Pocahontas Kay Grizzard Pope

Pocahontas Kay Grizzard Pope (~1864-1938) was a woman of some distinction and achievement in the 19th and 20th centuries. Of uncertain ancestry, some propose Haliwa-Saponi heritage, she was certainly black but of free black people in Halifax County, NC.

Her mother Mary Sanlin Kay Grizzard held property including the old County Clerk of Court Office building when it became a private home. Her father John W. Kay is little known but may be the Haliwa-Saponi connection. Soon Pocahontas Kay Grizzard married Rev. John W. Pope, kin to Dr. Manassa Pope, a prominent Africa-American doctor of North Carolina. John was 8 years her senior and together for some 15 years they served in one or another black schools in Plymouth, Scotland Neck, or Rich Square, NC, areas of deeply rural community. However with the hostility and political changes peaking in 1898 the Popes moved to Washington D.C. where John got a job working for the US Census. Soon both were active in black society, associated with then Congress Representative George H. White and others, giving scholarly presentations, and community activism. Around the same time, somewhere between 1902 and 1906 Pope became interested in the Bahá'í Faith through Pauline Knobloch Hannen, and joined the religion as the first DC black Bahá'í - the first of some 16 by 1909 including Louis Gregory, then a rising leader of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society. This interracial community of Bahá'ís was noted as the community's most enduring distinction. However in 1909 Pope's mother died and after 1910 little is seen of her.

She may have been visited by `Abdu'l-Bahá in 1912, then head of the religion, and did receive a tablet from him which was translated and published. Pocahontas and John never had children and he died in 1918. Pope lived on two more decades without being mentioned in newspapers save when she died - and her last two years were hospitalized. Her house has been noted in tours offered by the Washington D. C. Bahá'í community.

Ancestry

Pocahontas Pope's parent were John Kay and Mary Sanlin - they married in January 1861. He had died before 1876 and is not mentioned in the 1870 census. It lists Pope as daughter to Mary Cha, which could be related to the surname Kay as in John Kay, with Pope's siblings listed as Walter, Milley and Roxanne. W.(Walter) W. Kay’s death certificate indicates John Kay was his father and Mary Sandilin his mother. The Halifax County Historical Association 1974 report including a chapter on the history of the County Clerk Office building, notes the building was rented to, and later bought by, Mary Kay Nov 11, 1876 or earlier, now wife of Lundy Grizzard, and Mary “was born Mary Sanling about 1846… married John Kay on Jan 11, 1861.” Many decades later Pope was visited by a Kay family member who called her his aunt. The building was passed through Mary Grizzard to her son Alexander, but the report notes that he had moved away and did not engage with the Halifax property while the family continued living there into the 1920s - and he too was not a name mentioned on the 1870 census. An Alex Kay was also mentioned in Pope's Will. The lot passed back to the county government in March, 1940. It is still standing.^{pp. 209–210} The 1870 Census indicates Mary as 25 yrs old then, so born later 1844 to early 1846. Pope’s maternal grandparents might have been recorded married in 1844: there is mention of a Malissa Scott marrying a Thomas Sanderling. Grizzard was later known in local and regional politics and local racism is certainly visible in the newspaper article covering his mention. Lundy Grizzard also worked as a prison guard.

The birth year of Pocahontas Cha/Kay seems to be between 1863 and 1866, most probably 1864, with various lines of evidence:

• The 1870 US Census shows her 6 years old, so born between later 1863 and early 1865.
• The 1880 US Census points to later 1864 to early 1866.
• Her 1883 marriage record indicated she was 18 years old, favoring between later 1864 and early 1866.
• The 1900 Census says she was born June, 1863, though her reported age of 36 places her between later 1863 and early 1865.
• Records from the hospital of her death indicate she was 74 in 1938 favoring 1863-5.

The 1880 Census lists her living with another family acting as a nurse to J. A. Moore listed as “Poca Kay”. This seems to be a white local lawyer and he also employed a cook for a family with three kids in the town of Halifax.

Married

After the marriage of Pocahontas Pope's mother Mary Sanlin Cha/Kay to Lundy Grizzard, Pocahontas took the surname as well. Pocahontas then married John W. Pope on Dec 26, 1884. She was recorded as 18 yrs old and he was 26. John W. Pope had been a teacher and was just promoted to be principal of a school in Plymouth, NC, at $50/mth and would serve there into 1886. He had been there since at least 1883. Before that John was known in republican politics in the region and struggling with racism. While at Scotland Neck, Pope was known to play organ for the school graduation ceremony in 1887 and read a paper. That autumn John looked to be continuing there, however he did not. In 1890 John served in the state republican convention. In later November, 1892, John wrote for a group to celebrate Emancipation coming up in January 1893.

