segregation

Sacred cantata at Saint John to benefit charity.

Wilson Daily Times, 14 January 1932.

In January 1932, Saint John A.M.E. Zion Church presented a repeat performance of “The Light of Ages” for charity and with a special appeal for white people to attend. “The entire middle section of the church will be reserved” for them, said Rev. J.B. Holmes.

Expenses of white and colored schools.

Wilson Daily Times, 12 December 1921.

In 1921, Wilson County paid expenditures for its white and “colored” schools at a ratio of 16:1. Note not only the overall money spent, but what it was spent for. (Or not.) There were no African-American high schools anywhere in the county — hence, no salaries paid. No assets used for African-American students were insured, and no transportation was provided. No furniture, blackboards, desks, stoves, new houses, sites, or equipment accrued to Black students. The County did pay out $67.50 in rent, however, as many rural schools did not have their own buildings.

There will be no provision made for the colored soldiers.

1919. World War I had ended. Wilson planned Memorial Day Exercises and a Home Celebration for “the boys who answered their country’s call.” Or most of them, anyway.

The Daily Times published this clarification days before the festivities. Bottom line: Black soldiers were not invited. The mayor had designated “July 4th as the day on which the colored people of Wilson County will honor the returned heroes of their race ….” The good white businessmen of the town had agreed to throw a little money at the later event, but “… there will be no provision made for the returned colored soldiers in [the] parade or barbecue dinner.”

Wilson Daily Times, 10 May 1919.

Colored School Committee No. 17 buys a one-acre lot.

I’m reading Grace Elizabeth Hale’s In the Pines: A Lynching, A Lie, A Reckoning (about which, more, later), and this passage stood out: “The categories of public and private did not quite capture how schools operated in the early twentieth century in many areas of the rural South. In one sense, most schools were ‘private,’ meaning they were organized and run by the families that sent students and provided a building and other resources. In another sense, they were almost all public, as most got some funding — for Black schools it could be a pittance — from public revenues ….”

Until just after World War I, Wilson County’s Board of Education comprised dozens of tiny school districts designated white or colored. The schools in these districts dated as far back as the 1880s and, by 1900, one-, two, and three-room schoolhouses, mostly serving white students, dotted the landscape. The Board consolidated its white schools into several modern brick facilities in the early 1920s, and many of the old wooden buildings, already long past their prime, were converted to use for Black students.

However, a few early African-American schools were purpose-built on land donated or sold at low cost by Black farmers to “colored school” commissioners for the benefit of the community. Howard Colored School in western Wilson County was an example.  

In the summer of 1891, A.M. Thompson (a well-to-do white farmer) and Ira Howard, committeemen for colored district number 17, paid John and Mary Howard Taylor a nominal sum for a small plot of land. John Taylor was Ira Howard’s brother-in-law. The Howards, Taylors, and other families, such as Eatmons and Brantleys, descended from free people of color with close kinship ties to white families on both sides of the Nash-Wilson county border. They were generally prosperous farmers, and it is not surprising their members took leading roles in the establishment of a community school.

This deed made this the 6th day of June AD 1891 Between John Taylor and wife Mary of the County of Wilson and State of North Carolina of the first part and A.M. Thompson and Ira Howard School Committee for the Colored Race in district No. 17 and State and County aforesaid of the second part witnesseth that whereas the said John Taylor and wife Mary has for and in consideration of the sum of Ten Dollars to them in hand paid by the said A.M. Thompson Ira Howard as school committee out of Public School funds appropriated to said district, the receipt and payment whereof is hereby acknowledged have bargained and sold and by these presents does hereby bargain sell and convey unto the said A.M. Thompson and Ira Howard and to their successors in office one lot of land lying and being in Taylors township Wilson County and State aforesaid commencing at a red oak on the line between T.R. [Thomas Ruffin] Lamm and John Taylor thence South to a black jack oak thence East to lightwood stake thence North to a lightwood stake thence with west to the beginning containing one acre more or less to have and to hold and to their successors in office bounded by the lands of T.R. Lamm and ….”

Deed book 30, page 82, Wilson County Register of Deeds Office, Wilson.

