By Norma Adams-Wade
“… as an African American,
we first must struggle with…being victims of the pain…
…listen to our elder generation who picked cotton,
…And…begin to see the reality of a real human being whose life
was impacted by this very soft, white product (cotton).”
–Clarence E. Glover Jr. as quoted in Texas Highways magazine, Oct. 22, 2021
There’s a war going on. Not the Israel/Palestine or Russian/Ukraine conflicts – but the pain and wounded history of Black folks’ free labor and cotton free labor picking cotton in America. But the voice of a modern-day prophet is crying in the wilderness, loudly admonishing African-Americans to wake up and claim the economic riches of cotton– natures “white gold.”
Clarence E. Glover Jr., also known as “Professor Freedom,” is that voice – proclaiming that “without us,” European landowners would never have been able to plant, harvest and cash in on the wealth that, by design. completely bypassed us.
But a day is coming this month when the prophet will pull out the stops and shine the spotlight on a new day of pride for the part African-Americans played in placing Texas, Dallas, and the nation at the top of the world economy.
“Without us” is the powerful theme of the upcoming 4th Annual African American Cotton Pickers Day that will be Monday, October 28.. The day is an annual observance always on the 4th Monday of October that farmers know as the height of the cotton harvesting season. Glover created this national day, also known as Cotton Monday, and registered it four years ago on October 20, 2020 through the National Day Archives organization.
The first observance was October 26, 2020. It recognized Americans of African descent who planted and harvested cotton during slavery and Jim Crow, playing invaluable yet unrecognized roles in the development of America’s economic system largely based on the cotton industry.
The pushback and vitriolic resistance from Black people against cotton can be overwhelming. I was just thinking… Who could have imagined that a plant that grows from the soil could elicit such two-sided venom of emotion. You could say we descendants of Motherland Africa are suffering from an indelible post traumatic cotton syndrome.
But Glover trudges forward. He is leading his impassioned mission to reverse the pain and replace it with pride; to open closed eyes to the economic value of this God-created commodity whose wealth completely bypassed African descendants. He is touting knowledge of how the South, including Dallas and Texas, could not have attained its thriving economy “without us” — the free labor of African-Americans during slavery and pittance sharecropper pay during the Jim Crow era.
Turning pain to pride would mean that what seems to be the majority of African-Americans would no longer seek to blot out all memory of our part of cotton’s legacy.
Yes. The subject is painful to generations of African Americans who only have been handed the bitter pill of the pain of the backbreaking, cruel, and life-threatening labor from which only the bravest would dare to attempt to escape.
National Association of African American Cotton Pickers Day (N Triple A CP)
The commemorative day also was created to allow all Americans to study, recognize and appreciate how Americans of African descent have contributed to the cotton industry and its impact on the economic, political, educational, religious, and cultural life of America. It is a day to recognize how inter-cultural relations were impacted by the cotton industry in America and other countries both past and present.
“We are at a point in our multicultural dialogue where we have to recognize cotton as an economic power base from which we never benefited.,” Glover states.
He often recites his mantra to groups as he lectures on history and culture: “Take the chains off your brain so your mind can work.”
He also quotes various enlightening words of Caucasians who owned enslaved Africans. One such person is Stephen F. Austin, known as founding father of Texas, who was caught up in the conflict between Mexico and Texas as a growing cotton empire. Historians quote Austin as saying in the 1820s:
“The primary product that will elevate us from poverty is cotton and we cannot do this without the help of slaves.”
Glover drives him the point to African Americans that the enemy is not the cotton. The enemy is the lack of credit afforded descendants of Motherland Africa for being the engine that bought the cotton wealth to the world.
“The problem is that Black people did the labor that built this country but were not paid for their invaluable labor,” says Glover.
Interviewed by Clayton Maxwell in the Oct. 22, 2021Texas Highways magazine, Glover says: “Particularly as an African American, we first must struggle with the healing process, being victims of the pain. We have to get in touch with that pain. We, as African Americans, must know the story. …We must acknowledge it and show it to our children and grandchildren.”
He continues: “… Just as my European Jewish brothers do. Just as the Native Americans do. … Once we do … it will speak for itself. … All people can listen to our elder generation who picked cotton… let them talk about that journey. (It will) open up a door. …then other cultures begin to see the reality of a real human being whose life was impacted by this very soft, white product.”
