On July 9th, five days before the late Woody Guthrie would have turned 100, Douglas Brinkley and Johnny Depp published some surprising news about the folk singer in the New York Times Sunday Book Review. Brinkley and Depp have discovered an unpublished and basically unknown novel that Guthrie wrote in the mid-1940s entitled House of Earth. Inspired by his time spent in the Dust Bowl, the novel is an anti-capitalist ode to rural folks of modest means. The novel’s title comes from the partially underground, sun-dried brick dwellings constructed by poor tenant farmers in New Mexico during the Great Depression.
Woody Guthrie in 1943
Photo credit: New York World-Telegram and the Sun / Library of Congress
Guthrie was one of the better-known personages to receive a Rosenwald Fund grant. In 1943, the New York Times reported that he was given a fellowship from the Rosenwald Fund for “folklore” (Rosenwald archives list it under “Language & Literature”) a financial award that would enable him to “write books, ballads, songs and novels that will help people know each other’s work better” (The New York Times, May 10, 1943). Until now it’s been unclear what use Guthrie put this award to: unlike many arts fellowships, the Rosenwald Fund did not require benchmarks and updates from its awardees. Guthrie likely received the award on the strength of his 1943-published and critically acclaimed autobiography Bound for Glory and with this news, it seems entirely possible that he used it to write House of Earth.
The mid to late 1940s were Guthrie’s last productive years (after 1950, Huntington’s disease began to take its toll) and the freedom provided by his Rosenwald grant allowed him to craft the stories, drawings, poems and songs he produced during this period. Depp and Brinkley’s report hints that House of Earth may be the most significant piece of art Guthrie produced after Bound for Glory. In their article, they call it a “minor masterpiece,” saying that it “successfully mixes Steinbeck’s narrative verve with D. H. Lawrence’s openness to erotic exploration.”
It’s unclear why the novel was never published. Alan Lomax, Guthrie’s friend and supporter at the Archive of Folk Song of the Library of Congress (who also encouraged him to apply to the Rosenwald Fund) was enthusiastic about getting it published after reading the first chapter. Depp and Brinkley are currently co-editing the manuscript and looking for a publisher. If it’s published this year (65 years after Guthrie completed it in 1947) it will be a fitting tribute to the great folk singer on this centennial of his birth. Celebrations of his work including concerts and panel discussions will take place nationwide through the end of the year.
Charles H. Houston, a key figure in the history of legal challenges to segregation, also has an interesting connection to the Rosenwald Schools. Houston, who was born in Washington D.C., went on to practice law in the area as well as instruct students such as Thurgood Marshall at Howard Law School. His career as a lawyer spanned the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, and included many important civil rights cases. Kenneth W. Mack’s new book, Representing the Race: The Creation of the Civil Rights Lawyer, gives an excellent background of Houston’s life and accomplishments.
Being a lawyer, Houston focused especially on the integration of the country’s legal system. At this time, segregation in the courts was different than the segregation faced by other professions, like doctors, teachers or small business owners. As W.E.B. Du Bois observed in 1899, since “a lawyer must have co-operation from fellow lawyers and respect and influence in court… prejudice or discrimination of any kind is especially felt in this profession.” Especially in the South, black attorneys were forced to put up with many hurdles and limits set up within the courtroom. In 1933, Houston accepted a case with which he could challenge the segregated Southern court system in Loudoun County, Virginia. In the murder trial of George Crawford, Houston set important precedents for the rights of black attorneys to argue major cases and the importance of black participation in juries.
Although Houston did not live to see the Supreme Court’s groundbreaking decision in Brown v. Board of Education, a project he undertook during the fall of 1934 played a major role in the landmark verdict. During this time, Houston traveled to the South and filmed black schools in order to document the inequalities under Jim Crow segregation. These films (funded by a philanthropic organization out of New York, the Harmon Foundation) went on to be used as a vital exhibit in Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 (four years after Houston’s death).
These films are important to our project on Julius Rosenwald for an unlikely reason. While they were meant to demonstrate the failure of school districts to maintain black schools (the intertitles point out that the roofs and windows are in need of repair) they remain as possibly the oldest moving images of Rosenwald Schools. Houston’s footage of what is believed to be the Bethel Grade School in South Carolina will be featured in the upcoming documentary, The Rosenwald Schools, a clip from which can be viewed here:
In addition to breaking down the barriers of segregation in the legal system, Houston was a great believer in the importance of equal educational opportunity. In 1935, he claimed that “Discrimination in education is symbolic of all the more drastic discriminations which Negroes suffer in American life” (quoted in Genna Rae McNeil and A. Leon Higginbotham’s biography, Groundwork: Charles Hamilton Houston and the Struggle for Civil Rights). Like Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington before him, Houston fought for equality in education for all.
Last Thursday, June 21st, Aviva Kempner showed her work in progress of the upcoming film The Rosenwald Schools to an American University audience at the Katzen Arts Center on Massachusetts Ave NW. The event was part of a month-long lecture series from the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. The film received a warm reception by the OLLI members. Some members of the audience offered to do fundraising events for the film.
Aviva Kempner speaks at American University
Photo credit: Lena Frumin, 6/21/12
On a recent visit to DuArt Film Labs in Midtown Manhattan (an excellent company that is an independent filmmaker’s best ally, especially its head Irwin Young and a savior for many independent productions) I was taken aback by a familiar face up on the wall. I was in town primarily to promote The Rosenwald Schools documentary and all of a sudden I found myself face to face in one of DuArt’s offices with a picture of Julius Rosenwald himself. The picture turned out to be part of a 2012 calendar (sponsored by the supermarkets of New York City) that is honoring famous philanthropists. The June subject is Julius Rosenwald, and his picture graces this month’s page along with a summary of his achievements in philanthropy. Gloria Monge was kind enough to tear out the June page featuring Rosenwald so we could share a digital copy of it here.
During his life, Rosenwald was reluctant to put his name on his philanthropic projects–a practice which has resulted in his relative lack of notoriety compared to other early 20th century philanthropists–so it is always good to see him remembered in some way. These sorts of fateful coincidences have happened over and over during the production of The Rosenwald Schools and it gives us a lot of encouragement that the film we’re making is an important one.
The Rosenwald Schools work in progress screened at the National Museum of American Jewish History on May 23rd. Following the screening, Aviva Kempner was on hand to discuss the film, which is currently in production. Two earlier films by Ms. Kempner, The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, also screened recently at NMAJH in Philadelphia.
Outside the Christian Street YMCA
While visiting Philadelphia, Aviva also stopped by the site of the Christian Street YMCA, which is tucked away on a mostly residential block just south of Center City. Contrary to a note found on the historical plaque in front of the YMCA, this was not the first black YMCA to have its own building. However, it was one of the earliest black YMCAs to make use of Rosenwald’s challenge grant and it is still operating in the same location today. This historic and diverse neighborhood is also the birthplace of the famous singer—and 1930 Rosenwald Fellow—Marian Anderson.
Woody Guthrie in 1943
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