Meetings and Steps in Early AA

468 Pages·2017·4.34 MB·English

by  Glenn F. Chesnut

Heroes of Early
Black AA

Heroes of Early
Black AA

Their Stories and Their Messages

Glenn C.
South Bend, Indiana

San Francisco & South Bend
http://hindsfoot.org

The Hindsfoot Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 1993 for
the publication of materials on the history and theory of alcoholism treatment
and the moral and spiritual dimensions of recovery.

Mailing address at: 4141 Deep Creek Rd., Lot 216, Fremont, California 94555.
E-mail address at: [email protected]

The front cover shows a photo of Joe McQuany, the
most famous black A.A. member in the first seventy
years of the fellowship. The page-by-page Big Book
study which he first devised (with later, the additional
help of Charlie Parmley) came to be called the Joe &
Charlie tapes in its recorded version. These presenta-
tions have been listened to by hundreds of thousands of
alcoholics, literally all over the world, and have saved
the lives of untold numbers of people.

Copyright © 2017 by Glenn F. Chesnut
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned,
or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
First edition: July 3, 2017
Printed in the United States of America
ISBN 9781947519107
Raymond Irving

v
This book is dedicated to Raymond Irving

It was Raymond who served as one of my two central spiritual guides when I
first came in contact with the twelve-step program. He started out as a
gentleman burglar in Chicago, until alcohol and heroin put him on skid row. He
finally discovered Alcoholics Anonymous in 1974, only three years after Bill
Wilson’s death, which made Raymond an influential early second generation
A.A. leader. He was one of the best known black figures of that generation
along the Chicago axis.
He is also honored to this day as one of the most revered teachers of the
numerous Dignitaries Sympathy A.A. groups which stretch from one side of the
nation to the other. Some of these groups still make annual pilgrimages from
other states to visit one of the A.A. meeting places which he led. As one of them
once commented, “the first time I saw Raymond, he just seemed to glow with
light,” and the others present all nodded their heads in agreement.
It was Raymond who introduced me to Jimmy Miller, the First Lady of
Black A.A., and went with me to visit many other early black A.A. leaders in
our area. This present book would never have existed without him quietly asking
me to come with him and spend an afternoon with Jimmy Miller at her house in
March 1993.

And also to Frank Nyikos

Frank was Archivist for Northern Indiana Area 22, and one of the A.A.
people who put me in a van in 1997 and took me to my first national Alcoholics
Anonymous archival and historical conference in Akron, Ohio. That was where
the A.A. history-writing bug really bit me.
And then Frank and I traveled hundreds of miles interviewing people and
attending conferences and doing research. He organized the interview with Bill
Williams in this volume, and typed up numerous transcripts of historical audio
recordings and major historical manuscripts. This book could never have existed
without him. And he was one of the best friends I have ever had.
He could sit on the patio in front of his house, and gaze at a single tiny
flower nestled in the grass, and see God in and through that little flower.

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Table of Contents

Part I. St. Louis — January 24, 1945
1. The First Black A.A. Group 3

Part II. Chicago — March 20, 1945
2. The Chicago Axis: Riding on the South Shore Line 13

3. Bill Williams the Tailor: Chicago Black A.A. No. 4, Early Life 19
4. Bill Williams the Tailor: Discovering A.A. in Chicago 35
5. Bill Williams the Tailor: Working the Steps 45
6. Bill Williams the Tailor: Finding God, the Alpha and Omega 55

7. Jimmy Miller: First Lady of Black A.A. 67
8. Jimmy Miller: Forming the Interracial Group 97
9. Jimmy Miller: Meetings and Steps in Early A.A. 119
10. Jimmy Miller: He Knew It Was a God 133

11. Interview: How Bill Williams Traveled to Help Jimmy Miller 149

12. Brownie: the Professional Gambler and the St. Louis Blues 165
13. Brownie: Down and Out in South Bend, Indiana 193
14. Brownie: Gratitude and the Man Who Had No Arms or Legs 219

15. Goshen Bill: Sleeping in a Dump Truck 239
16. Goshen Bill: Fish Stories and Chickens Flying South 267
17. Goshen Bill: Working the Twelve Steps 289

18. John Shaifer: Interview 315
19. John Shaifer: the Steel Mill Worker from Gary 323

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Part III. Washington, D.C. — April 1945
20. Dr. James C. Scott, Jr. — the National Fight for Black Rights 345
21. Dr. James C. Scott, Jr. — “Jim’s Story” in More Detail 355
22. Dr. James C. Scott, Jr. — at the St. Louis International in 1955 369

Part IV. Joe McQuany — 1977 — the Joe and Charlie tapes
23. Joe McQuany: the Most Famous Black Figure in A.A. History 381
24. Joe McQuany: the Joe and Charlie Tapes 399

Appendix I: Theodoshia Cooper, Black Psychiatric Social Worker 415
Appendix II: Other Early Attempts to Bring Black People into A.A. 420

Notes 426

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HEROES OF EARLY BLACK AA 1

P I
ART

St. Louis

January 24, 1945
2 THEIR STORIES AND THEIR MESSAGES