Within six weeks of the Mary C. Euell incident, J.D. Reid‘s name was synonymous across the South with the mistreatment by black principals of black female teachers.
Chicago Defender, 18 May 1918.
Chicago Defender, 1 June 1918.
Euell
School row continues in Wilson.
I don’t know who the Chicago Defender‘s Wilson correspondent was, but he (or she) filed several vivid reports in the wake of Superintendent Charles L. Coon’s assault on teacher Mary C. Euell on 9 April 1918.
On April 27, the Defender reported that school principal J.D. Reid had fled for his life after being beaten in the streets by angry citizens as he left church services. (Though it downplayed the severity of the clouting, the Wilson Daily Times reported the incident, as well as the meeting of community leaders with the school board.)
Chicago Defender, 27 April 1918.
A week later, the Defender reported that Reid was hiding out in the woods near town; that parents were refusing to send their children to school if Reid remained principal; and that three men were hauled into court because they had held their children out.
Chicago Defender, 4 May 1918.
On May 11, the defender reported Coon’s indictment on assault and battery charges and claimed Coon had allegedly said he knew how “to handle n*ggers.” Reid reportedly was still in the woods, having been spotted slipping in and out carrying food.
Chicago Defender, 11 May 1918.
Mary C. Euell, 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.
——
Mary C. Euell (ca. 1890-1928), teacher, revolutionary.
[Sidenote: this interpretation represents a bit of an age-progression of the only known image of Mary C. Euell, but a fair likeness all the same. I may run it again though, to see if I get a closer yield.]
An account of a brutal assault on a teacher.
Less than two weeks after superintendent Charles Coon assaulted teacher Mary C. Euell, the nationally renowned Chicago Defender picked up the story.
Chicago Defender, 20 April 1918.
Respectful petition seeks Reid’s removal.
Lucas testifies that he accomplished his purpose.
Greensboro Daily News, 15 May 1918.
Another account of Henry Lucas‘ very deliberate assault on J.D. Reid discloses this new tidbits: Mary C. Euell left Wilson within days of the incident. Just six weeks later, she was working at a Washington, D.C., school, and could not immediately return to Wilson for C.L. Coon’s trial.
The roots of Mary C. Euell.
Beyond the record of her astounding heroics leading up to the Colored Graded School boycott, Mary C. Euell left little trace of her short time in Wilson.
Mary C. Euell.
A recently discovered clue describes Euell as a native of Washington — presumably, D.C. Other evidence suggests she left teaching, returned briefly to her hometown, then obtained a pharmacy degree and opened a business in Asheville, North Carolina.
Two Mary C. Euells appear in Washington, D.C., census returns in the early twentieth century. One was born about 1880, most likely in Virginia, to Minnie Euell Gasbea. The other — the one I believe was our Mary C. Euell — was born about 1890, most likely in Washington, to Henry and Mary C. Euell. Here’s what we know about both.
- Mary C. Euell, hero
Henry Euell married Mary Allen on 12 August 1882 in Washington, D.C.
In the 1910 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1223 Linden Street, Henry Euell, 49, treasury department laborer; wife Mary, 40; children Oliver H., 26, treasury department laborer, Henry C., 22, treasury department laborer, Mary C., 20, and Edgar H., 18; and grandchildren Oliver H., Jr., 18 [sic], and Earnest C., 3.
In the 1914 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary bds [boards] 909 44th ne [Henry and Edgar Euell were also listed at this address.]
Mary C. Euell’s mother, also named Mary C. Euell, died 1 April 1915.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 1 April 1916.
The 23 September 1917 edition of the Evening Star ran a report on salary increases for federal employees by name. Mary C. Euell received a promotion and raise from printer assistant at $1.75 per diem to operative at $2.00 per diem, plus 25 cents per hour. [This appears to be our Mary C., but if so, she quit the printing bureau gig immediately and moved to Wilson to teach. The slapping incident took place on 1 April 1918, and the boycott began on April 9. Euell wrote to W.E.B. Du Bois on the 22nd and was in court on the 30th. There is no record of her in Wilson after that date.]
The 6 December 1919 edition of the New York Age reported Mary C. Euell as a dinner guest of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Jones on Bly Street. [This may be the other Mary C.]
In the 1920 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C opr bu ptg [operator — bureau of printing] r 909 44th ne [Edgar and Henry Euell are also listed at this address.]
