Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #18

Couple: Josephine Willson and Blanche Bruce

Date of Wedding:  June 24, 1878

Place: 228 Perry Street, Cleveland, OH (Home of the Bride's Parents)

Officiant: Rev. N.S. Rulison

Fun facts: 

Sixty guests attended the private ceremony.

The groom's family was not invited to the wedding because of their enslaved past.

The bride's parents closed the heavy velvet draperies throughout the house to prevent the crowd gathered outside from being able to peek at the ceremony.

The bride wore a white silk gown trimmed in satin.

After the ceremony, guests enjoyed a catered supper while a local orchestra provided music.

The couple sailed to Europe on June 27 for a four-month honeymoon but returned stateside in time for the next session of Congress.

The groom was the second African American to serve in the  United States Senate and the first African American to be elected to a full term.  He represented the state of Mississippi.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #17

Couple: Kellie Carter and Nathaniel Jackson

Date of Wedding:  May 28, 2005

Place: First Metropolitan Church (Houston, TX)

Officiant: Rev. John D. Olgetree

Fun facts: 

The couple's wedding reception was in the backyard of the bride's parents' home.  The groom had proposed in that yard  on July 4.

The couple met as children.  The future bride was 8 years old and the future groom was 10 years old.  They met in church and their families have always been close.

The couple had a long-distance relationship for their entire 3-year courtship: Colorado and Washington, D.C. and then Texas and New York.  They were also long-distance for the first four years of their marriage (North Dakota and New York City).

The couple endured their long-distance relationship BEFORE Skype, video chat, etc. became popular.  The groom was deployed six weeks after his wedding so he handwrote his bride letters every day for months.  The bride has kept those letters.

The groom deployed again when the couple was expecting their first child, so he wrote a letter to his wife and a letter to his unborn child every day of his deployment.  The letters are in their son’s baby book.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #16

Couple: Velvaline Shepherd and Nathaniel L. Sanders, Jr.

Date of Wedding:  June 4, 1975

Place: Johnston County Courthouse (Smithfield, NC)

Officiant: J.T. Smith

Fun facts: 

The couple did not give their families much advance notice of the wedding.

The couple met in high school at a political meeting.  Their romance continued while in college.

The couple attended two high school proms together years before marrying.

The bride graduated from North Carolina Central University.  The groom attended Winston-Salem State University and graduated from NC Wesleyan College.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #15

Couple: Auldlyn Higgins and Edgar Thomas Williams, Jr.

Date of Wedding:  May 23, 1964

Place: St. James Episcopal Church (Baltimore, MD)

Officiant: Reverend Donald O. Wilson

Fun facts: 

The bride wore an empire gown of white silk linen.  Her chapel-length illusion veil was attached to a halo of silk linen trimmed with pearls.

The groom was an Ebony magazine Bachelor of the Year.

The bride graduated from the Westover School in Middlebury, CT and from Fisk University in Nashville, TN.

The groom graduated from Brooklyn College.

The couple's wedding was featured in the New York Times and the New York Amsterdam News.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #14

Couple: Nicholl Lewis and Dr. Michael Young

Date of Wedding: September 22, 2012

Place: The Biltmore Ballrooms (Atlanta)

Officiant:  Elder Mary W. Young (the groom's step-grandmother)

Fun facts:

The bride and groom worked at the same place at the same time and never crossed paths (Emory Healthcare in Atlanta).

The first time the groom's mother met the bride, she said “She’s a keeper!” That may have sealed the deal. 

The bottom of the bride's dress caught on fire during the ceremony and she didn’t know about it until later. The mother of the bride and a friend put it out. The bride finds it funny now, but she would have been mortified, had she known what was going on at the time.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #13

Couple: Arthur Ashe and Jeanne Moutoussamy

Date of Wedding:  February 20, 1977

Place: United Nations Chapel (NYC)

Officiant: Ambassador Andrew Young

Fun facts: 

The couple met for the first time on October 16, 1976 at a United Negro College Fund (UNCF) benefit. They went on their first date three days later and married four months after that!  

The groom proposed to his bride several times before she finally said yes. 

The bride told the press that her groom hid her engagement ring in his medicine cabinet for weeks.

The bride's dress was a high-necked sheath with lace edging around the neckline, cuffs, and hem.

The groom took his marriage vows while wearing a cast and using crutches because he had undergone heel surgery 10 days earlier.

