Saint John AME Zion

Space reserved for white people.

Wilson Daily Times, 7 January 1921.

The unidentified Judge Harrison was a popular speaker in Wilson, having delivered the first commencement address for graduates of the Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute two years earlier. That speech was notably conservative, and it’s no wonder the Times‘ editor approved.

Saint John burns its mortgage.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 24 February 1945.

Another account of the burning of Saint John A.M.E. Zion‘s mortgage, this one revealing a number of notable facts, such as Orren R. Best, Charles H. Darden, Daniel Vick, Washington Suggs, and Lawrence Moore as charter members of the church. (One note, however: Saint John was not the oldest Black church in Wilson, though it was the “mother” of all the county’s A.M.E. Zion churches.)

Darden senior preaches first sermon.

Journal and Guide (Norfolk, Va.), 1 October 1938.

Though Leroy Foster did not make his career in the pulpit, he remained a lifelong A.M.E. Zion lay leader.

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  • Leroy Foster

In the 1920 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: tenant farmer Claud Foster, 37; wife Cora, 37; and children Mammie, 16, Booker T., 12, Maggie, 9, Claud Jr., 7, Carry, 6, Leroy, 5, Sammie, 1, and Estell, 1 month.

In the 1930 census of Jackson township, Nash County, N.C.: farmer Claud Foster, 48; children Claud Jr., 16, Carrie Lee, 14, Leroy, 13, Samuel, 11, Cora, 10, Douglas, 8, and Marie, 6; and grandson Jimmie, 7.

In 1940, Leroy Foster registered for the World War II draft. Per his registration card, he was born 10 January 1917 in Wilson; lived at 303 North Vick Street; his contact was sister Carrie Highsmith, 1910 North 21st Street, Philadelphia; and he was a student at Livingstone College, Salisbury, N.C.

On 4 October 1944, Leroy Foster, 27, of Wilson, son of Claude and Cora Foster, married Lula Margaret Moore, 26, of Wilson, daughter of Louis Arrington and Lula Moore, in Wilson. A.M.E. Zion minister W.A. Hilliard performed the ceremony in the presence of Arthur Lee Battle, Viola McPhail, and Mary Elizabeth Thomas.

Leroy Foster interrupted his college education to serve in the United States Army from 1942 to 1946.

The Livingstonian yearbook (1947), Livingstone College.

In the 1950 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 925 Washington Street, science teacher Leroy Foster, 33; wife Lula M., 32; and aunt Delphia V. Battle, 57, presser.

Leroy Darden died 10 March 1978 in Greenville, North Carolina.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 March 1978.