INDEX 
Page numbers listed correspond to the print edition of this book. You can use your device’s search function to locate particular terms in the text.
Notes: Page numbers in italics refer to illustrations.
Captions are indexed as text. Page numbers after 302 refer to Notes.
Abbott, Robert Sengstacke, 153, 263
abolition/abolitionists, 8–9, 12, 17–18, 19, 20, 21, 22–23
Abyssinian Baptist Church, 49, 124, 144, 263, 285
Accooe, Ferdinand, 150
Adams, Wilhelmina “Willy,” 203, 206, 217, 260
Adams, Eric, 210
Adams, Franklin P., 251
African Americans:
and anti-lynching movement, 184, 239, 264
barbershop quartets of, 210–11, 219–20, 269–74, 290–91
child labor of, 30
churches of, 23, 37, 45–46, 49, 87–88, 98, 100, 232, 284
civil rights of, 8–9, 17–19, 20, 29, 78, 125
deaf community of, 36, 37–38, 150
evolving social and cultural world of, xv-xvi, 6, 304
fraternal organizations of, 16, 74, 76–82, 91, 107, 205–6, 289
free blacks, 34
gentlemen’s clubs, 84, 254–55
as “George” or “George’s boys,” 161–63
and Great Migration, 67
in Harlem, see Harlem
and heavyweight championship, 90–91
housing conditions for, 231
and Jim Crow, 18, 35, 73, 77, 141, 174, 261, 275, 280, 294
job opportunities open to, xiv-xv, xvi, 12, 13–14, 15, 30, 49, 59, 69, 71, 72, 235, 237, 238, 243, 261
lynchings of, 10, 123, 125
and music, 27, 62–63, 145, 189, 199, 200, 202, 208–22, 269–74, 290–91
in mutual aid societies, 16, 45, 88, 111, 117
and New Negro movement, xvi, 67, 169, 195
passing for white, 21, 36
passports denied to, 145–46
in professional positions, 69, 234, 239, 261
“race” enterprises of, xvii, 6, 66, 76, 92, 94–95, 102–3, 105–6
racial prejudice against, xiv, 12, 57, 59, 69, 71, 72–73, 115, 170, 222, 226–27, 243, 261, 275, 277–81
racial uplift (self-improvement) for, xv-xvi, 5, 39, 64, 82, 89, 125, 179, 195, 233, 237–39, 241, 261, 276–77, 281, 289, 292–93, 294
as Red Caps, see Red Caps
and restricted covenants in real estate, 95–96, 102, 104, 243
schooling of, 25–30, 90, 289
in service occupations, xiv, 12, 13–15, 30, 39, 44, 49–50, 57–58, 59, 66, 72, 139, 173, 174, 200, 233, 236, 268
and slavery, see slavery
social networks of, 14, 16–17, 20, 45, 146–47, 165, 226
stereotypes of, 15, 173–74, 237, 291
and tennis, 222–25
theatrical companies and performers, 49–50, 66, 188–91, 206–17, 304
in U.S. military, 10, 59, 67, 81, 102, 126–28, 130, 131, 132, 144–45, 217, 274–76, 285, 290
in vogue and prominence (1925), 169–70
African Free School, 25, 26, 29
African Grove Theater, 304
Afro-American (Baltimore), 168, 243
Afro-American Realty Company, 66, 76
“Ain’t Misbehavin’” (song), 208
Akins, Alfred, 53
Alabam Fantasies (cabaret revue), 189
Aldrich, Ira, 14
Alexander, Raymond Pace, 239, 291
Allen, Cleveland “C. G.,” 102
Allison, F. M., 103
Amalgamated Railroad Employees Association, 111
American Bridge Association (ABA), 226–27
American Colonization Society, 37
American Federation of Labor (AFL), 257
American Federation of Musicians, 274
American Guide Series (WPA), 5–6
American Motorcyclist Association, 193
American Red Cross, 127
American School for the Deaf, Hartford, 37
American Student Union, 278
American Tennis Association (ATA), 222–25, 226, 290
Amos ‘n’ Andy (radio), 204–5, 207
Amsterdam News (New York), 81, 86, 239, 243
Anderson, Charles W., 144, 187
Anderson, Ellen, 18–19
Anderson, Hallie, 79, 81
Anderson, James H., 81, 82
Andrade, Vernon, 203
Angel of the Waters (Stebbins), 22
Appo, William, 27
Armstrong, Louis, 199, 208
Arthur, Chester A., 269
Art Students’ League, 170, 174
Arverne-by-the-Sea, Rockaway, 101–4
Asbury, Francis, 104
Asbury Park, New Jersey, 104
Ashe, Arthur, 290
Associated Press, 187
Astaire, Fred, 292
Aswell, James, 222
Atkins, W. E., 80, 82
Atlantic City, New Jersey, 104–7
Atterbury, William, 237
Aurora Social Club, 146
Bagnall, Robert W., 222–23
Bags and Baggage (Red Cap monthly), 265
Baker, Erwin “Cannon Ball,” 193
Baker, Josephine, 6, 88, 220
Baltimore Afro-American, 231, 243
Band Wagon, The (movie), 292
barbershop quartets, 210–11, 219–20, 269–74, 290–91
Bardo, C. L., 85, 86
Basing, Charles, xiii
Bates, Leonard, 269, 278–79
Bates, “Peg Leg,” 202, 213
Battle, Florence, 86–87, 99, 186, 226–27
Battle, Samuel J. “Jesse,” 309
and Elks membership, 79, 87
as first black police officer in New York City, 73, 93, 99, 101, 233, 290
media profile of, 232–33
in New York Police Department, 6, 140, 186, 260
as Red Cap, 73, 88
Williams’s friendship with, 86–87, 187, 208, 226–27, 290
Battle Trophy (contract bridge), 227
Bearden, Bessye, 200, 216
Bearden, Romare, 200
Beaux-Arts architecture, xiii, 293
Beckley, Zoe, 115
Becks, Mme. May Belle, 102–3
Belasco, David, 190
Bentley, Gladys, 206
Berlin, Irving, 145, 218, 219
Bethel AME Church, 84
Bethune, Mary McLeod, 263
Billboard, 211
Black American Sugar Cane workers, 264
Blackbirds of 1928, 200–202, 208, 209, 213
Black Fives era, basketball, 148, 290, 315
Blackwell, Louis H., 87, 88
Blake, Eubie, 88, 209
Bledsoe, Jules, 171, 190, 191
Blount, Mildred, 154, 155
Boardman, Helen, 235
Bolden, Rev. Richard Manuel, 232–33, 241
Bontemps, Arna, “A Woman with a Mission,” 240–41
Boozer, Thelma Berlack, 260
Bostic, William, 270
Bowers, John A., 262
boxing, heavyweight championship (1910), 90–91
Boyd, Samuel H., 166, 267
“Boz Ball,” 304
Braxton, William Ernest, The Red Cap, 73, 309
Breckenridge, C. A., 103
bridge players (cards), 290
Battle Trophy, 227
segregation of, 226–27
Bronson, Miles, 148, 214, 217, 321
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, 173
Brooklyn Royal Giants, 117, 118, 121
Brooks, Preston, 23
Brooks, Rev. William H., 6, 54, 55, 56–57, 64, 71, 82, 87
Brotherhood of Railway Clerks, 265, 279
Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, 155–56, 180, 206, 257, 264
Broun, Heywood, 216, 265
Brown, Ada, 209
Brown, Earl, xvii-xviii, 122–23, 179, 241, 275, 291
Brown, John, 20
Brown, Kate, 103
Brown, Walter, 218
Brown, William Alexander, 304
Brown, William C., 110–11
Brown, William Wells, 21
Brown Buddies (musical), 209
Browning, Edward West “Daddy,” 176
Browning, Frances Heenan “Peaches,” 176
Bruce, Clara Burrell, 229
Bruce, John Edward, 269
Bruce, Roscoe Conkling, 229, 231
Bryan, William Jennings, 114
Buffalo 367th U.S. Infantry, 128, 275
Bundick, Harold, 255–56
Bundick, Katherine, see Williams, Katherine
Burleigh, Harry, 202
Burns, Tommy, 91
Burroughs, Nannie, 243
Butler, Benny, 156
Butler Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, 100
Café Leroy, 94–95
Calloway, Cab, 204, 216
Calvin, Floyd, 156, 189
Campbell, E. Simms, 242
Camp Madawaska, Canada, 107, 137, 312
Canty, Jacob Charles “Doc,” 97, 98
Carnera, Primo, 253
Carter, Eunice Hunton, 215, 243
Caruso, Enrico, 132
Cash, O. O., 272–73
Casino de Paris, 145, 146
Chambers, Rev. Andrew J., 104
Chicago Defender, 124, 153
Chinese Exclusion Act, 308
Chocolate Dandies (musical), 88
Circle for Negro War Relief, 127–29, 131
Citizens’ Protective League, 56
civil rights movement, 17, 78, 125
Clarence Williams Publishing House, 202, 211
Clark, Walter Leighton, 170
Clef Club Orchestra, 81, 147
Cleveland, Grover, 29
Cleveland Union Terminal, 265
Clifton, Rev. E. G., 87
Clipper (theater trade magazine), 14
Cloud, Robert H., 211, 219–21, 270
Club Alabam, Times Square, 188–89, 191
Cobb, Irvin S., 127, 128, 131
Cofer, Ella Williams, 69, 82, 83, 84, 288
Cofer, Lloyd Meegee, Jr., 82–83, 84, 288
Cofer, Lloyd Meegee, Sr., 84
Cofer, Lloyd Meegee, III, 82–83, 84
Colden, Cadwallader D., 25
Cole, Bob, 24
Cole & Johnson, 49–50
Coleman, Rev. John M., 239
Coleman House, 30, 31, 32
College Men’s Round Table, 124
Collier’s, 173
Collins, Wiley H., 102
Colored American, 83, 85
Colored Dairy Lunch, 103, 146
Colored Elks, 74, 76–82, 289
Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), 224
Colored Mission, 69, 83, 84, 166, 236, 257, 288
Colored Orphan Asylum, New York, 10, 21
Colored Schools no. 3 and 4, 26–27, 26, 28, 29
Columbia Studio, 220
Columbia University, segregated dorms in, 164–65
Commodore, Wesley, 52
Connor, John W., 119
Cook, Rev. James, 25
Cook, Will Marion, 66
Cooke, Alistair, 287
Cooper, Ralph, 260
Corbett, James “Gentleman Jim,” 93
Cornell, Robert C., 53
Correll, Charles, 204–5, 207
Cotton Club Orchestra, 216
Coutan, Jules-Félix, xiii
Covarrubias, Miguel, 215
Coward, Noël, 216
Cox, Chastine, 25
Craft, William and Ellen, 21–22, 51
Craig, Walter F., 27–28
creole, use of word, 319
Crisis (NAACP), 129, 264
Croix de Guerre, 128, 130
Crosby, Bing, 292
Crum, Ellen, 51
Crum, Henry, 51
Crum, William D., 51
Culbertson, Ely, 226
Cullen, Countee, 123
Cullen, Rev. Frederick Asbury, 123
Cummings, Herbert, 59, 61, 63–64
Curtis, Gertrude, 207
Cusumano family, 158
Cyclone Motorcycle Club, 193
“Czar of the Tenderloin, The” (Cole and Johnson), 24
Dabney, Ford, 202, 207
Dabney, Martha, 207
Dahomey Jubilee Dancers, 190
Daily Worker, 258
Damrosch, Walter, 60
Dana, Henry Longfellow Wadsworth, 265
Daniels, George H., 40, 41–42, 43, 44, 68, 69, 70, 71, 107, 161
Daniels, Jimmie, 207
Darktown Follies (musical), 307
Darrow, Clarence, 169, 192
Dash, Ardeneze, 149
Davies, Marion, 292
Davis, Arthur P., 167
Davis, Jonah R., 281
Davis, Leslie, 199, 203, 203, 208, 210
Davis, Lincoln, 156
Davis, William Theodore “Lone Wolf,” 192–95, 194
Davison, Henry P., 160
Dawkins, Walter, 168
Dean, Lillian “Pig Foot Mary,” 152
Delany, “Hap,” 207
Delany, Hubert T., 280
Delany, Samuel R., 166, 288
Delany, Samuel R., Jr., 207
Delany Sisters, 207
Democratic National Convention (1924), 152
Deppe, Lois, 202, 213
Devery, William S. “Big Bill,” 52, 53, 56
Dickens, Charles, 18, 304
Dillingham, Charles B., 147
Dixie to Broadway (musical), 154
Dorman, John J. (Fire Commissioner), 182, 184
Dorsey, Emma I., 103
Dougherty, Romeo L., 156–57, 194
Douglass, Frederick, xiv, 17, 25, 29, 39, 57, 169, 229
Douglass, Joseph H., 104
Dowell, Edgar, 218
Downing, Thomas, 18, 304
Draft Riots, New York City (1863), 10, 18, 21
Dr. Fred Palmer’s skin product, 154
Du Bois, Nina, 215, 218
Du Bois, W.E.B., 124, 127, 170, 171, 172, 215, 241–42, 247
Dulany, George W., 161
Dunbar, Paul Lawrence, 66, 104, 229
Dunbar Apartments, 228–32, 241–42, 244, 283–84, 289, 328
Dunbar National Bank, 230–31
Dunbar-Nelson, Alice, 127
Dunn, Blanche, 7
Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill, 125
Earle, Charles Babcock “C. B.,” 117, 121, 122, 186
East St. Louis, Illinois, massacre in, 123, 124
Eato, Rev. E.V.C., 20
Eaton, Guilbert & Company, 34
Elblight Company, 60
Elcha, Edward, 154, 155
Elks lodges, 74–82, 91
Ellington, Duke, 202, 220, 260, 285
Emerson, Allen and Manning’s Ethiopian Minstrels, 77
Empire State Express, 98
Enoch, May, 51–52
Esquire, 242
Ethiopia, Italian invasion of, 244
Ethiopian Art Theater School, 153
Europe, James Reese, 81, 103, 145
Evans, Robley D., 62, 63
Evergreens Cemetery, Brooklyn, 84–85, 88, 257, 288
Exchange Street Station, Buffalo, 116
Fair Employment Practices Committee, 279
Fanwood, see New York Institution for the Deaf
Feast of San Gennaro, 221–22
Federal Theater, 5
Federal Writers’ Project, 5
Ferber, Edna, 190
Fial, Lester, 149–50
Fields, Dorothy, 202
Fifteenth Amendment, 8, 9, 20
Fisk Jubilee Singers, 21, 62, 131
Fitzgerald, F. Scott, 221
Flanner, Mary H., 100
Fletcher, Tom, 100 Years of the Negro in Show Business, 187
Flon, Philippe, 60
Ford, Ann, 238
Forkins, Marty, 209
Foster, Rube, 122
Foster, Stephen, 273
“Four Hundred” of New York society, 50
