Family

Nina Hardy Faison, as imagined.

I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated.

——

Nina Frances Faison Kornegay Hardy (1882-1969), cook and nursemaid.

 

Happy birthday, Aunt Margaret!

Hattie H. Ellis, age about 6, on Queen Street.

So smart that she skipped a grade at Vick Elementary, Hattie Margaret Henderson Ellis graduated from C.H. Darden High School in 1953 and Hampton Institute in 1957 (where she pledged Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. and established a family legacy). She received a graduate degree from Boston University and spent decades as a guidance counselor in Wilson County high schools.

Aunt Margaret is the youngest and the last surviving of my grandmother’s children, and we wish her a happy and love-filled 90th birthday!

Indoor circuses and other social events.

Baltimore Afro-American, 12 May 1928.

  • M. Lenard
  • Mrs. J.D. Reid — Eleanor P. Reid.
  • Mrs. Aline Darden
  • Mrs. Sarah Wilson — probably, in the 1930 Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Sarah L (c) tchr Stantonsburg St Graded Sch r 209 N Reid
  • Mrs. M.S. Gilliam — Annie L. Gilliam.
  • Mrs. C.L. Darden — Norma D. Darden.
  • Artelia Barnes — Leo Artelia Barnes.
  • Inez White
  • Elroy Barnes
  • M. Fisher — probably, Milton Fisher.
  • William McCullers — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1008 Washington Street, Clarence McCullers, 42, hardware store laborer; wife Rosa E., 37, who did washing; and son William E., 17.
  • Fletcher Pearce
  • Jesse Bullock — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farmer Joshuy Bulluck, 47; wife [illegible], 43; children Kattie, 23, Ruel, 21, Jessie, 20, Percy, 18, Maggie, 17, Joshuy, 16, Lonnie, 13, Mark, 12, James A., 10, Hermon, 9, Zeb, 5, Annie L., 8, and Wytelluse, 4.
  • Ruel Bullock 
  • Esmond Langley
  • Ameta Ellis — Ometa Ellis died 3 May 1928 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was married to Morriss Ellis; resided at 702 Nash Street; was 42 years old; and had been born in Wilmington, North Carolina, to Weldon Perrington of Wilmington and Louisa Scarborough of Wilson. Louisa Parrington was informant.
  • Sarah Williams
  • James H. Clarke — John H. Clark?
  • Thelma Barnes
  • Scott Hines — Elizabeth Scott Hines.
  • Rosa Lee Kittrell
  • Gerald Barnes — probably, Jerrell Randolph Barnes, who died 14 December 1929 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 7 May 1909; was single; worked as a common laborer; and was born to Ned Barnes and Louisa Gay. Informant was Alice Bryant, Wilson.
  • John E. Farmer — perhaps, in the 1940 csus of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Eula Farmer, 51, household servant; son John E., 30, laborer; and daughter Clifton, 24, movie theatre cashier.
  • Rufus Speights — Rufus Speight. in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Speight Rufus (c) porter Wm Hines h 624 Viola. In 1940, Rufus Edward Speight registered for the World War II draft. Per his registration card, he lived at 624 East Viola; was born 4 October 1907 in Whitaker, North Carolina; his contact was brother Theodore Speight; and he worked for Bill Hines at 130 South Goldsboro Street.
  • Klondike Club
  • Herbert Mitchner — Hubert Mitchner.
  • Andrew Tate — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 307 North Pender, seamstress Hattie Tate, 44, widow, and children Hellen, 23, insurance agent, and Andrew, 21, hotel bellboy, as well as lodger Lucy Davis, a public school teacher.
  • Douglass Ellis — in the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 Pine, Windsor Ellis, 42, greenhouse gardener; wife Rachel, 34; children Douglas, 20, John H., 10, and Elaine, 5; and lodger Fred Moye, 26, cafe cook.
  • Charlie Thomas

Signal Boost: The Importance of Telling African American Stories through Genealogy and DNA

What if the missing pieces of your family’s story are already waiting in an undiscovered document or your DNA?
In this upcoming episode of the African American Untold Stories Podcast, our Center for Family History (CFH) team sits down with acclaimed authors Melvin Collier, Michael Willis, Kathy Marshall, and Orice Jenkins. They will discuss how genealogy and DNA testing transform family research into powerful published narratives—from books and stage plays to documentaries and digital media.
If you value reclaiming family legacies and bringing hidden history to light, this will be a essential space to join in on the conversation. Tune in online Saturday, August 15, for the CFH podcast episode “The Importance of Telling African American Stories Through Genealogy and DNA.”

