Remembering Elizabeth Joyner Hinnant on her birthday.

Maybe.

Though her headstone shows November 13 as Elizabeth Hinnant‘s birth date, her death date lists November 11.

——

In the 1920 census of Selma township, Johnston County, N.C.: Icm J. Joyner, 52; wife Hattie, 40; and children Viola D., 17, Lillie M., 15, George H., 14, Mittie L., 12, Lizzie, 8, Annie, 3, Zalista, 2, and James T., 5 months.

In the 1930 census of Beulah township, Johnston County, N.C.: James I. Joyner, 59; wife Hattie, 50; and children Lillie, 24, Lizzie, 18, Annie, 12, and James I. Jr., 10.

On 28 December 1932, James Coy Atkinson, 24, of Lucama, son of William and Annie Atkinson, married Lizzie Joyner, 19, of Kenly, daughter of Isham and Hattie Joyner, in Johnston County.

On 13 April 1940, Claudie Hinnant, 26, of Springhill township, married Lizzie Joyner, 27, of Black Creek, in Wilson.

In 1940, Claudie Hinnant registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 1 May 1913 in Wilson County; lived at R.F.D. 3, Kenly, Wilson County; was self-employed; and his contact was Lizzie Hinnant.

In the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: Lizzie Hinnant, 49; sons Robert Lee, 20, James, 16, Wilfred, 12, and Floyd, 9; “married son” Claudie, 27; his wife Lizzie, 27; and their daughter Dortha Ann, 11 months.

In the 1950 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: Claudie Hinnant, 36; wife Lizzie, 37; children Dorthey, 11, Janie F., 8, Billie C., 7, Robert L., 6, James, 4,  Thedore R., 3, Franklin M., 1, and True M., born in February; and brothers Wilbert, 22, Robert L., 22, and Flody, 20.

Dorothy Elizabeth Hinnant died 2 October 1968 in Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was born 11 November 1913 to Isome Joyner and Hattie Taylor; was married to Claudie Hinnant; worked as a housekeeper at Wilson Hospital; and was buried in Hinnant Cemetery, Wilson County.

Tennis, anyone?

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 10 June 1933.

From the Journal and Guide‘s Wilson social column, we learn J.D. Reid‘s family remained in Wilson when he left to work in D.C., and there was a tennis court somewhere in East Wilson on which this improbable set whacked balls.

The nine players included six from Wilson (one of whom, my grandfather Roderick Taylor Sr., was the old man of the group at 50 years of age.) Dr. James A. Battle of Greenville was a Wilson native. The “Sam Vick” is Samuel H. Vick Jr. Edward M. Barnes was a teacher at the Colored High School; Malcolm D. Williams, at the Colored Graded School.

Private First Class Willie Davis, in South Carolina.

——

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 506 East Spruce, Floyd Davis, 28, farm laborer; wife Marie, 26; children Willie, 10, Thelma, 5, Ella M., 3, and Floyd Jr., 2 months; and roomer Eddie Simmons, 25, tobacco farm laborer.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Willie Davis, 22, farm laborer, lodger in the household of white farmer Edward H. Suggs, 49.

In 1940, Willie Abert Davis registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 7 April 1919 in Wilson; lived at 528 Smith Street, Wilson; his contact was mother Marie Jones Davis; and he worked at American Suppliers, Inc., Wilson.

On 11 April 1946, Willie A. Davis, 27, son of Floyd Davis and Marie Burnett Davis, married Inez Dublin, 24, daughter of William and Isabell Dublin, in Wilson.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Nathan Jefferies, 68, unable to work; Bessie Jefferies, 42, housekeeper; Willie Davis, 31, hogsheads maker at tobacco factory, and wife Inez Davis, 26, house cleaner.

Willie A. Davis died 27 August 1971 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 7 April 1919 to Marie Burnett; was married to Inez Dublin Davis; lived at 902 Atlantic Street and was a laborer.

Image courtesy of Veterans of World War II Wilson County, spiral-bound volume, Wilson County Public Library.

You’ll be glad to know she is happily married.

Wilson Daily Times, 29 July 1940.

Ed and Rosa McDaniel Gause arrived in Wilson from Mullins, South Carolina, in the 1920s. The family settled at 716 East Green Street, and Maude Gause is listed in the 1930 city directory as a factory laborer.