Fourteenth Amendment, 8, 9, 20
Fourteenth Street Theatre, 31
Four Toppers, 274
Fowler, Ludlow “Lud,” 221
Francis, Arthur E., 224
Frazier, Mal, 255, 260
Frazier, S. Elizabeth, 147
Freedmen’s Savings and Trust Company (Freedman’s Bank), 15–16, 17
Freemasonry, 16, 74, 76, 82, 147
French, Daniel Chester, 173–74
Fugitive Slave Act (1850), 17, 21
Gabriel, George (Oualdo Gorghis), 111–16, 113, 313
Gabriel, Therese, 113
Gallaudet, Thomas Hopkins, 37
Gant, Oscar, 191–92
Garcia, Louis, 150
Garfield, James, 269
Garland, Judy, 252, 253
Garnet, Rev. Henry Highland, 17, 21, 29
Garnet, Sarah J. Tompkins, 28–30, 28
Garrison, William Lloyd, 21, 269
Gavagan, Joseph, 264
“George”; “George’s boys,” 161–63
Gibson, Althea, 290
Gibson, Charles Dana, 174
Gilded Age, 12, 33, 50, 84
Gilsey, Peter, Jr., 31, 33
Gilsey House, 31, 33
Going Hollywood (movie), 292
Goodwin, Joe, 217
Gorghis, Oualdo, see Gabriel, George
Gosden, Freeman, 204–5, 207
Gotham-Attucks Company, 92
Gould family, 139
Grace Congregational Church, 232, 288
Grammar Schools no. 80 and 81, 26–27, 29
Grand Central Art Galleries, 170, 174
Grand Central Depot:
Beaux-Arts architecture of, xiii, 293
opening of, 40
Red Cap system originated in, xiv, 39, 40–42, 41; see also Red Cap porter system
Grand Central Palace exhibition hall, 68
Grand Central Red Cap Orchestra, 199, 200, 202–5, 203, 208–22, 224, 251, 290–91, 321
Grand Central Red Cap Quartet, 210–12, 219–20, 270–74, 271, 290–91
Grand Central Red Caps baseball team, 99–100, 117–23, 118, 119, 148, 186, 290
Grand Central Red Caps basketball team, 148–50, 290
Grand Central School of Art, 170
Grand Central Station:
employment hierarchy in, 72
fatal accident in, 87
move to Grand Central Terminal, 93
name change of, 40
promotion of, 68–69
rebuilding, 68, 82, 85
terminal manager of, 72
Vanderbilt Avenue entrance of, 72–73
“Grand Central Station” (song), 274
Grand Central Terminal:
Biltmore Room, known as “Kissing Gallery,” 175
and blizzard (1947), 286–87
as “city within a city,” 116, 289
construction of, xiii, 88–89, 108, 109
daily routine in, 174–75, 199
employee benevolent society in, 88
food service in, 8
as gateway to the city, xv, 68
and Harlem, 116
New York Central moved to, 88, 310
“official” interpreter in, 114–15
opening of, xiii, 40, 109–11
“railbirds” in, 110
Red Caps in, see Red Cap porter system; Red Caps
time bomb in, 266
and unionization, 180, 258–68
as “University of Human Nature,” 239–40
Vanderbilt Avenue entrance dubbed “Sugar Hill,” 191, 238, 267, 288
and World War II, 275–76, 281–82
Grand Exalted Ruler of Elks, 77
Grand United Order of Odd Fellows (GUOOF), 16
Granger, Lester B., 168, 169, 265, 291
Grant, Ulysses S., 9
Grattan, William J., 78, 80
Gray, Gilda, 319
Greacen, Edmund, 170
Great Day! (musical), 213–14
Great Depression, 5, 193, 208, 228, 231, 237, 242, 257–68
Great Migration, 67
Green, Paul, 171
Greenwich Village, New York City, 49, 67
grips, use of term, xvii
Guild of St. Cyprian, 45
Halcyon Casino Company, 101
Hall, Adelaide, 207, 209
Hall, Prince, 74
Hamilton, Alexander, 25
Hamilton Lodge no. 710, Odd Fellows, 16, 205–6
Hamilton Lodge transvestite ball, 7, 16
Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, Virginia, 20, 171, 224
Hampton Singers, 20–21, 63
Handy, W. C., 137, 144, 202, 208, 216, 285
Hapgood, Emily Bigelow, 127
Harding, Warren G., 148
Harlem:
alderman for, 143–44
Apollo Theater in, 260
and athletics, 116, 149
black press reports on, 6–7
“Campus” (student corner), 166–68, 192, 193
as city within a city, 116, 289
Connie’s Inn in, 188–89
decline of, 242–44
demographic shift in, 67, 94–100, 101
Dunbar Apartments in, 228–32, 241–42, 244, 283–84, 289, 328
and Europe, 132–33
and Federal Writers’ Project, 5
and Grand Central, 116
Hotel Olga in, 152
Hotel Theresa in, 146
illegal “hooch joints” in, 158–59
Jackson’s Pharmacy in, 166
Lafayette Theater in, 208–9, 212, 213–14, 217, 219, 254
Mardi Gras in, 205, 214
Mimo Professional Club in, 254–55, 260
“Night-Club Map” of, 242
old vs. new, 5
Red Caps as iconic touchstones of, xvi, 293
Renaissance Casino “the Renny” in, 203, 206, 207, 211, 214
“respectable colored tenants” in, 64, 66, 96, 289
Rose’s Hotel in, 146–47, 152
Strivers’ Row in, 5, 144, 146, 164, 188, 191, 228, 247, 289
Sugar Hill in, 5, 191
Williams family’s move to, 64, 66–67, 144, 289
YMCA and YWCA in, 97, 125
“Harlemania,” 241
“Harlem Blues” (Handy), 137
Harlem Center of the Rosicrucian Anthroposophical League, 247
Harlem Cooperating Committee on Relief and Unemployment, 208–9, 217
“Harlem Healer” (Poston), 234
Harlem Hellfighters (U.S. Infantry), 81, 126, 128, 131, 132, 143, 145, 217, 275
Harlem Orchestra, 103
Harlem Railroad lines, 88
Harlem Renaissance, xvi, xvii, 132, 169, 208, 241, 243
Harlem Riot (1935), 242–44
Harlem River Houses, 244
Harlem YMCA Quartet, 272
Harper, Leonard, 212, 213
Harris, Arthur J., 52, 56
Harrison, Benjamin, 57–58
Harrison, George M., 265
Harrison, Richard B., 209
Hashim, N. H., 55
Hashim Brothers, 55
Hayes, Archbishop Patrick Joseph, 178, 184–85
Hayes, Roland, 131
Hayes, Rutherford B., 28
Hearst, Mrs. William Randolph, 244
Hecht, Ben, 199, 292
Hegamin, Lucille, 147
Helleu, Paul César, xiii
Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, 45, 67
Henry, John (fict.), 173
Henry, Prince of Prussia, 59–64
Henson, Matthew, 242
Hill, Abram, 4–5, 6–7, 289
Hitchcock, Alfred, 292
Hitler, Adolf, 244
Hoage, D. Ivison, 124, 223, 224
Hoffman, Rev. C. Colden, 37
Hoffman, Charles Wia, 37
Hoffman, Elliott, 167–68
Hogans, James H., 176–77, 262, 265, 284
Holder, John, 186
Holland, Thomas, 267
Holt, Nora, 206
Horning, L. W., 278–79
Hot Chocolates (1929 revue), 208
Hotel Lincoln, Arverne-by-the-Sea, 101–4
Howard, B. T., 77, 80, 81
