July 31, 2020
Our Family Heirlooms
Our Stories - They Are Rich
Today, we reach inside our archive to share some rich family stories found there. These stories are about the families of Charles Blockson , Maj. Gen. Leo Brooks, Sr. , Brig. Gen. Elmer T. Brooks , and Charles Patrick Henry, III .
Charles Blockson
William Still
Cultural historian Charles Blockson (1933- ) spent over twenty years tracing his family’s history. He vividly remembered, as a child, his grandfather singing a song, a spiritual, ‘There's a highway to heaven…’ I said grandpa, ‘what are singing about?’. I was ten years old… He said ‘ I was singing about the Underground Railroad. My father, James, your great-grandfather, escaped on the Underground Railroad from Seifert, Delaware, came to Philadelphia and made his way to Canada, you know. And then two years later, his cousin, Jacob Blockson , escaped, came to Philadelphia and met with-- William Still  and went through Canada… five years later, I was in junior high school… I opened this book up, page 488… I started to shake, and it said escaped in 1858 from Seifert Sussex County, Delaware. Jacob Blockson, George Allen Goode , and two other people, his brother… Then Jacob described to William Still… he told William Still after he came from Delaware, he escaped originally with Harriet Tubman… They got separated--left with Harriet Tubman , and they got separated… came to William Still, and he told William Still to write a letter to his wife, Leah, and, and his son, Alexander, to say that when he get to Canada, he would write back through Still to tell him that where they were. Sure enough, he wrote back. In the book is his letter to William Still saying that he's safe and Canada West… which is today we call St. Catherine, Canada. That's where Harriet Tubman had her home in Canada, has her church… I never knew until I read the book that I was associated with the great William Still. I'm still part of the Still family reunion .” [1]
Harriet Tubman’s silk and lace shawl, a gift from Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee honoring heroes worldwide, 1897
Donated to the National Museum of African American History & Culture by Charles Blockson
Blockson described other family information: “ I located information at the Hall of Records in Dover, Delaware… I came across the will of John Blockson . And then I started to read the will, and then he came across the name of Spencer Blockson . The name Spencer registered in my mind because in our family Bible, as I recall, it said Spencer died in his 70th year, but that's all I knew at the time. But I connected and the listing of the slave register a John Blockson willed Spencer to his son. And he had seven other slaves, a Harry and, and Polly, who I found out to be my great-great-great-grandparents… Later, I discovered after the slave owner moved from Accomack County, Virginia, to Sussex County, Delaware, Seifert, he owned 360 acres. And then I found out that he--they had other slaves of Blockson… I was able to trace it [paternal ancestry] back to Nigeria. And I discovered I, I belonged to the Ebos of Southern Nigeria. [2] Blockson donated his collection to Temple University in 1984, which has since grown to over half a million artifacts including photos, books, and other documents.
Maj. Gen. Leo Brooks, Sr.        Brig. Gen. Leo Brooks, Jr.        Gen. Vincent Brooks    
The Brooks/Lewis family also has a rich history. They fortunately are able to trace their ancestry back to the seventeenth century through the Quander family, one of the oldest documented African American families. Four star General Vincent Brooks (1958 - ), the first African American named cadet brigade commander at West Point, explained the furthest he has been able to trace his ancestry is through “ my mother's [ Naomi Lewis Brooks ] mother's [ Eunice Quander Lewis ] father's branch… that is a very long line that's documented back into the 1600s in northern Virginia. The family name is Quander… And that Quander branch… [goes] from slavery at Mount Vernon, through Manumission in northern Virginia, and owning plenty of sets of forty acres and a mule, but over time, losing virtually all of that .” [3] He further described the family’s land and where they moved to: “ If you come from Mount Vernon, Virginia, up along the Potomac River, that area that now leads over to Alexandria… some [Quanders] migrated directly across the river there. And the branch then formed in the Maryland coastal shore of the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. And it proceeds on up right to the corner of where the Washington Navy Yard and the U.S. Marine Corp barracks are located now, a lot of that land also, was family land. It now is gone… Some of it was sold off, some of it, people were swindled out of… Some of it was simply federal land taking that happened… in the late 1800s and early 1900s. But there's really not much left except for the family name which is in lots of places through D.C., Washington, Maryland, Virginia and Pennsylvania .” [4]
