Monthly Archives: November 2022

From writing history’s first draft to making history

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Yesterday, we said goodbye to our friend Lillian Cooper Wiggins. The memorial was held at Arlington National Cemetery and the hall was filled to capacity with family and friends. I was honored and humbled to be among the many people Lil invited into her life and to be there to help celebrate that life.

Lil’s daughter asked me to draw on my many interviews with her mom to help write the obituaries published in The Washington Post and The Washington Informer. My words were unmistakable in the beautiful program Karen compiled to celebrate her mom’s life. I was fortunate to have so many of Lil’s own words to share in my tribute to her. Words like these: “My principle was to be the best I could to write as truthful as I could.” Good advice for a historian and writer.

Lil was a force of nature and one of the best people I have had the honor to know and befriend. She had a front row seat to history as Washington transformed from a Jim Crow Southern town into an iconic Chocolate City. As she transformed herself from a midwestern transplant into a centerpiece of Washington’s social, political, and economic life, Lil moved from that front seat onto center stage. Lil went from writing history’s first draft as an influential journalist to becoming part of history because of her writing and so much more.

Thank you Lil for everything.

One final dispatch “From the Desk of Lil”

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“From the Desk of Lil” was the column that Lillian Cooper Wiggins wrote for the Washington Afro-American newspaper.

Lillian Cooper Wiggins died October 26 at age 92. She was my friend and the inspiration for much of the work that I have done since 2011 when I began writing about gentrification and racism in Decatur, Ga. I’m a historian and I first met Lillian in the pages of a history book of sorts, Dream City, the landmark 1994 work by Washington, D.C., journalists Harry Jaffe and Tom Sherwood. It’s a deep dive into the politics and culture of late-twentieth-century Washington wrapped around the story of Mayor-for-Life Marion Barry.

Dream City is required reading for anyone working and living in Washington. I first picked it up in 2007 while working as a consultant to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC). I had been hired to do documentary research and dozens of oral history interviews to support author Tony Proscio in writing his book documenting the history of the DC LISC office.

Lillian Cooper Wiggins aboard Air Force 2 while covering Hubert Humphrey’s trip to Africa. Photo courtesy of Lillian Cooper Wiggins.

Jaffe and Sherwood introduced readers in Washington and beyond to Lillian’s best known contribution to Washington history. In the 1970s, she began writing about what has become widely known as “The Plan.” Jaffe later wrote, “We can thank Lillian Wiggins for first articulating this particular conspiracy theory [as a] columnist for the Washington Afro-American.” Jaffe got some things wrong in that 2010 Washington Examiner article, but the gist of his observation is correct: Lillian did expose many generations of journalists, historians, and sociologists to “The Plan.”

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The Invisible Syndicate

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It’s not too late to register for Tuesday evening’s program, The Invisible Syndicate: Pittsburgh’s Jewish Racketeers, 1920-1980. It’s at the New Light Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The program is free but registration is required. Details at this link: https://newlightcongregation.org/events/new-light-lecture-series-the-invisible-syndicate-pittsburghs-jewish-racketeers-1920-1980/.

Like New York City, Cleveland, and Detroit, Pittsburgh has a significant Jewish organized crime history. Eastern European Jews living in the Hill District collaborated with other immigrants — Southern Blacks and Italians — to create informal economies in a city where racism, antisemitism, and generalized xenophobia erected barriers to good jobs, housing, and financial institutions. A small group of Hill District Jews went into bootlegging during Prohibition and then gambling. By 1930, a loosely organized Jewish syndicate occupied a top tier of Pittsburgh’s vice underworld. This presentation explores the social history of Pittsburgh’s less violent counterpart to Cleveland’s “silent syndicate” and Detroit’s “Purple Gang.” These Jewish vice entrepreneurs helped to create some of Pittsburgh’s most enduring brands, including the Pittsburgh Steelers, and were integral to the city’s early entertainment sector as theater and nightclub owners. The program’s arc begins in the Hill District and ends in Squirrel Hill where the invisible syndicate’s leaders had their homes and gambling clubs.

Come for the stories and the history. Who knows, you might even find out how Meyer Sigal got his nickname!

Eulogy [Updated]

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Earlier this week I got a Facebook message from a friend who lives in Decatur, Ga.: “More construction in Decatur Oakview Rd.”

I am used to messages like this. They have arrived via email, Twitter, Facebook, and text for the past decade. Many of them come from people like my 60-something Decatur friend: the senders are Black, elderly, and many have been lifelong Decatur residents. They include photos of buildings being demolished and the McMansions that replace them. They also include comments about displacement and racism. For years these folks have tried to get relief from city officials and to get their stories told by the press.

Unlike local bloggers, overworked newspaper reporters, and disinterested broadcast journalists, I listened and I wrote. A lot. I earned the trust of a lot Decatur residents while also angering many others invested in the myth of a liberal and progressive city that only exists in their minds and the city’s flashy advertising campaigns.

The site shown in the message I received is located on Oakview Road, between Second and Third avenues, just inside the Decatur city limits. Until last year, it was one of the Oakhurst neighborhood’s few surviving twentieth century commercial nodes. The one-story buildings occupied by a beauty parlor and grocery store had been community fixtures for decades.

Oakhurst Grocery (1529 Oakview Road) and “Purple Building” (1531 Oakview Road), May 2012.
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