Living with History

The labels we assign to people in our lives are sometimes inadequate when describing their place in history. The names we call our grandparents are often different than the names their children assign to them or the names their friends and extended family assign to them.

I know my grandfather as “Paw Paw.” His name is Willie Toombs, but his birth record says “Willis,” a name he shared with his father’s brother. His parents, Knoxie and Elizabeth Kelly Toombs, were parents to five children. Willie Toombs was born on November 5, 1905, in Galloway, Arkansas, but most of his life was spent in Little Rock. By age fourteen he would hear about the Elaine Race Massacre in Arkansas. By age sixteen, he would know about the Tulsa Race Massacre in Oklahoma. This event included close family members. Two of his father’s younger brothers, Clarence and Turley, were living in the Tulsa area and can be found on the 1920 U.S. Census. But Turley does not appear on another record after this incident. Clarence is found in Creek County, Oklahoma, in census records after this event. Knoxie, Turley, and Clarence are sons of Richard and Molly Toombs who lived in Solgohachia, Arkansas. They are parents of eight children. Richard served in the Civil War with the United States Colored Troops.

Little Rock High School (now called Little Rock Central High School) opened in 1927 as the nation’s largest and most expensive high school. The American Institute of Architects called it the “Most Beautiful High School in America.” (During this time of segregation, classes for African Americans were held at Dunbar High School, constructed in 1929 a few blocks away.) Uncle Henry, elder brother to Willie, worked as a concrete finisher on Little Rock High School. The 1927 lynching of John Carter overshadowed the architectural achievement of the building.

Willie married Adeana Butler on October 26, 1924. They are parents to two daughters. At age twenty-two, this young father may have displayed emotions his young wife had not seen in him. Her fear for the safety of her family may have caused her to remove herself from his emotional communications and actions. They divorced. He continued to walk into his future. He married Mrytle Mae Pfeifer on August 24, 1931. Together they had nine children, with one dying during infancy. Mrytle would die from maternal complications. Their eldest son was named Turley, after the uncle who may have died in the Tulsa Race Massacre. He married Lillie D. Stewart on May 29, 1943. She was mother to two children before the marriage. They would have two more. So, my grandfather is father of fifteen children, with fourteen living to adulthood.

I had the benefits of living with my grandparents and other relatives for the first six years of my life. I watched the interactions of all these people connected through birth and marriage. I was a witness to the love shared. I witnessed the discussions that sometimes included profanity. I witnessed the many visits of extended family and friends.

I was an eighteen-year-old freshman at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro when my grandfather died. My image of Superman had exited this world. He was the man who could fix anything we broke. He made teacakes for his grandchildren after our bathing routine. He is the reason I’m convinced sugar does not cause children to bounce off the walls when they are given something sweet late in the evening. The teacakes were for us to have sweet dreams. We knew we were going to sleep well because Paw Paw said we would.

I knew Ms. Adeana from many family gatherings. An incident with my first non-Black teacher resulted in Mr. Curtis Sykes, principal of Washington Elementary, expelling me from public school at the end of the third grade. I began fourth grade at St. Bartholomew Catholic School. Ms. Adeana’s house was two blocks away, and my grandmother Mama Lillie showed me where she lived in case I needed her. Our class sometimes walked to the Ivey branch library. (The Colored Branch of the Little Rock Public Library was renamed in honor of longtime teacher and principal Helen Booker Ivey in 1951; it continued to operate and serve as a community meeting place throughout the 1960s.) Ms. Adeana was usually sitting on the porch, and she would wave. All the kids would wave back. I let them know she was waving at me, but I would let them wave at her.

I could ask the adults in my family questions, but I didn’t think of them as having lived history. Years after my grandmother exited the earth, I began researching how we are all connected. My Uncle Preston Toombs also wanted to know how he fit into the family. He is a first cousin of my grandfather. His father is Clarence Toombs and his grandfather is Richard Toombs, my grandfather’s grandfather. Preston worked with L. C. and Daisy Bates, printing their newspaper, the Arkansas State Press.

Plans to desegregate Little Rock public schools in the 1950s looked at integrating grades one through twelve. Preston’s children were not school age, but his cousin Willie had enough children to cover the range from elementary to high school. Five of Willie’s children are plaintiffs in the Aaron V. Cooper case to integrate Little Rock schools. Queen Esther, Calvin, Betty Jean, Shirley Rae, and Willie Lee Toombs are among the thirty-three students. Thurgood Marshall represented the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and the students in this case before the United States Supreme Court.

“Daddy said we could go to Central, but we didn’t want to” is a statement I heard often around family gatherings, but I never understood the meaning until I read about the case and saw the names listed. Why would he not share his story? He still had mouths to feed. He became part of history when he needed to be and continued walking into his future. His example, as quiet as it was, may be the motivation that allowed his children to work in professions he was limited in working. His foundation created a space for his grandchildren to work in areas of education, medicine, law, business, and other professions. His children and grandchildren have worked in local, state, and federal government. His story is my story because I am part of the family and my degree in journalism gives me an avenue to tell his story. Each memory of the man grows by finding documentation that enhances his story.

Another student in the Aaron v. Cooper case is Evelyn Scoggins Tenpenny. I attended college with her daughter Tamela. We worked on history projects together, but her family had not heard of Evelyn’s personal connection to the Aaron v. Cooper case. We often live with history without realizing how close we are to events that span generations of our families. Many people may find historical events or people or places closely related to their family if they search the records. It may be a family member, a family friend, or a local church or school, but history lives within all of us. We just have to identify and label it.

Come to the Research Room in the CALS Roberts Library (visiting info is here), and we’ll help you uncover your own family history. We also have many resources online to help you research your family history. And you can make an appointment at our Memory Lab to digitize and preserve documents and photos for future generations.

By Rhonda Stewart, genealogy and local history specialist for the Central Arkansas Library System’s Butler Center for Arkansas Studies, housed in the CALS Bobby L. Roberts Library of Arkansas History & Art

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