Naomi Spencer wedded in wheelchair

One hundred years ago today … Naomi Spencer, a Black labor and housing activist, married William Des Verney (sometimes Desverney) in the chapel of Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx. An amputee, Spencer remained in her wheelchair for the ceremony. She had been in the hospital since June 26th when her left leg got caught under a New York Central train near the Mott Haven rail yards. According to the Age, the wedding included the traditional Mendelssohn theme, played on organ by Louise Parr, and featured “Rev. William H. Brooks of the St. Mark’s M.E. Church officiating in the most solemn and dignified manner.” The bride was attired in a “cream chantilly lace robe in combination with blue and flesh colored satin foundation” (“Miss Spencer Married at Lincoln Hospital,” New York Age, 30 July 1921, p. 1).   

Spencer/Des Verney, a resident of 34 West 129th Street, had graduated from the Columbia College of Pharmacy in May of 1921 and celebrated with friends at Craig’s Restaurant on 130th Street. The Age’s report mentions her work as “a special investigator in housing and labor problems” and that for five years she had “served as superintendent of Sojourner Truth Home.”  (“Party Given Miss Spencer,” New York Age, 28 May 1921, p. 8). 

Note: we posted about the Sojourner Truth Home this past March 19th.

That description was re-used in the Age’s article about her accident. It is but one note in this detailed account of Spencer as remarkably self-possessed and resourceful after her leg had been crushed by a train.  

Spencer/Des Verney would become closely associated with the renowned A.P. Randolph. According to Odette Harper Hines, it was Naomi and Will Des Verney’s influence that led to Randolph’s interest in the Pullman Porters, and to the 1925 forming of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters (BSCP) (Hines 16). Naomi Des Verney and Randolph founded the BSCP Women’s Auxiliary, also known as the Women’s Economic Council (Chateauvert 60-61). 

Lincoln Hospital, according to its own website, was founded in 1839 with the purpose of “serv[ing] as a Home for aged black people, many of whom had been slaves prior to the abolition of slavery in New York City.” Originally located on West 51st St, it had moved to 141st Street and Southern Boulevard in the Bronx in 1895 and remained an institution devoted to NYC's Black communities.

References/ Further Reading

Chateauvert, Melinda. Marching Together: Women of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Champaign-Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997.

Hines, Odette Harper, and Rollins, Judith. All is Never Said: The Narrative of Odette Harper Hines. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1995.

– Jonathan Goldman, July 24, 2021

TAGS: disability, medical, healthcare, race, African American history