Gerri Major

Gerri Major

Geraldyn Dismond (Gerri Major), 1935

Portrait photograph of Geraldyn Dismond (Gerri Major) by Carl Van Vechten, March 22, 1935
Born Geraldyn Hodges
(1894-07-29)July 29, 1894[1]
Chicago, Illinois, United States[2]
Died August 17, 1984(1984-08-17) (aged 90)[3]
Nationality American
Known for Journalist, editor, author, Harlem socialite

Gerri Major (1894–1984) was an African-American woman who lived in Harlem during a career that stretched from the 1920s through the 1970s. She was successful in a number of overlapping vocations including journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author, and community leader. An article celebrating her 80th birthday said "Gerri was definitely one of the 'new Negroes' of the early 20th Century" adding that by the end of the 1930s she had become "one of the best known black women in America."[4]

During World War I she was a major in the American Red Cross. Thereafter she became a society columnist and editor for African American newspapers in her home city of New York as well as Pittsburgh, Chicago, and Baltimore. In 1936 a newspaper reporter said her talent for writing vivid prose, her editing skill, and her ability to maintain a wide circle of influential friends brought her fame and gave her "a unique position similar to that of an arbiter over the local social set."[5] At the time of her death she held joint positions as associate editor of Jet and senior staff editor of Ebony magazine.

During all of her adult life she was an active participant in civic organizations that worked to improve the health, education, and general well-being of New York's African American community, and for ten years from 1936 to 1946 was a publicity specialist for the Central Harlem Health District.

Early life and education

Geraldyn Hodges (Gerri Major) from an article entitled "Our Future Leaders" in The Crisis (v. 10, n. 3, July 1915)

Major was born in Chicago on July 29, 1894. Her birth name was Geraldyn Hodges. After her mother died in childbirth her father arranged for her to be adopted by his sister-in-law and her husband, Maud and David Lawrence, who lived nearby.[6][7][note 1] Following elementary school, she attended Wendell Phillips High School and subsequently was awarded a work-study scholarship at the University of Chicago from which she graduated with a Bachelor in Philosophy degree in 1915.[9][10]:160[11][note 2]

In the summer months after her graduation she studied at Hampton Institute and during the next school year she taught dramatic art and physical culture at Lincoln Institute, an African American college in Jefferson City, Missouri.[9][13][14] Not liking the situation there she returned to Chicago to enter a two-year program at Chicago Normal School so that she could qualify to teach elementary school in that city.[9][8] In the fall of 1917 Major served as a teacher-in-training, or "cadet," in the Chicago public school system.[15][16] In December of that year she interrupted her progress toward becoming a Chicago school teacher in order to marry H. Binga Dismond, whom she had met at the University of Chicago. The ceremony took place at Camp Logan in Houston, Texas, where Dismond was training for service in the Army.[9][8] During American participation in World War I, while he served in France, she became a Red Cross nurse in Chicago, leaving that organization in 1918 with the rank of major.[9][8][note 3]

In 1919 Major taught at the Stephen A. Douglas Elementary School, the same school she had attended as a child.[9][8][10][18]:91[note 4] She left the teaching profession in 1923 when she and her Dismond moved to Manhattan. She later said she found herself with nothing to do in New York and was "positively miserable" until 1925 when she participated in a fund raising effort for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.[19] Early in March of that year she composed and distributed a public announcement for the annual NAACP Dance in Harlem's Manhattan Casino. The release, which appeared in the New York Age on March 7, set Major onto a career path as newspaper columnist and public relations specialist.[20]

Later life

During the course of a long career, Major was a journalist, editor, newscaster, publicist, public health official, author, and community leader.

Journalist

Geraldyn Dismond (Gerri Major), Pittsburgh Courier, October 10, 1925

The paragraph she distributed to publicize the NAACP dance caught the eye of Floyd J. Calvin, the New York editor for an influential African-American newspaper, the Pittsburgh Courier, who subsequently named Major as the paper's New York social editor.[19][21] The paper's announcement of her appointment included a photograph showing her elegantly dressed and posed.[21][note 5][note 6] From 1925 to 1927 Major wrote a weekly column called "New York Society" in which she reported the doings of prominent members of the African American community. In 1927 Major began a new column called "Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond" which, instead of New York society news, contained essays and reviews on theater, books, and cultural topics.[22][23][note 7] Soon afterward she began writing a weekly column of New York social news called "In New York Town" for the Chicago Bee,[9][13] and the following year (1928) she started yet another society column, this one called "New York Social Whirl" appearing in the Baltimore Afro-American.[13][14][note 8] In 1933 she worked as writer and editor for the short-lived Harlem Daily Citizen,[5][13] and between 1927 and 1931, in addition to her other news work, she was a writer and editor for the Inter-State Tattler for which she wrote columns called "Social Snapshots of Geraldyn Dismond" and "Between Puffs by Lady Nicotine."[9] She subsequently served a four-year stint as columnist for the New York Age following which, from 1939 to 1952 she was a columnist and editor for the New York Amsterdam News.[5][25][26][27][note 9][note 10] In 1953 she began a long career as writer and editor for two sister magazines: the monthly,Ebony, and the weekly, Jet.[4][note 11][note 12]