In this episode, you’ll learn:

– How to use DNA testing to uncover African American ancestry
– Ways to turn genealogical research into compelling stories
– Tools for writing or digitally publishing your family history
– Why reclaiming Black stories is essential for future generations

Your family’s legacy deserves to be told – not just discovered and not shared.  Join the conversation and start writing your family’s story today.

This is an ONLINE podcast episode, as part of CFH’s African American Untold Stories Podcast.

🔗 [Link to Untold African American Stories CFH Podcast Playlist]

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.

Happy Father’s Day 2026!

Some popular media would have you believe that good black fathers are like Carolina cougars — rarely sighted, semi-mythical. But I grew up in a community in which they were thick on the ground, and today I honor my own father, Rederick C. Henderson, and all the fathers (and father figures) of my childhood “village.”

In Bel Air Forest, across East Wilson, and beyond, the protectors and providers I’m shouting out include, but aren’t limited to, Harvey Reid Jr., Thomas O. Lofton Sr., Avant P. Coleman, Bennie J. Woodard, Crawford E. Lane, David J. Speight, Herbert Woodard, Nathaniel Roberson, T. Roosevelt Ellis Jr., Howard C. Jones, LeRoy Barnes, William E. Myers, George K. Butterfield Jr., J. Douglas Hagans, Louis Hall Sr., Charles E. Branford, S.P. Artis, Willis Peppers, James E. Farmer Jr., Elmer J. Cummings Sr., Benjamin A. Harris Jr., Julian B. Rosemond Jr., Clarence Hoskins, Daniel McKeithan, Kenneth Speight, Booker T. Edwards, Franklin D. Jones, James T. Forbes, Chester Ward, Harold Bullock, Charles C. Allen, John C. Allen III, Hayden B. Renwick, Fred L. Valentine, Lucian J. Henderson Sr., and Jesse A. Henderson.

Only a handful of these men remain with us, but their legacies live on.

Were the Gays one family?

A prosperous set of families with the surname Gay appear in Wilson County records within the first ten years of freedom. Were they one extended family? Unrelated families who adopted the same surname, perhaps from a former enslaver? (And if so, whom?)

Here’s what we know about them:

  • Anthony Gay

Anthony Gay and Catherine Speight registered their 22-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace on 25 August 1866.

On 9 August 1868, Spencer Gay, son of Anthony and Catherine Gay, married Adeline Barnes, daughter of Baalam and Jinny Barnes, in Wilson County.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: blacksmith Antney Gay, 44; wife Catherine, 40; and children Laura, 20, Thomas, 20, and Francis, 2 [adjacent to Spencer Gay’s household and one household away from Charles Gay’s.]

On 16 February 1871, for $250, Spencer Gay and his mother Catherine Gay sold R.J. and Sallie Taylor a three-quarter acre parcel of land near the fork of the old plank road and the Barefoot road [today’s Nash Street and South Pender Street.] The Gays had not registered a deed for the purchase of this land. See Deed Book 4, page 454.

On 30 April 1872, for $25, Anthony and Catherine Gay and Spencer and Adline Gay sold Esther McGowan a lot on the east side of the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad on the old plank road. Deed Book 6, page 183.

Anthony Gay was still alive when Charles Gay was murdered in 1874, but died before 1880.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: widow Cathren Gay, 52; son Thomas, 28, laborer; daughter-in-law Julia, 27, laundress; boarder Anna Bone, 59; [grand]son Nelson, 6; and daughter Frances, 14 [next door to son Spencer’s widow Adeline Gay and family.]

