• About
  • Charleston Bio
  • Charleston Chronology
  • Stats

Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Tag Archives: Esther Popel Shaw

Jane Charleston’s connection to the Harlem Renaissance

23 Monday Oct 2017

Posted by Jeremy Beer in Biography

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Calobe Jackson Jr., Dickinson College, Esther Popel Shaw, Harlem Renaissance, Jane Charleston, Miriam Phields, Oscar Charleston, Philander Athletic Club, University of Nebraska Press

Greetings, and apologies for the hiatus here. Everything, I am pleased to report, is proceeding apace with the Charleston bio, which, if I have not announced it before, is to be published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2019. I am on track to deliver the manuscript next spring, God willing, and had two occasions to present on Oscar this summer: first at the Midwestern History Association meeting in Grand Rapids, and next at the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference in Harrisburg.

Thanks to the offices of city historian Calobe Jackson Jr., the trip to Harrisburg provided me the delightful opportunity to meet Mrs. Elizabeth Overton, Jane Charleston’s great-niece. Mrs. Overton was extremely close to Janie, living with her for many years and caring for her at the end of her life. She is also the family historian, so Janie entrusted her with numerous documents, photos, and stories about the Blalock family. Not, alas, with all that many stories about Oscar–but some.

My interviews with Mrs. Overton and her daughter, Dr. Miriam Phields, have given me a much better handle on who Janie was, what she was like, what she believed, and how she lived. All utterly invaluable, of course. I am deeply in the debt of Mrs. Overton and Dr. Phields, and will doubtless be leaning on them more as this project advances. (They have been warned.)

Anyway, I took a lot of photos of photos while visiting Mrs. Overton, and I think this charmer may be my favorite.

Click on the photo, and you can see the basketball reads “Philander A.C., 11-14-15.” That’s Janie in the second row, second from the left, sitting next to this cheerful basketball team’s male coach (I assume that’s who he is). And in the front row, sitting in the middle, is Esther Popel, a good friend of Janie and her sisters. Who was Esther Popel? A Harrisburg girl and Dickinson College graduate who as Esther Popel Shaw went on to become a significant poet and author associated with the Harlem Renaissance.

That was the sort of impressive crowd Janie ran with. Oscar surely took pride in that. Maybe he even read Esther’s poetry, sometimes.

Recent Posts

  • How would Oscar have fared in MLB?
  • Charleston Chronology
  • Charleston bio officially slated for fall 2019 publication
  • Oscar Charleston photo in WSJ
  • Bio draft finished

Archives

  • February 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • March 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • February 2017
  • December 2016
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015

Categories

  • Biography
  • Brown Dodgers
  • Cuba
  • Cuban baseball
  • Early Life
  • Evaluation
  • Harrisburg Giants
  • Homestead Grays
  • Indianapolis ABCs
  • Indianapolis Clowns
  • Lincoln Stars
  • Managing Career
  • personality and habits
  • Philadelphia Stars
  • Philippines
  • Pittsburgh Crawfords
  • Post-Career Reception
  • Toledo/Indianapolis Crawfords
  • Uncategorized
  • Videos

Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Oscar Charleston: Life and Legend

Meta

  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.com

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel