And going strong

He's still thinking

What a wonderful man

		JIMMIE ARMSTEAD, JR. Died: Nov. 9, 2006 Reprinted with permission from Communications and Marketing, University of Louisville Magazine, Winter 2002 James "Jimmie" Armstead will never forget his first game as a professional baseball player. The year was 1938 and the Central High School grad was a student at Louisville Municipal College (LMC), the African-American school run by University of Louisville before the university opened to black students in 1951. A star tailback on LMC's football team and a starting guard on the basketball squad, the gifted athlete was spending his summer break with the Indianapolis ABCs in the Negro Baseball League. In his first game, the rookie stepped to the plate against the Homestead Grays, who were led by Negro League Hall of Fame catcher Josh Gibson Sr. "We were playing in Washington (D.C.) where the Senators used to play," Armstead smiles, leaning back on the couch in his Louisville condominium. The fit 84-year-old looks like he could still beat out an infield single today. "I came up to bat and Gibson just kept talking to me. I mean, he just wouldn't stop talking and talking and talking. "Well, I struck out five times that day," he shakes his head and laughs. "That night, the coach came up to me and said, 'Quit listening to these guys. They setting you up.' " That would be the last time the Louisville native, who grew up on the West Side near 16th Street, would be intimidated--by anyone. The feisty outfielder with sneaky speed and a sweet left-handed swing would prove that the following year when he and his teammates took their bats down to Nashville to try their luck against one Robert LeRoy "Satchel" Paige. "He didn't know who I was," Armstead says of the legendary pitcher who was touring with his own all-star team at the time. "So he started me off with a pitch low and inside and I hit it out of the ballpark--out off the icehouse over right field. Guys were laughing and pouring out of the dugout. "Satchel was looking at right field and saying, 'Where'd this guy come from?' I really lit 'em up that day. I really set Satchel on fire." Owens and Tatum Despite his baseball prowess, Armstead, who attended LMC in 1938 and 1939, claims football was his best sport. His star role on LMC's team backs that claim. “My running was deceiving," he says. "I could run a hundred yards in better than 10 seconds, but I had a long stride. A lot of players would ask me, 'How fast can you run?' They couldn't catch up with me, but they felt like they should." His speed even earned him an opportunity to run against Jesse Owens after the 1936 Olympics. Owens, who was part owner of the Negro League Baseball team the Toledo Crawfords, "would have exhibitions against college athletes and baseball players," Armstead says. Players would race Owens around the baseball diamond. "They were fixed races, though," Armstead adds with a grin. "I mean, they wouldn't let you go all out. He wanted you to stay with him until he got to third base and then you could run as hard as you want. But you didn't have a chance by then. "Also, he would only circle the bases. We had to touch all the bases. That was a lot different." After winning three Gold Medals and seriously irking Adolf Hitler in the '36 Olympics, Owens was already a living legend when Armstead met him in the late 1930s. At about the same time, Armstead befriended a future sports legend, Reece "Goose" Tatum, who had come up from Arkansas to play baseball for the Louisville Black Colonels in 1938. Goose, who went on to be one of the founding members of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters, would never play basketball that year in Louisville, Armstead recalls, but he obviously was preparing for something. "There were rec leagues everywhere and you could always find a game in the parks," he says. "Goose would come to any game he could find. But he'd never play. He would just sit there and watch, just watching and watching and watching. "I was surprised when I saw him with the Globetrotters and saw the way he could handle that ball. He handled it like it was a little baseball." Yankee Stadium by day, Long Island by night After college, Jimmie Armstead became a full-time professional baseball player. He enjoyed a sparkling career between 1938 and 1951, batting an estimated .300 with good power and speed while playing for such classic Negro League teams as the St. Louis Stars, Baltimore Elite Giants, the Philadelphia Stars and even a brief stint with the Louisville Buckeyes. His career was interrupted during World War II when he trained to be a pilot at the famous Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama. While he never became one of the legendary black fighter pilots of the 99th Pursuit Squadron, he did work as a radio operator for pilot training up and down the East Coast. After the war it was back to baseball. "To tell you the truth, I really don't know how many games I played," Armstead says. "We played every day. That's what made the money. Sometimes we'd play two games in the same day in different places. We'd play in Yankee Stadium in the afternoon and then go to Long Island and play a night game." There were also times when his team would finish a game in New York and then jump on a bus and drive all the way down to New Orleans for a game the next day. "Those were some long trips," he says. Armstead played mostly right and center field throughout his career, but he would occasionally pitch. He even formed a battery with the great catcher Roy Campanella, who would go on to play nine years with the Brooklyn Dodgers after Jackie Robinson broke the Major League Baseball color barrier. "We were just young kids," Armstead says. "We would be the second string battery so the team could save their first-string pitcher for the big games. I would pitch against factory teams and semi-pro teams." The last time Armstead pitched was in 1947 against a touring Jackie Robinson all-star team. "I knew most of the players and could handle them very well. I enjoyed pitching." Armstead retired from baseball in 1951 and moved to New York with his wife, Edna, his high school sweetheart who had a good job as a nurse in Manhattan. Living in Westchester County, he commuted to Manhattan every day and worked as a mason. He worked on several famous projects, including Madison Square Garden, before retiring in the mid-1990s. Last year, he moved back to Louisville after Edna died. They were married 60 years.

