Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1947.
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Rev. Frank Moore and his wife, Ara Moore, regularly ministered to residents of the Wilson County home, which was located near the intersection of present-day Ward Boulevard and Goldsboro Street.
Frank Hilliard is listed in the 1940 census of Wilson as one of 46 lodgers at the home, 19 of whom were African-American.
Barber-Scotia College’s Evangeline Royall was among a multiracial group of students who lived together at a Black family’s home while working to build a credit union office for African-American farmers. A mob, led by a sawmill operator (straight out of central casting), gave white students 24 hours to get out of Columbia, North Carolina, and milled around their bus as they packed up to leave.
This news report of the incident is studiously neutral in its account of events, but carefully sets out the names and school affiliation of each student, as well as the ethnicity of non-white students like Royall.
Hope Star (Hope, Ark.), 21 August 1947.
We first met Evangeline Royall as the high school student regarded as the first “librarian” of Wilson’s Negro Library.
Per http://www.prabook.com, Evangeline Royall Darity was born 16 June 1927 in Wilson, North Carolina. She received a Bachelor of Science in Religious Education, Barber-Scotia College, 1949; Master of Education, Smith College, 1969; and Doctor of Education, University of Massachusetts-Amherst, 1978. She held various positions with the Young Women’s Christian Association, 1949-1953, and was executive director in Holyoke, Massachusetts, 1979-1981; taught in Egypt, North Carolina, and Massachusetts, 1953-1967; and was the assistant to class deans at Smith College, 1968-1975. Dr. Darity was vice-president of Student affairs at Barber-Scotia College, 1978-1979; associate dean at Mount Holyoke College, 1981-1994; and a member of the Amherst (Mass.) Town Meeting, 1971-1980. She was a member of the American Association of University Women; the American Association of Counseling and Development; the National Association of Women Deans, Counselors and Administrators; the League of Women Voters; Phi Delta Kappa; and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority.
Her husband, William Alexander Darity, was the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her son, William A. Darity Jr., is Samuel DuBois Cook Professor of Public Policy, African and African American Studies, and Economics at Duke University. Her daughter Janki E. Darity is an attorney.
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In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 203 Pender Street, widow Ossie M. Royall, 33, an elevator girl at the courthouse; her mother Tossie Jenkins, 53, stemmer at a tobacco factory; daughters LaForest, 16, and Evauline Royall, 14; and a roomer named Ed Hart, 45, a laborer employed by the town of Wilson.
On 23 December 1950, William A. Darity, 26, of East Flat Rock, Henderson County, N.C., son of Aden Randall Darity and Elizabeth Smith Darity, married Evangeline Royall, 23, resident of “(Wilson) Charlotte, N.C.,” daughter of Dock Moses Royall and Ossie Mae Jenkins Royall, in Wilson. Presbyterian minister O.J. Hawkins performed the ceremony in the presence of Mary B. Moore, Grace L. Coley, and Solomon Revis Jr.
In the 1952 Danville, Virginia, city directory: Darity Evangeline R Mrs (c) dir Y W C A h 330 Holbrook; Darity Wm A (c; Evangeline R) insp City Dept Pub Health h 330 Holbrook
Wilson Daily Times, 20 April 1963.
Evangeline Royall Darity died 27 September 1994.
Wilson Daily Times, 5 January 1944.
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Wilson Daily Times, 24 December 1945.
Chris Facey has captured so much of the beauty of Lane Street Project’s work that it’s only fitting that I wrap up the celebration with his photographs.
The esteemed clergy.
Rev. H. Maurice Barnes, Calvary and White Rock Presbyterian Churches.
Rev. Daniel Pinell, Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church and La Iglesia de la Guadalupana.
Rev. Debbie Hayes, Rountree Missionary Baptist Church.
Mayor Carlton Stevens.
Hon. George K. Butterfield Jr. (retired).
Mrs. Henrietta Hines McIntosh.
Lisa Y. Henderson.
Bishop Ernestine McGee, Faith Temple United Holy Church, and Sister Faye Winstead.
Rev. Tim Davis, Crossroad Street Ministry.
Rev. A. Kim Reives.
Rev. Lindsey Ardrey, Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina, Diocesan Reparations and Restitution Ministry.
Pastor Carnela R. Hill, Be Restored Church.
Rev. Christopher Wyckoff, Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist Church.
