Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute

B.W.A. Historical Marker Series, no. 35: Georgia Burke.

In this series, which will post on occasional Wednesdays, I populate the landscape of Wilson County with imaginary “historical markers” commemorating people, places, and events significant to African-American history or culture.

We been here.

GEORGIA BURKE

(1878-1985)

Boycotted school to protest abuse of Black teacher Mary C. Euell in 1918, then taught at alternative Wilson Normal & Industrial Institute. In 1928, launched renowned stage and movie career in New York City spanning decades. In 1920s, lived at 332 S. Spring [now Douglas] Street.

Detail from 1925 Sanborn map of Wilson showing house in which Georgia Burke boarded.

The incorporation of the W.N.C.&I. Institute.

No. 16440

Certificate of Incorporation of the

Wilson Normal, Collegiate & Industrial Institute, Inc.

North Carolina, Wilson County }

Articles of agreement entered into for the purpose of forming a corporation without capital stock under the general laws of the State of North Carolina.

1. The name of the corporation shall be The Wilson Normal, Collegiate & Industrial Institute, Inc.

2. The location of its principal office shall be in Wilson County, post office address Wilson, North Carolina, and the annual meeting shall be held there.

3. The object of the corporation shall be to run a school for the purpose of giving instruction to the negro youth, beginning with the kindergarten, primary, intermediate, academic, normal, collegiate, and industrial work.

4. The corporation shall have the power to establish and maintain kindergarten, primary, intermediate, normal, academic, collegiate and industrial departments, and for the purpose of establishing and maintaining the same and for the general purposes of the corporation, may purchase, lease, hold and convey in its corporate name all kinds of property, real, personal, mixed or all of them as may be directed. And the Corporation shall have no capital stock.

5. The corporation shall have power to award diplomas and give certificates from the various departments when the courses have been covered satisfactory to the management of the department in which the course is taken or covered.

6. The corporation may solicit contributions, borrow money, and contract debts, secure the same by mortgage, bond or otherwise, and may convey any or all its property.

7. It shall have the power to adopt a corporate seal and change the same at will, and adopt by laws and regulations, and it may do any act as authorized by the general law of corporations.

8. The duration of the corporation shall be 99 years.

9. The principal officers of the corporation shall be a principal, assistant principal, educational secretary, and directors of departments, secretary and treasurer and board of directors. The said officers so elected by the board of trustees named in these articles or their successors in accordance with the by-laws to be adopted by the board of trustees.

10. The names of the incorporators and their respective residences are as follows:

11. The above named incorporators shall constitute the first board of trustees. And they shall remain in office until their successors are elected. The trustees shall elect one third of its members for a term of two years; one third for a term of four years, and one third for a term of six years. The annual meeting shall be on the second Tuesday in July.

12. The chairman of the trustee board, the treasurer, the principal and assistant principal, and educational secretary shall constitute an executive committee who shall be responsible for the active running of the school.

13. The private property of the members of this corporation shall be exempt from the debts of the corporation.

14. The corporation shall have the power to collect and disburse the funds for the purpose of the corporation under such rules and regulations as it may seem necessary to adopt.

15. The trustees shall have power to employ such teachers as they deem necessary; fix the tuition of pupils; give free tuition if they see proper; and to make contract with local school committee or any other person or corporation for the teaching of any number of pupils.

16. After the filing of these articles the board of trustees shall meet upon the call of the members and adopt for their regular government a set of by-laws and elect officers in accordance with same.

In witness whereof, we the undersigned subscribers for the purpose hereinbefore stated have hereunto set our hands and seals, this 30th day of September, A.D. 1918.

S.H. Vick; D.C. Yancey; Wm. Hines; Dr. W.A. Mitchener; N.J. Tate; L.A. Moore; E.L. Reid, V.S.; Walter S. Hines, C.L. Darden; John W. Rogers; M.H. Wilson; Wm.H. Phillips

Witness as to all 12. Robert N. Perry

——

The takeaways:

  • These folk were not playing. They incorporated the new independent school.
  • The incorporators were the equivalent of Wilson’s Talented Tenth — businessmen, a pharmacist, a doctor, a dentist, a veterinarian — and their bold rebuke of Charles Coon carried the tacit reproval of one of their own, principal J.D. Reid. (Who was, in fact, veterinarian Elijah L. Reid’s brother.)
  • The school was not just a normal and industrial school. It also, as its official name indicates, offered a collegiate track.
  • The school boycott was no temporary flex. Clearly, the idea was not to return to the public school system.

