign or semblance of meat or
grease. I also found how one small hen could make chicken stew for sixty
people and one pound of cheese was sufficient to make macaroni for the
same number. After one year at this school I decided that teaching would
not do, so for the next two years I followed, intermittently, plumbing
work which I had learned from my father as a boy. I also secured a job
writing insurance with the Standard Life Insurance Company, which had just
been started by the late Heman Perry, one of the greatest financial
geniuses that the colored race has produced. During the second year with
this company I travelled a great deal in the interest of the company in
Georgia and Mississippi.
"Old line insurance was new among colored people at that time, and selling
this class of insurance to colored people was really pioneering work.
Although the work was quite hard, there were certain compensations that
made the work worth while. One could learn such from travelling from
county to county and seeing the conditions under which colored people
lived. Many fine contacts were made during this period with people in
various towns and cities in Georgia which have yielded pleasant and
lasting friendships until today.
"Like the average boy, the question of the relation of the opposite sex
started quite early in life. Sweethearts began with Daisy, a brown-skinned
girl, who came over the fence to play quite often, and ended with Eunice.
I first met Eunice in my junior year in college and, after a very regular
courtship of four yours, we were married in 1917 just as I was about to
leave for the World War.
"At the age of twenty I joined the church, Friendship Baptist, and I have
always found something to do in connection with church work. For several
years prior to the war I was a Sunday School teacher and active in the
Young People's Union. I am reporter, at present, for the church and make
all of the general announcements at the regular church service on Sunday.
"In the spring of 1917, while I was selling life insurance in Elbert
County, Georgia, my mother called me over long distance telephone to tell
me that she had heard of a plan for an officer's training school and she
thought it was good for me to come home at once to see what it was all
about. I had been registered under the draft law and, being adventurous, I
decided to take advantage of this training school. I felt if I had to
serve in the army of my country, it would be better to get commissioned if
possible. I was accepted by the recruiting officer and allowed to take an
examination, physical and mental, which one had to pass in order to gain
admission to the training school. Neither of these examinations was very
difficult, so I had very little trouble in being accepted for training.
"Although I was eager to experience the life of a soldier, having read
quite a lot of the happenings of the World War, I must admit I was loathe
to leave Eunice behind, so after several conversations with her and a
little persuasion we decided to got married before I went away to war, and
this we did on May 27, 1917.
"About the 12th of June, or maybe two weeks after our marriage, a crowd of
recruits from Atlanta and the surrounding territory left on a special
train for Des Moines, Iowa, where the task of being a soldier for two
years began.
"I wasn't very much impressed with the work to begin with, due to the fact
that many of our instructors were non-commissioned officers from the
regular army who had very little literary training. I found out later,
however, that the specialized training which they had in the matter of
army regulations, tactics, discipline, and so forth, was of the highest
quality and, although they could not speak English so well or spell
correctly, they really knew what it took to make a soldier. After the
training period was about over I took a real interest in the training,
worked hard, and was given a commission at the end of the training period
as first lieutenant.
"From time to time during our training period quite a deal of confusion
and uncertainty arose among the cadets, due to various rumors as to what
was being done with the officers after they completed their training. The
school in the first instance was to run three months, but just a week
before the school was supposed to close a riot occurred in Brownsville,
Texas, in which colored troops from the 24th Infantry participated. These
troops had been abused by prejudiced white citizens of Brownsville and
were so aroused by the unfair treatment accorded them that they went to
their barracks and got service rifles and shot up the town. This incident
caused the War Department to defer commissioning of colored officers at
that time and so we were kept in training for another month.
"Among those who investigated the riot was Sergeant Holland who had been
non-commissioned officer in charge of Company 7 to which I was attached.
Sergeant Holland was one of the brightest non-commissioned officers at
that time in the army. He had been quarter-master sergeant for a long time
and knew the supply business exceedingly well. At no time during the 18
months that I served with Sergeant Holland was his company without
adequate food and clothes even when in the front lines. Sergeant Holland
is now at the Veterans Facility at Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, where he
still has charge of quarter-master supplies.
"Finally, at the end of our training we were given two weeks' absence and
then ordered to report to one of the cantonments for duty. The various
captains selected their officers at the camp and I was quite surprised
when I was selected by Captain Holland. I hadn't thought that I had made
the kind of impression that would make him want me as an officer in his
company.
"The regiment to which I was attached was ordered to train at Camp Dodge,
which was located just a few miles from Des Moines, Iowa. This camp was
the home of the 38th Division.
"The winter of 1917-18 was spent in training raw recruits for combat
service and for special training in the use of certain arms, and the
officers took turns in attending the school for machine gunners, while
highly technical problems were worked out in connection with theory of
fire arms. This winter was a very severe one, and in the course of the
winter I contracted tonsilitis which caused an impairment of my hearing
which has persisted ever since."
It is very difficult to talk with Mr. Henry, for one ordinarily feels he
has to shout to make himself heard, but it is not true in his case, for he
watches the lips very closely and thus readily understands, and so I found
myself trying one minute to tone down my voice and the next minute
shouting.
It was late in the evening, about 8:30 o'clock, and it seemed that Mr.
