Enslavement to
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Black Schools
From Calobe Jackson, Jr., February 28, 2003
Jesse Fountain Fordam sent me Willie (Imes) Fordam's connection to the Imes family from a reunion book. Since I now have the date of Lucinda Clark Imes' death, I will get her obituary when the newspaper archives reopen. Lucinda was from York County and died in 1932.
I gave a history of Black teachers and schools in Steelton and Harrisburg from 1816, to the Camp Curtin/Mitchell Memorial Sunday School that was very well received. Most of the audience had attended or taught at the Hygienic, Lincoln, Calder, Wickersham, Downey or Central schools. Wickersham was the former Sec. of Public Instruction and led the School Teachers Brigade in the Civil War. Downey was the first person to petition the state for free colored schools. I also presented a newspaper clipping of the 1908 Colored Symphonic Choir in which Aura Imes was a featured singer. Judith and Jesse Fountain's mother was in the choir with Aura. The old Asbury Episcopal church that my great great grandmother was buried from in 1939 was later changed to Mitchell Memorial. Judith Fountain Hill presented me with a picture of Marian Anderson with 20 young ladies at the YWCA.