Mamma and Me: Our Poetry, Our Lives

By Bessie Emily Coleman

Through the lives, history, and poetry of two extraordinary women, Mamma and Me: Our Poetry, Our Lives reveals African-American thought, culture, and progress from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 to the 21st century.

Vesta Coleman was a teacher and a chaplain, poet laureate of Anniston, Alabama; Sunday School teacher and pianist; celebrated orator; oratorical contest trainer; mentor; and respected community leader. Elizabeth Emily Coleman, her daughter, is an ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA, has earned Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, and has traveled the world. The lives and writings of these two women span over a century of history. Their writing is musical, revealing, and resonates just as closely with a modern audience as they did when they were written.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Sep 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645367338

Bessie Emily Coleman

Elizabeth (née Bessie) Emily Coleman was born in Anniston, Alabama, in 1951. Seeking equality and opportunity, she left the Deep South to earn her BA degree at Capital University in Ohio, spending her junior year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. After graduating, she taught English in Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, and later had a nineteen-year career as an Employment Interviewer with the State of Alabama. Answering the call to ministry, she earned Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. She continues to serve as an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA.

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Epilogue

About the Author

Elizabeth (née Bessie) Emily Coleman was born in Anniston, Alabama, in 1951. Seeking equality and opportunity, she left the Deep South to earn her BA degree at Capital University in Ohio, spending her junior year studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. After graduating, she taught English in Peace Corps in Senegal, West Africa, and later had a nineteen-year career as an Employment Interviewer with the State of Alabama. Answering the call to ministry, she earned Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary. She continues to serve as an ordained Minister of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA.

About the Book

Through the lives, history, and poetry of two extraordinary women, Mamma and Me: Our Poetry, Our Lives reveals African-American thought, culture, and progress from the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 to the 21st century.

Vesta Coleman was a teacher and a chaplain, poet laureate of Anniston, Alabama; Sunday School teacher and pianist; celebrated orator; oratorical contest trainer; mentor; and respected community leader.

Elizabeth Emily Coleman, her daughter, is an ordained Minister of the Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church, USA, has earned Master of Divinity and Master of Theology degrees from Princeton Theological Seminary, and has traveled the world.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the descendants of

Emily McLemore Hayes Stephens McCullough.

Copyright Information ©

Bessie Emily Coleman (2019)

Front cover photo: Vesta Emily Stephens Coleman

Back cover photo: Emily McLemore Hayes Stephens McCullough

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher.

Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales: special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address below.

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Coleman, Bessie Emily

Mamma and Me: Our Poetry, Our Lives

ISBN 9781645367338 (ePub e-book)

The main category of the book — Biography & Autobiography / Religious

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019908440

www.austinmacauley.com/us

First Published (2019)

Austin Macauley Publishers LLC

40 Wall Street, 28th Floor

New York, NY 10005

USA

[e-mail]

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Dr. Bettye Coleman Walker and Dr. Patricia Coleman Churchill for their resources, suggestions, and encouragement.

Introduction

In her later years, Vesta Coleman (Mamma) wrote these words on a small, pink notepad page:

"I have written poetry nearly all my life, but I didn’t save it until lately. I hope to compile what I have now to leave as a memorial.

I was fortunate in taking Bible courses in high school and college, as well as being instructed by my grandmothers, mother, aunts, and pastors. I appreciate all that they have done for me.

-Vesta Emily Stephens Coleman

Vesta Coleman, my beloved mother, was an extraordinary woman. In spite of an early life of hard work—or perhaps because of it—she was able to excel in every important area of her life. She and her faithful husband, the Rev. Nelson Garfield Coleman, raised seven children, all of whom achieved success in their careers. Mamma was a devoted wife, a dedicated teacher; Chaplain and Golden Girl of her AKA sorority chapter; beloved—though unofficial—Poet Laureate of Anniston, Alabama; Sunday School teacher and pianist; celebrated orator, oratorical contest trainer and mentor; and respected leader in her community. She was a graduate of Talladega College in Talladega, Alabama. (This historic African American college was founded in 1867.) Mamma served as Principal of Grace Lutheran School, a private school that began by serving children from the African American community of Anniston in Grades K-12, in a time when there was no public high school for African Americans in Anniston.

Mamma’s poetry lends some insight into the depth of her involvement in and commitment to her community and city. She was well known and honored by people of all races in the Anniston area and beyond.

In this book you will find the highlights of my mother, Vesta’s life, and an overview of my own life. Although there are events and people that could not all be included, the broad strokes of our lives, along with our poetry, give insight into our deepest thoughts and values.

It is my hope that you will be refreshed and inspired by these narratives and poetic expressions, and that through them you will glimpse a light that will brighten your path.

-Elizabeth (Bessie) Emily Coleman

Ancestors

My mother Vesta’s maternal grandparents, Sam and Eugenia Echols, lived in Tallapoosa, Georgia, where my mother was born on August 19, 1914. Sam was a full-bloodied Cherokee who wore two long braids. Eugenia was a mixed African/European with blue eyes, who worked in the big house as a house slave. They gave birth to three girls: Bessie, Fannie, and Nellie.