The couple had one child, a daughter named Camera which was a nod to Jeanne's career as a photographer.

The groom is the only Black man to have won the singles title at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #12

Couple: Bernice DeCosta and Dr. Albert Miles Davis

Date of Wedding:  September 5, 1948 at 6:30 pm

Place: St. Mark’s Episcopal Church (Charleston, SC)

Officiant: Reverend Turner W. Morris

Fun facts: 

The bride was a 1941 graduate of Avery Institute in Charleston and a 1945 graduate of Simmons College in Boston.  She also studied at Traphagen School of Fashion in 1946.

The groom graduated from Morehouse College and Howard University Medical School.  

The couple met in Atlanta while the bride taught art and fashion design at Spelman College.

The church was decorated with white gladiolas and palms for the wedding.

The bride’s dress was made entirely of Chantilly lace ornamented with irredescent sequins.  She had a Cathedral train and full-length veil.

The bride’s only jewelry was the strand of pearls that her mother wore on her own wedding day.

The bride was the great-granddaughter of William and Ellen Craft, the enslaved couple from Macon, Georgia, who escaped to the North in 1848.  Ellen Craft dressed as a man and pretended to be the white male owner of William during their successful runaway voyage.

The couple divorced in 1954.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #11

Couple: Ida Smith and Nathaniel Sanders

Date of Wedding:  February 4, 1950

Place: Private home in Smithfield, NC at the bedside of the officiant

Officiant: Reverend William H. Mitchener

Fun facts: 

The marriage ceremony was performed at the bedside of Rev. Mitchener, the groom's pastor, who was ill.

The groom, a World War II veteran, escorted the bride to her 1945 senior prom wearing his Army uniform.

The love affair did not end with the groom’s death in 1991.  The bride continued celebrating her wedding anniversary every year until her own death in 2000.

The couple's anniversary picture c. 1988.

The bride's nursing school photograph, taken about a year before marrying Nathaniel Sanders.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #10

Couple: Marjorie Johnson and Edgar William Ward

               Luella Johnson and Robert Graves

Date of Wedding:   1948 Summer

Place: Livingstone College auditorium (Salisbury, NC)

Fun facts: 

The sisters chose to have a double wedding.

3,000 guests attended the ceremony.

The father of the brides, Rev. Dr. Julius P. Johnson, was a prominent Presbyterian pastor in the South.  Groom Edgar Ward also became a well-known Presbyterian pastor in Chicago.

Sanders Named Director of the Africana Research Center at Penn State

https://news.psu.edu/story/526306/2018/06/25/academics/crystal-sanders-named-director-africana-research-center

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #9

Couple: Portia Washington and William Pittman

Date of Wedding:  October 31, 1907

Place: Tuskegee Institute Chapel (Tuskegee, Alabama)

Officiant: Tuskegee Chaplain John W. Whittaker

Fun facts: 

Tuskegee's electrical division hung lights on every tree, bush, and shrub on the campus. 

The wedding reception was held at The Oaks, Booker T. Washington’s home on the campus of Tuskegee Institute.

The large crowd assembled for the wedding had "elaborately molded ice cream" to go along with the wedding cake.

Booker T. Washington, the bride’s father, gave his daughter a Steinway piano as a wedding present.

The couple had a long-distance relationship at times because their courtship blossomed while Portia was in Berlin pursuing piano studies.  William Pittman won her affections through passionate letters.

The groom was the first African American man to graduate from Drexel and the first African American architect to secure a federal commission

The couple separated in 1928 but never formally divorced.

Sanders Speaks at the 223rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

Crystal Sanders recently spoke about Head Start in civil rights-era Mississippi during the Presbyterian Historical Society's luncheon during the 223rd General Assembly in St. Louis, MO.  Click the link for more information about her remarks.

https://www.pcusa.org/news/2018/6/20/phs-remembers-head-start-program/

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #8

Couple: Ferdinand Barnett and Ida B. Wells

Date of Wedding:  June 27, 1895

Place: Bethel AME Church, Chicago, IL

Fun facts: 

The couple's wedding announcement appeared on page 1 of the New York Times.

The bride canceled the wedding three times because of her antilynching speaking schedule.

The bride wore a white satin trained gown trimmed with orange blossoms.

So many family members, friends, and fans flocked to the church for the wedding that the bridal party had trouble reaching the church door.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #7

Couple: Medgar Evers and Myrlie Beasley

Date of Wedding:  December 24, 1951

Place: Mount Heroden Baptist Church, Vicksburg, MS

Fun facts: 

The couple met at Alcorn A&M College where they were both students.

