Civil rights

The 108th anniversary of the school boycott.

Today marks the 108th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman.  Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.

The only known photograph of the Wilson Normal Collegiate & Industrial Institute. 

The school boycott is largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes go unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9 henceforth, I publish links to Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please re-read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.

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The teachers.

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And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.

Saint James Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Last week, a group led by Rev. William Barber gathered in Wilson to take their first steps on a three-day march to Raleigh. The mobilization event, dubbed This Is Our Selma Love Forward Together, draws attention to “unabridged voting rights; living wages and ending poverty; welcoming immigrants; embracing religious values of mercy, grace, empathy and not religious nationalism; supporting fully funded public education; guaranteeing health care for all; spreading love, not hate; keeping peace, not ICE raids and unchecked militarism; saving our environment instead of turning it over to the polluters; letting the people be in control, not a few millionaires and technocrats; and health care for all.” The marchers set forth from Saint James Christian Church on Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway in East Wilson.

Per its website, in “1917, Saint James Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ was founded by George and Daniel Dupree (two laymen brothers who lived in the community). The church’s ministry began as a Sunday School. The Church’s name was changed in 1966 to Saint James Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Our anniversary is celebrated on the fourth Sunday in the month of May. Saint James Christian Church has called five Senior Pastors: Rev. George Washington Little (1917-1920); Bishop Wilbert B. Parks (1920-1959); Rev. Amos Artis, Sr. (1959-1976); Rev. Dr. Charles E. Barnes (1979-2020); and Interim Pastor Rev. Mary Ann Glover (2020-2021). On December 1, 2021, the Reverend Dr. Della J. Owens was called to serve as the Senior Pastor.” The church’s history includes this photograph of an early church building.

The Dupree brothers lived in Pitt County, so it was not clear to me which community was indicated here. Researching Saint James’ history is complicated by by what appear to be related churches in neighboring counties that were also called “Saint James” and shared pastors; by the number of unrelated churches in Wilson and neighboring counties called “Saint James”; and by an apparent switch from Free Will Baptist to Church of Christ Disciples of Christ.

The first recorded Wilson County property purchased by the church was a one-acre lot in Saratoga township, adjacent to “Old Speight’s Chapel Church.”  Trustees Charles Ruffin Sr., Charles Ruffin Jr., and Howard Barrett handled the transaction for the church, paying $225 on 6 July 1946. Deed Book 325, page 48. It is not clear that a church was built here though, as newspapers references to Saint James place it in Fountain, a few miles into Pitt County. In fact, it appears that Saint James built its first church in Wilson only in the late 1990s, when the present building was constructed. Nonetheless, wherever it met, Saint James was active in Wilson County from at least the 1940s.

History courtesy of stjamesdoc.org.

Lucama School observes Negro History Week.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 9 March 1929.

Kudos to the teachers of Lucama School!

——

  • Cora W. Farmer — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 701 East Green Street, George Farmer, 55, porter for A.C.L.R.R.; wife Cora, 51, school teacher; daughters Lena, 20, teacher, and Janie L., 23, department store elevator girl; stepdaughter Cora M. Washington, 21 (marked as “absent”); mother-in-law Lou Miller, 75; and boarders Mildred Norfleet, 23, courthouse elevator girl; and Amos Moor, 35, hotel porter. [Janie, in fact, was Cora’s daughter and George’s step-daughter.]
  • Emma Williams — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 912 East Nash, Frank Williams, 50, building mechanic; wife Emma, 36, schoolteacher; and step-children Norwood, 21, odd jobs laborer, Mabel, 16, and Johnie Brewington, 14.
  • Lela M. Washington — in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Washington Lelia (c) sch tchr r 305 Moore
  • Irene W. Lucas — in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Lucas Irene (c) sch tchr h 701 E Green [Irene Washington Lucas was the daughter of Cora M. Washington Farmer, above.]

 

Shout-out to Gary Redding for his daily Halifax County black history highlights!

You know I love a granular Black history, and Halifax County, N.C., Commissioner Gary Redding is pouring it in spades this Month. I’ve known Gary since he was five years old. He comes from a long line of social justice warriors, and I’m so proud of his work as an educator, lawyer, and community advocate in his home county. He is the embodiment of “servant-leader.”

