Cheesy Grits: Granddad Ralston at Lincoln House

George Ralston accepted the offer to become the director of the boys' department at Lincoln House Settlement.  His handwritten letter was dated 28 Dec 1915 and was on the letterhead of the St. Philip's Parish House at 215 W. 133rd St. His marching orders were to report to Miss Birdye Haynes at the Lincoln House on W. 63rd St., by 3 Jan 1916. His salary of $60/month was better than an unskilled laborer but at the low end of a trade union member's salary.

In an article dated 13 Jan 1916, the New York Age was already writing about the promise of the boys' program under its new director, George R. Ralston. The brief sketch read:

"For the boys, a director is provided: George R. Ralston, formerly of St. Christopher's basketball team, and identified with the boys' work at St. Philip's Church, has been selected to take charge of this work. He is of DeWitt Clinton High School and was recently awarded a gold medal by the St. Philip's organization for his boys' work. Gymnasium classes for boys are held every afternoon and evening, and a club of boys from 14 to 16 years old holds a meeting every Tuesday evening from 7 to 9...."

The work at Lincoln House advanced rapidly under the leadership of Miss Birdye Haynes. On 14 Dec 1916, the New York Age noted the increases in attendance during the first few months of her leadership: the monthly average attendance in Oct. 1915 of 1,759 had risen to 4,719 six months later.

The boys' programs were obviously flourishing as well, for in 1918, Lincoln House was fielding no fewer than five different basketball teams under Granddad Ralston's direction.

Outside of Lincoln House and New York City, however, the world was at war. Congress had passed a law requiring all men between 18 and 45 to register. Because of Jim Crow, there were objections to having African American register for the draft. The still-segregated War Department nevertheless ultimately ignored those objections and required African American men to register as well—with the explicit instruction to draft board officials that the lower corners of registration cards were to be torn off so that black soldiers wouldn't "mistakenly" be assigned to white units.

So, below is Granddad Ralston's draft registration card dated 5 June 1917. There's interesting information about Granddad's life here that goes beyond the torn corners of his draft card, to wit: in the 1915 NY State census, he was still living on W. 59th Street with his mother, grandmother, step-father, and a cousin. By 1917, he had moved uptown to 163 W. 136th St. He identifies his place of birth as Charleston—the earliest documentary confirmation I'm aware of; before this, his birthplace was identified simply as "South Carolina"—and his occupation as a "Boys' worker" at the Henry Street Settlement, of which Lincoln House was a branch. (Did he walk down to Lincoln House on W. 63rd? Take a bus? The subway? Ride a bike? Enquiring minds want to know....) Granddad further states that despite being single, he has a dependent: a cousin. This will have almost certainly been the same cousin who was listed in the 1915 census as living with Granddad and his family: Lazelle Mendoszia, the daughter of Valley Ralston's sister, Lily, who had moved to NYC sometime right around the turn of the century. Lily had herself passed away in 1914, leaving her only child, Lazelle, in the care of Valley's family.

Then comes a big surprise: Granddad Ralston claimed an exemption from military service on the ground that he was blind in his right eye. How or when this happened, we have no idea. Is this the reason he posed showing his left profile in that dapper photograph of him as manager of the St. Christopher track team?

The rest of his draft card seems unremarkable, save for the mention that he was "heterochromic", i.e., he had two different-colored eyes, one of which had apparently ceased its useful life and become merely decorative.

George R. Ralston's draft registration card, dated 6/5/[19]17

I don't know how the draft boards were back then on exemptions for medical reasons. Presumably, had he been taken, he would have been part of the "Harlem Hellfighters"/"Fighting 369th" but for whatever reason, he wasn't taken.




Notes:

1) The salary comparison comes from a seminal work by George Haynes entitled The Negro at work in New York City (Columbia University: 1912). Dr. Haynes was Professor of Social Science at Fisk University and brother of Ms. Birdye Haynes of Lincoln House.

2) The New York Age is archived at fultonhistory.com.