Editor

Gerri Major, Jet magazine, June 4, 1953

Major's first editorial job was New York social editor of the Pittsburgh Courier.[21] While still contributing extensive new content, she performed more extensive editorial work from 1928 to 1932 for the Inter-State Tattler.[9][14][32] In 1930 a reporter said the Tattler's name was "synonymous with Geraldyn Dismond."[19][note 13] In 1933 and 1934 Major edited the Daily Citizen during its brief life.[5][35][note 14] Subsequently she was both social reporter and society editor of the New York Age,[36] and during the 1940s was women's page editor for the New York Amsterdam News.[25][27][37] In 1953 she began a twenty-five-year career at Ebony as writer and society editor. She later became associate editor, and, in 1967, senior staff editor, the position she held at her death in 1984.[25][4] In 1953 she also joined Jet as writer and society editor, later becoming associate editor, a position she retained until her death.[38] She worked in the New York offices that were jointly maintained by both magazines.[note 15] The year that she began with Ebony and Jet she was sent to England to cover the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

Radio announcer and promoter

Between 1928 and 1930 Major wrote and presented a review of events during a New York radio program that aired each week on Sunday afternoon. This made her, as one source put it, "the first Negro woman commercial radio announcer."[9] The program was the "Negro Achievement Hour," a variety show featuring talks and music that was carried on two local stations, WABC and WEVD.[note 16][note 17][note 18] In addition to newscasting, Major was a program director for the show.[39][44] The program ceased after its 85th week in August 1929.[45] In 1930 Major helped to establish a broadcasting studio in Harlem, became the organization's secretary, and announced many many of its programs on air.[19][41][note 19]

Publicist

In 1928 Major became one of the first, if not the very first, African American women to take on the role of publicist. Located in Harlem on 135th Street the Geraldyn Dismond Bureau of Specialized Publicity developed an extensive mailing list and established its credentials by landing a contract to publicize an all-African-American stage production called "Africana" starring Ethel Waters.[9][8][8][47]

Health educator

In 1933 Major became executive director of a health center on Lenox Avenue in Harlem that was operated by the United Health Association.[48][note 20] The following year she was chosen by the Newspaper Guild to work on a welfare publicity project in the Central Harlem Health District.[5][note 21] In 1936 she passed civil service examinations and oral interviews to become a publicity assistant in the New York Bureau of Health Education and Information,[5][25][51] a job she continued to perform until 1946[25][32][note 22]

Author

In 1929 Major wrote an article for Close Up containing analysis and criticism of motion pictures. Calling itself an "international magazine devoted to film art," the journal was an avant garde publication that investigated the cultural aspects of cinema beyond the medium's obvious role in entertaining its audiences. Her article was "The Negro Actor and the American Movies."[18][52][note 23] In 1976 Major co-authored a book, Black Society, giving the histories of prominent African American families from colonial times to the twentieth century.[note 24]

Community leader

In 1925 a reporter called Major "a leader in Harlem society," who "is a willing worker for charity and social uplift agencies, and has contributed much to the betterment of the community by her many and varied community interests."[21] The occasion for the reporter's comment was Major's appointment as New York social editor for the Pittsburgh Courier.[note 25] A year later, Major figured prominently within a group of "representative New York society leaders" in text accompanying a news photo headed "New York Social Leaders Plan Brilliant Season"[56] and provided a reporter with a list of some of her many positions in civic organizations.[56][note 26] In 1930 she was included among "the Four Hundred" in an article that drew a sharp contrast between the "Harlem of the cabarets" frequented by thrill-seeking white New Yorkers and the "ebony society" to which Major belonged, where fashionable men and women in "tail coats and formal evening gowns" attended "exclusive functions for the brown upper crust" to which "a few white guests" might be invited."[60] [note 27] In 1939 she served as chair of the program committee for participation of African Americans in the American Common section of the 1939 New York World's Fair.[63][note 28] In 1951 Major was guest of honor and "woman of the year" at a charity ball held by a New York women's club.[27][note 29] In 1952 she was cited for "humane deeds performed in behalf of her community" by a New York impresario, Freddie Fulton.[67][note 30] Her obituary in Ebony listed some of the civic organizations to which Major belonged and mentioned thirty honors and citations that she had received.[3]

