appreciation

Lane Street Project: a moment of appreciation.

The news from Lane Street Project this weekend isn’t all bad. Castonoble Hooks and Briggs Sherwood, our self-styled “senior force,” went out yesterday to get some work in ahead of the wintry mix and to try out the new gas-powered weed whacker we purchased in part with a generous donation.

The ever-eloquent Cas summed up the Senior Force beautifully: “There are things in life that enhance its essence. One such thing for me has been The Lane Street Project. Lisa Henderson’s public appeal for the Odd Fellows brought together multicultural citizens of various ages and religious beliefs around the idea of restoration of this black cemetery. This is when I met Briggs Sherwood. Our ages and our desire to work we share, but that’s all. In contrast to Briggs, who is a descendant of white planters, I am a descendant of slaves and sharecroppers. Briggs has family buried in Maplewood Cemetery, I have family buried in Vick Cemetery, we both work together to restore Odd Fellows. Last week we attended together the Cemetery Commission meeting to chart progress on the issue of Vick Cemetery. Working on this project has added hope in a better day by simple people working together for the common good.”

Thank you, Castonoble. Thank you, Briggs. Your steadfast enthusiasm and unfailing accountability never fail to recharge my faith.

Photo courtesy of Briggs Sherwood.

Black Wide-Awake turned 5.

… last week, on October 5.

I mentioned on last year’s anniversary that I’d originally intended to create “at least three location-specific sites into which I would pour all the ‘extra’ that I uncovered in the course of my genealogical research. All the court records and photographs and newspaper clippings that did not pertain directly to my people, but documented the lives of the people who built and nurtured (or disrupted) the communities in which they lived.”

It hasn’t happened. As of today, Black Wide-Awake is an astonishing 2880 posts deep, and I feel I’ve barely scratched the surface. To honor my original intentions, though, over the next year, I will give over the blog, a week at time, to the three other North Carolina counties I know best, and maybe a fourth if I think I can do it justice. 

Stay tuned for Iredell County in November. In the meantime, as always, thanks so much for your boundless support and encouragement of Black Wide-Awake. Here’s to five more years of filling in the gaps!

Best regards,

Lisa Y. Henderson, a Mercy Baby.

Black Wide-Awake turns 4.

Dear Reader,

Today marks the 4th anniversary — and 2216th post — of Black Wide-Awake.

This blog was to be the first of at least three location-specific sites into which I would pour all the “extra” that I uncovered in the course of my genealogical research. All the court records and photographs and newspaper clippings that did not pertain directly to my people, but documented the lives of the people who built and nurtured (or disrupted) the communities in which they lived.

I started with Wilson and, despite my best and oft-uttered intentions to curate similar blogs for Wayne and Iredell Counties, my grandmothers’ home counties, I’ve never moved beyond. Somewhere along the way I realized that though I’m no longer in Wilson, I’ve never been more of her, and my deep, deep knowledge of this people and this place are critical to making the most of the material I uncover. Gazing at the palimpsest that is African-American Wilson, I’m able to read both the smudged original text and the layers upon layers inscribed upon it over the last 150 years. Wilson is my wheelhouse, and I’ll continue to cast down my bucket here.

Thanks so much for your support and suggestions over these four years. So many of you have been generous with your time and tips and have shined lights in corners in which my ignorance lay thick. (By the way, if you’ve got pre-1950 photos or other artifacts that you’re willing to share, I’d love to research and feature them!)

Thanks also to those who’ve let me know when a post has touched them. Black Wide-Awake‘s raison d’etre is to connect us with rare material evidence of our ancestors’ lives. It’s an intervention. A ministry.

A couple of days ago I thought to ask Regina Carter Garcia, a fellow genealogist, via Facebook if Rev. Austin F. Flood is today remembered in Greenville, the city to which he returned after fighting the good fight in Wilson during and just after the Civil War. She assured me that he is and shared my post about Flood’s letter to the Freedmen’s Bureau with Shelton Tucker, another genealogist/history buff. Here’s what happened:

I grinned all day. I’d continue to curate Black Wide-Awake with no audience at all, but I am thrilled when my posts find their people. On to more.

Yours, Carolina Street’s own,

Lisa Y. Henderson