A True Likeness

The Black South of Richard Samuel Roberts, 1920–1936

Thomas L. Johnson, Phillip C. Dunn, Thomas L. Johnson, Phillip C. Dunn

• Publisher: University of South Carolina Press
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781643360164
• eBook ISBN: 9781643360171
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: African American History
• Index: History

Extraordinary photos that reveal the social, economic, and cultural realities of the Black South

A True Likeness showcases the extraordinary photography of Richard Samuel Roberts (1880–1935), who operated a studio in Columbia, South Carolina, from 1920 to 1935. He was one of the few major African American commercial photographers working in the region during the first half of the twentieth century, and his images reveal the social, economic, and cultural realities of the black South and document the rise of a small but significant southern black middle class.

The nearly two hundred photographs in A True Likeness were selected from three thousand glass plates that had been stored for decades in a crawl space under the Roberts home. The collection includes "true likenesses" of teachers, preachers, undertakers, carpenters, brick masons, dressmakers, chauffeurs, entertainers, and athletes, as well as the poor, with dignity and respect and an eye for character and beauty.

Thomas L. Johnson and Phillip C. Dunn received a 1987 Lillian Smith Book Award for their work on this book. This new edition of A True Likeness features a new foreword by Elaine Nichols, the supervisory curator of culture at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C. A new afterword is provided by Thomas L. Johnson.

A True Likeness

Wilhelmina Pearl Williams Roberts (1881-1977), before 1920. Roberts made this portrait of his wife at his Gem Studio in Fernandina. Her daughter Wilhelmina has described Mrs. Roberts as a small, energetic, talented woman who “lived education,” worked hard, and responded to the appeal of anyone in need.

Wilhelmina Telitha Minnie Roberts (b. 1915), ca. 1919. Roberts took many pictures of his children. This one, of his older daughter, was made in the Gem Studio. The seventh child of a seventh child, Wilhelmina was considered charmed by her mother. She graduated from St. Augustine’s College in Raleigh in 1937 and from the Atlanta University School of Social Work in 1948. She was a caseworker with the Family Welfare Society in Columbia before moving to New York City, where she became established as a social worker, schoolteacher, and homemaker.

The Roberts family with live-in students and studio assistants, ca. 1924. Mrs. Roberts insisted that her home be opened to take in young women from rural areas in South Carolina to enable them to attend high school in Columbia. Pictured in the back yard of the Robertses’ home at 1717 Wayne Street beside their first car, a secondhand 1924 Dodge, are (seated left to right) Martha Paris; Henry Hawkes, a cousin from Chicago; Cornelius Roberts; Miriam Roberts; Mrs. Richard S. Roberts; Wilhelmina Roberts; Richard S. Roberts; Mamie Verdier, a Florida friend; (standing) Beverly N. Roberts; Eva Lorick; Ethel Spence; Mary Paris; Janie Paris; Leola Paris; Fannie Paris; and Gerald E. Roberts. The Parises were from Irmo, South Carolina, and Janie Paris assisted Roberts in the studio for many years.

Joseph Williams, probably 1920s. A part of the extended Roberts family in Columbia, “Uncle Joe” was Mrs. Roberts’s brother. A former jockey, he drove a hack, drawn by a white horse.

Geneva Cornwell Scott, 1920s. The Cornwells were the Robertses’ next-door neighbors at 1713 Wayne Street. Mrs. Scott was a truant officer with the city school system. Her sister, Harriett, an elementary school teacher, introduced the editors to the Roberts family.

Eliza James, 1920s. Master brickmason James and his wife Eliza were the Robertses’ next-door neighbors at 1723 Wayne Street. She is photographed here in her front yard. Roberts’s daughter Wilhelmina remembers that Mrs. James wore beautiful hats and long dresses that were either lavender or black and white.

Mr. and Mrs. William Manigault, 1920s. William Manigault (1883-1940) was a prominent Columbia mortician and owner of the Congaree Casket Company which reputedly employed more blacks than any other black-owned business in South Carolina. His wife, Annie Rivers (1892-1954), was called the “Belle of Ward One.” The Manigaults lived a few houses down from the Roberts family on the same side of the street, at 1703 Wayne. The Manigaults may have been the first black family in Columbia to own a private swimming pool, which they built for their grandson, Anthony (Tony) Hurley, to play in as a boy.

Manigault-Gaten-Williams Funeral Home, ca. 1925-1927. Manigault’s funeral home, located at 712-714 Main Street, was one of four black undertaking establishments operating in Columbia during the late 1920s. A Manigault Funeral Home continues in Columbia, under the direction of the founder’s grandson, Anthony Hurley.

Annie Mae Manigault (1907-1976), 1920s. After graduating from the Renouard School of Embalming in New York City, Miss Manigault came back to Columbia to work with her parents in the Manigault Funeral Home, launching a business career which lasted for fifty years. “We have a lady licensed Embalmer,” local ads proclaimed. “When I started,” she said many years later, “we worked out of the homes. In those days it was customary to work on a body in the house. I was young then and it didn’t bother me much.”

The Baylor Family, 1920s. With the Reverend Richard W. Baylor and his wife Delphine (seated) are Walter, Luther, and Bertie, three of their eight children. Baylor had been pastor of Zion Baptist Church from 1890 to 1913. Under his leadership church membership increased, a mortgage was paid off, and a parsonage was built. Columbia city directories of the 1920s show that during this period Baylor and his son Luther operated a grocery store in the same building in which they lived.

Mattie W. Holmes with nephew Holmes Lindsay in front of her residence, early 1920s. Mrs. Holmes, a widow, lived across from the Richland County jail. She owned rental property in Columbia and was driven by Lindsay in her 1919 Dodge sedan to collect the rents. Mrs. Holmes died in 1942 at the age of ninety-four.

Cornelius C. Roberts (b. 1913), ca. 1925. This is the only surviving picture of any of Roberts’s studio cameras. His youngest son, Cornelius, has a plateholder in his hand. After graduating from the Hampton Institute Trade School in 1936, with a specialty in electrical science, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Copyright
• Contents
• Foreword
• Richard Samuel Roberts: An Introduction
• A True Likeness
• Afterword
• Acknowledgments for the 2019 Edition