Page 16 OLYMPIAN | FROM PAGE 15 fifth runner, Evelyn Pearl Furtsch, and Pickett. Judging from what ultimately transpired, when women’s track coach George Vreeland announced the members of the 4 x 100 team who would compete the next day in Los Angeles, this all changed. It would appear there were two glaring omissions: Stokes and Pickett. Of the City of Malden Community Preservation Committee Public Information Session and Monthly Meeting Wednesday, April 16, 2025, 6:00 PM Public Information Session and Monthly Meeting Hybrid City Hall Room #105 (in-person) Live streamed via Zoom (virtual) On March 29, 2023, Governor Healey signed legislation extending certain COVID-19 relief measures including extending remote meetings for public bodies. The same provisions which permitted public bodies to meet remotely, or convene in a hybrid manner, have been extended through March 31, 2025. This extension allows public bodies to continue to meet remotely or to meet in a hybrid manner, without a quorum of the public body physically present at a meeting location. The law requires that a public body provide “adequate, alternative” access to remote meetings. Additional information/guidelines for the public can be found here: https://www.mass. gov/service-details/updated-guidance-on-holding-meetings-pursuant-to-the-actextending-certain-covid-19-measures. Members of the public who wish to attend remotely can do so using the following link to the Zoom webinar: https://cityofmalden.zoom.us/j/93196327856 Phone one-tap: +16465189805,,93196327856# US (New York) +19294362866,,93196327856# US (New York) Join via audio: +1 646 518 9805 US (New York) +1 929 436 2866 US (New York)Webinar ID: 931 9632 7856 If you would like to request a reasonable accommodation, please contact Maria Luise, ADA Compliance Coordinator at mluise@cityofmalden.org or 781-397-7000, Ext 2005 Agenda 1. Call to Order/ Roll Call 2. Public Information Session 3. Approval of Meeting Minutes from March 19, 2025 4. CPC Plan Update 5. FY26 Pre-Application Launch 6. Other Business 7. Adjournment of CPC Monthly Meeting April 04, 11, 2025 top three eventual selectees for the event, only one of the top five Olympic trial finishers was picked – von Bremen – who was go on to be regarded as the third fastest woman in the world at the time when she won Bronze at the 1932 Olympics at 100 meters. Harrington, who finished first at the trials, and Wilde, who finished third at the trials, competed only in the 100-meter individual event. THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, April 4, 2025 They did not compete in the relay and apparently that was decided early. According to researchers, the women had been told at the Olympic trials at Northwestern that the top six finishers in the 100-meter at the trials would all be in the relay “pool,” and the four who would be competing would be selected from the pool. It would appear Stokes, primarily, and Pickett, most likely, would have a chance to join von Bremen and a fourth runner, Annette Rogers, on the 4 x 100 Relay team. Rogers has been the national Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) 100-meter titlist in 1931 and 1932 and ended up finishing fifth in the 100-meter sprint in 1932 Olympics. On an interesting local note, Rogers was born in Chelsea, Mass., and lived there in her early years before moving on to become a longtime Chicagoan in Illinois. It looked like Stokes would break the color barrier It really looked like an 18-yearold Black woman from Malden was going to break the color barrier in an international event: The first woman of color to compete in a U.S. Olympic track and field competition. But it was not to be for Stokes and Pickett. The quartet for the 4 x 100 Relay was announced, and the roll call did not include either one of them. Instead, joining von Bremen and Rogers on the 4 x 100 Relay Team would be Evelyn Pearl Furtsch of San Diego, Calif., and Mary Carew – from who would have ever guessed it – Medford, Mass.! Furtsch, also 18 at the time, had a somewhat similar story as Stokes in her early years. Facing little competition from her own gender in her home region, she ran against boys for a couple of years before competing with the Los Angeles Athletic Track Club. She did not have a wealth of national competition experience, though considered a fine, up-and-coming runner. But she had finished behind three other American sprinters – Wilde, Stokes and Pickett – at the supposedly decisive time trials two weeks earlier. Her only “claim to fame” had been a second-place finish in a regional AAU competition. Furtsch was a bit of a local hero, however, as she ran with the highly regarded Los Angeles Track Club at the time, a direct affiliation to that 1932 venue. The fourth selectee raises even more eyebrows: Mary Carew had graduated from the school known as Malden High’s fiercest athletic rival – Medford High – just a few months earlier. At age 17, she was seemingly not in the mix in the 100-meter field, individually or in the relay. They called Stokes “The Malden Meteor” during her Olympic run. Carew also garnered a catchy nickname, “The Little Medford Miss.” Like Stokes, Carew had garnered acclaim for her sprinting exploits next door in Medford, but in a shorter distance, the 60-meter sprint. She was a National Champion in the AAU 60-meter dash for four years running! She was tops in the United States each year from 1929-32. Her best time was 7.32 seconds. Still, a spot on the 4 x 100 Relay Team was Carew’s, much to the dismay of Stokes, Pickett and all of Stokes’ many friends, fellow citizens and supporters back in Malden. Were she and Pickett denied the privilege of competing for their country because they were Black? Was the color of their skin more of a factor in Coach Vreeland’s decision than the pure ability of these young women? When asked in later years, Stokes, who added Fraser to her name when she married a local cricket enthusiast, Wilfred Fraser, in 1941, was most often reticent on the matter. “I felt bad but I tried not to show it,” she was quoted in a few biographical pieces. “I just tried to keep it out of my mind.” Osgood, of the Smithsonian, titled his article “Sports History Forgot About Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes, Two Black Olympians Who Never Got Their Shot.” Pickett was more vocal about the 1932 Olympics decision. According to Osgood, Pickett literally took her bitterness to her grave, believing that “prejudice, not slowness” kept her out of that competition, according to her Chicago Tribune obituary. In another recollection, “African-American Olympic History,” Pickett is quoted as saying, “They did not allow the better runners to compete,” referring to herself and Stokes. “It was unjust.” The Chicago Defender, the leading newspaper nationally of what was referred to as “The Black Press,” in the 1920s up until the 1950s, made its opinion of the matter quite clear. “Lilywhiteism,” wrote editor Rus Cowan in The Defender, “a thing more pronounced than anything else around here on the eve of the Olympic Games, threatened and ousted Tidye Pickett and Louise Stokes from participation and put in their stead two girls who did not qualify.” Of course, at the time in the OLYMPIAN | SEE PAGE 19
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