CLEMMONS FAMILY FARM
  • BHM 2023
  • What We Do
    • Our Programs >
      • Heritage Celebrations >
        • MLK Day 2023!
        • Kwanzaa 2022
        • Juneteenth 2022!
      • K-12 Ethnic Studies >
        • Field Trips
      • Creating Healthy Communities >
        • Beneath Our Skin
        • Cancelling Miss Rona
        • A Sense of Place >
          • A Sense of Place at NEFA-CCX
      • Art >
        • Farm2Art Program >
          • Summer 2016 Farm2Art Program
        • Culinary Heritage & Arts Program
      • Farm
      • Forest
      • Heritage
  • About
    • Our Team
    • About Us >
      • Our Vision
    • Who We Are >
      • Jack and Lydia's Living Legacy
      • How Jack and Lydia Found and Bought the Farm
      • Holding On to Our Legacies
    • When Are We Open?
    • Press Coverage >
      • Other News >
        • 2019 Visitors Survey: Sneak Preview
        • 2018 Updates
        • 2017 Updates
        • 2016 Updates
    • What Our Community is Saying >
      • 2018 Visitor Survey Findings!
      • Feedback from other Vermont communities
    • Subscribe!
  • Artists' Registry
    • Are You Looking for an Artist?
    • Why, Hello there, Artists!
  • Historic Buildings
    • Venue Rentals
    • Stay with Us!
    • Six Historic Buildings
    • The Barn House >
      • The Barn House Legacy
      • Stay with Us!
    • The Big Barn >
      • "Making History, Creating Place" Videos!
      • The Historic Water Cistern
    • The Main House >
      • About the Black Locust Trees
    • The Shop >
      • The Authentica Library
      • Shop Storytelling Videos
  • Please Donate!
    • Subscribe!
  • 2023 Calendar!!
Picture

South to Mid-West and California: 1930s to 1950s

Out of the Ashes, Born Again: How the Beck Family became the Ribbs Family. 

WATCH & LISTEN
The Becks were a hard working African American family in Louisiana. One night, a mob of White men burned down their home and threatened to kill them. They fled for their lives-- some members fled all the way to California-- and changed their names to ensure that they could not be found. 

I Will Walk Beside You and Be Your Friend.

Jack had been sent home from school early. His teacher had caught him fiddling with the assortment of odds and ends in his pockets again. Jack trudged down the dirt road, dragging his heels and dreading the scolding he knew he would receive from his parents. Suddenly, a stranger appeared from nowhere, and quietly fell into step beside Jack. Side by side, they walked together in silent camaraderie-- all the way home.

​Stay tuned to find out who this gentle stranger was. The full story is coming soon!

Shining and Snapping (Part 1).

WATCH & LISTEN
In 1930s Milwaukee, young Jack Clemmons and his brother spent weekends and after school shining shoes in their parents' hat, laundry and shoe shine shop. Most of the customers were reporters from the Milwaukee Journal, which was just two doors down.

Shining and Snapping (Part 2).

WATCH & LISTEN
The Clemmons hat, shoe shine and laundry shop in 1930s Milwaukee was a place full of newspaper reporters, political debates, and hard work. Young Jack and his brother often studied algebra on the shoe shine stand while waiting for their next customers.

It Was Tough.

WATCH & LISTEN
​Young Jack Clemmons was drafted into the army when he was 21 years old. He served in the Philippines for part of World War II. Although Jack did not have to go to combat, he quickly learned that there were other battles to fight in the army.  

Newlyweds in Wisconsin.

Picture
Stay tuned for this story! It is coming soon.

The Welder and the Seamstress.

WATCH
Howard was lucky and got a job as a welder. Lucille was a talented seamstress. When their daughter Lydia was 12, they joined the Great Migration of African Americans who moved from the rural southern US to new lives in the urban mid-West. Howard was lucky and got a job as a welder. Lucille was a talented seamstress. When their daughter Lydia was 12, they joined the Great Migration of African Americans who moved from the rural southern US to new lives in the urban mid-West.

People Were Constantly Trying to Improve Themselves.

