Kudos to Samuel Joyner, who has published a volume detailing the “who, where, when” of more than seven generations of his Atkinson, Battle, and Farmer lines. These surnames that will be familiar to African-American Wilson County researchers. This 500+ page book is available via Amazon.com.
Tuesday evening, my father’s classmate L. Paul Sherrod Jr. will present and discuss family papers passed down from his great-grandparents Jack Sherrod (who served in the United States Colored Troops) and Cassie Exum Sherrod at a program sponsored by Wilson County Genealogical Society. I’ve had a sneak peek at some of the documents and am amazed by the family’s legacy!
Slavery was not built for love.
Nonetheless, despite caprice and cruelty, love endured.
In 1866, when the State of North Carolina created a path for recognition of marriages made before Emancipation, thousands of couples found their way to a justice of peace. The cohabitation register for Wilson County shows a column for the groom’s name and a column for the bride’s and a column that recorded the years they had been together.
Arch Daniel and Rena Daniel. 35 years.
Bob Rountree and Tempy Horne. 30 years.
Amos Taylor and Amy Barnes. 33 years.
Champion Simms and Deura Simms. 40 years.
Living miles apart, without bodily autonomy, under constant threat of sale and separation, disrespected and denigrated, these men and women chose to love — and whom to love. Today, we recognize these revolutionaries and honor their memory.
My great-great-grandparents, Willis Barnes and Cherry Battle, registered their six-year cohabitation in Wilson County in 1866.
We moved into 1401 Carolina Street just before my first birthday and left just before my tenth. I haven’t been inside this little brick house in nearly 50 years, but I can describe its every detail, inside and out. My deep connection to my community and its people was forged in those first ten years. Safe in the nest of my knowledge-seeking, passion-encouraging family, I flourished — a sensitive, inquisitive, observant child.
Today, Black Wide-Awake celebrates foundational love! Cheers to Beverly and Rederick Henderson and the East Wilson that made me!
Lane Street Project has enriched my life in many ways, among them introduction to wonderful people I would not otherwise have gotten to know. Portia Newman is one. Though we are both graduates of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and, it turns out, both among the unnumbered thousands of Adam T. Artis‘ descendants, more than two decades separate our paths through Wilson. Nonetheless, we share an unshakeable sense of family and place and a deep commitment to paying forward our gratitude for both. I was not surprised, then, to see this morning that Portia was giving us gifts on her birthday.
Here, in four parts and a dope video, are Portia Newman’s reflections on the importance of documenting family history and her plan for doing so. All of us can be, must be, preservationists. Save your stories.
And, here, listen to Portia’s grandfather, Donald Lee Woodard Sr. talk about his life in the Red Hill area near Stantonsburg. “You just got to live your life. By being 98*, I have seen a lot and been through a lot.” (Be sure to watch to the very end!)
Happy birthday, Portia!
February is generally business as usual for Black Wide-Awake, but this year is the 100th anniversary of Dr. Carter G. Woodson‘s Negro History Week, and folks are ripping down exhibits, so I’m going to go a little harder on the promotion, research, preservation, interpretation, and dissemination of Black history, culture, and genealogy of Wilson County, North Carolina. I encourage you to do the same for a place you love. I wish there were a B.W.A. equivalent for every county in these United States. Starting one may not be your path, but you can search out your local history organizations, your cemetery preservation groups, your musicians and poets and playwrights, and show them and their work some tangible love this month. Discover your community’s historic heroes and shout their names!
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 11 June 1927.
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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 134 Pender Street, Heneretta Hill, 70, A.C.L. railroad matron; Celia W. Hill, 40, teacher; Cora A. Hill, 27, teacher; Hazell Hill, 16; Christina Hill, 19; Barlee Hill, 22, laborer; Rosa Hicks, 22; and Archer Martin, 14.
In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Norwood Hazel (c) tchr h 205 Pender
In the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Norwood Hazel (c) r 205 Pender
In the 1930 census of Durham, Durham County, N.C.: Hazel Norwood, 28, insurance company clerk.
On 5 September 1933, Hazel Norwood, 24, married Thomas Covington in Durham, North Carolina.
In the 1940 census of Durham, Durham County, N.C.: Hazel Coventon, 30, life insurance company clerk.
In the 1950 census of Durham, Durham County, N.C.: Hazel N. Covington, 47, life insurance company stenographer.
The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.), 27 March 1993.
Chicago Defender, 16 June 1951.
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On 20 November 1877, Shade Reed, 23, married Susan Edwards, 21, in No. 8 township, Edgecombe County, N.C.
In the 1880 census of Sparta township, Edgecombe County, N.C.: farmer Shade Reid, 25; wife Susan, 23; and son Ross, 1.
In the 1910 census of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana: farmer Shed Reed, 55; wife Caroline, 45; and children Sammie, 24, Lossa, 24, and Ossa, 21, all born in North Carolina.
On 27 February 1913, Samuel Reed, 28, married Mary Hamilton, 29, in Chicago, Illinois.
On 22 November 1916, Samuel Reed, 31, married Mary J. Wright, 23, in Chicago.
In 1918, Samuel Reed registered for the World War I draft in Cook County, Illinois. Per his registration card, he was born 22 July 1885; lived at 6204 Ada, Chicago; worked as a Pullman porter for Pullman Company, Chicago & Alton Railroad; and his nearest relative was wife Mary J. Reed.
In the 1920 census of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois: at 6145 South Ada, railroad porter Samuel Reed, 34, and wife Mary, 25.
In the 1930 census of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois: at 6231 Racine, railroad porter Samuel Reed, 43; wife Birdie, 41; mother[in-law?] Ollie Smith, 65; and Elizabeth Walker, 19, xx.
In the 1940 census of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois: at 6016 May, owned and valued at #3000, Samuel Reed, 54, porter on steam railroad; wife Nancy, 39; and daughters Amelia, 16, and Elizabeth, 17.
In 1942, Samuel Reed registered for the World War II draft in Cook County, Illinois. Per his registration card, he was born 22 July 1885 in Edgecombe County, N.C.; lived at 6016 South May, Chicago; his contact was Louis Baler, 6142 South Ada, Chicago; and he worked for the Pullman County, Chicago.
In the 1950 census of Chicago, Cook County, Illinois: railroad company porter Samuel Reed, 64, and wife Nancy, 49.
In the 1940 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Dan Randolph, 28, farmer; wife Mary, 26; children Paul G., 2, and Deloise, 1; and uncle Pete Randolph, 67, widower.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 608 Spring, Peter Randolph, 77, and wife Clockie, 67.
Peter Randolph died 4 March 1959 at his home at 510 South Spring, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 4 July 1883 in Edgecombe County, N.C., to Robert Randolph and Julia Johnson; was a widower; and was buried in Elm City Cemetery. Mattie Ruffin was informant.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 3 January 1931.
Miss Edie Bell. Aunt Pet. Aunt Minnie. Aunt Alice. Aunt Nora Lee. Aunt Lula Mae. Holiday dinners in my childhood were often spent at tables prepared by these amazing women, the grandmother and great-aunts of my cousins Monica Ellis Barnes and Tracey Ellis Leon.
I cherish warm memories of these generous women and the delicious meals they prepared — and of me, my sister, and cousins, safe and loved and well-fed.
Christmas brings joy, but also floods of memories of those we can no longer hug or break bread with. I held quiet space yesterday for memories of my grandmother and father and uncle and the Barnes sisters, and all who no longer sit with us in Wilson or wherever we once shared a table. I hope you were able to find joy and beauty in Christmas this year, and I pray for a better 2026 for all of us.