Month: May 2019

Sankofa: remembering Marie Everett.

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For hundreds of years, the Akan of Ghana and Ivory Coast have used symbols, called adinkra, as visual representations of concepts and aphorisms. Sankofa is often illustrated as a bird looking over its back. Sankofa means, literally, “go back and get it.” Black Wide Awake exists to do just that.

I had never heard of Marie Everett until I read Charles W. McKinney’s excellent Greater Freedom: The Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina. I’m not sure how it is possible that her struggle was so quickly forgotten in Wilson. However, it is never too late to reclaim one’s history. To go back and get it.  So, here is the story of the fight for justice for Everett — a small victory that sent a big message to Wilson’s black community and likely a shudder of premonition through its white one:

On 6 October 1945, 15 year-old Marie Everett took in a movie at the Carolina Theatre in downtown Wilson. (The Carolina admitted black patrons to its balcony.) As Everett stood with friend Julia Armstrong at the concession stand, a cashier yelled at her to get in line. Everett responded that she was not in line and, on the way back to her seat, stuck out her tongue. According to a witness, the cashier grabbed Everett, slapped her, and began to choke her. Everett fought back. Somebody called the police, and Everett was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct. The next day in court, Everett’s charge was upgraded to simple assault. Though this misdemeanor carried a maximum thirty-day sentence and fifty-dollar fine, finding her guilty, the judge upped Everett’s time to three months in county jail. As Wilson’s black elite fretted and dragged their feet, the town’s tiny NAACP chapter swung into action, securing a white lawyer from nearby Tarboro and notifying the national office. In the meantime, Everett was remanded to jail to await a hearing on her appeal. There she sat for four months (though her original sentence had expired) until a court date. Wilson County appointed two attorneys to the prosecution, and one opened with a statement to the jury that the case would “show the n*ggers that the war is over.” Everett was convicted anew, and Judge C.W. Harris, astonishingly, increased her sentence from three to six months, to be served — even more astonishingly — at the women’s prison in Raleigh. (In other words, hard time.) Everett was a minor, though, and the prison refused to admit her. Branch secretary Argie Evans Allen of the Wilson NAACP jumped in again to send word to Thurgood Marshall, head of the organization’s Legal Defense and Educational Fund. Marshall engaged M. Hugh Thompson, a black lawyer in Durham, who alerted state officials to the shenanigans playing out in Wilson. After intervention by the State Commissioner of Paroles and Governor R. Gregg Cherry, Everett walked out of jail on March 18. She had missed nearly five months of her freshman year of high school.

The Wilson Daily Times, as was its wont, gave Everett’s story short-shrift. However, the Norfolk Journal & Guide, an African-American newspaper serving Tidewater Virginia, stood in the gap. (Contrary to the article’s speculation, there was already a NAACP branch on the ground in Wilson, and it should have been credited with taking bold action to free Everett.)

Norfolk Journal & Guide, 23 March 1946.

Sankofa bird, brass goldweight, 19th century, British Museum.org. For more about the Carolina Theatre, including blueprints showing its separate entrance and ticket booth for African-Americans, see here.

“Times were hard and a poor n*gger had to live”: the death of George Taylor.

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Wilson Times, 7 May 1918.

In a nutshell (with some augmented facts): policeman Leon M. Cooper arrested George Taylor on suspicion of theft of a chicken from Morris Barker. Taylor asked for leniency. As they walked toward the police station, Taylor “broke and ran,” and Cooper fired several shots in his direction “to scare him.” Taylor was struck and killed. After an inquest, a coroner’s jury exonerated Cooper. Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