On 22 July 1940, Maude Gause married J.P. Perks in Greensville, Virginia. Essentially, they eloped. Just over the border from North Carolina, Emporia, Virginia, was a popular marriage location because the state did not require witnesses, blood tests, or waiting times.

For reasons presently unknown, the marriage did not last long. In July 1942, the Atlanta Daily World ran a photo of Rev. and Mrs. J. Porter Perks, but Mrs. was the former Susie C. Clark of Louisiana.

Lane Street Project: if you’re new to this.

A Google search unexpectedly yielded this pretty accurate AI summary of Lane Street Project:

The Lane Street Project is a community-driven conservation collective in Wilson, North Carolina, dedicated to recovering, documenting, and restoring three historic, neglected African-American cemeteries: Odd Fellows Cemetery (est. circa 1900), Rountree Cemetery (est. circa 1906), and Vick Cemetery (est. 1913). [1, 2, 3]

Founded in 2020 by local historian Lisa Y. Henderson, the initiative has transformed these long-abandoned spaces into recognized, sacred historic sites. [1, 2]

📜 The Tragic History & Reclamation

  • The Vick Cemetery Mystery: Vick Cemetery served as a public burial ground for Black residents until it was condemned in the mid-1950s. Following decades of city neglect, the Wilson City Council voted in 1994 to clear the property, resulting in the complete removal and destruction of all existing tombstones. They replaced them with a single central monument. [1, 2]
  • Uncovering the Truth: In response to pressure from the Lane Street Project, the city conducted a ground-penetrating radar survey. The survey revealed 4,224 underground graves—nearly triple what was originally estimated—lying just beneath the surface without their original markers. [1, 2]
  • Remembered & Restored: In October 2026, the project successfully advocated for the placement of comprehensive interpretive signage and permanent granite boundary markers to officially honor the thousands of ancestors resting at Vick Cemetery. [1]

🛠️ Volunteer & Preservation Efforts

The project organizes an active, multi-generational corps of volunteers during its cleanup seasons: [1]

  • Physical Restoration: Clearing decades of overgrown brush, invasive wisteria, fallen limbs, and dumped trash to reveal lost headstones. [1]
  • Historical Mapping: Formally registering the cemeteries with the North Carolina State Office of Archaeology and charting their boundaries on Google Maps. [1]
  • Genealogy & Archiving: Compiling comprehensive public databases of known and probable burials from death certificates and extant grave markers, as well as preserving records dating back to the 1760s. [1, 2]

To better support long-term research, funding, and maintenance, the collective established a formal 501(c)(3) non-profit called the Friends of Lane Street Project. [1]

If you want to support or participate, I can find information on:

How to join an upcoming Season 7 volunteer service day

Where to follow their community event schedules and updates

How to view their burial databases for genealogical research

Let me know what you would like to explore next!

Actually, let me know!

Lane Street Project: Saint John Missionary Baptist Church, Atlanta.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta nearly all of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and work related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The eleventh in a series — Saint John Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery in Adamsville, Atlanta, Georgia.

——

My friend Jessime McGarity casually mentioned that her family had helped found a church in Southwest Atlanta and that church had a cemetery. I followed up on a drizzly day last week to get a rough location.

Saint John Missionary Baptist Church is no longer active, but in its time was one of the oldest black churches in the Adamsville community. The Young family was at its core.

Jess’ great-great-grandfather Green Young was about ten years old when Freedom came. He had been born, possibly in Clayton County, to a Virginia-born father and Georgia-born mother. By 1880, he was living in Adamsville district as a hired farm laborer in the household of farmer John A. Lee.

On Christmas Day 1882, minister of the gospel Moses Peacock married Green Young and Emma Martin in Fulton County.

By 1900, the Youngs had seven children, including Toby, the third son, born about 1888. Rev. Toby Young would grow up to lead Saint John, and he, his parents, and most of his siblings and children are buried in the church’s little cemetery.

Saint John’s burial ground is now sandwiched between the parking lots of two newer churches on Fairburn Road. It climbs a low wooded hill toward the backyards of houses on a parallel street.

The Youngs’ family plot lies near the front of the cemetery, surrounded by a low cinderblock wall.

Mrs. Kizire Butts’ grave marker was made by noted folk artist Eldren Bailey, but is an unusual form. Butts died in 1948, and Sellers Brothers handled her funeral.

