Photographs

Isaiah P. Thorne, 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.

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Isaiah Prophet Thorne (1885-??), vaudeville artist, musician.

Oscar DePriest speaks to A.&T. students.

New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 30 May 1931. 

Oscar S. De Priest was the first African-American to be elected to Congress in the twentieth century — and the first ever elected outside the southern states. He served three terms from 1929 to 1935. In 1931, after addressing students at North Carolina A. and T., he posed with faculty, including professor Daniel C. Suggs.

Corporal Lonnie Jackson, somewhere in the Atlantic.

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In the 1930 census of Jackson township, Nash County, N.C.: farmer Lonnie Farmer, 31; wife Jessie, 30; and children Lonnie, 9, Ruth, 7, Rubie, 5, and Robert, 3.

In 1942, Lonnie Junior Jackson registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 2 July 1920 in Wilson; lived at 519 Smith Street, Wilson; his contact was Jesse Jackson, 519 Smith; and he worked for Pridgen Grocery Store, 424 East Nash Street.

Private Lonnie Jackson.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com user Shaniece Ricks.

Private First Class Clarence Jones, in the Sicilian theatre.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 513 N & S Street, owned and valued at $1000, cook Olivia Simmons, 59; daughter Estella Jones, 29, laundress; her children Olivia, 11, and Clarence Jones, 9; relative Rosa Simmons, 25, tobacco factory laborer; and daughter Reta Simmons, 15.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 513 Norfolk Street, cook Olivia Simmons, 72; daughter Estelle Jones, 45, laundress; her children Olivia, 22, and Clarence Jones, 20, both retrying factory laborers; and grandson Severentty McMillion, 9.

In 1940, Clarence Jones registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 15 November 1918 in Wilson; lived at 513 Norfolk Street, Wilson; his mother was Estella Jones; and he worked for Export Tobacco Company, Mercer Street, Wilson.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 513 Norfolk Street, Olivia Summers [sic], 84; daughters Estella Jones, 58, and Rosa Summers, 56; grandchildren Olivia, 32, and Clarence Jones, 31; and great-grandson Bobby Jones, 9.

Image courtesy of Veterans of World War II Wilson County, spiral-bound volume, Wilson County Public Library.

623 East Green Street, revisited.

On 26 March 1898, for $100, Samuel and Annie Vick sold Samuel Gay a lot on Green Street adjoining the lands of Fred M. Davis and Samuel Vick. The deed was registered 11 August 1898 in Deed Book 50, page 73. This is the lot at what is now 623 East Green Street. Samuel Gay built a one-story house here that his son Albert Gay Sr. expanded to two stories. Another son, Charles Gay, built a house next door at 625 East Green.

When photographed for the East Wilson Historic District application, 623 East Green Street was still occupied by descendants of the Gay family, and its exterior appeared to be in fine condition.

Forty years later, the house is still in good condition and retains most of its most charming decorative features, such as the double porch pillars and curved brackets under the deep second-floor eaves. The sidelights framing the front door have been painted over and, unfortunately, the decorative ridge cresting disappeared when the shingle roof was replaced with a standing-seam metal roof. The portico has also been removed.

Albert Gay House, 623 East Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office; bottom photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2026.

Maggie Foster Barnes, 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.

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Maggie Foster Barnes.

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!

619 East Green Street, revisited.

Here is 619 East Green Street, the Charlie Thomas house, in the 1980s when photographed for the National Register application for East Wilson. The small attached cinderblock building, Bea’s Flower Shop, was demolished a few years later.

I photographed the house in 2017 when I first featured it in this series. The photo below, taken in October 2025, shows the toll of eight more years.

Two months later, I photographed 619 again.

I do not begrudge a renovation that returns a decaying house to livable condition, and I understand the hard choices that must be made when updating and making efficient a house more than 100 years old, but I am saddened by the loss of architectural detail here. The original bracketed, turned porch posts replaced by plain four-by-fours are a particular loss, as are the reduced-size windows. 

N.88.2.505-507, Lewis Thomas House, 619 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office.

411 East Green Street.

The two hundred-sixth in a series of posts highlighting buildings in East Wilson Historic District, a national historic district located in Wilson, North Carolina. As originally approved, the district encompasses 858 contributing buildings and two contributing structures in a historically African-American section of Wilson. (A significant number have since been lost.) The district was developed between about 1890 to 1940 and includes notable examples of Queen Anne, Bungalow/American Craftsman, and Shotgun-style architecture. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988.

In the nomination form for the East Wilson Historic District, described as: “ca. 1922; 2 stories; two-bay, side-hall, gable front house with intact turned porch posts.”

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Foster Hugh (c) carp h 411 E Green. Also: Foster Maggie (c) dom h 411 E Green

In the 1925 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Foster Hugh T (c) carp h 411 E Green

In the 1928 and 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directories: Foster Hugh T (c; Mollie M) carp h 411 E Green

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 East Green Street, Hugh Foster, 31, carpenter,

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 East Green, Hallie Armstrong, 48, pool room operator; wife Julia, 29; and lodgers Annie M. Brown, 39, of Mooresville, Iredell County, hospital nurse; Jeanett M. Lee, 24, of Mount Olive, Wayne County, hospital nurse; and Lawrence Peacock, 27, of High Point, sewer project laborer.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 East Green, widow Julia Armstrong, 39, born in Kentucky, and lodgers Mary Rose, 29; Anne Everette, 2; Herbert Rose Jr., born in July; Edward Harris, 20, construction company bricklayer; McDonald Hayes, 33, electric power company laborer; Josephine Hayes, 28, cotton picker on farm; and Willie Mack Hayes, 15, cotton picker on farm.

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Wilson Daily Times, 23 February 1968.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2024.

611 East Green Street, revisited.

On 29 October 1892, Hardy Tate purchased for $700 from George D. and Ella M. Green a 1/3-acre lot on Green Street between Green and H.C. Phillips.

The first house Tate erected on this lot burned to the ground under suspicious circumstances shortly after completion in 1896. Tate replaced it with this house, whose number bounced from 610 to 612 before settling at 611.

Tate died in 1938. Undertaker Columbus E. Artis and his first wife, nurse Ada D. Artis, bought the house from the Tate family. In 1951, Artis remarried.

Wilson Daily Times, 28 July 1951.

It appears that C.E. and Ruby Barbour Artis began to take in roomers in the 1960s. Artis, photographed here in the driveway, owned the house until his death in 1973, and Ruby Artis remained for several years after.

Per the 12 April 1975 Daily Times, Ruby Artis was issued a permit to “alter boarding house 611 E. Green.”

This ad for apartments in the house ran in the Daily Times in the early 1980s.

Wilson Daily Times, 3 September 1981.

Wilson Daily Times, 14 April 1983.

Wilson Daily Times, 5 July 1983.

Wilson Daily Times, 5 November 1983.

The house was demolished in the early 2000s.

N.87-12-279-280, Hardy Tate House, 611 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office.