LOOKING FOR PICTURES OF PILGRIMAGE TO ISRAEL

Aunt Lovonia, Ida, Uncle James, Uncle Les, and Uncle Tim were all preachers they all travel to Jerusalem could someone send those family pictures to rickdware38@gmail.com

Ida is the only one left and we will soon discover the reason why we have the tradition of traveling Israel?  Of course there are other Fowlers out there, and I hear they also have that tradition.  Would we all like to know why?

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My grandfather liked Mexican music, I guess that I inherited that trait

Most of us, from about 1880's  were born in the South in the states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Virginia, and those other Red Line States. In fact, I was born in Memphis Tennessee on Halloween of all nights.  I don't enjoy having a birthday on Halloween because somehow people end up celebrating dead people instead of remembering my birth.

My paternal cousin Richard told me the story of my grandmother's "babydaddy." Remember, my great-aunt Sugg was the owner of two bordellos. One in Mississippi, and the other in Memphis. My grandfather Booker Wade Senior was an entrepreneur who owned two juck joints. One, in Tupelo, and the other in Tunica. My maternal great grandfather, Toney Fowler, was the minister of several churches in the area. Mahalia Jackson would often sing at his churches. They were the rock stars of the black south.  They crossed the paths many well know legends. But, since Toney was a well-respected minister, he didn't attend either the bordels nor the juke joints. He had to maintain a respectful distance.

 I hear that my grandfather Booker Wade Senior was a successful early promoter, and featured many great blues artists at his joints. In fact, I hear that the young Elvis Presley had on several occasions either visited or actually sang and/or played with the visiting artists.

My dad's mother was named Flossie.  She was an extremely beautiful mixed American Indian and black girl. She was a lover of, also known as Leadbelly, and he was the Baby Daddy of two of her children. She loved the way he played the accordion. In fact, that's how I came to play the accordion. On his last visit with her, he left an accordion, and promised to come back and get it. She never saw him again.  I later picked up the accordion which he had left.

The accordion is a sound you have to acquire, or just have in your physical make up.  African American's don't generally like the sound of an accordion.  My grandfather liked Mexican music, and I guess that I inherited that trait.  I became quite good, and won a few accordion contest!

Mahalia Jackson sang at my grandmother's funeral and Leadbelly was her baby daddy

This is Florence Sullivan Fowler- my great-grandmother

(I'm hoping some of our older surviving relatives would supply a couple stories about Mama Fowler.  I really loved her. I remember as a very young boy fishing  with her along the Mississippi river. She really scared me once when a snapper turtle became entangled in  her line.  She immediately jumped in the water and cut its head of f. Marlon, my first cousin, and I were assigned by my grandmother to watch out for her. She was a great fishing woman.  We always had a good time with her, she really loved us and taught us how to love.  She's in heaven waiting for us.

Fowler Family Reunion, Los Angeles 2008

Top left corner Ida Fowler Rushing age 90, Center Lavonia Fowler Verner age 96, Susie Fowler Wade age 92, and their 1st cousin Mary Lee Rogers, age 90

The Afro-American Family Pledge

Because we have forgotten our ancestors, our children no longer give us honor,
Because we have lost the path our ancestors cleared.
Kneeling in perilous undergrowth, our children cannot find their way,
Because we have banished God, our children cannot pray,
Because the old wails of our ancestors have faded beyond our bearing,
Because we have abandoned our wisdom of mothering and fathering, our children give birth to children that neither want nor understand,
Because we have forgotten how to love the adversary with our gates and hold us to the mirror of the world shouting "regard the loveless".
Therefore, we pledge to bind ourselves again to one another,
To embrace our lowliest, to educate our illiterate,
To feed our starving, to clothe our ragged, to do all
Good things knowing that we are more than keepers of our brothers and sisters. WE ARE OUR BROTHERS AND SISTERS,
In honor of those who have toiled and implored God
With golden tongues, and in gratitude to the same God
Who brought us out of hopeless desolation.
We have no other choice.
No one is going to save us but us
With the help of God. Peace be still

I was told that one of my great-great grandfather's was named William Fowler. His nick name was Bill, and he was a ex-slave. He fathered countless children who had been sold away.  When he became a free man, he fathered six children. Their names were Lucious, Cleveland, Arthur, Roy, Susie, and my great grandfather Toney.

