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Helen Caldwell Day
Helen Caldwell Day | |
|---|---|
| Born | 31 December 1926 |
| Occupation | Nurse, author, hospitality house founder |
| Period | 1951-1955 |
| Subject | Black Catholic autobiography |
| Notable works | Color Ebony (1951); Not Without Tears (1954) |
Birth and education edit
Born in Marshall, Texas, to Velma and George (G. O.) Caldwell.[1] However, a Memphis paper claimed she was from Memphis, but the city only had a tangential claim on her given how much the family moved around.[2] At the time of her birth her mother was a kindergarten teacher, and her father was a professor of music at Bishop College; the family moved around to his various positions at HBCUs until he settled at Rust College in Holly Springs, Mississippi.[3][1] The family included her aunt of the same name, "Big Helen," an older half-sister, Clara, from her father's previous marriage, an older brother, George Jr., and a younger brother, William. Her father also trained as a pharmacist, so while the family was of modest income it was never destitute.[1] Her parents divorced and remarried other people.
She began grade school in Iowa City, Iowa and recalled that she did not experience racial discrimination.[1] Thus it was a traumatic shock when the family moved to Mississippi and she moved to more racially charged schools in the heavily segregated deep south. She started college early, at age 16, attending Rust College, the HBCU where her father taught music, in the cadet nurses program. In February of 1945 she entered the nursing training program at Harlem Hospital in New York.[2] There she entered the Catholic church and became involved in the Catholic Worker movement.[2] Tuberculosis interrupted her studies during her senior year at the former Cumberland Hospital, around the same time her son Butch was diagnosed with polio. She wrote her life story during 19 months in a sanatorium first in Memphis and then at Stony Wold, New York, as a tuberculosis patient.[4] She was able to work as a nurse after her recovery, but only as a practical nurse (RPN), since illness had interrupted her RN training.
Hospitality house founder edit
In New York she volunteered at the Mott Street house of hospitality, sponsored by Dorothy Day and Peter Maurin via the Catholic Worker. She established Blessed Martin House in Memphis, Tennessee, in the tradition of Catholic Worker houses.[1] It was intended to provide shelter for the poor, particularly women and their children. She received anonymous letters challenging her authority, but Father Coyne of the Josephites, a congregation organized specifically to work among African-Americans, supported her and rallied the group around her.[1] In 1950 they got approval for the house from Bishop William Adrian, and the house opened on January 6, 1952, in a run-down store property near Beale Street.[1] They soon had 15-16 children whom they cared for while their mothers worked. Dorothy Day helped them purchase a house in 1954, and she printed a fundraising appeal in The Catholic Worker.
Author edit
While recuperating in Memphis, she contributed an occasional column called "Looking Things Over" to the Memphis World, an African-American newspaper.[2] A letter she wrote to friends about being turned away from the segregated Holly Springs church where she used to worship was published in The Catholic Worker, bringing her to the attention of Catholics who began an interracial study group with her in Memphis.[4][5] She published her first book, Color Ebony, in 1951, and her second, Not Without Tears, in 1954, both with Sheed and Ward.[6][7] The reception of the first book seemed cautious.[2] The Durham Herald-Sun (North Carolina) said the book is "not intended to inflame, but to light a darkened pathway."[8] She also went on speaking engagements as she was able, throughout the south. Maisie Ward wrote about her in her autobiography Unfinished Business.[9] "How profound is Helen Day’s prayer about the problems of being a negro in the deep South. 'Not just a plain old wooden cross,' she prays — Yes, she will carry a cross, but it must be more clearly a cross, heavier perhaps, certainly of her own choosing. 'I’ll send you a specification' she hears herself saying to God."
Personal life edit
In c1948 she had a son, MacDonald Francis Day (known as Butch), with a naval officer named George Day.[3] The Associated Negro Press included a photo of her and him in some newspapers.[10] While in the hospital she encountered Catholic nurses and a priest, and decided to enter the Catholic church.[1] Her mother raised her son while she finished nursing school. In 1955 she married Jesse Riley, taking his surname.[1] The couple closed the Blessed Martin House, and they moved to California in 1957. In addition to Butch from her previous relationship, they had four children together.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Johns, Robert L. "Helen Caldwell Day Riley," in Contemporary Black Biography. Volume 13: Profiles from the International Black Community (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research, 1997), 158-162.
- ^ a b c d e "Book of Memphian on Sale Tomorrow". The Memphis Press-Scimitar. September 11, 1951. p. 9.
- ^ a b Boyd, Henry S. (May 10, 1947). "Holly Springs". New Pittsburgh Courier (African-American newspaper). p. 10.
Mrs. Helen Caldwell Day and son of New York were guests of Mrs. Day's father, prof. G. O. Caldwell, recently...
- ^ a b "Negro Convert, 23, Writes Life Story". The Tablet. September 1, 1951. p. 4.
- ^ Caldwell, Helen (July 1, 1950). "From the Mail Bag, Down South". The Catholic Worker. Vol. XVII, no. 2. p. 7. Retrieved April 21, 2024.
- ^ Day, Helen Caldwell, Color Ebony (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1951).
- ^ Day, Helen Caldwell. Not Without Tears (New York: Sheed and Ward, 1954).
- ^ H., F. (September 16, 1951). "Light to Path". The Durham Herald-Sun (North Carolina). p. 41.
- ^ Ward, Maisie (1964). Unfinished Business. New York: Sheed & Ward. p. 345. ISBN 978-0-7220-0231-5.
- ^ See, for example, The Call (African-American newspaper in Kansas City, Missouri), Friday, September 21, 1951, page 2.