Professional Football Researchers Association Forum

Does Chicago Bears (1929-34) & Chicago Cardinals (1935-36) C Bert Pearson belong on the list of African-American football players from 1920-1946?

His full name was Madison Bertrand Pearson and all sources appear to indicate that he was born in Manhattan, Kansas, on 22 March 1905.

However, digging through the census records, only the 1940 US Federal Census indicates his place of birth as Kansas.

In 1920 he is living with some of his siblings in Manhattan, although his place of birth is recorded as Georgia.

He attended Kansas State Agricultural College in Manhattan and lettered in football in 1926-28. His brother Zerlindon was also on the football team 1925-26.

On the 1910 census he is in Dadeville, Alabama, with his father and siblings (his mother died circa 1905-06) - https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MKWH-PCX

Under race it states Mulatto, which is defined as "a person of mixed white and black ancestry, especially a person with one white and one black parent". His siblings are recorded likewise, whilst his father, Charles Lafayette Pearson (1854-1940), is listed as White.

Some more digging and I found the following blog - http://pearsonamerica.blogspot.co.uk/

It includes a photograph that identifies Bert's elder brother Varlourd (b.1898, back right) and sister Zenia (b.1891, front left). Presumably the two youngsters either side of their father are Zerlindon (b.1902, left) and Bert (b.1905, right)?

The only real question remains is the ancestry and ethnicity of their mother, Zenia Blasengame, who was apparently born in Georgia c1854. I have so far been unable to locate her and the children on the 1900 census. CL Pearson is in Dadeville on his own and is listed as single?

Various family trees have Bert Pearson's mother recorded as Zenia Blasengame or Zenia Vines.

Located Zenia Vines (born Jun-1864 Alabama) on the 1900 census in Dadeville, Alabama - https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M96Q-FSJ

Recorded as Single, she has four (+1?) of Bert's elder siblings with her, all under the Vines surname. She and her children are all are recorded as black.

The 1880, 1900 & 1910 census records for Bert's father (Charles Lafeyette Pearson) in Dadeville all record him as single, so it would appear that they never married. C.L. Pearson was a major land owner, planter & lawyer.

The children have the Pearson surname on the 1910 census and beyond.

Looks like Bert was born in Dadeville (not Georgia or Kansas) and was mixed race (white father, black mother).

You certainly seem to have done your research and made a convincing case.
Is the PFRA the custodian of ethnic information for the early days of the NFL? Or is it the NFL itself which requires "convincing?"

Perhaps, in this era where the topic of race is so volatile the persons to make this decision are the living relatives of Bert Pearson?