How the cotton crusade is growing
For about four years now, Glover’s cotton crusade has gained considerable momentum. He has met with various local, state and national government and community leaders, tackling their prejudices against the creator’s crop and winning over not all, but many.
A February 2, 2023 Dallas Observer magazine cover story by writer Jacob Vaughn gives insight to his vision. He knows where endless cotton field were once located. The article quotes him saying, “when I look at those fields, I see cotton.”
The Texas Highways interview also gave Glover’s explanation about the value of cotton in actual money: “Did you know that one bale of cotton will produce 313,600 $100 bills? Paper money is not paper, there’s no paper in it. Every dollar bill is made from 75% cotton and 25% linen. That’s why when you put it in the washing machine, it comes out intact. Cotton is money. Money is cotton. Literally.”
Each gathering Glover convenes at various locations is another stab at his goal to reverse the curse and win advocates for how descendants of Africa are owed respect and honor for the role we played in producing economic success in Texas, Dallas, and surrounding counties. Glover designed posters that label Dallas “The city that cotton pickers built.”
In his role as “Professor Freedom,” Glover uses authentic trappings. He dresses in overalls and an old, frayed straw hat with a long, well-used cotton sack draped over one shoulder. The image is of a Black farmer who has finished a day of grueling work in the field. He twists bracelets out of a boll of cotton while onlookers stand captivated. Sometimes for exhibits he displays a giant 500-lb bale of cotton he cherishes.
Ellis County cotton proclamation
Ellis County, about 30 miles South of Dallas, took a giant step forward concerning local cotton on Oct. 16, 2023. The Waxahachie City Council, in Ellis County, presented a resolution recognizing Glover’s annual African American Cotton Pickers Day.
Officials also had unveiled a Texas Historical Marker on an Ellis County farm in September 2023. The marker recognizes Ellis County as the nation’s largest cotton producer in the early 1900s, while Dallas was the nation’s largest inland cotton exchange.
While highlighting the Texas and Dallas-area cotton empire, the officials also acknowledged the invaluable impact of African descendants.
Dallas cotton landmarks
The Dallas International Cotton Exchange Building was one of the most significant remnants of the once Dallas cotton empire. Glover has thoroughly researched the building’s history as a key part of the local cotton story.
He uses a photo silhouette of the building, behind a historic photo of Black people picking cotton, on the cover of his proposed book “Without us: African American Cotton Pickers and Dallas, Texas” that is set to be released soon. The imposing 17-story building, once downtown Dallas’ 2nd-tallest building, was built in 1926 and imploded in 1994.
It was located on the corner of North St. Paul and San Jacinto Streets in downtown Dallas, near First Baptist Church, another downtown landmark since the 1890s.
There are many other former cotton landmarks throughout Dallas. These include the Mill City neighborhood in South Dallas/Fair Park and the Continental Gin Building that has been redesigned and still stands on Elm Street in Deep Ellum part of downtown.
The business was once the world’s largest manufacturer of cotton gins. There is the Love Field area and the well-documented history of the 2,000 acres in far North Dallas formerly owned by iconic African-American landowner and cotton farmer Anderson Bonner.
What is NAAACP (N Triple A CP)
Glover founded the National Association of African American Cotton Pickers (N Triple A CP) in 2020 through the National Day Archives organization. The purpose was to bring attention to all the points he makes about the significant impact of African descendants in America on cotton and the nation’s economy.
Historians say the captives’ free labor also built numerous other noted sites including the White House, the Capitol, and historic homes of former presidents including Monticello and Mount Vernon. His creative slogan, “Without Us,” succinctly drives home the point.
He recently started the business King Cotton Kreations through which he crafts various art pieces with cotton, including stalks staged as floral arrangements, meal “bowls” attractively filled with cotton “bolls,” women’s earrings, posters and flyers with art and messages about cotton, and his popular string bracelets.
Walter Bonner, 79, is the great grandson of iconic Dallas-area early African-American landowner Anderson Bonner. Walter Bonner is fully on board the pro-cotton trail and spoke at last year’s observance: “If it had not been for cotton, there would be no Dallas,” Bonner states. “Cotton built Dallas.”
Texas.” Photo: Clarence Glover Jr.
Other cotton advocates
Over time, Glover discovered other African American cotton comrades in arm, including two in particular. ABC News aired a report in February 2024 about Julius Tillery, age 37, a 5th generation African American cotton farmer in North Carolina who the reports says is working fervently to reverse bad blood about cotton.
