Wilson Daily Times, 18 August 1948.

In 1948, the city of Wilson extended garbage collection to “every house in Wilson,” which we may reasonably interpret to mean an extension to East Wilson. City manager F. Talmage Green clearly felt a way about providing this basic necessity, however.

In order to receive this public service, residents had to provide their own garbage cans. Residents, not property owners — a significant distinction in a part of town in which the overwhelming number of houses were rental properties occupied by poor or working class tenants.

Green scoffed at the observation by local N.A.A.C.P. president Isaac B. Butler some who had put their bins out had been bypassed. Instead, he warned, apparently without irony, that “improper garbage disposal is a definite health hazard” and warned that those who would (could?) not comply with the closed-container requirement could be fined ten dollars.