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.
Dr. Frank S. Hargrave, Samuel H. Vick, and J.D. Reid filed for incorporation of Wilson Hospital and Tubercular Home was in 1912. The facility opened a year later.
Thank you to V. Cowan for sharing this treasure!
Greensboro Daily News, 2 December 1945.
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.
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.
As printed in the 26 March 1915 edition of the Wilson Daily Times:
Julius Rountree Threatened Life of Principal Reid and Bound Over Under a Peace Bond.
There was only one case before Mayor Dickinson this morning, that of Julius Rountree, who threatened the life of J.D. Reid, principal of the colored graded school, telling him he would kill him if he put his foot on the ground.
Rountree went in the class room where he was making his threats, and witnesses heard him.
The trouble was over the principal whipping one of his pupils, a girl about 17 and sister of Rountree. Rountree was placed under a peace bond of $250 to keep the peace for six months. This was done at Reid’s request who stated he didn’t want to see Rountree go to the roads.
The evidence presented showed that Reid whipped the girl with a small switch and not unmercifully.
It seems the trouble started on the account of the misbehavior of the girl who shook her fist at Reid when reprimanded and the switching followed.
The girl resented this and struck Reid in the face and he put her out of the building. Then followed the entry of Julius into the trouble.
——
Julius Rountree was almost 20 years when he confronted J.D. Reid. The sister he defended was most likely Cora Rountree (sister Daisy Rountree had died the year before.) Three years after this incident, J.D. Reid was involved in the incident that led to the teacher strike and parent boycott of the Colored Graded School.
Wilson Daily Times, 13 March 1950.
——
In the 1910 census of Otter Creek township, Edgecombe County: farmer Amos Read, 64; lodger Gray Read, 57, and children Gray, 18, Eligh, 15, Margrett, 13, and John, 13.
On 11 February 1915, Gray Reed Jr., 23, of Gardners township, son of Gray and Lucy Reed, married Mary Hagans, 18, of Gardners township, daughter of James and Hannah Hagans, in Wilson County. Primitive Baptist minister Ruffin Hyman performed the ceremony.
In 1917, Gray Reid registered for the World War I draft in Wilson County. Per his registration card, he was born July 1891 in Edgecombe County, N.C.; and had an injured leg.
In the 1940 census of Burgaw, Pender County, North Carolina: Gray Reid, 48, formerly of Edgecombe County, N.C., inmate at North Carolina State Prison Camp.
Gray Reid died 11 March 19 1950 at Mercy Hospital, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 22 November 1891 in Edgecombe County to Gray Reid and Lucy Joyner; lived at Route 3, Wilson; was a widower; and worked as a laborer. Elijah Reid, 300 South East Street, was informant.
Wilson Daily Times, 6 May 1921.
This brief report fails to name Nolia Reid as the murdered woman or to state the first name of the man — her husband — who killed her. He was Ben Reid.
Nolia Reid died 1 May 1921 in Wilson. Per her death certificate, she was 19 years old; was born in Wilson to George Best and Louisa Farmer; worked as a laundress; lived on Nash Street; and was married to Ben Reid. She died of “homicide–stab wound.” Her uncle Thomas Farmer was informant. She was buried in Wilson [likely, Vick Cemetery.]
The 500 block of East Nash Street is justly remembered as the 20th century epicenter of Wilson’s African-American-owned businesses. However, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, Black entrepreneurs and tradespeople also operated across the tracks. As Wilson’s downtown experiences a resurgence, let’s rediscover and celebrate these pioneering men and women.
Check in each Sunday for the latest in the Historic Black Business Series!
I was tickled to find Willie C. Reid‘s Wilson Barber Shop and William Hines Barbershop included in this directory of former businesses at 130 South Goldsboro Street. Kudos to this building owner!
In 1933, Hines announced a barbershop merger with Reid at this location, as well as the opening of a beauty salon. Both Reid and Hines operated earlier barbershops in downtown Wilson catering to white customers. More about those locations later.
Photo by Lisa Y. Henderson, December 2023.
Wilson Daily Times,
Odessa B. Reid operated a beauty parlor on Goldsboro Street that catered to white women only.