Tag Archives: Mollie Chapman

When Jax Declared Its Center a “Slum Heart,” ‘Evil,” and Demanded Exorcism

Posted on May 5, 2018 | 1 comment

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The deep baritone drips with condescension, festers with open sarcasm.

“This very plumbing, if you can dignify it with the name of plumbing, can bring disease and death into your home through the medium of your servants.”

“Come to think of it,” Slum Heart recalls, opportunistically, “that servant girl who comes to your house each morning […] Do you know where she goes at night?”

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Tagged Alexander Crosby, Bender Cawthon, Black Bottom, Blodgett, Brentwood, Brooklyn, Durkeeville, Eartha White, Federal Housing Authority, Florida Theatre, Hansontown, Jack Spottswood, Jacksonville Housing Authority, jaxpsychogeo, LaVilla, Mollie Chapman, Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Nasrallah Building, Negro Advisory Council, One Bad Apple, Slum Heart of Jacksonville, slumlords, Springfield, State Board of Health Building, Tim Gilmore

The Clara White Mission Remains the Humanitarian Heart of Jax

Posted on February 26, 2017 | 1 comment

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If the goodness, kindness, and mercy enacted in a particular building, on a certain quadrant of earth, can accrue across the years, then the Clara White Mission should be a pilgrimage site and 613 Ashley Street in LaVilla is sacred ground.

At the turn of 1974, Eartha was the tiny, bird-like, Old-Testament-but-New-Testament saint at the center of town. She died in January. I was born in June. I so wish I could have met her.

When I saw Eartha White look out at me from the open doors of Roosevelt Watson III’s major artwork, I saw her as I’d never seen her but also as she’d visited me, angelically and ghostly, when I’d most needed to find her before.

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Tagged "Storehouse for the People", Adam English, anti-lynching, Ashley Street, Bethel Baptist, Bijou Theater, Black Bottom Dance, Bojangles, Charles H. Loeb, Clara White, Clara White Mission, Colored Airdome, Eartha Mary Magdalene White, Eartha White, Father Henry Harrison, Frank Crowd, Franklin Baby Seals, Globe Theater, Guy Stockton, Hansontown, Henry John Klutho, Hollywood Music Store, In Search of Eartha White, Jacksonville Rounders Dance, jaxpsychogeo, Jim Crow, Ju'Coby Pittman, Lafayette White, LaVilla, Ma Rainey, Merry Hearts' Club, Michelle Calloway, Mollie Chapman, Nipsey Russell, Perversion magazine, Pittsburgh Courier, Richard McKissick, Roosevelt Watson III, Shawana Brooks, Squire English, Stockton family Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore