Rev. Jesse Elmer Holmes (1857–1921) was a prominent minister and community leader in Mississippi during the late 19th century and early 20th century.

Biography

Jesse Elmer Holmes was born in October 1857[1][2] in Yazoo County, Mississippi, as the youngest child of Jesse and Delia (Meyers) Holmes.[1] He was educated in local schools. Like his father, the younger Holmes was a farmer. He was also a pastor with the Methodist Episcopal Church, beginning his career in the Yazoo City area.. A conservative, he was well-respected as both a civic and religious leader by whites as well as blacks.[3]

Sometime during the middle of the first decade of the 20th century, Rev. Holmes relocated to the Mississippi Gulf Coast with his family and at various times lived in Ocean Springs,[4] Bay Saint Louis, and Gulfport. He was a much sought after public speaker who would appear at a wide variety of events including fundraisers, blood drives, community forums, and graduations.[5][6][7]

In 1917, as the United States was on the verge of entering World War I, reports were appearing on the Associated Press that questioned African American loyalty to the flag. As a way to reassure the larger community, Rev. Holmes along with Rev. H. H. Lowe, pastor of 1st Baptist Church and G. W. Brown, principal of the black public school, spoke at a large assembly at the county court house in Bay Saint Louis, which culminated in a resolution declaring that the African American citizens of the community were loyal to the federal government.[8]

Advertisement from the Colored Red Cross which appeared in The Sea Coast Echo (Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi) on 8 September 1917

Later that year, Rev. Holmes was elected chairman of the Colored Red Cross chapter in Bay Saint Louis. His wife, Susie, served on the executive committee.[9][10]

In 1919, Rev. Holmes was assigned to St. Mark M. E. Church in Gulfport, where he would serve for the remainder of his life.[3][11]

In the beginning of 1921, when a white man only identified as Judge Mayo (possibly Martin A. Mayo, a once prominent attorney from Chicago[12]) spoke to a group of black leaders in Gulfport, it caused quite a stir within the larger community. During his speech Mayo was advocating among other things that black people should fight for “social equality.” In response to an article published about the meeting in the Biloxi Daily Herald, Rev. Holmes (who attended the meeting in question) wrote that Mayo “did touch along the lines of colored people riding in public conveyances and dining in some hotels beyond the Mason & Dixon line; but that was no news to us for many of us who are here in Gulfport today have experienced it and we didn’t like it!”[13]

In the same letter Rev. Holmes went on to argue that the primary reason that blacks were leaving the South (which would be later described as the Great Migration) was driven more by a desire to escape violence perpetrated on them by whites, than to escape segregation. He wrote:

The thing that is driving negroes North is not the desire for social equality, but it is the good white people allowing the bad white people to burn us poor defenseless negroes on stakes and hang us to telephone poles and from the beams of bridges.[13]

Just a few weeks later, Rev. Holmes died at his home in Gulfport on Friday, 22 April 1921. In his obituary, which appeared in multiple area newspapers, it said about him, “He was a builder in the very essence of the word, and his death removes from every day life one of the colored leaders of the State who stood for the industrial uplift and moral development of the colored people.” [3]

His funeral was officiated by Bishop Robert E. Jones, who had recently become one of the first two African Americans appointed to that position in the Methodist Episcopal Church. He was assisted by many pastors from around Mississippi and the Gulf Coast region. The funeral was well attended.[3]

Personal life

Mr. Holmes married Miss Susie E. Holmes on 21 May 1882 in Yazoo County, Mississippi.[14] This union produced six children including a child, who died in infancy.[2][4]

References

  1. 1 2 "Jesse Holmes", United States census, 1870; Yazoo County, Mississippi; page 61, line 16. Retrieved on 9 Jan 2021.
  2. 1 2 "Jesse E. Hoams", United States census, 1900; Yazoo County, Mississippi; page 16B, line 64, enumeration district 113, Family History film 1240835. Retrieved on 9 Jan 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Death of Rev. Jesse E. Holmes". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. 30 Apr 1921. p. 1. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. An able speaker and conservative thinker, and as a constructive worker he was ever present and willing to lend his voice to the different causes and never forcing his religious convictions in any of the lay work or secular activities.
  4. 1 2 "Rev. Jesse E. Holmes", United States census, 1910; Ocean Springs, Jackson County, Mississippi; roll T624_744, page 10A, line 8, enumeration district 62, Family History film 1374757. Retrieved on 9 Jan 2021.
  5. ↑ J.E.H. (23 Jun 1906). "Washington Street Colored School". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. p. 1. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. The elaborate program required two evenings, and the people were turned away each night for lack of seats, the audiences being larger than was ever known in the hall before.
  6. ↑ "City Echoes". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. 22 Feb 1908. p. 1. Retrieved 7 Jan 2021. The annual sessions of the Gulf Coast Col. Teachers' Ass'n is being held in Bay St. Louis for the first time since its organization, with Principal G. W. Brown of the local public school and Rev. Jesse E. Holmes as "masters of ceremonies," at whose suggestion the association was tendered the invitation to meet here.
  7. ↑ "Announcement". Biloxi Daily Herald. Biloxi, Mississippi. 5 Mar 1919. p. 4. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. Rev. J. E. Holmes of the Gulfport Negro Methodist Episcopal Church will speak before the Negro Woman's Home Missionary Society next Sunday afternoon at 3 o'clock at Riley Chapel.
  8. ↑ "Colored Citizens in Mass Meeting Declare Their Loyalty". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. 21 Apr 1917. p. 8. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. The principal speakers of the evening for the colored people were G. W. Brown, principal colored public school, Rev. H. H. Lowe, pastor 1st Baptist church; Rev. Jesse E. Holmes, pastor St. Paul M. E. Church.
  9. ↑ "Local News". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. 23 Jun 1917. p. 8. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. The following-named colored citizens, from among the better class in town, were elected officers: Chairman, Rev. J.E. Holmes; vice chairman, Rev. W. W. Lowe; treasurer, G. W. Brown; secretary, Odette Barabino; executive committee, Mrs. H. H. Lowe, Mrs. Susie Holmes, Mrs. M. L. Brown and Clementine Barabino, Inez Labat, Anna Marshall, Samantha Palmore, Victoria Cospolich, Celeste Harris .
  10. ↑ "An Appeal of the Colored Red Cross Society". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi. 8 Sep 1917. p. 8. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021.
  11. ↑ "Local News". The Sea Coast Echo. Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. 25 Jan 1919. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021.
  12. ↑ "Once prominent lawyer found dead in home". Chicago Tribune. Chicago, Illinois. 7 Jan 1932. p. 1. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. Mr. Mayo was at one time attorney for John R. Walsh, banker and owner of the old Chicago Chronicle, and for the Federated Funeral Directors of America.
  13. 1 2 "Negro Decries Social Equality". Biloxi Daily Herald. Biloxi, Mississippi. 6 Jan 1921. p. 2. Retrieved 9 Jan 2021. Yesterday The Daily Herald published a story about an address made by Judge Mayo of Chicago to Gulfport negroes a day or two ago, in which he was alleged to have made statements which won for him a cordial but firm invitation to leave town.
  14. ↑ "Mississippi Marriages, 1800-1911 (marriage abstract of Jesse Holmes and Susie Holmes)". FamilySearch.org. 21 May 1882. Retrieved 10 Jan 2021.
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