A support group, a religious group, a political group, a civic-minded group. TheAmity Birthday Club, believed to be the first association of African Americans in Humboldt County, could rightfully claim all of these titles.
In 1952, when Margaret Neloms proposed the idea and Mary Watkins setout to make that notion a reality, it’s likely that nearlyall of Eureka’s black residents knew one another. TheRedwood Curtain, as many have named the cause ofHumboldt County’s relative isolation, worked not onlyto slow the arrival of the railroad and the Redwood Highway, but to limit the region’s racial diversity as well.
Margaret Neloms (left) and Myrtle Oneal at the February 9, 1975 Amity Birthday Club Scholarship Tea in Eureka. Photos via The Humboldt Historian.
The 1940 census shows just forty-five black peopleliving in Eureka and fifty-two in the unincorporated areas of Humboldt County. By 1950, eighty-six AfricanAmericans called Humboldt County home while thenumber living in Eureka was unspecified. HumboldtCounty’s African American residents to this day accountfor less than 1 percent of the area’s residents. Unlikeother areas of the country. Eureka had no racially segregated neighborhoods — with the exception of its 19thcentury Chinatown, which, as many know, was shamefully eliminated in 1885. The inadvertent shooting deathof Eureka City Councilman David Kendall, caught inthe crossfire of a Tong war, prompted city leaders todemand the exportation of all the North Coast’s Chinese residents.
The few African Americans who chose to make theNorth Coast their home in the first half of the 20th century had their housing choices limited only by desireand income. Yet, all was not equal. More than a decadewould pass after the Amity Birthday Club’s foundingbefore tbe Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting RightsAct of 1965 became the law of the land. And, while theNorth Coast’s white population may have been visiblyaccepting, the area was not without incidents of racism.
Amity Birthday Club members, seen here at an undated gathering, included (back row) Beulah Hughes, Dorothy Taylor, Margaret Neloms, and (front row) Otelia Johnson, Ruby Desmond and Gertrude Woods.
‘Nothing But White People’
Those of color who braved a move tothe predominantly white North Coastmay have found themselves feeling alittle hesitant about such a change. Dorothy Taylor, who joined the AmityBirthday Club just months after its organization, recalled the trepidation shefelt when sheand her husband movedfrom Louisiana to Eureka. Dorothy recalledshe and herlate husband,Herbert,were convinced byHerbert’scousin, TomWoods, thatjobs wereaplenty inHumboldtCounty andcoming herewould be a good idea.moved west in 1943.
“Jobs were hard to find and wageswere terrible (in Louisiana),” Dorothysaid.
When they arrived. Herb,some may recall as the long-time pastor of the Fields Landing church, quickly got a job working on the railroad for what Dorothy described as “verylow wages.” In time and with the effectof World War II, he snagged a job at theshipyards, where he worked until its closure following the end of the war.
But Dorothy remembered the transition wasn’t an easy one.
“I had never been awayfrom home. When we gothere, there was nothing butwhite people,” she said.
Although she missed herhome and family. Herb’scousin and his wife were welcoming and before long Dorothy settled down and accepted her new home.
In an April 10, 1984 interview with the Times-Standard, long-time Eureka CityCouncilman Jim Howard,then sixty-eight, perhaps best capsulatedthe climate of growing up black on theNorth Coast. Howard had been in thisarea since he was six months old.
“Wewere the only black family here for awho good many years. Unless I was lookingin the mirror, the only other blacks I sawwere family,” the Georgia native joked.
In 1973, members Margaret Neloms, Marge Hill, Dorothy Taylor, Mabel Ayers, Myrtle Oneal, and Bernice Stegeman posed at a meeting.
A Club Begins
With the Amity Birthday Club’sfounding in 1952, the community’s African American women had a vehicle forregular gatherings to share prayer and socialize. According to a one-page historyof the club, “The name Amity was selected because it means friendship, harmony, and warm-heartedness.”
In 1992, long-time HumboldtCounty resident Ina Harris, one of threewhite women invited to join the AmityBirthday Club in the late 1960s, donatedthe club’s records to the HumboldtCounty Historical Society. Inside the boxis a treasure of history and a glimpse intothose who were invited to join, the meaning of their club, and its role in a climatewhere racial diversity was nearly nonexistent.
