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ON FRIDAY, Dec 24I read an article about Abe Sr. and Anniebelle Barham, the parents of Faye and Abe Lee Barham Jr. The article stated that Abe Barham Sr. and his wife Anniebelle supposedly ran the first black teen club in Alton, The Blue Eagle, from 1952 until 1972 at Belle and Piasa Streets.History should always be true and accurate and state nothing but fact.This is the second time this statement has been in The Telegraph in the past year stating that his parents opened the first black teen club from 1952 until 1972. This is just not true.I met with Mr. Albert Charleston and his wife Lucille and discussed this matter. I also met with Mrs. Anita Banks and Mr. Preston Shaw and others who were teenagers in 1952, and graduated from Alton High School in 1953, therefore, we were all teenagers during that time and we know who ran the black teen clubs.There were many black teen clubs long before Abe Barham Sr. started The Blue Eagle some 10 years later.Some of the clubs included Mrs. Zane’s, who ran a teenage club next door to the Casino Club in downtown Alton between 4th and 5th streets. Hundreds of black teens would gather there on weekends and play the jukebox, dance, eat and have fun. Black teens from out of town would come and join us.In 1952, Ms. Hattie Byrd opened another teen club. Ms. Byrd named her club Teentown. It was a much bigger place than Mrs. Zane’s club. We had teenagers coming in from Edwardsville,Collinsville, Madison and Venice to be with the kids from Alton at Teentown. We had over 200 kids every night on the weekends coming to Teentown. We intermingled and met many teens from all of these small surrounding towns that I have mentioned.Mr. Dan Guerdon opened a black teen club on Oakwood in 1957 because these other two clubs were so successful and teens also went to his club.In 1960 Dr. Alfred Kinsley, an instructor at SIU opened up the Community Center for A.A. kids on Belle Street diagonally across from where the current post office stands. Dr. Kinsley formed a board of directors for this new community center. Dr. C.P. Horton, Dr. Mack I.Davis, Pervis Smith and a few others served on this board.I was a young man of 26 years old and Dr. Kinsley asked me to run this community center.Mr. Bobby Collins Sr. remembers this place well.On Friday and Saturday nights we had two black radio disc jockeys spin records for us. They were Jimmy Bishop, “The Boss of Hot Sauce” and Father Lou Times. We kept that place packed on weekends with teens and young people that came here from as far away as Lebanon, 111.,‘every weekend.Dr. Kinsley wanted the community center integrated and it became the first integrated center with many white college students coming to the center. This center continued through 1962 when I decided I needed to go back to college and I enrolled in Ranken College of Electronics and gave up running the center and Dr. Kinsley let the center go.The Blue Eagle started after all of these other ventures.JAMES GRAY Alton
Newspaper Details
Alton Telegraph
Alton, Illinois, US
Sat, Jan 01, 2011
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Hayner P.
IL, USA 18 Dec 2023
Other Publications Near Alton, Illinois
Alton Evening Telegraph
Alton Observer
Labor World
Alton Weekly Telegraph
Alton Telegraph and Democratic review
