Scope and Content Note
The Ragsdale Family Papers house photographs, correspondence, articles, clippings, interviews, and other materials documenting Lincoln and Eleanor (Dickey) Ragsdale and their families; businesses run by Ragsdale family members, including the Ragsdale Mortuary, the Universal Memorial Center, and the Valley Life Insurance Company; Lincoln Ragsdale’s service with the Tuskegee Airmen; and Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale’s involvement with the Civil Rights Movement and various civic organizations in Phoenix. Sets of identified and unidentified photographs that are potentially, but not definitively, related to the Ragsdale family are also present.
Series I: Ragsdale Family Papers includes photographs, correspondence, articles, clippings, interviews, and other materials documenting Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale and their family; Bill Dickey and the Dickey family; and businesses run by Ragsdale family members. Sub-Series A: Lincoln and Eleanor (Dickey) Ragsdale houses photographs, correspondence, articles, clippings, interviews, and other materials documenting Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale and their children, Elizabeth, Gwendolyn, Lincoln, and Emily. Of particular interest is a scrapbook illustrating Lincoln and Hartwell Ragsdale Jr.’s life in Ardmore, Oklahoma, including photographs of their parents, Hartwell and Onlia (Perkins) Ragsdale, and other individuals like Frank Coombs, J. Milton Grant, Cairo Collins, Charles Curry, Wallace Croomes, Theophilus Dinwiddie, Dr. O. H. Smith, John Henry Black, Sheriff Joe Sam Lively, and Sheriff Jennison. Also included are snapshots documenting the family, items showing Jesse Jackson’s 1964 presidential campaign, photographs taken at Jesse Owens’ funeral, and images showing a visit to Skywalker Ranch.
Sub-Series B: Lincoln Ragsdale Jr. consists primarily of photographs showing Lincoln Ragsdale Jr. and his family. Other materials document Ragsdale’s graduation from Cochise College and his appearance on KAET’s Horizon in late 1999. Sub-Series C: Dickey Family includes images showing William Dickey Sr., Fannie (Johnson) Dickey and her children, Estelle Dickey, and William Bill
Dickey Jr. A copy of a history of one branch of the Dickey family is also present.
Sub-Series D: Funeral Businesses consists primarily of photographs, artifacts, and documents showing the Ragsdale Mortuary and the Universal Memorial Center. A significant portion of the photographs document the funerals of unknown individuals. To the largest extent possible, these images have been grouped by event. Cases where the deceased are depicted in an open casket have been marked on this guide as well as on the physical folders. Researchers sensitive to this subject matter are advised to avoid these folders.
Sub-Series E: Valley Life Insurance Company includes photographs, copies of the VALICO Reporter, advertising, and other materials documenting the construction and dedication of the Valley Life Insurance Company building, the company’s employees both in the office and in front of the building, and events held at the company. Sub-Series F: Other Businesses is composed of photographs, advertising materials, artifacts, and other items primarily documenting the Ragsdale Realty and Insurance Company. Home Security Finance Loans and ComputerWare MicroAge are also represented.
Sub-Series G: Radio Programs Sponsored by Valley Life Insurance Company and the Ragsdale Mortuary consists primarily of Sunday morning religious radio programs hosted by Austin Coleman and sponsored by the Ragsdale Mortuary and the Valley Life Insurance Company. Many of these programs were recorded to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. Broadcasts feature Christian and gospel music, advertisements for the Ragsdale mortuary and insurance businesses, and political and social commentary by Lincoln Ragsdale, Eleanor Ragsdale, and many others. Of note is a recording of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Religious Witness for Human Dignity.
Series II: Tuskegee Airmen and World War II houses photographs, articles, official documents, and other materials showing Lincoln Ragsdale Sr.’s service with the Tuskegee Airmen. Among the subjects depicted are Ragsdale and his fellow airmen, airmen standing with their planes, Harwell and Onlia Ragsdale visiting Lincoln Ragsdale at Tuskegee Airfield, airmen training, and the Tuskegee Airmen National Conventions held in 1990 and 1993. A special order issued to Lincoln Ragsdale and his unit and Ragsdale’s Application for Settlement submitted after the war are also included.
Series III: Civil Rights and Community Involvement consists of flyers, correspondence, photographs, notes, and other materials documenting Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale’s participation in the Civil Rights Movement and involvement in various civic organizations in Phoenix. Of particular interest are materials documenting the Freedom March
held in Phoenix on July 26, 1963 and items showing the living conditions of Black people in Phoenix in the 1960s.
Series IV: Identified Photographs is composed of photographs that are potentially, but not definitively, linked to the Ragsdale family. It has been divided into three sections: Sub-Series A: People and Groups, Sub-Series B: Events, and Sub-Series C: Businesses and Buildings.