Tillery heads a business called Black Cotton.
Unknowingly echoing Glover’s words, the report quotes Tillery – a generation younger than Glover — saying: “Cotton wasn’t the oppressive thing. Cotton is just a plant, and it’s a magical plant…It was people that were oppressive and made us work like machines.”
Glover has said: “Picking cotton was not the problem. The problem was not getting PAID for our free labor.”
Another comrade is Dr. Cassie Sade Turnipseed of Mississippi. Dr. Turnipseed heads the International Cotton Pickers Unite Movement. Physician Christopher Lahr wrote about Dr. Turnipseed in the online publication Indigenous Network.
Dr. Turnipseed earned five higher education degrees, paying tribute to her grandparents and parents who raised cotton and ran successful cotton and agricultural businesses. They did so as African Americans in the dangerously racist state where young Emmett Till was gruesomely murdered 150 miles from her parents’ home in 1955; also, where voting rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer defied segregation restrictions while pushing for voting rights.
To learn more, visit www.cottonpickers.us, or csadeturnipseed.com.
Influenced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has been a major inspiration and influence for much of Glover’s life. He relates one of his frozen memories from his adolescence. Young Glover went on a trip with his dad, Clarence Glover Sr.
The two visited the motel room where Dr. King was staying when he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. Young Glover grew to idolize Dr. King Jr. As Glover matured, he followed his hero’s path as a civil rights activist. Glover eventually interacted with many of the civil rights leaders who worked in the movement with Dr. King — including C. T. Vivian, Ralph Abernathy, Dr. Bernard Lafayette, Jr., Rosa Parks, Coretta Scott King and others.
One of Glover’s proud achievements is that Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, hired Glover as an interviewer and consultant for the 1986 PBS documentary “In Remembrance of Martin” that marked the first national King holiday. Luminaries who shared personal memories of Dr. king with interviewer Glover ranged from Desmond Tutu and John Lewis to President Jimmy Carter and entertainer Dick Gregory.
Another proud memory is a conversation Glover had with former SMU president Willis Tate that led to Glover locating an apparently forgotten recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s historic 1966 speech on campus when the progressive-minded Tate was president.
Years later, the university commemorated the recording and highlighted various individuals who played some role in making the recording a part of SMU history.
Photo: Clarence Glover Jr.
The Fair Park Cotton Bowl and Dallas cotton history
Not long after Glover arrived in Dallas from Louisiana in the late 1970s, he acquired an interest in the Cotton Bowl at Fair Park. Yes, cotton played a part in the stadium’s history, although the public lost interest in that connection long ago.
Historians say since Texas was the nation’s leading cotton producer at the time, Dallas oilman J. Curtis Sanford, who created and financed the first bowl game in Dallas on Jan. 1, 1937, picked the name Cotton Bowl because of the popularity of cotton in the area and as a play on the name cotton boll that describes the cotton plant.
During this year’s Grambling-Prairie View Game at the Cotton Bowl, Glover displayed a cotton exhibit at Fair Park’s African American Museum and entitled the exhibit “Da’ Real Cotton Boll.”
Adhering to his mission, the cotton guru stressed through the exhibit that “Without us” and our unpaid labor in the lucrative local cotton fields “Where would Dallas be?”
For more info visit www.sankofaeducationservices.org. Email clarencegloverjr@aol.org
Phone 214-546-3480.
Norma Adams-Wade, is a proud Dallas native, University of Texas at Austin journalism graduate and retired Dallas Morning News senior staff writer. She is a founder of the National Association of Black Journalists and was its first southwest regional director. She became The News’ first Black full-time reporter in 1974. norma_ adams_wade@yahoo.com.
Who is Clarence E. Glover Jr?
This crusader, philosopher, scholar, minister, lecturer, cultural diversity guru, children’s book author, youth mentor, farmer, avid drummer, civil rights activist, and caregiver to people who live on the street spreads his energy over an obviously wide swath.
He traces his roots back six generations including when his ancestors became African American cotton landowners in Shreveport, Louisiana. He is one of five children of his Dad, Clarence E. Glover Sr. and mom, Elizabeth Bradford Glover, who both were educators.
Glover grew up helping his great-grandfather plant and harvest the family’s cotton and food crops, and he developed an intrinsic love for the land and the bounty it produced.