In July 1895 Pope was part of a committee arranging a lawn party in Rich Square, NC, for the benefit of an AME Church. In December 1896 John was one of the managers of a fundraiser for the Rich Square AME Sunday School. John offered a presentation at the Rich Square emancipation celebration in January 1897. The principal for the Rich Square Academy, who had been with the school at least since 1894, died in February. From at least April 1897 through the spring of 1898 John was principal of the Rich Square Academy, and identified as a minister and was soon a visible leader of the community as well. In May 1897 he assisted the local newspaper on a column covering information of interest to colored people, and also gave instruction for local teachers lasting about two months. In December he performed a wedding. In January 1898 the Popes hosted NC Representative George H. White. In April John gave a speech on the “progress and achievement of the negro race” at a gathering of thousands. In May he was elected a commissioner for Rich Square.

Washington, D. C.

However statewide politics and society became more dangerous for blacks in 1898 with violence and a coup in Wilmington, the establishment of white supremacy practice with Jim Crow laws and general disengranchisements. From the Spring of 1898 the Popes were known living in Washington, D.C.; initially John had a job in the Register of Deeds office though some hoped for his return in the fall, instead another person was named principal there. Pocahontas Pope did return in the fall of 1899 to support the Rich Square Academy. It would struggle on through a number of reorganizations and attempts to sell it though it continued into 1910. The 1900 US census places the Popes in DC as boarders of the African-American Frank D. Allen family, (there are other mistakes though - John’s name for James, listed as married 14 years but it would have been closer to 17 years while on the other hand it correctly identifies John’s job as for the government.) Allen died in 1904.

Pope participated in the scholarly discussions of the day in a number of events and both took leadership actions. In May 1900 she was among the respondents to criticism of the progress of blacks in the newspaper by Charles Dudley Warner, and in July she was in the Baptist Lyceum educational fair even to presenting a paper of her own on race relations that earned her a positive reputation. Pope was an officer of the 1901 lyceum, and both Popes were officers of the next lyceum in the summer of 1902. Meanwhile John earned a raise at the Census office, and helped honor George H. White's retirement from Congress. In the winter of 1901-2 John was let go from the Census office but moved over to the federal government printing office. In 1905 Pocahontas was on the committee pledged to meet with the city school board for introducing black history in the public school curriculum, and John was part of a delegation meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt urging a position for ex-Congressman George H. White.

Pocahontas or both continued to take trips back to Rich Square some years. The Popes moved the Spring of 1903 to 1300 Florida Ave NE.

In November 1902 Pauline Knobloch Hannen joined the Bahá’í Faith.^{pp. 137, 224–6} She had been born in DC, raised in Wilmington, NC, and lived again in DC some years, joining the religion only a few years after its introduction there in 1898, and only some months after Mírzá Abu'l-Fadl came to the city. The community’s most lasting impact was its success in reaching black Americans and much of the credit for that success was attributed to Joseph and Pauline Hannen, and particularly to Pauline’s initiatives. Pope joined the religion in 1906 - she was the first black Bahá’í of Washington, D. C. Her inquiry to the religion thus would have been between 1902 and 1906, the period of much of her scholarly efforts and activism. Pope had been employed as a seamstress of a sister of Pauline's and held Bahá’í meetings in her own home including talks by Lua Getsinger and Hooper Harris while other meetings were held in another home of a black Bahá'í, Rhoda Turner, with Howard MacNutt. By 1908 fifteen black Americans joined the religion in DC and Louis Gregory in 1909, then a rising leader of the Bethel Literary and Historical Society. Pope received a tablet from `Abdu’l-Bahá, then head of the religion. Some of the text of the tablet was translated:

Render thanks to the Lord that among that race thou art the first believer, that thou hast engaged in spreading sweet-scented breezes, and hast arisen to guide others. It is my hope that through the bounties and favours of the Abhá Beauty thy countenance may be illumined, thy disposition pleasing, and thy fragrance diffused, that thine eyes may be seeing, thine ears attentive, thy tongue eloquent, thy heart filled with supreme glad-tidings, and thy soul refreshed by divine fragrances, so that thou mayest arise among that race and occupy thyself with the edification of the people, and become filled with light. Although the pupil of the eye is black, it is the source of light. Thou shalt likewise be. The disposition should be bright, not the appearance. Therefore, with supreme confidence and certitude, say: “O God! Make me a radiant light, a shining lamp, and a brilliant star, so that I may illumine the hearts with an effulgent ray from Thy Kingdom of Abhá….