Major became known as a world traveler in the 1940s and 1950s. Her wedding to John Majors, her third and final marriage, took place in Buenos Aires.[2][4]

Political affiliations

In 1928 and 1930 she was reported to be a member of the Communist Party.[19][18][69] Asked about political affiliations in 1928 she said she would not join the National Colored Women's Democratic League and had no ties to the Democratic Party. Because she believed that both the Republican and Democratic Parties "uphold the practices of Jim-Crowism, disenfranchisement, and race discrimination by which Negroes are degraded and oppressed," she said she had adopted the principles of Communism.[69][note 31] and in 1984 was said to be an active member of the Democratic Party.[3]

Parents and immediate family

Major was born on July 29, 1894 in her parents' home on Wentworth Avenue at the western border of the Douglas section of Chicago's Bronzeville neighborhood.[72][4] Her father was Herbert Lloyd Hodges and her mother was Jessie May Powell.[2][73][note 32] Soon after her mother's death during childbirth, she was adopted by her mother's sister, Maud A. (Powell) Lawrence and her husband David R. Lawrence.[6][7][note 33] Lawrence was a chiropodist whose office was near the family's home in Bronzeville's Grand Boulevard and the family had sufficient wealth to give Major an extravagant debutante ball.[7][8][74] While yet unmarried, Major kept Hodges as her family name.[8][10]:91

On December 15, 1917, Major married H. Binga Dismond in a military ceremony at Camp Logan in Houston.[9][8] They were divorced in 1933 but remained cordial.[38][14][75] In 1942 she married musician Gilbert Holland, a baritone whose voice was heard frequently on radio programs of the 1930s.[14][76][note 34] Her last marriage was to a prominent mortician from Atlantic City, New Jersey, John Richard Major. The ceremony took place in Buenos Aires during a trip they took to South America, probably in 1946.[4] This was her third marriage and his fourth.[78][79] She was widowed by 1953 and did not remarry during the remaining three decades of her life.[4]

Other names

Major's first name, Geraldyn, was sometimes (wrongly) given as Geraldyne or Geraldine.[7][16] Her nickname, Gerri, was sometimes given as Jerry or Gerry.[19][47][80] While married to H. Binga Dismond she was known as Geraldyn Dismond, Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, or (rarely) Geraldyn Hodges Dismond.[38][81] During her brief marriage to Gilbert Holland she was known as Geraldyn Holland, Geraldyn Hodges Holland, or Geraldyn Dismond Holland.[2][70][81] After marrying John Richard Major she was called Geraldyn Major, Geraldyn Hodges Major, and Geraldyn Dismond Major.[28][81] During the last three decades of her life her name was usually rendered as Gerri Major.[81] During her marriage to H. Binga Dismond she sometimes called herself and was sometimes called "La Dismond."[80][82] In writing the "Social Whirl" column for the Afro-American she called herself simply Gerry.[83]

