Finding, remembering, and honoring Marie and William Graves has been a collaboration from the beginning. After the initial finding of Marie’s letter to President Grant in 2014, I worked on tracing the Graves through Church records and Vicki Standing, Utah-based professional genealogist with an African-American specialty, worked on tracing Marie and William through the records of the South, documenting Marie’s parentage and her first marriage, and in California, tracing both Marie and William through their years there until their deaths in 1930 and 1940, and their burial in Oakland’s Evergreen Cemetery.
While on personal business in California, Vicki drove to the address where the Graves had lived. The site of their house is now a paved and fenced parking lot; she took pictures of that place, and of some representative houses on that street (Magnolia) suggesting what the Graves home probably looked like.
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She also drove to Evergreen Cemetery, but it was a weekend and the office was closed – you can see from these pictures how impossible it would be to find any particular grave without assistance.
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I had also told Paul Reeve about the Graves, because he was then working on his book Religion of a Different Color. He was so moved by their story that months later, in 2015, while reading Armand Mauss’s Shifting Borders and a Tattered Passport, he recognized a reference to the Graves. Armand Mauss responded immediately to my emailed inquiry with a generous search of his memory for any detail he could recall from almost 80 years earlier – details that meshed with and expanded what I had found in the Church records in Oakland. Armand has remained interested in each new discovery relating to the Graves.
As soon as my my post appeared on Keepa, Greg Call, a Keepa reader and bishop in Oakland, wrote to ask how he could learn more about Marie and William – he had done some historical research on other subjects and would like to look for the Graves. I couldn’t suggest many specifics – I had already searched all the Church History Library and online sources I knew of – but suggested that there might be local California sources – perhaps a visit to the cemetery office would turn up a record of who had paid for the cemetery lots, or a check with county offices might tell when and under what circumstances William had sold his house, or a local historical society might point him to records that I couldn’t even dream of.
Greg and members of his ward and stake went to work. I know that Dean and Nancy Criddle of his ward have been particularly involved, but know that others must have helped, as well. They visited the cemetery offices, located the graves, and discovered that while Marie had a marker, William did not.
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They established a good relationship with the people at the cemetery office, a relationship that is resulting in more good today. They learned from the cemetery’s records which mortuary had handled the burials, and visited there. They went to the county offices and uncovered a file detailing the handling of William’s property after his 1940 death. I do not know every attempt they made to learn more, because not every attempt leads to additional records, but they have worked steadily to trace leads.
The Oakland Stake got involved, too. They have a longstanding project of taking meals to homeless camps, and at least once they called at the Graves’ old address, used now as a parking lot for people living out of their cars, to see if they could help.
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There have been LDS meetings featuring the Graves – once when Paul Reeve was in Oakland on personal business, and another where Nancy Criddle spoke about the Graves. Other ward and stake members have become interested. The memories of the oldest members have been consulted.
Other friends have kept an eye out for the Graves. J. Stapley ran across a diary entry of someone living temporarily in San Francisco who mentioned the Graves, although not by name. And you won’t soon forget Paul Reeve’s account of completing the temple sealing for William and Marie.
The Oakland First Ward team decided that William’s grave needed to be marked. They consulted the cemetery office and monument makers, and even me, about what sort of marker would be best. Marie’s marker had been carved with the evident intent for William’s name to be added later – should they now do that? Should they erect a new joint marker? They have designed a new marker with a beautiful inscription honoring William and Marie as the first African-American members of the Church in Oakland. To pay for that marker, they operated a successful Go Fund Me campaign. Because of the relationships they have established, and their own enthusiasm for the project, the monument company granted them a significant discount. The cemetery has agreed to set the marker without charge, and to do some ground leveling to improve the site. The Graves monument will appear on their new cemetery map as a “Point of Interest” in a cemetery filled with notable graves. I’m not yet certain when the marker will be dedicated, but you can expect to read about it here.
And then this weekend, another member in Oakland, while going through materials found in those boxes and closets of old paper and basketball trophies and Relief Society centerpieces that every ward and stake accumulates, took a close look at some of those photos. Craig Stewart pulled out this 1920s-era photo of the Oakland branch in front of their building.
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Looking closely, he zoomed in on one point in the crowd.
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Do you see them? There is William Graves. To his right, a little in front of him, is Marie.
Too small, you say? You can’t get a good look? Well, how about this one, a different photo, taken at a branch conference in 1920 or 1921. Even though their eyes are shaded by their hats, there is no mistaking them. There, shoulder to shoulder with the other branch members, are Marie and William Graves.
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Somewhere, I think William and Marie are aware of how the hearts of the children have turned to the fathers, and our love and admiration for their faithfulness in a time when it was not easy to be a black Latter-day Saint. I think they are not in danger of being forgotten again.
