New city meant new opportunities for Dorothy Israel
Dr. Dorothy Israel stands in St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church in St. Augustine. [PETER WILLOTT/THE RECORD]
By Margo C. Pope / Record correspondent
Posted Jan 1, 2019 at 9:14 PM
When Dorothy Headley Israel, better known as “Deeh,” told New York friends and colleagues, she was moving to St. Augustine after retiring from Stony Brook University of New York, they were surprised.
“They thought it was a big joke that I was coming to this small, unknown town,” said the Harlem native. “They thought I would be soon coming back.”
That was 1994. Israel, 94, is well-known today through St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church, civic organizations, her writing for pleasure and for purpose, mentoring youth, and working for equality. And, she keeps in touch by phone with longtime friends and family across the country.
Weather permitting, she takes two-mile beach walks daily from the beach condo that she and her husband Rudolph bought upon retirement. St. Augustine was his hometown. He died in 2006.
“I got here and found a beautiful city full of horse-drawn carriages that travel along the Matanzas River and it reminded me of cities in Europe,” she said. “And then to be able to walk on the beach every day, it was paradise. I’m glad I came. This is my first home now.”
Rudy liked the beach, too. “He would fish every day,” she said. “When we had visitors, they could have fresh fish for breakfast.”
Israel got to know St. Augustine like a native because the couple connected with his friends and family and she got to hear the stories of growing up, the fun they had, and the dark days for people of color. “His mother used to hide he and his sister under the bed at night,” she said, when trouble was brewing outside their home. She learned of the racial divide, of segregation, of Butler Beach that black entrepreneur Frank Butler developed for blacks, near Crescent Beach, stories of Fort Mose, the 18th century first free black settlement in what are today’s United States, and the heated 1964 civil rights demonstrations that brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to the city. “It was such a traumatic place, even Dr. King said he would not come back,” she said.
Segregation was in the North, too
DOROTHY HEADLEY “DEEH” ISRAEL
How long have you been in our community?: 25 years, since 1994.
Family information: Husband, Rudolph “Rudy” Israel, a St. Augustine native (passed in 2006).
Occupation: Professor Emerita, School of Social Work, Stony Brook University of New York.
Civic activities: Fort Mose Historical Society, St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church, Wildflower Clinic (formerly Good Samaritan Health Center), AAUW, Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, Foot Soldiers Remembrance Project.
Education: Bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Social Work, Atlanta University; Ph.D. in Counseling, Union Institute and University, Ohio.
Honors and awards: EWLI International Women’s Day honoree. St. Johns County Cultural Council ROWITA (Recognition of Outstanding Women in the Arts) Award, 2009. St. Cyprian Episcopal Church, Outdoor Chapel in The Commons was dedicated in honor of Dr. Israel, 2013. Lincolnville Museum & Cultural Center, Living Legend, 2018.
She felt segregation’s impact growing up in Harlem, in college and in her career in social welfare work and mental health services.
A vivid memory stands out for her at Bloomstein’s Department Store in the middle of Harlem. “They did not hire blacks, but blacks shopped there. I went into the store and saw I hat I wanted to buy. I went to try it on and I was told I could not put it on my head. If you were black, you could not try anything on before you bought it.” A local minister, and later Congressman, Adam Clayton Powell led picketing against that store. Israel said they changed their policy barring blacks from trying things on.
On the train from Harlem in the 1940s and bound for Atlanta University in Georgia, she went to the dining car for dinner. She was seated at a table with glass stemware on a white tablecloth. Then, the waiter pulled a curtain around her section, so the white passengers could not see that a black woman was eating in the same dining car.
She said people in the South don’t think of discrimination in the North. “The North had it, but they just didn’t have the signs (posted),” she said.
Israel is philosophical about those incidents today: “I did not let them impact me or cripple me. There’s always been good white people that encouraged me and countered some of the negatives I experienced.”
She believes that, “When people don’t live together, they don’t know each other.”
While discrimination was a low point for her, the work she did in health and social services was fulfilling.
During a college internship, she learned the benefit of play therapy for children and art therapy for all ages in mental health treatments.
