Marian Anderson and WSJHS's Dolls for Democracy and Diversity

Because it's the "born" day of renowned singer, Marian Anderson, I am republishing this blog post which was first published on February 27, 2015.

The Marian Anderson doll is made of clay for the head and lower arms/hands.  The upper arms, body, and legs are cloth with wire armature. 

In January, I found this unsigned-by-the-artist, Marian Anderson doll on eBay.  The seller was asked to share information, the name, if known of the doll’s prior owner and replied, “the late Frances Reedy from North East Ohio…I had her for a few years stored in my trunk but if you Google Frances Reedy you will find she was quite an artist and doll collector in the 1960s to 1980s, I was impressed.”

Dressed in an off-white lace dress and pantaloons, the doll wears tan stockings and white painted-on shoes with soles added.  The feet are permanently attached to a wooden base.

I conducted an extensive search to gather additional information about this approximately 10-inch tall doll, permanently attached to a square wooden base, clutching a songbook to her bosom.  By the handwritten name on the bottom of the base, the doll is identified as Marian Anderson, who was the first African American to perform at the New York Metropolitan Opera in 1955.  During my online search, I found an identical doll owned by the Washington State Jewish Historical Society, which is part of their Dolls for Democracy and Diversity exhibit.  The exhibit is described on their website as follows:

These realistic dolls were made to be used by the B'nai B'rith around the U.S. and Canada as an inspiration to children proving that fame and success in life do not depend upon race, religion, family origins or money. B'nai B'rith Women utilized this collection of 38 handcrafted replicas of famous humanitarians in a unique program conducted in public and parochial schools from the 1950's through the 1970's. The women visited classrooms and, using these dolls, fostered dialogue about celebrating differences and overcoming adversity. In an era when diversity was a term found only in the dictionary, this program became popular among educators and volunteers alike.

Through the “contact us” link on their website, I wrote the WSJHS organization and inquired about the artist of the Marian Anderson doll.  Before my inquiry was answered, I located a link to their database listing of some of  the 38 dolls, which includes the name of the artist, Cecil Ruth Bullard Weeks.  My doll’s history was becoming more and more interesting.  She traveled to classrooms in the United States from the 1950s through 1970s to educate non-black children on the potential for greatness of all people, regardless of race, religion, and/or other categories many humans tend to lump others into who do not share their ethnicity and/or beliefs.

As indicated by the list of dolls in the exhibit, dolls by Weeks in the likenesses of baseball great, Jackie Robinson and scientist, Dr. George Washington Carver, accompanied Anderson and the 35 others to classroom exhibits.  

Ms. Jessica Hyde, communications coordinator for WSJHS answered the inquiry sent through their website regarding the artist of the dolls.  She confirmed that all 38 dolls in the exhibit were made by Weeks with the exception of one and that, to her knowledge, of the 38, the three I have noted were the only African American dolls.*   In addition, Hyde provided a WORD document about the exhibit and the dolls’ artist, a portion of which is copied below:

The Dolls for Democracy and Diversity

This collection of thirty eight dolls [is] actually miniaturized three dimensional portraits of important figures in history.  Most of the dolls were hand made by portrait doll artist Cecil (Ruth Bullard) Weeks during the 1940s to early 1970s.  Only one doll, Wing Luke, was made in the Northwest by a doll maker from Portland, Oregon in 1992.  Women from the B’nai B’rith Society in King County and throughout the U.S. and Canada used the dolls to teach students about tolerance.  This is the first time that this doll collection is being shown to the public in their beautifully restored condition.  The dolls were recently restored by expert doll restorer Lisa Pepin of Shoreline, WA. 

The dolls represent many interesting figures in history some famous and some less known.  Wing Luke, a King County resident, was the first Asian American to hold elected office in the Northwest.  Other famous figures include Eleanor Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy and the first President of Israel Chaim Weitzmann .  Even more interesting are some of the lesser known figures such as Haym Salamon a Polish born Jew who helped finance the American Revolutionary War.

The birth of the Dolls for Democracy program

After World War II the Dolls for Democracy program was created by the B’nai B’rith Women’s organization (now known as Jewish Women International) in Kansas City, Missouri.  The program brought the hand- made portrait dolls of famous people in history to elementary classrooms throughout the United States and Canada.  The “Doll Ladies” gave talks to students about democracy.  They also had dolls representing individuals of different ethnic backgrounds to teach students about the concept of   tolerance.

About the Artist

Ruth Cecil Bullard Weeks (1894-1984) was an established portrait doll artist in 1951 when she was asked to make dolls for “The Fellowship House Doll Collection” as it was originally called.  She continued making the dolls when the program expanded and became known as the “Dolls for Democracy” program of the National B’nai B’rith Women.  Weeks and her husband made dolls for over 90 BBW Chapters across the country. There were at least 95 subject figures used in the program.  Not all were made by the Weeks who stopped making the dolls in the early 1970”s.  It has been estimated that Weeks and her husband James (J.S.) made over one thousand dolls for BBW Chapters around the country. 

Weeks made more than one of each doll for the Dolls for Democracy and Diversity exhibit.  The total sets of dolls made are unknown.  I know of three Marian Anderson dolls:  the one I own, one on the WSJHS website, and one owned by the collector who informed me about the eBay auction I won.  (Thank you D.S.)

The high cheekbones of the real Marian Anderson are captured in the doll by Weeks as shown in the above close-up image of the doll and the singer.

On this day, February 27th, of my 2015 wall calendar, in observation of her date of birth, Marian Anderson is described as:  “one of the 20^th century’s most celebrated singers who became a symbol of the struggle to overcome discrimination in the arts, born, 1897.”  Happy birthday, Ms. Anderson, may you continue to rest your body and beautiful contralto voice in peaceful paradise. 