Thank you Ardis for minding this project. This is such an important contribution…and it is nice to have something so heartwarming.
Thanks, J. I feel an urge to track the progress of this story. One day it will be taken for granted that of course, we ALL know about the Graves, just like we all know something about Elijah Able and Jane Manning James. That will be a good day, but so will remembering all the help along the way.
That’s just beautiful. I firmly believe that there is divine help in finding and documenting situations like this. It mirrors what I felt when my wife and I found Edward Arthur Smith’s grave in Canada, or my distant cousin’s name on that memorial in the Philippines. And when we think about linking our families through what Stapley called the “chain of belonging, forged on the altars of the temple.” At least that is how I remember it. But when it comes down to it, as children of our heavenly parents, William and Marie are part of your family, my family, and everyone’s family. We are all interconnected.
I am also amazed at all the help provided by the Oakland Stake. It is a vision of what our world could be, despite the divisive and often mean-spirited society we live in. Thank you so much for helping, along with so many others, to bring this story to light.
Sorry, that third sentence in my comment seems to end before it should. It was supposed to lead in to the part about how we are all family.
The only thing that unfreezes my heart is the Century of Black Mormons Project. Thanks very much for sharing this, Ardis, and to those that contributed to it.
They want to be known! Thank you!
Ardis, This is why keepapitchinin is the best.
What a blessing to finally have faces to place with names! Thank you for the continuing updates.
I’m so happy to *see* them!
Simply wonderful, Ardis (and everyone else involved). Thank you.
Ardis, this is spectacular! Kudos to everyone involved! We need more stories of the extraordinary “ordinary” members of the church, their trials, and their faith. Thank you.
I admit, I cried when I saw their beautiful smiling faces. What a treasure to find!
These photographs are beautiful. The smiles on their faces are a rare inspiration to me.
Historians get little credit for all their unseen work, but today you deserve accolades for kindling gratitude for the gospel in my cynical heart, focused through the lens of the faith of this couple, brought back to remembrance. Good work, Ardis.
What an amazing effort on everyone’s part! Thank you all!
Kuddos to the members in Oakland and others who have helped to research and document this remarkable couple. And thank you, Ardis, for being the catalyst in bringing the ongoing saga of Marie and William Graves to light.
I really love that photo–and I’m so glad you got to see it.
Feels sort of like meeting someone in person for the first time after knowing them online. 🙂
You have no idea how edifying this has been for me. I served my mission in Oakland. Those houses look very familiar to me. And, as a reader of history, I have come to love the Latter-day Saints of the past as much as those of the present. Discoveries like this are the reason we keep records and save papers. What a blessing to all of us!
This is amazing information. I would like to use these photos and information in an upcoming position paper that I am in the process of writing. Whom would I need to contact to get permission to do so? This effort is remarkable and those of you who have dedicated your time and realize the strength of Marie and William and those of you who wish to honor them should be honored yourselves. You guys are visionaries and instruments of Heavenly Father to carry out an important mission that I feel will be the catalyst to bridging the gap between the LDS Church and the Black community. Being an African-American LDS member (Mormon) is not easy. The strength exhibited by Black members “back in the day” is beyond my comprehension. Now days, while everyone must be able to defend their choice to be “Mormon”, Black members have to have more tools than ever before to defend their choice.This information about the Graves and the interest that our church is taking to assure that they are remembered and honored is a powerful weapon for modern day Black LDS members to use in defense of their choice. When I joined the church, I was under the belief that I was the first of my family to do so. I had been told that all my family grew up A.M.E. and M.E. Several years after joining my niece Tausha, our family historian, informed me that we have some family LDS members in the northern part of Florida. I had not made any effort to contact them but Nancy Criddle’s speak in the Firth Ward and this story have inspired me to do so. Thanks to all of you who dedicated your time and resources to do this research, get a head stone for William and bring this story to us.
Hi, Mary — Because yours is a first-time comment, it went into a moderation queue waiting for my approval. That’s a security measure against spam showing up in public. There won’t be any problem commenting from now on, unless you enter your name/address differently, in which case the program will think you’re a first-time commenter again.
Could you please write to me directly — AEParshall [at] AOL [dot] com — to tell me about your position paper? If it’s a school/university project, you’re free to use anything here, as long as you give credit to Keepa in a citation. If it’s a project for publication, I’d like to hear what it is before giving permission.
And are you familiar with the just-launched Century of Black Mormons project? We’re working to identify and document all black Latter-day Saints from the beginning through 1930. You might find something useful there.
I appreciate your comment, and look forward to hearing from you about your position paper.