The William H. Applewhite house is one of several standing plantation houses clustered around Stantonsburg in southeast Wilson County.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, March 2026.
The W.H. Applewhite plantation, part 2.
Blackwell did not like his supper.
Lane Street Project: see you at this month’s service days!
James Baker, as imagined.
I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.
I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.
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James Baker (1879-1940), farmer.
Received of Daniel Vick.
From the Samuel H. Vick family’s archives, two receipts for payments made by patriarch Daniel Vick. The first reflects taxes he paid for 1883 “Graded School — Colored” in the amount of $5.52.
The second is a receipt for payment of $12.14 to Alpheus P. Branch, merchant, banker, and founder of Branch Banking & Trust (now Truist.)
Thank you for sharing, Vicki M. Cowan!
The 108th anniversary of the school boycott.
Today marks the 108th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman. Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.
The only known photograph of the Wilson Normal Collegiate & Industrial Institute.
The school boycott is largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes go unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9 henceforth, I publish links to Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please re-read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.
we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed
the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school
a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings
what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers
lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks
photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools
a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city
womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school
respectful-petition-seeks-reids-removal
lucas-testifies-that-he-accomplished-his-purpose
there-has-been-an-astonishing-occurrence-in-wilson
the-independent-school-thrives
the-incorporation-of-the-w-n-c-i-institute
And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.
B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 37: Holden School.
In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.
We been here.
HOLDEN SCHOOL
Originally one-room school for white students; converted to Black school circa 1921. Located near Mill Branch west of Holdens Crossroads. Building replaced with Rosenwald funds in early 1920s. Closed in 1951 with consolidation of rural schools. Demolished.
We know relatively little about Holden School, but for more, see here and here and here.
Darden debaters go to state finals at A&T.
Wilson Daily Times, 28 March 1939.
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- Beatrice Harrison — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: carpenter mechanic helper Eli Harrison, 56; wife Rosa, 54; and children Ethel, 23, Jessie, 19, Beatrix, 17, Leroy, 16, and Helen, 12.
- Lillian Black
- Samuel Geralds
- Gertrude Whitehead
- Rosemary Fitts
- Pauleze Coley
The estate of Solomon Woodard (1878).
Solomon Woodard was enslaved by Stephen Woodard Sr. and, later, Stephen Woodard Jr. He was a young man when emancipated. On 3 April 1866, Solomon Woodard and Drury Edmundson registered their four-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace, legalizing their marriage. In 1870, they were farming in Stantonsburg township, Wilson County, and had a daughter Mary, age 3. In February 1878, Woodard died at about age 38.
On 24 February 1878, administrator James S. Woodard paid out a year’s support to widow Drury Woodard. Solomon had done relatively well during the dozen or so years since he was freed, and Drury signed for three beds, twelve chairs, three tables, 1000 pounds of bacon, a mule, a horse, and other property totaling about $400 in value.
James S. Woodard then petitioned the court to sell the remainder of Solomon Woodard’s on cash terms only, opining that potential buyers (“in part … negroes”) likely would not be able to provide security for credit buys.
On 19 March 1878, James S. Woodard conducted the sale. Drury Woodard bought several of her husband’s items, including his wearing apparel, a shotgun, a safe, and an ox. Despite (or maybe because of) James Woodard’s concerns, few black people won bids. William Hall bought one sow. Frank Woodard picked up a wagon, a crosscut saw, and some measures. The sale cleared about $66.
Estate File of Solomon Woodard, Wilson County; North Carolina Wills and Probate Records, 1665-1998, http://www.ancestry.com.
The obituary of Lady Mae Massey.
Wilson Daily Times, 25 April 1950.
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On 14 March 1926, Ladie May Patrick, 21, daughter of Dolphus and Lela Patrick, married Joe Thomas, 25, son of Tom and Della Thomas, in Wilson.
On 23 July 1938, Lady Mary Mae Patrick, 34, of Wilson County, daughter of Paul McDowell and Lela Patrick, married Thomas Massey, 45, of Wilson County, son of Richard and Liddie McDowell, in Nash County, N.C.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Lela Patrick, 55, tobacco stemmer; brother Luther Blue, 51, farm laborer; mother Catherine Blue, 78, widow; lodger Thomas Mathews, 45, tobacco factory fireman; and his wife Lady M., 35.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 305 Hackney Street, Tom Massey, 52, tobacco factory fireman; wife Lady Mae, 43; daughter Sadie Mae, 12; and mother-in-law Lela Patrick, 65, tobacco stemmer.
Lady Mae Massey died 23 April 1950 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was born 22 January 1905 in Robeson County, N.C., to Dolphus Patrick and Lela Blue; was married; and lived at 305 Hackney Street.