Wilson Daily Times, 23 October 1919.
George A. Barfoot & Company, the busy Wilson realtors, offered nine investment properties for sale in October 1919 — six were designated “for colored,” three “for white.”
Segregation
Colored barber wanted.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 1 June 1925.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 29 August 1938.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 25 September 1947.
Walter S. Hines Barber Shop regularly advertised for barbers in the Raleigh News and Observer. Hines died in 1941, but his son Carl W. Hines continued to manage the business. By 1947, Hines’ ad touted the availability of housing — likely in the family’s large real estate portfolio — for a family man.
The enumeration for whites.
I was looking for an African-American family in the Evansdale area when I ran across this notation in the 1910 census of Stantonsburg township. A closer look revealed that enumerator R.B. Barnes divided Enumeration District 110 into four sections — the white residents of the town of Stantonsburg, the black residents of the town of Stantonsburg, the black residents (who made up the majority) of the rest of the township, and finally the rest of the white residents.
No other township is enumerated this way and, in fact, I’ve never seen this imposed segregation in any other census record anywhere.
We must bend over backwards.
In an op-ed piece, the Daily Times offers tips for successfully maintaining segregation.
Wilson Daily Times, 24 April 1950.
Certificate of incorporation of Wilson Hospital.
Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, Samuel H. Vick, and J.D. Reid filed for incorporation of Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home was in 1912. The facility opened a year later.
Thank you to V. Cowan for sharing this treasure!
An oasis in the land of Jim Crow.
In 1989, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution published an in-depth piece celebrating Wilson native Augustus S. Clark, his wife Anna W. Clark, and the life-changing school they founded in Cordele, Georgia, in 1902.
I visited Gillespie Institute in the summer of 2021 and wrote about it here.
Atlanta Journal and Constitution, 12 March 1989.
Wilson County admits African Americans to jury duty.
The Black Dispatch (Oklahoma City, Okla.), 13 June 1935.
Of course, I went looking to find out what the Daily Times had to say about this.
Not a whole lot. On page 4 of the 4 June 1935 edition, halfway down a column headlined “Salary Increases Given to County Employees Today”:
Wilson Daily Times, 4 June 1935.
The lead case challenging the systematic exclusion of African-Americans from juries was Norris v. Alabama, 294 U.S. 587 (1935). Wilson County Attorney Harry G. Connor Jr.’s advice was terse and understated: “… it would be wise and safe[,] I might say wiser and safer, to put the names of several hundred negroes in the jury list. In doing this, care should be taken to get the best negroes in the county and not only that, I think it would be equally wise and safe to distribute them by townships as nearly as possible.”
The question, of course, is whether any of these “best negroes” made it onto juries.
Historic Black Business Series, no. 16: Paragon Shaving Parlor.
The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.
Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!
The fantastic Wilson Arts Center now occupies the footprint of New Briggs Hotel. Paragon Shaving Parlor opened in a storefront space of the hotel at what was then 213 East Nash Street. The barbershop was located in the area of the “short,” far-left section of the arts center’s facade.
After apprenticing with barber John A. Gaston, Walter S. Hines joined with Noah J. Tate and Jacob Astor Tabron to open Paragon Shaving Parlor in a storefront at the New Briggs Hotel circa 1903. (Not 1912, as my little sign says.) In 1906, Tate, Hines, Tabron sold the shop’s furnishings to another barber, Richard Renfrow, suggesting a complete upgrade of Paragon’s interior.
Tabron soon left the partnership to start a barbershop with his brothers. Hines and Tate continued the business, which was described this way in the 1912 Wilson, North Carolina, Industrial & Commercial Directory: “The Paragon Shaving Parlor is located at 213 East Nash street in Briggs Hotel Block, and it can truthfully be said that it is the most popular Tonsorial parlor in the city of Wilson. It is owned and managed by N.J. Tate and W.S. Hines, both of whom are skilled barbers of long experience. Their genial manner and high class work have won for them the liberal share of the best patronage of the city. Their shop is fully equipped with all the latest appurtenances, and a short visit to this establishment will after passing through their hands, convince you of what the modern, up-to-date barber shops can do to put a man in good humor with himself and the rest of mankind. The shop is equipped with five chairs, each in charge of a professional barber. Go there for your next shave.”
By 1916, the business was known as Tate & Hines.
Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory (1916).
About 1920, Tate and Hines parted company, and Walter S. Hines assumed sole ownership of the barbershop. He briefly reverted to the Paragon Shaving Parlor name, but soon settled on Walter S. Hines Barbershop. His shop and that of his brother, the William Hines Barbershop, were friendly competitors for white custom until the 1970s.
Wilson Chamber of Commerce’s Facts About Wilson, North Carolina, published in 1934, featured a full-page for New Briggs with a photo of the hotel’s street-facing exterior. At lower left, Hines Barbershop is identifiable by its barber pole.
A close-up reveals two African-American men standing in front of the shop’s large window.
Walter S. Hines Barber Shop, early 1940s. Left to right: David H. Coley, Joe Knolly Zachary, Edgar H. Diggs, Roderick Taylor, and Sidney Boatwright.
Contrary to the passage below, which was lifted from the nomination form the Central Business-Tobacco Warehouse Historic District, Hines himself did not move the barbershop from the Briggs Hotel in 1955. Walter Hines died in 1941, and his family continued running the business for nearly 40 more years.
Barbers and bootblacks who worked for Walter S. Hines included Hiram A. Faulk, Walter Mainer, Roderick Taylor, David Barnes, Herman N. Grissom, Floyd Pender, Hubert Mitchner, Lonnie Barnes, Charles C. Chick, Edgar H. Diggs, Mancie Gaston, Elmer Gordon, Golden Robinson, James Smalls, Alonzo Barnes, David H. Coley, Sidney Boatwright, and Joe Knolly Zachary.
Historic African-American neighborhoods.
Well into the twentieth century, pockets of African-American residents were scattered across the western side of Wilson. This map will help you visualize the locations of these communities should you see their names.
Colored men wanted.
Wilson Daily Times, 31 March 1945.
The War Manpower Commission was a World War II agency tasked with balancing the labor needs of agriculture, industry, and the military. Though W.M.C. leadership urged employers to hire without discrimination in defense production, an ad specifically targeting “colored men” likely did not lead to high-paying work.