Gordon Chapel Church of God in Christ 1975

Photo Courtesy: Tangi Talk Newspaper

Vacation Bible School at Gordon Chapel Church of God in Christ, Elder Alex Richardson, pastor. The stated by the director, Mrs. Samuel Richardson was "Jesus Touch Me."

There were 26 cars and two floats. One float carried the King and Queen for Vacation Bible School. They were Sheila Hampton and Thaddeus M. Richardson; both children are members of Gordon Chapel Church. The second float was a boat that depicted " Fishermen of Men."

The following participated in the parade with us: Bishop & Mrs. W.K. Gordon, Bishop of the  Eastern State of Louisiana; Rose Valley Baptist; Morris Chapel Church of God in Christ; and Community Church of God in Christ.  During our Vacation Bible School we had an average of 100 children daily. The teachers who worked very hard and untiringly with the children were: Mrs. Helen P. Edwards and Miss Mirah Bennett, Mrs. Betty Richardson, Mrs. Priscilla Richardson,  Miss. Catherine Frazier, and Mrs. Dorothy Richardson.

West Side Jr. High Girls' Softball Team

Back Row: left to right, back row Coach Mrs. Katie Simms, Lynell Thompson, Valarie Thomspon, Emma Thomas, Tidie Litton, Stella Battiste, Gloria Tillis, Kathy Trabona, Gladys Nagy, Sonia Battiste, Ora Spears, and Becky Cox. 

Front Row: left to right, Madelyn Walker, Sharon Noto, Janice Bennett, Willie Mae Lee, Cheryl Huges, Helen Gaston, Joyce Curry, Georgia Warford, and Sandra Coleman.

Source: Tangi Talk Newspaper: 1975

Kentwood Train Wreck Killed 75 People in 1903

A few months back Marcia Wilson called me and asked me if I had any knowledge of a train wreck that took place in 1903 in Kentwood, Louisiana? She told me that she heard that many of the bodies were buried at Oak Grove AME Church, in a mass grave.

The accident happened on November 14, 1903 on a Saturday. Two extra work crews from various points up in Mississippi had been working below Amite on the construction of the double railroad track, according to a letter from the railroad office in Chicago. 

There were about 100 men in each gang, they filled the last two wooden coaches of the north bound local Number 32. They had just been paid and many were playing cards as they went toward home for the weekend. The paymaster used silver dollars to make robbery more difficult for anyone who might be tempted by the large payroll, it would be too heave to carry money off. 

No. 32 stopped in Kentwood at the depot. Two northbound passengers boarded and were seated in the third coach from the rear. There was a colored woman named Sallie Jones and April "Boy" Washington a brother of Boy Washington who worked at the ice plant. 

The Picayune Newspaper said that dead negroes are numerous and the odor of burning flesh is something dreadful and caused several strong men to faint. People raced north to help. Doctors rushed from Tangipahoa, Osyka and Mccomb. A special train was arranged to carry the injured to New Orleans where they were met by ambulances from Charity Hospital. 

Many of the work gang had died with cards in their hands. Dice and silver dollars and cards were scattered all over the area.  Carpenter crews from the McComb railroad shop were sent with boards of rough 1 by 12 lumber and they built coffins at the north end of the depot. 

Some men were badly burned so that they were placed two and three in a box. They started hauling before day Sunday morning and hauled all day to the cemetery of the African Methodist Episcopal Church where a long trench has been dug near some cedar trees,  north and south of the road. 

Bob Washington, was about 10 or 11 years old at the time. Pointed out where the unmarked graves where. 

White Dead.
ANDREW KISEG, Crystal Springs, Miss.
Negroes Dead.
KING HAYES, Tugaloo, Miss.
JOHN SMITH, Tugaloo, Miss.
JOHN WILLIAMS, Brookhaven, Miss.
JERRY AUSTIN, Canton, Miss.
WILLIAM LAWSON, Canton, Miss.
Unknown Mulatio (Penn's crew).
Eighteen unidentified negro men.
One unidentified negro woman.

