Although plantation slavery was over , the oppression continued for Branchcomb in the subtle form of a new and senseless racism . When his childhood rheumatic fever landed him in a Catholic hospital for a year without any schooling , the nuns , under the guise of wanting him to rest , kept him a prisoner of an imposed ignorance by not letting him read . “ I had a brain ,” says Branchcomb , “ but it was put on hold .”
Branchcomb says there was also a teacher who encouraged him to go to Russia with two other African- American students . He recalls with vivid certainty that she “ worked for the United States Government to get educated black children to go to Russia to get rid of them .” And , as lunatic a plan as this was , Branchcomb says quite simply , “ They did this in the ‘ 50s .”
When Branchcomb came to the San Francisco Bay Area and looked for work in the shipyards , he was assigned with cleaning out tanks . “ The shipyards ,” he says , “ were using black people to test new gasses that they were going to use in the war . People do not know that , but this happened in the shipyards years ago .”
Joe ’ s portrait of his great-grandmother Annie Wanzer Allen
Self-portrait
After a lifetime of escaping , surviving and flourishing , Branchcomb is now living in San Francisco with his wife , artist Toby Judith Klayman , with whom he shares a joyful , creative , loving , social and artistic life , and family . Because he is the repository of a complicated personal and American history , much of which is known only by him , he is in a position to document it .
Perhaps that will be through a letter with historical significance to his maternal great-grandfather and his paternal grandfather , to catch each of them up on life as it is now for the Branchcomb family , and to thank them for all they
have accomplished through their ancestral brilliance and courage .
Branchcomb knows the value of growing up aware of his own history , and that such a letter in honor of Juneteenth will be good for his great grandchildren . And , from the smile on his face as he talks , he knows it will be good for him , too — bathing in the triumphant legacy of an unending family ’ s strength , and their ability to escape , survive and flourish .
Click here , to listen to this significant piece of American history , in Branchcomb ’ s own voice , laced with laughter , love and a definite echo of amazement at what his family survived . MAC MARIN ARTS & CULTURE 35