Gems From the Black Press: La Quasima Club of Columbus & the Social Event of the Season

Gems from The Black Press: This article is part of a series  of articles whose purpose is to share each week an interesting article from early black publications of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. As previously noted,the articles found inside of these long forgotten publications contain rich history that reflect  the early years of African America life in the first decades of freedom. Some are publications of fraternal or benevolent societies, and some were more community based. All  pieces shared in this series provide a close up to history and culture of times long past.

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Today's focus:

The Reception Given by the LaQuasima Club

from: The Columbus Standard

In 1901 the Columbus Standard was said to be the leading newspaper for Afro-Americans in the state of Ohio. An online article from July 1901 describes an interesting social event that was said to the the social event of the season for the Black community, in Columbus Ohio.

Source:Ancestry.com. U.S., African American Newspapers, 1829-1947 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013. This
collection was indexed by Ancestry World Archives Project contributors.
Original data: Negro Newspapers for the American Council of Learned Studies. Washington, D.C.: The Library of Congress.

Apparently the event was honoring men who had been serving in the US military and had been involved actively in the conflict in the Philippines. The reference to "Our Boys" is reflecting the men returning from conflict.  Little is seen in the press of how returning service men of color were received upon return from service, especially after the Spanish American conflict. These returning soldiers were returning from time served in the Spanish American War and specifically from the Philippine Islands.

The event unfolded at the Odd Fellows Hall in Columbus, and a list of attendees was included in the article. It was clearly described as a major society event, for the article pointed out that seventy-five couples of young people from "the prominent colored families in the city were present." (1) I was quite surprised to note that among the guests whose names were published was a resident of my own hometown, of Ft. Smith Arkansas as well.

The article described the event where the ladies were "attired in airy evening gowns, the gentlemen wearing the up-to-date shirt waist, all responded gracefully to the music of the people's orchestra, presented a scene which stirred the pride of those who looked upon it."

Beyond this being a simple description of a social event, such an article is quite useful in terms of providing today's reader with an interesting glimpse into the social life of an African American community at the turn of the 20th century. Clearly there was an "elite" portion of the population with the reference to the "prominent" families in attendance. At the same time there was an orchestra more than likely a black orchestra in Columbus at that time as well.  The article is also full of names of many who were in attendance, and this can be an interesting way of looking at a portion of the population almost as a Who's Who list of the Black Columbus at that time, and it provided a wonderful glimpse about he ways in which the Columbus Black community socialized. 

The very existence of the La Quasima club is something for those with ancestral ties to Columbus to explore.
What was the origin of this club?
How long did it last?
Did it evolve into something that still exists today?

And there is also the Odd Fellows Hall. Was this a G.U.O. O. F. building? (Grand United Order of Odd Fellows?) Does the building still stand today?

Articles such as this one from the Columbus Standard provide that opportunity to give readers even 100 years later a flavor of life in the community at that time.

One Newsaper, Two Homes

Copies of the BroadAx of Salt Lake City, and Chicago

Over a year ago, I was fascinated when doing some research to come across a digitized image of a Black newspaper called the Broad Ax.  This newspaper started out in Salt Lake City, and had an amazing history from an amazing editor.

Julius Taylor was a unique man with unique ideas that covered many aspects of politics. He traveled from Virginia, to the Midwest before settling in Salt Lake City Utah in 1895. A year later he launched the Broad Ax, from his base in Utah. This is amazing since at that time, there were so few people of color in the state of Utah. It is estimated that there were less than 1000 African Americans in the state at that time. It has been noted that in 1890, the population was less than 600. (1)

Taylor was often in conflict with people of varying opinions politically and religiously, but stated in his newspaper that people of varying opinions could respond to his thoughts "so long as their language was proper, and responsibility is fixed." [2]

Taylor could be described as a man of interesting politics in many ways. At a time when most Black Americans were politically leaning to the policies of the Republican party in the late 1800s, he was one who encouraged Black readers to consider more the politics of the Democratic party. Interestingly, that shift would occur decades later in the 1960s after the Voting Rights Act. Black registered as Democrats and those with more conservative and sometimes "anti-black" sentiments began to shift in larger numbers to the Republican party. Taylor often lectured how the preferred party of the time had abandoned the Lincoln values and had shifted away in a different direction. He particularly deplored the actions of the Republican Party convention of 1896 nominated persons of all religious and ethnic backgrounds except African Americans.

Julius Taylor did become a strong voice against the lynchings throughout the nation of black people and often was a spokesperson against lynching in The Broad Ax. He also worked tirelessly to encourage the placement of Blacks in Salt Lake City city council, where he met much opposition from a strongly conservative population.

Taylor did not have strong religious feelings and often spoke against issues and conservative policies of the Mormon church and other faiths as well.

His strongest interests were continually equality for all people and the sentiment was found often in his editorials.

Three  years after publication, Taylor left Salt Lake City, and after efforts to have involvement of people of color  and relocated the offices of The Broad Ax to Chicago, where he worked within a city that had a more sizable black population. (2)

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1.  Utah Digital Newspapers, Creating Citizen Historians [Link to quotation]

2, A detailed article about Julius Taylor and The Broad Ax can be found in a digitized copy of the Utah Historical Quarterly, Volume 77, No. 3, Summer 2009 p. 204.