Wilson Advance, 18 June 1880.
Wilson Academy, a private school, educated the first generation of free African-American children in Wilson. Among its graduates were Samuel H. Vick and his siblings; Daniel C. Suggs and his siblings; Braswell R. Winstead; John H. Clark, Augustus S. Clark, and their siblings; Rev. Edward C. Simms;
A.M.E. Zion minister Joseph C. Price was an early principal of Wilson Academy. Edward Moore served as principal from 1879 to 1881.
Neither the school’s precise location or its establishing body are known. It was graded school, however, and students who wished to go beyond eighth grade had to leave Wilson to attend high school. Many attended the preparatory divisions of colleges like Biddle University, Livingstone College, Shaw University, Howard University, or, quite popularly, Lincoln University in Pennsylvania.
Wilson Academy seems to have closed around the time Wilson established a public graded school in the early 1890s.
Great Scholarship. I can see the impact that Education had on the AA Community of Wilson post re-construction. The individual mentioned prominentlyhere is the ” immortal ” Dr. Joseph Charles Price; The Lion of Lyceum , President of Livinstone College. Now I see the connection with Mr. Edward Barnes Principal of CH Darden HS. Were it not for Dr. Prices untimely demise it is suggested by many HE would have captured the void of Booker T. Washington. Great Scholarship –