The cemetery is weathered, and many of its 100+ year-old grave markers are sunken or broken, but it is obviously regularly cleared of overgrowth. 

Hester Sloan died in early 1902. 

Talley and Onnie Mae Freeman are buried near one of hundreds of large boulders making up the massive, ancient geological formation known as the Ben Hill Batholith. These egg-shaped granite boulders—some the size of cars or small buildings—extend across the west side of Atlanta, running from Boulder Park down through East Point and into Palmetto. 

Classic Eldren Bailey temporary markers.

When this family upgraded to a permanent granite marker, it incorporated the temporary marker into a brick wall around their plot.

Close-up of Willie Frank Lewis’ temporary marker with its characteristic rosette. His funeral was handled by Ivey Brothers.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, November 2026; thank you, Jessime!

Simpson and Earp judge some White Caps.

In which a mistrial is called for jury tampering, and two black men, William Simpson and Sidney Earp, are selected for the new trial of two White Caps accused of terrorizing their white neighbors over a road dispute.

No. 38 State vs Pharaoh Rowe, Ephraim Bass et als.  }  Order

In the above entitled cause the indictment alleged conspiracy between Defendant & other parties to tear down a fence of one Leora F. Lucas, also to burn tobacco barns of said Lucas, and also charged the overt act. The jury was empaneled on Monday afternoon and evidence was introduced tending to show that a secret organization known as “White Caps” existed in certain parts of said County for unlawful purposes and that one or more of defendants belonged to the same and that said white caps had torn down the fence and attempted to burn barns of said Leora F. Lucas: Court adjourned at six o’clock P.M.

On Tuesday morning the solicitor for the State asked that the jury be allowed to retire a few moments and they repaired to their room. The solicitor then stated that information had come to him that one Coleman a juror was a member of the white cap organization. The state then introduced evidence that said Coleman was frequently seen in conference with Defendants just before the trial, and that he went with Defendants to office of counsel. It was admitted that juror did go to atty’s office but did not go in to the conference but remained out on the porch.

The Court thereupon withdrew a juror and ordered a mistrial.   A. W. Graham, Judge presiding.

No. 38 State vs Pharaoh Rowe, Ephraim Bass et als.  }  Order

In this action it appearing to the court that there are two defendants and the regular jury being exhausted, and the sheriff having announced that nearly all bystanders in the Court House were either kin to defendants by blood or marriage or were witnesses in the cause, it is therefore ordered that the Sheriff of Wilson County summon from the body of said County 170 citizens being men of good moral character and freeholders as a special venire to appear forthwith from which a jury shall be drawn to try this cause. Sheriff shall take them from that part of said County as far remote from the scene of the alleged burning.  A. W. Graham, Judge presiding.

And from the said special venire he following jury were drawn and sworn as a jury to try this cause:

Joshua Haynes, W.S. Williamson, J.C. Morris, G.P. Bryant, Haywood Winstead, Wm. Simpson, col., E.C. Winstead, Sidney Earp, col., J.L. Batts, W.T. Pittman, C.L. Brown & A.T. Stott.

Pending the trial of this cause the Court takes a recess till tomorrow morning at 9 o’clock.

A. W. Graham
Judge presiding

Here’s the back story:

Wilson Times, 12 June 1896.

The case finally went to trial in November 1896 and, after all the evidence was introduced, the defendants pleaded guilty to conspiracy and nolo contendere to the rest of the charges. Per a 15 November 1896 News and Observer article, judgment was suspended upon payment of costs, estimated at more than $1200. While “very heavy punishment” due to defendants’ poverty, the punishment was generally viewed as “charitable and merciful.” (Especially, perhaps, for Rowe, who got gut-shot for his antics.)

Two months later, Rowe and his compatriots were back in court to answer for more White Cap vigilante hooliganism and, as we’ve seen, four black men sat in judgments of those crimes.

Wilson County, N.C., Superior Court Dockets 1886-1897, http://www.familysearch.org.

Studio shots, no. 272: the Charles and Eva M. Hines family.

Back in late spring, when the design of interpretive signage for Vick Cemetery finally got underway, I reached out to the McIntosh family — “could we include a photo of their patriarch Charles Hines in the sign’s graphic?” Ever generous, they said yes, and Charles A. McIntosh sent me an image.