Quander Road, Mount Vernon, Virginia
General Vincent Brooks’s older brother, Brigadier General Leo Brooks, Jr. (1957- ), also pointed out “ there's a Quander buried at Mount Vernon [in Fairfax County, Virginia, near Alexandria]. And that family settled off of Route 1 in, very near Mount Vernon actually. And there's actually a road down there called Quander Road, and so my grandmother [Eunice Quander Lewis] was from that area .” [5 ] The Quander name, General Vincent Brooks added, “ still exists in Africa. In fact, the last Quander reunion I was able to attend--and we've been doing this for over 87 or 88 years without fail… the original name [is] Amkwando (ph.)… [and] the person we met last year… his name was Amkwandah (ph.), which is even closer to the way we pronounce Quander… And he's from Ghana. And this is where we believed our original family roots were, Ghana, West Africa.” [ 6]
John L. Lewis, president and founder of the United Mine Workers
Also from these roots, as General Vincent Brooks explained, was “ my mother's father… James Lewis, Jr ., who for… sixty-plus years, worked for the United Mine Workers and was a trusted member of the leadership team there, even back in the days of segregation. He was a chauffeur, driver, valet, body guard, all wrapped into one, for John L. Lewis , who formed the United Mine Workers… and we're not related, at least to the best we know, John L. Lewis, took care of my grandfather, James Lewis, Jr., made it possible for us to have education in my mother's generation that her parents could not have, and then certainly to pass on to my generation as well .” [ 7 ] He continued, stating his “grandfather ended up driving for every president of the United Mineworkers, until his death, every single one of them, he was their driver… And I remember going over to the United Mineworkers of America office building in downtown [Washington] D.C… and he was known to everyone in the building, Mr. James… and he kind of operated as the chaplain of the United Mineworkers. Whenever they had any kind of event, including some very large events… on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, the invocation was given by my grandfather .” [ 8]
Col. Freeman McGilvery, 6th Battery Maine Volunteer Light Artillery
725 South Fairfax Street Alexandria, Virginia, now estimated at over $1 million
Vincent and Leo’s father, Major General Leo Brooks, Sr. , then told the history of the Brooks side of the family: “ My [paternal] great-grandfather whose name was Richard Henry Brooks , was a slave… he escaped from a plantation near Culpeper, actually it was at Orange [Virginia], and he ended up in Northern Virginia, where he was captured and put back into slavery up near Haymarket. When the union army came through there, about the time of the first battle of Manassas, he jumped the plantation and went to work as a horse handler for an artillery officer--union artillery officer from Maine by the name of Freeman McGilvery . And--of course, he traveled with him for sometime during the war and then as the war got heavy in 1862, McGilvery had to send his family back to Maine. In those days, you know, families traveled with officers .” [ 9] And “ he [Richard Henry Brooks] came back to Alexandria where he met Mary Frances Smith , who was a free black and they bought a house at 725 S. Fairfax Street in Alexandria [Virginia] for $790, with 30 years to pay it. They had five children, one of whom was my grandfather who was Henry Curtis .” [10]
Brig. Gen. Mark Quander 
Major General Leo Brooks, Sr. and his sons, Brigadier General Leo Brooks, Jr. and General Vincent Brooks , added their own stamp on the family legacy, becoming the first African American family in U.S. history to have three members achieve the rank of general. And, to continue this legacy, extended family member Mark Quander was just promoted to Brigadier General in February of 2020, making him the fourth general of the family.
Albert Royal Brooks with a group of potential jurors for the trial of Jefferson Davis, 1867
Brigadier General Elmer T. Brooks , who served as strategic Missile Wing Commander, Military Assistant to two Secretaries of Defense, and head of International Negotiations in Arms Control for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (with no known relation to the Brooks family discussed above), had his own unique family history, dating back to the pre-Civil War period. He shared that his grandfather, Walter Brooks , often spoke of his own father “ Albert Royal Brooks , sitting before the fireplace in their house reading the Bible to them and reading things like Milton's [John Milton] 'Paradise Lost'; he had those books that he owned as a slave… my great-grandfather learned how to read and write then he taught his children how to read and write as well… Albert Royal Brooks… had been a field hand in Chesterfield County in Virginia as a slave for many years...
