Well into the twentieth century, African-American couples married overwhelmingly at an office of a justice of the peace or the home of a relative. However, on 21 March 1906, as carefully noted a Wilson County marriage register, William Sutton and Laura Williams tied the knot at Wilson’s Colored Graded School. Free Will Baptist minister John Steward performed the ceremony, and Charles Best, Charley Dawson, Minnie Sutton, and Henry Garnett.
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The 1904 nuptials of Wilson native Dr. Joseph H. Ward and Zella Louise Locklear was a highlight of the season in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Indianapolis News, 24 November 1904.
Baltimore Afro-American, 18 May 1935.
Wilson Daily Times, 21 February 1896.
In the 1880 census of Stantonsburg township, Wilson County: Nelson Barnes, 51, farm laborer; wife Angy, 56; children Margaret, 22, Dred, 20, Thomas, 13, “epilepsy;” Mack, 11, Puss, 9, and Roscoe, 7; and John Edmundson, 24, farm laborer.
On 9 February 1896, Jno, Edmunson, 40, of Black Creek, married Sally Ann Dew, 35, of Black Creek, at justice of the peace O.W. Spivey’s in Wilson.
Wilson Daily Times, 16 January 1928.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Vick Street, house carpenter James Boykin, 49; tobacco factory worker Eliza, 47; and children Albert, 15, and Ruth, 9; Arthur Chester, 28, transfer car driver; wife Fannie, 28; and children Arthur Jr., 7, Joseph, 5, Irvin, 3, and Charlie, 1.
In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 713 Viola Street, midwife Nancy Staten, 52, widow; house carpenter James Jenkins, 24, and wife Annie, 19.
On 22 December 1927, James Boykin, 50, married Nancy A. Staton, 55, in Wilson. Rev. B.J. Gregory of Christian Church Colored performed the ceremony at the bride’s home in the presence Glenn S. McBrayer, Lillian McBrayer and Bettie Whitley. [Note the article got the bride’s name wrong.]
In the 1930 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 900 Viola Street, owned and valued at $4000, private practical nurse Nancy S. Boykin, 59; husband Christian Church clergyman James, 44; daughter Lila R., 19; and roomers Ines Williams, 23, and Minnie Nelson, 20, both servants.
In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 812 Viola, owned and valued at $1500, James Boykin, 60, and wife Nancy, 79; and, renting at $12/month, Lucias Smith, 28, skilled sewer contractor laborer, wife Jacqueline, 18, daughter Louise, 2, and Sidney Ramsouear, 89; and, renting at $4/month, Ray Brockman, 33, skilled sewer contractor laborer, and wife Hattie, 22. The Smiths and Brockmans were from South Carolina.
An account of the wedding of Dr. James H. Redd to Inez Emily Moore, who had been a teacher at Wilson Colored Graded School for the past four years.
The New York Age, 28 September 1911.
New York Age, 11 July 1912.
Wilson Daily Times, 24 December 1938.
Mary Thelma Barnes, daughter of John M. and Annie Darden Barnes, in fact married Walter Byers, not Bias. Thelma Barnes Byers received degrees from Virginia State College in 1928 and Columbia University in 1941. The Byerses later relocated to Charlotte, where an elementary school still bears Walter G. Byers’ name.
Pittsburgh Courier, 8 January 1938.
This blurb appears in the “Rocky Mount, N.C.” column of the Courier‘s 8 January 1938 society page. Per their marriage license, the wedding took place in Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina. Juanita Marion Pope was the daughter of O.R. and Myrtle Pope of Rocky Mount, and Alfred Alexander Morisey was the son of Rev. A.A. and Mamie Morisey of Raleigh. The couple did not live in Wilson very long — had they met there? — and it is not clear whether they taught at Darden or the Sallie Barbour school (or in the county). Though they are not found in the 1940 census, the 1942 Raleigh city directory lists: Morisey A Alex (c; Juanita) news reporter h S Davie ter CH. By 1946, the couple is listed in the Greensboro city directory with Alex working in public relations for Bennett College (his wife’s alma mater) and Juanita for the Colored Division of the United States Employment Service.
Morisey’s obituary, published 26 July 1979 in the Washington Post, sheds light on his accomplishments after his time in Wilson:
“A. Alexander Morisey, 65, a former director of public relations at Howard University who was one of the first black reporters to work for a white owned southern newspaper, died of cancer Monday in New York City hospital.
“Mr. Morisey worked for the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal from 1949 to 1955 where he covered the black community and did general assignment reporting.
“Journal reporter Roy Thompson said, “Not a handful of people here remember after all these years, but blacks and whites in this town know a great deal more about one another than they did when Alex came to town, and he had a hand in this.”
“After working for the American Friends Service Committee, Mr. Morisey came to Washington and was public relations director at Howard University from 1967 to 1969.
“He left Howard to become public relations director of the Philadelphia Committee on Human Relations. Mr. Morisey joined the public relations staff of The New York Times in 1969, and was named public relations director two years later.
“Since 1973, he had been assistant for community relations to the president of Manhattan Community College in New York.
“Mr. Morisey was a native of Smithfield, N.C., and a graduate of Shaw University in Raleigh, N.C. He also did graduate work at American University.
“He is survived by his wife, Dr. Patricia Morisey, of the home in New York City; a son, A. Alexander Jr., of Philadelphia; two daughters Jean Alexander and Muriel Morisey, both of Washington; a stepson, Paul Garland, of New York City; a brother, John, of Philadelphia; a sister, Grace Jones, of Burlington, N.C., and three grandchildren.”
Raleigh Gazette, 4 September 1897.
Whatever their plans, the Rawlinses did not remain in Wilson long. They do not appear in the 1900 census, but when he registered for the World War II draft in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, their son Allen Benjamin Rawlins reported that he was born 11 February 1900 in Wilson. By the 1910 census, Benjamin F. and Ella Westray Rawlins had returned to Rocky Mount.
