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                       Junious Ricardo Stanton

                             Callie House

              March is Woman’s History Month and I was thinking the other day about a dynamic African-American woman I read about a few years ago named Callie House. Callie House is significant for several reasons. She was in the forefront of what later became known as the reparations movement. She was born into bondage in 1861 in Rutherford County Tennessee. According to records she married William House in 1883. They had five children. She helped support her family by taking in laundry.

Mrs. House became intrigued when she saw a poster advertising reparations for African-Americans. Ironically the idea was being promoted by a white Southern Democrat named William Vaughan who called for the US government to give former slaves a “pension” similar to the one given to Civil War veterans for their service during the War Between the States. It wasn’t that Vaughan cared about Black people so much, he knew that by giving pensions to millions of ex-slaves it would help improved the economic conditions in the South for whites!

 In 1884 Callie House joined Isaiah Dickerson who had worked with Vaughan in Nebraska to form The National Ex-Slave Relief, Bounty and Pension Association. House and Dickerson traveled extensively throughout the South promoting the idea of reparations or “pensions” for ex-slaves. They organized and formed local affiliate groups everywhere they went. The organization sustained itself through dues from its members. The National Ex-Slave, Relief, Bounty and Pension Association also functioned on the local levels as a mutual aid organization providing burial expenses and support for the sick and infirm. The organization was unique in its focus and organization because it was also political. They agitated for reparations but also supported candidates and paid lobbyists to push for legislation on behalf of African-Americans.

  Callie House was the chief spokesperson for the organization for almost twenty years during a time when violence against Blacks and wanton murder were the norm. She was a widow with five children who fulfilled her obligations to her family by taking in laundry while working hard to gain pensions for Africans who had labored during slavery; right after Reconstruction when the hatred and animus towards blacks in general but particularly “uppity” Blacks (a term whites used to define Africans in America who aspired for better for themselves and their race) was extremely high.

 Government sanctioned violence was unleashed against Blacks who were moving, organizing and agitating for their rights during a reign of terror that saw the creation and rise of the Klu Klux Klan and other rabid white supremacist groups in the South following Reconstruction. House’s efforts brought attention on herself and the National Ex-Slave, Relief, Bounty and Pension Association from both blacks and whites who supported her efforts, feared what she was doing or who had conflicting agendas to pursue. Whites especially felt threatened by a bourgeoning national movement that was as well organized and supported as hers agitating for pensions for millions of ex-slaves especially since they were attempting to influence Congressmen to push for such legislation in the US House of Representatives.

The National Ex-Slave, Relief, Bounty and Pension Association held national and local conventions, and spread the word about reparations to grass roots Blacks. Black people many of them who were former slaves readily took to the notion the government should pay them for the years they labored without pay. The federal government especially the federal Pension Bureau became alarmed by the excitement House’s movement was generating. The Pension Bureau was able to persuade the US Postal Service to ban the National Ex-Slave Relief, Bounty and Pension Association from using the mail service which severely hampered their organizing and business activities. “The government kept an eye on the work of the Ex-Slave Association. House, as assistant secretary of the association, traveled a lot, visiting local chapters, but the organization relied largely on the use of the Post Office to communicate and receive dues to fund the national campaign. The Pensions Bureau of the federal government reported that the pension movement ‘is setting the Negroes wild...and making anarchists of them,’ and that were it to continue, the government “will have some very serious questions to settle in connection with the control of the race.’ On the request of the Pensions Bureau, the Post Office informed the Ex-Slave Association that they would be denied the use of the mails, claiming the Association was duping ‘ignorant’ ex-slaves in a fraud scheme. Despite many letters in protest, demonstrating their honesty and reminding them that they had a constitutional right to do their work, they never regained access to the mails.”  The Story of the First Reparations Movement http://socialistworker.org/2007-1/628/628_13_Reparations.shtml

The government began to monitor the organization’s activities more closely, especially when in 1916 four Blacks sued the US Treasury for $68,073,388.99 in cotton taxes traced to slave labor in Texas. (And that was just for the state of Texas!)  The suit was subsequently dismissed by the D.C. Court of Appeals on the grounds of government immunity. But House’s activities raised the profile of the reparations movement and brought her under further scrutiny from the government.           

Because the organization relied upon the US Postal Service to communicate with their members and the public, collect dues and pay their lobbyists, the federal government used the Comstock Act of 1871 as a pretext to covertly spy on House by claiming she was using the US Postal Service to defraud the public. The US Postmaster General A. S. Burleson actively sought an indictment against Mrs. House. He claimed she was soliciting money under false pretenses. (A tactic they would also successfully use later against Marcus Garvey).

 In 1916 charges were brought against Callie House claiming she defrauded ex-slaves. An all white male jury found her guilty despite the fact House had not benefited from the money whatsoever, there were no named victims in the charges (since when do white people care about black people especially ex-slaves?) and the evidence against her was extremely flimsy. Isaiah Dickerson was also framed in Atlanta but his conviction was later overturned.

 The organization dissolved when House and Dickerson had to spend valuable time and resources defending themselves against the scurrilous and disingenuous charges the government brought against them. Callie House served nine months of her one year and a day sentence and was released for good behavior.

 When she was released from prison Mrs. House returned to the Nashville area and lived out her life earning a living as a washerwoman and seamstress until her transition in 1928.

Mary Francis Berry wrote a book about Callie Hose entitled My Face Is Black Is True: Callie House and the Struggle for Ex-Slave Reparations and she does justice to this bold and fearless woman. Callie House deserves wider recognition for her role in attempting to gain reparations for millions of former slaves. She is the type of woman we should recognize, honor and celebrate during Women’s History Month.

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