Corporations Book 2, page 131.

Normal School teachers.

The 1920 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory lists some of the staff members of the breakaway Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute, known variously as the Industrial School, the Independent School, the Wilson Training School, and here, Wilson Normal School.

Principal Mary M. Jennings and Georgia Burke (not Burton) were among the teachers who resigned in 1918 after superintendent Charles L. Coon’s assault on Mary C. Euell.

The Independent School thrives!

Just months after it opened, the Independent School was thriving.

In January 1919, enrollment had climbed over 500 pupils and, at a meeting at Saint John A.M.E. Zion, supporters donated $677.84 (about $13,300 in today’s money.)

Wilson Daily Times, 21 January 1919.

In March 1919, a fundraiser at First Baptist Church netted $1020.23 (about $19,000 today), and almost half came through the efforts of teachers and students like Lillian Wilson. We learn something else about the Independent School here — in the tradition of Fisk University, it fielded a corps of jubilee singers!

Wilson Daily Times, 25 March 1919.

In May 1919, the anticipated crowd for the school’s first commencement exercises was so large that organizers had to go to Goldsboro to secure a 1500-person tent. (Per the 1920 census, the population of the whole town of Wilson was only 10,612, and black people constituted about 40% of that total.)

Wilson Daily Times, 27 May 1919.

——

Though nearly 20 years old, Lillian Wilson was an eighth-grade graduate of the Independent School — formally, Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute — in 1919. Her journey was common. Whether because of health challenges or need to work to help support their families, few students started school at age 6 or completed eight grades in eight years.

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: on Newbern Street, William Wilson, 52, livery stable groomer; wife Sarah, 48; and daughters Ellen, 23, and Lillian, 21, both tobacco factory laborers.

In the 1922 Hill’s Wilson, N.C., city directory: Wilson Lillian (c) dom 1010 Woodard av

On 28 September 1923, Rufus Wooten, 22, of Wilson, son of Arthur and Susie Wooten, married Lillian Wilson, 19, of Wilson, daughter of Will and Sarah Wilson, in Wilson. Missionary Baptist minister George Cooper performed the ceremony in the presence of George W. Barnes, L.G. Harvey, and R.L. Harvey.

The 107th anniversary of the school boycott.

Today marks the 107th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman.  Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.

Sallie Roberta Battle Johnson, one of the Graded School teachers.

The school boycott is largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes go unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9 henceforth, I publish links to Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.

we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed

the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school

The teachers.

a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings

what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers

604-606-east-vance-street

mary-euell-and-dr-du-bois

minutes-of-the-school-board

attack-on-prof-j-d-reid

lucas-delivers-retribution

lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks

photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools

new-school-open

the-program

a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city

womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school

the-roots-of-mary-c-euell

respectful-petition-seeks-reids-removal

lucas-testifies-that-he-accomplished-his-purpose

there-has-been-an-astonishing-occurrence-in-wilson

no-armistice-in-sight

And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.

No armistice in sight.

Buried under this peculiar title stack is an update on the Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute — the independent school founded by African-American parents and their supporters who were boycotting Wilson’s public schools.

The article notes that attendance at the independent school was 250 students versus fewer than 100 at the public Colored Graded School and offers a brief and inaccurate description of the incident that led to the boycott. (Mary C. Euell is described as “the Washington city teacher.” More about my attempts to learn more about Euell’s life later.) The aftermath is laid out nicely, though, noting that the discharge of J.D. Reid — called “the pouring of oil on troubled waters” — failed its goal, and teachers at the Colored Graded School had so few pupils that they had time to knit socks for World War I soldiers. (Those at the independent school, in contrast, were “having the times of their lives hammering progressive ideas into the heads of little pickaninnies.” One of which was my grandmother.) The writer wondered if support would falter when people realized they still had to pay a school tax, but admitted “at present there’s no sign of an armistice in sight.”

Greensboro Daily News, 17 November 1918.

The 106th anniversary of the school boycott.

Today marks the 106th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman.  Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.

