Democratic Party

The Colored Democratic Club.

Daily National Intelligencer, 21 September 1868.

Neither Joseph F. Johnson nor Buck Powell — who eschewed the counsel of carpetbagging “creatures” to “take their stand along with their white neighbors and friends” — are not found in Wilson County records. Presumably, the Colored Democratic Club failed to gain traction among their black neighbors and friends, and the two took their talents elsewhere.

Powell may have been the Buck Powell, 23, barber, listed in the 1870 census of Wilmington, New Hanover County, North Carolina. I have no hints for Johnson.

Kerfuffle at the Board of Education.

The appointment of three populists, including Samuel H. Vick, to the Wilson County Board of Education in June 1897 created a firestorm and was condemned in the Times as a result of lawlessness and chicanery.

Notwithstanding, the new Board members were qualified at the beginning of July, and got on with their business. On July 23, C.H. Mebane issued an interim ruling recognizing Vick, George W. Connor, and Nathan Bass as Board members, as they had received a majority of votes from a majority of county commissioners during a meeting marked by confusion (and, likely, rancor.) Democrats Boykin, Moore, and Aycock were the choices of the county commissioners’ minority Democrat members. 

Wilson Daily Times, 23 July 1897.