Membership in the club was muchprized . The group’s numbers werekept at twelve or thirteen andjoining was strictly an invitation-only affair. Thewomen would gather at eachother’s homes on the secondSunday of most every monthfor an evening of prayer,music, discussion, and, ofcourse, celebration of oneanother’s birthdays. Charter memberswere Gertrude Woods, Beulah Hughes,Mamie Turk, Lillian Collins, EdithHoward, Zelma Gilmore, Mary E.Watkins, and Margaret Neloms. Theyfirst gathered on Eebruary 10, 1952, atthe home of Margaret Neloms. DorothyTaylor, who still lives in Eureka, said shewas invited in the fall of 1952 to join byone of the club’s charter members,Mamie Turk.
Amity member Pocola Givens (in hat) and August Givens (in white jacket) gather with others in this undated photo.
Prayer, Friendship
It would be a mistake to underestimate the religious focus of the AmityBirthday Club’s monthly meetings. Sessions began with a song and ended witha Friendship Circle — friends linkinghands in a circle to pray for each other’swell being until they met again. Anagenda for themeetings included in theclub’s collection, notes thatsinging of ahymn, the recitation of theLord’s Prayer,and a devotionalwith responsivereading wouldbegin the meeting. Variousbusiness matters, includingthe program,would follow.The FriendshipCircle, anotherhymn, and aprayer wouldconclude the meeting.
“We’d open with a song and prayerand close with a song,” Dorothy recalled,— and a particular blessing: “May theLord watch between me and thee whilewe are absent from one another.”
“And we needed it, too,” Ina Harrissaid.
Only after the meeting was adjoumedwould the members hold their namesakebirthday celebration. There was a birthday cake, a card signed by all the members and, at least in later years, $5 tospend as the member pleased.
An integral part of the monthly gathering was the program. Those assignedto develop a program for that monthwould either prompt discussion on a particular topic or person or would invite guest speakers. Ina recalledone such discussion surroundingthe great contralto MarianAnderson’s difficulties with a 1939Easter Sunday performance inWashington, D.C. The Daughtersof the American Revolution had prohibited Anderson from appearing in its Constitution Hall because she was black. Firstlady Eleanor Roosevelt publicly protestedwith an immediate resignation from theDAR and arrangements were made laterfor Anderson to sing at the LincolnMemorial. An estimated 35,000people attended the concert,
Helping Others
Club members raised money forboth local and distant causes.
“The first year, our project to raisemoney was getting people to writetheir names on quilt blocks,” a 1978history of the group states. “They wereembroidered by the members, whenthe quilt was finished it wasraffled off, with the proceedsgoing into a scholarship fund for thePiney Woods College in Mississippi.”
Just two yearslater that sameschool — nowknown as PineyWoods CountryLife School —would reach national attentionwhen the school’s founder. Dr.Laurence Jones, was the featured andunsuspecting special guest on thepopular 1950s television show. Thisis Your Life. The show’s host was soimpressed with the school that heurged viewers to send in $1 each tosupport the black boarding secondaryschool. In a short time, $700,000 indonations had arrived, setting up anendowment whose earnings todaycover one-half of the annual operating expenses.
Eureka Mayor Bob Madsen (second from left) and his wife, Jo, along with other guests, came to the Amity Birthday Club’s first anniversary celebration in 1953 at Runeberg Hall.
The Amity Birthday Club’s recordsprovide no clear explanation about whyPiney Woods College was chosen norwho was the lucky quilt winner. The local newspapers did take note of the Amity Birthday Club’s first anniversary. Thepresence of Eureka Mayor RobertMadsen and his wife at the February 1953celebration in Runeberg Hall may haveprompted that attention.
According to one account, “A hugebirthday cake was the centerpiece fortables decorated with flowers and punch,chicken salad, and other delicacies wereserved. A five-piece band furnished music for the occasion. Madsen voiced hisappreciation of the club, the only Negroorganization in the city, and praised theprinciples upon which it operates. He alsocommended the members as good citizens in hisSunday nightradio broadcast, ‘This isYour City’.”
