commencement

Gala day for County School Commencement!

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 21 April 1917.

Can you imagine? Each spring, hundreds and hundreds of county school children gathered at the Colored Graded School to launch a parade through the streets of downtown Wilson, led by a brass marching band. (The article says 2000 children marched in 1917. There were only about 20 county schools, none larger than three rooms. That is a thirst for knowledge.) The children’s manual arts exhibits were displayed on the school grounds and in the auditorium an array of dignitaries (including “three white ladies from New York” and Dr. Frank S. Hargrave) graced the stage. Speaker after speaker delivered messages in the Booker T. Washington mode — work hard, be patriotic, know your place. J.D. Reid, principal of the Graded School and supervisor of the black county schools, was recognized for having spearheaded a prodigious fundraising drive, money that likely represented the community’s monetary contribution to the four Rosenwald Schools built in Wilson County in 1917 and ’18 — Williamson, Rocky Branch, Kirby’s, and Lucama. (Just shy of a year later, Reid and Charles L. Coon were embroiled in the disgraceful events that led to a boycott of the Graded School, but let’s stay present….)

——

  • Rev. Perry — Rev. Robert N. Perry, pastor of Saint Mark’s Episcopal Church
  • Mr. Vick — Samuel H. Vick, former Graded School principal and extraordinary businessman and political leader

The Independent School thrives!

Just months after it opened, the Independent School was thriving.

In January 1919, enrollment had climbed over 500 pupils and, at a meeting at Saint John A.M.E. Zion, supporters donated $677.84 (about $13,300 in today’s money.)

Wilson Daily Times, 21 January 1919.

In March 1919, a fundraiser at First Baptist Church netted $1020.23 (about $19,000 today), and almost half came through the efforts of teachers and students like Lillian Wilson. We learn something else about the Independent School here — in the tradition of Fisk University, it fielded a corps of jubilee singers!

Wilson Daily Times, 25 March 1919.

In May 1919, the anticipated crowd for the school’s first commencement exercises was so large that organizers had to go to Goldsboro to secure a 1500-person tent. (Per the 1920 census, the population of the whole town of Wilson was only 10,612, and black people constituted about 40% of that total.)

Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1919.

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Though nearly 20 years old, Lillian Wilson was an eighth-grade graduate of the Independent School — formally, Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute — in 1919. Her journey was common. Whether because of health challenges or need to work to help support their families, few students started school at age 6 or completed eight grades in eight years.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Newbern Street, William Wilson, 52, livery stable groomer; wife Sarah, 48; and daughters Ellen, 23, and Lillian, 21, both tobacco factory laborers.

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Lillian (c) dom 1010 Woodard av

On 28 September 1923, Rufus Wooten, 22, of Wilson, son of Arthur and Susie Wooten, married Lillian Wilson, 19, of Wilson, daughter of Will and Sarah Wilson, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister George Cooper performed the ceremony in the presence of George W. Barnes, L.G. Harvey, and R.L. Harvey.

The sixth anniversary of the Wilson Graded School.

This amazing document is the program for the sixth commencement exercises of the Wilson Colored Graded School, which took place May 21-23, 1889. The ceremonies took place in Odd Fellows Hall — the apparent predecessor to the three-story brick Odd Fellows Building Samuel H. Vick built in 1894. (Was it on East Nash Street, too?)

Teachers Susie Harrison and Lucy Robinson led exercises for the first, second, and third grade students; Braswell R. Winstead for the fourth and fifth graders; and Principal S.H. Vick, the sixth and seventh graders. J.P. Murphey, W.H. Vick, J.E. Hocutt, R.D. Dew, and J.H. Edwards served as ushers. 

The main feature was the sixth and grade exercises. On May 23, Presbyterian minister H.H. Boone of Tarboro delivered the Annual Oration between performances of “Come Again With Singing” and “Soldier’s Chorus.” Sixth grade students Ella Johnson, J.E. Hocutt, Sarah Barnes, Turner Williamson, Howard Edwards, Sarah L. Rountree, Amanda Battle, Ida Rountree, and Augustus S. Clark declaimed, sang, or orated, as did seventh graders J.P. Murphrey, Celia Hill, Adelia Battle, Sarah T. Rountree, Charlotte Jordan, W.H. Vick, Annie M. Washington, and W.H. Clark.

Raising cain at the school commencement.

The Farmer and Mechanic, 11 April 1911.

——

  • “the Rosebud section” — community between Wilson and Elm City, east of present-day Bridgestone plant.
  • Charles Harris
  • “the Rosebud school” — after white schools in the county consolidated in the early 1920s, Pender School on what is now Rosebud Church Road was given over to African-American students. Rosebud School may have been its predecessor.
  • “I am Lewis West!” — one day, I’ll put together a post that explains the sensational impact this boast would have had in 1911.
  • John Knight

Howard Law degree conferred.

