Children

Unexpected joy on Christmas morning.

During the depths of the Great Depression, young Lusynthia Johnson wrote this Christmas short story set in a thinly veiled Wilson.

The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 26 December 1936.

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Lusynthia Page Johnson was born in 1922 in Wilson County to Theodore Roosevelt Johnson and Rachel Bynum Johnson. In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Mamie Bynum, 50; daughter Mozell Jeffrey, 23, maid; daughter Rachel Johnson, 25, hospital maid; son-in-law Rosevelt Johnson, 23, orchestra musician; roomer Namie Lasitor, 22, servant; and granddaughter Lucinda Farmer, 8.

School enrollment in 1945.

Rocky Mount (N.C.) Telegram, 8 September 1945.

There were 1696 African-American students enrolled in Wilson city schools at the start of the 1945 school year. Darden had 670 students in grades seven through twelve, and a total of 950 children attended the two intown elementary students. Sixty-six children crowded into Barnes School on Airport Road, but only ten were at one-room Lane School.

4-H Club members receive certificates.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 August 1938.

In 1938, Wilson 4-H Club members racked up certificates of completion awarded by the state agricultural extension service. Among those recognized were: Mittie Sutton, Leamon Jones, Hilda Joint [Joyner], Levi Simmons, Beatrice Jones, William Bynum, Cleo Jones, Herman Alston, Hattie Armstrong, Rosa Armstrong, Mary E. Barnes, Luther Battle, Lucille Best, Lillian Bullock, John Bunch, Lucille Earl, Charlotte Exum, Marie Hilliard, John A. Jones, Willie Jones, William Kirby, Mary D. Lenzy [Lindsey], Marie Lucas, Christine Mitchell, Warren H. Mitchell, Calona Montague, Alexander Pearce, William Pearce, Ruth Sanders, Sudie Spinner, Mary Terry, and Dollie M. Williams.