Howard, Joan Imogen, 27, 27
Howard University, Washington, D.C., 165
Hoyt, Ira F., 146
Hudgins, Johnny, 189
Hudson River Railroad Company, 87
Huey, Richard, 170–71, 172, 291
Huggins, Henderson, 149
Huggins, Willis N., 6
Hughes, Alice, 219
Hughes, Langston, 170, 207, 241
Hull, Jane De Forest, 25
Hunter, Alberta, 191, 206, 207, 216, 244, 263, 320
Hunter, Maurice, 173–74
Hurst, Fannie, Star-Dust, 175
Hurston, Zora Neale, 6
Husted, James W., 10
Hutchinson, Clarence, 66
Hylan, John F., 182, 256
IBPOEW (Improved Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of the World) or Colored Elks, 74, 76–82, 91
Illidge, Cora Gary, 210, 211, 212
Imes, William Lloyd, 6
Immerman, Conrad, 158–59
In Abraham’s Bosom (drama), 171
In Dahomey (musical), 66
In Flanders Field (war memorial), 174
Ingram, Zell, 170
International Brotherhood of Red Caps (IBRC), 258, 259, 262–65
International House, 165, 236
Interstate Commerce Commission, 262
Irvin, Rea, 238
Ivanhoe Commandery no. 5 (Knights Templar), 76
Jackman, Harold, 207–8
Jack Nail’s saloon, 51
Jackson, “Broadway,” 211
Jackson, Nathaniel, 223–24
Jackson, Willie, 218
Jay, John, 25
Jazz Age, 189
Jefferson, Martha, 98
Jeffries, Jim, 91, 95
Jennings, Elizabeth (later Graham), 17–18, 19, 26
Jennings, Leroi T., 247–48
Jim Crow, 18, 35, 73, 77, 141, 174, 261, 275, 280, 294
Jin Fuey Moy, 308
Johnson, Billy, 24
Johnson, Grace Nail, 200
Johnson, Henry, 128
Johnson, Herbert, 321
Johnson, Howard “Monk,” 117, 149, 158, 316
Johnson, Jack, 90–94, 95, 96, 139, 244
Johnson, James (IRS collector), 286
Johnson, James Weldon, 124, 139, 144, 200, 216
Johnson, J. Rosamond, 131, 202
Johnson, Oldridge R., 78–79, 80
Johnson, William Henry, 3, 8, 10–11, 17, 22–23
Jones, Lloyd, 87, 99, 111
Jones, Mary, 107
Jones, Sandy P., 76, 79, 81, 82, 97, 107
Jordan, Irene and Joe, 207
Jubilee Singers, 62–63
Kaufman, Mrs. S. R., 176
Keebler, Philip F., 284
Keep America Out of War Congress, 264
Keller, Helen, 285
Kemble, William, 101–2
Ken (newsmagazine), 238
Kenlon, John, 183
Kilmer, T. W., 233
King, Billy, 77
King, Lorenzo H., 6
King, Rev. Martin Luther, Jr., 18
Kitchener, Herbert, 112
Kline, Emanuel, 239
Knights of Pythias, 107, 147
Knights Templar, 76, 82
Koster & Bial, 55
Kresa, Helmy, 218
Ku Klux Klan, 21, 152, 164
Kuppenheimer clothing ad, 238
Labor Anti-War Council, 264
Lackawanna Railroad, porters in, 42
Ladies’ Home Journal, 73
La Guardia, Fiorello, 243, 263, 269, 271, 280
Lansing, Marcia Louise, 154
Ledbetter, Cassie, 191, 192
Ledbetter, Lula (Williams), 188–92
Lee, John R., 260–61, 263, 267
Legal Rights Association (LRA), 18
LeHand, Marguerite, 258
Lehman, Herbert H., 262, 263, 292
Leland Brothers, 13
León y Escosura, Ignacio, 15
Leslie, Lew, 200, 209, 213
Levy and Delany, 288
Lewis, Alfred Baker, 265
Lewis, Edmonia, 22–23
Death of Cleopatra, 22
Leyendecker, F. X., 174
Leyendecker, J. C., 174, 238
Liberia, former slaves’ relocation to, 37, 64
Liberty, 173
Liberty Loan Committee of Railroads, 125
Licorish, Lionel, 201
“Life Is Like a Train” (song), 292
Lightfoot, Elba, 170
Lincoln, Abraham, 8, 10, 20, 29, 59, 161, 236
Lincoln Literary Musical Association, 14
Lind, Jenny, 204
Lindbergh, Charles, 193
Lipscomb, Mr. and Mrs. C. D., 107
livery:
ancient practice of, 42
dress code of, 42
history of, 172–73
Locke, Alain, 285
Logan, Clarence, 53, 307
Lord, Phillips, 219
Lotos Club, 59, 84
Louis, Joe “Brown Bomber,” 178, 244, 245, 246, 252–55, 254, 260
Loveday, Carroll, 218
Lowery, Robert O., 186
Luciano, Lucky, 215
Luciano family, 158
Lulu Belle (Broadway), 190
Luther, Frank, 217
Lyceum (literary society), 100
Lyles, Aubrey, 209
MacArthur, Charles, 292
Macfadden, Bernarr, 138
Mack, George F., 9
Mack, Roy, 292
Major Bowes’ Amateur Hour, 270
Manhattan Athletic Association (later St. Mark’s Bears), 149
Manhattan Lodge no. 45 (Elks), 76–82, 86, 87, 92, 93, 97, 124, 289
Manhattan Lodge of Odd Fellows, 76
Manhattanville Colored Republican Club, 111
March on Washington (1941), 278
Marshall, David, 291
Marshall, Thurgood, 285, 286
Martin, Isadore, 214
Mason, Charlotte Osgood, 241
Masonic lodges, 16, 74, 76, 82, 147
McCampbell, Ernest, 225
McClammy, Smoky Joe, 117
McClendon, Rose, 4, 171
McDaniel, Hattie, 191
McDougall, Randolph “Mac,” 154
McHugh, Jimmy, 202
McKay, Claude, 6
McKinney, Nina Mae, 218
McMahan, Coyal, 210
Medina Temple, 76
Menelik II, emperor of Ethiopia, 112
Messenger, The, 258
Metrash, Adam H., 34, 35, 36
Metrash, Adam H., Jr., 35, 37
Metrash, Anna, 38
Metrash, Caroline, 37, 38
Metrash, Elizabeth Pepinger, 35–38, 36
Metrash, Grace, 38
Metrash, Lucy, 34
birth of, 37
family background of, 34, 35–38
and James, first meetings of, 33–34, 35, 39
marriage of James and, see Williams, Lucy Metrash
Metrash, Mary “Mamie,” 37, 38
Metrash, Robert, 37–38
Metropolitan Life Building, 108
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, 228
Metropolitan Opera House, 60
Michigan Central Railroad, 265
Miller, Dorie, 275
Miller, Flournoy, 209
Miller, Kelly, 116
Mills, Florence, 154, 201–2
Minnelli, Vincente, 219
Minstrel Festival, 77
Missionary Society of Methodist Church, 284
Mitchel, John Purroy, 139
Mitchell, Abbie, 171, 189
Mitchell, Bill, 149
Mitchell, Louis A., 133, 145–46
Mitchell’s Jazz Band, 145–46
Mme. J. H. Becks School of Dressmaking, Designing, Cutting, and Fitting, 103
Modern Dance Orchestra, 206
Moore, Ella Sheppard, 62
Moore, Fred R., 152, 201
Moore, Gus, 167
Moorman, Eugene H., 246–47
Morgan family, 139
Moses, Ethel, 189
Moses, Robert, 269, 271, 272–74
Moss, Edward B., 222–23
Mother AME Zion Church, 232, 233
Moton, Robert R., 246
Muse, Clarence, 147
Musical Mutual Protective Union, 28
Musicians’ Union, 321
Music School Settlement for Colored People, 131