The couple had a major argument the night before their wedding.

The Evers' honeymoon consisted of one night in a segregated hotel in Jackson, Mississippi, and then visits with both sets of in-laws.

*A white supremacist murdered Medgar Evers in 1963.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #6

Couple: Glynn Turman and Aretha Franklin

Date of Wedding:   April 11, 1978

Place: New Bethel Baptist Church, Detroit, Michigan

Officiant: Rev. Clarence L. Franklin (father of the bride)

Fun facts: 

The bride wore a silk gown (with an eight-foot train) trimmed in fur.

The wedding party consisted of a dozen attendants.

The Four Tops sang "Isn't She Lovely" and a full choir sang hymns.

The couple had a wedding reception at the Beverly-Hilton in Los Angeles a few days after the wedding.  The reception was originally scheduled to be outside at the bride's home but rain necessitated a change of plans.

*The couple divorced in 1984.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #5

Couple: Courtney B. Vance and Angela Bassett

Date of Wedding: October 12, 1997

Place: private residence in Los Angeles, California

Fun facts: 

The couple met while both pursued graduate study at the Yale School of Drama in the 1980s, but they did not start dating until years later.

The bride wore a silk fitted gown with a 4-foot French lace train by Escada.

There were 3 bridesmaids and 3 groomsmen.

The couple delayed their honeymoon because they were both filming movies at the time of the wedding.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #4

Couple: Colin Powell and Alma Johnson

Date of Wedding: August 25, 1962

Place: First Congregational Church, Birmingham, Alabama

Officiant:  Rev. J Clyde Perry

Fun facts: 

The couple met on a blind date in 1961.

The couple had two wedding receptions.

Mr. and Mrs. Powell spent their honeymoon at the historic AG Gaston Motel in Birmingham.  For more information on this motel’s connection to the civil rights movement, see Black Titan: A.G. Gaston and the Making of a Black American Millionaire by Carol Jenkins and Elizabeth Gardner Hines.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #3

Couple: Countee Cullen and Yolande Du Bois

Date of Wedding: April 9, 1928

Place: Salem Methodist Episcopal Church (Harlem)

Officiants:  Rev. Frederick A. Cullen and Rev. George Frazier Miller

Fun facts:

The bride was the daughter of W.E.B Du Bois.

1,200 people were invited to the wedding ceremony but 3,000 attended.

The bride had 16 bridesmaids and two soloists (pictured below) and the groom had 9 groomsmen including Langston Hughes.

Gilded cages containing canary birds hung from the balcony rails of the church.

*The couple divorced after two years of marriage. 

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #2

Couple: Martin L. Harvey and Emma Clarie Collins

Date of Wedding: August 1, 1943

Place: Central Methodist Church, Jackson, MS

Officiant:  Rev. A.L. Holland

Fun facts:

The couple’s romance began in Berlin, Germany, in 1939.

The wedding was profiled in three different black newspapers.

The bride had a cathedral train and the groom and his groomsmen wore white dinner jackets with black tuxedo trousers.

Clarie Collins Harvey was a funeral home owner who used her business to further civil rights.  See “DIGNITY IN LIFE AND DEATH: UNDERTAKER CLARIE COLLINS HARVEY AND BLACK WOMEN’S ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVISM,” JOURNAL OF MISSISSIPPI HISTORY LXXVI (FALL/WINTER 2014): 111-127.

Celebrating Black Brides: Profile #1

I love LOVE, weddings, and Black history.  I have decided to combine my interests into blog posts about black weddings.  I plan to profile the weddings of well-known and not-so-well known African Americans.  Since April 15 is Jackie Robinson Day, it is fitting to begin this series with the wedding of Jackie Robinson and Rachel Isum. 

Date of Wedding: February 10, 1946 (year before Jackie desegregates major league baseball)

Place: Independent Church of Christ in Los Angeles, CA

Officiant:  Rev. Carl Downs, Dean of Sam Huston College (HBCU in TX); the church’s pastor was in Washington, D.C. at the time fighting for fair employment practices.

Fun facts:

According to the Chicago Defender, Mrs. Rachel Robinson graduated at the head of her UCLA class and studied nursing.

The wedding party consisted of eight attendants.

Mrs. Robinson wore a gown of ivory satin with a three-tiered bridal veil.