Series V: Unidentified Photographs includes photographs that are potentially, but not definitively, linked to the Ragsdale family. It has been divided into three sections: Sub-Series A: People and Groups, Sub-Series B: Events, and Sub-Series C: Businesses and Buildings. Like photographs, for example images of the same individual or the same event, have been grouped together to the largest extent possible.
Dates
- Creation: 1900-2022
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1943-2021
Access Restrictions
Materials in this collection can be viewed by appointment in the Wurzburger Reading Room at Hayden Library (rm. 138). Please make an appointment at least five business days prior to your visit by contacting Ask an Archivist or call (480) 965-4932 for more information. Check the ASU Library Hours page for current availability.
Copyright
The Arizona Board of Regents retains copyright to this collection for and on behalf of Distinctive Collections, Arizona State University Library. Requests for permissions to publish, display, or redistribute information from this collection must be submitted via our online application.
Biographical Note
Pilot, activist, and mortician Lincoln Johnson Ragsdale was born to Hartwell Waddell Ragsdale Sr. (1895-1965) and Onlia Violet (Perkins) Ragsdale (1900-1973) in Ardmore, Oklahoma on July 27, 1926. He had one brother, Hartwell Waddell Ragsdale Jr. (1925-2004).
The Ragsdale family has a long history in the undertaking industry. Lincoln Ragsdale’s grandfather, William Ragsdale (1870-1921), moved from Arkansas to Muskogee, Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) and established the Creek Livery Barn with a Mr. Bailey in 1889. Bailey was succeeded by George W. Davis in 1890, and Ragsdale and Davis established the Home Undertaking Company (which became the Ragsdale and Sons Funeral Home in 1917) in 1889. Ragsdale elected not to use the Ragsdale name in the business's name due to racial problems in Muskogee caused by the Ku Klux Klan. Willam Ragsdale and his five sons, William L. (1895-1923), Hartwell Waddell Ragsdale Sr. (1895-1965), Lewis Elander Ragsdale (1901-1957), Howard E. (1902-1965), and Theodore Roosevelt (1905-1956), operated funeral parlors in Bristow, Taft, and Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Hartwell Ragsdale Sr. left Muskogee for Tulsa in 1916, where he opened the Ragsdale Funeral Home. It was the first Black-owned funeral business in the city. In June of 1921, the Ragsdale Funeral Home was burned to the ground by a white mob during the Tulsa Race Massacre. Hartwell Ragsdale did not rebuild in Tulsa, instead moving to Ardmore and re-opening the business.
Lincoln Ragsdale graduated from Douglass High School in Ardmore in 1944 and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He trained at Tuskegee Army Air Corps Field in Alabama in 1945 and was later transferred to Luke Air Field in Phoenix, Arizona for gunnery training. Here, he experienced the widespread racism that plagued Phoenix firsthand.
Ragsdale settled in Phoenix in 1946 and opened the Ragsdale Mortuary with his brother in 1948, making them the city’s first Black funeral home owners. Hartwell Ragsdale Jr. moved to San Diego, California in 1955 and Lincoln Ragsdale remodeled the Ragsdale Mortuary and renamed it Universal Memorial Center in 1964. Ragsdale also integrated the business, which he constructed on the principles of integration and brotherhood.
Ragsdale purchased a second location near South Mountain and established the Universal Sunset Chapel in 1968.
Lincoln Ragsdale married Eleanor Odell Dickey in Phoenix, Arizona on May 29, 1949. Eleanor Ragsdale was born to Estelle (Ashley) Dickey (1895-1974) and William Dan Dickey Sr. (1887-1960) in Collingdale, Pennsylvania on February 23, 1926. She was one of four children, including Earle Lloyd Dickey (1921-2002), Gwendolyn L. (Dickey) Young (1923-2009), and William Dan Dickey (1928-2012). The Dickey family resided in Eden Cemetery, where William Dickey worked as the Head Superintendent, from 1917 until 1938. Eleanor Ragsdale remembered the cemetery fondly, recalling the flower garden and playing hide-and-seek with her siblings among the tombstones.
The Dickey family moved to Darby, Pennsylvania in 1938 and Eleanor Dickey graduated from Darby High School in 1943. She earned an Elementary Teaching Certificate and Bachelor of Science in education from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in 1947 and moved to Phoenix to teach at the Dunbar Elementary School. She left teaching in 1953 to work at the family mortuary and investment company and later became a licensed realtor. She also earned a Master of Arts in business management from St. Mary's College of California in 1981.
Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale were extensively involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Arizona. They helped to found the Greater Phoenix Council for Civic Unity (GPCCU) in the late 1940s and Lincoln Ragsdale was elected to its presidency in April of 1951. Under his leadership, the GPCCU worked to desegregate Phoenix’s schools, including helping to fund a lawsuit against the white-only Phoenix Union High School. This work led to Phoenix’s schools being desegregated in 1953, one year before Brown v. Board of Education.
