Calvin Ramsey delights audience with colorful stories
by S. Rotan Hale
Author/playwright Calvin Ramsey returned to the area Sunday, Oct. 13 for a talk at Center in the Square’s Trinkle Theatre. Sponsored by the Harrison Museum of African American Culture the event not only drew a healthy crowd but was every bit as interesting and informative as his previous visit at the Dumas Legacy Ball (Aug. 2019).
The sizable crowd sat captivated listening to Ramsey, a seasoned story teller, during his hour-long lecture that engrossed them in an array of colorful and engaging stories.
As the author of several books and plays, Ramsey spoke in great detail about his most celebrated work Ruth and the Green Book inspired by Hugo Green’s The Negro Motorist Green Book first published in 1936. Green’s book is a most prolific work–published and circulated nationally and internationally for years and has become the subject of numerous plays and recently a feature-length film.
Ramsey told of the book’s widespread appeal as Green Book societies have formed in various cities particularly in the southeast states. He pointed out that Green, a New Jersey native, was a Black postal employee in New York’s Harlem district. Armed with only an eighth grade education, he had the ingenious idea to publish the book that would be known as “the bible of Black travel during the Jim Crow era” and liberated Blacks from the choke-hold of “Whites-only” establishments. Green’s book was the proverbial map to the network of lodgings, businesses and gas stations that would safely serve them while traveling.
Victor Hugo Green died in 1960 survived by Alma Duke a Richmond native and his wife of 43 years.
Catering to his audience Ramsey spoke about the significant part Roanoke’s Dumas Hotel played in the area’s social life and for Blacks traveling to and through the area (i.e. railroad employees, salesmen, etc.). Many chose to stay in private homes that, although mostly free of charge, were not always suitable for families. Therefore the Dumas became the perfect alternative.
“Life during segregation was not all gloom and doom,” he said. “Black people were living the life and traveling was a big part of it. Consequently many came to the Dumas Hotel.
The famed hotel was located on First St., then known as “The Yard” – a hot spot for local Black businesses and social high-life as well as the area’s vibrant nightlife.
“Roanoke was special and it had something that lasted a very long time,” he added.
Among the many aspects of his Ramsey’s accomplished life, was the story behind one of his children’s books, “Belle, The Last Mule at Gee’s Bend”; Civil Rights Story based on the quilt makers of Gee’ Bend, a rural community in western Alabama. Praised as “brilliant pieces of modern art,” the quilts have also traveled to museums receiving high acclaim.
The story is based on a trip the iconic civil rights leader Martin Luther King took to Selma, Alabama encouraging people to vote during the height of the civil rights movement of the 60’s. The book is a bittersweet account of one of two mules from Gee’s Bend, who played a part in the civil rights movement of that era. Following Dr. King’s assassination, the two mules pulled the farm wagon bearing King’s casket through the streets of Atlanta–thus creating a very poignant and moving tale from which the story was built.
Ramsey would later develop a gospel play from the book and also mentioned his intentions to get a Gee’s Bend quilt on display at the Harrison Museum – a gesture that went over quite well with the crowd.
For a man who has lived such an accomplished life Ramsey is extremely humble as well as knowledgeable. His personable manner was most prevalent while interacting with the many who waited patently in line during the book signing that followed.