——

  • George Taylor — in the 1880 census of Saulston township, Wayne County: farmer Jordan Taylor, 34; wife Winnfred, 43; and children Diana Taylor, 15, Nellie Langston, 14, and Robert, 12, Eliza, 11, George, 10, Rufus, 8, Mary, 9, and Jordan Taylor, 6. On 9 February 1892, George Taylor, 21, of the Town of Wilson, son of Jordan and Winnie Taylor, married Kate Lane, 20, of the Town of Wilson, daughter of Charity Lane. Baptist minister Crocket Best performed the ceremony in the presence of Mary Best, W.A. Rogers, and Vinae Araton(?). In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farm laborer George Taylor, 30; wife Catherine, 29; and daughter Nancy, 6, were listed in the household of widow Ellen M. Clark, 40. George and Catherine were servants. On 19 December 1906, George Taylor, 35, of Wilson, son of Jordan and Winnie Taylor, married Maggie Batchelor, 30, of Wilson, daughter of Peter Batchelor. A.M.E. Zion minister N.D. King performed the ceremony at Jordan Taylor’s house in the presence of Leiston Pitt, Henry Stewart, Jordan Taylor and Willie Mitchell. In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: wagon factory laborer George Taylor, 38; wife Marguerett, 32; and daughter Nancy, 16, a private cook. Per his death certificate, George Taylor died 4 May 1918, “shot by police & killed while under arrest.” He was about 44 years old; was born in Wilson County to Jordan Taylor and Winnie (last name unknown); and worked as a carpenter.
  • Officer Cooper — in the 1920 Wilson city directory: Cooper Leon M police h 410 N Tarboro
  • Morris Barker — in the 1920 Wilson city directory, Barker was listed as proprietor of a department store at 113-115 South Tarboro. (Lithuania-born Barker lived on Maplewood Avenue and was part of Wilson’s tiny Jewish community.)
  • Kenan and Tarboro Streets

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(A) C. Culpepper & Son, (B) Morris Barker’s 5 & 10-cent store. Kenan Street is just beyond the left edge of this section of the 1913 Sanborn fire insurance map of Wilson.

  • Mr. Culpepper’s shop — in the 1920 Wilson city directory: Cicero Culpepper & Son is listed as a horseshoer and Wheelwright at 222-224 South Tarboro.

We clean clothes cleaner than the cleaner that cleans clothes clean.

York Pressing Club, East Nash Street. Wilson Daily Times, [no date], 1914.

“At a time when grooming and fashion counted for a lot, when most domestic chores such as keeping one’s skirts and suits sharply creased were handled at home, those who could afford it chipped in to join ‘clubs’ that had no clubhouse, no sporting activities, no board games, no meetings. They offered simple ‘pressing’ services. As their membership swelled throughout the South, ‘club’ operations moved from homes into modest stores. … Over time as technology advanced, simple cleaning and pressing turned to dry cleaning.” “Pressing Business,” Dora Mekouar, Ted Landphair’s America.

For a small monthly or yearly fee, members of pressing clubs could have their good clothes cleaned, pressed and repaired regularly, insuring a well-groomed appearance. This was no small matter in a place and time in which most men owned only one suit. African-Americans did not dominate the pressing club business as overwhelmingly they did barbering, but they were well-represented in the number.

Wilson Times, 21 October 1921.

The list below comprises those businesses that advertised or were otherwise described as operating pressing clubs or other types of cleaning and pressing businesses.

  • Barefoot Pressing Works — Lenwood Barefoot, proprietor. Listed in the 1920 Hill’s Wilson city directory at 510 1/2 East Nash and in the 1922 city directory at 507 East Nash. Barefoot also worked as a tailor.
  • Brewington Pressing Works — Edward C. Brewington, proprietor. Listed in the 1920 Hill’s Wilson city directory at 510 1/2 East Nash and in the 1922 directory at 561 East Nash.

1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.

  • Carter & Walker — per the 1916 city directory, Clarence Carter and Charles Walker operated a cleaning and pressing business at 503 East Nash.
  • Citizens Pressing Club — in the 1912 city directory at 124 South Goldsboro.
  • Cox’s Pressing Club — Eddie H. Cox, proprietor. In the 1925 Wilson city directory, the pressing club is listed at 529 East Nash.
  • Down Town Pressing Club — Lenwood Barefoot, proprietor. Advertised in the same 1914 supplement as York Pressing, above. In the 1916 city directory, the address of Down Town Pressing Club is 532 East Nash.
  • Home Pressing Club — in the 1916 city directory, the address of Home Pressing Club is 217 South Goldsboro.
  • Moses Pressing Works — in the 1925 city directory at 514 East Nash.
  • No. 1 Pressing Club — Preston Smith, proprietor. This business is listed in the 1922 city directory at 515 East Nash.