Between 1920 and 1925, Euell obtained a degree (or otherwise received training) in pharmacy. A report of successful board examinees listed Euell’s home as Kings Mountain, North Carolina, just west of Charlotte.
Druggists Circular, volume 69 (September, 1925).
Eight months later, as pharmacist in charge, she ran an ad in a Columbia, South Carolina, newspaper for the Enterprise Drug Company — “Get acquainted with our ‘If its not right bring it back’ System.”
Palmetto Leader (Columbia, S.C.), 22 May 1926.
She soon relocated to Asheville, however, where she operated the Southside Pharmacy.
In the 1928 Asheville, N.C., city directory: Euell Mary C (c) Southside Pharmacy h 34 Victoria av. The pharmacy was one of three businesses located at 187 Southside Avenue. (The business is not listed in the 1927 directory.)
Mary C. Euell’s brother Oliver Holmes Euell died 18 May 1928 in Washington, D.C.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 21 May 1928.
On 9 August 1928, Mary C. Euell died in Asheville, Buncombe County. Per her death certificate, she was 35 years old; was single; was born in Washington; and worked at a pharmacy. Informant Nettie Candler, 34 Victoria Avenue, had no information about Euell’s parents. She was buried at South Asheville Cemetery. [Euell apparently had boarded with the Candlers. In the 1930 census, the family was still living at 34 Victoria: shoemaker Wallace Candler, 36, wife Nettie, 34, and daughters Willie A., 8, and Viola, 6. ]
News of her death appeared the next day in an Asheville newspaper. (Who was her “daughter”?)
Asheville Citizen-Times, 10 August 1928.
The Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 11 August 1928.
The Afro-American, 1 September 1928.
Mary C. Euell died without a will, and a public administrator was appointed to handle her affairs.
- The other Mary C. Euell
The Colored American, 25 November 1899.
In the 1900 census of Washington, D.C.: at 1011 7th Street, widow Missouri Euell, 62; daughter Minnie, 39; sons William, 34, and Moses, 33; daughter-in-law Dora, 25; and grandchildren Mary, 20, Jessee, 19, Missouri, 15, Georgia, 9, Rubie, 5, Annie, 5, and Jerome, 4. All were born in Virginia except Jerome, who was born in D.C.
In the 1910 census of Washington, D.C.: at 405 L Street, S.E., Minnie Euell, 49, cook, and children Mary C., 25, dressmaker, Missouri, 23, Georgia, 18, and Robbie, 14.
In the 1913 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C sewing 405 L se [Georgie M., Jesse, Minnie (widow of Richard), and Moses Euell were also listed at this address.
In the 1914 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C smstrs bds 405 L se [Georgie M. and Minnie Euell were also at this address.]
In the 1922 Washington, D.C., city directory: Euell Mary C tchr r 410 L se [Ruby Euell was also at this address.]
Minnie Euell Gasbea died 6 November 1927 in her L Street, S.E., home. Her survivors included daughter Mary C. Page.
There has been an astonishing occurrence in Wilson.
We continue our celebration of Mary C. Euell! Her letter to W.E.B. DuBois about the attack on her by Wilson school officials resulted in an article two months later in the N.A.A.C.P.’s The Crisis magazine.
The Crisis, volume 16, number 2 (June 1918).
No armistice in sight.
Buried under this peculiar title stack is an update on the Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute — the independent school founded by African-American parents and their supporters who were boycotting Wilson’s public schools.
The article notes that attendance at the independent school was 250 students versus fewer than 100 at the public Colored Graded School and offers a brief and inaccurate description of the incident that led to the boycott. (Mary C. Euell is described as “the Washington city teacher.” More about my attempts to learn more about Euell’s life later.) The aftermath is laid out nicely, though, noting that the discharge of J.D. Reid — called “the pouring of oil on troubled waters” — failed its goal, and teachers at the Colored Graded School had so few pupils that they had time to knit socks for World War I soldiers. (Those at the independent school, in contrast, were “having the times of their lives hammering progressive ideas into the heads of little pickaninnies.” One of which was my grandmother.) The writer wondered if support would falter when people realized they still had to pay a school tax, but admitted “at present there’s no sign of an armistice in sight.”
Greensboro Daily News, 17 November 1918.
The 106th anniversary of the school boycott.
Today marks the 106th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman. Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.
The school boycott has been largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes have gone unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9, I publish links to these Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.
we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed
the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school
a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings
what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers
lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks
photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools
a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city
womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school
And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.