Also: in the 1880 census of North Wilson township, Wilson County: Willie Gay, 32, hireling; wife Catherine, 30; and children Phillis, 12, Anthony, 10, Henrietta, 8, Nancy, 6, Catherine, 4, and John, 2. [Willie Gay was likely the son of Anthony and Catherine Gay.]

  • Charles Gay

Charles Gay and Emly Gay registered their three-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace on 9 August 1866.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Charles Gay, 35; wife Emma, 25; children Charles, 5, and Mary, 1; and lodgers Rich’d Harper, 20, and Haywood Watson, 17.

Charles Gay was murdered in 1874.

  • Emma Gay (or Artis or Byrum) Gay Rountree

See Charles Gay, above.

Emma Gay, sometimes referred to as Emily Gay, bought property as early as December 1874. See Deed Book 9, page 522.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Emma Gay, 35; children Charlie, 15, a steam-mill worker, Mary, 11, Etheldred, 8, and Willie, 6; plus a boarder Fannie Thompson, 19, cook.

On 4 February 1892, Henry C. Rountree, 44, married Emma Gay, 44, at the bride’s residence in Wilson. Presbyterian minister L.J. Melton performed the ceremony, and witnesses were Edward Pool, Mark Blount and S.H. Vick.

On 29 October 1902, Willie Gay, 27, son of Charles Gay and Emma Rountree, married Mary Johnson, 22, daughter of Edmund Johnson and Bertha Johnson, at Henry Johnson‘s. H.S. Phillips applied for the license, and Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of Cain Artis, Charles S. Thomas, and Robert E. Artis.

On 23 March 1906, William Gay, 33, son of Charles and Emma Gay, married Augustus McNeil, 30, daughter of Peter and Emily Patterson, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister Fred M. Davis performed the ceremony in the presence of J.E. Farmer, Robert Strickland, and Charlie Farmer.

Henry C. Rountree died 24 September 1916 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born in 1848 in  North Carolina to Jessie Artis and Becker Artis; was married; worked as a dealer in groceries; and was buried in Wilson. Emma Rountree was informant.

Emma Rountree died 25 June 1917 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was about 65 years old; was born in Greene County, N.C., to unidentified parents; was a widow; and was buried in Wilson County [probably, Vick Cemetery]. Lizzie Whitfield was informant.

Mary Strickland died 16 December 1936 in the Wilson County Home. Per her death certificate, she was 67 years old; was born in Wilson to Charley Gay and Emma Artis; was a widow; and was buried in Wilson. Will Gay was informant.

Willie Gay died 25 May 1940 at the Veterans Administration hospital in Kecoughtan, Virginia. Per his death certificate, he was born 10 February 1874 in Wilson, N.C., to Charles Gay and Emma Byrum, both of Greene County, N.C.; was divorced; was a veteran of the Spanish American War; was a railroad worker; and lived at 526 Smith Street, Wilson.

Dred Gay died 26 January 1950 in the Wilson County Home. Per his death certificate, he was born 1 January 1870 in Wilson County to Emma Gay; was a widower; and worked as a laborer.

  • Samuel, Albert, and Daniel Gay

Samuel, Albert, and Daniel Gay were the sons of Harriet Gay and Amos Thigpen (or Edmundson).

Sam Gay, son of Amos Thigpen and Harriet Gay, married Alice Bryant, daughter of Louisa Bryant, on 10 February 1870 in Wilson. P.E. Hines performed the ceremony.

On 20 January 1870, Daniel Gay, son of Amos Edmundson and Harriet Gay, married July Taylor, daughter of Alfred Robbins and Trecy Taylor, in Wilson.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: Samuel Gay, 24, wife Alice, 20, and brother Albert, 21.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Daniel Gay, 20, and wife Julia, 20.

In the 1880 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farm worker Samuel Gay, 27, wife Allice, 25, and children Blanch, 8, Louizah, 7, Edgar, 4, Charlie, 3, and Mamie, 1 month.

In the 1880 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: south of the Plank Road, Daniel Gay, 28; wife Judie, 24; and daughters Mary, 9, and Creacy, 6.

