|
She is both fearless and
fierce. She is also superbly confident as well as supremely
confident. Theresa Gabriel arrived in Toledo from Harlan
County, Kentucky in the early 1940s at age three. She
inherited a bold sassiness from her mother, a former gang
supervisor who ran a railroad crew during World War II. That
sassiness, combined with an uncanny ability to create
strategy, marshal resources and execute impactful plans from
behind the scenes has enabled this Toledo legend to face
both tragedy and opportunity and emerge as victor rather
than victim.
Using a steady voice to
bring people together, Gabriel has previously served as
deputy director for the Lucas County Board of Elections; at
large member of Toledo City Council; assistant chief of
staff in the office of the Mayor, City of Toledo; director
Toledo Department of Human Services; director Clerk of
Courts for Toledo Municipal Court; director, City of Toledo
Department of Parks, Recreation and Forestry; commissioner
of Toledo’s Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor and many
other administrative positions for federal, state and local
programs.
In honor of Women’s
History Month, I hung out with the iconic Theresa Gabriel
for several hours discussing her history and the forces that
shaped it. The following is part one of our chat.
Perryman:
Please share with our readers about your early years in
Toledo.
Gabriel:
My uncle came to Toledo first. Mama sent money to him to
help him buy a duplex in the 900 block of Pinewood. That was
the first place we lived.
Perryman:
Where did you go to school?
Gabriel:
Roosevelt, which is now Martin Luther King, afterwards
Robinson and then to Scott.
Perryman:
Who were some of the people that had an influence on you
coming up?
Gabriel:
Growing up, it was people like Gladys Herron and Hazel
Harding, who was married to Merriweather Harding who owned
the M and L Bar on Dorr Street; Woodruff Adams, M.D. and
Thelma Adams; and more than anyone else, though, more time
was spent with J. Frank Troy.
I grew up in Phillips
Temple C.M.E. Church, which was on the corner of Lawrence
and Fernwood, so I’d just walk out the back door down the
alley to the church, so I basically grew up there. I
learned how to dance in Phillips Temple, I learned how to
roller skate in Phillips Temple. Reverend Sells was the
minister and he had seven or nine kids, so all of us in the
800 block and the 700 block, we congregated there because he
allowed us to have the run of the basement for kid games,
whatever, so many of the neighborhood youth were taught
there and Frank Troy would stay there with us.
Frank actually belonged to
Third Baptist, but he was dating my Sunday School teacher
LaGusta Douglas, one of the first African American women in
the armed forces, who had served as a coordinator for
activities in the mess halls and places where the soldiers
congregated. LaGusta told Frank Troy that I loved politics
and how smart I was. And so, he just took me under his
wing.
Daisy LaRose Huff, who was
the mother of Christian Temple Baptist’s Pastor Charles E.
Jones, who I grew up with and lived in the 1100 block of
Fernwood, was also a mentor. Gladys Herron, Perry Burroughs
and Mamie Williams all helped when I told them I wanted to
become active in politics. George Davis Jr. also was a
mentor, even though we were of different political parties
and would fuss and cuss with each other a lot.
Perryman:
What was it like for black people overall in Toledo during
the mid to late 1940s?
Gabriel:
The church was the mightiest thing in the city of Toledo and
we all worked together.
Perryman:
Can you please elaborate?
Gabriel:
Church membership was much greater than it is now. You had
Calvary Baptist, Mt. Zion, Friendship; you had Warren A.M.E.,
Phillips Temple CME, Third Baptist Church, and also Indiana
Avenue Baptist, which was being established during that
time. And of course, you had True Vine Baptist, out
Stickney. The churches in the city would be full.
Perryman:
How did the religious community affect the lives of black
people politically?
Gabriel:
They had a united front. For instance, when Donna Owens was
the mayor and the ministers decided to protest by coming
downtown to take over council chambers during a council
meeting, I was behind the scenes and when they began walking
up, very few people know it, but I grabbed Pastor Roberts’
coattail and he said ‘what’s wrong?’ And I said ‘all of you
can’t go up there because one of you has to get the rest out
of jail.’ Everybody thought that when he didn’t go up there
that he was backing out, but he was the one that got the
ministers out of jail.
Perryman:
He often tells that story today.
Gabriel:
It is the truth. Roberts is not a militant person, he’s a
behind the scenes activist. He’s a navigator. Today,
anything you say, almost before you get it out your mouth,
they’re putting it on Facebook and adding adjectives, verbs
and pronouns that didn’t even come out of your mouth. But
Roberts is one who navigated the system from behind the
scenes and made calls that no one ever knew about. And
that’s the difference.
Perryman:
Who were some of the other notable leaders who influenced
you, the black community and Toledo?
Gabriel:
The person that influenced me the most was Hazel Harding.
Perryman:
Many might not recognize the name. Please tell our readers
about Ms. Harding’s influence in your life.
Gabriel:
I love history and politics. I’m a political strategist and
Hazel Harding was a community activist who was a strategist.
She served on the state level of the Republican Party. Hazel
was also on the national level of the Republican Party and
part of the national women, black women, that started the
United Front, which was a Republican organization back in
the 50’s and 60’s. There was actually a college, a
university of training so that we, black folks, could be
groomed and nurtured in the Party.
Perryman:
A lot of people, including my wife, talk about how you,
yourself, have been an impactful mentor to her and an entire
generation of individuals. Jeffrey Johnson, the BET
personality and former University of Toledo student
government president recently spoke glowingly, also, of your
work with him and other young people. Others have talked
about your selfless giving as they came up as juniors in the
NAACP. Many people, however, did not know about your
benevolence and mentorship.
Gabriel:
My husband and I were both working so I could afford to help
young people when their parents didn’t give them money, and
I have always been a big fundraiser. I could get vehicles
to raffle off to raise money, to take 35, 45 young people
out of town and I would be death on them to use the right
fork and dress properly and don’t bring any NAACP babies
back. Everything that Hazel Harding had driven into me I
drove into them. Does it make sense now? Hazel taught me
how to…she forced me to type, I had to take business and
these are things, my mother was never exposed to that so…and
Wayman Palmer, city and county administrator, was another
one, he was one of my mentors.
Perryman:
What has been your greatest accomplishment? What would you
like to leave as your legacy?
Gabriel:
I had a daughter and a son, even though my daughter passed
away, that’s what I take to be my greatest accomplishment.
Perryman:
So, what’s next for Theresa Gabriel?
Gabriel:
I don’t know what I’m going
to do next. I really don’t. But my grandson has decided to
run for City Council, so I plan to help him but I’m not
going to be out front, it will be behind the scenes. While
everyone else is going to look at it like, ‘oh, there she
goes again,’ but I’m looking at it differently. White folks
have generations to follow them so why can’t a black person
have that? That’s the way I look at it.
Perryman:
That’s Robert Gabriel III? And, for representation of
District 1?
Gabriel:
Yes. In District 1, another generation of Gabriels is going
forth. He is a recent graduate from the University of Toledo
College of Law who has also been focusing on marketing local
businesses. In addition to the law degree he also has a
master’s degree in criminal justice and has been developing
restaurants and the entertainment scene.
Perryman:
Wow!
(To be continued)
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, D.Min, at
drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org
|
