Omega Psi Phi fraternity

Lane Street Project: April 23 cleanup.

A small, but efficient, crew showed up for today’s cleanup at Odd Fellows, and we continued to make deep inroads into the tangle of privet and wisteria that enshroud the cemetery’s midsection.

To accommodate May holidays, Season 2’s final cleanup days are May 14 and 21. Please join us!

Beta Beta Beta Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity was again there strong! Samuel H. Vick was a founding member of the chapter. I challenge other fraternities and fraternal organizations to match the Ques’ commitment to community service!

It was a beautiful day for making a difference.

The Senior Force cleared out the pile I discovered in January 2020 and featured in a recent post. 

Briggs Sherwood and Castonoble Hooks work to pull wisteria from a gum tree it is smothering.

The terrible beauty of wisteria.

Photographs by Lisa Y. Henderson, April 2022.

The Omegas’ last chapter meeting of the year.

Though chartered in Wilson, Omega Psi Phi (not Chi) fraternity’s local graduate chapter included members from several eastern North Carolina counties. Here, a brief announcement of their chapter officers.

Wilson Daily Times, 17 May 1940.

The Ques arrive in Wilson.

Nu Alpha Chapter was founded in Wilson, North Carolina, on November 17, 1936. The Chapter was chartered in New Bern on December 5, 1936, with the following officers: Basileus Bro. Boisey O. Barnes (Wilson), Vice Basileus Bro. William Perkins (Tarboro), Keeper of Records and Seal Bro. Aaron Womack (Kinston), Chaplain Bro. D.F. Martinez, Editor to the Oracle Bro. Randolph Armstrong (Rocky Mount), and Keeper of Peace Bro. John Jackson (Goldsboro). The chapter consisted of men from Wilson, Rocky Mount, Tarboro, Greenville, New Bern, Goldsboro, Kinston and surrounding areas. Later, Brothers joined or were initiated from Jacksonville, Elm City, Henderson, Elizabeth City, Beaufort, Plymouth, Scotland Neck and LaGrange. They met monthly on a rotating basis in all the cities represented. (Eventually, as a result of the travel burdens imposed across such a large geographic region, Nu Alpha chartered seven new chapters, including Beta Beta Beta in Wilson in the 1970s.)

Of Nu Alpha’s 61 charter members, these Brothers have been identified as Wilson County residents: B.O. Barnes, John M. Miller, Samuel H. Vick, and Malcolm D. Williams. Over the next twelve years, these men joined the chapter: Spencer J. Satchell (1941), Julian B. Rosemond (1942), Kenneth M. Shade (1945), Charles E. Branford and Ellis Brown (1947), and James C. Ellis and Alvis A. Hines (1948).

Adapted from the website of Nu Alpha chapter, Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc.

“If I rest, I rust.”

From the 1927 Ell Cee, the yearbook of Livingstone College, Salisbury, North Carolina:

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From the 1928 Maple Leaf (as the yearbook was called the following year):

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More on Joseph Sylvester Jackson Jr. here.

(By the way, the Student Volunteer Movement for Foreign Missions was an organization founded in 1886 that sought to recruit college and university students in the United States for missionary service abroad. (Or, presumably, among Negroes.))

Studio shots, no. 40: Thomas Levi Peacock.

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Tom Peacock, mid-1940s.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 204 Vick Street, hotel bellboy Levi Peacock, 30; wife Elouise, 28, a public school teacher; children Jewel D., 4, and Thomas L., 14; and mother-in-law Etta Reaves, 50, post office maid. [This entry contains serious errors. Jual D. Peacock was a daughter, rather than son, of Levi and Eloise Peacock, and Thomas was in fact just over a year old in 1930.]

Thomas Levi Peacock registered for the World War II draft in Wilson in 1946. Per his registration card, he was born 6 December 1928 in Wilson County; resided at 414 North Reid Street; his contact was Levi Harry Peacock; and he was a student at Darden High School.

Thomas Levi Peacock graduated from Darden in 1947 and entered Howard University in Washington, D.C.  He pledged Alpha Chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity in 1948 and graduated in 1951.

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The Bison (1951).

Peacock enlisted in the Air Force after graduation and in 1952 graduated from Officer Candidate School.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 July 1952.

Peacock went on to Meharry Medical College’s Dental School and in 1958 was licensed to practice dentistry in North Carolina:

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Within a few years, Dr. Peacock opened a practice in Jamaica, Queens, New York, where he immediately rose to prominence in social, as well as professional circles …

Baltimore Afro-American, 17 December 1963.

… and was named one of the “Bachelors for 1964” in the August 1964 issue of Ebony magazine.

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Dr. Peacock is retired and, after returning to live in Wilson for several years, now resides in Florida.

Photograph in the collection of Hattie Henderson Ricks, now in possession of Lisa Y. Henderson.

Smith Ques.

The Golden Bull (1948).

The Rho Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, based at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte, included three men with Wilson ties.

Brothers Ellis Brown Jr. (1921-1989) and William Edward Brown (1922-1993) were the sons of Ellis Brown and Margaret Scarborough Brown. In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 306 Elba Street, truck driver Ellis Brown, 37; wife Margaret, 36; sons Ellis Jr., 19, and William E., 17; and father-in-law Jerry Scarboro. Ellis Brown taught high school in Wilson for 37 years, much of that time at Darden, and served as president of the Men’s Civic Club.

Baker Thompson Howell (1925-1980) was a son of Harry and Annie Thompson Howell and brother of William H. Howell. After service in the Army during World War II and graduation from JCSU, he attended Howard University Medical School. Dr. Howell did a residency at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri, and practiced medicine in Chicago, serving as chief of psychiatry at Cook County Department of Mental Health.

 

The 1936 Bull.

From the 1936 Bull, yearbook of Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte:

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Rev. Marshall A. Talley was listed among alumni:

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Herbert Ordre Reid was a member of the junior class:

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On the yearbook staff:

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And polemarch of Alpha Epsilon chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity:

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William Cornwell Hines was a sophomore (bottom row, second from left):

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And a member of the Rho chapter of Omega Psi Phi fraternity:

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Yearbook digitized at archive.org.