Lane Street Project: “my heart cries for all.”

I went home to celebrate my father with my mother and sister and to learn and share at the African American Cemeteries and Their Communities symposium in Durham. I thought the weekend had already filled me to the brim, but then I stopped by Vick Cemetery on my way to the airport. I placed a new “We remember” placard to signal our care for this space and wandered over to assess the condition of our fence-cum-signboard. It could stand a bit of tidying, and I stooped to look more closely at an unfamiliar ziplock bag affixed to the chain link. Inside, a single sheet of paper, damp and mildew-spotted, with neat, block lettering, faded but mostly legible.

Sunday March 9th 2024

I have never been in Wilson N.C. before but felt compelled to visit since reading about Vicks Cemetery. There is no reason that is acceptable and can explain how grave marking or head stones are removed from a persons final resting place. I do not know anyone from Wilson now or ever so my heart cries for all laid to rest and all the families who no longer know where their loved one lies. The people who make these dreadful decisions should pray that they never feel this anguish of not knowing where their loved ones lie.

We travelled from Greensboro to honor all who lie here in Vicks’ Cemetery and may they rest in peace.  

The note is signed, but I will preserve its author’s privacy. I am sorry that six months passed before I saw her note, and I appreciate the care she took to protect it from the elements just in case. I am most grateful that she was moved to drive hours to visit Vick Cemetery. I hope she reads Black Wide-Awake regularly and will see this belated, but heartfelt, acknowledgment of the honor she paid to the thousands interred here. The violence done to our dead reverberates beyond their descendants. Thank you, M.C.

Photos by Lisa Y. Henderson, September 2024.

Sgt. Sutton goes to Japan.

Wilson Daily Times, 2 September 1949.

——

In the 1930 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farm laborer John Sutton, 30; wife Jane, 31; and children Haywood, 14, Mittie, 11, John, 9, and David L., 6.

In the 1940 census of Gardners township, Wilson County: farmer John Sutton, 41; wife Jane, 40; children Mittie, 21, John H., 19, David Lee, 16, Henry G., 6, and Nina Bee, 2.

In 1942, David Sutton registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County, North Carolina. Per his registration card, he was b0rn 1 July 1924 in Wilson County, North Carolina; lived at R.F.D. 3, Wilson; his contact was John Sutton; and he worked for John Sutton.

On 7 November 1946, David Sutton, 22, of Wilson, son of John Clarence Sutton and Jane Sutton, married Jessie Gray Newsome, 17, of Wilson, daughter of Richard L. Sutton and Mable Newsome, in Snow Hall, Greene County, North Carolina.

Jessie Gray Sutton died 30 July 1947 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was one day old; was born in Wilson County to David Sutton and Jessie Gray Newsome; and was buried in Rest Haven cemetery.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 211 South Vick Street (front), Redmond Barnes, 30; wife Mittie, 31, maid; children Jessie L., 8, Bernice, 6, and Redmond Jr., born in August; and in-laws John, 52, Jane, 53, and Nina B. Sutton, 12; and, in “back trailer,” Jessie G. Sutton, 22, and son David Jr., 1, born in Washington, D.C.

Founding fathers.

North Carolina Standard (Raleigh, N.C.), 2 May 1855.

Wilson County’s earliest appointed officials included some of the largest slaveholders in the county:

Elias Barnes’ 1856 estate included 55 enslaved people.

  • Washington Barnes

In the 1860 slave schedule of Saratoga township, Wilson County, Washington Barnes claimed five enslaved people.

  • Macon Moye

In the 1850 slave schedule of North Side of the Neuse, Wayne County, Macon Moye is listed with eight enslaved people. Though he does not appear in the 1860 slave schedule, in the 1860 population schedule of Saratoga township, Wilson County, Moye claimed personal property valued at $95,000. This estate would have been comprised overwhelmingly of enslaved people — and many dozens of them. Moye was a younger brother of county founder, sheriff, and slave trader Wyatt Moye.

In his father Etheldred Sauls’ 1859, Lawrence J. Sauls was bequeathed two enslaved people, Patrick and Jane, as well as control of four other enslaved people on behalf his sister Elizabeth E. Sauls Becton. Lawrence Sauls is listed in the 1860 slave schedule of Davis district, Wayne County, with two enslaved teenagers.

In the 1860 slave schedule of Wilson township, Wilson County, Joshua Barnes (brother of Elias Barnes above) claimed 66 enslaved people.

  • Dr. Alexander G. Brooks

In the 1860 slave schedule of Black Creek township, Wilson County, Dr. A.G. Brooks reported 29 enslaved people.

  • Robert Bynum

The 1850 federal slave schedule of Edgecombe County lists Robert Bynum with 19 enslaved people. In 1858, Robert Bynum inherited three enslaved people from his father Turner Bynum. By 1860, as reported in the Wilson County slave schedule, he claimed 46 enslaved people.

  • J.D. Rountree

In the 1860 slave schedule of Town of Wilson, Wilson County, J.D. Rountree is listed with 12 enslaved people.

  • George Howard Jr.

In the 1850 slave schedule of Edgecombe County, George Howard is listed with 11 enslaved people. In the 1860 slave schedule of Town of Wilson, Wilson County, Howard claimed eight enslaved people.

Where is the ball, and will it kill him?

It is difficult to know how to process this horrifying description of a severe brain injury caused by a gunshot wound to a boy’s head or his medical “treatment.” The child lived, however, and I hope he thrived.

Charlotte Home and Democrat, 21 April 1882.

Where we worked: Carolina Laundry.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 November 1915.

Wilson Daily Times, 23 April 1919.

Carolina Laundry employed dozens of African-American men and women during its decades of trade at the corner of Tarboro and Kenan Streets.

Ad from Hill’s Wilson, N.C., City Directory (1928).

  • Helen Branch, 1928
  • Mildred Branch, 1928
  • Julia Burden, 1928
  • Arthur Cobb, laundryman, 1928
  • Morton Crawford, 1928, laundryman, 1930
  • David Curry, 1928
  • James Debose, 1928
  • Maggie Dupree, 1928
  • Addie Edwards, 1928
  • John Gilmore, 1928
  • Elizabeth Hamilton, 1928
  • Benjamin Melton, presser, 1928
  • Harriet Myers, 1928
  • John Phillips, 1928
  • Cammie Richardson, 1928
  • William Richardson, helper, 1928
  • Maggy Rountree, 1928
  • George Sutton, 1928
  • Bessie Swift, 1928
  • Flossie Walker, 1928
  • Helen White, 1928
  • Edward Williams, cleaner, 1928

From “Facts about Wilson, North Carolina,” published by Wilson Chamber of Commerce (1934).

Recommended reading, no. 23: In the Pines.

We’ve read of J.C. Farmer, shot to death by a posse in his mother’s yard in 1946. The official version of the altercation that led to Farmer’s murder has never sat right with me, and Hale’s searing work helps me understand my discomfort. In this award-winning work, Hale explores white supremacy, violence, (in)justice, and her own family’s role in the murder of an unarmed Black man in piney-woods Mississippi.