Black Joy

The Frogs host a hop.

In 1931, the Frog Social Club sponsored its second annual holiday party — the Frog Hop. Held in Samuel H. Vick‘s “casino” in the Odd Fellows building, the soiree promised a good time to the select with an “admit card.”

The Frog Club drew its members from the rarefied heights of Wilson’s African-American social circles.

The Journal and Guide‘s 10 January 1933 issue described the Frog’s first New Year’s party.

Founded by black movers and shakers, Frogs social clubs sprang up throughout the country in the decades prior to World War II. The legendary precursor to all of them was formed in Harlem in 1908 by legendary theatrical pioneers Bert Williams, George Walker, and Sam Corker. Named after Aristophanes’ play, The Frogs, the Harlem club’s peak years were the 1910s and 1920s, but its renown inspired the formation and tone of the clubs like the one in Wilson.

Thank you, Vicki Cowan, for sharing!

The Kent-Lucas family reunion celebrates 46 years!

Congrats to the Kent-Lucas family, which celebrated its 46th family reunion this past weekend! I was honored that Black Wide-Awake was helpful to the family in documenting its ancestors and was thrilled that Rev. James Robert Kent shared with me the family history report distributed to attendees. The report contains priceless oral history accounts, as well as copies of marriage and death certificates and of funeral programs, as well as posts from Black Wide-Awake.

Kudos to the Kent-Lucas family historians, who are doing this thing right!

Get to know your people; or, it’s reunion season.

Effenus Henderson (left) is an internationally known human resources and diversity thought leader. Wade J. Henderson (right) is, among other things, former president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. About 15 years ago, the two met at a National Urban League conference.

“You’re from North Carolina?,” asked Wade. “My father was from Wilson.”

“You need to talk to Lisa,” said Effenus.

Wade did. And in 2016, there we all were — in Dudley, North Carolina, birthplace of our grandparents, at the Henderson Family Reunion.

Wade’s grandfather Jesse “Jack” Henderson and my great-grandmother Bessie Lee Henderson were siblings. Jack came to Wilson around 1908, and my grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks, Bessie’s orphaned daughter, arrived a few years later. Wade’s father Dempsey Lee Henderson was born in Wilson in 1927, and my father Rederick C. Henderson in 1934.

——

Is your Wilson County-based family having a reunion this summer? I’d love to feature it here — and add your reunion flyer or program to my collection!

Photo in collection of Lisa Y. Henderson, 2016.

A belated birthday visit with Mrs. Bell.

I sent Inez Dickerson Bell a card for her 101st birthday last month, but decided to pop in to see her, too. She was enjoying a little quiet time in her room, but was happy to see me, and we spent a pleasant half-hour or so chatting about the old neighborhood. She marveled at her great age (“That’s a lot of birthdays! I must have done something right”); spoke fondly of my parents (“Beverly is so pretty. And so sweet. She looks good, and she acts like she feels good.” “Rederick! We miss him! He wouldn’t ask for nothing, and next thing you know that garbage can is in the back. Who did it? Rederick! He was doing something good all the time. I’m a witness to that!”); praised me and my sister for our good comportment; reminisced about the Belette Women’s Club; shared tips (“The Bible says ‘do unto others!'”); and philosophied (“I’ve had a good life if I go ‘way from here tomorrow.”) Finally, as I stood to leave, she motioned to her side table: “Take one of these. Enjoy it! ‘Cause I’m gon enjoy mine!” 

As always, thank you so much, Mrs. Bell! See you next time!

This is who … (the birthday gratitude edition.)

This is who is scouring the internet, poking through the archives, and interviewing the elders.

This chunky toddler in knee-high socks, asleep in her high chair, gripping a chicken leg, is grateful to greet the risen sun on this 62nd turn in its orbit — sound in mind and body, nimble of toe and wit, surrounded by love, and always, always, always ready to put in work.

Black Wide-Awake is the gift that ricochets from me to you and back, and I am especially thankful on my birthday.

Photo in collection of Lisa Y. Henderson.

Joyous Juneteenth 2026!

Though it’s not a precise reckoning, the 1870 federal census is the closest account we have of who was emancipated in Wilson County five years earlier. The 310 surnames inscribed above are those reported to the census taker by the newly freed (and a few freeborn).

We need no one’s permission to honor and amplify the memory of our forebears, and we needn’t wait for the government to teach us their stories and struggles. Today, we celebrate freedom, resilience, and the enduring legacies of the men, women, and children these names represent.

Pour one for the ancestors this Juneteenth!

——

Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19th and a federal holiday since 2021, commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans in the United States. It marks the day in 1865 when Union troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce the end of the Civil War and slavery—more than two months after Appomattox Court House and two years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

Wilson Colored High School awards its first diplomas.

“For the first time in the history of Wilson students of the colored high school will be awarded diplomas ….”

Wilson Daily Times, 23 May 1924.

——

Recommended reading, no. 25: Chowan Beach, Remembering an African American Resort.

Founded in 1926 on the eastern bank of the Chowan River, about 100 miles northeast of Wilson, Chowan Beach was a thriving African-American resort for decades, drawing family vacationers and legendary chitlin circuit musicians for decades. In this slim book packed with photographs, Frank Stephenson brings to life a favored vacation spot for generations of Wilsonians.

Wilson Daily Times, 26 July 1940.