In the early 20th century, Minneapolis was a segregated city despite its northern geography. Among the few Black families who chose to live in the city’s Kingfield neighborhood were Harry and Clementine Robinson, one of roughly a dozen Black households in the area at the time.
Nearly a century later, in the spring of 2020, journalist Eric Roper and his husband, Tane Danger, purchased that same South Minneapolis home once owned by the Robinsons.
“When we moved into our Kingfield house, Eric started investigating its history… specifically the Black couple who had owned it before us,” recalled Danger of Roper, a Star Tribune reporter and columnist.
Roper’s curiosity and reporting instincts launched a years-long research project into the lives of Harry and Clementine Robinson, both born on May 2, 1881, and into what life was like for Black Minnesotans during the early 1900s. Harry passed away in 1959; Clementine followed in 1965.
Their story became the foundation for Roper’s Star Tribune podcast series, “Ghost of a Chance,” co-hosted with journalist Melissa Townsend.
“The podcast was truly a joint effort between Melissa and myself,” said Roper in an interview with the MSR. “I have a very obsessive personality, so I learned everything I could about the Robinsons, and I spent years doing that.”
The Robinsons lived in their South Minneapolis home from 1917 to 1931. “They were there at a time when protests were underway to push Black residents out of South Minneapolis,” said Roper. “And yet, they stayed for many years.”
By the 1930s, the neighborhood had become a hub for the city’s growing Black middle class. Harry’s restaurant closed in 1931, after which he focused primarily on catering. Meanwhile, Clementine worked in the health field and remained active in her church and the Eastern Star organization.
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Roper pieced together the Robinsons’ lives through research using Black newspapers, local libraries, and the Minnesota Historical Society. He also tracked down people who remembered Clementine living in the area before Interstate 35W split the Southside community.
Construction of I-35W began in 1959, destroying more than 50 homes and businesses and forever dividing a once-thriving Black neighborhood, a story repeated in cities across the U.S. during the 1950s and ’60s.
“It was interesting but also tedious work,” said Roper. “We even traveled to Missouri and Indiana, where the Robinsons had lived before coming to Minneapolis. You get so much more context when you follow the trail.”
On Saturday, October 4, more than 60 years after her burial at Crystal Lake Cemetery in North Minneapolis, a headstone dedication was held for Clementine Robinson. Harry had been cremated decades earlier. Several community members organized a GoFundMe campaign to fund the headstone, and relatives flew in to attend the ceremony.
“I didn’t know anything about her,” said Natalie Lampley, Clementine’s great-great-niece from Des Moines, Iowa. “The stories were never shared with me. I appreciated Eric’s curiosity and tenacity to find out the history of us. None of this would have happened if he hadn’t been curious.”
Before the podcast’s debut, Roper hosted community listening sessions at St. Peter’s AME Church and Sabathani Community Center to discuss themes from the series. “We would gather folks from the community, some of them elders, to talk about the topics in the podcast,” he said.
St. Peter’s Pastor Rev. Dr. Tracey Gibson co-officiated Saturday’s ceremony with Roper. Flowers were passed out for attendees to place on Clementine’s new grave marker.
“I think this is the coolest thing… 60 years later, to come and honor this great woman, who she was and what she did, and the contributions she made,” said Gibson. “It has been an honor and a blessing to be part of it.”
Before the event, Roper said he hoped the ceremony would spark more conversations about reconnecting a community divided by the freeway. He later thanked those who attended both the cemetery service and the reception at St. Peter’s AME Church.
“I feel like I’m connected to Harry and Clementine, even though I’ll never meet them… through the house and their story,” Roper reflected. “There are so many questions I’d ask them if I could. I’m glad we could finally give Clementine a proper marker that also acknowledges and remembers Harry as well.”
The Ghost of a Chance podcast can be found at www.startribune.com/ghost-of-a-chance.
Charles Hallman is a long-standing contributor to the Minnesota Spokesman-Recorder.