Black Families in Glendale
One of the ingredients that went into making Glendale the vibrant, peaceful and enjoyable community it was for 100 or more years was the hardworking, cooperative and caring Black families that lived there. Not much has been written about these families and their contribution to Glendale. Rev. Clarence Crocker has recently taken steps to correct this omission. He has prepared an Index of the Black families that were living in Glendale at the time of the 1940 Federal Census. This Index is based on the Census reports and gives the names of the individuals that were living in the households in Glendale in April of 1940. To read this listing click on :
Index of Glendale's 1940 Black Households.
To our knowledge, there are no first hand accounts by a Black person on what it was like growing up in Glendale. However, the Pacolet Memories website has recently received a very interesting remembrance from Mrs. Mary Littlejohn Knox who grew up in the nearby town of Pacolet in the 1930's, 40's and 50's as part of the black community. Because of the extreme segregation of the time, her experiences are different than that of most white people from the area. In spite of segregation, Mary has many fond memories of Pacolet and its people. Mary is retired and now lives in Detroit but she is thinking seriously about moving back home to the Pacolet area. She would like to help young people learn about their heritage and the contributions their ancestors made to the Pacolet Community.You can read her story at (http://pacoletmemories.com/knox.html.)
This web site has been started as a public service to share the story of Glendale. See more information about Mary and her Glendale connection at Mary McKinney Teaster.