Mu-So-Lit Club, 226
Musorofiti, Francine, 288
Mussolini, Benito, 244
NAACP, 153, 170, 278, 286
Branches of the Association, 214, 239
Committee of 100, 285–86
Crisis published by, 129, 264
founding of, 57, 83
and labor unions, 266
Legal Defense Fund, 285
and Grand Central Red Cap Orchestra, 200, 214–15, 217, 218–20, 321
and Red Caps service, 236–37
requests for assistance from, 234–35
Silent Protest Parade of, 123–25, 236
social/networking events sponsored by, 192, 200, 214–17, 236, 244
tennis color line protested by, 222
Williams’s membership in, 199–200, 290
Nail, John E., 51, 320
Nail and Parker, 97–98
National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba, 118–19
National Labor Relations Board, 266
National Urban League, 147, 169, 265, 266, 268, 290, 291
Nazi Germany, 244
NBC Radio, 204, 272
Negro, use of word, 187
Negro Flying School Aviation Club, 195
Negro Leagues, 116, 122, 290
Nehemiah, William, 144–45, 146, 147, 153
Neilson, William Allan, 285
New Deal, 5
New Haven Railroad, 72
Newman, Milt, 72
New Negro movement, xvi, 67, 169, 195
New York Academy of Music, 77
New York Age, 131, 158, 201
on African-American moves to Harlem, 80, 90, 98
on African Americans in public service, 139, 181, 232–33
on Chief Williams, 147–48, 152, 176, 232
on Red Caps, 111, 117, 119, 121, 126, 212, 221, 262
on unionization, 262
New York Central Lines Magazine, 205
New York Central Railroad:
electric trains in, 85
Four-Track News of, 68
Four-Track Series, 107
“Great Four-Track Line” of, 40
new system of attendants, see Red
Cap porter system
offices at Grand Central, 88, 310
Pullman (sleeping car) porters of, xv, 71, 161–62, 173, 177, 261, 264, 265
“scope rule” of, 278–79
steam engines removed by, 85
20th Century Limited of, xvii, 92–93, 175–79, 204, 244, 251, 252, 291, 310
and unionization, 180, 258–68
Williams as employee of, xvi-xvii, 70–73, 78, 262, 263
New York Committee for Improving the Industrial Condition of Negroes, 103
New York Daily News, 157
New Yorker, The, 237–38, 238, 242
New York Evening Mail, 115
New York Institution for the Deaf (Fanwood), Washington Heights, 36–37
New York Manumission Society, 25
New York Panorama (WPA), 5–6
New York State, civil rights bill in, 7–11, 29
New York State Central Committee of Colored Citizens, 8
New York Sun, 115, 181
New York Symphony Society, 60
New York Times, The, 50
New York Tribune, 99
New York Urban League, 152
Niebuhr, Reinhold, 285
“Night-Club Map of Harlem” (Campbell), 242
Niles, Blair, 216
Norman, Gerald L., 222–23
Norman, Gerald L., Jr., 222–23
North by Northwest (movie), 292
North Pole, discovery of, 242
Northwestern Line, Chicago station, 44
Oberstein, Eli E., 322
Odd Fellows, 16, 76, 205–6
O’Dwyer, William, 239
Omega Psi Phi, 165
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 293
On Strivers Row (Hill), 4–5
On the Twentieth Century (musical), 292–93
Orquestra Casi Latina, 211
Ottley, Vincent “Roi,” 167
Outram, Percival, 219
Ovington, Mary White, 57, 69, 70, 83, 84, 169, 214
Pace, Harry H., 286
Palmer, Francis A., 34, 35
Pan-African Congress, London, 51
Parchment, Samuel Richard, 247
Parker, Ben, 142
Parker, Dorothy, 216
Parks, Rosa, 17
Pastime Literary Club, 14
Pastor, Tony, 31
Patterson, Frederick Douglass, 225, 246–47
Patterson, Sam, 206
Payton, Philip A., Jr., 66, 76
Pearl Harbor, Japanese attack on, 274, 276
Pennington, J.W.C., 18
Pennsylvania Railroad:
Cortland Street Station porters, 42
Jersey City station, 44
Pennsylvania Station, 88
Red Caps baseball club from, 117
Red Caps in, 100, 111, 125, 158, 221, 233, 237
Perry, Edward G., 206
Perry, E. J., 81
Peyton, Dave, 320
Philadelphia Tribune, 218
Pickens, William, 235, 236
Pinchback, P.B.S., 30
Pittsburgh Courier, 189, 204, 218, 230
Plantation Club (cabaret), 188
Plantation Review, The, 154
Pollard, Fritz, 120
Porgy (Broadway), 190
Porter, Peter S., 17, 19–20, 19, 22, 23, 29
and Porter’s Mansion of, 17, 19–23, 51
porters:
as “baggage smashers,” 42, 44, 71, 245, 292
and labor unions, 111, 155–56, 180, 206, 257, 258–68
various systems of, 42, 44, 71, 111
see also Pullman porters; Red Cap porter system; Red Caps
“Portrait of Harlem” (WPA), 5–6
Poston, T. R., 231, 234
Potter, Anne Urquhart, 160
Powell, Rev. Adam Clayton, Jr., 243, 263, 265, 285, 291
Powell, Rev. Adam Clayton, Sr., 6, 124, 144
Prince Hall Lodge, Freemasons, 16
Princeton University, 221
Prohibition, 158–59
Property Owners Protective Association, 94
public transportation, black access to, 17–19
Pullman, George, 161
Pullman (sleeping car) porters, xv, 71, 161–62, 173, 177, 261, 264, 265
Pushkin, Alexander, 229
Putnam, Irving, 114
Quaker philanthropy, 83
racial prejudice:
in Europe, 244
in U.S., see African Americans
racial uplift (self-improvement), xv-xvi, 5, 39, 64, 82, 89, 125, 179, 195, 233, 237–39, 241, 261, 276–77, 281, 289, 292–93, 294
railroad, fading importance of, 293
Ramsey, Charles, 138
Randolph, A. Philip, 156, 206, 257, 263, 264, 277–78, 285
Randolph, Lucille, 206
Rascoe, Burton, 175
Razaf, Andy, 202, 208, 218
RCA Victor Recording Studio, 217–19, 322
Read, Mary Lee, 251
Reason, Charles L., 26
Reason, Patrick H., 26
Reconstruction era, xv
“Red Cap” (song), 199
Red Cap Follies, 212, 213–14, 213
Red Cap porter system, 68–74
captains in, 165
college men employed in, xvi, 123, 124, 167, 168, 237–39, 241, 261, 288, 289
compared to other porters, 42, 70
disappearance from Grand Central, 293
dress code of, 42, 44, 179
employment hierarchy of, 72
first Negro hired in, xv, 4, 69–71, 72, 289
as free service, 42, 43, 68
mission of, xv, 41–42, 71
as model for other transport systems, xiv, 72, 173, 274, 291, 292, 293
origins of, 4, 40–42, 41, 173
