social life

28 Books for 28 days.

Twenty-eight books I recommend to contextualize the history and culture of Wilson County, North Carolina,’s African-American people, in no particular order. Search for a review of one book every day this Black History Month. You’ve got the rest of the year to read them.

  1. Spoonbread and Strawberry Wine: Recipes and Reminiscences of a Family, Norma Jean and Carole Darden (1978)
  2. African-American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina, Beverly Patterson and Sarah Bryan (2013)
  3. Greater Freedom: the Evolution of the Civil Rights Struggle in Wilson, North Carolina, Charles W. McKinney Jr. (2010)
  4. Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Stories of Social Upheaval, Saidiya Hartman (2019)
  5. The Place You Love Is Gone: Progress Hits Home, Melissa Holbrook Pierson (2006)
  6. Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia, Lynn Rainville (2014)
  7. Throwed Away: Failures of Progress in Eastern North Carolina, Linda Flowers (1990)
  8. The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism, Edward E. Baptist (2014)
  9. Sherrod Village: A Memoir, Barbara Williams Lewis (2014)
  10. Elm City: A Negro Community in Action, C.L. Spellman (1942)
  11. Race and Politics in North Carolina 1872-1901: The Black Second, Eric Anderson (1980)
  12. No Justice No Peace, Algernon McNeil (2015)
  13. The Rise of a Southern Town, Wilson, North Carolina 1849-1920, Patrick M. Valentine (2002)
  14. Jim Crow in North Carolina: The Legislative Program from 1865 to 1920, Richard A. Paschal (2020)
  15. To Walk About in Freedom: The Long Emancipation of Priscilla Joyner, Carole Emberton (2022)
  16. Ed Mitchell’s Barbeque, Ed and Ryan Mitchell (2023)
  17. Cemetery Citizens: Reclaiming the Past and Working for Justice in American Burial Grounds, Adam Rosenblatt (2024)
  18. ‘Make the Gig’: The History of the Monitors, John Harris (2024)
  19. In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning, Grace Elizabeth Hale (2023)
  20. Black Folks: The Roots of the Black Working Class, Blair LM Kelley (2023)
  21. Civil Rights History from the Ground Up: Local Struggles, A National Movement, Emilye Crosby, ed. (2011)
  22. Historic Wilson in Vintage Postcards, J. Robert Boykin III (2003)
  23. Slavery in North Carolina 1748-1775, Marvin L. Michael Kay and Lorin Lee Cary (2000)
  24. From a Cat House to the White House: The Story of an African-American Chef, Jesse Pender (2007)
  25. Wilmington’s Lie: The Murderous Coup of 1898 and the Rise of White Supremacy, David Zucchino (2020)
  26. North Carolina’s Free People of Color 1715-1885, Warren E. Milteer Jr. (2020)
  27. George Henry White: An Even Chance in the Game of Life, Benjamin Justesen (2001)
  28. History of African Americans in North Carolina, Jeffrey J. Crow, Paul D. Escott, and Flora J. Hadley Watelington (2002)

January social scene, 1927.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 15 January 1927.

Among the early January social happenings reported to the Journal and Guide in 1927, we learn that attorney Glenn S. McBrayer was the keynote speaker at Wilson’s January 1 Emancipation Celebration, held in the Wilson Colored High School auditorium. We also learn that Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church had wrapped up a series of Good Will services at their new chapel, i.e. the building Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church now occupies.

Early Montclair, New Jersey, Y.M.C.A. leaders.

A retrospective on Montclair, New Jersey’s historic Washington Street Branch Y.M.C.A. featured photographs of Wilson-born pharmacist William H. Vick and his wife Carrie Dixon Vick.

W.H. Vick, seated in the wicker chair on the front row, above. Below, Carrie Vick, seated front row, left. 

Montclair Times, 26 January 1978.

 

Snipes reports holiday social swirl.

The Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 January 1934.

In January 1934, Anna Snipes, co-owner of the Biltmore Hotel, sent in a column detailing holiday happenings, the sick and shut-in, comings and goings, and the hotel’s guestbook. A holiday highlight: the party the Four Star Girls Club — teenagers Edna G. Taylor, Lucy D. Artis, Annie F. Crawford, and Robnette Boyd — held at the hotel with Laddie Springs entertaining.

John W. and Jean Darden celebrate 25 years.

Chicago Defender, 2 January 1932.

——

Home for the holidays.

  • Robert Vick
  • Madelia Wilkins
  • Irene Wilson — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Irene (c) student r 302 N Vick (Wilson married Ralph Sherrod, below, on 25 March 1932 in Greensville County, Virginia.)
  • Ralph Sherrod
  • Floyd Fisher — in the 1928 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Fisher Floyd (c) student r 624 E Green
  • Willie Hargrove
  • Inez Speight — in the 1930 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Speight Inez (c) student r 308 Hackney

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 3 January 1931.

  • William McCollum
  • Levi Godwin — in 1940, Levi Godwin registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 29 January 1910 in Wilson; lived at 900 Washington Street, Wilson; his contact was wife Esther Godwin; and he worked for North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, 633 East Nash Street.
  • James Knight — perhaps, James H. Knight Jr.
  • Ethel Moye