Daniel HIll

Appeal for bus for Daniel Hill.

Wilson Daily Times, 16 October 1948.

Daniel Hill parents formed Daniel Hill Educational Club in September 1948 and by December 1949 were able to buy a school bus for the community’s children.

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  • Moses Haskins — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 405 West Spruce Street, Moses Haskins, 42, “works on the machines” at tobacco redrying plant; wife Minnie W., 41, babysitting; daughter Gloria, 16; daughter Doris H. Jones, 24.
  • Mattie Randolph — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 405 West Spruce Street, Paul Randolph, 51, automobile dealer mechanic; wife Mattie B., 50, practical nurse in private home; and daughter Betty L., 9.
  • Best Stewart — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 407 West Spruce Street, retail grocery store proprietor Best Stewart, 39; wife Marjorie F., 32, sales lady in retail grocery; children Best Jr., 12, James A., 10, Elemia, 7, Shirley A., 4, Jimmy L., 3, and Constance B., 1; and mother Ellen McCoy Best, 85, widow.
  • William Powell — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 405 Warren Street, William Powell, 61, janitor in body factory; wife Margaret, 45; and children Willie M., 16, babysitting, Joe L., 14, William T., 10, Betty J., 9, Jessie G., 7, James A., 5, Margaret A., 4, and Maud R., 2.
  • Jesse Stewart — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 701 Walnut Street, Edna Stewart, 52, domestic worker; nephew Jessie, 37, retail grocery store proprietor; and niece Annie, 35, grocery store saleswoman.
  • Rev. J.L. Murphy
  • L.H. Lewis

411 West Hines Street.

This corner store at Hines and Daniels Street once marked a boundary between black and white sections of West Hines Street. Daniel Street was the dividing line. Houses to the east — from Tarboro to Daniel — had white occupants; houses from Daniel to Warren were black-occupied rentals; and west from Warren, they were white again.

The three black-occupied blocks were on the northern edge of Daniel Hill neighborhood. The 1941 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory clears shows the sharp racial demarcations — African-American households are designated (c) — and Bartholomew’s Grocery as the gatepost at 411 West Hines. Note that the rules of segregation would not have prevented black customers from crossing the street to patronize, though they would have had to follow deference protocols inside.  

For an aerial view of the neighborhood in 1940, see here. 

 

Daniel Hill: an aerial view, 1940.

This close-up of an aerial view of Daniel Hill shows the neighborhood in 1940. The street layout was altered somewhat when the city razed the area in the early 1960s urban renewal project, and I appreciate any corrections to the street labels. One interesting detail is easily identified — a baseball diamond (encircled) next to a row of endway (shotgun) houses on Warren Street. The Norfolk-Southern Railroad arcs across the bottom left corner.

Wilson_CSP_6B_12, U.S.D.A. Photograph Collection, State Archives of North Carolina.

Daniel Hill community bus.

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The Daniel Hill Educational Club

The D.H.E.C. was organized September 9, 1949, by Mrs. Mattie Randolph. Mrs. Randolph called together some of the parents who lived in the Daniel Hill Community and discussed with them the advantages of having transportation for the school children in the vicinity. The parents agreed with her, therefore organized a Daniel Hill Education Club. Three weeks later the organization had enough money to carry each child of the community to and from school each day, and by December the club was able to buy a small bus of its own. With the cooperation the members of the organization have given, and the help of other people, the Daniel Hill Educational Club now owns a bus large enough to seat 32 persons. Under the leadership of Mr. Moses Haskins, who is now president, the members of the D.H.E.C. are still working hard because they know that cooperation is the way to success.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 404 Daniel Street, rented for $12/month, Less Haskins, 38, wife Annie, 39, and son Moses, 17. Annie worked as a laundress; Less and Moses as coopers at a tobacco factory.

On 17 September 1931, Moses Haskins, 21, of Wilson, and Minnie Woodard, 21, of Wilson, married in Goldsboro, Wayne County.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 403 Spruce Street, garage serviceman Moses Haskins, 27; wife Minnie, 31, laundress; children Doris, 14, and Gloria, 6; and mother Annie Haskins, 50. Next door, at 405 Spruce, Paul Randolph, 45, who worked in a garage, and wife Mattie, 39, a practical nurse and South Carolina native.

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Image from C.H. Darden High School yearbook, 1952.