racial showcase of, xvii, 238
and unionization, 180, 258–68
Red Caps:
Attendants’ Beneficial Association of, 88
and celebrity travelers, 152, 177–79
charities supported by, 125, 126
corps of black men as, xiii-xiv, xv, 70–72, 161–63, 241
daily routine of, 110, 175, 287, 291
depicted on stage and screen, 103, 108–9, 109, 178, 237, 272, 292
emergency medical corps of, 281
fictional accounts of, 240–41, 292
as iconic cultural touchstone, xvi, 73, 89, 173
loyalty to the Chief, 188, 261
in media stories and ads, 160–61, 162, 172–74, 176–77, 179–80, 218, 234, 237–38, 292
moving on to better things, xvi, 6, 101, 111, 168, 170, 171, 192, 195, 220–21, 233–34, 239–40, 241, 261, 275, 281, 289, 292–93
and music, 212; see also Grand Central Red Cap Orchestra; Grand Central Red Cap Quartet
prayer services of, 282
qualities required of, 240, 291
and racial prejudice, xiv, 71, 72–73, 115, 243, 261, 278–79
recruitment and staffing, 165–68, 170–71, 261, 265
salaries of, 72–73, 111, 175, 266–68
social club of, 111
and sports, see Grand Central Red Caps baseball team; Grand Central Red Caps basketball team
“Student Red Cap” as oft-used social term, 238
tips earned by, xvi, 42, 69, 72–73, 111, 175–76, 178, 179, 260–61, 266–68
tribute committee of, 187–88
working conditions of, 88, 180, 258, 261, 264
and World War I, 126–27, 217
and World War II, 281–82
Red Caps Base Ball Club Association, 117–23, 118, 119
Red Caps Literary Club, 153
Red Caps of Chicago, 153
Red Caps Sick Fund, 88
Redman, Don, 254
Reed & Stem, xiii
Renaissance Five (“Rens”), 149, 150
Rhone, Arthur “Happy,” 81
Riggs, A. J., 77
Riis, Jacob, 12
Rizzo, Tony, 158
Robbins, Charles Henry, 284–85
Robbins, Martha Armstrong (Williams), 284–86
Roberts, Charles H., 143–44, 243
Roberts, Needham, 128, 130, 131
Robertson, Dick, 218
Robeson, Eslanda Goode, 216
Robeson, Paul, 120, 191, 216, 239, 291
Robinson, Bill “Bojangles,” 203, 204, 209, 210, 215, 242, 254, 260
Robinson, Fannie Clay, 242, 260
Robinson, John E., 68, 85–86, 239
Robinson, Percy, 210, 254, 321
Robinson, Richard, 27, 28
Robinson, W. H., 125
Robinson, William, 210
Rockefeller, John D., Jr., 228, 229, 230, 242, 283, 284, 289
Rockwell, William, 17
Rome, U.S. expats in, 22
Roosevelt, Edith, 178
Roosevelt, Eleanor, 258–59, 259, 267–68, 275, 285, 286
Roosevelt, Franklin D., 178, 187, 258
Roosevelt, Theodore, 51, 144, 178, 187
at Carnegie Hall program, 128–29, 131
charitable contributions of, 128
death of, 140
and Gabriel, 112–14
Nobel Peace Prize awarded to, 128
Square Deal promised by, 123
and Wesley’s fire department application, 128, 139, 140
Roosevelt, Theodore (son), 144
Rose, John W., 103, 146, 147
Rose, Theresa, 103
Rosenwald, Julius, 216
Rosner, Max, 118
Ross De Luxe Syncopators, 211
Royal Arch and Blue House Masons, 76
Royall, John M., 147
Runnin’ Wild (musical), 189
Russell, Patrick, 158
Sacco-Vanzetti trial (1921), 284
St. Ann’s Episcopal Church for Deaf-Mutes, 37
St. Chrysostom’s Episcopal Chapel, 45–46, 82
St. David’s Protestant Episcopal Church, 87–88
“St. Louis Blues” (Handy), 208, 216
St. Mark’s Methodist Episcopal Church, 82, 87, 98, 255
St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, 151
Salem Methodist Episcopal Church, 123
San Juan Hill, New York City (today Lincoln Center), 67
Sargent, John Singer, 170
Sarony, Napoleon, 309
Sarony, Otto, 74, 75, 86, 309
Saturday Evening Post, 173
Schieffelin, William Jay, 103
Schiffman, Frank, 209
Schmeling, Max, 253, 254
Schomburg, Arturo “Arthur,” 230, 309
Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, 94–95
Schumann-Heink, Mme. Ernestine, 179
Schuyler, George S., 228, 239
Searle, Charles, 172–73
Sembrich, Marcella, 61
Semper Fidelis (Harlem social club), 165
Seppilli, Armando, 60
Seven Spades (ragtime band), 133
Shay, Larry, 217
Sherwood, Bob, 204
Shipp, Jesse A. “Dean of Colored Showmen,” 66, 153
Show Boat (musical), 190, 191
Shuffle Along (musical), 154, 190
Silent Protest Parade (1917), 123–25, 236
Silent Separates (deaf Jewish basketball team), 150
Sill, Rev. Thomas, 46, 82
Simpson, Fred, 131
Singer Building, 108
Singleton, Willie, 192
Sissle, Noble, 88, 145
slavery:
abolition of, 8–9, 12, 17–18, 20, 21, 22–23
former slaves granted citizenship, 9
fugitive slave law, 17, 21
as “peculiar institution,” 11
and Thirteenth Amendment, 8–9, 20
Smalls, Ed, 7
Smalls, Frank, 170
Smash Your Baggage (movie), 292
Smith, Alfred E. (New York governor), 177, 181, 269, 270, 271, 272–73
Smith, Alfred H. (New York Central president), 125, 152, 176
Smith, Antonio Maceo, 239
Smith, Bessie, 154
Smith, Edward C., 107, 139, 159, 178, 312
Smith, Gerritt, 20
Smith, Harrison G., 220
Smith, James McCune, 17
Smith, John C., 206
Smith, Morgan, 14
Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Association (SIAA), 224
Spanish-American War, 67
SPEBSQSA (Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barber Shop Quartet Singing in America), 269–73
Spellman, Francis Joseph Cardinal, 186
Spingarn, Joel Elias, 214
SS Deutschland, 73
SS Vestris, 201
Stabler, Walter, 228
Staley, Frank, 283–84
Stamper, George, 189
Starke, Willie Angrom, 103
Star of Ethiopia (pageant), 171
State Suffrage Association, 17
Stebbins, Emma, 22
Steele, Julian D., 265
Stevens, Thaddeus, 20
Still, William Grant, 202, 285
Stillman, Anne, 160–61, 163
Stillman, James A., 160
stock market crash (1929), 193, 203
Strangers on a Train (movie), 292
Street, Julian, 159
Strivers’ Row, Harlem, 5, 144, 146, 164, 188, 191, 228, 247, 289
Strong, Nathaniel Calvin “Nat,” 118–22, 118
Stuckless, Elias C., 284
Sturtevant House, New York, 12, 13–14, 13, 15, 15, 17, 19, 30, 59
Sumner, Charles, 20, 22, 23
Sunshine Sammy (child star), 220
Supreme Court, New York State, 10, 17