Notes

  1. ↑ Her first husband said that Major's father "overcome by the sudden loss of his wife, never forgave the innocent cause of his bereavement."[8]
  2. ↑ While a university student, she was one of five founding members of an undergraduate chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority.[12]
  3. ↑ Red Cross nurses who served during World War I were granted "relative" or courtesy ranks. They were not commissioned officers, but were expected to be accorded respect according to rank. The superintendent of a nursing facility was qualified to be given the rank of Major.[17]
  4. ↑ In a profile written in 1927, her husband noted that it was a distinctive honor to be appointed school clerk since "95 per cent of the teachers were non-Aframerican."[8]
  5. ↑ The announcement called Major a leader in Harlem society, a "prime favorite in Gotham's best circles," and " a willing worker for charity and social uplift agencies, [who] has contributed much to the betterment of the community by her many and varied community interests."[21]
  6. ↑ Major's first piece for the paper, which appeared over the byline, Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, reported on plans for the Urban League's costume ball to be held in November 1925.[21]
  7. ↑ During the period she was married to H. Binga Dismond and afterward until her short-lived marriage to Gilbert Holland in 1942, Major was known as Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, Geraldyn Hodges Dismond, or simply Geraldyn Dismond. In announcing the new column the editor of the Pittsburgh Courier said Major had achieved national prominence as a keen observer of the social scene and would consequently be writing weekly essays "giving original observations and comments on subjects that interest her."[23]
  8. ↑ She continued to write for the Chicago Bee and the Afro-American through the end of the 1930s.[9][24]
  9. ↑ The New York Age was a widely-read and long-lived daily newspaper published in New York which was known for its efforts to foster creativity and racial pride among its African-America readers.[28]:901
  10. ↑ Published weekly in Harlem, the Amsterdam News was considered in 1928 to be "the best local Negro newspaper in the country," unique in the high quality of its content.[29]:254
  11. ↑ Ebony is a glossy, photo-rich, Chicago-based monthly magazine that began publication in November 1945. Emulating Life and Look magazines, it aimed to celebrate achievements by African Americans throughout the country. [30]
  12. ↑ Jet was a pocket-sized easy-to-read weekly newsmagazine. Founded in 1951, it quickly achieved sales of over 300,000 copies a week.[31]
  13. ↑ The Inter-State Tattler (also called the Interstate Tattler) was a cross between a newspaper and a magazine. Published weekly in Harlem it covered cultural affairs, particularly the theater, and billed itself as "America's Great Pictorial Weekly." Theophilus Lewis was editor with Major as managing or associate editor and star columnist. The paper began publication in February 1925 and no issues have been found after August 1932.[19][28]:297[29][33][34]
  14. ↑ The Daily Citizen, also called the Harlem Heights Daily Citizen, was a daily newspaper that began publication in October 1933 and apparently concluded only three months later in January 1934.[35]
  15. ↑ Ebony and Jet were both published by the Johnson Publishing Company.
  16. ↑ Begun in January 1928, "The Negro Achievement Hour" was sponsored by local organizations each of which provided its own content. Major was announcer for the news review segment and also occasionally appeared in the main content of the shows.[19][39][40][41][42]
  17. ↑ Radio station WABC belonged to the Atlantic Broadcasting Company and should not be confused with the later American Broadcasting Company. In 1929 the newly formed Columbia Broadcasting System acquired WABC and moved its operations from Brooklyn to Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in Manhattan.[40]
  18. ↑ Radio station WEVD was owned and operated by the Socialist Party of America and its call letters came from the initials of the party's former leader, Eugene V. Debs. It operated from a location in Queens, New York.[43]
  19. ↑ Harlem Broadcasting was founded by Joseph J. Boris, who had also created the "Negro Achievement Hour" and who had edited and published a reference book, Who's Who Among American Negroes (New York, Who's Who in Colored America Corp., 1927). Run by the Harlem Broadcasting Corporation, it was a studio, artist bureau, and lessor of time on radio stations including WGBS, WEVD, WRNY, WKBO (of Jersey City, N.J.), and WWRL.[9][46] Major appeared every day except Tuesday and often wrote her own continuity.[19]
  20. ↑ The United Health Association was formed in 1932 as a group practice designed to foster health through education and periodic examinations. It followed a model that had been set in 1925 by Dr. Michael Edmund Dubissette. It offered health services for a nominal weekly fee.[48]
  21. ↑ The project was sponsored by the Welfare Council of New York City. Headed by William Hodson, the Welfare Council was established in 1925 as an umbrella organization to coordinate the work of New York's social assistance agencies.[49][50]
