Institutions

Vick Cemetery: Remembered & Restored.

The nor’easter was not on the bingo card, but rain is cleansing, and that was very much on theme for today, so we obviously are right where we were meant to be.

At our initial meeting in June of this year, the Vick Cemetery Advisory Committee agreed that the first order of business should be to host a public celebration of the amazing developments at Vick Cemetery. I thank the committee for their tireless work pulling today’s event together. I also thank the community members who played important roles during the ceremony – Briggs Sherwood, Rev. Sherman Blandon, Alexis Johnson, Tiyatti Speight, Tracey Briscoe Barnes, Charles McIntosh on behalf of Henrietta Hines McIntosh, Jane Cooke Hawthorne, Avante, and Rev. Maurice Barnes.

On behalf of the committee, I extend a sincere thank you to all who have supported the fight for Vick Cemetery through word and deed. We draw inspiration from the late Ben Mincey Jr., the late A.P. Coleman, the late Bill Pitt, and Gwen Burton, and we are grateful for their example.

We’d also like to thank, for their leadership and support, Mayor Carlton Stevens; Wilson City Council, especially Councilwoman Susan Kellum, whose active interest in Vick Cemetery was pivotal; City Manager Rodger Lentz; and Assistant City Managers Albert Alston, Will Aycock, and Bill Bass. A heart-felt thank you as well to the Wilson human relations, public works, parks and recreation, and communications departments, the Wilson Police Department, and Wilson Fire/Rescue Services for organizing and providing equipment and logistics for today’s gathering. Thank you to Lesia Davis and the staff of Reid Street Community Center for pivoting on a dime to ready space for us when the weather forced us indoors. Thank you to Wilson Youth Council and Mary Woodard Newman for assistance with today’s guests; Heather Goff and the Wilson Cemetery Commission grounds crew, whose maintenance has helped restore dignity to this land; Braswell’s Flower Shop for facilitating the purchase of white memorial roses; The Kirk’s Florist for the breathtaking wreath stand; Eastern Carolina Vault Company for headstone fabrication; New South Associates for the foundational ground-penetrating radar surveys that have disclosed the thousands of graves in Vick; Design Dimension for the design and installation of interpretive signage; Keene Memorials for fabrication of the large granite markers; Rountree Missionary Baptist Church and L.N. Forbes Original Free Will Baptist Tabernacle for the generous offer of use of their parking lots; Beta Beta Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc. for providing bottled water; and the Lane Street Project, the community collective that has carried a torch for Vick, Odd Fellows, and Rountree Cemeteries for nearly 6 years.

We gathered today to dispel the clouds (metaphorically, at least) that have hovered over Vick Cemetery for nearly three-quarters of a century. We reflected on the path we took to get here, but also shined a bright light on the many positive developments the past year has brought this sacred space. Today, we celebrated!

This morning, we learned the history of Vick Cemetery (and the value of volunteerism); about whom we have fought to protect and honor there; and about what measures have been taken to signal to all Vick Cemetery’s renewal. We also heard from people sharing their personal experiences of the impact and importance of this place and this work.

Today was about recalibration of relationships. Reclamation of regard. Restoration of respect. 

Thank you.

I.P. Thorne’s time with Sherwood’s Youth Band.

When Isaiah Prophet Thorne wrote to the Daily Times in 1941 asking for information about his family, he mentioned that he “was placed, when a small child, in Sherwood’s [Orphans] Schools, and later traveled with a school band.”

Preston and Edna Thorne and their elder children are listed in the 1880 census of Wilson County, and Isaiah was born about 1885. Both parents were reported living in 1890 when their daughter Hattie Thorne married, but may have died soon after, when Isaiah was still a young boy.

By 1893, Isaiah Thorne was the drum major of Sherwood’s band. Contemporary newspaper accounts, even when peppered with the casually cutting racism of the era, single out Thorne’s talent. In May, the band was in New England:

Morning Journal-Courier (New Haven, Conn.), 26 May 1893.

In August 1894, they entertained in the streets of Buffalo, New York:

Buffalo (N.Y.) Commercial, 7 August 1894.

Buffalo (N.Y.) Weekly Express, 9 August 1894.

 

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]

Lane Street Project: Stearns Temple Cemetery, Statesville, N.C.

There apparently is no end to abused and endangered historic African-American cemeteries, and I gain both wisdom and commiseration when I talk with others working to reclaim them. Yesterday, at the invitation of Shanetta Summers, I spoke with three dedicated fighters from Statesville, North Carolina, who have come together to save Stearns Temple cemetery.

Cemeteries like Stearns Temple, Odd Fellows, and Vick have many commonalities, but the differences — in land ownership, access, condition, age, etc. — pose interesting quandaries. I hope I was able to pass some useful tips and practices on to the Stearns Temple team, and I learned a couple of things from them that will be useful for Odd Fellows.

My maternal grandmother’s people are from Iredell County and, as we were wrapping up the Zoom call, Shanetta mentioned another cemetery she’s been cleaning up. It was established by an A.M.E. Zion church that was destroyed by Hurricane Hugo in 1989. My ears perked up when she said “Zion Hill,” and I rushed to my genealogy blog. Sure enough, Zion Hill was the cemetery in which my grandmother’s step-great-grandmother Rebecca Colvert was buried in 1917. It’s possible her great-grandfather, Walker Colvert, who died in 1905, was buried there, too.

Report on the condition of schools.

Among other things, a committee formed to inspect county property reported on the condition of schools. Most were found to be in good condition, but, unsurprisingly, schools serving black students had more serious deficits.

The most common problems were lack of heat shields under heaters, broken window panes, leaky roofs, crumbling pillars, and “bad” toilets. Saratoga School was in good condition, and Penders was very good. On the other hand, Wilson High School was crowded and, at Lover’s Lane, the “building [was] about to fall down” and had “no water, no toilet.”

…

…

…

Wilson Daily Times, 11 February 1933.

The article went on to report the condition of the school system’s 41 buses, which delivered students to and from ten schools across the county — all serving white students. Black children walked to school in rain, snow, and blazing heat — often to the jeers and curses of their counterparts riding past.

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.

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.

TRINITY A.M.E. ZION CHURCH

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

The teachers.

a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings

what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers

604-606-east-vance-street

mary-euell-and-dr-du-bois

minutes-of-the-school-board

attack-on-prof-j-d-reid

lucas-delivers-retribution

lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks

photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools

new-school-open

the-program

a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city

womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school

the-roots-of-mary-c-euell

respectful-petition-seeks-reids-removal

lucas-testifies-that-he-accomplished-his-purpose

there-has-been-an-astonishing-occurrence-in-wilson

no-armistice-in-sight

the-independent-school-thrives

the-incorporation-of-the-w-n-c-i-institute

normal-school-teachers

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