We first saw this gang here in another photo taken within a few minutes in front of the Mill House, a windmill-shaped grocery at the corner of Lee and Pine Streets. The neighborhood was patchily integrated in the late 19th century and early 20th century, and a handful of African-American families remained when these photos were taken in July 1944.

The back of one of the images is inscribed “the neighborhood kids.” The African-American boy in the striped shirt has been identified as Bobby Lee “Chippy” Dickerson. Dickerson is believed to have become a police officer in Teaneck, New Jersey, but I have not been able to find more information about him.

Do you know Bobby Dickerson?

Photographer unknown. Photo courtesy of Keith Boykin, a Wilson native and collector of Wilson County ephemera. Thank you!