Condo Manager

Roles and Responsibilities of Condo Management
Condominium living is a multidimensional experience for the people who choose to do it. On the one hand, you do pay mortgage on your home, so technically, it belongs to you. You can not be evicted, you do not have to renew your lease, and you can sell your home if and when you choose. Even though the unit owner owns their space and takes responsibility of most of the repairs and upkeep, however, most communities have a board of directors that then hire individuals or corporations to serve as condo management .

These individuals have many responsibilities to the community itself and should be chosen by the board with great care, as they will be directly involved with the owners themselves. Ideally your community will benefit if this person has strong social interaction skills and is well liked within the community. This serves to build strong ties between unit owners and the board, insuring smooth relationships and ease of communication.

Since one of the most important responsibilities of condo management is that of a liaison between the board of directors and the owners of the units, it stands to reason that this person will be the one that the unit owners go to for general correspondence. Representing the collective group of homeowners is no small task. When there is a discrepancy or an emergency of some kind, it is the responsibility of the management to be on the front lines, resolving the issue and being the person in charge to insure that legally as well as mechanically, the homeowners have someone on their side and never considering the differences in the social class or net worth of each.

Condo management also has a responsibility to supervise all employees of the property, including maintenance workers, repairmen of various kinds and contracted labor. They need to be paid, their payroll taxes need to be taken out, and the financial stability of the property itself must be tended to and secured. This person is also responsible for keeping records of all correspondence with unit owners and repair persons, and keeping an account of all funds that are spent, what they are spent on and who they are paid to. Even if the property itself is small, this can be a large task to complete.

If unit owners question the validity or feasibility of certain rules or restrictions that have been created within the community, condo management is who they will go to in order to get the ball rolling to either amend or completely do away with the rule. The manager represents the unit owners in front of the board in every instance. It is vital that they are holding the best interests of the unit owners firmly in mind.

In addition, creating the annual budget for the property is yet another one of the responsibilities that condo management may be required to take on. It takes a great deal of energy, time and work to keep an entire condominium community running smoothly and operating sufficiently at all levels. Consideration must be given to financial responsibilities, maintenance responsibilities, emergency actions and unit owner/board relations.

Finding someone with a strong, genuine work ethic who understands this type of responsibility can be challenging. Seek out bids from many different candidates, and take your time making the decision. Award this type of responsibility only after a thorough background search and many interviews have been conducted. Finding the right person for the job is more important than filling an empty seat. The unit owners will surely agree.

