The J.D. and Eleanor Reid house has been in distress for decades, as shown in these photos taken for the East Wilson Historic District nomination process.
N.87-12-269-271, Judge D. Reid House, 600 E. Green Street, East Wilson Historic District, Wilson, Wilson County, Survey and National Register Branch, State Historic Preservation Office.
Deed Book 66, page 565, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.
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J.D. Reid borrowed $200 from Nancy Harriss in January 1904, guaranteeing the loan with a mortgage on a lot he owned on Green Street that bordered Short Barnes and Louis Battle. The loan was to be repaid in twelve months, but margin notes reveal the mortgage wasn’t cancelled until March 1912. Note that S.H. Vick acted as Reid’s agent.
Pink Reid borrowed $585 from the Farm Security Administration on 10 January 1942. To guarantee his loan, he pledged two mules, a Poland China brood sow, and a milch cow, as well as his farm equipment.
Deed Book 275, page 303, Wilson County Register of Deeds, Wilson.
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In the 1940 census of Wilson township, Wilson County: farmer Pink Reid, 58; wife Matilda, 57; and son Allen T., 20. All were living in Wayne County five years earlier.
In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1003 Stantonsburg Street, Pinkey Reid, 68, yard cleaner; son Horace Reid, 32, butler; nephew Randolph Braswell, 26, bricklayer, and his wife Sarah, 25; and wife Matilda Reid, 67, nurse maid.
Pinkney Reid died 30 November 1961 at his residence at 504 North Vick Street, Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 25 July 1881 in Wayne County to William Reid and Bettie Wilson; was married to Matilda Reid; was a farmer; and was buried at Turner Swamp cemetery, Wayne County.
Within six weeks of the Mary C. Euell incident, J.D. Reid‘s name was synonymous across the South with the mistreatment by black principals of black female teachers.
Chicago Defender, 18 May 1918.
Chicago Defender, 1 June 1918.
I don’t know who the Chicago Defender‘s Wilson correspondent was, but he (or she) filed several vivid reports in the wake of Superintendent Charles L. Coon’s assault on teacher Mary C. Euell on 9 April 1918.
On April 27, the Defender reported that school principal J.D. Reid had fled for his life after being beaten in the streets by angry citizens as he left church services. (Though it downplayed the severity of the clouting, the Wilson Daily Times reported the incident, as well as the meeting of community leaders with the school board.)
Chicago Defender, 27 April 1918.
A week later, the Defender reported that Reid was hiding out in the woods near town; that parents were refusing to send their children to school if Reid remained principal; and that three men were hauled into court because they had held their children out.
Chicago Defender, 4 May 1918.
On May 11, the defender reported Coon’s indictment on assault and battery charges and claimed Coon had allegedly said he knew how “to handle n*ggers.” Reid reportedly was still in the woods, having been spotted slipping in and out carrying food.
Chicago Defender, 11 May 1918.
Journal and Guide, (Norfolk, Va.), 16 April 1938.
[Personal note: the second debate resolution made me smile. The National Labor Relations Board was a new agency when Herbert O. Reid and his teammates took to the circuit. I retired as Regional Director of the Agency’s Region 10 last fall.]
I am ambivalent about using artificial intelligence to restore photographs. Or, more specifically, I’m concerned about manipulated photographs supplanting original images and further blurring the line between reality and misinformation. However, the allure of AI-enhanced images is strong, as I often contend with blurry, poorly lit photographs in unnatural sepia or black-and-white tones. Photographs whose condition sometimes exacerbates the distance between us and our ancestors.
I have been experimenting with ChatGPT lately, feeding it queries and images to be restored and colorized. The results are somewhat haphazard, with many images weird and off-putting. Other times, the images are breathtakingly sharp and … alive. Black Wide-Awake exists to resurrect forgotten lives, and I believe these images are valuable to help us connect with the men and women we read about in these posts. From time to time, I’ll share the better ones here, clearly marked as AI-generated. Let me know what you think about them.
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Eleanor P. Reid (1877-1958), graded school principal.
Less than two weeks after superintendent Charles Coon assaulted teacher Mary C. Euell, the nationally renowned Chicago Defender picked up the story.
Chicago Defender, 20 April 1918.
From the column “Doings of the Race,”
Cleveland Gazette, 11 May 1918.
For more about this incident, see here.
