Carl Ash's Legacy - A Model Of Love, Care For Family
In this Black History Month feature story Carolyn Ash Tate recalls her father's strong influence.
In this Black History Month feature story Carolyn Ash Tate recalls her father's strong influence.
1850's, Littleberry Stewart and Lafayette Ash were in the migration from Logan County, Ohio to Cass County, Michigan, close to the same time.
Carl Ash, Lafayette's son, was born in Cass County where he would grow up and marry Littleberry's daughter, Gladys.
They would become parents to a son, Rolland, and three daughters: Phyllis, Carolyn and Martha.
In this feature story, Carl's daughter Carolyn Ash Tate recalls her father's influenceOne of my earliest memories of my dad is our family getting the Sunday edition of the South Bend Tribune. We would get on the floor — I on one side of him, my sister Marty (Martha) on the other, with the newspaper spread before us. We would read together.
My older sister, Phyllis, wrote in a class assignment the number of newspapers we had at home.
The teacher asked Phyllis, "Is this exaggerating?" Of course, my Dad went to the school for a conference with the teacher, carrying copies of newspapers with him.
The teacher would learn that the Ash family had regular subscriptions to two daily and three weekly papers: The Dowagiac Daily News, the South Bend Tribune, Cassapolis Vigilant, Chicago Defender and the Detroit edition of The Pittsburg Courier; plus, subscriptions to Ebony, Our World, Sepia, Color and Crisis Magazines.
As a sixth grader, for an assignment to share hobbies, my sister Martha (Marty) created a scrapbook using covers of the magazines. She grouped them under headings of Sports, Entertainment, Leaders, Authors and Theater. Her grade was an "A".
The influence of my dad's love for reading passed down to his daughters' generation. So did the influence of his leadership and engagement in the community.
He served on the Dowagiac City Council and was either the President or Secretary for the Cass County Branch of the NAACP for more than 20 years. Even though there was no youth group, he enrolled all his children in the branch's youth division — for 50 cents each.
For 30 years, Dad was a Boy Scout Master that had served in World War I. The majority of Black boys growing up in Dowagiac became scouts. Some later served in World War II and some were Tuskegee Airmen.
The Security Council of Fathers of Scouts might have made them become card - carrying Republicans. From the 1940's to 1960's, it was common for Blacks to be Republican. Dad, himself, was a state convention delegate from Dowagiac.
Both the Stewart and Ash families were founders of Chain Lake Baptist Church, the oldest Black Baptist Church in Southwest Michigan.
The family also placed very high value on learning.
My grandfather Stewart Crawford helped finance college education for the four Ash children that completed it.
At Western Michigan University, Phyllis had to rent a room off - campus because Blacks could not live in a dorm.
The school wanted to reject her going into practice house to meet requirements for her Home Economics major and, instead, just wanted to offer her a grade. One of her classmates, a white student, offered to live with her in practice house so she could meet the requirements for major Phyllis graduated from college in 1947, During that era, parents' complaints could keep a person from having a job. There were none against Phyllis. The superintendent of schools respected her appointment. Phyllis became the first Black in Kalamazoo to teach in Home Economics.
Phyllis taught for 19 years in the school district and then went back to Western Michigan University as an instructor in the very school that had wanted to reject her.
Carolyn wanted to be a teacher for hearing impaired students. She was assigned to an elementary education curriculum with four minors and no major. Because of that, she enrolled at Michigan State for certification on hearing impaired and ended up with 54 credits and no Master's Degree, In 1957, Martha wanted to major in journalism at Western. The advisor persuaded her to go into counseling, instead.
Some years later she was hired at the university. Her responsibilities included writing proposals. So, she found herself using the writing skills that the counselor had persuaded her away from. She would become a vice-president. It is reported that the funding from her proposal writing exceeded what had been granted to the university in years prior.
Brother Rolland would have graduated in 1948, but stopped at the end of his senior year to go into the Air Force because he was in ROTC and did not want to go into the Army. He later completed requirements to become a high ranking officer. Carl Ash was born on October 11, 1889. He passed on January 9, 1963. Many would come back to express their appreciation for the caring leadership and guidance my Dad had shown them. Five years before he passed, he received a Silver Beaver Award — the highest civilian recognition for volunteer service.
Carl Ash's determination, resilience, and faith impacted the lives of his children and others, for generations to come.
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