laundry

Where we worked: Carolina Laundry.

Wilson Daily Times, 22 November 1915.

Wilson Daily Times, 23 April 1919.

Carolina Laundry employed dozens of African-American men and women during its decades of trade at the corner of Tarboro and Kenan Streets.

Ad from Hill’s Wilson, N.C., City Directory (1928).

  • Helen Branch, 1928
  • Mildred Branch, 1928
  • Julia Burden, 1928
  • Arthur Cobb, laundryman, 1928
  • Morton Crawford, 1928, laundryman, 1930
  • David Curry, 1928
  • James Debose, 1928
  • Maggie Dupree, 1928
  • Addie Edwards, 1928
  • John Gilmore, 1928
  • Elizabeth Hamilton, 1928
  • Benjamin Melton, presser, 1928
  • Harriet Myers, 1928
  • John Phillips, 1928
  • Cammie Richardson, 1928
  • William Richardson, helper, 1928
  • Maggy Rountree, 1928
  • George Sutton, 1928
  • Bessie Swift, 1928
  • Flossie Walker, 1928
  • Helen White, 1928
  • Edward Williams, cleaner, 1928

From “Facts about Wilson, North Carolina,” published by Wilson Chamber of Commerce (1934).

Report ready for work at the laundry.

Wilson Daily Times, 18 August 1920.

Asa and A. Edward Bishop were proprietors of Carolina Laundry. In 1920, they placed a want ad for ten or more African-American women to work in their plant at 235-237 South Tarboro Street. Laundering clothes was work primarily reserved for Black women in the South, though most worked from home rather than in a laundry. White families would drop their soiled clothes and linens at the laundress’ house, then return to pick up clean bundles. Though grueling work, many women preferred “taking in washing and ironing” to working as domestics in the homes and under the watchful (or wandering) eye of an employer.

Sanborn fire insurance map, Wilson, N.C. (1922).

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.