Part 3 of five in a series offering close-up images of the children in E. Courtney Fitts‘ class at the Colored Graded School, circa 1931.
Photograph in personal collection of Lisa Y. Henderson.
Mrs. Fitts’ class, part 3.
Month: July 2022
The murder of Mary Huggins.
On 22 October 1933, the Daily Times reported the murder of Mary Bethea, who had been found shot to death in a ditch on Suggs Street.
In fact, the victim’s name was Mary Huggins. Per her death certificate, she lived on Gay Street; was married; was 29 years old; and was born in Wilson County to Arch Bynum and Pennie Barnes. Annie James, 619 Suggs Street, was informant. Her listed cause of death went so far as to name a suspect: “Murdered. Shot to death. Supposed by James McPhail.”
On 22 December 1934, the Daily Times reported that James McNeil, not McPhail, had convicted of manslaughter in Huggins’ death and sentenced to ten years in state prison.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
Blaming the coons.
Wilson Advance, 20 June 1889.
Josephus Daniels‘ Wilson Advance advanced a racist theory to explain why the Mount Olive Telegram was not receiving its courtesy copies of “brethren” newspapers — the appointment of African-American postal route agents, “coons … turned loose among loads of mail matter.” Alfred Robinson was one such agent.
Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.