Photographs

Private Bruce Sutton, now at Fort Sam Houston.

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In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 716 East Green, rented for $14/month, Joseph Sutton, 61; wife Malissa, 60; children Beatrice, 26, James, 25, Fred, 23, Bruce, 19, Beulah, 17, and Mable, 16; and grandchildren Ivan, 8, and Geraldine, 7.

The 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory lists laborer Fred Sutton, maid Beatrice Sutton, CCC worker Bruce Sutton, tobacco worker James W. Sutton, laborer Levi Sutton and wife Josie, and Melissa G. Sutton at 716 East Green.

The 1947 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory lists student Bruce Sutton, housekeeper Melissa G. Sutton, and domestic Rosa Sutton at 716 East Green.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 606 Green Street, Jane White, 48, laundry checker; son-in-law Bruce Sutton, 28; daughter Lucille Sutton, 20; and children William E., 2, and Bruce Jr., 1.

Community Senior Citizens Club.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 June 1976.

This photo of members of the Community Senior Citizens Club was taken well after the period covered by Black Wide-Awake. However, it depicts a generation of elders — mostly born in the 1890s to the 1910s — who helped build the community we honor here:

Margaret Powell, Estelle Cooper, Mary Leach, Lula M. Hayes, Ernestine Shepard, Essie Corbett, Mabel Bennett, Elizabeth Faison, Nora Reid, Maria Delaney, Mena Bailey, Bertha Carroll, Ophelia Adams, Rossie Bryant, Mary Howell, Allie M. Harris, Sarah Bryant, Marie Owens, Naomi Hunter, Effie Battle, Lela Hilliard, Janie Mitchell, Menorah Rodgers, Eva Brooks, William Clark, Vicia Thompson, Millie Ellis, Louise Perry, Estelle Darden, Effie Dawson, Callie Darden, Rosa Lucas, William Taylor, and William Lane.

Lane Street Project: Colbert Cemetery, Calhoun, Georgia.

Though I will always be of Wilson, I have lived in Atlanta nearly all of my adult life. It is very much “home” for me, too, and is a bottomless well of African-American culture and history that often informs the way I process research and work related to Black Wide-Awake and Lane Street Project.

I’ve begun visiting metro Atlanta’s historic African-American burial grounds. How have they weathered exploding population growth, shifting demographics, outmigration, land loss, and other pressures? The eighth in a series — Colbert (formerly Calvary) Cemetery in Calhoun, Georgia.

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Colbert Cemetery, also known as Calvary, lies at the top of a hill at the end of steep road on the edge of Calhoun, Georgia. Calhoun, a town of about 16,000, is in far north Georgia on land that once held the capital of the Cherokee Nation. As is typical of the area, its African-American population is low — only about 7%. Early in the twentieth century, this percentage dropped from about 15% with the exodus created by the Great Migration.

In 1841, Atlanta founder and railroad tycoon Richard Peters bought 4000 acres in Gordon County. He worked 2500 acres with enslaved African Americans and set aside a burial ground for them on this site. About 1910, Peters’ children deeded the cemetery to trustees for use by Calhoun’s Black community, many of whom were descended from people enslaved at Peters Plantation.

The Porches are one of the largest families buried at Colbert. Both J.L. and Sina Porch were born enslaved. 

You know I love a vernacular grave marker. Here are two of a set of three similar “stones.”

These embossed markers, likely provided by a funeral home, mostly date from the 1930s to 1950s.

One of a relatively few fieldstone markers.

Seventy miles up the road from Atlanta, an Eldren Bailey marker.

The cemetery was active as recently as 2016 and is a much-visited space.

Squire Frix appears as a ten year-old farm laborer in the 1870 federal census of the Town of Calhoun living as part of the household of white insurance agent Joseph W. Malone.

Like Odd Fellows Cemetery, Colbert is dotted with yucca plants marking grave sites.

Unusually, several bronze military markers were installed upright, rather than flats designed.

Caroline Heard was about 75 years old when she died in 1921.

In the valley below, new construction wraps around the base of the hill. Gordon County Civic Club, which oversees Colbert Cemetery, is engaged in protracted litigation against the developer, asserting that the subdivision may encroach on hidden graves.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.

Corporal Judge Fleming Jr., sent to England.

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In the 1920 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: on Stantonsburg Road, farmer Judge Fleming, 49; wife Molly, 40; and children Lizzie, 18, Arron, 16, Sarah, 12, Lula, 10, Addie, 8, Jordan, 5, and John, 3.

In the 1930 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer Judge Fleming, 57; wife Mollie, 47; and children Arron, 25, Sarah J., 21, Lula, 20, Judge, 15, Johnie, 14, and Mary L., 6.

