With the help of C.E. Artis, nurse Mable Ellis threw her husband George Ellis a surprise birthday party in February 1928.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 17 March 1928.

Contrast the tone of this piece, published in a Black newspaper, with the snark of white newspapers of the era, which often sneered at even the most joyous occasion. The Ellises were newlyweds, having married the previous September. George Ellis was 52, and Mable Weaver Ellis, 26, when they wed. Told with humor and charming detail, here were Black people via a Black gaze.