Fresh off his successful decades-long campaign to strip African-Americans of basic rights in his home state of North Carolina, Secretary of the Navy Josephus Daniels delivered the commencement speech at Howard University’s 1916 graduation. No doubt without irony, Daniels spoke of “progress made by the colored race.”

Who received his juris doctor degree that day? Glenn S. McBrayer, who passed the North Carolina bar the following spring and hung his attorney shingle in Wilson around 1920. He hit the ground running, hosting the first annual convention of the Negro State Bar Association  and getting elected that organization’s corresponding secretary in December 1921. McBrayer practiced in Wilson through 1929.

…

The Washington Herald, 8 June 1916.

Colored Graded School ’11 commencement.

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Wilson Daily Times, 19 May 1911.

  • Fern Speight
  • Mazie Holland — Mazie Holland Wells. In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: laundress Charity Holland, 48; and children Charlie, 24, barber; Jane, 20; Mazie and Daisy, 18; Lue, 16; and Lillian, 12.
  • Eva Davis — Eva Mashon Davis Bland. In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Fred M. Davis, 42, Baptist church minister; wife Dianah, 42; children Eva M., 16, Bertha, 15, Fred, 11, Ruth, 13, Addie L., 8, and William B., 5; and mother Jud., 60.
  • Nancy Jones
  • Bathenia Best —Barthena Best Fulcher.
  • Eva Speight — Eva Janet Speight Coley. In the 1910 census of Speights Bridge township, Greene County, North Carolina: day laborer Jacob Speight, 38, widower; and children Arbelia, 12, Eva, 9, Furnis, 7, and Joseph, 5.
  • Dr. Charles F. Meserve

The commencement exercise program.

The Times published the full program of commencement exercises for Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute’s first graduating class. The composition of the school’s board of directors reveals the depth of investment by East Wilson’s elite. (Even veterinarian E.L. Reid, whose brother J.D. Reid lit the match that started the public school boycott conflagration.)

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Wilson Times, 28 May 1919.

  • Harry C. Eldridge and J. Bassett Willard published Arcticania, or Columbia’s Trip to the North Pole, an Operetta in Two Acts, a “juvenile fairy spectable,” in 1916. Eldridge and Elizabeth F. Guptill published Midsummer Eve, a Musical Fairy Play for Children in 1920.
  • S.H. Vick — Samuel H. Vick, former teacher, former postmaster, real estate developer.
  • W.S. Hines — Walter S. Hines, barber.
  • W.H. Phillips — William H. Phillips, dentist.
  • N.J. Tate — Noah J. Tate, barber.
  • C.L. Darden — Camillus L. Darden, undertaker and business owner.
  • W.A. Mitchner — William A. Mitchner, physician.
  • J.W. Rogers — John W. Rogers, businessman.
  • D.C. Yancy — Darcy C. Yancey, pharmacist.
  • M.H. Wilson — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 126 Pender Street, Virginia-born house contractor Mansfield H. Wilson, 60; son Samuel H., 20; and sister-in-law Lucy Richards, 40.
  • L.A. Moore — Lee A. Moore, merchant and insurance agent.
  • William Hines — barber and real estate developer.
  • E.L. Reid — Elijah L. Reid, veterinarian.
  • A.L.E. Weeks — Alfred L.E. Weeks, Baptist minister.
  • R.R. Forman — Organist, pianist and composer Allie Waling Forman (1855-1937) registered her work under the name Mrs. R.R. Forman.
  • Frederic Boscovitz composed the duet “Bella Napoli” in 1900.
  • Rogenia Barnes — in the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Manchester Street,
  • Lillian Wilson
  • Boisey Barnes — Boisey O. Barnes, half-brother of Walter and William Hines.
  • Lester Mitchell
  • Willard Crawford
  • Addie Davis — Addie Davis Butterfield, daughter of Baptist minister Fred M. Davis Sr.
  • Jos. Rosemond Johnson — James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) composed “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” as a poem in 1900, and his brother John Rosamond Johnson (1873-1954) set it to music in 1905. In 1919, the year of the Industrial School graduation, the NAACP dubbed the song the “Negro National Anthem.”
  • R.N. Perry — Robert N. Perry, Episcopal priest.

 

A big occasion in the history of the race in this city.

I was astonished to realize that this article memorializes the first commencement exercises at the Independent School — here called by its full and official name, the Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute. As chronicled here and here and here, a coalition of African-American parents and religious and civic leaders founded the Independent School (also known as the Industrial School) in the wake of an assault on a black teacher by the white school superintendent.

