C.H. Darden High School

Edward M. Barnes, as imagined.

I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.

I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.

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Edward M. Barnes (1905-2002), high school principal.

Changes at Darden High School.

New Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 13 August 1938.

In 1938, Darden High School added two new faculty members, an optional twelfth grade, and an extra month to the school year.

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Citizens rise up against W.H.A. Howard.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 10 October 1931.

As we know, Black Wilsonians did not play about their children’s educations.

The Pittsburgh Courier article we saw earlier did not name the “prominent citizens” who had called for William H.A. Howard‘s removal, but the Journal and Guide laid out the nearly 70 of them in three paragraphs. (Rife with misspellings.) All the big dogs. Howard survived the coup, but died the following year.

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The signatories: James T. Teachey, Lee Simms, Jack Rountree, Alfred Robinson, Samuel H. Vick, John M. Barnes, Walter S. Hines, William Hines, Benjamin F. Jordan, John P. Battle, Linwood Barefoot, G.F. Faison, J.P. Roundtree, Nannie Best, Darcey C. Yancey, Henry Lucas, Ada Winstead, George W. Barnes, William H. Mitchell, Albert Gay, Columbia E. Artis, Charles B. Gay, Elijah L. Reid, Samuel Barnes, John Cherry, Jarrett J. Langley, George Farmer, Jasper Reid, George W. Ragin, Nazareth A. Pierce, Oliver N. Freeman, Wiley Rountree Jr., George W. Coppedge, G.C. Black, Jarrett Z. Staton, George K. Butterfield, William A. Mitchner, Joseph H. Knight, R.J. McPhail, Charles Thomas, J.W. McCowan, William H. Phillips, W.M. Edwards, William Dixon, G.H. Hatcher, John T. Coates, Thomas Batts, John Teachey, J.F. Barnes, Clarence B. Best, S.L. Barnes, Ross McCollum, Wilson Best, Neverson Green, James Whitfield, Andrew J. Townsend, E.D. Holden, James Thomas, John Parks, J.A. Tucker, Edward Hinnant, Thomas Cook, Mack D. Cannon, Barney Reid, Robert H. Sheridan, C.S. Edwards, and Henry S. Reid.

Studio shots, no. 261: Malcolm D. Williams.

Yearbooks can be a valuable source of photographs of community members whose images were infrequently captured or retained. The 1952 edition of Charles H. Darden High School’s yearbook, The Trojan, included this photograph of Dr. Malcolm D. Williams, Supervisor of Wilson Negro Schools. 

Studio shots, no. 260: Oswald W. Harris.

Yearbooks can be a valuable source of photographs of community members whose images were infrequently captured or retained. The 1952 edition of Charles H. Darden High School’s yearbook, The Trojan, included this photograph of Oswald W. Harris, who briefly taught math at the school. A native of Warrenton, North Carolina, Harris went on to become a professor of mathematics at Union College-New Jersey and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. He died in Pompano Beach, Florida, in 2001.

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In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 210 Powell Street, Oswald W. Harris, 40, math teacher at city high school; wife Johnnie, 37, home economics teacher at city high school; sons John M., 5, and Anthony W., 2; and cousin Lucy J. Oneill, 25, “caretaking of home.”