Wilson Daily Times, 6 July 1951.

Eyeballing the records, I estimate that Rev. Fred M. Davis performed more weddings among African-Americans in Wilson in the first half of the twentieth century than any minister of any denomination. He served as pastor of several of the city’s Black Missionary Baptist churches and was recognized among the “who’s who” of African-American Baptist leaders in North Carolina. Rev. Davis’ obituary reveals the breadth of his influence across eastern North Carolina, pastoring churches in Scotland Neck, Mount Olive, Clinton, Dunn, and Goldsboro, as well as several in Wilson and Elm City. The obituary also identifies Rev. Davis as one of the young Wilson freedmen, like Samuel H. Vick, Daniel C. Suggs, and Braswell R. Winstead, who left home to attend Pennsylvania’s Lincoln University.