Bessie became a housekeeper, like her mother, after slavery was abolished. She attended a Christian boarding school in Concord, North Carolina, Scotia Seminary (later named Barber Scotia College), founded in January 1867 by Rev. Luke Dorland, who was commissioned by the Presbyterian Church (USA) to establish in the South an institution for the training of Negro women. (www.b-sc.edu) There, my grandmother studied English, math, music, sewing, cooking, and general domestic skills. She later married Presley William Stephens, son of Allen and Emily Stephens. Allen Stephens was the son of a slave owner and a slave. The slave owner was Alexander Hamilton Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy and later, Governor of Georgia. He lived in Crawfordville, Taliaferro County, Georgia on a large estate, and his house was (ironically) named Liberty Hall. The slave was Eliza, my mother’s paternal great-grandmother.

Eliza was an African who had been purchased at an auction block as a very young girl, probably age 10 or 12, by the bachelor, Alexander Hamilton Stephens. She was his cook, housekeeper, caregiver, and on-going sexual partner even after Alexander purchased a male African slave, Harry, to marry her while she was pregnant with Alexander’s son. Eliza gave birth to Alexander’s son, following her hurried marriage to Harry at Alexander’s brother, Linton’s, plantation in South Georgia. The son was named Allen Stephens. Since slaves were given the last name of their slave owners, they all had the last name of Stephens.

Allen Stephens was listed in the Census and historical books as the son of Harry and Eliza Stephens, but Eliza passed on the truth to Allen and his descendants, and told them to always pass on the truth to later generations that their ancestor was Alexander Hamilton Stephens. The likeness in facial features, skin color, and hair texture that Allen Stephens had to Alexander, his father, is a continued testimony, as his picture hangs on the wall of the first room of the two-room slave cabin that still stands today, restored, not far on the left, behind Liberty Hall. I will give more details about Allen, Alexander, and Eliza in the next chapter on Raised by a Former Slave.

My father Nelson’s parents both passed away while he was a young boy. His father, Nelson Garfield Coleman I, was an overseer on a plantation in Union Springs, Alabama. My paternal grandfather and his wife, Mittie Jordan, lived in a small house on a hill, with many steps that led to it from the street. Mittie passed away while her children were still young, after a brief, unknown illness. She had worked all of her life in the cotton fields, and was well known for being a very dedicated worker. Before passing, she instructed her children, Nelson II and Leola, to take care of each other. They did so as long as they both lived. They had a half-sister named Bessie, and a cousin named Luberta.

As part of his job as Overseer, Nelson I was required by the plantation owner to make sure that the sharecroppers (who were former slaves) planted only cotton on his land. The owner wanted to make as much money as he could from his cotton crop. The sharecroppers, however, wanted to use a small portion of the land to grow vegetables to feed their families. When they protested to Nelson I, he was pressured by his employer to enforce the employer’s rules.

The sharecroppers invited Nelson I to a card party one evening, and they served him a drink laced with poison. He died, leaving his children with a stepmother, who did not treat them well. When the stepmother re-married, Nelson II and his sister, Leola, set out on their own and found jobs that would allow them to support each other as each one completed college. Nelson II graduated from Alabama State Teachers’ College (now called Alabama State University) in Montgomery, Alabama, and became a teacher. Leola graduated from nursing school and became a Registered Nurse.

Nelson II later became the first Principal of Twelfth Street Elementary School in Anniston, Alabama. It was on his walk from the boarding house where he rented a room, to Twelfth Street School, that he passed by my mother, Vesta’s, house on the corner of 14th Street and Stephens Avenue. As he passed my mother’s house day after day, she began to notice him with interest. Then, one day, she spoke to him in her uniquely creative way. Her humor, wit, and sincere openness won him over.

Nelson and Vesta Coleman with first-born, Bettye

They dated for a short period before Nelson Coleman proposed to Vesta Stephens. When Nelson had discovered that there was another suitor who was also interested in Vesta, he quickly made arrangements to make Vesta his wife. The competing suitor was left behind, and Nelson and Vesta were wed on Sunday, January 7, 1940, immediately following the worship service at Grace Lutheran Church in Anniston, Alabama. The ceremony was officiated by The Rev. Presley William Stephens, pastor and father of the bride.

Nelson packed up his trunk and moved into Vesta’s house, making a happy home that would later welcome seven healthy children—two boys and five girls. He planted a pecan tree in the backyard that became a towering producer of delicious pecans. My parents also planted fig trees, a peach tree, and many beautiful rose bushes that made their yard both fruitful and fragrant. The front yard was graced with a magnolia tree on each side, a crepe myrtle tree on the sidewalk side of the house, and large hydrangea bushes in front. There was a chinaberry tree that stood alone near the road on the 14th Street side, but it was cut down to allow for better visibility for drivers.

The asbestos siding on the house was later covered with aluminum siding, and space heaters were replaced with central heating and air conditioning as the years passed. Vesta purchased several of the small houses in our neighborhood, until she and Nelson had enough houses to bequest one to each of their children.

The seven children grew up, went to college, and all became leaders in their respective fields. Bettye was the Head of the Music Department at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, North Carolina; Patricia was Superintendent of the Richmond, Virginia Public School System, Nelson was Chief of Police at Jacksonville State University in Jacksonville, Alabama after