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[ 61 ] Leadership and Lineage the rise of archibald j. carey jr. Archibald Carey Sr.’s children surely knew that their father was an important man. Into their large Chicago residence came a perennial parade of bishops and high church officials, who dined at Bishop Carey’s elegantly set table to settle denominational disputes and discuss church policies. Political dignitaries both black and white also knew the Carey address and made their way to 4744 South Parkway to plan strategies for electing municipal or state candidates or to arrange to have Carey speak on behalf of the GOP. Perhaps the sympathetic Carey children heard him say, “I have many duties that press me. I have no leisure. I seem not to have time for the enterprises in which I am engaged, but they are all important and I do the best I can.”1 Three of Archibald Carey Sr.’s five children were daughters, for whom ordination to the ministry was forbidden. Eloise (1891–1971), Annabel (1894–1982), and Dorothy (1903–72) grew up under the watchful eye and stern supervision of Elizabeth Davis Carey and saw their mother active as the dutiful wife of an ambitious AME minister. Though educated like her husband, Elizabeth Carey drew praise for her superbly run household and her skill in hosting church dignitaries. At the 1899 Iowa Annual Conference, for example, she entertained at dinner a bishop, several general officers, a military chaplain, and various pastors and spouses. “Mrs. Carey, the cultured wife of the doctor,” said one observer, “presided with dignity at the table and made us all feel at home.” Raising funds for the Women’s Parent Mite Missionary Society was another of Elizabeth Carey’s responsibilities. At the same Iowa Annual Conference, she and Reverdy C. Ransom’s wife, Emma Connor Ransom , raised $110 and $94, respectively, in a closely watched competition.2 chapter 4 the rise of archibald j. carey jr. [ 62 ] Elizabeth Carey’s full schedule of hosting, working with local and regional branches of AME missionary societies, and traveling with her busy husband meant that Eloise assumed an increasing number of domestic duties and helped at church. Though her brother, Madison (1896–1980), close in age to her and Annabel, needed no supervision, Archibald Jr., born in Chicago on February 29, 1908, became the responsibility of the older Carey children, especially Eloise; in fact, her maternal role seemed at times to supersede their sibling relationship. In 1916, during her father’s pastorate at Institutional, Eloise also taught a “literary class”: “quite a number of young people” were expected to benefit from her instruction. Eloise later received postsecondary education at Northwestern University and Chicago Normal College and earned a master’s degree at Columbia University and went on to teach English both in Chicago and at Harlem’s Harriet Beecher Stowe Junior High School. She thus belonged to what historian Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham has dubbed the “female talented tenth.”3 Perhaps her mother’s example influenced Eloise’s decision to marry a minister. Shelton Hale Bishop (1889–1962), a New York City native and curate at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Chicago, was also a child of the parsonage. His father, Hutchens Chew Bishop (1858–1937), was the longtime rector of New York’s St. Philip Episcopal Church, a prominent parish that he relocated to Harlem in 1910. Eloise and Shelton’s 1919 wedding, with her father officiating, received widespread coverage in the black press. Shelton Bishop was serving as rector at Pittsburgh’s fledgling Holy Cross Episcopal Church, and Eloise assumed duties at her husband’s parish that resembled those she had performed at her father’s churches. When Shelton left for New York to assist at St. Philip, Eloise resisted the move. Now the mother of three children, she resented her sister-in-law, who presided at the Bishop household as Eloise had done for her busy parents. An ugly divorce and an acrimonious custody battle ended what had appeared to be an ideal union between two elite families.4 Eloise’s sisters followed her into the teaching profession. Annabel studied at the University of Chicago and earned a doctorate at Columbia University. She returned to Chicago and taught at Wendell Phillips High School, served as a vice principal, and became director of human relations for the Chicago public schools. Dorothy, an alumna of Northwestern University who received a master’s degree at Columbia, also taught English in the Chicago schools before...

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