——

  • A.M. Thompson
  • John and Mary Taylor

In the 1880 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 34; wife Mary, 25; and children Mouzouria, 4, and George, 2.

In the 1900 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer John Taylor, 50; wife Mary, 45; and children Jessie, 19, Hubard, 14, John R., 13, Eddie, 10, and Addie, 6.

In the 1910 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: farmer Mary Taylor, 55, widow; children George, 31, Jesse, 29, John R., 23, Eddie, 20, and Addie, 17; and brother Allison Howard, 34.

Addie Brantley died 15 February 1917 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 22 years old; was born in North Carolina to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; and worked as a farmhand. Charlie Brantley was informant.

John Richard Taylor died 7 November 1917 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was born 2 March 1884 in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married; worked as a carpenter; and was buried in Wilson County. Eddie Taylor was informant.

Jessie Taylor died 23 June 1920 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per his death certificate, he was 38 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; was married to Fannie Taylor; and worked as a farmer. Gilbert Howard was informant.

Missouri Moore died 28 July 1920 in Taylors township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 46 years old; was born in Wilson County to John Taylor and Mary Howard; and was married. Dewitt Moore was informant.

In the 1930 census of Taylors township, Wilson County: widow Mary Howard, 80, and brother Gilbert Howard, 65.

Mary Taylor died 31 May 1930 in Wilson township, Wilson County. Per her death certificate, she was 80 years old; was born in Wilson County to Deal Howard and Rhoda Eatman; was a widow; was a farmer; and was buried in Wilson. Gilbert Howard was informant.

The sales of colored schools.

I’ve written before of the 1951 consolidation of Wilson County’s tiny rural African-American graded schools following a lawsuit by Black parents seeking adequate education for their children.

“Wilson County Schools Institute Large Expansion Program This Year; Two New Colored Schools Are Among Listed Improvements,” Wilson Daily Times, 11 August 1950.

Some were Rosenwald schools, but others predated that program. During a recent visit to Wilson, I began to try to pin down the locations of the school buildings, nearly all of which have disappeared from the landscape.

In 1951, the county’s three school systems — Wilson City Schools, Wilson County Board of Education, and Elm City Schools — began to run notices in the paper publicizing auctions of the excessed buildings. Finding deeds of sale for most of the school properties was simple, but interpreting their archaic metes and bounds — with references to grocery stores, churches, and long-dead neighbors — is a frustrating exercise. If time and energy ever allow, I’ll run title searches forward to pinpoint locations.

I’ve created a spreadsheet to track what I find and of course will keep you posted. In the meantime, in case a name or place resonates with you, here are the descriptions set forth in deeds of sale filed at Wilson County Register of Deeds Office:

Brooks Colored School. Deed book 447, page 291.

Wilbanks Colored School. Deed book 447, page 37.

New Vester Colored School. Deed book 445, page 400.

Bynums Colored School. Deed book 445, page 333.

Williamson Colored School. Deed book 447, page 330.

Jones Hill Colored School. Deed book 445, page 322.

Turner School and Pender School. Deed book 505, page 295.

Minshew Colored School. Deed book 465, page 224.

Sims Colored School. Deed book 463, page 92.

Calvin Level Colored School. Deed book 463, page 37.

Yelverton Colored School. Deed book 447, page 187.

Lofton Colored School. Deed book 447, page 184.

Howard Colored School. Deed book 447, page 203.

Evansdale Colored School. Deed book 447, page 249.

Stantonsburg Colored School. Deed book 445, page 325.

Sallie Barbour School. Deed book 441, page 5.

Rocky Branch Colored School. Deed book 449, page 380 (correcting deed book 447, page 23).

Farmers Mill Colored School. Deed book 447, page 278.

Lucama Colored School? Deed book 463, page 171.

 

The enumeration for whites.

I was looking for an African-American family in the Evansdale area when I ran across this notation in the 1910 census of Stantonsburg township. A closer look revealed that enumerator R.B. Barnes divided Enumeration District 110 into four sections — the white residents of the town of Stantonsburg, the black residents of the town of Stantonsburg, the black residents (who made up the majority) of the rest of the township, and finally the rest of the white residents.

No other township is enumerated this way and, in fact, I’ve never seen this imposed segregation in any other census record anywhere.