The school boycott has been largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes have gone unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9, I publish links to these Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.

we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed

the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school

The teachers.

a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings

what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers

604-606-east-vance-street

mary-euell-and-dr-du-bois

minutes-of-the-school-board

attack-on-prof-j-d-reid

lucas-delivers-retribution

lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks

photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools

new-school-open

the-program

a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city

womens-history-month-celebrating-the-teachers-of-the-wilson-normal-industrial-school

And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.

Women’s History Month: celebrating the teachers of the Wilson Normal & Industrial School!

The Colored Graded School teachers who walked off their jobs in 1918 to protest abuse were Mary C. Euell, Georgia Burke, Sallie Roberta Battle, L.B. Wayland, M.L. Garrett, S.D. Wiseman, M.A. Davis, Mary M. Jennings, J.B. Pride, Glace [Grace] M. Battle, Sarah D. Hines, and Elba Vick.

Several of the teachers went to work at the community-funded Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute (also known as the Training School, the Independent School, the Normal School, and the Industrial School) when it opened later that year. The school lasted about ten years. Mary M. Jennings was listed as principal of the new school in the 1920 city directory, and I have found these additional teachers:

  • Wilhelmina Gaston, teacher, Wilson Training School, 1925

The “Armena Crawford” listed in the 1920 Wilson city directory is likely the same person. Willie Mena Gaston died 5 June 1929 in Wilson of pulmonary tuberculosis contracted “in the North.” She was 26 years old; was born in Wilson to Daniel Crawford of Alamance County, N.C., and Annie Whitted of Orange County, N.C.; was married to Augusta Gaston; was a housewife; lived at 605 South Spring Street; and was buried in Wilson [most likely Vick Cemetery.]

  • Willie Hargrove, teacher, Wilson Training School, 1925

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 606 East Green, Luvenia Hargrove, 40, widow, and daughter Willie, 20, public school teacher.

  • Hattie Langley, teacher, Wilson Training School, 1925

In the 1920 census of Wilson, Wilson County: Jarot Langley, 40, blacksmith at wagon factory; wife Lydia, 38; and children Hattie, 15, Thedore, 14, Marie, 12, Carnell, 7, Ruline, 6, Alcestus, 4, and Oris, 2.

The 105th anniversary of the school boycott.

Today marks the 105th anniversary of the resignation of 11 African-American teachers in Wilson, North Carolina, in rebuke of their “high-handed” black principal and the white school superintendent who slapped one of them. In their wake, black parents pulled their children out of the public school en masse and established a private alternative in a building owned by a prominent black businessman.  Financed with 25¢-a-week tuition payments and elaborate student musical performances, the Independent School operated for nearly ten years. The school boycott, sparked by African-American women standing at the very intersection of perceived powerless in the Jim Crow South, was an astonishing act of prolonged resistance that unified Wilson’s black toilers and strivers.

The school boycott has been largely forgotten in Wilson, and its heroes have gone unsung. In their honor, today, and every April 9, I publish links to these Black Wide-Awake posts chronicling the walk-out and its aftermath. Please read and share and speak the names of Mary C. Euell and the revolutionary teachers of the Colored Graded School.

we-tender-our-resignation-and-east-wilson-followed

the-heroic-teachers-of-principal-reids-school

The teachers.

a-continuation-of-the-bad-feelings

what-happened-when-white-perverts-threatened-to-slap-colored-school-teachers

604-606-east-vance-street

mary-euell-and-dr-du-bois

minutes-of-the-school-board

attack-on-prof-j-d-reid

lucas-delivers-retribution

lynching-going-on-and-there-are-men-trying-to-stand-in-with-the-white-folks

photos-of-the-colored-graded-and-independent-schools

new-school-open

the-program

a-big-occasion-in-the-history-of-the-race-in-this-city

And here, my Zoom lecture, “Wilson Normal and Industrial Institute: A Community Response to Injustice,” delivered in February 2022.

Flats.

By time illustrations were made for the 1930 Sanborn fire insurance maps of Wilson, the two-story Normal and Industrial Institute had reverted to use as an apartment building, marked as “flats” at 604 East Vance Street. The tall staircase my grandmother Hattie Henderson Ricks recalled is clearly marked on its front facade. She was 8 years old when the school opened in late 1918: “First of the year I went to school, and [then] I didn’t go back no more to the Graded School. They opened the Wilson Training School on Vance Street, with that old long stairway up that old building down there — well, I went over there.”