Recently published in The Dispatch
Scrolling through microfilm from the late 1950s and early 1960s has given me a new appreciation for women who worked behind the scenes, but are often missing from historical media. Hours of digesting newspapers with lengthy “women sections,” dedicated primarily to homemaking tips and how to “appear pleasing” at work, left me eager to find underrepresented stories.
My friends at the Davidson County Historical Museum are always good sports when it comes to my little research projects. While working with the museum to gather information about the Washington Park Pool, Museum Registrar Caitlin Williams sent me a story from July 1951 with a cringe warning.
The lead sentence reads, "Women can be very enthusiastic creatures, and when they get really set on an idea they are apt to do something about it, but when Uncle Sam says 'No,' it will stop them every time. The later part of May the Lexington Charity League decided they were going to do something about the long-needed Negro swimming pool for Lexington." Apparently, 18 members of the league demanded a meeting “in the sweltering sun” with business leaders, county and city officials to determine feasible properties.
Caitlin was right; the depiction of these women made me cringe. The reporter’s word choice said a lot about the way women were considered during this era. He writes, “Then the boom fell. Supt. of Schools L.E. Andrews, who had been adding with the project, received a notice in connection with his school building business stating that no pool whatsoever can be constructed now under a new NPA ruling.” The most cringe-worthy aspect of the story was the smug closing. “The ladies are much disappointed that their feverish activities ended in such an abrupt manner, but perhaps someday their project can be launched again.”
Relaunch it did, but details are slim. Not a single woman’s name was mentioned in the 1951 news story, and the newspaper coverage of how Washington Park went from being ruled out to actually happening is spotty at best - except for the 1955 property transaction. The deed states that owners Joe H. White and wife Virginia along with R. Bruce Smith and wife Eleanor agreed to sell the land for the sum of one dollar to the city for “construction of a swimming pool and recreation park” located on the Old Florida School Property surrounded by “residences for colored citizens.”
The property was outside of the corporate city limits, but an agreement was reached for the city to construct and maintain the park. On the rare chance that I might be able to contact one of the original owners, I sought out the obituary of Mrs. Virginia McCrary White. White died in 2006 at the age of 94, but her obituary and the newspaper article helped confirm some of my suspicions stating, “She was lifelong resident of Lexington and graduated from Duke University in the Class of 1933. She was a member of the Charity League of Lexington.” We may never know exactly what role she and her friends played in our local history, but I can only imagine.
When reading old news reports, it seems like decades of behind-the-scenes stories were missing. Most recently, the film “Hidden Figures” introduced three brilliant African-American women at NASA — Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan and Mary Jackson — who served as the brains behind the launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation's confidence and galvanized the world. The film was my first exposure to these women’s stories.
I had a moment of reckoning when a friend sent me The Washington Post story about journalist Clare Hollingworth. She died on Jan. 10 at the age of 105. She led a colorful life and had a lengthy career covering wars around the world. She was described in print this way: "Dressed in a tailored safari suit and sometimes packing a pearl-handled revolver, Ms. Hollingworth marched with troops, witnessed firefights, traveled to rebel hideouts and rode along during aerial bombing runs. In Kashmir, motoring across a bridge that had come under shelling by Pakistani troops, she gushed to a colleague, 'Now, this is what makes life worth living!’”
A friend asked how a former Charity League member, African-American woman and journalist missed these important stories. Women were not “allowed” in the forefront of our media, their stories were not valued and never taught. I can only affirm my commitment to seeking and sharing untold perspectives.
Let these figures be hidden no more.
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