An incident stemming from an altercation at Preston Smith’s pressing club. Wilson Daily Times, 27 November 1923.

  • Oak City Pressing Club — Listed at 104 South Pettigrew Street in the 1928 and 1930 Hill’s Wilson city directory.
  • Quick Service Pressing Club — John B. Barnes, proprietor. 1941.
  • Service Cleaning Works — Lenwood Barefoot, proprietor. Listed in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory.
  • Wardrobe Pressing Club — James Barbour, Nannie Barbour and Willie R. Barnes, proprietors. Listed in the 1920 city directory at 600 East Nash Street and in 1922, at 601 East Nash. Per the 1930 Hill’s Wilson city directory, the business was at 548 East Nash.
  • York Pressing Shop — Reed and Whitty, proprietors. I have not been able to identify Whitty, but Reed seems to have been Lonnie Reid (a cousin of Elijah Reid, J.D. Reid and Willie G. Reid), who is listed in the 1912 Hill’s city directory of Wilson operating a clothes cleaning shop at 603 East Nash Street. York was short-lived, as in the 1916 directory Reid was in business with Dunn, North Carolina, resident William Bates. Their tailor shop, Bates & Reid, also operated at 603 East Nash.
  • Whitted & Moser — listed in the 1920 Hill’s Wilson city directory at 516 East Nash, which was also William C. Whitted‘s home address. Oliver L. Moser lived on East Nash Extended. [Was Whitted the “Whitty” above?]

This list includes other African-Americans known to have operated such businesses or worked in the trade.

  • Lemon Barnes — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Saratoga Road, farmer Jesse Barnes, 46; wife Sarah, 47; and children Ned, 23, farm laborer; Nancy, 22, college student; Lemon, 20, pressing club laborer; Jessie Belle, 18, high school student; Maggie, 15; Ardenia, 13; Frank, 11; James, 6; and Mildred, 3.
  • William Ichabod Barnes — in the 1908 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory, William I. Barnes was listed as proprietor of a cleaning and pressing business at 508 East Nash.
  • John Best — in the 1930 Wilson city directory, Best John (c) (Sylvia) clothes presser h 106 Ashe. Herbert H. and Alf J. Ford are listed as the proprietors of Ford cleaners.
  • James Hardy — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 311 Pender, Lawrence Hardy, 39, pantry(?) servant at college; brother James Hardy, 39, presser at cleaning works; and George Brodie, 33, barber.
  • Grover Jackson — in business listings in the 1925 city directory at 407 Stantonsburg Road.
  • Hosea McMillan — listed in the 1922 city director as a presser.
  • Mack McMillan — listed in the 1922 city directory as a presser.
  • Leonard Moore — in business listings in the 1925 city directory at South Goldsboro, corner of Hines.
  • Charles Nelson — in the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 113 Pender Street, (1) paying $12/month, Ethel Cain, 32, elementary school teacher, and mother Delia Jones, 66, cook; (2) paying $4, Charles Nelson, 36, pressing club presser, and wife Mamie, 34; and (3) paying $4, Hubert McFail, 35, tobacco factory truck driver, and wife Viola, 20, school teacher.
  • James Powell — in business listings in the 1922 city directory as the operator of a business in Five Points Settlement.
  • Oscar Reid — in the 1922 Wilson city directory: Reid, Oscar, cleaner — Powell Cleaning Works, 207 North Vick; in the 1928 city directory: Reid Oscar (c; Nora) clnr and presser 567 E Nash h 207 N Vick
  • Warren Rountree — listed in the 1922 Wilson city directory as a presser.
  • William R. Rountree — in business listings in the 1922 city directory at South Tarboro near Norfolk Southern Railroad.
  • William Solomon — in business listings in the 1922 Hill’s Wilson city directory at 111 North Pettigrew.
  • Alonzo Taylor — in business listings in the 1916 city directory of Wilson, Taylor is listed as a 213 South Goldsboro.
  • Noble Wade — business listings in the the 1922 Hill’s Wilson city directory at 510 East Nash.

 A fire broke out in William I. Barnes’ pressing club. Wilson Daily Times, 3 November 1911.