African Americans' role in Hawai'i noted
| • | State to honor civil rights hero |
| • | Holiday schedule of events |
| • | What's open and closed on Martin Luther King Jr. Day |
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Staff Writer
The 33,343 African Americans living in Hawai'i represent 2.8 percent of the total population of 1.2 million, according to the 2000 Census.
Kathryn Waddell Takara, an assistant professor and lecturer in ethnic studies at the University of Hawai'i-Manoa, has done extensive research into the history of blacks in Hawai'i. The earliest settlers of African ancestry were here before the missionaries arrived in 1821, she said.
"Blacks because of their ... past (slavery), did not want to identify with their race," Takara said. "They intermarried and became categorized as part-Hawaiian or 'others' (in population statistics). Some were Portuguese from the Cape Verde Islands (off the West Africa coast). Others came on whaling ships from New Bedford and Nantucket."
According to Takara's research, a man called "Black Jack" or "Mr. Keaka'ele'ele" was living on O'ahu when King Kamehameha captured the island in 1796.
"It is said he helped build a storehouse for Queen Ka'ahumanu in Lahaina and probably made his living in the maritime industry," Takara said.
There were others, perhaps as many as a dozen at any one time. Among the prominent early settlers was Anthony D. Allen, an ex-slave who came to O'ahu from New York in 1811.
Allen married a Hawaiian woman, had three children and was granted six acres of land in Waikiki in 1813, Takara said. He set up a boarding house, bowling alley, saloon, the hospital for American seamen in Pawa'a and is credited with building one of the first schools in the islands and the first carriage road to Manoa Valley, she said.
Betsy Stockton, an ex-slave of the president of Princeton University and an educated woman, lived in Hawai'i for only 2ý years but her accomplishments are noteworthy. Stockton came here with the Charles Stuart family from New Haven, Conn., in 1823. She learned the Hawaiian language and founded the first school for commoners on Maui.
"The school she founded is where Lahainaluna High School is now located," Takara said. "She not only taught traditional studies but also manual arts."
In the late 19th century, Booker T. Washington visited Hawai'i to explore the possibility of black plantation workers coming here to work with Japanese, Chinese, Filipino and Portuguese workers.
"To his surprise and discovery, he found the working conditions here in many ways worse than in the South," Takara said.
Among the other notables are attorneys T. McCants, who served in King Kalakaua's Cabinet; William F. Crockett, who became a judge and territorial senator; Carlotta Lai, McCants' daughter who graduated from Punahou and became principal of Kaua'i's Hanama'ulu School; Kaua'i native James Oliver Mitchell, who taught on O'ahu and Maui for 46 years; Nolle R. Smith Sr., an engineer, fiscal expert and territorial representative; and Eva B. Jones Smith (aka Eva Cunningham), a piano teacher and the first woman to be host of a radio show in Hawai'i.
Alice Ball, from an African American family noted for photography, became the first woman to earn a master's degree in science at UH in 1915.
"She came up with a major breakthrough toward the cure of leprosy," Takara said. "They called her a Hawaiian, which could mean she lived here, but not African American. It wasn't until two years ago that she received recognition for her work and a tree was planted in her honor at UH."
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
