Author Gail Milissa Grant at History Museum Oct. 19
Some weeks ago, I was touting a new book published by your Missouri History Museum. At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights is the work of former St. Louisan Gail Milissa Grant, who now lives in Rome, Italy. It is a nostalgic look at the Civil Rights Movement in St. Louis prior to the great movement of the 1960s.
At the center of the struggle is David M. Grant, the author’s father. We see him and the movement through Ms. Grant’s childhood experiences. She weaves her experiences into a tapestry of anecdotes, recollections of her father and observations that transport us through the 1930s into the heart of the 1950s, when some of the great civil rights issues were at the fore and only a handful of courageous people were putting it on the line for the cause.
Milissa’s book (she prefers to use her middle name) is full of revealing stories such as the one that explains the conversion of black St. Louisans to the Democratic Party. She reminds us that when her father became a Democrat, most black people were Republicans.
The Republican Party was, of course, the party of Lincoln, The Great Emancipator. That meant that, unlike today, Republicans ruled St. Louis.
“I discovered,” she quotes her father, “that it was their (black people’s) vote that was keeping the Republican Party in power.”
She writes that Mr. Grant also noted that blacks got little in return for their blind loyalty. Menial jobs were handed out under the patronage system, with little hope for advancement, according to the book.
In a lengthy chapter, Milissa describes how her father and other prominent black leaders systematically went about changing the minds and hearts of black voters. It’s an engrossing tale of tenacious politicking with the idea that if you’re part of a political party, you should be guaranteed certain considerations.
It took some years to complete the conversion. It also took the help of the Great Depression, the ineptitude of President Hoover and the promises of Franklin Roosevelt for Grant to achieve his goal. The conversion stuck as evidenced by the makeup of St. Louis City government today.
But At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights is not only about one young girl’s recollections of her father’s career. It also is a personal journey. For example, there’s a picture of a voluptuous Lena Horne holding toddler Gail Milissa Grant in 1949.
“Nobody knew why she was in town,” writes Milissa. “Her St. Louis tour included various stops in the black community, among them was my brother’s nursery school. So Mommy dressed me up and took me there.”
She goes on to tell how her mother wanted to get a picture of her and Ms. Horne and wound up with a home movie.
“It shows her wrapping me in her arms and holding me to her cheek long enough for my father to get it on film.”
She goes on to tell how Horne gathered the nursery school kids around her and sang to them. It’s one of many great stories.
There are many pictures taken at the Grant home and included in the book that illustrate, on the one hand, the special status of that home and on the other hand, the horrible inconvenience of Jim Crow in St. Louis.
Lena Horne, Billy Daniels and Leontyne Price were all big international stars in the late 1940s and 1950s. They were welcomed into many of the finest hotels around the world n but not in St. Louis. Here, like so many Southern and so-called border states, black performers were often paid large sums of money to sing, dance or act before white audiences, but were denied simple accommodations, often at the very establishments where they performed.
This made the Grant home and others like it hostels for the traveling performers. Milissa writes about how the cast of Porgy and Bess partied at the Grant home and how their white mailman would make a point of stopping by the house when Cab Calloway was there.
Not every story is a first-hand recollection, but every story is fascinating.
Gail Milissa Grant will be speaking and autographing copies of At the Elbows of My Elders: One Family’s Journey Toward Civil Rights at your History Museum on Sunday, October 19 at 2 p.m. It is a free event.
This is a book you’ll want to add to your collection, especially if you’re a student of St. Louis history.
Last Take
The fourth installment of Urban Stories: Reflections of History features author Benjamin Skinner. Join us Thursday, October 23 at 6 p. m. at your Missouri History Museum. Tickets are available at MHM, by phone at (314) 361-9017 or online at www.mohistory.org.