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B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 35: Georgia Burke.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

GEORGIA BURKE

(1878-1985)

Boycotted school to protest abuse of Black teacher Mary C. Euell in 1918, then taught at alternative Wilson Normal & Industrial Institute. In 1928, launched renowned stage and movie career in New York City spanning decades. In 1920s, lived at 332 S. Spring [now Douglas] Street.

Detail from 1925 Sanborn map of Wilson showing house in which Georgia Burke boarded.

Escapes death — now a stage star!

Jackson (Miss.) Advocate, 9 March 1946.

Javotte Sutton Greene was born in Wilson, but her family lived there only briefly, and she grew up in Durham, North Carolina.

More about “Striver’s Row” from the 2 March 1946 edition of The Ohio State News:

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Per the U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index 1936-2007, Javotte Sutton Greene was born 6 January 1922 in Wilson, North Carolina, to Ezekiel Sutton and Allensia M. McKinnon.  She died 4 November 1998.

Georgia Burke in “Mamba’s Daughters.”

Actors Ethel Waters, Georgia Burke, and Fredi Washington in “Mamba’s Daughters” at Philadelphia’s Locust Street Theatre in February 1940. Georgia native Burke was among the eleven African-American teachers who walked out of Wilson Colored Graded School to protest the abuse by school principal J.D. Reid and superintendent Charles L. Coon.

Photo courtesy of George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Collection, Temple University Libraries, Special Collections Research Center, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.