Proud In-Law

Allan Latts
Chief Operating Officer
Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc.
The Latest: As the company's first ever COO, Latts’ responsibilities include leading strategic planning and business development efforts; oversight and management of internal operations; and development of new company policies, procedures, and processes to enable future growth.
Industry: Beverages
Find me online at: www.heavenhill.com
Previous: Heaven Hill’s Director of Corporate Planning since he joined the company in 2001. Finance Manager for Folgers Coffee, one of P&G’s largest brands.
Interests: Board of Governors of the J.B. Speed Art Museum. Co-chair of the Glacier Run Capital Campaign for the Louisville Zoo.
College: graduated Cum Laude with Distinction from Duke University in 1991 with a major in Public Policy Studies, and earned his MBA from Duke in 1996 where he was named a Fuqua Scholar, an honor given to the top 10% of graduating students.
Date posted: Sep. 9, 2009

Keys to building

Who should have possession of a key to the building? I'm hoping the rules committee will act on this question. Too many times residents rely on the Valets for entrance to the building and give their key to a relative or maid. I'm not talking about your unit, most folks care less who has a key to that. The building is another matter. Money was spent to install a buzzer system at the front door and the service entrance has a buzzer/intercom system. There is no reason for anyone else other than the unit owner to have a key to the building. If I'm not mistaken, that key is not to be duplicated and stamped as such.
Rules committee please look at this. Editor

Valet Parking, a Luxury

Valet parking

Valet parking is a parking service offered by some restaurants, stores, and other businesses particularly in North America. In contrast to "self-parking", where customers find parking on their own, customers' vehicles are parked for them by a person called a valet. This service either requires a fee to be paid by the customer or is offered free of

A valet is usually an employee of the establishment, or an employee of a third party valet service. When there is a fee it is usually either a flat amount or a fee based on how long the car is parked. It is customary in the USA to tip the valet who actually parks the car.

Valet parking is most often offered (and is most useful) in urban areas, where parking is scarce, though some upscale businesses offer valet parking as an optional service even though self-parking may be readily available. For example, in wealthy suburban areas like California's Silicon Valley, some hospitals (like Stanford University Medical Center) offer valet parking for the convenience of patients and their visitors. On the other hand, where parking is not scarce, such as on the Las Vegas Strip, it is offered as a convenience to patrons. Some hospitals, like the Yale-affiliated Greenwich Hospital (Connecticut) on Connecticut's Golden Coast, have such limited space for parking that the emergency room is valet parking only (to fit as many cars in as possible; Some cars come with an additional key known as a valet key that starts the ignition and opens the driver's side door but prevents the valet from gaining access to valuables that are located in the trunk or the glove box.

An advantage of valet parking is that it is possible to pack more cars into the same space, in what is generally known as "stack parking." The valet holds all the keys and can park the cars two or more deep, as he can move cars out of the way to free a blocked-in car.

Another type of stacking is called lane stacking. This is useful for events where guests arrive at around the same time, say for a wedding reception. The point of this procedure is to keep the lane (or lanes) of incoming traffic flowing forward so that guests are spared a long wait time for valet service. This is usually accomplished by designating one or two of the valets to be "stackers", who simply "push" each car up fifty feet or so and prepare it for a quick "take-away" for a returning valet to park. The process is then repeated until all cars are parked, utilizing as much lane space as possible, meanwhile keeping the lanes moving.

An additional advantage of valet parking, aside from stacking, is that valets can park cars closer and straighter than some customers may park. This will save them space in the parking lot or garage, and prevent the inconvenience of going to different floors by cramming everything in.

An efficient valet service will implement (or at least prepare) a system to handle the expected number of cars and guests. This may include, but is not limited to, any of the following: designated greeters, stackers, and parkers, a system for marking car locations, and sometimes even a shuttle service for valets at large venues in order to expedite car return times at the end of the event.

A raison d'être of valet parking is that it adds a touch of luxury. Many locations and events that provide valet parking provide extra touches such as bringing the car up front, having the doors opened for the guest, and perhaps cleaning and detailing of the vehicle

Condo Blogs

http://www.condodomain.com/blog/

http://www.condo.com/Community/Blogs.aspx

http://www.seminarywoods.com/index.html

Senior Helpers

I accidentally came in contact with these folks. I know I appreciate having a list of possibilities in the future that I could be in need. I am receiving no remuneration. GlenviewPost Editor

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1-800-760-6389 Local # Linda Hoeton 502-295-0881

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• Hired and employed by us and are not subcontractors.
• Licensed (where applicable), bonded and insured.
• Checked for Criminal background.
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Our caregivers come from various backgrounds and many have cared for their own parents and want to help others. Some work in the healthcare field and enjoy working one-on-one with our clients. All of our caregivers truly treasure the personal satisfaction that comes from helping others. Most importantly, we have the systems in place and take the time to try and match the appropriate caregiver with the appropriate client to help ensure a successful relationship.