Handcraftedand decoratedbooklets serveas milepostsfor the organization’s evolution. Created for eachyear, the colorful records notethe officers andcommitteechairs, the schedule of meetings for theyear, and birthdays and anniversaries ofmembers, as well as addresses and telephone numbers.
For most years, members did notmeet in July and gathered in August fora picnic. The booklets of later yearswould note that the August picnic was ajoint gathering with the local chapter ofthe NAACP, which got its own start in1954.
In 1959, the Eureka Chapter of NAACP’s Fight for Freedom Campaign was honored in the NAACP’s Crisis magazine. Amity members Dorothy Taylor, Lucy Jones, Myrtle Oneal, and Edith Howard were among those honored.
Joining the NAACP
Many Amity Birthday Club memberswere also active in the National Association for the Advancement of ColoredPeople. Nearly all of the husbands ofearly Amity Birthday Club members heldactive positions in the local chapter ofthe NAACP. and several Amity BirthdayClub members had their own impact onthe local chapter of the national organization. On February 18, 1956, the Humboldt Times reported that Robert Nelomswould be installed as the president of theEureka branch of the NAACP on the following Sunday. Herbert Taylor would bevice president, and E. J. Oneal, husbandof Amity Birthday Club member MyrtleOneal, would be treasurer. Board members included Myrtle Oneal and VinnieLenor, both Amity Birthday Club members.
The Amity Birthday Club’s Certificate of Life Membership from the NAACP
Herbert Taylor would go on to headup the local chapter in 1958, accordingto a March 12, 1958 report in the Eureka Independent. Executive Committeemembers at that time included DorothyTaylor, Jim and Edith Howard, and E. J.Oneal. Ruth Beck, a white woman,served as NAACP secretary in 1967 and1968. Benesta L. McMillan held the samejob from 1973 to 1975. while JimHoward, husband of Amity Birthday Clubcharter member Edith Howard, served aspresident of the local chapter for fiveyears, from 1969 to 1973.
Amity Birthday Club members tookgreat pride in their ability to become lifemembers of the NAACP in 1957. In theMarch 1957 issue of Crisis, the nationalmagazine of the NAACP, a photo ofseven of the Amity Birthday Club members is featured among those who joinedfor life, a feat that cost $500. The AmityBirthday Club collection at the HumboldtCounty Historical Society includes thegroup’s Ceriificate of Life Membershipfrom the NAACP, a glimmering plaquenoting the club’s life membership andsigned by the national association president, chairman of the board, treasurer,secretary, and two co-chairmen.
Three years later, the local chapter ofthe NAACP would again make theassociation’s magazine.
The Eureka chapter’s Freedom SealCommittee and other offices exceededtheir FFF quota in 1959. The Fight forFreedom (FFF) Campaign strove to seethe fulfillment of the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863 be achieved by its 100thanniversary on January 1, 1963.Dorothy Taylor, Lucy Jones, MyrtleOneal. and Edith Howard, all AmityBirthday Club members, were amongthose whose accomplishments werenoted.
In 1957, Amity Birthday Club members (front row) Zelma Gilmore, Margaret Neloms, Zollie Sanders, (back row) Myrtle Oneal, Ruby Desmond, Edith Howard, and Otelia Johnson, as well as others, joined the NAACP — represented here by Robert Neloms — for life.
New Members
At least ten Amity Birthday Clubmembers were listed on the November1, 1968 membership list for the localNAACP chapter. Integration of the Amity Birthday Club came not long after theReverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of the need for unity and peaceamong all God’s children — black orwhite. Ina Harris, Ruth Beck, and BemiceStegeman. all white, were invited to jointhe Amity Birthday Club in 1968, andeach maintained their membership formany years.
“Ruth and Bemice and I had been active in NAACP,” Ina said. “We were justthrilled to be invited. It was a very highsocial privilege.”
Of the three women invited to joinin 1968. Ina Harris and Ruth Beck remain in Eureka. Ruth, who resides atSunBridge Care Center, may be more familiar to some long-time HumboldtCounty residents as the miracle angel ofthe North Coast children with polio.
During a recent encounter, Ina askedDorothy Taylor whether inviting thewhite women in had changed the club. “Idon’t think it made any difference,” Dorothy said. “It added strength to the club.We enjoyed having y’all, too.”