Dr. Judy Wellington Rashid.
R. Briggs Sherwood, Lane Street Project Senior Force.
The saints gathered, the clouds rolled back, the sun shone, Vick Cemetery is reclaimed.
I am so FULL. I don’t even know where to start. Just gon and get ready to be sick of me, because this is going to go post after post.
This first post is thanks and acknowledgment.
To Rev. H. Maurice Barnes and Rev. Carlton Best, who answered my call for Reconsecration with a full-throated “yes!,” planned the order of service and called in the faith community to carry out our vision for this day;
To Rev. Debbie Hayes, who hosted planning meetings at Rountree Missionary Baptist Church;
To Bishop Ernestine McGee of Faith Temple United Holy Church for use of the bus that ferried guests from street parking around the corner to the site of the ceremony;
To the ecumenical team of Rev. A. Kim Reives (who led the prayers of Reconsecration), Rev. Dr. Christopher Wyckoff (who gave the benediction), Rev. Jose Daniel Pinell (who delivered Scripture), Rev. Torase L. Barnes, Rev. Carnela R. Hill, Rev. Lindsey Ardrey, Rev. Tim Davis, Rev. Edwin Ferguson, and others whose names I did not catch, who walked the grounds, anointing the earth during Reconsecration;
To Mayor Carlton L. Stevens, who arranged for support from the Parks and Recreation Department, Wilson Police Department, Wilson Energy, and other city employees;
To the Honorable G.K. Butterfield Jr., retired member of Congress, whose incisive remarks at today’s ceremony were a call to action for the City’s leaders;
To Sister Faye Winstead, who stepped in at the very last moment to lead us in song (“We Will Work Till Jesus Comes”);
To City Councilmembers Derrick D. Creech, Gillettia Morgan, Rev. Michael S. Bell, and James Johnson and County Commissioner JoAnne Daniels for their attendance and attention;
To Henrietta Hines McIntosh, for the gift of her memories;
To Jen Kehrer of Scarborough House Resort, who arranged for Odd Fellows Cemetery to be cut back yesterday and who showed up early to help hand out programs and buttons;
To Lane Street Project’s everyday volunteers, who are always there when needed;
To the Wilson Times, for recognizing the importance of Vick Cemetery and affording close coverage of our fight;
To each of you in attendance at this beautiful ceremony, in body or spirit;
And to the ancestors — may you be pleased with our work.
I’ve got a busy week coming up, and I hope to see some of you here or there.
Thursday evening, August 3, I’ll be in Greenville, North Carolina, at East Carolina Village and Farm Museum, delivering a talk on identifying documents to advance research on enslaved ancestors.
Friday morning — well, I can’t tell you about that right now, but stay tuned.
Saturday morning, August 5, at 10:00 A.M., in partnership with faith leaders from across the city of Wilson, Lane Street Project has organized a reconsecration of Vick Cemetery. Thank God we don’t need a vote of city council to do spiritual work. This will be an ecumenical service — we recognize that we don’t know the specific faith journeys of all who are buried in Vick. Please come. Bring your prayers, your salat, your affirmations, your good vibes as we reclaim Vick Cemetery as a sacred space.
Finally, Saturday evening, I’ll join the Freeman-Hagans Family Reunion to deliver a talk at their reunion dinner. (This is a private event, of course.) This will be my first time addressing a family group other than my own, so I’m pretty excited!
Take the first step with us on the journey to restoring Vick Cemetery to recognition in the community as a sacred space.
A team of faith leaders is working with Lane Street Project for the Reconsecration of Vick Cemetery. Though we cannot touch every blade of grass in Vick, we want to cover as much of its ground as we can. For this, we need more faith leaders — of every denomination, creed, or color — to walk this walk with us. Your role will be simple, but powerful.
A great moral wrong has been done in the neglect of Vick Cemetery and the stripping of its graves of all identifying markers. Faith leaders, if you believe in dignity after death and the sanctity of human remains, please join other men and women of the cloth in anointing the sacred ground of Vick Cemetery. All, please encourage your pastor, your imam, your rabbi to participate. And please come on the morning of August 5 to honor our mothers and fathers and to bear witness.
For more information, please contact Lisa Y. Henderson at lanestreetproject@gmail.com no later than July 27. Thank you.
Take the first step with us on the journey to restoring Vick Cemetery to recognition in the community as a sacred space.