Black-owned and -focused newspapers have been a major resource for Black Wide-Awake. Goldsboro Public Library continues its fantastic programming next month with this presentation on North Carolina’s black press.
Education
Colored people want better school.
Wilson Daily Times, 20 September 1918.
And one was coming. Ten days after this article appeared, and six months after walking out of the Wilson Colored Graded School, the black community incorporated Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute.
D.C. Suggs, Scientific Department director.
This description of Georgia State Industrial College’s Scientific Department appeared in the Report of the State School Commission of Georgia to the General Assembly for 1895.
The obituary of Nellie B. Rice, esteemed educator.
Mamoroneck Daily Times, 23 May 1997.
Nellie Louise Barnes Baldwin Rice was born 14 April 1910 in Johnston County, North Carolina. Her parents William Orangie Barnes and Maggie Hinnant Barnes moved often between Wilson and Johnston Counties in her childhood.. After graduating from North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University), she spent years as a Wilson County educator.
(Note that 87 year-old Nellie Rice’s mother survived her. Maggie H. Barnes died the following year at age 115.)
Vick Cemetery: Remembered & Restored — the sign!
The long-awaited interpretive sign is here!
Stop by Vick Cemetery to read the rest!
Only Merit Counts.
The Crisis, vol. 15, no. 5, January 1918.
Newly installed as president of Livingstone College, Daniel C. Suggs made sure Negro American knew what his institution had to offer.
To D.C. Suggs.
For $2800, you can purchase from AbeBooks this copy of Rev. E.K. Love’s History of the First African Baptist Church, From Its Organization, January 20th, 1788, to July 1st, 1888.
The description: “8¼” x 6″. Green cloth over boards, title gilt. Pp. [5], [A]-E, [6], iv-v, [blank page], 360. Good: Ex-library with remnants of call number to spine, bookplate, due cards and embossed stamp on title page; moderately shaken, boards moderately worn with losses at spine tips, ffep heavily notated. This is another copy of Love’s History with several outstanding associations. A partially obscured inscription on the front pastedown shows that this particular copy was presented by R.R. Wright to D.C. Suggs. Richard Robert Wright, Sr., who wrote part of the book’s introduction, was born into slavery in Georgia in 1855 and was valedictorian of the first graduating class of Atlanta University, now known as the HBCU Clark Atlanta. He became an educator and newspaper editor who went on to serve as the first president of the Georgia Industrial College for Colored Youths (GICCY), the first public institution of higher learning for African Americans in the state. Under Wright’s leadership, GICCY hosted renowned lecturers including Booker T. Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Mary Church Terrell. Wright later founded the first Black-owned bank in Philadelphia and co-founded the first organization of Black-owned banks in the country. The recipient of the book, Dr. Daniel Cato Suggs, was born in Wilson, North Carolina in 1865. He was a wealthy Black businessman, active in real estate, and a teacher in the public school systems of North Carolina. He served as a professor at GICCY before being elected president in 1917 of Livingston College, a private, HBCU in Salisbury, North Carolina, noted for its strong affiliation with the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. This volume also contains a bookplate from Bennett College in Greensboro. Founded in 1873 as a normal school to educate freedmen and train both men and women as teachers, Bennett is now a private HBCU liberal arts college for women. There is yet another interesting facet to this copy: the front free endpaper has two pages of handwritten notes regarding a speech given by David B. Hill in Savannah in 1892 as he was campaigning to be the Democratic candidate for United States President. We found the entirety of the speech’s text in a newspaper account online and note the oddity of the possibility of a Southern African American attending a Democratic candidate’ speech at that time. OCLC shows six holdings of the physical book over four entries. A unique copy, with wonderful associations, of Love’s important history of the First African Baptist Church.”
The Story of the Negro.
In Chapter IX, “The Negro Bank and the Moral Uplift,” of The Story of the Negro: the Rise of the Race from Slavery, volume II, Booker T. Washington mentions Daniel C. Suggs:
Lane Street Project: Barton Bulldogs do it again!
When I got the news that a landscape company had done a major cleanup at Odd Fellows Monday, I wondered if there’d be anything left for Barton’s student volunteers.
Apparently, plenty!
The Bulldogs came in two waves today to chop chest-high weeds, fell small trees, and haul debris, pushing further into Odd Fellows’ acreage than ever.
Lane Street Project relies on community, and we’re thankful that Barton is part of our village. Read their press release to learn more the College’s annual service day:
WILSON, N.C. — October 6, 2026 — Hundreds of Barton College students, faculty and staff served throughout Wilson on Tuesday, Oct. 6, as part of the College’s Day of Service and Engagement, continuing a tradition that has connected the Barton community with local schools, nonprofit organizations, churches, and community partners since 2008.
This year, Barton set aside the academic day for students, faculty, and staff to serve alongside organizations throughout the Wilson community. Students gathered through their academic schools and First-Year Seminar courses, allowing them to spend the day serving with classmates and faculty within their academic communities.
Students from the School of Business and Innovation and First-Year Seminar classes worked together to package 15,000 meals for communities facing food insecurity through Rise Against Hunger at the Kennedy Recreation and Intramural Center.
Barton’s ongoing partnership with Sleep in Heavenly Peace brought first-year students to Truist Stadium for an afternoon service project. Students assembled 30 beds to support the nonprofit organization’s mission of building and delivering beds to children in need. Sleep in Heavenly Peace works to ensure children have a safe, comfortable bed of their own, recognizing quality sleep as an important part of their health and well-being.
“It is incredibly rewarding to see Day of Service unfold across Wilson,” said Brenda Whaley, director of student activities. “From the first groups heading out in the morning through our final projects in the afternoon, students were serving in schools, parks, churches, nonprofit organizations, and community spaces across the city. They worked outdoors, supported local organizations, packaged meals, and built beds, each contributing to the needs identified by our community partners.”
Service sites included The Arc of Wilson County, Foundation YMCA of Wilson, Hope Station, Lake Wilson, United Way of Wilson County, Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, Wesley Shelter, Wilson Area Habitat for Humanity, Wilson Arts, Wilson Botanical Gardens, and Wilson Education Partnership, among numerous other community partners.
“Day of Service is about more than the work we accomplish in a single day,” said Amanda Metts, vice president for enrollment, engagement, and athletics. “It is an intentional part of how we help students develop a commitment to service and understand their responsibility to the communities they are part of. The experience gives students an opportunity to learn from others, form meaningful connections, and carry those lessons with them beyond Barton.”
Barton first held Day of Service and Engagement on Oct. 22, 2008, as an opportunity to foster civic responsibility and service learning as part of the Barton Experience. As Barton marks 125 years, Day of Service reflects a guiding principle that has shaped the College throughout its history — a commitment to service rooted in its Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) heritage and its relationship with the Wilson community.
Photo courtesy of Castonoble Hooks.