I have not been able to identify Judge William Harrison of Chicago, who delivered to the new school’s graduates a remarkably unprogressive message that seemingly flew in the face of the stand for civil rights the community had resolutely made just a year earlier. The Times reporter made no mention of the school’s genesis, preferring to focus at length on Harrison’s message of admiration for the white man’s guidance and fine example.

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Wilson Daily Times, 31 May 1919.

  • Judge William Harrison
  • Prof. S.H. Vick — Samuel H. Vick furnished a building on Vance Street to house the new school.
  • Rev. A.L.E. Weeks — Alfred L.E. Weeks was a member of the Colored Ministerial Union committee appointed to address the community’s concerns to the school board.
  • Joseph S. Jackson — Joseph S. Jackson Jr.
  • Boisy Barnes — Boisey O. Barnes.
  • Lester Mitchell — in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Nash Street, Annie Mitchell, 70, her children Sallie, 46, Eddie, 44, Albert, 42, Eva, 36, and Floyd, 34, plus niece Sevreane, 18, and nephew Lester, 15.
  • Willard Crawford — probably, Daniel Willard Crawford who died 16 October 1964 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 1 January 1900 in Wilson County to Daniel Crawford and Annie Whitted; was never married; and worked as a carpenter. Walter H. Whitted was informant.
  • Addie Davis — Addie Davis Butterfield.
  • Rev. R.N. Perry — Episcopal priest Robert N. Perry was also on the Ministerial Union’s committee.
  • Lillian Wilson — perhaps, in the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: livery stable groom William Wilson, 51; wife Sarah, 48, and daughters Elen, 23, and Lillian, 21, both tobacco factory workers.

Commencement.

commencement

2

In 1921, Wilson Colored Graded School educated students through the eighth grade. The wide range of students’ ages reflects the difficulty of regular school attendance, in an era of untreatable childhood illness and other family challenges.

  • Dr. F.S. Hargrave — Frank S. Hargrave.
  • Artelia Barnes — Leo Artelia Barnes (1906-1962) was a daughter of John M. and Annie Darden Barnes. She married Emanuel D. Jones in 1929 and later a Davis. A retired music teacher, she died in Houston, Texas, in 1982.
  • Thelma Barnes — Thelma Barnes (1907-2005) was Artelia Barnes’ sister. She married Walter G. Byers and worked as a music teacher.
  • Bessie Speight — Bessie Speight was the daughter of Jake and Rebecca Speight.
  • Marie Thomas — Marie Thomas (1905-??) was the daughter of Charles and Sarah Best Thomas.
  • Thelma Reid — Thelma R. Reid (1908-1999) was the daughter of Judge D. and Eleanor Frederick Reid. A Shaw University graduate, she married Matthew J. Whitehead, Johnson C. Smith ’30, on 21 April 1935, and the family eventually settled in Washington, D.C., where she taught and her husband served as a college administrator.
  • Mattie Baker — Mattie F. Baker (1905-??) was the daughter of William and Lula Baker.
  • Susan Peacock — Susan M. Peacock (1904-1992) was the daughter of Levi H. and Hannah Lee Pike Peacock. She married Abraham H. Prince of Charlotte in Wilson on 4 October 1930. Per her obituary, the Shaw University graduate and retired teacher  died in Burlington, North Carolina.
  • John Spell — John Stephen Spell Jr. (1904-??) was the son of John S. and Mattie Spell.
  • Nancy Dupree — Nancy Dupree (1904-1969) was the daughter of Wiley and Victoria Woodard Dupree. She married Ed Nicholson in 1926 and worked as a teacher.
  • Louise Cherry — South Carolina-born Louise D. Cherry (1906-1993) was the daughter of Ervin Cherry and Clara Cherry Thomas. She married Benjamin Sherrod, a Wilson native, in Greensboro, North Carolina, in 1941. Cherry, like several of her classmates became a teacher.
  • Irene Washington — Irene Washington (1903-??) was the daughter of George W. and Cora Miller Washington. She married Macon Lucas in Wilson in 1926.
  • Cora Bryant
  • Alice Jones — Alice Pearl Jones (1905-1942) was the daughter of Wesley and Martha Taylor Jones. She married Calvin Swinson in Wilson in 1923.
  • William Morgan
  • Ruby Peacock — Ruby Peacock (1906-1975) was also a daughter of Levi and Hannah Peacock. She married Clarence Sherrod. The retired teacher died in Wilson in 1975.
  • Della Mae Whitehead — Della Mae Whitehead (1908-1997) was the daughter of John Henry and Victoria Ennis Whitehead.
  • Irene Baker
  • George Harris
  • Vernon Harris
  • Rebecca Kittrell — Rebecca Kittrell (1904-??) was the daughter of Solomon and Lettie Roberts Kittrell. She first married a Williams, then married Elton Thomas, son of Charlie and Sarah Best Thomas, in 1947 in Wilson.

Digitized at www.digitalnc.org.