  22. ↑ A news report on Major's appointment said her performance on written and oral civil service examinations and her prior experience resulted in her selection and noted that she was the first African American to be hired into the position. It said, "Her extraordinarily clever style of writing plus the advantage of a wide circle of friends in the elite circles wherever she went, placed her at the top of the society writers in short order. As Society Editor of the Interstate Tattler, prior to its discontinuing several years ago, she held a unique position similar to that of an arbiter over the local social set and it was during that time that her fame, both as a writer and hostess, is said to have reached its peak."[5]
  23. ↑ Close Up magazine had a European orientation. Published in Switzerland, it was written in English and maintained an editorial office in London. Edited by Kenneth Macpherson and his wife, Bryher, the journal contained articles by filmmakers, such as Sergei Eisenstein, and female modernist writers, such as H.D. and Gertrude Stein.[53]
  24. ↑ Major's co-author was Doris E. Saunders then head of the Johnson Publishing Company's book division whose contribution to the work was the research that underlay it.[54]
  25. ↑ A month later, as a mark of her social standing, she was runner up in nation-wide balloting for "Queen of the Classic" on the occasion of the annual football game between Lincoln and Howard Universities.[5][22][55]
  26. ↑ The news account said Major was president of the Chicago Club of New York, treasurer of the Women's Auxiliary to the Urban League, chairman of the entertainment committee of the Woman's Auxiliary to the N.A.A.C.P., chairman of publicity for the Woman's Auxiliary to the Edgecombe Sanitarium, chairman of the Bethune-Cookman League of New York, club reporter for the Semper Fidelis Club, member of the A.K.A Sorority, and secretary of the Women's Auxiliary to the Y.M.C.A.[56] Edgecombe Sanitarium was a private hospital in Harlem. The group in which Major participated helped raise funds to permit indigent Harlemites to afford its use. Private hospitals were established mainly because African Americans were given inadequate care at Harlem Hospital and other public hospitals.[57][58] The Bethune-Cookman League helped support the Bethune-Cookman College Daytona Beach, Florida. The Semper Fidelis Club held an annual fund-raising dance to provide scholarships for needy students.[59] A list of memberships given to another reporter four years later included some of the same organizations and in addition the Elks, two theater companies, the American Interracial Peace Committee, the Citizen's Welfare Council, the North Harlem Community Council, the Utopia Neighborhood Club, the Hope Day Nursery, the Communist Party, and St. Martin's Episcopalian Chapel.[18]
  27. ↑ The readers of the article would have recognized the "The Four Hundred" as a allusion to the white members of fashionable New York society who flourished at the end of the nineteenth century. In 1888, Ward McAllister, who was seen, with Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, as arbiter of that society, told a reporter, "Why, there are only about 400 people in fashionable New-York society. If you go outside that number you strike people who are either not at ease in a ball-room or else make other people ill at ease." Such people, he said, "have not the poise, the aptitude for polite conversation, the polished and deferential manner, the infinite capacity of good humor and ability to entertain or be entertained that society demands."[61][62]
  28. ↑ The American Common was a performance area occupying space left when the Soviet Union withdrew from the World's Fair in 1940. It was used to stage pageants celebrating American democracy and diversity.[64] The Common was devoted to a "Negro Week" during July 1940. A news account said the program assembled under Major's leadership included "pageants, dramatic skits, dances and symphonic and popular musical numbers."[63][65]
  29. ↑ The occasion was a fancy headress dance, the Second Annual Bal de Tete, held by an exclusive club that called itself "The Women." The tag "woman of the year" was not used in this first tribute but was retrospectively applied to Major during subsequent award ceremonies where the honoree was given that title.[66] The placque presented to her cited "her years of distinguished work in the field of journalism and for her many other notable contributions to the community."[27]
  30. ↑ Freddie Fulton was a successful talent agent who provided performing artists for shows, social functions, and the like. He also ran a studio to help performers develop their skills.[68]
  31. ↑ The Colored Women's Democratic League was established in 1923 to foster support of the Democratic Party among African Americans. Its founder and president, Bessye J. Bearden was, like Major, a prominent Harlem resident, journalist, and civic leader.[70][71]
  32. ↑ Major reported that her mother's grandfather had migrated from North Carolina to Indiana seeking freedom.[54]
  33. ↑ Her first husband later reported that Major's father had her adopted because he "never forgave the innocent cause of his bereavement."[8]
  34. ↑ Born in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Holland had married twice previously. He was listed as "colored" on a Canadian death record and Major later said he was "mostly Cherokee."[4][77]