Lucy Goode Brooks, sometime post-1850
While he was a field hand, he met the acquaintance of, of Lucy Brooks [Lucy Goode Brooks]… She taught him how to write and he was able to forge a pass so that he could come to Richmond [Virginia] from the plantation to visit her, which he did often, and then he was sold to another slave owner in the City of Richmond. But while he was a slave… he had an arrangement with his owner that he could have his own business, so he had a livery business which was horses and buggies--limousine service, if you will… Started off with one horse and one buggy, and ended up with, I understand, several dozen horses, and twelve or so buggies to go along with that. So he became quite an entrepreneur in the City of Richmond, as a slave… by the year the 1862, he was able to buy his wife's freedom, his freedom, and several of his children he paid for in gold nuggets, it was said. He became a deacon in the church, the First African Baptist Church, which was part of the First Baptist Church of Richmond, Virginia… Once the Civil War ended, Lucy, with a group of women and the help of the Quakers in Richmond, began an orphanage for slave children [Friends' Asylum for Colored Orphans; Friends' Association for Children, Richmond, Virginia], and that, that location is still active down there now .” [11]
Reverend Walter Brooks
Nineteenth Street Baptist Church, Washington D.C.
Brigadier General Brooks further explained why his grandfather, Walter Brooks , was his idol: “He began his life as a slave in Richmond, Virginia. He was a slave until he was fourteen years old. He achieved his freedom at the end of the Civil War where some of his family were liberated by my great-grandfather [Albert Royal Brooks] being able to purchase their freedom… My grandfather and his brother, Prince [Prince Albert Brooks], matriculated from Richmond all the way up to Rhode Island to… a Quaker school; it was called Wilberforce Institute [Carolina Mills, Rhode Island]… when he was about sixteen, he went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania [Ashmun Institute], and I believe he was in the second graduating class of Lincoln University… my grandfather Walter… got a bachelor's [degree] in theology there at Lincoln University. His brother Prince came to Howard University and went through law school there .” [ 12 ] Then, from 1882 until his death in 1945, Walter Brooks served as pastor of the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington, D.C. where he also was an advocate of the temperance movement and wrote several articles on African American history. [ 13]
Nineteenth century depiction of the Natural Bridge, Monticello, Virginia
Natural Bridge, c.2010s
For political scientist and University of California Berkeley professor Charles Patrick Henry, III (1947- ), he and his family have “ traced the Henry's back to the late 1700s in the United States… I had done some research and had traced the family back to Rockbridge County, Virginia, and this was the county that the more famous Patrick Henry , ‘give me, give me liberty or give me death fame’, came from [sic.]. So I thought maybe at some point we had been servants, slaves to Patrick Henry. But through research done by my wife it turns out that… my [paternal] great-great-grandfather was the keeper of the Natural Bridge at Monticello [Charlottesville, Virginia], on Jefferson's [President Thomas Jefferson ] plantation. And the indications are he was a free black. So as far as we know, as far back as we've been able to go, the Henry side of the family has been free .” [ 14]
Travelling in a Conestoga wagon, nineteenth century
Then, “ in the 1830s, my great-grandfather took a Conestoga wagon and bought the family to Newark, Ohio. And then the, the story, I don't know whether it's apocryphal or not, was that he had traded a house for a race horse at one point. But the family did have a home on Elmwood Avenue in Newark, Ohio .” [ 15] With the coming of the Civil War, Henry explained that his “ great-grandfather, actually, received money for signing up my, grandfather [ William Henry ] and my two [paternal] great uncles [ Oren Henry and Charles Patrick Henry ] to serve in the Civil War [Ohio Colored Troops]… And actually one of them was wounded, shot in the head at the Battle of Lookout Mountain but lived for, for ten years after that with the bullet in his skull .” [ 16]
10 th Cavalry Regiment, Cuba, c.1900s
Colonel Charles Young, 1916
Back at the family home in Newark, Henry reported, is where his “ father [ Charles Patrick Henry, II ] was born upstairs. He said the doctor charged five dollars to deliver him in 1890 .” [ 17] By the time his father was nineteen, “ he joined the 10th Cavalry. And, of course, in 1909 we're talking about the cavalry on horses… I think it was the happiest time of his life… He became a corporal within those three years… He often talked about Colonel Young [ Charles Young ], who was the highest ranking black military officer at the time and everyone admired him. But he said the hardest thing he had to do was to leave his horse, which he grew very attached to. And he said he almost reenlisted because he didn't wanna leave his horse which was called Red… he did talk about people he served with being with the Rough Riders in Cuba and Teddy Roosevelt in the 10th Cavalry. And they were very irate because Roosevelt at one point, after praising them for political reasons, said they were not good soldiers, but they had really saved him on San Juan Hill [Cuba] .” [ 18 ] His father went on to be a brick layer and started several businesses, including a pool hall. On the shoulders of his family’s perseverance and hard work, Charles Henry, III, as a professor of African American studies, wrote over eighty articles and authored/edited seven books including the well-known Ralph Bunche: Model Negro or American Other . In 1994, President Bill Clinton also appointed Henry to the National Council on the Humanities.
