Wilson Daily Times, 8 May 1940.
——
Institutions
B.W.A. Historical Black Marker Series: Trinity A.M.E. Zion Church.
In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.
We been here.
Second oldest active African Methodist Episcopal Zion church in Wilson. Former sanctuary stood here on land purchased in 1909 from Rev. O.L.W. Smith, former consul to Liberia and A.M.E.Z. presiding elder.
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.
we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed
the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school
a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings
what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers
lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks
photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools
a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city
womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school
respectful-petition-seeks-reids-removal
lucas-testifies-that-he-accomplished-his-purpose
there-has-been-an-astonishing-occurrence-in-wilson
the-independent-school-thrives
the-incorporation-of-the-w-n-c-i-institute
And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.
Lane Street Project: the 19 March 2026 council meeting agenda; or, at last, a recommendation.
Finally, item 13 on the 19 March 2026 Wilson City Council Agenda:
These supporting materials have been presented to council members for review and are available online.
The Agenda Item Cover Sheet, subject line “Vick Cemetery Plan,” summarizes Item 13 and sets forth City Manager Rodger Lentz’s recommendation.
This document sets forth the Vick Cemetery Plan in detail. The plan is proposed in three phases by order of urgency, with some additional future actions, and includes a summary of archaeological firm New South Associates’ recommendations.
Council previously approved placement of boundary markers, paid for with state grant money. The next documents suggest placement and appearance.
(Nobody asked me, but as between these three, I’d go with the simplest — C. I might also pick a different font, maybe Gill Sans or Optima, though the Roman matches the existing pillars at the entrance to the parking lot.)
(There’s something a little off about the larger scale for “Vick” below. A, with same size lettering?)
New South Associates’ proposal and budget for additional ground-penetrating radar at Vick, which include confirmation that the pieces of stone dislodged in December were marble vault fragments associated with a grave in the right-of-way.
I am confident that City Manager Lentz’s recommendations will be adopted, and the City will move forward with alacrity to begin implementation. The results of this round of GPR will dictate the manner in which many of the proposals can be carried out and whether even more action is warranted. Vick Cemetery has suffered more than a century of indifference, neglect, and active harm, and its issues won’t be remediated overnight. However, this recommendation goes a long way toward addressing our oft-repeated demands, and for the first time I am sanguine about the cemetery’s future.
Thanks again to Mayor Carlton Stevens, City Manager Rodger Lentz, Assistant City Managers Bill Bass and Albert Alston, and Councilmember Susan Kellum for righting the City’s ship on this issue. Thank you to Castonoble Hooks, Briggs Sherwood, Dr. Judy Rashid, Lisa Benoy Gamble, Jen Kehrer, Tiyatti Speight, Chris Facey, and all who kept a close eye on Vick over the last few months, documented its condition, or spoke truth to power on its behalf. Thanks also to the Wilson Times for its close and ongoing coverage of Vick Cemetery issues. A robust local press matters!
An aerial view of Darden High School.
This aerial photograph of C.H. Darden High School likely dates to the late 1960s. The original Rosenwald-funded section of the school, with later added wings, at right. The building with a central entrance at lower center, adjacent to the original building, is an addition that dates to the 1940s. The buildings behind, which included an auditorium, gymnasium, lunchroom, and additional classroom space, were added in the 1950s and ’60s.
The photo is also interesting for the glimpse of the surrounding neighborhood. The streets behind the school were developed starting in the 1950s from a large parcel owned by Martha Woodard, Louise Fike, and Hadley Blake. Darden faced Carroll Street, of course, and the termini of Viola and East Green Streets. The houses that once stood on land now occupied by Seeds of Hope Wilson’s garden are visible near bottom left.
Vick Elementary School now stands on the site.
Photo courtesy of C.H. Darden High School Alumni Association.
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!
Colored members of the medical staff of Lincoln Hospital.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 9 January 1937.
This photo collage appears in a full-page article titled “Hospital Is Built Where Monument Intended; Lincoln Hospital at Durham Has Unusual History and Record; Duke Family’s Plan To Honor Negro Slaves Changed To Erection of Much Needed Hospital.”
——
- Dr. Walter D. Hines
The pastor and auxiliary officers of First Baptist Church hold homecoming in 1940.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 January 1940.
Early Montclair, New Jersey, Y.M.C.A. leaders.
A retrospective on Montclair, New Jersey’s historic Washington Street Branch Y.M.C.A. featured photographs of Wilson-born pharmacist William H. Vick and his wife Carrie Dixon Vick.
W.H. Vick, seated in the wicker chair on the front row, above. Below, Carrie Vick, seated front row, left.
Montclair Times, 26 January 1978.
Happy 113th anniversary to the sisters of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc.!
Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., was a relative latecomer to Wilson, but as a woman steeped and marinated in crimson and cream, I recognize our national Founders Day here.
My mother Beverly A. Henderson is a Delta. My father’s sister Hattie H. Ellis is a Delta. My sister Karla M. Henderson-Jackson. My niece Sydney Jackson. Two first cousins, Monica E. Barnes and Tracey E. Leon, and innumerable, more distant relatives. Deltas crowded my childhood “village,” i.e. East Wilson, and I was nurtured by Diana D. Myers, Yvonne C. Lofton, Evelyn W. Hagans, Shirley S. Woodard, Ruth H. Harris, Mary Peppers, Minnie E. Cummings, Jessie M. Jones, Ethel A. Woodard, Marian G. Lane, and so many others.
Sisterhood, scholarship, service, and social action. We are anchored in legacy and evolving with intention. Happy 113th Founders Day, sorors!