Every day, Gary posts to Facebook a brief description of a Halifax County black history milestone with several attached photographs or newspaper clippings. I am struck by the vignettes themselves, but also by the similarities and differences between what happened in Halifax and Wilson Counties. Gary is building a vital archive for his community and for all of whose who believe in the power and importance of sharing our stories.

Thank you, Gary R. Redding!

Black History Month Throwback: honoring acts of resistance, no. 1.

Wilson’s Art Deco bus station stood from 1938 to the mid-1990s.

In 1943, a dozen years before Claudette Colvin and Rosa Parks’ celebrated acts of resistance, at least four young African-American men and women refused to move to the back of Wilson buses. Read again of their direct challenges to Jim Crow  and discrimination and lift up their memory.

Drs. Barnes and Yancy lead battle for equal education.

Pittsburgh Courier, 4 February 1950.

The suit Dr. Boisey O. Barnes and Dr. Darcey C. Yancey filed eventually led to the construction of a new elementary school in East Wilson. Barnes died in 1956, and the school was named in his honor.

Samuel H. Vick overcame odds.

Wilson Daily Times, 24 February 2003.

This Black History Month piece offers a few nuggets for further research on Samuel H. Vick:

  • “His father … had three brothers, all having different last names depending on the white families to whom they belonged.” [Who were Daniel Vick’s brothers?]
  • newspaper articles reported that, on Vick’s first day as postmaster, “[g]un-toting black citizens lined the streets to serve as bodyguards because he had received so many threats” [Wowww.]
  • “The Independent School continued to operate until 1923 when the local school system opened the Wilson Colored High School ….” [Other sources estimated a ten-year run, but this makes sense.]

28 Books for 28 days.

Twenty-eight books I recommend to contextualize the history and culture of Wilson County, North Carolina,’s African-American people, in no particular order. Search for a review of one book every day this Black History Month. You’ve got the rest of the year to read them.

  1. Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family, Norma Jean and Carole Darden (1978)
  2. African-American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina, Beverly Patterson and Sarah Bryan (2013)
  3. Greater Freedom: the Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina, Charles W. McKinney Jr. (2010)
  4. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Stories of Social Upheaval, Saidiya Hartman (2019)
  5. The Place You Love Is Gone: Progress Hits Home, Melissa Holbrook Pierson (2006)
  6. Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia, Lynn Rainville (2014)
  7. Throwed Away: Failures of Progress in Eastern North Carolina, Linda Flowers (1990)
  8. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist (2014)
  9. Sherrod Village: A Memoir, Barbara Williams Lewis (2014)
  10. Elm City: A Negro Community in Action, C.L. Spellman (1942)
  11. Race and Politics in North Carolina 1872-1901: The Black Second, Eric Anderson (1980)
  12. No Justice No Peace, Algernon McNeil (2015)
  13. The Rise of a Southern Town, Wilson, North Carolina 1849-1920, Patrick M. Valentine (2002)
  14. Jim Crow in North Carolina: The Legislative Program from 1865 to 1920, Richard A. Paschal (2020)
  15. To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Priscilla Joyner, Carole Emberton (2022)
  16. Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, Ed and Ryan Mitchell (2023)
  17. Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds, Adam Rosenblatt (2024)
  18. ‘Make the Gig’: The History of the Monitors, John Harris (2024)
  19. In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning, Grace Elizabeth Hale (2023)
  20. Black Folks: The Roots of the Black Working Class, Blair LM Kelley (2023)
  21. Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles, A National Movement, Emilye Crosby, ed. (2011)
  22. Historic Wilson in Vintage Postcards, J. Robert Boykin III (2003)
  23. Slavery in North Carolina 1748-1775, Marvin L. Michael Kay and Lorin Lee Cary (2000)
  24. From a Cat House to the White House: The Story of an African-American Chef, Jesse Pender (2007)
  25. Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, David Zucchino (2020)
  26. North Carolina’s Free People of Color 1715-1885, Warren E. Milteer Jr. (2020)
  27. George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Game of Life, Benjamin Justesen (2001)
  28. History of African Americans in North Carolina, Jeffrey J. Crow, Paul D. Escott, and Flora J. Hadley Watelington (2002)