Reid Street Community Center

Young boxers weigh in.

Wilson Daily Times, 3 February 1950.

  • John Worsley — in the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1210 Carolina Street, David Worsley, 43, “butler in home”; wife Daisy, 36, tobacco factory hanging room; and children John E., 17, Moses, 15, Elnora, 13, Lou Jean, 11, and Stoney, 9.
  • James Bynum
  • Bill Elliott — in the 1940 census of Edenton, Chowan County, N.C.: odd jobs yard man Weston P. Elliott, 61; wife Annie D., 59; children Sherman, 25, sawmill laborer, Raleigh, 28, Hattie, 22, cook, and Willie, 20; Quincey Beasley, 35; and grandchildren Glayds, 5, and Sarah Elliott, 5.

Xmas Night Dance at the Center.

Wilson Daily Times, 23 December 1943.

Twenty-one year-old impresario Percy Mincey put together an impressive Christmas night dance in 1943, five months before he enlisted in the United States Army. (Note the reduced price for white “spectators,” who could watch, but not dance.)

  • Percy Mincy

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 500 Stantonsburg Street, John Mincey, 50, tobacco factory laborer; wife Olivia, 46; children Olivia D., 17, tobacco factory laborer, Joseph, 23, Margie, 15, Susie M., 12, Johnie M., 8, Percy, 6, and Prince, 21, and his wife Alice, 19; and grandchildren James, 12, Lawrence L., 7, and Willie L. Carroll, newborn.

In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 500 Stantonsburg Street, Jack Mincey, 61; wife wife Olivia, 58; sons Johnie, 20, and Percell, 19; and grandson Darance, 17.

In 1942, Percy Mincey registered for the World War II draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born 29 December 1922 in Wilson; lived at 500 Stantonsburg Street; his contact was Ben Mincey, 650 Wiggins; and he worked for Watson Warehouse, Goldsboro Street.

  • Ike Carpenter and his 12 Piece Orchestra — This would seem to be Isaac Carpenter, a white jazz bandleader from Durham, N.C., but biographies of Carpenter indicate he did not form his first band until 1945, and he generally led octets.
  • The Three Aces — This is another conundrum. The most well-known Three Aces group did not form until 1951.

Quartets perform at community sing.

Wilson Daily News, 5 November 1949.

In November 1949, the Eastern Star Quartet, which actually had five members, appeared at a community sing program at Reid Street Community Center alongside the Stantonsburg Jubilaires and Elm City’s Harris Brothers Quartet.

I think Junius Lucas has the guitar, and Ernest Edwards stands behind him to the left. Can you identify the other singers?

Clipping courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.

A first look at the Reid Street pool.

Every once in a while, we step outside Black Wide-Awake‘s period of focus to highlight an especially interesting document.

Reid Street Community Center opened in 1938 as, of course, a segregated facility. Long-time plans to build a state-of-the-art “community center building for the whites” (as it was called in a 11 August 1954 Daily Times editorial, and thus the moniker “White Rec,” as it was known for decades and maybe still is) screeched to a halt in early 1954 after the United States Supreme Court ruled in Brown v. Board of Education that “separate but equal” standards of racial segregation were unconstitutional.

Opined the Daily Times editorialist:

The exhortations worked, and voters (who were largely white) elected to fund both community centers. Architectural sketches of the proposed new (or renewed) buildings dropped in March 1955, and here’s the proposed updated facility at Reid Street with its big new pool.

A few features were pared away before final construction, but anyone, like me, who learned to swim at Reid Street as late as the 1980s will immediately recognize the high and low diving boards and the lifeguard’s chair. The overhang shown shading the exit from the locker rooms, where you turned in your wire clothes basket and received an enormous numbered safety pin, didn’t make the final cut. Nor did the tennis courts, the large wading pool, or the landscaping.

Courtesy of Google Maps, here’s an aerial rear view of Reid Street Community Center shot when the pool was closed during the pandemic. It’s looking a little worse for the 68 years of wear since 1955, and the $1.9 million overhaul recently announced is long overdue.

The arrival of the Catholic trailer chapel.

Wilson Daily Times, 10 July 1941.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 July 1941.

The first Catholic services for African-Americans in Wilson were held at Reid Street Community Center in 1941, with construction of a new church — to be known as Saint Alphonsus — soon to get underway.