Depiction of over four centuries of African American history
Those family stories… these family heirlooms… they are strong. Have a happy weekend!  
[1] Charles Blockson (The HistoryMakers A2002.180), interviewed by Larry Crowe, September 5, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 4, story 4, Charles Blockson shares his family's connection to the Underground Railroad.
[2] Charles Blockson (The HistoryMakers A2002.180), interviewed by Larry Crowe, September 5, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Charles Blockson talks about tracing his genealogy.
[3] Gen. Vincent Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.171), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 21, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 3, Vincent Brooks describes his mother's family background.
[ 4 ] Gen. Vincent Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.171), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 21, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Vincent Brooks talks about his Quander family background, pt. 2.
[ 5] Brig. Gen. Leo Brooks, Jr. (The HistoryMakers A2013.168), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 23, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 3, Leo Brooks, Jr. describes his mother's family background.
[ 6] Gen. Vincent Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.171), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 21, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 4, Vincent Brooks describes his Quander family background, pt. 1.
[ 7 ] Gen. Vincent Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.171), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 21, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 6, Vincent Brooks talks about his Lewis family background, pt. 1.
[ 8 ] Gen. Vincent Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.171), interviewed by Larry Crowe, June 21, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 7, Vincent Brooks talks about his maternal grandfather, James Lewis.
[ 9 ] Brig. Gen. Leo A. Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.169), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 22, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Maj. Gen. Leo Brooks, Sr. describes his father's family background, pt. 1.
[ 10 ] Brig. Gen. Leo A. Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2013.169), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 22, 2013, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 6, Maj. Gen. Leo Brooks, Sr. describes his father's family background, pt. 2.
[ 11 ] Brig. Gen. Elmer T. Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2006.139), interviewed by Robert Hayden, November 10, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Brig. Gen. Elmer T. Brooks describes his paternal great-grandparents.
[ 12 ] Brig. Gen. Elmer T. Brooks (The HistoryMakers A2006.139), interviewed by Robert Hayden, November 10, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 4, Brig. Gen. Elmer T. Brooks talks about his paternal grandfather.
[ 13 ] Karen Ruffle. “Walter H. Brooks (Walter Henderson), 1851-1945,” Documenting the American South, University of North Carolina, accessed July 24, 2020.
[ 14 ] Charles Henry (The HistoryMakers A2006.062), interviewed by Loretta Henry, April 5, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 1, story 7, Charles Henry describes his father's side of the family, pt. 2.
[ 15 ] Charles Henry (The HistoryMakers A2006.062), interviewed by Loretta Henry, April 5, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 1, story 5, Charles Henry describes his father's side of the family, pt. 1.
[ 16 ] Charles Henry (The HistoryMakers A2006.062), interviewed by Loretta Henry, April 5, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 1, story 6, Charles Henry describes his paternal grandfather's and great-uncles' Civil War service.
[ 17 ] Charles Henry (The HistoryMakers A2006.062), session 2, tape 1, story 5.
[ 18 ] Charles Henry (The HistoryMakers A2006.062), interviewed by Loretta Henry, April 5, 2006, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 2, tape 1, story 8, Charles Henry describes his father's U.S. military service.
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The Honorable Deval L. Patrick
71st Governor of Massachusetts
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