Photographs

Saint Mark’s sanctuary faces uncertain future.

After Jackson Chapel and Saint John A.M.E.Z., the building in which Saint Mark’s Episcopal worships is the third oldest continuously occupied  African-American sanctuary in Wilson. However, recent structural stresses have imperiled its future. 

Around 1925, Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist erected a church on Reid Street just south of East Nash. Ten years later, Mount Sinai had vacated the building. Looking for a location away from the downtown tobacco warehouse district and closer to its congregants, the Episcopal diocese purchased the church to house Saint Mark’s. With a few repairs, and the installation of its old circular stained glass cross, the church was ready for its new occupants in January 1936.

I took a few photos on a recent visit to Saint Mark’s, but they don’t adequately capture its simple beauty. Though its liturgical articles and ornaments have largely been removed, its altar, pews, and simple stained glass windows tell a century-old story.

The spine of Saint Mark’s building is broken, but the spirit of its worshippers, now largely members of the Guadalupana Mission, continues to soar. 

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, October 2025.

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.

www.wilsonalumnae.com

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!

Lane Street Project: S6 D1 is in the books!

An enthusiastic thank you to the crew that opened Season 6 of Lane Street Project’s cemetery cleanups yesterday! Workday 1 is in the books!

On a warm, overcast morning, volunteers focused on cutting and clearing wisteria sprouts that sprang up inside the tree line in the off-season. This is critical to prepare for future work at Odd Fellows. Special thanks to newly elected District 6 council member Eduardo Herrera-Picasso, who looked, listened, and learned — and got to work with a string trimmer!

The next volunteer opportunity comes on Martin Luther King Jr. holiday — Monday, January 19! There’s work for everyone, of every ability, and we welcome all!

WE CARE!

Installation by Jen Kehrer. Photo courtesy of Olivia Neeley.

Lane Street Project: thanks again, homeschoolers!

In thanks for their dedication to caring for Odd Fellows Cemetery and learning from elders about the history of their community, I created Children of Lane Street Project badges for the young preservationists of the Homeschoolers Honoring Ancestors chapter of Tarheel Junior Historians.

Yesterday morning, Senior Force members Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood were on hand at the students’ regular library visit to award their badges. A big thanks to all the H.H.A. kids — and their parents, for nurturing their curiosity and love of history and inviting us to today’s ceremony!

 

Lane Street Project: congrats and gratitude.

I didn’t recognize the phone number, but I answered anyway. I was in a bit of a rush, heading into Home Depot for something or other. The caller was Chris Facey. He’d just started a residency in Wilson with Eyes on Main Street, and Jerome De Perlinghi had suggested he talk to me. I didn’t know it yet, but I was talking to the man who would, while forming an indelible bond with Castonoble Hooks, capture so many beautiful, joyful, sorrowful moments along Lane Street Project’s journey.

I’m so proud that Chris’ work has been included in the Griffin Museum of Photography’s Evidence of Existence on-line exhibit. Chris captured this image during Lane Street Project’s second season — the shaft and pyramidal cap of Henry Tart’s obelisk gleaming dully in a wisteria-draped glade.

Chris has brought honor and recognition to our ancestors. We thank him for his gifts of “art and record” and wish him multifold blessings.

Follow Chris Facey on Instagram @coco.butter.shutter

Lane Street Project: Season 6, Workday 1 — January 10!

Lane Street Project’s Season 6 opening cleanup is Saturday, January 10. We hope to see you, your family, your friends, your coworkers, your church members, your club members, your students, your faculty, your lodge brothers and sisters, your sorors, your frats, your neighbors, your council members, your city manager, your mayor … the whole Wilson out here!

A New Year’s tradition.

My father and his friends knocked on the doors of each other’s thresholds early on New Year’s Day. Once inside, they’d reach up to place a couple of quarters on the headers above the doors. They were carrying out two traditions at once — a man must be first to enter a house to bring good luck, and coins above the doorways offer prosperity and protection in the coming year. A glance up at these silvery rows never fails to pull a smile, and I pay homage here to the late Rederick C. Henderson (who traveled all over town with a pocket full od quarters being the first man for his friends) and Herbert Woodard, and to David Speight.

Are you familiar with these New Year traditions? What do y’all do?

Thank you.

Discovering and sharing the stories of East Wilson brings me joy. I’ve often said that I would curate Black Wide-Awake even if no one read it, but you do read it, and for that I’m immeasurably grateful. Thank you for another year of close scrutiny and careful commentary, of food and feedback, of time and attention. Send me your ideas, your clues, and your grandmas to be interviewed. Let’s do it again!

Photo by Janelle Booth Clevinger.

Lane Street Project: 4,224.

Jen Kehrer is an early and avid supporter of Lane Street Project, and we love her for it. The past couple of years, a new job has taken her outside Wilson County, but she came back today to deliver a message. 

Kehrer installed fence stitching bold enough to see from the road. 4,224. The number of grave anomalies detected in Vick Cemetery with ground-penetrating radar. The number — the minimum number — of ancestors who lie beneath this featureless sod. We remember Vick’s dead.

Thank you, Jen Kehrer! Your allyship is deeply appreciated.

(Also, Day 18.)

Photos courtesy of J. Kehrer, December 2025.