Another breakthrough came when she was hired by Brooklyn Psychiatric to lead their clinic in Bedford-Stuyvesant. Clinics were usually run by medical staff. But a policy change provided for a non-medical person to hold the director’s position. She was hired as director but said the staff quit except for a two people. The board, she said, hired new staff for her. “One of my greatest contributions was that I brought mental health services to that community,” she explained.
Israel’s college teaching career included teaching at Columbia University, New York University and Stony Brook University of New York. She holds the rank of Emerita Professor at Stony Brook’s School of Social Welfare.
New city, new opportunities
St. Augustine, her new hometown and nearby communities, gave her new opportunities. She and Rudy connected with a writers’ group after she read about the Hammock Adult Education Center in Flagler County’s writing course. Israel’s background was in counseling and social work, but she had stories to tell and wanted to write them. Rudy had been a copywriter in New York. They signed up. Both had a good time. Her husband, she said, “was a wonderful writer. They loved his writing, the way he described things was so vivid and interesting.”
Now, 18 years later, the nucleus of those writers gathers weekly to discuss writing, to write, and to critique each other’s work. But now, they meet in a member’s home. “We call ourselves the Sea Quills and publish an annual book of our work,” she said. The 2018 volume is Spindriff No. 12.
The Sea Quills are a sounding board for Israel who writes essays, short stories and gives speeches. “They (Sea Quills) have given me the impetus to write,” she said.
She has published a book on growing up in Harlem, “From Harlem to the Sea - A Life Well Lived,” so others will know what it was like. She was the driving force, said historian David Nolan, behind two recent tourism brochures about the city’s African-American history, and about Lincolnville.
In March, she will speak to AAUW, St. Augustine Branch, on “Revisiting History on the Black Experience.”
When she arrived in St. Augustine, she got involved with St. Cyprian’s Episcopal Church. She was instrumental in getting the Good Samaritan Health Clinic established on the church property. Later it moved to West Augustine and changed its name to Wildflower Clinic and expanded its services. She revels in its success.
What motivates her today is the need to get out the “the untold story of black history. That is my mission to do what I can through my writing and my work with the museum (Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center).”
She wants tour trains to go beyond Lincolnville’s fringe, so the historically black community once known as “Africa” will be more appreciated by the city at large and its visitors.
She is on the vision committee of the Fort Mose Historical Society to bring more attention to its history as the first free black town in what are today’s United States.
Commitment is ongoing
Mildred Williams has known Israel for 25 years. “She is a very busy person and that’s what keeps her going,” Williams said. “She brings people in with her writing. She loves organizing things. I would say she is a leader because she likes to get things done.”
They participate in reenactments at Fort Mose during the year. Both were in the Venetian Club, a leadership organization now dissolved. St. Cyprian, because of Israel, now operates a scholarship program.
Khiam’e Fields met Israel when she was a high school student in 2009. She received scholarships from the Venetian Club and then St. Cyprian’s. Israel is her mentor. After graduation from the University of Central Florida, Fields headed west. She is in graduate school in film directing at UCLA.
″‘Dock’ is like a second mother to me,” Fields explained. “She wants to know how I am doing and if she can help. She gives her opinion when I ask for it or when I need it.
“Dr. Israel is a one-of-a-kind person Just look at the history she’s been through and the things that she has done. She is so successful and yet so humble.”
IsraeI is committed to youth. “I tell young people to find something you are interested in,” Israel said. “If you have difficulty learning what your passion is, consult the St. Johns Cultural Council they know all about programs in the community. I like Compassionate St. Augustine, the Ecumenical Food Pantry, or Betty Griffin, Dining with Dignity or, the Interfaith Council.”
Marilyn Wiles, founder of the Enterprising Women Leadership Institute, admires her commitment. What stands out to her about Israel is her “compassion” to others and her “passion” for the community.
Israel’s commitment comes from her mentors. Her mother, Lillian Headley, immigrated from Barbados. She felt it was important to work for the betterment of her family’s new community.
When working on her doctorate in counseling at Union Institute and University, one of her professors, Jean Griffin, who encouraged her.
When asked what she wants her legacy to be, Israel paused before answering: “I tried to help others in the community.”
Given her broad community service, The St. Augustine Record’s 10 Who Make a Difference recognition, surprised her. “I’m pleased by this but there are other people more deserving for this honor,” she said. “I hope they are being honored or will be honored in the near future. I have several names I can give you.”
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