In the 1940 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: Mollie Flemming, 56, widow, farmer; sons Aaron, 36, and Judge Jr., 25; grandchildren Louisa, 17, Delma, 5, Aaron Jr., 3, and Melba G., 1; daughter-in-law Mahalia Flemming, 26; and lodger Jessie Smith, 14.

In 1940, Judge Junior Fleming registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 1 July 1915 in Wilson; lived on Route 4, Wilson; his contact was mother Mollie Sutton Fleming; and he worked at Imperial Tobacco Company, Barnes and Lodge Streets.

In the 1950 census of Saratoga township, Wilson County: Judge Flemming, 34, “planting corn”; wife Grace, 23, “picking plant bed”; and children Alfonsa, 3, and Gwenelyn, 2; and lodger Johnnie Sharp, 45, “planting corn.”

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

Gentrification tries Pettigrew Street.

One of the minor surprises I got while researching residential patterns in Wilson was the revelation that the southern block of Pender Street — between Nash and Barnes Streets — was an all-white block into the 1930s. The block’s west side was industrial, but its east side (at the bottom in the 1930 Sanborn map detail below) was lined with small bungalows and duplex shotgun houses.

Most of the houses are long gone, but the double shotguns at 113 and 115 stood until about 2023. The historic union hall at 121 was erected in the 1950s. This property, plus two lots fronting Barnes Street, have been bundled for sale. Purchased for $35,000 in the summer of 2023, the asking price is now an eye-watering $425,000.

Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.

A tour of Jones Land.

I spent a beautiful afternoon with Grover L. Jones Jr. and his eldest daughter, Gronna Jones. The Joneses descend from one of Wilson County’s largest free families of color — one that I’ve blogged about over and over and over. Mr. Jones is a western Wilson County griot, and I was thrilled when Gronna offered to drive us around to some of the family’s landmarks, all on or within a mile or so of today’s Saint Rose Church Road.

Mr. Jones’ grandparents, John A. Jones and Betty Hinnant Jones, built this house around 1912. Mr. Jones himself was born in the “little room” at the south end of the house.

While the house was under construction, the Joneses lived in the upstairs loft of this tobacco barn.

This 1927 Dodge has been parked here all of Mr. Jones’ life. He’s 88.

John A. Jones planted these massive oaks — a white and three swamp whites — that now tower over his grandson. A gnarled pecan tree leans away from one end of the house.

Just down the road stands the church John A. Jones attended — Rising Sun Missionary Baptist.

Per John Jones’ 1962 obituary, he was founder of Rising Sun. Rev. Buchanan H. Edwards was its pastor during much of the first half of the 1900s and preached Jones’ funeral.)

Wilson Daily Times, 16 September 1962.

Rising from the rear of the church structure is a two-story addition. A Masonic lodge, whose name and number have been forgotten, met upstairs. (I’m trying to identify it further.)

The tenants who lived in this house farmed for the Joneses, mostly raising tobacco and corn.

Saint Rose United Holy Church, which Betty Hinnant Jones attended, stands north of the Jones house. The original wooden building was moved to the Green Pond area of Wilson County to house another church.

Two family cemeteries lie across the road. The Jones family cemetery, holding the remains of John and Betty Jones and some of their children and grandchildren, is relatively new.

The nearby Sane Williams cemetery is much older, with graves dating back to the 1890s. The predominant family buried here is Jones, but other surnames appear on the 65+ graves. Sane Williams (or Williamson) and John A. Jones owned adjoining property, and Mr. Jones pointed out the property of neighboring landowners Johnny Finch and Henry Coleman.

The Henry Coleman farm, known as The Kingdom, lies off Old Raleigh Road, but is a straight shot through the woods from the cemeteries. Below, one of the cemeteries in The Kingdom. The old Jones Hill cemetery, also known as Old Fields cemetery, which holds graves of Joneses, Powells, and related 19th century families, has grown up in scrub trees again.

Mr. Jones confirmed the site of the Jones Hill School, which he attended from first through sixth grade. His teachers were Ethel Moye Coley and Alice Shaw. (He attended Sims School for seventh grade, then Williamson High School briefly before the brand-new Springfield High School opened in 1951.)

This abandoned store was once located on the other side of I-95, very close to the school. In order to gain licensing to sell beer, however, the building was moved down the road to this location.

I didn’t get photos, but we also rode over to Sims, past Flat Rock Church of Christ, the remnants of Sims School, and the house in which Mr. Jones’ maternal grandmother Lillie Taylor Jones lived in the Sugar Hill neighborhood.

A very special thanks to Gronna and Grover Jones for indulging my thousand questions — and treating me to a hot dog at Best N Burger! Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, May 2026.