People of color, both free and enslaved, have been connected with the delivery of mail in the United States since the nation’s earliest days. With fears stoked by the success of the Haitian Revolution, Congress passed an act in May 1802 which decreed in part, that “no other than a free white person shall be employed in carrying the mail of the United States, on any post-roads, either as a post-rider or driver of a carriage carrying the mail.” Following the Civil War, men of color reentered the employ of the Post Office Department and Black men and women often received appointments as postmasters as political patronage. The first national organization of Black postal employees, the National Alliance of Postal Employees, was formed on 6 October 1913 at Chattanooga, Tennessee, by thirty-five men from thirteen states who worked for the Railway Mail Service (including Milton Charles Hackett and Bishop Haven Holerman of New Orleans). In 1923 at Fort Worth, Texas, the union was expanded to include all Black employees of the Post Office Department. There were other organizations of postal workers, such as the National Association of Letter Carriers, but it remained virtually segregated until 1962.
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- The Item-Tribune, 8 April 1934, p. 12.
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- The New Orleans States, 12 April 1931, p. 11.
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- The New Orleans States, 10 April 1938, p. 12
Prior to the formation of the NAPE, Black postal employees in cities such as Jacksonville, Atlanta, St. Louis, and New Orleans, had organized local associations to provide for insurance benefits and greater cooperation among their colleagues. On 8 September 1908 (five years before the organization of the NAPE), postal employees appeared before notary Gabriel Fernandez to incorporate the Adversity Relief and Benevolent Association. Its purpose was to “assist and give mutual aid to each of its members in case of sickness, and to bury its deceased members.” Because of the sick relief and death benefit features of the association, membership was limited to postal employees between 16 and 45 years of age. If a member was honorably separated from the postal service, he could retain his membership in the association.
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- Signatures from the charter of the Adversity Relief and Benevolent Association, 1908
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- Resolution authorizing amendments to the charter, 1915, adopted at Pythian Temple.
The charter members were Reverend John A. Lindsay, President; Charles D. Smith, Vice President; Joseph William Mason, Financial Secretary; Lemuel Davis, Recording Secretary; Numa J. Aubry, Treasurer; Theodule Williams, Collector; Barthelemy A. Roussève, Relief Director; and William Dungey, Joseph Rheams, Frederick B. Bunton, Trustees. The others were Edward N. Parker, Numa G. Aubry, Andrew H. Hannibal, Peter M. Burke, Paul L. de Lay, Henry Amand, and Benjamin J. Conerly, Jr. The officers were subsequently elected annually in the month of April. To better reflect the nature of the organization’s membership, the articles of incorporation were amended on 23 September 1915 to change the name to the Postal Relief and Benevolent Association. At the time the president was Joseph H. Denson.
Reverend John A. Lindsay, Methodist clergyman; Secretary of the Louisiana M. E. Conference; First President of the Postal Relief and Benevolent Association.
The Postal Relief and Benevolent Association contributed regularly to The Times-Picayune‘s Christmas Gift Fund, as did many benevolent societies. On 7 April 1918, during World War I, it adopted a resolution calling on each of its members to purchase Third Liberty Loan Bonds. The resolution read in part, “… it is the urgent and patriotic duty of all members to subscribe for one or more Bonds in the third Liberty Loan. That the members subscribing for these bonds have this object in view destruction of Kaiserism and making the world safe for democracy and freedom.” Following World War I, many returning veterans entered the postal service and Postal Relief’s membership grew to include several hundred members.
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- Paul M. Aubry, 29-year veteran of Post Office Department; officer of P.R.B.A.
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- Albert J. Victorianne, Past Financial Secretary of the Postal Relief B. A.
Longtime members and officers included Albert J. Victorianne, Althemus J. DeLaHoussaye, George McKenna, Alexander Mollay, Paul M. Aubry, George Trevigne, Benoit V. Alexis, Edward A. Perry, Reverend Elias A. Dorsey, Roma J. Raymond, Joseph Rheams, Emile A. Theard, and Fletcher Sherrod, among others. Joseph William Mason, a charter member, served as president of the association for over twenty years.
Joseph William Mason, Longtime President of Postal Relief and Benevolent Association.
In earlier years, the association met in the Pythian Temple at Loyola and Gravier streets and later at St. Katherine’s Hall on Tulane Avenue. In its final years, it met in Jeunes Amis Hall at 1477 North Robertson Street.
Jeunes Amis Hall (now Christian Mission Baptist Church), 1477 North Robertson Street.
With the widespread availability of industrial insurance and benefits associated with the postal service, it became difficult for Postal Relief to attract new members. In July 1970, the thirty-four remaining members of the Postal Relief and Benevolent Association, almost all of whom were retirees, voted to disband the organization after sixty-two years of existence. In keeping with the dissolution clause in its constitution, the remaining balance in the treasury was disbursed among the thirty-four members, who received checks of just less than $100.00 each. The final officers were: Louis Amedee, President; Benoit Mathieu, Vice President; Henderson J. Baham, Recording Secretary; Louis D. Neveu, Financial Secretary; Horace Robert, Treasurer; Wilfred E. Antoine and J. P. Roussell, Relief Committee; Benoit Mathieu, Sterling R. Foster, and McNeil J. Berteaux, Trustees.
Louis Amedee, last President of the P.R.B.A.
Jari C. Honora
Sources: Paul N. Tennassee, History of the National Alliance of Postal and Federal Employees 1913-1945 (Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2011), 14, 39; “Negro Post Office Workers to Buy,” The New Orleans States, 8 April 1918, p. 7; Official Journal of the Fifty-First Annual Session of the Louisiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 1919, p. 6 (Centenary College Archives); “Postal Organization to Mark 58th Anniversary,” The Louisiana Weekly, 3 September 1966, p. 3; “Pioneer Postal Society Ends 62-Year Operation,” The Louisiana Weekly, 1 August 1970, p. 3; “Death’s Victim” (Paul M. Aubry obituary), The Louisiana Weekly, 11 July 1936, p. 1; “Funeral Services Held for A. J. Victorianne, Sr.,” The Louisiana Weekly, 6 June 1970, p. 5; “Retires After 37 Years in Postal Service Here,” The Louisiana Weekly, 9 November 1957, p. 3; New Orleans Notarial Archives, Acts of Gabriel Fernandez, vol. 2, act 26, 8 September 1908; Acts of William Ardill (1913-1916), act 34, 23 September 1915.
