Work Life

Praise for Lancaster’s Cotton Seed Sower: “any intelligent negro man” can work one.

Wilson County planters George W. Stanton, Robert M. Cox, and Benjamin H. Bardin lent effusive praise to this advertisement for Lancaster’s Cotton Seed Sower. None of them actually worked the fields themselves, so Stanton and Cox made clear that the “machine” was not too complicated for black farmhands.

The Norfolk Virginian, 21 February 1866.

The 108th anniversary of the school boycott.

Today marks the 108th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman.  Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.

The only known photograph of the Wilson Normal Collegiate & Industrial Institute. 

The school boycott is largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes go unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9 henceforth, I publish links to Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please re-read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.

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the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school

The teachers.

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what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers

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photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools

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the-program

a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city

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the-roots-of-mary-c-euell

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And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.

Tarrell Parker binds himself.

In 1855, when he was about 18 years old, free man of color Tarrell Parker voluntarily apprenticed himself to Gilbert Parker for six months. What could have driven him to this arrangement?

Know all men by these presents that I Terril Parker of the County  and State aforesaid for and in consideration of the Sum of Fifty Dollars to me in hand paid do bind myself to Gilbert Parker until the first day of January next given under my hand & my seal June 15th 1855    Terril (X) Parker Witness L.J. Sauls

Deed Book 1, page 31, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

Pink Reid borrows from F.S.A.

Pink Reid borrowed $585 from the Farm Security Administration on 10 January 1942. To guarantee his loan, he pledged two mules, a Poland China brood sow, and a milch cow, as well as  his farm equipment.

Deed Book 275, page 303, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.

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In the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Pink Reid, 58; wife Matilda, 57; and son Allen T., 20. All were living in Wayne County five years earlier. 

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1003 Stantonsburg Street, Pinkey Reid, 68, yard cleaner; son Horace Reid, 32, butler; nephew Randolph Braswell, 26, bricklayer, and his wife Sarah, 25; and wife Matilda Reid, 67, nurse maid.

Pinkney Reid died 30 November 1961 at his residence at 504 North Vick Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 25 July 1881 in Wayne County to William Reid and Bettie Wilson; was married to Matilda Reid; was a farmer; and was buried at Turner Swamp cemetery, Wayne County.

Johnny Brewington and the Negro League.

During Black History Month two years ago, when they were still playing near Zebulon, North Carolina, as the Carolina Mudcats, the Wilson Warbirds highlighted throwback jerseys honoring the Raleigh Grays, a semi-pro Negro League team.

The Grays and the Raleigh Tigers, who played from the mid-1940s to early 1960s, had a Wilson connection —  Johnie Brewington, who briefly managed both teams.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 23 July 1941.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 15 May 1946.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 4 June 1946.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 20 June 1946.

When necessary, Brewington stepped behind the plate to play catcher.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 10 September 1946.

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In the 1920 census of South Clinton township, Sampson County, N.C.: farmer Cnelus Brewington, 36; wife Emma, 26, retail grocery merchant; and children Norward, 22, Mabel, 6, and John, 3.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 912 East Nash, rented for $24/month, Frank Williams, 50, building mechanic; wife Emma, 36, public school teacher; and stepchildren Norwood, 21, odd jobs laborer, Mabel, 16, and Johnie Brewington, 14.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 309 Elba Street, rented for $20/month, widow Emma Williams, 45, public school teacher; daughter Mable Brewington, 25, public school teacher; son Johnie Brewington, 24, new worker; and lodgers Walter Holmes, 35, veneer factory laborer, and Alice Bryant, 33, household servant.

In 1940, Johnie Marion Brewington registered for the World War II draft in Wilson. Per his registration card, he was born 3 February 1916 in Clinton, N.C.; lived at 309 Elba Street, Wilson; worked for Imperial Tobacco Company, Wilson; and his contact was mother Emma Williams.

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 23 July 1941.

Even as he managed the Grays, Brewington played football at North Carolina College (now North Carolina Central University.)

News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), 4 October 1941.

Johnnie Brewington enlisted in the United States Army on 26 January 1942 in Daytona Beach, Florida, and was discharged 4 August 1945, having achieved the rank of first sergeant in Company A, 184th Engineer Combat Battalion.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 411 North Vick, John E. Dixon, 38, science teacher in city school; wife Mable E., 33, elementary educator in county school; sons John E. II, 6, and Levie, 4; mother-in-law Emma B. Williams, 50; and brother-in-law Johnie M. Brewington, 31.

Johnie Marion Brewington died 20 November 1964 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Durham, N.C. Per his death certificate, he was born 3 February 1916 in North Carolina to Neal Brewington and Emma Moore; was never married; lived at 411 North Vick Street, Wilson; and was a merchant (“general work & sports”); was a World War II veteran; and was buried in Rest Haven cemetery. Emma Williams was informant.

Shout-out to Gary Redding for his daily Halifax County black history highlights!

You know I love a granular Black history, and Halifax County, N.C., Commissioner Gary Redding is pouring it in spades this Month. I’ve known Gary since he was five years old. He comes from a long line of social justice warriors, and I’m so proud of his work as an educator, lawyer, and community advocate in his home county. He is the embodiment of “servant-leader.”

Every day, Gary posts to Facebook a brief description of a Halifax County black history milestone with several attached photographs or newspaper clippings. I am struck by the vignettes themselves, but also by the similarities and differences between what happened in Halifax and Wilson Counties. Gary is building a vital archive for his community and for all of whose who believe in the power and importance of sharing our stories.

Thank you, Gary R. Redding!

Colored members of the medical staff of Lincoln Hospital.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 9 January 1937.

This photo collage appears in a full-page article titled “Hospital Is Built Where Monument Intended; Lincoln Hospital at Durham Has Unusual History and Record; Duke Family’s Plan To Honor Negro Slaves Changed To Erection of Much Needed Hospital.”

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