“I remember how scared I was at thatfirst meeting,” Ina recalled. She said sheremembered thinking why would theywant me to join? But. it was an invitation she was quick to accept. And thatcreated memories and friendships thathave lasted through the decades.The pattern of inviting women to join the AmityBirthday Club appeared to have been ameans to control the size of the grouprather than a tool of exclusivity.
“Aside from Benesta (McMillan),none of the rest of us were very highfalootin’,” Ina said. Ina fondly remembers Benesta, who joined the AmityBirthday Club not long after being transferred to the area in 1972. A clipping fromSeptember of that year reports thatBenesta was the new operations supervisor of the Social Security district office in Eureka.
Myrtle Oneal, Zollie Sanders, ClaraNichols, Queen Washington. AliceCrosby, Marge Palms, Otelia Collins,Pearl Davis, Marge Hill, MarjorieRobinson. Zelma Gilmore, Clara Nichols.Vinnie Lenor, Mabel Ayers, LillianCollins, and Erma Anderson are the othermembers whose names frequent theclub’s records.
Money for Scholarships
Each December, club members wouldgather with their guests for the annualdinner held in a local restaurant. Members’ husbands were often, but not always, the privileged guests. In the club’slater years much energy was directed toraising monies for college scholarships.For a few years, the funds — raisedthrough painstaking effort — were givento Humboldt State University students.Later, the scholarships were redirectedto College of the Redwoods. The criterion was not strictly academics, but designed for those who “were strugglingto get an education.” Some recipientswere the first in their families to get acollege education, others were singleparents attempting to better their situation through education. All were, nodoubt, grateful for the financial boost.The club’s preference was, according toa newspaper account, “a minority personor lower income Caucasian whosegradepoints are average and is strugglingto acquire an education.”
Donations, bake sales, rummagesales, and food basket sales all helped bolster the club’s scholarship fund. While theeffort to raise money for Amity BirthdayClub scholarships was extremely serious,some of the means chosen provided alittle diversion for the members. Twice ayear. White Elephant auctions promisedsurprises and money for the effort. Inarecalls members would find somethingthey had had around the house for quitesome time, would put it in a box, wrap itup, and bring it to the meeting. Othermembers would bid for the mysteriouscontents. Usually, Ina said, it was “thingsyou would never throw out, but didn’tknow what to do with.”
The objects occasionally would dodouble-duty in the fund-raising world —an item purchased at one meeting mightshow up at the next auction, re-wrappedand again generating bids.
In February 1975. club members decided to begin holding annual Scholarship Teas — gatherings that promptedcoverage in the Times-Standard and areremembered fondly by surviving members. Many of the teas were held at theYWCA — now owned by College ofthe Redwoods and known as the RicksHouse — on the northwest corner ofEighth and H streets in Eureka. Thesegatherings not only honored studentswho were receiving the club’s scholarships, but provided an opportunity toraise money for future scholarships. Photos of those events, some of which endedup in the Times-Standard, showed members handing the scholarships to chosenstudents. The ladies would plan monthsin advance to properly honor those chosen for scholarships. “Everyone pitchedin and helped,” Ina said. “Everyoneworked so hard to make it a success.”
Dressed in their finest outfits, members would gather before tables ladenwith baked goods and silver tea services.“I have nothing but good memories ofthat,” Ina said.
What Remains
Good memories are nearly all that’sleft of the Amity Birthday Club. In theearly 1980s, several members movedaway and those remaining opted not tokeep up the gatherings. The emotionalconnections, however, still remain. Several former members gathered recentlyat Ocean View Cemetery in Eureka withthe passing of an early Amity BirthdayClub member, Myrtle Oneal. Friends andformer club members joyfully greeted oneanother and fondly remembered Myrtle’smany kindnesses and her role as the firstAfrican American to serve on the Humboldt County Grand Jury.
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The story above was originally printed in the Summer 2000 issue of theHumboldt Historian, a journal of theHumboldt County Historical Society. It is reprinted here with permission.The Humboldt County Historical Society is a nonprofit organization devoted to archiving, preserving and sharing Humboldt County’s rich history. You can become a member and receive a year’s worth of new issues ofThe Humboldt Historianat this link.
