share observations which are, in great part, the consequences of having him in my life. It is a journey across a century of trial and achievement. It is one for the record.
I: Foundation
1919-1939
•The 1919 Treaty of Versailles ending World War I put heavy demands on Germany, sowing the seeds for future conflict.
•Alcock and Brown completed the first nonstop transatlantic flight in 1919.
•After training in France, Bessie Coleman became the first licensed black pilot in the USA in 1922.
•Following the crash of the New York Stock Market, blacks were hit hard in the Great Depression of the 1930s.
•African Americans helped elect President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who stimulated the economy with the “New Deal” and, with wife Eleanor, was a supporter of civil rights.
•Blacks were admitted into the Civil Pilot Training Program at six black colleges and two non-academic flying schools in 1939.
•Hitler’s invasion of Poland signaled the beginning World War II.
None of us influence the circumstances of our birth, and so it was with my father, Charles Edward McGee, born on December 7, 1919 to Lewis Allen McGee and Ruth Elizabeth Lewis McGee. Lewis was a battle tested World War I veteran returned from Europe where he had served as a 1st lieutenant and chaplain for the troops. At the time of Charles' birth the family lived at 425 E. 158th Street in Cleveland, Ohio, another accident of fate since Lewis' work, sometimes as a teacher, social worker and minister of the AME (African Methodist Episcopal) church, resulted in frequent moves.
Charles' brother, Lewis Allen Jr., was born two years before in Raleigh, North Carolina, and the family had lived in several locales before coming to Cleveland. It turned out the Cleveland stint was long enough to welcome the arrival of Ruth Monzella McGee on May 1, 1921. Sadly, it also served as the last earthly home for the children's mother. Ruth died within weeks of the birth of her daughter and namesake from an infection thought to be pneumonia contracted during her confinement at the hospital following childbirth.
Not much can be revealed about the short life of Charles' mother. Though born a Singleton, she was adopted by the Daniel Lewis Family. They lived in Springfield, Ohio, and Ruth most likely spent the greater part of her life there. Lewis Sr. came to know her while he was attending Wilberforce University in Xenia, Ohio, but did not talk about her to his children after her death. Whether she was a student at Wilberforce, Charles didn't know.
There is much I wanted to find out about my paternal grandmother Ruth and how her family coped after losing her at such a young age. Critical events are thought to be better recalled, unless too traumatic, in which case they can be suppressed. Some people say they remember things that happened at a very young age, but for whatever reason the rules of memory dictate, Dad cannot say much about the first decade of his life. When asked about his mother, he is quiet and gets a distant look in eyes peering back seventy five years.
"I have no personal recall of her," he finally answers.
There are bits and pieces of his early years Charles does remember. He remembers his father relating one story about his time at Wilberforce. He had a job on campus grooming and tending horses for the school's ROTC program headed by Colonel Benjamin O. Davis Sr. (Coincidentally, Davis would go on to become the nation's first black general and his son, B. O. Davis Jr., would follow in his footsteps, ultimately leading the
country's first black military pilots into the history books. The thought of these developments was almost inconceivable at the time.)
Lewis Sr. also related stories about being the second eldest of three sons and three daughters of Charles Allen and Gay Ankrum McGee, and growing up in a religious home. Charles Allen had been a slave until the age of six. In adult years, he became a Methodist minister, providing a strong spiritual foundation, and with wife Gay offered guidance and encouragement to their growing children. Gay's father, Charles Ankrum, was also an AME minister and a veteran of the Civil War.
Like most Negroes in this country, Gay and her husband Charles had mixed ancestry; hers was of Caucasian, Indian and African roots and his father was Scottish, but whether he was a slave owner or abolitionist is not known. Mixing of the races persisted despite anti-miscegenation laws against marriage or sexual relations between a man and woman of different races, especially between a white and a black.
Multiracial heritage prompted laws which defined racial identity in cases like the McGee’s. Just as brown eyes are dominant over blue eyes genetically, black lineage dominated. One thirty-second of black ancestry in the blood line, which equates to black parentage six generations passed, qualified a man or woman as Negro in most states with laws addressing racial identity.
Lewis Sr. was a prominent and handsome man. He was close to six feet tall and fair-skinned with dark wavy hair. While it might not have been apparent to the casual observer that Lewis was a Negro, he was never known to misrepresent his heritage. His wife Ruth had been brown skinned, quiet and unassumingly attractive in her own right. Their children spanned the colors between with Lewis Jr. being the darkest, Ruth very pale and Charles a honey color in the middle.
In the summer of 1921, Lewis Sr. was 27 years old and a widower faced with the prospects of rearing three small children alone. It is hard to imagine how their world must have viewed this motherless rainbow family. Though details of life in Cleveland remains behind the veil of lost childhood memories, periodic visits with Lewis' mother in Clarksburg and Morgantown, West Virginia, emerge in snatches. Lewis Jr., Charles and Ruth were put on a train in Cleveland and the conductor kept an eye on them until they were delivered into the hands of relatives waiting on the other end. The great “iron” steps onto the train looked pretty formidable to a little guy and while all of this was strange to Charles at first, he soon adjusted to the new adventure. When the time was right, the conductor let them eat the packed lunch, which was sent with them. For the rest of the trip they amused themselves as children are prone to do and the time passed quickly.
In Morgantown there was a boardwalk leading up to the house. Lewis Jr., Charles and Ruth played on it and school yard swings where Charles first soared high to momentarily escape the bonds of earth’s gravity. The time was not right, however, and one flight ended abruptly in a painful fall to the blacktop. Charles announced his distress for the entire world to hear as he ran to the house where Grandma Gay cleaned his wounded chin and dried his tears.
During those summer visits with Grandma Gay, she created a special place for them, one nurturing and comforting and filled with the love a departed mother could not offer. For that, I am grateful.
"Thank you, Mama Gay."
Patched up, Charles headed back to the swing set and unfinished business. The safer swing on the porch and the front step offered the best vantage point for family to gather to observe the end of the summer day. There they would relive times gone by, talk of hopes for tomorrow and watch events unfolding before them. During the evening and into the night, the aroma of fresh bread from the bakery nearby floated down the hillside and wafted through the valley.
Of course, things were not always so serene. Kids being kids, Lewis, Charles and Ruth got into their share of mischief. Charles took a turn throwing mud balls at freshly laundered sheets flapping on the clothesline, although he denied involvement in the prank. With both father and grandfathers being ministers, it is not surprising that playing church in the backyard was another favorite pastime. Mama Gay laughed at Charles' portrayal of the minister and, especially,