Howe had planned previously to end his talk with me by asking me to do
some work for his benefit. He looked at his watch and said, "Well, its
8:30 and I have some documents I have to get out for court in the morning.
Will you type them for me, please?" As tired as I was, I could not very
well refuse his request, for I had taken quite a deal of his time and,
too, he had it all figured out by saying, "This is my bread and meat and
your getting my story is yours, so you help me and I'll help you." I put
aside my pad and told him I'd do the document. He explained that he didn't
have a regular secretary but he hoped to in the near future. I was very
tired, as I had carried my work over into the night, hoping to get the
entire interview. I consoled myself, however, by saying, "This is my good
deed for the day."
The document he gave me was a petition to a superior court judge by one of
his clients who was getting permission to sell some real estate to her
husband. He gave me a book and turned to a page where a similar document
was printed so I could see just how it was to be formed, as I told him I
knew nothing at all about forming law documents. I will write out an
example of one of the documents on a separate sheet, for it isn't every
day one has an opportunity to get the inside of proceedures of law. Well,
I did the work in an hour and he was quite pleased over his evening's
work. He asked me to return the next day to complete my interview with
him.
"It was thought that if I had remained in the United States and taken
regular treatment for the trouble with my hearing that it would have been
cured but, due to the scarcity of officers, I was sent along with the
others to France, where the rain and cold aggravated the trouble and left
me permanently impaired.
"After I got to France and had undergone the general training period, our
regiment was sent to a so-called quiet sector in the Vosges Mountains. It
was customary to send out patrols into No Man's Land each night, and
because of my impaired hearing I was unable to take my turn and for this
reason I was relieved from combat duty so that an officer could be put in
my place who could be put in my place who could take his turn. This move
lessened the amount of danger to which I would have been exposed a great
deal. I was assigned as company commander of the labor company which
furnished work details for a veterinary hospital that furnished first aid
to horses. This work was quite easy because the hospital was situated some
distance behind the front lines and life in the villages went on with
ordinary routine, except that no lights were allowed to be shown at night
and we were constantly on the alert for air raids.
"The armistice, on November 11, 1918, brought relief to all our minds and
it also brought the problem as to just what we would do after we returned
to civilian life. After being discharged we all were sent back to the good
old U. S. A.
"After being discharged, the Standard Life Insurance Company, for whom I
was working at the time I entered the army, through its secretary, Harry
H. Pace, offered me a position as attorney in the real estate and mortgage
loan department. My service was to begin just as soon as I could qualify
for same.
"With this commitment I was able to procure from the Government
Rehabilitation Department first a course in lip reading, followed by a
course in law. The lip reading was done in the Nitchie Lip Reading School
in New York, while the law course was completed at Brooklyn Law School.
"Immediately after graduation I started my duties with the Standard Life
Insurance Company, which was then affiliated with the Service Company and
other organizations under an interlocking board of directors. These
organizations had grown very rapidly, in fact so rapidly that the
personnel of the companies couldn't keep their records apace with the
growing concern. There was such work to be done in the department that I
went in, seeing that all of the proper papers in connection with the
purchase and mortgage of estates were in the files. I had to work hard
and, by working overtime and on Sundays, in the course of six months I was
able to put my department in very good order. However, the fact that the
records were not up to date caused a great deal of confusion. Certain
financial companies in Atlanta and Nashville, Tennessee, censured this
situation, connived with the insurance department of the State, and,
through political pressure and otherwise, obtained control of the Standard
Life Insurance Company and the other companies associated with it. The
insurance company was first taken over by the Southern Insurance Company
of Nashville, and then the following year by the Standard Life Insurance
of Arkansas. It was finally taken over by the National Benefit Insurance
Company.
The contents of the document
follow:
Georgia, Fulton County, Oct. 1939.
To the Judge of Superior Court.
The petitioner, Geraldine Waller, respectfully shows:
1st. That she is a resident of said county.
2nd. That petitioner is the wife of F. M. Waller.
3rd. That the petitioner owns as a part of her separate estate the
following described property, to wit,
(The description was taken from the deeds to property).
4th. That your petitioner desires to sell and her husband, the said F. M.
Waller, desires to purchase the said above described property.
5th. That the reasonable value of said property is $1000.00, which the
said F. M. Waller has agreed to pay to your petitioner and which your
petitioner has agreed to accept.
Wherefore, the promises considered, an order authorising and allowing her
to sell the above described property to her husband, P. M. filler, is
prayed.
Petitioner's Attorney.
At Chambers.
Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 11, 1939.
After reading the above, and foregoing petition having been presented to
me and after hearing evidence as to its value, it is considered, ordered
and adjudged that the petitioner, Geraldine Waller, be allowed and is
hereby authorized to sell the properly hereinafter described to her
husband, F. M. Waller, for the sum of $1000.00.
(Description of property)
Judge of Superior Court,
"Now after you have done that document I'd like you do two affidavits for
the real estate agents and notary public to sign.
Thomas J. Henry, Jr.
250 Auburn Ave., N. E.
Lawyer.
By
Geneva Tonsill,
October, 1939.
Text from: Library of
Congress, Manuscript Division, WPA Federal Writers' Project Collection
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