We also offer specialized training in the caregiver field through our Senior Helpers University educational program.

There's no need for you to go it alone, contact us today to discuss your in-home care options.

Condo Fees & Reserves

Reserves are for reserved, pending expenses!

Condo Association Costs To Rise in 2009

Many condo associations are facing rising operating costs, which are likely to necessitate increasing assessments and condo fees beyond an anticipated amount in 2009. Under normal circumstances, a forward-looking condo associations will usually augment assessments annually.

"Condo Boards are encouraged to raise assessments at least 3 percent each year," said Tracy Davis, a property manager and marketing director with McGill Management, based in Arlington Heights. When condo associations are consistent in this action, separate assessments can generally be avoided. Davis conceded that some condo boards may wait two years to bump up the monthly levy.

But there are condo associations that maintain assessments at a constant level despite rising expenses.

"One we work with did not pass a condo fee increase in the operating budget for 12 years," said Brad Schneider of Condo CPA in Elmhurst.

This condo board kept drawing on its condo reserve to pay bills until finally the condo reserve was depleted. Finally, the condo board had to draw up a realistic condo association budget document that jacked up assessments substantially.

"In the past several years, many condo associations have had to increase their assessments significantly more than the average increase of 3 to 5 percent," Schneider said.

Some did so because of developers who had advertised low, inadequate assessments and condo fees for marketing reasons. Most developers were forced to do so as the result of dramatic increases in certain expenses, such as utilities and condo associations insurance. Schneider particularly underscored the huge rise in fuel costs in 2006 and electricity charges in 2007. Some developers defualted omn their loans.

Let's focus now more closely on growing expenses and what continuing impact they can be expected to have on condo association budgets and assessments.

Many firms that are heavily dependent on vehicles in the services performed for condo associations notified customers of an upward price adjustment for their higher gas costs, according to Tim Allwardt, President of Aegis Properties in Chicago. "Several companies [added] a fuel surcharge for travel, particularly scavenger companies," he said.

The same has been happening at some of the HOAs and Condo Association properties managed by McGill.

"I had a landscaper send a notice stating that they [would] be adding a 5 percent fuel surcharge to our monthly bill," said Davis.

The cost of paving maintenance has also risen substantially this year due to the cost of oil.

"Seal-coating of parking lots and asphalt repair have had a huge increase," said Allwardt. "I have seen 40 percent increases over last year's pricing. There is a real concern that the price will continue to increase."

Drinking two glasses of Gatorade can relieve headache pain almost immediately -- without the unpleasant side effects caused by traditional "pain relievers."

Did you know that Colgate toothpaste makes an excellent salve for burns.

Before you head to the drugstore for a high-priced inhaler filled with mysterious chemicals, try chewing on a couple of curiously strong Altoids peppermints. They'll clear up your stuffed nose.

Achy muscles from a bout of the flu? Mix 1 Tablespoon of horseradish in 1 cup of olive oil. Let the mixture sit for 30 minutes, then apply it as a massage oil, for instant relief for aching muscles.

Sore throat? Just mix 1/4 cup of vinegar with 1/4 cup of honey and take 1 tablespoon six times a day. The vinegar kills the bacteria.

Cure urinary tract infections with Alka-Seltzer. Just dissolve two tablets in a glass of water and drink it at the onset of the symptoms. Alka-Seltzer begins eliminating urinary tract infections almost instantly -- even though the product was never been advertised for this use.

Honey remedy for skin blemishes... Cover the blemish with a dab of honey and place a Band-Aid over it. Honey kills the bacteria, keeps the skin sterile, and speeds healing. Works overnight.

Listerine therapy for toenail fungus... Get rid of unsightly toenail fungus by soaking your toes in Listerine mouthwash. The powerful antiseptic leaves your toenails looking healthy again.