References

  1. ↑ "Geraldyn Major, Aug 1984". "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing). Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Geraldyn Hodges Holland, 1946". "Brasil, São Paulo, Cartões de Imigração, 1902–1980," database with images, FamilySearch; citing Immigration, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil, certificate , registration , Arquivo Público do Estado de São Paulo (São Paulo State Public Archives, São Paulo). Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  3. 1 2 3 "Backstage". Ebony (Chicago, Ill.) 39 (12): 26. October 1984. ISSN 0012-9011. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Backstage". Ebony (Chicago, Ill.) 29 (12): 34. October 1974. ISSN 0012-9011. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Geraldyn Dismond is Publicity Assistant in Health Department; Noted Society Writer Among Highest in Examination". New York Age. 1936-04-04. p. 1.
  6. 1 2 "David R. Lawrence and Maude A. Powell, 22 Feb 1898". "Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920," database, FamilySearch; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, 273628, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,030,283. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Geraldine H Dismond in household of David R Lawrence, Chicago Ward 2, Cook (Chicago), Illinois, United States". "United States Census, 1920," database with images, FamilySearch; citing sheet 1A, NARA microfilm publication T625 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); FHL microfilm 1,820,307. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 H. Binga Dismond (1927-08-06). "Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). p. 2/1.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Thomas Yenser (ed.) (1942). Who's Who in Colored America; a Biographical Dictionary of Notable Living Persons of African Descent in America; 1941 to 1946, Sixth Edition. Thomas Yenser. p. 597.
  10. 1 2 3 Alumni Council (1919). Alumni Directory; the University of Chicago, 1919. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, Ill. p. 160.
  11. ↑ "Our Future Leaders". The Crisis; a Record of the Darker Races (New York: National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) 10 (3). July 1915. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  12. ↑ "AKA Centennial – Regional Tributes". Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Retrieved 2016-03-28. First Undergraduate Chapter Chartered Beta (Chicago, IL); Oct. 13, 1913 Charter members: Geraldyne Hodges (Major), Virginia Jaines (Thomas), Beatrice Lee, Bertha Mosely (Lewis), Eva Overton (Lewis)
  13. 1 2 3 4 "Major, Gerri". Facts on File; from: Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. "Major, Gerri." Black Women in America: Business and Professions, Encyclopedia of Black Women in America. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 1997. African-American History Online. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 Duchess Harris (20 July 2009). Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton. Springer. p. 77. ISBN 978-0-230-62320-0.
  15. ↑ Board of Education, City of Chicago (1914). Sixty-Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Education. Chicago, Ill. p. 67.
  16. 1 2 "All Married; Teachers Who Seized Opportunity of the Holidays". Chicago Tribune (Chicago, Ill.). 1918-02-06. p. 1.
  17. ↑ American National Red Cross. Nursing Service (1922). History of American Red Cross Nursing. Macmillan. p. 1069.
  18. 1 2 3 4 ""Gerry" Dismond". Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.). 1930-02-01. p. 5.
  19. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Bernice Dutrieuille (1930-06-28). "'Jerry' the Journalist, Turns Interior Decorator; Spurns Politics; 'Not Interested'; Says She Is a Communist Because It Is Fairest to the Negro". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). p. 2/2.
  20. ↑ Mrs. H. Binga Dismond (1925-03-07). "Society to Turn Out in Full for N.A.A.C.P. Dance". New York Age. p. 10. March 27 promises to find the New Manhattan Casino packed to its full capacity with the many loyal and faithful friends of the N.A.A.C.P. The committee reports a flattering sale of tickets and boxes and already feels confident that the public will respond most heartily to this opportunity both to enjoy itself and to give its moral and financial support in a worthy cause.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "New York Society Editor of the Pittsburgh Courier". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). 1925-10-24. p. 6. Mrs. H. Binga Dismond, wife of one of New York's foremost physicians and a leader in Harlem society, has been engaged as New York Social Editor. Mrs. Dismond is a prime favorite in Gotham's best circles, and has a wide circle of friends in other cities as well. She is a willing worker for charity and social uplift agencies, and has contributed much to the betterment of the community by her many and varied community interests.
  22. 1 2 "Alice David and Gertrude Williams Represent New York at Football Classic". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). 1925-11-21. p. 6. Editor's Note: Mrs. Dismond, who has gained national prominence as a writer in the columns of The Courier, this week essays a more important task of giving original observations and comments on subjects that interest her. She is but one of the many coming women journalists, and The Courier is proud to be the medius through which she has already gained a reputation as a keen observer and able stylist.