Today, as the McIntosh family prepares to lay Mrs. Henrietta Hines McIntosh to rest, I thank them again and say a prayer for the life of a woman whose generosity to Lane Street Project was just the tiniest portion of her munificent spirit. Rest well, Mother McIntosh!

——

Charles Hines, wife Eva Messick Hines, and children Anna Lee, born 1916, and Charles Erwin, born 1919. (That’s Picture-Taking Barnes’ one-armed chair.)

On 9 April 1885, Charles Hines, 22, married Sophia Williams, 28, at Lewis Williams’ in Edgecombe County. These were Mrs. McIntosh’s paternal grandparents.

Sophia Williams Hines died in the late 1890s, and on 8 September 1898, Charley Hines, 33, son of Wesley and Olive Hines of Edgecombe County, married William Ann Wilkins, 25, daughter of Richmond and Pollie Wilkins, of Toisnot, in Toisnot township, Wilson County.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Charles Hines, 39; wife William Ann, 25; and children James Lewis, 14, Charles, 12, Emma, 10, Olive C., 8, Shady, 7, Dora, 4, and Charlie, 3.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Railroad Street, Heneretta Hines, 28, and her brother Charles Hines, 20, office janitor.

On 22 February 1913, Charlie Hines, 23, and Eva Messedge [Messick], 22, were married in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of Nancy Taylor, Bessie Farmer, and Willie Wells.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Wiggins Street, Charlie Hines, 31, grocery man; wife Eva, 29; children Anna, 3, and Charlie Jr., 7 months; and cousin Maria King, 10.

Charlie Hines died 23 May 1935 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was 45 years old; was born in Wilson County to Charlie Hines and Sophia Williams; was married to Eva M. Hines; lived at 310 Walnut Street; and worked as a laborer. Dora Hines was informant.

On 24 November 1938, Willie Robinson, 25, of Wilson County, son of Linnie and Louise Robinson, married Anna Lee Hines, 22, of Wilson County, daughter of Charley and Eva Hines, in Nashville, Nash County, North Carolina. Eva M. Hines applied for the license

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 303 Elba Street, Eva Hines, 50, household servant; son Charlie, 21, yard boy; and daughter Henrietta, 13, shared a household with Louis Hines Jr., 21, whiskey storage loader; wife Dolly M., 19, tobacco stemmer; and daughter Martha L., 6 months.

In 1940, Charles Erwin Hines registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 28 March 1919 in Wilson; lived at 303 Elba Street; his contact was mother Eva Messick Hines; and he worked at Imperial Tobacco, Barnes and Lodge Streets.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 303 Elba, widow Eva M. Hines, 60, cook; daughter Anna Lee Robinson, 33, and her children James T., 11, and Annie E. Robinson, 10; daughter Henrietta Hines, 23, widow, and her children Patricia, 3, and Janet L. Hines, 2.

On 15 May 1954, Andrew McIntosh, 22, son of James and Mary Holmes McIntosh, married Henrietta Hines, 27, daughter of Charles and Eva Messick Hines, at Saint Alphonsus Catholic Church, Wilson.

Eva Messick Hines died 24 May 1971 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 12 February 1890 to James Messick and Isabella King; was a widow; and lived at 303 Elba Street. Henrietta McIntosh was informant.

The Civil War pension application of Gilbert Hadley.

Twenty year-old Gilbert Hadley slipped away from the Wilson County farm on which he had been held in bondage. On 31 January 1864, he, John Hadley (who may have been his brother), and Freeman Blunt presented themselves to a recruiter in Washington, North Carolina, and enlisted in Company D of the 37th Regiment of the United States Colored Troops.

Twenty-eight years later, crippled with rheumatism and pained by an inguinal hernia (a “rupture”), Hadley filed for a veteran’s pension from his Wilmington home. On 25 November 1892, having been adjudged partially disabled, he was awarded twelve dollars per month, an amount later reduced to eight dollars. In July 1897, Hadley applied for an increase, asserting increased disability and a new “trouble of the head.” A year later, he notified the Bureau of Pensions that his wife had died. Finally, in July 1899, the Bureau rejected his application.

Freeman Blunt died in May 1904.

File #1,098,636, Application of Gilbert Hadley for Invalid’s Pension, National Archives and Records Administration.