Easy eyeglass protection... To prevent the screws in eyeglasses from loosening, apply a small drop of Maybelline Crystal Clear nail polish to the threads of the screws before tightening them.

Coca-Cola cure for rust... Forget those expensive rust removers. Just saturate an abrasive sponge with Coca Cola and scrub the rust stain. The phosphoric acid in the coke is what gets the job done.

Cleaning liquid that doubles as bug killer... If menacing bees, wasps, hornets, or yellow jackets get in your home and you can't find the insecticide, try a spray of Formula 409. Insects drop to the ground instantly.

Smart splinter remover...just pour a drop of Elmer's Glue-All! over the splinter, let dry, and peel the dried glue off the skin. The splinter sticks to the dried glue.

Hunt's tomato paste boil cure...co! ver the boil with Hunt's tomato paste as a compress. The acids from the tomatoes soothe the pain and bring the boil to a head.

Balm for broken blisters. ..To disinfect a broken blister, dab on a few drops of Listerine... a powerful antiseptic.

Heinz vinegar to heal bruises... Soak a cotton ball in white vinegar and apply it to the bruise for 1 hour. The vinegar reduces the blueness and speeds up the healing process.

Kills fleas instantly. Dawn dish washing liquid does the trick. Add a few drops to your dog's bath and shampoo the animal thoroughly. Rinse well to avoid skin irritations. Goodbye fleas.

Rainy day cure for dog odor... Next time your ! dog comes in from the rain, simply wipe down the animal with Bounce or any dryer sheet, instantly making your dog smell springtime fresh.

Eliminate ear mites ... All it takes is a few drops of Wesson corn oil in your cat's ear. Massage it in, then clean with a cotton ball. Repeat daily for 3 days. The oil soothes the cat's skin, smothers the mites, and accelerates healing.

Quaker Oats for fast pain relief.... ItCfB"C"b?sB,(tm)s not for breakfast anymore! Mix 2 cups of Quaker Oats and 1 cup of water in a bowl and warm in the microwave for 1 minute, cool slightly, and apply the mixture to your hands for soothing relief from arthritis pain.

If you send this to 10 people and only one of them doesn't know about this, then it was worth it.

This Blog is published in hopes of giving our community (Glenview residents) a forum to keep abreast of the happenings in the Glenview. It is posted in hopes that you will read it and post comments as you desire. I will attempt to maintain it within the bounds of a decorum that will not offend or antagonize anyone. There will at times be mistakes. Some folks are constantly looking for mistakes and I don't want to disappoint them.

The Post is edited by Hazarmaveth
He may be reached at hazarmaveth@myself.com

Home of Talent

Carridder M. Jones

Writer Carridder M. Jones' first work was published in 1990. Married with six children, Jones worked mostly in human resources, landing at the University of Louisville, where she began taking theater and writing classes in the late 1980s. Her education as a young girl in Timmonsville, S.C., began in a three-room schoolhouse where children of slaves and sharecroppers had attended before her.

Beginning with poetry and short stories, Jones later found her voice as a
playwright. Her first play, "Lady of the House," was produced in the small Martin Experimental Theater at the Kentucky Center, a three-night run that sold out. Her plays also have been part of the Juneteenth Festival at Actors Theatre. Themes in her work include early African-American culture and contemporary society.

In 1993, Jones started a literary society for women, Women Who Write, to
encourage women interested in writing. She has been awarded grants by the U of L Women's Center, the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the Pilgrim Project of New York. She also has been a Tennessee Williams Scholar.


March 25, 2009

Author sheds light on black history

By Martha Elson
melson@courier-journal.com

From her picture window on the sixth floor of The Glenview high-rise condominiums overlooking Brownsboro Road, writer and historian Carridder "Rita" Jones can see about half way to the Locust Grove historic site.

The home, where she now works part time, is three miles away — the same distance she walked each way to and from school growing up on her family's sharecropper farm in South Carolina.

Today, Jones, 73, is a weekend manager, African-American history specialist and tour guide at Locust Grove, built in 1790 by relatives of George Rogers Clark. She has published a new book titled "A Backward Glance" that's sold there — a fictionalized collection of stories about growing up in South Carolina.