  23. 1 2 Geraldyn Dismond (1927-05-06). "Through the Lorgnette of Geraldyn Dismond". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). p. 2/1.
  24. ↑ Percival Outram (1930-07-05). "New York". New York Age. p. 7.
  25. 1 2 3 4 5 "Gerri Major Papers, 1927–1985". Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York Public Library Archives and Manuscripts. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  26. ↑ "New Society Editor". New York Age. 1935-06-01. p. 1.
  27. 1 2 3 4 "New York's Second Annual Bal de Tete Sets and Early Social Season Highnote; Fancy Headdress Ball Is Given in Tribute to Writer Gerri Major". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). 1951-11-17. p. 2/2.
  28. 1 2 3 Cary D. Wintz; Paul Finkelman (1 January 2004). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance: A-J. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-57958-457-3.
  29. 1 2 Eugene Gordon (November 1928). "The Negro Press". Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Sage Publications, Inc., American Academy of Political and Social Science) 140: 73–76. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  30. ↑ Sharon Shahid. "65 Years Ago in News History: The Birth of Ebony Magazine". Newseum.org. Archived from the original on December 4, 2013. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  31. ↑ "From Negro Digest to Ebony, Jet and Em". Ebony (Chicago, Ill.) 48 (1): 54. November 1992. ISSN 0012-9011. Retrieved 2016-04-06.
  32. 1 2 Lean'tin L. Bracks; Jessie Carney Smith (16 October 2014). Black Women of the Harlem Renaissance Era. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 65. ISBN 978-0-8108-8543-1.
  33. ↑ Jean Blackwell Hutson (January 1984). "Review: Black Journals of the United States by Walter C. Daniel". Library Quarterly (Chicago, Ill.: University of Chicago Press) 54 (1): 124. Retrieved 2016-03-01.
  34. ↑ "[Catalog record] Inter-State Tattler". Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  35. 1 2 "[Catalog record] Harlem Heights Daily Citizen". Retrieved 2016-04-02.
  36. ↑ "Pressrooom Views, Printing Department and Present Staff of the New York Age". New York Age. 1935-11-02. p. 21.
  37. ↑ "Negro Women, Inc., to Honor News Representatives". New York Age. 1954-05-27. p. 9.
  38. 1 2 3 C. Rae White (2011). "Geraldyne Hodges-Dismond". Life is Good (weblog). Retrieved 2016-03-27.
  39. 1 2 "WABC to Feature Woman Journalist". Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.). 1928-07-07. 9
  40. 1 2 Bessye Bearden (1929-01-04). "Will Broadcast Achievements". California Eagle (Los Angeles, Calif.). p. 9.
  41. 1 2 "Harlem Broadcasting Station Is Dedicated". New York Age. 1930-03-22. p. 7.
  42. ↑ Percival Outram (1930-07-05). "Activities Among Union Musicians". New York Age. p. 7.
  43. ↑ Bill Jaker; Frank Sulek; Peter Kanze (1 May 1998). The Airwaves of New York: Illustrated Histories of 156 AM Stations in the Metropolitan Area, 1921–1996. McFarland. pp. 66–67. ISBN 978-0-7864-3872-3.
  44. ↑ "50th Weekly Broadcasting of Negro Hour; Special Program Being Arranged for Jan. 11 Over WABC Station". New York Age. 1928-12-29. p. 6.
  45. ↑ "Music Notes". New York Age. 1929-09-07. p. 7.
  46. ↑ William Barlow (1999). Voice Over: The Making of Black Radio. Temple University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-1-56639-667-7.
  47. 1 2 "Extravagant Crowd | Geraldyn Dismond". Yale University Beinecke Rare Books & Manuscript Library. 2013. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  48. 1 2 "Mrs. Geraldyn Dismond is Executive Director of the United Health Association". New York Age. 1933-02-04. p. 5.
  49. ↑ "Discuss Uniting Social Agencies for Co-operation". Brooklyn Daily Eagle (Brooklyn, N.Y.). January 13, 1926. p. 11.
  50. ↑ "Labor; William Hodson Takes Time Out from Trouble". PM (New York). 1940-06-28. p. 14.
  51. ↑ "Chronology of the New York City Department of Health, 1655ndash;1966" (PDF). Department of Health, City of New York. Retrieved 2016-03-31.
  52. ↑ Geraldyn Dismond (August 1929). "The Negro Actor and the American Movies" (PDF). Close Up 5 (2): 255. Retrieved 2016-03-01. In: Close Up, 1927–1933, Cinema and Modernism edited by James Donald, Anne Friedberg, and Laura Marcus (Princeton University Press, 1998)
  53. ↑ "Media History Digital Library – Digital Close Up (1927–1933) and the SCMS Anne Friedberg Innovative Scholarship Award". Retrieved 2016-04-09.
  54. 1 2 "New Book Answers Question: Is There a Black Society?". Jet (Chicago, Ill.) 51 (26): 30. 1977-03-17. ISSN 0021-5996. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  55. ↑ "'Queen of the Classic' Ball Capstone of Social Glory, to Feature Grid Battle". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). 1925-11-21. p. 3.
  56. 1 2 3 "New York Social Leaders Plan Brilliant Season". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). 1926-10-12. p. 6.
  57. ↑ "Calico Ball Proves Novel Entertainment". New York Age. 1926-02-20. p. 6.
  58. ↑ "Established Clinical Medicine in Harlem". North by South: Charleston to Harlem, The Great Migrations. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  59. ↑ Geraldyn Dismond (1926-11-06). "New York Society". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). p. 6.
  60. ↑ Richard Massock (1930-02-22). "New York". News-Star (Monroe, La.). p. 4.