White Wounded.
BUD WILSON, fireman No. 6, McComb City, Miss.
HENRY STARKEY, Nathalbany, La.
Negroes Wounded.
EUGENE McDANIELS, Gilchesberg, Miss.
ERVIN LOVE, Rogue Chitto, Miss.
MONROE WALBUR, Hazelhurst, Miss.
WILL BRISTO.
JOHN THOMAS, Canton, Miss.
HENRY VARDIMORE, Chatawa, Miss.
V. S. GRANT, Eutah, Ala.
W. COLEMAN, Canton, Miss.
CHAS. NASH, Madison, Miss.
W. SMITH, Crystal Springs, Miss.
WILL TILLMAN, Brookhaven, Miss.
SHURLEY GRIFFIN, Pickens, Miss.
WILL MAY, Canton, Miss.
HENRY WRIGHT, Calhoun, Miss.
MARLON, McMullen, Brandon, Miss.

The Times-Democrat New Orleans Louisiana 1903-11-16

Source: Local  Lore and Legend: Written by Irene Reid Morris

List of Dead and Injured: The Times-Democrat New Orleans, Louisina, 1903-11-16

The Quarters Terminology African American Communities

Slave Quarters

As long as I can remember, African American people in Tangipahoa Parish called their communities the quarters. Communities such as  Ried, Clemmons, and Hyde, are often called quarters by African Americans who live in the community.  I often think about the slave quarters when I hear people refer to their community as the quarters. I came across an article that was written and published by Irene Ried Morris. Here is what she wrote;

The Quarters is a phrase which was sometimes used to refer to the area toward the Dillon High School where there are a large number of color residences. The phrase comes from early days. 

Slave Quarter were villages of slaves located on plantations. A place where enslaved Africans lived. Many tenant farmers and sharecroppers also lived in the quarters.  The buildings were designed and constructed for the expressed purpose of housing slaves on a plantation.

I hope that one day African American people who live in these predominantly African American communities will come together to consider changing the terminology from quarters to communities and perhaps on day rename the community to that of a prominent African American pioneer for each community.

Orange Grove Addition in Kentwood, Louisiana

Amos Kent

Orange Grove Addition has one of two possible origins. The Kent family once owned a slave named "Orange" and another called "Green." Or it could have been named for the early efforts of Mr. Fred Woolver to encourage the planting and growing of fruit trees, including oranges. He had a greenhouse at his home north of Kentwood High School, with Dr. Ellis and a Mr. Evans of Tangipahoa was among the first to ship milk from this area to New Orleans.

Source:  Reprint from the Local Lore and Legend

Written by Irene Reid Morris

Greater St. James A.M.E. Church Architect A.C. Evans

Greater St. James A.M.E. Church, Hammond, LA

Greater St. James A.M.E. Church was first established in 1867 by a newly freed slave Charles Daggs. Daggs fought for the Union Navy during the Civil War, he was shot in the back, falling into the Mississippi River, and picked up by the Union sailors. After he was discharged from the navy, he worshiped at New Orleans St. James A.M.E. church for three years before moving to Hammond. Daggs became the first pastor of the Hammond church.

Charles Daggs was a powerful voice in the African American community after the Civil War. He advocated strongly for the voting rights of freed slaves, and once protested and testified at the courthouse in Greenburg, that potential black voter was  being threatened by whites and the loss of their jobs and worse if they didn't  vote 'the right way." In 1923 the present site of the church, 311 East Michigan Street, was bought by two of the church members, Israel Carter and Albert Gibson, achieved by mortgaging their homes. The architect, Alexander Cornelius Evans, and the builder, John Noble, were also church members. The church construction was completed in 1925. The cornerstone of the church, include the names of Carter, Gibson, Evans, Nobles and Charles Daggs' son, Lewis.

Alexander Cornelius Evans
Greater St. James A.M.E. Architect

An obituary for A.C. Evans, the architect, on July 31st, 1936 issue of the Vindicator newspaper read as follows:

"Death claims a Good Colored citizen here. Death last Friday morning at one o'clock claimed A.C. Evans, one of the best known colored citizens, who has resided here for thirty years. Evans took much interest in church work. A.C. Evans was laid to rest in Brookhaven, Mississippi.

Evans was an advocate for education, three of his children were educators. I interviewed Evans granddaughter Debra Castille and great grandson Juan Rigo Castille. Debra's mother is the daughter of A. C. Evans. Her mother told her that the building in the Heat of the Night was built by her father A.C. Evans. 