She's also developing a tour at Locust Grove that will focus on the lives of slaves in Kentucky, like those who would have worked at Locust Grove.

"Slaves were very important to the economy of this region and to Locust Grove," Carol Ely, the home's executive director, said. "Most of the people who lived on this land were enslaved people."

Jones lived on a farm in Timmonsville, S.C., about 85 miles north of Charleston, with her parents and two sisters until she was about 17. As a girl, she asked for books for Christmas, not dolls, and her mother saw that she had them, Jones said.

"I would like for people to know what life was like back in those days," she said.

The book's introduction says that a sharecropper was dependent on the farm's owner to feed and clothe his family. If the crop was not good, the sharecropper could sink deeper into debt. As the main character, based on Jones, grew up, "she decided she would much rather be a shareholder than a sharecropper."

After leaving the farm in South Carolina, Jones married, had six children and traveled to such distant places as the Great Wall of China and Morocco with her husband, who was in the military.

Life on the farm gave her a special understanding of the lives of people growing up in rural black communities, she said. She also has done extensive research and collaborated on a public radio program about black "hamlets" around Lexington, where blacks worked on horse farms.

She also has done research for the Filson Historical Society about African Americans living in Jefferson County in such areas as Newburg, Jeffersontown, Berrytown, and the James Taylor subdivision off River Road.

Jones said she has long been interested in history and began writing short stories, poems and plays when she took a job in employment management at the University of Louisville in the late 1980s — and began taking classes in English and theater arts at U of L. She also had worked in a human resources management position at The Courier-Journal.

In 1993, she co-founded a women's literary society called Women Who Write at the U of L Women's Center. The group now meets monthly at the Highlands-Shelby Park branch library in the Mid City Mall.

Now retired for about a decade, Jones has written a new play titled "Voice of the Fugitive," about Kentucky slave and freed man Henry Bibb, which will be presented by The Oldham County Historical Society May 29-31 at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

Her new 10-minute play titled "A Real Mother Goose Tale" (about the "Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe") also will be presented by Finnigan Productions at a play festival April 16-18 and 23-25 at the Rudyard Kipling in Old Louisville.

Jones said that people from all over the world visit Locust Grove and that her position there gives her a chance to help enlighten them about aspects of African-American history.

"""There is so much of it out there that is not discussed," she said.

May 20, 2009

Slave's tale of abuse, success on stage

Oldham HistoryCenter is sponsor

By Andrea Uhde
auhde@courier-journal.com

It's one of Oldham County's most romantic and most tragic love stories: two slaves who fall in love but are separated, and only one ever tastes freedom.

That slave was Henry Bibb, who was born between September 1813 and August 1814 just south of New Castle and later escaped north to become a popular anti-slavery speaker and Canada's first black newspaper editor. He also wrote an autobiography in 1849, detailing the brutality of slavery.

Next week Bibb's story will be shown for the first time as a play at Actors Theatre of Louisville. The play, "Voice of the Fugitive," was written by local playwright and African-American historian Carridder M. Jones.

"We're trying to get the story of Henry Bibb's life out because he was an important citizen of his time, and he has an interesting story," said Nancy Theiss, executive director of the Oldham County History Center, which worked to get funding for the play. "He's a historic character and figure that really has never been celebrated."

The play will last under an hour, and performances will be held May 29-31. Tickets are $8.

The History Center is using a $3,200 grant from the Kentucky Arts Council to rent the theater for the performances and $1,000 from the Owsley Brown Charitable Foundation to pay for other expenses including the actors. The play features three actors from the University of Louisville's fine arts program.

Jones, of eastern Louisville, said she's written about five plays, and this one will give people a "chance to explore history, and to share it with others."

"It's a true story, and I've tried to let Henry Bibb's words stand out throughout the script," she said.

The play will show some of the brutality of slavery, she said.

Scenes of abuse are spread throughout Bibb's autobiography, including details of the beating of his daughter Mary Frances by "an unmerciful old mistress" while he and his wife, Malinda, worked on the 320-acre Bedford Plantation, at the time located in Oldham County but now in Trimble.

Bibb ran away in the winter of 1837, but returned for his family the next spring. On their third attempt to escape, the family was caught and tossed into a workhouse in Louisville.