There has been some question what “that race” refers to. The compilation from 1986 with the quote did not elaborate. Robert Stockman considered the possibility of Indian heritage but favored only viewing her as of African descent because the 1900 Census listed her as black though she was not the first black Bahá'í.^{p. 225} However terms like black, mullato, even free black, are of mixed use in the local area. - the county is known as the home of the majority of the Haliwa-Saponi nation. In 2016 Dr. Christopher Buck entertained the possibility of Indian ancestry but sided with it just referring her to African American. There is not any definitive evidence of her being of Native American descent so far.

In 1909 John became an officer of the local branch of the Interdenominational Bible Education Association. The association especially marked the birthday of George Washington and John gave the keynote address, and spoke also at a Bible study session in May. Meanwhile Pope’s mother died in April 1909. In January 1910 Pope attended a reception at St. Luke’s Church, and in April received visitors at her home then at 12 N St, NW, and a sister in May. In the 1910 census John is listed as a laborer and she is listed as a dressmaker.

Relatively little is known of Pope after about 1910 and most of that related to Will probations noted in the newspapers.

The one year anniversary of the death of Mary Gizzard, naming daughters Malissa Lyles and Pocahontas Pope, was noted in the Evening Star in April 1910. She was recieved by Mrs. M. C. Maxfield in January 1911, and Dr. John W. Kay from Shaw University visited his aunt in November. The next year Pope may have been visited by `Abdu'l-Bahá in 1912 during his sojourn in America - he is reported to have visited a sick African-American in November and visited in return by an African-American minister who may have been John W. Pope.The Popes then lived at 1500 1st St. The progression from a multiracial community to an integrated one proceed - the Hannens already held integrated meetings but not all were. Consultations in the community proceeded, and, following requests of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in 1910 another set of integrated meetings took place and multiplied. A national standard with rare exceptions of integrated meeting was not put in place until the 1930s, and then those exceptions put to rest.

In February 1915 John was reported sick, and was on a leave of absence in August, and listed sick again in December, and August 1916, and again in December. He was let go in later March, 1918, and died the end of the month, followed by the settling of the Will, with Pocahontas Pope the sole beneficiary, and named kin as Dr. Manassas T. Pope and Rev. Cicero Pope. Dr. Pope was a prominent African-American doctor of North Carolina - he graduated from Shaw University in 1885 with a degree in medicine, had a pharmacy business, served in the Spanish American War, and His home is on the national register of historic places by the National Park Service and is a museum. Pope posted a remembrance of him in the newspaper a year later, and the next two more. The 1920 and 1930 census’ noted Pope listed with lodgers in the home and working as a dressmaker. The last two years of her life she was a patient at Saint Elizabeth’s hospital. Pocahontas Pope died 11 Nov 1938, late in the evening of cardiovascular failure by hypostatic pneumonia confirmed by an autopsy. She was listed as a Baptist, but in her connection with the Faith in those early years Bahá’ís were not required to leave their former religious communities and indeed sometimes were encouraged to remain active in them.^{pp. 190, 228-9, 397}

One newspaper article notes family relations and other details - nieces Clementine Kay Plummer and Mrs. Charles Hawkins of Portsmouth, VA, nephew Lawrence A. Lyles of Asheville, NC, and that she was buried in the Columbian Harmony Cemetery at 9th Street NE and Rhode Island Avenue NE in Washington, DC after services at the Second Baptist Church on 3rd St. Clementine Kay Plummer was the executrix of her Will. It lists some of the next of kin as inheritors. In order as listed they were: Alex Kay, Ines Kay, Viola Hawkins, Gloria Kay, Andrew Kay, Constance Kay, Cleo Blakely, John W. Kay Jr, June Kay with custodian Mrs. Willie Otey Kay, and Antonio Orsot custodian for Beatrice L. Orsot.

In 1960, the graves at Columbian Harmony Cemetery, including that of Pocahontas Pope, were relocated to the National Harmony Memorial Park in Maryland.

Remembered

Marker at Pope's grave in 2020.

A compilation of the Bahá'í Writings on Women was produced in 1986 and included the tablet written to Pope. In 2009 members of the Washington, D. C. Bahá’í community produced a tour of the early sites of the Bahá’í Faith which in 2012 included the home of the Popes. In 2014 a find-a-grave entry was made for her. In 2016 a couple of web articles related to the Bahá’í Faith noted her. In 2017 her grave was found unmarked since her burial. In consultation with the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Washington, DC, plans were prepared to place a Bahá'í marker on her grave. In 2018, a special ceremony was held to unveil a marker that was made possible through the efforts of many individual Baha'i donors.

Further reading

• Niki Daniels (June 29, 2018). "Honoring Pocahontas Pope, the First African American Bahá'í in Washington, D.C." Willmett Institute.

• Jacqueline Fuller (May 30, 2018). "First D.C.-Based African American of the Bahá'í Faith Memorialized". The Washington Informer. Washington, DC.