My grandmother was named after her great aunt Susie.  Pictured above is Susie's granddaughter Mary Lee Rogers.

Toney Fowler died long before my birth in October of 1945. He was a preacher at the Antioch Baptist Church in Coldwater,Mississippi.  He was buried on the grounds of the Antioch Baptist Church along with countless other relatives.

Another of my great-great grandparent was Elizabeth and Owen Sullivan.  They lived in Tupelo Mississippi.  They moved to Tunica, Mississippi around 1880, then on March 30, 1882, my great-grandmother Florence Sullivan was born.  When I was a boy, Mama Fowler told me that her oldest brother Woodson and been forced to run away.

Many years later, she learned that he had safely traveled thru Mexico then, down to the Dominican Republic where he had thirteen children.   She never heard from him again.

Mama Fowler had a sister named  Mary Sullivan Bowen. My mother called her Aunt Shugg.  She was the madame of a brothel in Memphis Tennessee.

She had another brother named Alex Farley.  Alex was the offspring of an ex-slaver, and since he passed for white, his father had him shipped off to Canada, and of course she never heard from him again.

My great grand mother met my great grand father in 1900.  By that time,  he was the well respected Reverent T.O. Fowler.  They were married in Hollywood, Mississippi.  They moved to Memphis where my grandfather learned that Aunt Shugg had become a madame, and owned a bordello.  There was dancing and sexin going on, and he wasn't having any part of it. So, to keep up appearances, my great- grandfather forbid them to see one another.

I heard a story where the two sisters passed one another in downtown Memphis. Toney had his bible in hand, and with a stern glance that reunion was quelled.

On the other hand, Toney had lots of church women to visit.  Don't misunderstand me because he was a good man.  In fact, I'd say a great man and powerful speaker, patriarchy was the way of the world.
From the facts that I gather,  it seems that he was a little too dedicated to spreading the love of the Lord to the women of the church.  Mama Fowler would do what the women of that time did - she pretended not to notice, and prayed about it. Mama would  never had objected to his behaviors.  As the rumor goes, he was father to several other children around the countryside.

Toney Fowler was a great man; in fact, when a close member of the congregation had become ill and later died.  He  brought home two beautiful intelligent girls, that closely resemble all the other girls in the family. Again, I'm hoping that some of older surviving relatives would supply the details no matter how sordid they may be, and you know how stories can morph over time? Right?

I've been warned by the Fowler mafia to keep our business out of the streets.  Well, I refused to be shamed, or embarrassed about our past. Everyone has a past. No one's perfect. Everyone should come out of the closet.

Their marriage lasted forty years, and they had nine children.  Their names were Elbert, Elestra, Mary, Lavonia, James, Susie,Timothy, Ida, and Ezra.  Elbert and Ezra both died as a young boys.

The surviving boys learned to work hard, and subsidized the family by sharecropping. Toney was the pastor of several churches in Tennessee and Mississippi. They included Lake Grove Baptist Church, Antioch Baptist Church, and Liberty Baptist Church.

In 1935, Toney and Mama moved to 1651 Preston Street in Memphis, Tennessee. After Toney died in 1945, Mama Fowler joined Morning View Baptist church. When I was 13 years old ,she died. She lived ninety-two years. View of 1651 Preston St, Memphis Tennessee   Morning View Baptist Church Morning View Baptist Church - My great-grand mother and grand mother's church

Pictured above were the surviving children Ida, Lavonia, and my grandmother Susie. Today,  Ida Mae Rushing, the youngest of the Fowler children, is our matriarch. She's almost 100 years old.

I think I'll go do an interview with my great-aunt Ida. I'm hoping that she'd be willing to tell me about the good and bad.

BACKGROUND

A white friend of mine jokingly asked the following question:  Why are Afro-American’s so consumed with family reunions?  Are you still even related after so many generations?

In the book “12 Years a Slave” by Solomon Northup, Northup establishes an empathetic connection with his readers right away by sharing tender recollections of his family, his father, his education, his marriage, and his children. His memories evoke warm, relatable mental images that anyone can identify with and that make him “real” for readers. For example, he describes his children by saying, “Their young voices were music in our ears…Their presence was my delight.”  

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/t/twelve-years-a-slave/summary-and-analysis/chapter-1 Houghton, Mifflin, Harcourt