LISTEN
​In the oil boom town of Smackover Arkansas, Lydia attended the John D. Rockefeller Primary School for Black children. Very few Black families in the town had books or the know-how to help their children with their homework, so the dedicated teachers worked with the children through the recess periods and after school to make sure they covered all of their lessons each day before going home. When Lydia finished the seventh grade, her family moved to the mid-West, travelling to Chicago in a Jim Crow train car. They settled in Harvey Illinois, where Lydia, who had been in a class of ten African American children in Smackover, was now the only African American in a class of five hundred White students. Having never interacted with White people in the South, Lydia kept to herself and concentrated on her studies. 

Nursing School and Work At Provident Hospital.

Stay tuned for the amazing and delightful stories of Lydia's life as a young nurse in Chicago during the 1940s and her work at the first African-American owned and operated hospital in the United States.

Jack & Lydia's Honeymoon Adventures: Route 66 and Beyond. 

WATCH & LISTEN
Lydia describes some of the adventures she and Jack had during their honeymoon when they drove and camped through he mid-west, including places along Route 66 in 1953. Part 1 of a 2-part series.  

The Spool.

WATCH & LISTEN
It was 1935 in a predominately German Jewish neighborhood of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Jack was waiting outside of the principal's office again at Roosevelt Junior High School. Jack and his brother were the only African American children in the entire school. Mrs. Lewis, the school nurse (also African American), was walking past and stopped to ask Jack why he was waiting for the principal. He told her he was in trouble for fiddling with the things in his pockets. Mrs. Lewis told him to empty his pockets. Jack placed a collection of objects on a chair: a large iron nut, a wooden thread spool, clock works, a magnifying glass, marbles, a magnet from an old automobile speedometer, a small crystal embedded in lead. The only object Mrs. Lewis picked up was the wooden spool, which she held in front of Jack's nose.  "What is this for?" The question shattered Jack. With tears in his eyes, he held an end of the spool up to one eye and said "I see with it." 

Hats, Laundry and Photography.

WATCH & LISTEN
The first camera Jack ever bought was a sheet film camera in the early 1930's. He bought it with the money he earned from shining shoes in a hat and laundry shop that his parents owned in Milwaukee. The shop was right next door to the famous Milwaukee Journal newspaper. Young Jack Clemmons was always eager to talk with the journalists who stopped by his parents hat and laundry shop. While he shined their shoes, he asked them questions about photography. ​

Ghosts and Angels.

LISTEN
​Lydia Senior shares some of the family's magical stories of a ghost (in early 1900s Louisiana) and an angel or two (in 1950s MidWest).  
Picture
Clemmons Family Farm, Inc.
PO Box 546
Charlotte, Vermont 05445
​​Leave us a message at: 765-560-5445
​Contact us at: contact@clemmonsfamilyfarm.org
Subscribe for news and updates


© CLEMMONS FAMILY FARM. COPYRIGHT 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
  • BHM 2023
  • What We Do
    • Our Programs >
      • Heritage Celebrations >
        • MLK Day 2023!
        • Kwanzaa 2022
        • Juneteenth 2022!
      • K-12 Ethnic Studies >
        • Field Trips
      • Creating Healthy Communities >
        • Beneath Our Skin
        • Cancelling Miss Rona
        • A Sense of Place >
          • A Sense of Place at NEFA-CCX
      • Art >
        • Farm2Art Program >
          • Summer 2016 Farm2Art Program
        • Culinary Heritage & Arts Program
      • Farm
      • Forest
      • Heritage
  • About
    • Our Team
    • About Us >
      • Our Vision
    • Who We Are >
      • Jack and Lydia's Living Legacy
      • How Jack and Lydia Found and Bought the Farm
      • Holding On to Our Legacies
    • When Are We Open?
    • Press Coverage >
      • Other News >
        • 2019 Visitors Survey: Sneak Preview
        • 2018 Updates
        • 2017 Updates
        • 2016 Updates
    • What Our Community is Saying >
      • 2018 Visitor Survey Findings!
      • Feedback from other Vermont communities
    • Subscribe!
  • Artists' Registry
    • Are You Looking for an Artist?
    • Why, Hello there, Artists!
  • Historic Buildings
    • Venue Rentals
    • Stay with Us!
    • Six Historic Buildings
    • The Barn House >
      • The Barn House Legacy
      • Stay with Us!
    • The Big Barn >
      • "Making History, Creating Place" Videos!
      • The Historic Water Cistern
    • The Main House >
      • About the Black Locust Trees
    • The Shop >
      • The Authentica Library
      • Shop Storytelling Videos
  • Please Donate!
    • Subscribe!
  • 2023 Calendar!!