social worker

Esther Brown appointed to caseworker position.

Chicago Defender, 7 December 1940.

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In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 419 Hines Street, tobacco contractor Lewis Townsend, 62; wife Henretta, 60; and children Alzie Townsend, 22, tobacco factory worker, and Geneva Brown, 24; son-in-law George, 26, garage mechanic; and Ester, 1, George Jr., 4, and Martha, 2.

In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 508 South Spring, George Porter, 34, pressing clothes at pressing club; Jeneva Brown, 30, and her children Brown, 15, Estelle, 13, Martha, 12, and Olive, 9; and daughter George M. Porter, 4.

Esther B. Goodwin died 21 July 1984 in Newport News, Virginia. Per her death certificate, she was born 10 January 1916 in North Carolina to George Brown and Geneva Townsend; was married to Felix Lee Goodwin; and he worked as a social worker in Tucson, Arizona.

Tucson Citizen, 30 July 1984.

Funeral Program Friday: Rosemary Fitts Funderburg.

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In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 1007 Washington Street, Howdard Fitts, 37, and wife Courtney, 36, both teachers, with children Howdard Jr., 8, and Rosemary, 6.

In the 1949 Durham, N.C., city directory: Fitts Rosemary case wkr Family Serv r1611 Fville

In the 1950 Durham, N.C., city directory: Fitts Rosemary P case wkr Family Serv r809 Fville

On 3 June 1950, Ilon Owen Funderburg, 25, of Durham, son of Dr. F.D. Funderburg and Ethel Westmoreland Funderburg, married Rosemary Fitts, 26, of Durham and Wilson, daughter of Howard M. Fitts and Courtney Plummer Fitts, at Saint Alphonsus Church, Wilson.

Atlanta Funeral Programs Collection, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu

Joseph S. Jackson, Jr.

From Who’s Who in Colored America, 7th edition (1950) —

JACKSON, JOSEPH SYLVESTER, federal civil servant; b. Wilson, N.C., June 4, 1904; s. Joseph S. and Annie (Horton) Jackson (divorced). A.B. Livingston Coll., Salisbury, N.C., 1928; grad. study, New York Sch. of Soc. Work, 1928-29; U. of Washington, 1939; U. of Chicago, 1939-40. Exec. sec., Seattle (Wash.) Urban League 1930-1938; reviewer, tenant selection div., Chicago (Ill.) Housing Authority, 1940-42; adm. officer, rent div., O.P.A., Chicago, 1942-48; organizer and operation asst., office of Housing Expediter, 1948-present; mem. Am. Assn. Soc. Workers, Natl. Assn. Housing Officials, Natl. Urban League, N.A.A.C.P. Author: What To Tell Them, voc. guidance booklet for Seattle pub. schs., 1935. African Methodist Episcopal. Democrat. Business address: Temporary E. Bldg., 4th St. and Adams Drive, S.W., Washington D.C. Home address: 1712 16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C.

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From www.blackpast.org:

Joseph Sylvester Jackson became the first executive secretary of the newly founded Seattle Urban League when it received its charter from the national headquarters in New York in 1930.  Little is known about Jackson before 1928.  That year he graduated from Livingston College in Salisbury, North Carolina.  In September, 1928 he entered the New York School of Social Work as a Fellow of the National Urban League.  He also worked  briefly at the Brooklyn Urban League.   After arriving in Seattle from New York, Jackson quickly became a “one man professional staff,” and plunged the organization into working on a number of problems facing the city’s small black community at the beginning of the Great Depression.  In his first year Jackson initiated community health and recreation programs such as Negro Health Week, the Vocational Opportunity Program, and presentations to white and Asian groups about the League and black Seattle.  In 1931 Jackson organized a black branch of the Unemployed Citizen’s League and two years later, a secretarial school. Despite his busy schedule of Urban League activities, Jackson also took time to play the lead actor in the Seattle Negro Repertory Theater’s 1933 production of In Abraham’s Bosom at the Seattle Repertory Playhouse. Throughout the 1930s, Joseph S. Jackson accumulated statistics on the education, health and employment of black Seattle. In 1938 Jackson lead a public campaign to remove three Seattle police officers who were accused of causing the death of Berry Lawson, a hotel waiter.  Jackson’s investigation of the Lawson incident and his public challenge to officials to act in the matter led to the prosecution of the three officers.   On June 10, 1938, the three officers were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to twenty years in prison. In 1939, Jackson left Seattle.

And here’s a link to a piece promoting Seattle that Jackson write for the Urban League’s Opportunity magazine.

And from an entry on a website chronicling the Great Depression in Washington State:

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In the 1910 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Joseph Jackson, 37, minister; wife Annie, 45; and children Eloise, 8, Joseph, 5, Paul L., 2, and John, 2 months.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 616 Green Street, Joseph S. Jackson, 48, minister; wife Annie H., 45; and children Mary E., 18, Joseph S., Jr., 15, Paul L., 11, and John B., 9.