Myers

William and Christine Hooks refuse to go to the back of the bus.

Add two more names to the list of people in Wilson who defied Jim Crow laws confining them to the back of the bus in 1943 —  years before Rosa Parks sat down in Montgomery.

In February 1943, Wilson siblings William and Christine Hooks boarded a bus for Portsmouth, Virginia. Their friend Asilee Myers had gone to the bus station to see them off. The driver ordered William Hooks to move to the back of the bus. Hooks refused, and the bus driver ejected him. In response, the Hookses and Myers allegedly then threw gravel at the bus. The driver stopped, hopped out, and confronted William Hooks. A policeman arrived and, according to this account, Hooks jumped him before he could open his mouth good and a “young riot” broke out. The officer and the bus driver finally subdued Hooks with a black jack, and he, his sister, and their friend were arrested and charged with being drunk and disorderly and interfering with a police officer. [Personal note: I don’t believe the Hookses were intoxicated. Drunk and disorderly charges were means of criminalizing refusals to comply with unjust laws.]

All were convicted. William Hooks received a total of 36 months “on the road.” Christine Hooks got 10 months, and Asilee Myers, 30 days. I have not been able to determine the outcomes of their appeals.

Wilson Daily Times, 9 February 1943.

——

In the 1930 census of Speights Bridge township, Greene County, N.C.: farmer Charlie Hooks, 45; [second] wife Lossie, 25; children Lewis, 21, James, 19, Charlie, 17, William, x, and Christine, 9; and sisters-in-law Gather, 29, and Ethel, 20.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: widow Lossie Hooks, 34, cook; sister Gether Jones, 38, stemmer; children Christine, 18, cook, and William Hooks, 21, plumber; lodger Frank Allen, 20, truck driver; and daughter Dorothy G. Hooks, 9. 

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 116 Ashe Street, Asilee Myers, 27, nurse, born in South Carolina, and Joe Battle, 30, laborer.

In the 1950 census of Portsmouth, Virginia: Lossie Hooks, 43, domestic; daughter Christine, 28, domestic; daughters Betty Jean, 8, and Dorothy Gray, 10; and lodger Ossie Spruell, 54, widow. 

William Hooks died in May 1962 in Wilson. Per his obituary, published in Wilson Daily Times on xx May 1962, he lived at 139 Narroway Street and was survived by wife Essie Mae Hooks; daughters Peggie Ann and Dorothy Mae Hooks; son William Hooks Jr.; stepmother Lossie Hooks of Portsmouth, Virginia; sister Christine Hooks of Portsmouth; brothers Charlie E. Hooks of Wilson, James Lewis Hooks of Pinetops, N.C., and John B. Hooks of Brooklyn, N.Y.

Recommended reading, no. 21: Make the Gig.

The 66-year arc of Wilson’s beloved Monitors postdates Black Wide-Awake ‘s focus, but I don’t need an excuse to recommend John Harris’ brand-new history of this legendary band. The Monitors have been a constant my entire life, and I knew their basic story, but every other page — especially in the narrative of their early years and Sam Lathan‘s tidbits about East Wilson in the 1940s — was a delightful reveal.

Happy birthday to a son of East Wilson!

This photograph accompanied the very first Black Wide-Awake post on 5 October 2015. Today is Michael E. Myers‘ birthday. He, as you can see, is my lifelong friend, and has deep roots in East Wilson.

Here, we’re seated on my mother’s lap on the front steps of the East Green Street home of Michael’s great-grandparents, Rev. Fred M. Davis and Dinah Dunston Davis. Rev. Davis was a long-time pastor of Jackson Chapel First Missionary Baptist church. Michael’s maternal great-uncle Fred M. Davis Jr. was active in 1930s and ’40s voter registration efforts in Wilson. His great-aunt Addie Davis Butterfield was a teacher at Samuel H. Vick Elementary School, and her husband was dentist George K. Butterfield Sr. (Which, of course, makes Congressman G.K. Butterfield Jr. his cousin.) On his father’s side, Michael’s step-great-great-grandmother Grace Battle Black was a close pal of my great-great-aunt, nurse Henrietta Colvert. Grace Black’s sister Roberta Battle Johnson was one of the teachers who resigned from the Colored Graded School after the Mary Euell incident in April 1918. (My grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks was one of the children who withdrew from the school in the aftermath, and also grew up around the corner from the Davises.) Grace Battle Black’s father was Parker P. Battle, a noted blacksmith with Wainwright foundry.

Michael’s lovely mother Diana Davis Myers was my beloved second-grade teacher at B.O. Barnes Elementary. (I rode to school with her, and Michael and I watched cartoons together on early weekday mornings.) His father is William E. “Bill” Myers, respected educator, renowned musician, and the visionary behind the Freeman Round House and Museum. They were treasured members of my childhood village, and I hug them every chance I can.

Happy, happy birthday, Michael Earl. Wishing you love and laughter forever.