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F
LIFE HI3TORY,
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
MiaMi, Florida
January 11, 1939
Kelsey L. Pharr (Negro)
1025 N.W. 2nd Ave
Miami, Fla
(Undertaker)
Bertha R. Comstock, Writer
KELSEY L. PHARR, NEGRO UNDERTAKER
Kelsey L. Pharr, Miami's Negro undertaker and welfare
worker, disclaims all credit for anything he has achieved,
individually, or as a factor in racial uplift., On May 30, 1939
he will have been a resident of Miami for twenty-five years,
all of which have been spent in working for his people. Rea..
luctantly he told the bare outlines of his own history, but
when he begins to discuss the topics of welfare among Negroes,
he loses his diffidence and his face glows with earnestness.
He is a youngish looking man, clean cut and dressed
in a business suit that is well fitting 'and he always looks
well groomed. His voice is rather law and his accent and
choice of words show culture. Hie office is simply furnished
with good taste .and very clean, and the. young secretary who
presides at the information desk is alert, business -like and
courteous; in short, there is nothing about the Pharr office
that indicates a Negro atmosphere; the dark faces of ,the
professional man and his assistant are the only facts that
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Kelsey L. Pharr
1026 N.W. 2nd Ave'
Jan. 11, 1939
Bertha R. Comstock
indicate anything racial.
Pharr was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, not quite
fifty years ego. His parents, born free, were from South
Carolina, where three of his grandparents were slaves. One
grandfather was an Indian, but there is no record to show to
what tribe he belonged. As Wiley is the name of the master
to wham his slave ancestor owes a name, he figures that Pharr
must have been the Indian name, but he has no way of verifying
names or dates. His mother died when he was six weeks old, and
he was cared for by his grandmother and later by other female
relatives or by a hired nurse. He attended school in Salisbury,
where his father was employed in the railroad yards. Oi account
of his keen sense of hearing, he was made a car inspector and
served in that capacity for 26 years, being the only colored
inspector in North Carolina.
Living in Salisbury gave the boy an opportunity to go
to school. There WAS a good Negro school, grade and high school
courses, and after that the Negro Normal School and the A.M.E.
Zion College. Young Pharr did well in his classes and was ready
for the college when he found himself facing financial problems.
"How did you earn the money?" we asked.
"Well, I cleaned three offices every day,- a doctor, a
Kelsey L. Pharr
1026 N.W. 2nd Ave,
Jan. 31, 1932
Bertha R. Comstock
capital. He went north immediately and took a course in
balming. In six -weeks' time he was able to pass the New Ybrk
State examination for embalming and came back to Miami and
took charge of the business. It took three years to pay his
three silent partners and take over the whole business for
himself. Then he realised he must expand.
And at this point he revealed a fact that few people
knew until a short time ago. "I needed a little money to ex.
pand my undertaking business. I want to Mr. Roddy Burdine and
told him all about it, and asked him to loan me some money. HA
said I had an honest face, and he loaned me nine hundred dollars
without any security except my word. That's the kind of friend
he was. He never said very much about what he did, but I am
not the only one he has helped, both white and black. I paid
him back as quickly as I could. What he loaned ma made it
possible for me to improve my business and give a better service,
and that of course increased my income. It enabled me to get a
more and better paying patronage and I have been successful
because Mr. Burdine was my friend. Few people know anything
about all the good he did end how often he gave a helping hand
to those he befriended."
Asked about the prevalence of voodooism in colored
town, he said there is lots of it. "Where does it come from
Kelsey Le Pharr
1026 Mae 2nd kvs
Jan. 11, 1939
Bertha Re Comstock
and why does it have such a hold on the Negro?" "It comes
.from the,Babamas and from Jamaica and eapecially from Haiti,
and it holds the Negro because he is naturally a superstitious
creature. That is one of the things which the church and the
school must persistently and strenuously resist. We have to
educate our children to know how foolish these things aro, and
give them religiOus instruction that will turn their hearts to
the true God and the teachings of Christ. We have to lift
them out of their superstition and give them new ideals."
we mentioned that it was rumored that Father Devine
expects to establish a "Heaven" in Miami. Hs said, "I would
not be surprised if he did; he has a large following here."