The Glover family also hired people to help pick their cotton. Glover and his family still own a portion of that land, and ironically his Dallas home is in a Love Field area that historically also was Dallas cotton territory. He still rises early during cotton and crop seasons and works accessible Dallas County land where he can grow cotton and produce.
Professionally, Glover earned a history degree from Grambling State University in Grambling, Louisiana and a Master of Theology from Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He completed the Harvard University Graduate Institute on School Climate and Governance.
He spent 15 years on the Southern Methodist University faculty as an adjunct professor of African American Studies, director of Intercultural Education and Minority Student Affairs, Coordinator of African-American Student Services – all positions that enabled him to involve numerous notable African American in campus programs.
Glover later joined Dallas Independent School District for 16 years as executive director of Multicultural Education and Special Assistant to the General Superintendent for Intercultural Relations.
Aside from Education, Glover founded and is pastor of First African Freedom Church in the year 2000 that was on Martin Luther King Jr Blvd. in South Dallas/Fair Park and his congregation organized a sister church in Bonwire, Ghana, West Africa. He founded Sankofa Education Services, Clarence Glover Speaks, and the African American Cotton Institute that he founded in January 2024. He was inducted into the African American Educators Hall of Fame in 2019, and he recently donated a large portion of his archives to the Dallas Public Library.
Glover has been featured in various national, local and trade magazines including Time, Essence and Texas Highways magazines, and the National Society of Black Engineers Journal. He wrote a children’s book ‘Da Night befo’ Freedom: An Emancipation Juneteenth Tale,” based on the New Year’s Eve “Watch Night tradition.”
Other issues Glover has tackled
Glover’s interests and involvements are extremely wide-ranging. On any given day over the decades, he could be found passing out blankets to people living on the streets of South Day/Fair Park or meeting with city and community leaders to brainstorm about issues ranging from policy changes to reduce police-community conflicts to ending apartheid in Motherland Africa.
Some of the issues include tackling police policy reform to reduce police-community conflicts, pushing to end African apartheid, banking discrimination, public protests following the 1998 dragging murder of James Byrd Jr. in Jasper, TX, spotlighting Black architect William Sidney Pittman’s link to the Pittman Hotel near Deep Ellum, holding executive positions with the NAACP Dallas chapter, advocating for the homeless, mentoring young Black males, creating community gardens, telling little-known Black history details about the Statue of Liberty, promoting diversity equity and inclusion, speaking on theology and faith topics, exploring history of Freemen’s towns in Dallas and surrounding area, highlights significances of Freedman’s Cemetery in Dallas.
African American Cotton Pickers’ Day
The public is invited to attend this year’s free observance of African American Cotton Pickers’ Day on Monday October 28. Activities will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. with an exhibition from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at K. B. Polk Recreation Center, 6801 Roper St, Dallas, TX 75209 in the Love Field area near Lemmon Ave and Mockingbird Lane.
Event co-sponsors are the National Association of African American Cotton Pickers (N Triple A CP) that Glover founded and the Polk Center’s Senior Adults group.
Besides cultural food dishes, cotton history presentations and an exhibition, the program will feature insights about cotton from senior adults who picked it. Harvey Masters, 95, is this year’s recipient of the Anderson Bonner African American Cotton Picker of the Year Award. Masters lives in Elm Ticket/North Park and for years picked cotton in Crockett, Texas and Phoenix, AZ.
Senior citizens who meet regularly at the Polk Center will attend, along with guests and dignitaries from around the city. Among past recipients are Frank “Chipo” Bailey who also was acknowledged as a skilled African American cotton ginner in Ellis County, Alice Polk, 93, of Teague, TX as honorable mention in 2023, and “Mama” Opal Lee, “Grandmother of Juneteenth” of Fort Worth. Descendants of the iconic 2,000-acre African-American landowner and cotton farmer Anderson Bonner also will participate in the special day.
“Today we make history,” Glover said at the 2023 celebration. “Never in history has anyone acknowledged a Black cotton picker. We bring out of the shadows of American history the African-American cotton pickers who deserve our respect and recognition.”
Additionally, a cotton exhibit is being planned at the African American Museum at Fair park. The exhibit will be reminiscent of the cotton exhibit that was one feature of the historic Hall of Negro Life building at Fair Park during the 1936 Texas Centennial. The Hall was the only building demolished shortly after the Centennial ended. Various researchers and historians have pointed out what they say indicated racism in how Fair Park operated during that time.
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