Antique Dealers Selling Black Memorabilia Here in DTMesa: Mixed Feelings

Fannie McClendon

Your MesaZona blogger is both surprised and pleased to see an excellent piece of reporting about the vintage marketplaces and antique shops in business here on Main Street [that occupy the most sidewalk frontage square footage of all retail stores] - they don't get much attention from the Office of Downtown Transformation, but they did get featured today by the Associated Press [also take a look below at a derivative article from Cronkite News re-written by one of the string of journalism students] 

Antique dealers’ African American collectables spark debate

By Angelica Cabral, The Associated Press on October 30, 2017MESA, Ariz. — "Visitors to antique shops on Main Street in Mesa will see stores crammed with primarily benign American memorabilia. A 19th century record player, a vintage 1990s Barbie, or a campaign button promoting Richard Nixon for president line the shelves.

Then, the eyes flit across something more startling. A set of spice jars in the shape of a Mammy, depicting a grinning, big-lipped, dark-skinned woman wearing a scarf.
The selling of African-American memorabilia in Arizona and elsewhere in the country sparks complex questions, similar to recent controversies over Confederate statues. Placing such imagery in the marketplace can raise the spectre of racism, while also provoking thought that such products preserve history. . .
Antique store owners selling Mammy figures and other African-American memorabilia in Mesa include a Jewish woman whose grandparents died in the Holocaust, an African-American woman who served in World War II and a man from a family of antique collectors who wants to save emblems of the past for future generations.
> Michelle Holz, the owner of Michelle’s Antiques, said the spice jars she offered for sale are simply a part of history.
> Greg Farr, who is white, owns Antique Plaza in Mesa. He also sells what he called “black collectibles.”
On a recent day, he had a Mammy cookie jar and figure in his store.
He said most of the people who buy them are African-American and the originals have become so popular, people are actually making reproductions to sell.
“To people who collect it, it’s not offensive. It’s just what it is,” Farr said.
> Fannie McClendon is the 97-year-old owner of The Glass Urn, the store next door to Farr’s location. An African-American business owner, she said most of her customers who buy black memorabilia have been white. . . At times, she has been unsure whether to sell certain pieces. But she considers them a form of art.
The complex issues surrounding black memorabilia extend to the people who buy such items.
READ MORE >
http://www.canadianinquirer.net/2017/10/30/antique-dealers-african-american-collectables-spark-debate/
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Antique dealers see controversial African-American memorabilia as part of history
By Angelica Cabral | Cronkite News Monday, Oct. 23, 2017
MESA – Visitors to antique shops on Main Street in Mesa will see stores crammed with primarily benign American memorabilia. A 19th century record player, a vintage 1990s Barbie, or a campaign button promoting Richard Nixon for president line the shelves.

Then, the eyes flit across something more startling. A set of spice jars in the shape of a Mammy, depicting a grinning, big-lipped, dark-skinned woman wearing a scarf.

The selling of African-American memorabilia in Arizona and elsewhere in the country sparks complex questions, similar to recent controversies over Confederate statues. Placing such imagery in the marketplace can raise the specter of racism, while also provoking thought that such products preserve history. . .
READ MORE >
https://cronkitenews.azpbs.org/2017/10/23