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COMPILING A LOCAL LEGACY Blacks in history
The Vindicator ( Youngstown)
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Candy Peace-Tarpley is working on gathering history of the black community in Youngstown. ROBERT K. YOSAY | THE VINDICATOR.
fast facts
Who: Candy Peace-Tarpley
What: Interviews from community members who have historical information or documentation about blacks’ impact on Youngstown
When: Every second Tuesday from 1 to 3 p.m.
Where: Newport Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County at the corner of Market Street and Midlothian Boulevard
Contact: Peace-Tarpley at 330-788-0988
By JoAnn Jones
YOUNGSTOWN
222Peace-Tarpley has begun a project to record the history of blacks in the community because she said there is very little information in the museums and historical societies in the area.
“The collection of historical information on African-Americans in Youngstown is about enough to fill a comic book,” she said. “I would like to see our young people grow and have knowledge and understanding of our community.”
“We have great, great historians here,” she said. “We have our heroes here, and we don’t always understand that people have fought dearly for what we have today. We have a lot of heroes, and we’re not exposing them.”
A graduate of South High School and Malone College (now Malone University), Peace-Tarpley said she believes it’s essential to gather historical information before the people who know about the education, politics, justice system and housing situations pass away. She herself has five grandchildren either enrolled in or graduated from Youngstown schools. She wants to pass the information on to them and their generation.
“We take it for granted that the information is always going to be there,” said Peace-Tarpley, who learned most of her information about the community from her grandparents and her mother’s friends. “But when the people who know these things die, we’ll have nothing.”
The history and politics of Youngstown have been important in her life since she was a child. Peace-Tarpley’s grandmother Earnestine Glover was a city council member and heavily involved in politics, she said. Peace-Tarpley is one of seven children who still today discuss history such as the Civil War or Vietnam at their holiday gatherings. However, she wants to know about all historical aspects of Youngstown.
“From entertainment to the legal system, I want to examine everything,” she said.
She plans to do this by locating community members who are willing to sit and talk with her about what they know. She also is looking for documentation that supports what they tell her.
“I’ll let them choose what facets they want to talk about,” she said. “People can choose what they want to give in terms of history and facts to back it up. I’ll let them give me the important parts that stick out as well as their own history, how long they lived here, if they left, how they feel about the progress in the area.”
Peace-Tarpley has set up her interviews for 1 to 3 p.m. on the second Tuesday of every month at the Newport Branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County. The next session is July 8. She plans to record the information and then type everything into documents. She also plans to put the interviews on discs to condense them so they can be used for reference or study.
“It’s so vital for the young people to know this history,” she said. “In order for children to grow up well, they need a legacy. A legacy will give you strength to go on. When you see your history, you have strength.”
“I’m trying to locate anyone who wants to talk with me,” she said. “I have a flier to distribute to the churches because some senior citizens come out only on Sundays. There is also a group of men who meet at the cafe at the library. Their ages range from about 75 to 90, and they’ve agreed to talk to me.”
“I’ll probably talk to the old families,” she said. “The commoner is the one who will give you the stories.”
“My desire is that all the information be preserved by local museums and the historical society,” she said.
“I want to make copies of pictures people have,” she said. “I’m not going to house things. Anything that someone gives me, I’ll pass on to a museum or the historical society.”
“Youngstown State has touched the tip of the iceberg [in collecting information],” Peace-Tarpley said, “but they really haven’t delved into it.”
Peace-Tarpley, who worked in the mental health system for many years for Turning Point Counseling Services (formerly Eastern Mental Health), said the people of Youngstown need to examine what they have in order to help the community.
“We can examine it, we can own it, we can use it,” said Peace-Tarpley of the information she hopes to acquire. “We need to look at the reasons that things like racism existed.”
“For example, we know that housing was segregated until the early ’60s,” she said. “We know that blacks weren’t supposed to be in certain parts of town late at night. I grew up in a diverse neighborhood with white people, Italians and Greeks, and I was very unaware of racism. Once I left the neighborhood, I saw the very hard realities of racism.”
“In the ’70s era,” she said, “there were a lot of black entrepreneurships … places with food, shoe shines, dry cleaners, or barbershops. There was a skating rink. We really don’t have a major forum. Most of that business is gone.”
A very strong advocate of the city, Peace-Tarpley said no matter where she goes, she is a strong believer of not allowing people to speak negatively of the city.
“You can’t hold on to the ugly stuff,” she said. “You have to examine it and go beyond it. That’s the very reason history is so important.”
“The ingredients that are still here, that still remain,” she added, “make good ingredients to work with. I believe that in 20 years, you’re going to see a whole different Youngstown.”