People | Esther M Lee African American Heritage Center

Rev. Roberts and the Bethlehem Community Civic League

by Lou64JLL | Nov 16, 2024 | Organizations, People

Wakefield Roberts, a North Carolina native, worked with migrant workers in Adams County during the mid-1950s after serving with the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division during the Korean War.

By 1956, Rev. Roberts was transferred to St. John AME Zion Church on Bethlehem’s South Side. After leaving the parish in 1966, Roberts went on to serve as executive director of the Community Action Committee of the Lehigh Valley, working with Pat Levin, the then executive director of Allentown’s Community Services for Children.

“We are all grateful for his vision,” Levin said.

Roberts would go on to help found the Bethlehem Community Civic League, which strove to eliminate discrimination in housing, employment and education. He also worked with the Colored Voters Association and the Elks.

Esther Lee, then president of the Bethlehem NAACP said Roberts was a visionary who worked diligently to advance race relations in the Lehigh Valley before the civil rights movement drew national attention during the 1960s.

“Roberts always tried to push all of us to be better,” Lee said. “A lot of what we have today would not have been possible without his efforts.”

Lane Family

by Lou64JLL | Nov 10, 2024 | People, People Firsts

Abraham Lane b. 1861 – d. 1906
Abraham was Bethlehem’s first black businessman, a well-known caterer and owner of properties in South Bethlehem. He also ran a tea room in the 500 block of Cherokee Street. Abraham had the property at 627 Cherokee Street built in 1890.

Abraham (Abram) Lane was born July 26, 1861, in Piney Grove, Sampson County, North Carolina to Richard and Lavinia (nee Cox) Lane. His siblings were a sister Caroline and a brother Robert. Abraham married Clara Brown in 1885 in Philadelphia. They had nine children, 7 boys and two girls. All were baptized at the Cathedral Church of the Nativity, 321 Wyandotte Street, Bethlehem, PA.

We don’t the means by which he arrived in Bethlehem, but by 1880 or maybe before, Abraham as a young man, was working as a servant for E. P. Wilbur, the industrialist / banker and nephew of Lehigh Valley railroad founder Asa Packer of Jim Thorpe, PA. Clara lived in Jim Thorpe at the time and it is known since Abraham accompnaied E. P. Wilbur on his trips to visit his uncle Asa, that the two met.

Children of Abraham and Clara:
Richard Henry Lane**
b. 1886 – d. ? – Dining Car Waiter
Aaron Faucett Lane**
b. 1887 – d. 1964 – Waiter on ships
Abraham Lane II*
b. 1891 – d. 1970 – Waiter (upstate New York)
William Thurston Lane*
b. 1893 – d. 1977 – Waiter at Hotel Bethlehem
Robert Julius Lane*
b. 1895 – d. 1980 – Waiter at Hotel Bethlehem
Albert Victor Lane*
b. 1898 – d. 1943 – Waiter
Clara Isabella Lane
b. 1899 – d. 1936 – School Teacher, Atlantic City, NJ
Lavinia Lane
b. 1902 – d. 2001 – Cook
Walter Lane*
b. 1904 – d. 1984 – Waiter and Red Cap

** Shown in photo Richard and Aaron
(boys with dresses)
* All enlisted in WWI and WWII

Clara Lane, 1940s. Wife of Abraham Lane.

Abraham Lane

Aaron Lane

Richard and Aaron Lane

Clara lane (daughter) with her students.

Hiram Bradley

by Lou64JLL | Jul 28, 2022 | People, People Firsts

Interview with Herbert Bradley, Hiram Bradley’s great grandson.

Herbert Bradley shares that his great-grandfather, Hiram Bradley (1814-1881), was the first Black person to arrive in Bethlehem in 1860, from Powhattan County, Virginia. He was an indentured servant to Tinsley Jeter, one of South Bethlehem’s leading entrepreneurs.

He wed Rachel Emma Walsh on June 25, 1862, at a Presbyterian Church on the outskirts of Lehigh, Pennsylvania. They had eight children all who were baptized at the Pro Cathedral Church of the Nativity. In fact, Alfred Tinsley and Mary Jeter, the Bradley’s first children, were the fourth and fifth persons baptized in the newly consecrated Church of the Nativity, in 1865.

Hiram was himself baptized in 1877, with Tinsley Jeter standing as sponsor. Many of the children of these early Black families of Nativity later left Bethlehem to follow education and work in other places; others were instrumental in the founding of St. John African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, at 718 Pawnee Street, Bethlehem, PA, where they could worship and exercise leadership uninhibited; others, such as the descendants of Abram and Clara Lane, are now multi-generational parishioners of the Cathedral. Hiram also worked for Bethlehem Steel.

Herbert Bradley’s father’s name is Herbert Frank Bradley and worked at Bethlehem Steel and the Bethlehem Hotel. His mother’s name is Leila, from Easton, Pa.

The Bradley Children:
Alfred Tinsley Bradley – b. 1863 – d. 1929 -Stableman
Mary Jeter Bradley – b. 1864
Harry Bradley – b. 1866 – Driver
Hiram Bradley, Jr. – b. 1868
Elizabeth Bradley – b. 1871
Emma Theresa – b. 1874 – d. 1885
Frank Herbert Bradley- b. 1878 – d. 1965 Steelworker
Robert Bradley – b. 1878 Coachman/Steelworker
Joseph Montgomery Bradley – b. 1884 – d.1885

Vivian Butts

by Lou64JLL | Jul 28, 2022 | People, People Firsts

Vivian Williams Butts is the daughter of the late Wendell Curtis Williams and the late Catherine Lily Spruill Williams; born in Fentress, VA. Vivian joined the Bethlehem Police Department in 1964, becoming the city’s first female officer. Promoted to sergeant in 1980, she retired in 1989 after 25 years of service.

Ada Brady

by Lou64JLL | Jul 26, 2022 | Churches, Educators, People

Ada Pauline Brady of Bethlehem, PA, was born in Newport News, VA, in 1922. Ada was the daughter of the late Redmond Brady and Julia (Jones) Brady-Williams. Ada was reared in Bethlehem and is a graduate of Liberty High School. She received her Bachelors Degree in Social Work from Hampton University and a K-3 Teaching Certificate from Bank Street College of Education. She worked as a Social Worker in New York City and was an elementary teacher in the Bethlehem School District for 21 years.

Ada was a community activist, serving with South Bethlehem Neighborhood Center, Bethlehem Branch NAACP and Church Women United. A devout Christian and active member of St. John A.M.E. Zion Church, she served as organist and Minister of Music, Class Leader, Trustee, Missionary and sang in two church choirs. She also served as the Local Life Members Chair of the Women’s Home and Overseas Missionary Society.

Maria P. Walton

by Lou64JLL | Jul 26, 2022 | People

Mrs. Maria Palmer Walton, born 1894 in Virginia, was the local beautician/hairdresser in Bethlehem beginning in the late 1950s through the 1960s. With a college education from Hampton University, she was able to be proprietor of her own beauty salon located on Brodhead Avenue, South Bethlehem.

Maria was born in 1894 and passed away in 1978. Her husband was William M. Walton who was bus driver for the Bethlehem Steel plant in 1950. Maria is the sister to Olivia Palmer Clark.