Evans was born in 1875 to Charles and Eliza Jackson Evans in Brookhaven, Mississippi. He was married to Mattie Holloway. On his United States World War I Draft Registration Card 1917-1918 he was employed as a brick layer. According to the 1930 United States Census, Evans and his wife were the parents of nine children; Annette, Charles, Alvin, Mattie, Timothy, Roy, Ruth, Louise, and Edmund Evans. The family was living in Hammond, Louisiana.

Bibliographical Resouces

National Register of Historic Places Registration Form

Photo Courtesy: Juan Rigo Castille

1930 United States Census: Family Search

Remembering Carrie

All across United States today, millions of people are celebrating the Independence of the United States of America from Great Britain and its kings. July Fourth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence day 241 years ago on July 4, 1776.

The Continental Congress declared that thirteen American colonies regarded themselves as a new nation, the United States of America, and were no longer part of the British Empire.


Family and friends come together for outdoor cookouts with displays of fireworks to celebrate freedom every 4th of July.  My 5th maternal grandmother  Carrie and her son Thomas had their freedom taken away from them to help build a quality of life for others in the United States. Carrie was born circa 1833,  she was a forced slave on the plantation of Benjamin and Celia Bankston Richardson in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana. In the 1830s, the Liberty bell was adopted as a symbol by abolitionist societies.

The Liberty bell didn't ring for Carrie and her child on July 8, 1776.  Carrie, age 20 and her child Thomas, age 2 were appraised for $1,100 dollars in 1853 in St. Helena Parish, Louisiana. Thomas was around the age of 8 years old when slavery was emancipated in the United States on Jan 1, 1863. I thought about Carrie and Thomas today and asked myself what can I do to in memory of them?


On July 5, 1852, Fredrick Douglas gave a speech at an event commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence, held at the Rochester's Corinthian Hall;

What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy -- a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.

Inventory of Benjamin and Celia Bankston

Fourth of July means to me what Thanksgiving means to the Native Americans. It's a day of pain, sorrow, and mourning. This day meant that three generations removed,  my ancestors were forced to be slaves in the Americas. On the east coast  of the shores of the Atlantic oceans. Thousands of ships with human cargo from West, Africa was docking with my ancestors on it packed; like sardines in a can. They endured the rough sea waters, dark spaces in the bottom of the ships infested with human waste, dead bodies, and screams of fear of the unknown.  Thick chains around their hands and feet. Children, women and men from the continent of Africa  where kidnapped and sold into slavery in the United States and other countries. 

At Jamestown, Virginia, 20 African captives were sold into slavery in the British North American colonies in 1612. The question is; "why does so many people of African descent celebrate their enslavement with cookouts, fireworks, new attire to celebrate their enslavement?? 

I know nothing of Carrie's mother or father. Nevertheless, I do know that Carrie was working on the plantation of Benjamin and Celia B. Richardson in the brutal heat picking cotton and doing other back breaking work in St. Helena Parish, La. 

Lack of knowledge of our own history plays a major role for family members who choose too celebrated their enslavement. They teach their children to celebrate it for generations to come. Often times when you try to enlighten them, they will give some reason or reasons they celebrate July 4th and the reasons they'll continue to celebrate it. 

If I may suggest arranged a educational black history documentaries screening on the subject can help the family to become acknowledgeable.  Followed by family lectures  and discussions about their own family history will help them to understand it clearly.  I hope that the descendants of Carrie reflect upon what life was life for her and her child Thomas.  And chose not to celebrate their enslavement but to uplift themselves through knowledge. I'll spend this day educating and sharing historic research and other information with the descendants of Carrie. 


Thomas grew up and married a woman named Amanda Breland Richardson in St. Helena. They gave birth to five children; Annie, Thomas, Golene, John and Sophia Richardson. My direct lineage comes directly through Thomas. 

Thomas married Emma Vining Richardson and they gave birth to four children;  Rosabelle, Josephine, Alma and Alexander Richardson.  I'm the granddaughter of Josephine Richardson Harrell.

If you are a descendant of Carrie and her son Thomas. Posting this blog on the memory of Carrie and Thomas is what I can do today. Share the family history with their descendants in memory of them.