The Ragsdales also worked to desegregate Phoenix’s housing and became the first Black family to cross Phoenix’s red line in 1953. The Ragsdales couldn’t buy the home themselves because banks refused to lend to Black buyers interested in homes in white neighborhoods, so a white friend of Eleanor Ragsdale’s bought the home on their behalf and transferred the title to them. Although they were subject to racist harassment from both their neighbors and the local police, the Ragsdales lived in this home for 17 years and raised their four children, Elizabeth Estelle (1951-2025), Gwendolyn Onlia (Ragsdale) Madrid (1954-2011), Lincoln Johnson (1955-), and Emily Yvonne (1957-), there. Other Black families, often aided by Eleanor Ragsdale, successfully employed this model to purchase homes in previously all-white areas.
During the 1960s, Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale worked with the Maricopa County NAACP to end the discrimination in local businesses that barred Blacks from skilled jobs, including organizing sit-ins at Phoenix’s Woolworth’s stores and a march protesting Woolworth’s in 1962. Lincoln Ragsdale also helped to organize the Action Citizens Committee in 1963 and successfully lobbied the Phoenix City Council for the passage of a public accommodations law in 1964. During the 1970s, Ragsdale was involved in the effort to create a statewide Martin Luther King holiday, which was finally established by popular vote in November of 1992.
In addition to their funeral businesses, Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale cofounded a number of other enterprises, including the Ragsdale Realty and Insurance Agency (1950), the International Investment Company (1952), the International Construction Company (1953), the Vesco Land Company (1953), the Valley Life & Casualty Insurance Company (1955), the Century Skyroom Restaurant and Jazz Club (1963), the Home Security Finance Corporation (1964), Valley Life and Casualty of Mississippi (1977), Valley Life and Casualty of Louisiana (1980), Valley Life Insurance Company of Alabama (1980), and Valley Life Insurance Company of Texas (1983).
Lincoln Ragsdale died in Paradise Valley, Arizona on June 9, 1995 and Eleanor Ragsdale followed on May 5, 1998. They are buried in Phoenix’s Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery.
Partial extent
11.67 Linear Feet
Partial extent
18 Box(es)
Language of materials
English
Abstract
The Ragsdale Family Papers house photographs, correspondence, articles, clippings, interviews, and other materials documenting Lincoln and Eleanor (Dickey) Ragsdale and their families; businesses run by Ragsdale family members, including the Ragsdale Mortuary, the Universal Memorial Center, and the Valley Life Insurance Company; Lincoln Ragsdale’s service with the Tuskegee Airmen; and Lincoln and Eleanor Ragsdale’s involvement with the Civil Rights Movement and various civic organizations in Phoenix. Sets of identified and unidentified photographs that are potentially, but not definitively, related to the Ragsdale family are also present.
Arrangement
This collection consists of eighteen boxes divided into five series:
- Series I: Ragsdale Family Papers
- Series II: Tuskegee Airmen and World War II
- Series III: Civil Rights and Community Involvement
- Series IV: Identified Photographs
- Series V: Unidentified Photographs
Provenance
Lincoln Ragsdale Jr. donated the bulk of the materials in this collection to ASU's Black Collections in 2023 (Accession #2023-05885).
Mary Scanlon donated 35 reel-to-reel tapes created by Lincoln Ragsdale Sr. to ASU in 2013 (Accession #2013-04735). Scanlon discovered the tapes at Goodwill, noticed that one was labeled with Martin Luther King, Jr.’s name, and purchased them for $3. She donated the tapes to ASU, which had them professionally reformatted and discovered that the tape was the only known recording of King’s “Religious Witness for Human Dignity,” which he presented in Phoenix in June of 1964. The majority of the remaining tapes contained broadcasts of the “Special Sunday Morning Broadcast” sponsored by Ragsdale Mortuary and the Valley Life Insurance Company. Scanlon described the discovery as one of the high points of her life.
Processing Note
The tapes received as accession #2013-04735 have been processed as tapes 1-35 in Series I: Ragsdale Family Papers, Sub-Series G: Radio Programs Sponsored by Valley Life Insurance Company and the Ragsdale Mortuary with the exception of tapes 2 and 15, which were too badly damaged to reformat. All other materials were acquired as part of accession #2025-05885.
Occupation
Topical
- Title
- Ragsdale Family Papers
- Author
- Processed by Jess Salow, Shelly Talas, Taelor Bishop, and Elizabeth Dunham between 2024 and 2025.
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Repository details
Part of the Black Collections Repository
Contact
Arizona State UniversityP.O. Box 871006
Tempe AZ 85287-1006 United States
(480) 965-4932
archives@asu.edu