The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 7 July 1934.
Accounts of the Wilson Braves are frustratingly stingy with the names of the team’s players. Here, we learn that “Leach” was the third baseman and that Charlie Leonard, whom we met as a crack shortstop on the 1925 Braves team, was both pitcher and manager.
News and Observer, 10 January 1938.
Sarah Henderson Jacobs Silver was en route from Wilson to Greensboro to visit her grand-niece, Mamie Henderson Holt, whom she reared as a daughter. My grandmother’s recollection of this tragic event is here.
Though this newspaper article issued a few years after Black Wide-Awake’s coverage, I could not resist its images of East Wilson.
The Afro-American (Baltimore, Md.), 21 February 1953.
Below, the 500 block of East Nash Street, Wilson’s former Black commercial center. The three-story building at right is the Odd Fellows Building, built by Samuel H. Vick in 1894. Beside it, we see the verandas of the Biltmore Hotel (earlier known as the Union and the Whitley), Wilson’s only Green Book hotel. On the left, we see the hedges that fronted several residences that once lined that side of the street.
Below, Yancey’s Drug Store, which stood at 563 East Nash.
Other buildings shown include Mercy Hospital, the then-brand-new Elvie Street School; Jackson Chapel First Baptist Church; the home of Daniel and Bertha Carroll, which still stands on Lincoln Street; and a taxi and driver of United Cab Company.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 9 May 1942.
In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: brickmason John M. Barnes, 44, wife Annie L., 32, Leonard E., 5, Lee J. [Leo Artelia], 4, Selma [Thelma] F., 2, and John W., 3 months.
On 22 June 1929, Leo Artelia Barnes, 22, of Wilson, married Emanuel D. Jones, 26, of Brooklyn, New York, in Wilson. Rev. J.E. Kennedy performed the ceremony in the presence of C.L. Darden, Annie L. Kennedy, and W.A. Mitchner.
In the 1930 census of Brooklyn, Kings County, New York: Emanuel W. Jones, 27, Pullman waiter, and wife Artelia L., 24.
Leo Artelia Davis died 16 December 1982 in Houston, Texas. Per her death certificate, she was born 6 May 1906 in North Carolina to John M. Barnes and Annie Darden; was a widow; was a music teacher; and her regular residence was in Stafford, Fort Bend County, Indiana.
News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), __ April 1946.
Wilson Daily Times, 9 April 1946.
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In the 1930 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: Mallie Dew, 28, farmer; wife Bettie, 28, laundress; and sons Mallie L., 8, Earl, 7, and Grover, 5.
In the 1940 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: Mallie Dew, 38, farm laborer; wife Bettie, 37, laundress; sons Mallie, 20, Earl, 18, Grover, 15, and Bobbie Ray, 2.
In 1943, Earl Dew registered for the World War II in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 25 November 1922 in Black Creek, Wilson County; lived at Route 3, Kenly, Wilson County; his contact was mother Bettie Dew; and he “worked” at Prison Camp #401, Bunn, Franklin County, N.C.
Richmond News-Leader, 28 February 1946.
Earl Dew died 28 December 1948 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson, of an accidental gunshot wound to the abdomen. Per his death certificate, he was born 25 November 1929 in Wilson to Mallie Dew and Bettie Mitchell; worked as a farmer; was single; lived at Route 1, Sims; and was buried in the Dew Cemetery.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 30 June 1945.
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Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 27 May 1933.
Anna Fisher Snipes‘ hotel, which operated only briefly, was eventually named the Wilson Biltmore. Snipes occasionally contributed society pieces to the Norfolk Journal and Guide and on 15 July 1933, wrote a column that largely chronicled doings at her hotel. (What kind of business were all these Black Durham lawyers conducting in Wilson?)
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 15 July 1933.
Similarly, in the 11 August 1934 Journal and Guide, Snipes opened her column with:
“The Biltmore Hotel is a grade A hotel and anyone wishing to stop in our city at any time of the day or night will find a hearty welcome waiting at this hotel and just such accommodations as one wants when traveling. And the proprietors Mr. and Mrs. E.T. Fisher will on every occasion prove to be hospitable and obliging in every way.”
“Mr. and Mrs. E.T. Fisher”? Presumably this was Snipes’ parents, Edwin W. and Daisy Fisher. (Her brother Edwin D. Fisher was a widower who did not remarry until 1941.) Either way, it reveals the Snipeses had transferred ownership of the hotel barely a year after it opened.
The Biltmore was the only Wilson hotel to make The Green Book. Its building replaced an earlier hotel, known as the Union and then the Whitley, that burned down in the early 1930s.
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In the 1910 census of New Haven, Connecticut: at 30 Hazel Street, hardware merchant Edwin W. Fisher, 37; wife Daisy, 32; and children Edwin D., 16, Eugene L., 13, Clarence R., 10, Anna V., 6, Milton W., 3, and Susie A., 1.
In the 1932 Orange, New Jersey, city directory: Snipes John A (Anna F) r 18 Clifford EO
Anna F. Snipes’ bylines indicate that she was living at 624 East Green Street (the former Hargrave house) circa 1933.
In 1936, Anne Snipes appears in the voter register for Manhattan, New York, New York. She lived on Saint Nicholas Place; was 31 years old; was a housewife; and asserted she had lived in New York state for 9 years.
Snipes also appears in the 1937, 1938, 1940, 1941, 1942 and 1946 voter registers for Manhattan, New York, New York. She is described as a housewife in all but the last, when she was a bar owner.
In the 1940 census of Manhattan, New York, New York: on Saint Nicholas Avenue, Anne Snipes, 35; daughter Robnette, 18; brother Floyd Fisher, 27, hotel bellhop; and lodger Louise Evans, 28, maid in artist’s studio. [Fisher reported that he had lived in Wilson 5 years earlier. Evans had lived in Wilberforce, Ohio.]
In 1940, John Allen Snipes registered for the World War II draft in New York, New York. Per his registration card, he was born 29 December 1905 in Clarksburg, West Virginia; lived as 590 Saint Nicholas Avenue, #105 [later, 79 Saint Nicholas Place, Apartment C], New York, New York; his contact was wife Anna Virginia Snipes; and he worked for H.C. Andrews.
In the 1945, 1946, and 1948 New York, New York, city directory: Snipes Anne F Mrs 75 St Nich Pl WAdswth 6-7944.
I spent last Saturday morning in a Zoom meeting with attendees of the 2025 Freeman-Hagans family reunion. I talked about the “why” of Black Wide-Awake, introduced them to the blog’s format, and, best of all, showed them how to best access its content by visiting several recent posts related to branches of their family. If you’re interested in a similar presentation for your next family gathering, please contact me at blackwideawake@gmail.com. I want all my posts to find their people!
This article contains descriptions of a sexual assault against a minor and the injustice that followed. For privacy, I have redacted the girl’s name and those of her family members.
Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 5 August 1933.
I have not found the Daily Times‘ “brief statement” about this incident, and I continue to search for information about what happened after charges were dismissed against the alleged assailants.