After being switched from one master to another over the years, Bibb eventually escaped to Detroit. He spent weeks learning to read, and began sharing his story at conventions and in newspaper columns.

After learning that Malinda had become a mistress of a slave owner, he married a Cincinnati schoolteacher and they moved to Canada, where Bibb started a newspaper named Voice of the Fugitive.

The newspaper became a force for black freedom. But in 1853, the printing plant was destroyed in a fire, which Bibb thought was arson.

He died almost a year later after suffering a high fever. He was about 40.

Thiess said she'd like to see a national trail from New Orleans to Canada that details Bibb's travels. The History Center, which has been pushing for the trail, has been working for several years on an archaeological project at the Bedford plantation where Bibb lived, and Theiss said it hopes to make that part of the trail.

She said no funding for a trail has been secured.

In the meantime, the play will highlight Bibb's story, Theiss said. The project is "kind of outside of the box" for the History Center, she said.

"It's the first time we've done something like this on this grand a scale," she said. "This is a real opportunity to see history through the eyes of Henry Bibb."

May 29, 2009

Slave's life told in play

History group brings 'Voice of the Fugitive' to Actors

By Judith Egerton
jegerton@courier-journal.com

In "Voice of the Fugitive," a sharecropper's daughter who became a historian and author tells the story of a former Kentucky slave involved in the Underground Railroad.

The play, by Carridder "Rita" Jones, 73, of Glenview, Ky., is based on the autobiography of Henry Bibb and other historical documents about slavery in Kentucky. It makes its world premiere this weekend at Actors Theatre of Louisville.

"Henry and (his wife) Malinda were compelling historical figures, and their stories need to be told," said director Laura Early. "In Kentucky, we hear stories about Daniel Boone, but we don't hear enough about African Americans and others in that time period."

The one-act opens in 1843 with Bibb speaking to Detroit abolitionists about his life as a slave in Kentucky and his escape to freedom after several failed attempts.

"Voice of the Fugitive" does not shy away from the horrific elements of slavery, said Early, 44, who teaches theater at the University of Louisville and at Bellarmine University. The sensitive subject matter makes performing the play difficult for the actors, she said.

Although much of Bibb's life story is a painful reminder of the inhumanity of slavery, the play also reveals Bibb's love for his wife and child and his inspiring quest for freedom.

The actors in the 80-minute play are an accomplished trio of University of Louisville students in the theater department's master's degree program. DeAldon R. Watson plays Henry Bibb with Tiffany Gist as his wife, Malinda, and Obadiah Ewing-Roush performing three roles, including slaveholder William Gatewood.

According to the former slave's account of his life, "Narrative of the Life and Adventure of Henry Bibb, an American Slave," he was born in Shelby County, Ky., in 1815, the oldest of seven sons born to Mildred Jackson, a slave on William Gatewood's plantation. Bibb never knew his white Kentucky father, James Bibb, and was separated from his mother as a child when he was sold to another slaveholder.

Bibb's hunger for freedom was fed by the daily injustices he witnessed. He saw his siblings sold and separated. He was hired out to work, and his wages were kept by his owner. He was helpless to protect his wife, who was forced into prostitution by her owner, or his young daughter, who was brutalized by the plantation owner's wife.

After several unsuccessful attempts, Bibb escaped to the North, where he joined abolitionists. Despite repeated efforts, Bibb never found his Kentucky wife and child or secured their freedom. In 1848, he married a Cincinnati schoolteacher, and the couple settled in Canada near Detroit where they established a school and raised money to buy land for escaped slaves. In the early 1850s, Bibb started "Voice of the Fugitive," the first Canadian African-American newspaper. He died in 1854.

Reporter Judith Egerton can be reached at (502) 582-4503.

Additional Facts 'Voice of the Fugitive'

• What: Premiere of Carridder Jones' play about Kentucky slave Henry Bibb, presented by the Oldham County History Center.
• Where: Actors Theatre of Louisville, 316 W. Main St.
• When: 7:30 p.m. May 29-30; 2 p.m. May 31.
• Tickets : $8. Call (502) 584-1205.