  61. ↑ "Secrets of Ball-Giving; A Chat with Ward McAllister". New York Tribune. 1888-03-25. p. 11. Say what you will, the modern leader of society must still have considerable of the old courtier and Chevalier endowment to make a success of it. Numbers of people are introduced in fashionable society every season who cannot make a success, and they fall out. They cannot float themselves even when some one gives them a good start. These people have not the poise, the aptitude for polite conversation, the polished and deferential manner, the infinite capacity of good humor and ability to entertain or be entertained that society demands. "Why, there are only about 400 people in fashionable New-York society. If you go outside that number you strike people who are either not at ease in a ball-room or else make other people ill at ease. See the point? Of course there are any number of the most cultivated and highly respectable, even distinguished, people outside of fashionable society. When we give a large ball like the last New Year's ball for eight hundred guests, we go outside of the exclusive fashionable set and invite professional men, doctors, lawyers, editors, artists and the like. But the day when fortunes admitted men to exclusive society has gone by. Twenty or thirty years ago it was otherwise. But now with the rapid growth of riches millionaires are too common to receive much deference; a fortune of a million is only respectable poverty. So we have to draw social boundaries on another basis; old connections, gentle breeding, perfection, in all the requisite accomplishments of a gentleman, elegant leisure and an unstained private reputation count for more than newly gotten riches. You would be surprised at the number of apparently eligible men this list of requirements strikes out of consideration.
  62. ↑ William Bryk (2005-08-09). "The Father of the Four Hundred". The New York Sun. Retrieved 2016-04-08.
  63. 1 2 "Local Members of Fair Committee Hold Confab". New York Age. 1940-06-22. p. 6.
  64. ↑ "New York World's Fair 1939 and 1940". Archives and Manuscripts; New York Public Library. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  65. ↑ "Progress Made Visible: American World's Fairs and Expositions". Special Collections Department, University of Delaware Library. Retrieved 2016-04-03.
  66. ↑ Lucille Cromer (1954-11-26). "With 'The Women'". New York Age. p. 14. Gerri Major [was] first to be honored as "Woman of the Year" by The Women in 1951
  67. ↑ Uno (1952-07-05). "Burlesque Bits". Billboard (New York, N.Y.). p. 47. Freddie Fulton, in his New York studio this week, presented a plaque to Mrs. Gerri Major, society editor of the Amsterdam News for humane deeds performed in behalf of her community.
  68. ↑ "Freddie Fulton Stages Benefits". New York Age. 1950-07-22. p. 18.
  69. 1 2 "Geraldyn Dismond Is Communist Now". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). 1928-11-10. p. 6.
  70. 1 2 "Mrs. Bessye J. Bearden, Nationally Known Democratic And Community Leader, Dies Following Operation". New York Age. 1943-09-25. p. 1.
  71. ↑ Mrs. H. Binga Dismond (1925-11-07). "New York Society; Mrs. Bessye Bearden, Political Leader". Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburgh, Penn.). p. 6. Through the activities of Mrs. Bessye Bearden, an experienced political leader and head of the Colored Women's Democratic League, Tammany hopes to corral the Negro vote of Harlem. … Aside from her political affiliations, she leads a very strenuous social life and finds time for constant study and an active interest in welfare work of her community. She is conceded to be the best liked and most affable member of New York's Smarter Set.
  72. ↑ "Census; Society Editor Gerri Major Dies of Stroke at Age 90". Jet (Chicago, Ill.) 66 (26): 55. 1984-09-03. ISSN 0021-5996. Retrieved 2016-03-26.
  73. ↑ "Herbert Lloyd Hodges and Jessie May Powell, 19 Oct 1893". "Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871–1920," database, FamilySearch; citing Chicago, Cook, Illinois, 727, Cook County Courthouse, Chicago; FHL microfilm 1,030,232. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  74. ↑ Chicago Blue Book. Chicago Directory Company. 1905. p. 780.
  75. ↑ "Dr. H. Binga Dismond Reported Married to Young Boston Girl". New York Age. 1934-03-24. p. 1.
  76. ↑ "Dr. Binga Dismond's Former Wives Wed". New York Age. 1942-07-18. p. 4.
  77. ↑ "John C. Holland in entry for Elfreda Duncan, 12 Dec 1932; citing Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, 038070, Archives of Ontario, Toronto". "Ontario Deaths, 1869–1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939–1947," database with images, FamilySearch; citing Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario, Canada, 038070, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 2,378,772. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  78. ↑ "John R. Major and Allie Donaldson, 26 Aug 1927". "New York, New York City Marriage Records, 1829–1940," database, FamilySearch; citing Marriage, Manhattan, New York, New York, United States, New York City Municipal Archives, New York; FHL microfilm 1,653,274. Retrieved 2015-12-12.
  79. ↑ "Mrs. Ada Walls Major, Wife of Prominent Mortician, Succombs". New York Age. 1945-09-15. p. 9.
  80. 1 2 "La Dismond Party Fetes Aunt". New York Age. 1935-07-20. p. 5.
  81. 1 2 3 4 "[Authority File:] Major, Gerri, 1894–1984". LC Linked Data Service (Library of Congress). Retrieved 2016-04-11.
  82. ↑ "La Dismond Entertains". New York Age. 1936-06-22. p. 4.
  83. ↑ Gerry (1931-03-07). "New York; The Social Whirl". Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.). p. 7.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Saturday, April 30, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.