CLARA C. BABINO

CLARA C. BABINO would very likely have sympathized with New Orleans’ Hurricane Katrina survivors that were displaced by an act of God, insofar as an earthquake that in 1916 Alabama surely contributed to her parent’s decision to move to Texas. The largest earthquake reported in Alabama’s history happened in October 1916 (the year Clara was born), in northern Shelby County. Intensity was VII on the Modified Mercalli Scale, indicating a very strong earthquake occurred on an unnamed fault east of Birmingham. It was apparently most strong at Easonville. Near the epicenter, chimneys were knocked down, windows broken, and frame buildings "badly shaken." It was noted by residents in seven states and covered 100,000 square. In addition, the Ku Klux Klan made Blacks feel unwelcomed in Alabama. Ironically, according to The New Georgia Encyclopedia, at a time when Alabama and the rest of the southern states were trying to turn back the clock for newly freed African Americans, former slaves in New Orleans enjoyed many privileges that their forefathers could only dream of before the Civil War. They could vote, hold office and attend school. New Orleans, Louisiana, was one of the more integrated cities in the South. It desegregated its streetcars in 1867, began experimenting with integrated public schools in 1869, legalized interracial marriage between 1868 and 1896, elected a total of 32 Black state senators and 95 state representatives, and had integrated juries, public boards, and police departments. Conversely, freed slaves in Alabama were lamenting the rebirth of the Klan. In David M. Chalmer’s 1987 book, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, it’s chronicled how the original Klan of the Reconstruction era (the secret society dedicated to white supremacy in the United States), was suppressed by the federal government. Nevertheless, in following decades, its violent activities were increasingly rationalized and even romanticized, most notably in Thomas Dixon's popular novels, The Leopard's Spots (1902) and The Clansman (1905). History records that the filmmaker D. W. Griffith, a Kentucky native whose father had fought for the Confederacy, adapted Dixon's novels for his 1915 silent screen epic, The Birth of a Nation, which solidified the emerging image of the Klan as a noble organization that had saved the post–Civil War South from the tyranny and corruption of southern Blacks and northern Republicans. Clara, the second of five children was only two years old when her parents decided to move to a booming Texas town, located on the Buffalo Bayou, which had been founded by John H. Harris in 1824. They settled in Harrisburg’s (predominately Black) Smith Addition. Clara attended Harrisburg Public School. Clara also attended First Baptist Church in her youth, under the leadership of Rev. Paige. Later she joined Pleasant Hill Baptist Church in Harrisburg, and was baptized by Rev. Anderson. After the family moved to Third Ward, she continued her education at Jack Yates High School. Clara married John L. Babino. Unto this union no children were born, but her family became his children. She loved them as the children she never had. She loved her friends as well. As an adult, she united with Fourth Missionary Baptist Church, Rev. Branch, Pastor. Her final church home until her death was Faith MBC. And it was at Faith MBC, 5318 Arapahoe St., her long and very happy life was celebrated on Jan. 10, 2005, with Pastor R. Robertson officiating. Wyatt Jones blessed the homegoing services with a solo and active pallbearers were Men of Faith MBC. Allen Babino, Anthony Copeland, Charles Riggins, Ernest Brisco, Jr. and Johnny Jones were honorary pallbearers for Clara, who was born to the union of the late Alexander and Bessie Copeland, June 13, 1916. Her sunset was Jan. 3, 2005 and she leaves to mourn: one brother, James Copeland; one sister, Mittie Wade; two sisters-in-law, Beulah Copeland and Bennie Babino; a host of nieces, nephews and friends.