The Barber’s Diaries is the story of Charles Everett Ellis, who was a barber in Altamont, a small Illinois town during the 1920s, and the only black man in town. We believe we, as a nation, are at a historic time when such a story carries a profound message.
Sisters Wilma Ellis Kazemzadeh (left and Adrienne Ellis Reeves stand on the spot where their family home once stood in the central Illinois town of Altamont. The Ellis family had lived there – the only black family in a white farming community – until the early 1930s.
By Jingo! That’s what Charles Everett Ellis might have said about Sunday’s visit of several descendants to his old home town of Altamont. Ellis, who used the term “By Jingo” on a regular basis, was a fixture in downtown Altamont during the first three decades of the 20th century.
Many mistakes have been made which are daily exacting their certain toll and are holding back my onward progress but with experiences gained in those years transformed into wisdom in the future I yet declare that my next forty years shall not be ineffective in service to my Maker, mankind and my own family.
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