Swann, Ballard, 255
Sweet, Ossian, 169
Swift, Hildegarde Hoyt, 283
Tammany Hall, New York City, 118–19, 139
Taylor, John Goldsburgh, 94–96
Taylor, Vincent, 102
Teabeau, Ralph B., 277
Tenderloin District, New York City, 44–45, 49, 50, 51, 53–56, 64, 66, 67, 84, 92, 95, 98, 205
Terry Lodge no. 900, Odd Fellows, 16
Thaddeus Stevens Club, 20
Theater Guild, 190
Third Avenue Railway Company, 17
Thirteenth Amendment, 8–9, 20
Thomas, Andrew J., 228, 230
Thomas, Guy, 234–35, 239
Thompson, Ulysses, 202, 203
Thompson, “Tommy” (Malvina Schneider), 258
Thompson, Walter L., 52
Thompson, William, 157–58
Thorley, Charles F., 30–31, 32, 33, 50–51, 60, 61, 63–64, 71, 88, 91, 139
and House of Flowers of, 39, 50, 64
and Thorley’s Roses of, 30, 32, 33–34, 38–39, 44, 50, 59, 76, 78, 86, 144
Thorpe, Robert J., 51–52
367th “Buffalo” Infantry, 128, 275
369th U.S. Infantry (Harlem Hellfighters), 81, 126, 128, 131, 132, 143, 145, 217, 275
Thurman, Wallace, 206
Tiffany & Co., clock by, xiii, 3–4, 109, 282
Times Square, New York City, 50
Titley, Allan S. A., 180
Tobias, Rev. David Elliott “D.E.,” 6, 51, 92
Toussaint L’Ouverture, François-Dominique, 229
Townsend, Willard S., 257, 259, 263, 265–66, 320
Travelers Aid Society, 291
Travel magazine, 68
Trotter, James Monroe, 27
Trotter, William Monroe, 27
True Reformers’ Hall, West 53 Street, 88
Truth, Sojourner, 229
Tunis, John R., xvii, 177, 178
Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, 63, 246–47
Twain, Mark, 84
20th Century Limited, xvii, 92–93, 175–79, 204, 244, 251, 252, 291, 310
24th U.S. Infantry, 67
Twentieth Century (Broadway), 292
Twentieth U.S. Colored Infantry, 10
Tyler, Lottie, 207
Underground Railroad, 11
Union African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, 23, 25
Union League Club, 10, 22, 58–59
Union of Baggage Clerks and Carriers, 263–64
United Transport Service Employees of America (UTSEA), 264–66
University of Edinburgh, 276–77
Urban League, 147, 152, 169, 265, 266, 268, 290, 291
U.S. Army, 278–79
U.S. Labor Department, 267
U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA), 222–23
U.S. Navy, 102
U.S. State Department, 145–46
Vallee, Rudy, 204
Vanderbilt, Cornelius “Commodore,” 39–40, 76, 139
Van Der Zee, James, 103
Van Vechten, Carl, 216, 241, 285
Van Wyck, Robert, 56–57
Victoria, Queen of England, 60
Vodery, Will, 190, 191, 192, 202
voting rights:
and Fifteenth Amendment, 8, 9, 20
and State Suffrage Association, 17
Voting Rights Act (1965), 9
Vulcan Society, 280
Wagner, Robert F., 184
Walker, Aida Overton, 66
Walker, A’Lelia, 150–51, 151, 152, 206, 207, 208, 216, 230
Walker, Charles T., 6
Walker, George, 53, 66, 307
Walker, James J., 181, 200–201, 201, 230
Walker, Madame C. J., 6, 124, 150–51, 230
Waller, Fats, 208
Walls, George H., 104–7, 105
and Walls’ Bath Houses of, 104–7, 105
Walsh (white Red Cap), 70, 71
Walsh, Raoul, 292
Walton, Lester, 119–22, 124, 131, 145, 152, 156, 173, 186–87, 242
Walworth, Mansfield Tracy, 13, 15
Ward, Aida, 202, 213
Ward, Annie Laurie, 270
Ward, Jack, 270
Ward, James Hornsby “Jim,” 270
Ward, Owen, 270
Ward, Robert, 270, 273
Waring, George E., 44
War of 1812, 39
Warren & Wetmore, xiii
Washington, Booker T., 63, 102, 125, 179, 229, 246, 247
Washington, Fredi, 189, 260
Washington, Joseph L., 276–77
Washington, Mildred, 213
Washington, Thomas, 276, 277
Waters, Ethel, 209, 219, 260
Watkins, David “Chink,” 153–54
Watkins, Lucian B., 129
Webb, Lyda, 189
Webster, P. F. “Specks,” 117
Weill, Kurt, 272
Weir, Reginald, 222
Welch, Elizabeth, 178
Wells, Frederick W., 164
West, Dorothy, 216, 238
West Chester Lodge no. 116 (Elks), 81–82
West Side Riot (1900), 51–56
Wheaton, J. Frank, 92, 93, 233
Whipper, Leigh, 209
White, E. B., xiv
White, Walter, 192, 214, 215, 216, 220, 234–35, 239, 280, 285
Whiteman, Margaret, 251, 252
Whiteman, Paul, 251, 252
White Wings (street cleaners), 44
Whitney, Parkhurst, 108
Wilde, Oscar, 31
Wilhelm II, Kaiser, 60
Wilkins, Barron D., 81, 92, 95, 111
Wilkins, Leroy, 81, 94–95, 111
Wilkins, Roy, 244, 260
Williams, Ada (aunt), 11
Williams, Alice (aunt), 11
Williams, Rev. Arthur D. (no relation), 204
Williams, Bert (comedian), 53, 66, 103, 108–9, 109, 207, 237
Williams, Charles (Wesley’s son), 237
Williams, Charles H. (no relation), 225
Williams, Charles Wesley (brother), 25, 186, 202, 256, 288
Williams, Andrew S. “Clubber” (police captain), 45
Williams, Dorothy (daughter), 82, 87–88, 90, 310
Williams, Ella (sister), 69, 82, 83, 92, 166, 236, 257, 288
Williams, Francis (brother), 288
Williams, George W. (grandfather), 11
Williams, Gertrude Elizabeth (daughter), 90, 193
in beauty pageants, 154, 156–57, 165, 189
birth of, 46
in bobbed-hair contest, 156–57, 156
early years of, 49, 65
and family, 100–101, 186, 232, 288
jobs held by, 100, 153, 154–55, 155, 157
as manicurist, 154–55, 156, 157
social life of, 100, 153–54, 157, 174, 200, 202, 206, 255
theatrical interests of, 153
weddings of, 144–45, 146, 247–48
Williams, Gloria (granddaughter), 188, 189–90, 192, 231, 247, 318
Williams, Hamilton (coroner’s physician), 56
Williams, Henry B. (uncle), 11
Williams, James H., 186
in Atlantic City, 106, 107
and Attendants’ Beneficial Association of Grand Central, 88
and baseball team, 116–23, 119, 290
and basketball team, 148–50, 290
birth and family background of, xv, 11, 23, 24, 289
and celebrities, 91–94, 152, 177–79, 181, 201, 244, 251, 252, 254, 260
as chief attendant, xv, 3, 4, 68, 85–86, 89, 103, 109, 114–15, 148, 178, 179, 233, 239, 287, 289
childhood and early years of, 23, 24–30
as contract bridge player, 226, 290
death of, xv, xvii-xviii, 288–89, 293
and Elks, rise to leadership in, 74–82, 86, 87, 124