For additional information about the WSJHS and/or the Dolls for Democracy and Diversity Exhibit, please visit their website to inquire.  For more information about Marian Anderson, visit her official website. 

Related Links
WSJHS's Traveling Doll Exhibits
*This article includes a Dr. MLK doll; so there were at least four AA dolls in the series.
List and Thumbnail Images of Some of the Dolls for Democracy

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Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Image from AAAC.com (African American Affairs Commission)

While America celebrates your date of birth tomorrow as an official national holiday, I celebrate you today on your actual date of birth.   You have been on my mind for the past several days. I wondered how I would honor you, your life of service to humankind and your ultimate sacrifice of it.

At the MLK National Memorial in Washington, DC, "a 30 feet (9.1 m)-high relief of King named the 'Stone of Hope' stands past two other pieces of granite that symbolize the 'mountain of despair.'" (Wikipedia.com)

I reflected on having watched the televised version of your memorial dedication this past October 16, 2011.  I recalled how moving that event was to watch by television and could only imagine how those in attendance felt.  I know your spirit was there with them.

This morning I visited the official MLK Memorial website, clicked The Memorial link, and finally, clicked the Dr. King's Spiritual Presence link.  I heard your voice... the deliberate words you spoke about The American Dream that many of us are still dreaming.  I decided to share the link here. 

Dr. King, my initial thought of you this morning occurred after reading my daily Proverb:

"Love your Enemies":

43 `You have heard that the law says, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.'
44 But I tell you, love your enemies. Ask God to do good to those who trouble you.
45 In that way you will be sons of your Father in heaven. He makes his sun shine on both wrong and good people. He lets the rain fall on people who do right and on people who do wrong.
46 If you love only those who love you, what reward will you get? Even the tax collectors do that.
47 Do you speak to your brothers only? If so, you are not doing any better than other people. Even people who do not believe in God do that. (Matthew 5 : 43-47 - WE)

I searched my inner self and remembered that I questioned you during the 1960s when you urged us to "love our enemies" and to "turn the other cheek."  I questioned you still this morning.  I wondered why and how we could do this, but I realize that if everyone would live by these principles, there would be no enemies and no need to turn the other cheek against nonexistent offenders.

Happy birthday Dr. King for being a man of persevering conviction, a man who loved mankind and wanted the best of us for us.  Thank you for your dream, for challenging us to dream, and to do those things necessary to fulfill them.

More Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King,_Jr._Day -- Read about the holiday and about states and senators who resisted and delayed its observance in their states.
MLK National Memorial in pictures

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Remembering Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Initial efforts by Congressman John Conyers, Jr. immediately post the April 4, 1968, assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were followed by combined efforts of countless others for a national MLK holiday.  Finally, on November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill into law and the first official Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was observed on the third Monday of January 1986.  (Time Magazine)

Always keeping this blog doll-related, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has a holiday but very few dolls honor this remarkable, selfless man.

As a result, doll tributes in my collection of Dr. King total two:

Martin Luther King, Jr., Our Powerful Past Leader figure with 18-minute audio cassette and printed transcript of the original Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I have a Dream" speech by Olmec Toys, 1992

Martin Luther King, Jr. and His Family Paper Dolls by Tom Tierney (Dover Publications, Inc., 1993)

But I don't really need dolls to remind me of his greatness, his efforts toward promoting civil rights and equality for all Americans.  I witnessed his efforts, his eloquent speeches, and unfortunately his and others' beatings, hosings, and other physical attacks and deaths (via black and white television).  Because of the latter, my impressionable 1960s mind always wondered, "Why?"

I also sat on the back of the bus and didn't realize why until much later in life. 

I recall a 1960s bus "sightseeing" trip with my mom and one of our neighbors.  Mama and (I'll call her) Dorothy (because I honestly do not remember her name) sat together on a bench bus seat.  Alone, my 5- or 6-year-old body occupied the bench seat in front of them with enough room to seat one more next to me.  A few stops later, a white family of three (father, mother, and tween son) entered the practically full bus that had one empty bench seat left and the space next to me.  I remember thinking how very silly the boy looked with his long legs dangling from his father's lap where the father preferred he sit instead of next to me.  The boy, who initially approached the empty seat next to me, probably felt as ridiculous as I thought he looked and perhaps as bewildered by his father's venomous, proof that racism-is-taught -command, "You'd-better-not-sit-there!"

At 17, in a half-day MT-training class at Baylor University Medical Center

Fast Forward:  In the early 1970s, as a product of recently desegregated schools, I was bused to a predominantly white high school in grades 11 and 12, having to reluctantly leave the all-Black school I had attended since 4th grade with the exception of the year and a half, 7th- and first semester of 8th-grade out-of-district school attendance interruption orchestrated by my mother (but that's another story).

In grade 12, I became an affirmative action token during subminimum wage-paying training as a high school senior vocational education student.  I attended regular school classes for three hours in the mornings and trained at Baylor University Medical Center in the afternoons.  Daddy would pick me up from school, drive me home where I would quickly dress myself in appropriate business attire, and then he would drive me to Baylor for the four hours' training.  I would ride the city bus home afterward until I met a certain car-owning someone who worked there (but that's another story, too.)

In a classroom of eight girls to learn what would eventually become my vocation, there were six white girls, one Latina, and me.  Of course my academic merits as well as my African American ethnicity played a role in my acceptance into the nine-month course that I left after eight months.   After eight months of studying human anatomy and physiology and the rest of the curriculum which led to transcribing actual patient records, the instructor recommended me for a permanent position in Baylor's pathology department because she felt I was more qualified than the others for it.

Token or not, affirmative action or not, I as well as countless others have benefitted from Dr. King's law changing efforts and dedication to humankind.

I remember him today and thank him for his life-sacrificing dream. 

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