Albert and Daniel Gay appear to have died before 1900.

In the 1900 census of Wilson, Wilson County: farmer Sam Gay, 54; wife Alice, 50; and children Charlie C., 23, Edgar B., 25, Lucy, 17, Samuel, 14, Albert and Beatrice, 10, and Lily, 4.

On 27 April 1904, John Stones, 30, of Wilson, married Mary Gay, 25, of Wilson, daughter of Daniel and Julia Gay, both deceased. A.D. Dawson applied for the license, and A.M.E. Zion minister H.C. Phillips performed the ceremony at the home of W.H. Kittrell in the presence of Kittrell, Mary Kittrell, and Charles Dawson.

In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Samuel Gay, 65, wife Alice, 55, and children Albert, 20, and Lilly, 15.

Samuel Gay died 1 February 1919 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per his death certificate: he was 73 years old, married to Allace Gay, resided at 620 Green Street, worked as tenant farmer for W.E. Warren, and was born in Wilson County. Charley Gay [his son] was informant.

Mary Stone died 19 November 1932 in Wilson, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 58 years old; was born in Wilson to Daniel Gay and Julia Gay; was a widow; worked as a cook; lived at 402 Viola Street; and was buried in Wilson [probably, Vick Cemetery.] Emma Davis, 418 East Green, was informant.

  • Candis Gay

Candis Gay and Jason Farmer registered their 22-year cohabitation with a Wilson County justice of the peace on 25 August 1866.

In the 1870 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farm laborer Jason Farmer, 33; wife Candis, 29; and children Florance, 9, Isiah, 6, and George 4.

In the 1880 census of North Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Jason Farmer, 43; wife Candas, 43; and children Florrance, 17, Isaiah, 13, George W., 11, Jessee, 9, Jason, 6, Jennie, 4, and Mayland, 2,

Candis Gay Farmer died before 1891, when her husband remarried.

  • The possible enslaver(s)

In the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson County, Edgecombe County native William M. Gay reported enslaving 21 people — men and boys aged and women and girls aged .

But also in the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson township, Wilson County: Thomas Gay reported enslaving 8 people — six men and boys aged 1 to 24 and a woman and girl aged 7 and 28.

Dear Ole Darden High, we thank you.

Last night, my father was posthumously inducted into the Charles H. Darden High School Alumni Association Hall of Fame. The honor was, perhaps, late for him, but right on time for us, coming almost exactly four years after his passing.

Everything about the evening filled my heart:

  • My sister and I and our families, as well as my aunt and cousins, lifting up my teary-eyed mother.
  • The gathering of my father’s 1978 and 1982 basketball state champion players (and surrogate sons) Buck Williams, Reggie Barrett, Oie Osterkamp, and George McClain, as well as his Rocky Mount coaching colleague Stan Bastian.

  • Seeing my father’s old friend and college teammate, Dr. William A. Birchette III, who was also an honoree, for the first time in maybe 50 years.
  • Hugging the necks of some of my father’s oldest friends, including Doris Ward Heath, L. Paul Sherrod, Ruby J. Jenkins, and Barbara Farmer, and other folks who make up my extended Wilson village of kin and friends, including Rev. H. Maurice Barnes, Dr. Michael Barnes, Renee Tabron Barnes, Tyree Barnes White, David Speight and family, Derrick Creech, Judy Bland, Linda Harris Barnes (who beautifully presented my father’s induction), Harry B. Harris, Gwendolyn Murrain, and Carolyn Barnes Kent.
  • Legendary 96 year-old Samuel Lathan serenading 99 year-old honoree Henrietta Hines McIntosh with his signature “Wonderful World.” When his voice cracked, he growled, “Find me, Bill,” and 93 year-old William Myers laid his fingers on the keyboard to do what he does best.
  • Alumni Association vice-president Andre Winstead shouting out Black Wide-Awake, quipping that folks were learning things their parents never told them. “We don’t want to know your secrets,” he said. “We just want to know what you did.”
  • Flipping though the program booklet to read the many congratulatory ads placed by people who loved my family and my father, ads whose fees fund scholarships for local students.
  • Listening to Dr. Kendral R. Knight, the decorated nephrologist whom I last saw when he was about five years old, bring laughter and light with his keynote speech,

“On behalf of our mother, Beverly Henderson, my father’s beloved wife of 61 years, I’d first like to thank all our family and friends here tonight and all those who supported my father’s nomination to the Darden Alumni Hall of Fame through letters of support, prayers, and encouragement. We also congratulate tonight’s other honorees.