"I$ it true that he was in Miami a year ago?" Be
replied, "I think it is; many of our people are carried away
with him, and there are some who follow him who are not colored."
is
"What is your opinion of him?" we asked. "Oh, bp/just
another racket,- just another scheme to get ignorant, easily
impressed victims into the net. Nobody knows, and nobody seems
to be able to find out where he gets his money, but he gets it
and keeps on going. We have to reach our people through the
church and school; charlatans like Father Divine work upon the
credulous and the only way to save then is to cure them of their
credulity."
Kelsey L. Pharr
1026 N.W. 2nd Ave
Jan. 11, 1939
Bertha R. Comstock
"What can you tell us about the Funeral Insurance Plan
to which so many Negroes adhere?" "Well" he said, "that is
another racket. It was started as a means to help colored
people save towards a fund that would pay funeral expenses
when needed. We found that funerals were costing too much,
and people were being fleeced and being made to pay often more
than double what the funeral really cost, and unless they !ul..
filled every requirement laid down in a contract hard for then
to understand, they did not get any benefits at all. For in-
stance, the contract required that the deathmust occur in
Dade County. If you happened to be in another county and met
with an accident, your contrast was void. If you were all paid
up except for one payment which was net due yet, you lost every-
thing because you were not paid up at the time of death. The
racketeers were so persuasive that you could not keep our people
from signing up with them. We got up a committee and went to
Tallahassee and tried to have thi racketeers dealt with by
legislation on the ground that they were doing an insurance
business without a license. The effort failed because it had
white backing."
"Then," continued Pharr, "we sew that we must fight fire
with fir.. I, at once, organised'A funeral benefit society of
my own, had canvassers all over colored town, and registered
Kelsey Pharr
1026 N.W. 2nd Ave
Jan. 11, 1939
Bertha R. Comstock
hundreds of subscribers. But I also did thias I gave them a
square deaI, so that they got the worth of their money, and I
also made it a leading item in my plan, that if they dies be-
fore their contract was paid up, they were properly buried and
the family had time to pay the balance, and no matter where
they died, they were given burial. Ihey did not have to die
inside of Dade County; that's how we got rid of that racket.
There are many more partial payment and installment payment
plans that must be taken care of. I intend to serve MY 1:401714
in this way as long as I live." He has over five hundred mem-
bers of his funeral benefit organisation, upon which he about
breaks even, for he has overhead expense that takes the small
profit.
Regarding his family, Pharr said his wife was from
South Carolina, and a graduate of Clifton College. .She died
eleven years ago and he does not care to remarry. His one son
is now a senior at Northwestern University, Chicago, and will
graduate this ooming June with music as his major. He has al.
ready had auditions at Hollywood and is also signed up for a
concert tour. He received the medal this year for being the
most outstanding student.
"Did he attend the Miami schools?" I asked.
"Just the grade school," he answered, "the colored
high school was not good enough when he was here We have a
Kelsey L. Pharr
1028 N.W. gad Ave
Jan. 11, 1939
Bertha B. Comstock
different man this year. and he has brought the standard up and
is still building a school where we can send our children with
perfect confidence."
He referred to Moseley Meredith, who was appointed to
the principalship of the Booker T. Washington school to succeed
Austin. All fifty-four teachers in this colored high school
have college degrees, and all will eventually -have life certifi-
cates. This is a project for which Pharr has worked energetically.
The work among the young people of the African Methodist
Episcopal Zion church is also a major project with him; he is
president of the society of his awn church in Miami, which is
exerting a strong influence upon the young Negroes of this area,
especially giving them social activities to keep them away from
evil associations, encouraging them to make the most of their
school and especially to abstain from gambling devices and occult
practices. For twenty-three years he has been at the head of the
young people's work of his denomination throughout the south,
and has lent his influence to the development of the spiritual
life among the young people of the several states where this
church is working.
References
Material for this article comes almost entirely from an
interview with Kelsey L. Pharr at his office in colored town.
His name was furnished me by Rev. Daniel Iverson, pastor
of the Shenandoah Presbyterian Church, who is chairman of the
Conference on Interracial Relations, an organization of white
and colored workers in the Miami area. They seek to arbitrate
differences, help the colored workers by advice and by inter-.
Gooding with officials, etc. Dr. Iverson was unamimously
chosen for the chairmanship of this important body because he
is a southerner, from an old South Carolinian family, and knows
the Negro. "I lave them" be says, "for I was born among them,
and have been associated with them all my life. I know them
and they know me."