Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 12 January 1929.
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Black Joy
Newlyweds Walter and Cadence Hines.
Bertha Bryant becomes Mrs. Dewitt Hawkins.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 24 October 1942.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 596 Wainwright Street, tobacco factory laborer Isham Bryant, 27; wife Rossie, 21; and children Beatrice, 5, Bertha, 4, and Inez, 1.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 805 Roberson Street, Isom Bryant, 37, factory laborer; wife Rossie, 32, public school maid; and daughters Beatrice, 15, Bertha, 14, and Inez, 11.
Bertha Bryant married Dewitt Hawkins on 8 September 1942 in New York City. Hawkins died 21 October 1956. Per a Report on Interment, he served in 3294 QM Svc. Co. QMC from 1942 to 1945 as a private first class and was buried in Long Island National Cemetery. His next of kin was Bertha Hawkins, 183-48 Dunlop Avenue, Saint Albans, New York — “Widow Bertha to be buried in the same grave.”
Bertha Bryant Hawkins returned to Wilson and later married Dan Carroll, who owned a popular Nash Street pool room.
The Klondike Club gave its annual dance.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 July 1935.
Surely, a good time was had by all at the Klondike Club‘s 1935 annual dance.
Two capital eyes.
News and Record (Greensboro, N.C.), 6 October 1922.
- Ola Dupree — presumably, jokester Ola Dupree was working at Wilson County Club and living on premises.
Congratulations, Gamma Beta Omega!
Congratulations to Gamma Beta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, which celebrated its 85th anniversary at a gala on 3 October 2025. Read about the chapter’s early years in Wilson here.
Photo courtesy of S. Richardson.
Black Wide-Awake is 10 years old!
Black Wide-Awake simmered on a back burner for years; my first post was titled “At last.” Ten years and almost 7000 posts later, among the greatest joys this blog has brought me are the people I’ve met and relationships I’ve built. I’m grateful for the ways you enrich my understanding of a place I love, and I’m honored to have brought gifts to you. Now more than ever, we have to teach ourselves, tell our own stories, save our own spaces, preserve our own past. Thank you for reading, for supporting, for commenting, for amplifying, for sharing photos and memories, for championing our dead. Black Wilson got something to say!
Darden senior preaches first sermon.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 October 1938.
Though Leroy Foster did not make his career in the pulpit, he remained a lifelong A.M.E. Zion lay leader.
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- Leroy Foster
In the 1920 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: tenant farmer Claud Foster, 37; wife Cora, 37; and children Mammie, 16, Booker T., 12, Maggie, 9, Claud Jr., 7, Carry, 6, Leroy, 5, Sammie, 1, and Estell, 1 month.
In the 1930 census of Jackson township, Nash County, N.C.: farmer Claud Foster, 48; children Claud Jr., 16, Carrie Lee, 14, Leroy, 13, Samuel, 11, Cora, 10, Douglas, 8, and Marie, 6; and grandson Jimmie, 7.
In 1940, Leroy Foster registered for the World War II draft. Per his registration card, he was born 10 January 1917 in Wilson; lived at 303 North Vick Street; his contact was sister Carrie Highsmith, 1910 North 21st Street, Philadelphia; and he was a student at Livingstone College, Salisbury, N.C.
On 4 October 1944, Leroy Foster, 27, of Wilson, son of Claude and Cora Foster, married Lula Margaret Moore, 26, of Wilson, daughter of Louis Arrington and Lula Moore, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister W.A. Hilliard performed the ceremony in the presence of Arthur Lee Battle, Viola McPhail, and Mary Elizabeth Thomas.
Leroy Foster interrupted his college education to serve in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946.
The Livingstonian yearbook (1947), Livingstone College.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 925 Washington Street, science teacher Leroy Foster, 33; wife Lula M., 32; and aunt Delphia V. Battle, 57, presser.
Leroy Darden died 10 March 1978 in Greenville, North Carolina.
Wilson Daily Times, 12 March 1978.
- Rev. Richard A.G. Foster
- Dr. B.P. Coward — Bryant P. Coward.
O.N. Freeman Jr. marries in Tuscaloosa.
Chicago Defender, 16 July 1938.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: on Saratoga Road, Oliver N. Freeman, 38; wife Willie May, 31; and children Naomi, 8, Oliver N. Jr., 7, Mary F., 5, and Connie, 4.
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1300 East Nash Street, valued at $6000, Oliver N. Freeman, 48, building contractor; wife Willie May, 41, born in Tennessee; and children Naomi, 18, Oliver N. Jr., 17, Mary F., 16, and Connie H., 14.
In the 1940 census of Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County, N.C.: lodger Oliver N. Freeman, Jr., 27, public school teacher; wife Evelyn E., 27, public school teacher; and daughter Winnifred O., 10.
In 1940, Oliver N. Freeman registered for the World War II draft in Rocky Mount. Per his registration card, he was born 28 September 1912 in Wilson; lived at 703 Atlantic Street; his contact was wife Evelyn L. Freeman; and he worked for the City Board of Education.
Charlotte News, 22 January 1985.
Vote for your friends and defeat your enemies.
My guess is that Rev. Richard A.G. Foster knew that Wilson was a stepping-stone, that he would not be in town long, that the A.M.E. Zion itineracy system, if nothing else, would roll him out before his civil rights zealotry ignited a retaliatory spark.
Also, he was financially insulated in a way that other local ministers were not. The church paid a decent salary and provided housing, so he had no need to work a supplemental, or even primary, job that could be boycotted or threatened.
Thus, Foster jumped into Wilson in late 1936 with both feet and, over the next three-and-a-half years, engineered election strategy, nurtured youth development, raised funds for investigations of police slayings, fought for better schools, and demanded integration.
Chicago Defender, 18 June 1938.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 October 1938.