“My sister and I were born too late to attend Darden, but we grew up in the glow of its glory and were indelibly stamped by its legacy. Our father was a member of the Class of 1952. In the trunk of his car, he kept a stack of papers listing every known graduate of Darden from 1924 through 1970 for anybody he ran into that might have wanted one. Our aunt and uncles were Trojans, our friends’ parents were Trojans, our neighbors were Trojans. We were young children when the Alumni Association was founded and spent many a happy Memorial Day running around Toisnot Park at the reunion picnic.

“Our father loved Darden. He was a smart boy from a disadvantaged home, whose teachers recognized and encouraged his innate leadership qualities. Educators like Charles Branford and John Wesley Jones were his mentors and later lifelong friends.

“Our father’s bio outlines the arc of his career and details the accomplishments that perhaps were of highest consideration for those tasked with selecting this year’s hall of fame inductees. He certainly was justly proud of these achievements. But our father’s guiding principle was to give others the same chance he’d been given as a boy walking the halls of Darden High School. To pour into young people the wisdom and guidance that builds character and self-esteem. To help anyone he could, whether a former student down on their luck or an ailing Trojan needing groceries or just a listening ear.

“I’m in touch with some of my high school classmates, but those relationships do not touch those forged in Darden High School’s class of 1952. Jean Wynn Jones lovingly spoke on the class’ behalf at his funeral, and several of his classmates helped carry flowers from the church. Two weeks later, his class celebrated its 70th anniversary, and they continued to lift us up as we learned to navigate the world without him. Our father’s induction into the Alumni Hall of Fame is as thrilling to them as it is to us.

“Thank you to the C.H. Darden Alumni Association for this great honor and recognition of one your most steadfast sons. We wish so much that he were here to receive it, but we gratefully accept on his behalf.”

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.

Remembering my father today.

Four years. It seems simultaneously as if he’s been gone forever and just left yesterday. A couple of weeks ago, I was going through a file and found a note I’d scribbled about my dad:

All of us had to be somewhere. The whole family. And we couldn’t be late, so it dismayed me. I was the first one in the shower, and the water was rising around my ankles, and I thought, “Damn.” I heard my mother in the hallway, asking — water was backing up in her bathroom, too.

Let me back up. I was not really first in the shower. My father was. Hours ago. Long before the rest of us even turned over good, and he was out the house, in the yard, probably raking. Breathing the air before everybody else breathed it, as he liked to say.

I was concerned by what’s happening with the drain, but I soldiered on because I was shampooed to the hilt, and when I finally rinsed everything out of all this hair, I cut the water and heard: the plumber.

Before I could even step on the bathmat, the plumber was at the house, with a crew, waiting. The main drain pipe was clogged, but they made quick work of that and were gone. Thirty minutes, tops, from crisis to resolution. Even my mother, who had seen much of this kind of thing over decades of marriage, was amazed: “Red, where’d you find that plumber so quick?” (And on a Saturday.)

“Wait,” he said. “I’m your husband. I ain’t no joke.”

And then: “I can get stuff done. That’s why you married me, girl!”

(A few hours later, when she remarked on the house being a little humid, he said, “You want me to get somebody to get the muggy out, too?,” and they both laughed.)

If you knew my father, you know he had a saying for every circumstance. This fell under:

“You gotta get up. You get up, you can get something done. And you gotta know somebody. I know folk. I been here all my life….”

Rederick Caswell Henderson was born in Wilson, and he died in Wilson, four years ago today. I miss my father bone-deep, but the day seldom passes that I don’t grin ear to ear and give a nod of thanks as one of his aphorisms pops into my head. Rest in power, Daddy.