executive and managerial duties of, xvii, 100, 101, 112, 165–68, 171, 176, 177–80, 261, 265, 287
family of, 49, 53, 65, 100–101, 129–30, 129, 179, 188, 191–92, 202, 232, 255–56, 266, 288, 318
and fire in Grand Central, 266
as first Negro Red Cap, xv, 4, 69–71, 72, 76
fishing vacations in Canada, 107, 137, 312
as florist messenger, 30, 33, 44, 50, 59, 78, 86
home on Strivers’ Row, 5, 144, 146, 164, 188, 228, 247, 289
as hotel bellhop, 46
individuals helped by, xvi, 15, 164, 235, 239, 241, 261, 288, 290
influence of, xvi, 66–67, 89, 116, 121, 125, 126, 139, 153, 159–60, 181, 182, 184–85, 186, 224, 233, 234–35, 236, 239, 258–59, 259, 288–91, 293–94
and Ku Klux Klan, 152
legacy of, xv, 289–91, 292–94
and Lucy, first meetings of, 33–34, 35, 39
and Lucy, marriage of, see Williams, Lucy Metrash
and Lucy’s death, 232
and Martha, 284–86
media profiles of, xvii, 3, 4, 7, 74, 75, 85, 86, 147–48, 176–77, 180, 232–33, 239, 290
mourning band worn by, 3, 257
move to Dunbar Apartments, 228–32, 242, 244, 283–84, 289, 328
move to Harlem, 64, 66–67, 144, 289
move to Williamsbridge, 98–100
myths and stories about, xv, 4, 266, 291, 292–94
as New York Central Railroad employee, xvi-xvii, 70–73, 78, 262, 263
and orchestra, 199, 200, 202–5, 203, 208–19, 221, 290, 321
personal qualities of, 78, 241, 262
promotion to Chief Attendant, 85-86
as “race” man, xv-xvi, 64, 66–67, 71, 82, 86, 125, 195, 199–200, 233, 237, 241, 261, 289, 290–91, 294
and Red Caps, see Red Caps
reputation for assisting and hiring college students, 122–23, 124, 164, 165, 171, 224, 233, 237-38, 239, 240-41, 261
schooling of, 25–30
socializing, 101, 144, 153, 186–87, 199–200, 202–3, 205–8, 214, 255, 290
teen years of, 33–34, 42, 44, 45–46, 51
title of “Chief” conferred on, xvii
vacations at Martha’s Vineyard, 284, 285
visibility of, 150–51, 152, 219
and Wesley’s achievements, 139, 182–83, 182, 186–88, 256–57, 257, 318
and “Williams Cup,” tennis trophy conferred by, 224–25, 225, 290
work ethic of, 50, 57, 58, 64, 86
world view of, 116
and World War I, 125–28, 130, 132
Williams, James II (Wesley’s son), 129, 130, 182, 237
Williams, James Leroy “Roy” (son), 65, 90, 188, 189, 191, 192, 232, 247, 318
Williams, Jennie (Charles’s wife), 202, 256, 288
Williams, John Wesley (father), 11–17, 12, 49, 76, 84, 129, 132, 179, 182, 186
aging and death of, 256–57
and notable black figures of the time, 23
from slavery to employment, 11–17
as waiter at Sturtevant House, 12–13, 13, 15, 30, 58, 59
and wife’s death, 236
Williams, John Wesley, Jr. (brother), 25, 54–56, 85, 88, 310
Williams, June (granddaughter), 188, 318
Williams, Katherine “Kay” (daughter), 101, 151, 186, 188, 190, 225, 232, 288
wedding of, 255–56
Williams, Lena (sister), 166, 236, 257, 288
Williams, Leonard F. (uncle), 11
Williams, Lottie (Bert’s widow), 285
Williams, Lucy Ellen Spady (mother), 11, 12, 23, 132, 186
children of, 24, 236
death of, 235–36, 257
Williams, Lucy Metrash (wife), 106, 107, 186, 191
children of, 65, 82–83, 90, 101
early years of, see Metrash, Lucy
family background of, 34, 35–39
homes of, 49, 64, 66–67
illness and death of, 231–32, 247
socializing, 186–87, 202, 205–8
wedding of James and, 45–46, 83
Williams, Lula Ledbetter (Roy’s wife), 188–92, 247, 318
Williams, Malinda (aunt), 11
Williams, Margaret Russell Ford (Wesley’s wife), 100, 256, 288
Williams, Marie “Madame Selika” (soprano), 28
Williams, Martha Armstrong Robbins (second wife), 284–86, 288
Williams, Pierre (son), 90, 106, 107, 186, 188, 232, 288
Williams, Richard (brother), 288
Williams, Sarah Powell (grandmother), 11
Williams, Wesley Augustus (son):
on basketball team, 149
birth of, 46
celebrations of his promotions, 182, 186–88, 253, 256–57, 257, 318
death of, 288
early years of, 49, 65
and family, 129–30, 129, 182, 202, 237
and father’s death, 288
father-son relationship, 157–58, 182, 184, 187
influence of, 222, 237, 290
and mother’s death, 232
in New York Fire Department, 6, 128, 137, 138, 139–43, 141, 157–58, 179, 181–88, 182, 183, 233, 237, 242, 253–54, 257, 266, 274, 280–81, 290, 292, 293
opportunities seized by, 181–84, 195, 233, 237, 274, 290
as Penn Station Red Cap, 100, 125, 158, 233, 237
physical fitness of, 137–38, 138, 143, 253–54
and Prohibition, 158–59
retirement of, 292
social connections of, 158–60
studies of, 142–43
as teenager, 90, 92, 100–101, 116
wedding to Margaret, 100–101
Williams, W. F. (music critic), 21
Williams & Walker, 49–50, 53
Williamsbridge Colored Men’s Association (WCMA; Wicoma), 97
Williamsbridge neighborhood, Bronx, 97–100, 107, 116, 144
Williams Cup (tennis), 224–25, 225, 290
Willkie, Wendell, 285
Wilson, Chester A., 126–27
Wilson, Daisy, 215
Wilson, Edward H., 152
Wilson, James L., 231, 232
Wilson, Woodrow, 114
Wilson, W. Rollo, 150
Winchell, Walter, 221
Winsten, Archer, 241–42
Winter, Ezra, 174
Wise, John S., 59
Wise, Joseph, 292–93
Witkowski, Edward, 114
Wooding, Russell, 202, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 215, 216–20
Woodlawn Cemetery, Bronx, 288
Woodson, John, 138–39, 140, 143
Woolworth Building, 108
Works Progress Administration (WPA), 5–6
World, The, 179
World Colored Heavyweight Boxing Champion, 90
World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, 90–91
World’s Fair (1939), “Negro Week,” 271, 272
World War I, 123, 125–28
African Americans in military in, 116, 117, 126–28, 130, 131, 217, 276
end of, 131–32
Liberty Loans, 130
men drafted in, 126
war bonds sales, 125, 126
World War II, 274–76, 281–82
Wright, Louis T., 260
Wright, Richard, 6
YMCA, 73
Youmans, Vincent, 213
Young, Ralston Crosbie, 282
YWCA War Work Council, 128
Ziegfeld, Florenz, 103, 190, 202
Ziegfeld Follies of 1911, 103, 108–9, 109
Ziegfeld Follies of 1922, 190
Zion AME Church, 49