History of Black Businesses in Raleigh after Reconstruction

March 8, 1977, was the end of an era.  It was a monumental day for me, but I didn’t realize the historical effect until just now.  It was the date that my paternal grandfather, Richard E. Wimberley, Sr. died.  Not only did I lose my grandfather, but Raleigh’s amazing history of the number of black (or Negro as they were still called then) owned drugstores ended that day.  You see, in 1977, there were still 3 black owned drug stores in Raleigh.  There were 4 in a 25-mile radius, if you counted the one remaining black owned pharmacy in Durham.

We tend to think of East Hargett Street as the Black main street of Raleigh, but after slavery, it was mostly white businesses.[1]  The Black businesses were scattered along Fayetteville, Hargett, Wilmington Streets and Exchange Plaza in 1873.  There were 31 Black businesses in the downtown area at that time and they were people who worked with their hands, artisans and craftsmen.  They included barbers, blacksmiths, butchers, carpenters, shoemakers, mechanics, tailors, textile workers, and owners of restaurants, cafes, and hotels.[2]

“In 1875-76, for example, there were only six barbers in the entire community and all six were Negroes, two of the six barbering for Negroes and four for whites….In the same…period all “eating house” and huckster stall were operated by Negroes, while the number of Negro blacksmiths exceeded the number of white blacksmiths…..Variation in type of business operated by Negroes came with the advent of these:  two Negro newspapers, an undertaker and two additional graded schools in 1880…one attorney and five saloon keepers in 1883; one bakery, two boarding houses, one contractor and builder, one upholsterer, one fish and five meat market operators in 1886; a billiard room, dyeing and cleaning establishment, and furniture dealer in 1887; a hotel, physician and surgeon in 1888; and the first Negro dentist in 1911-12.”[3]

Due to the lack of Jim Crow laws during Reconstruction, the most prominent businesses were on Wilmington Street and the less prominent were on Hargett Street.  By 1891,

“The Raleigh community had among Negroes, 17 brick masons, 34 carpenters, 32 draymen, 19 mechanics, 4 painters, 8 plasterers and whitewashers, 6 printers, 16 shoemakers, and 2 tinners.  The professional field broadened also with more lawyers, physicians, ministers, nurses, and teachers.  The co-existence, however, of 275 “colored” washerwomen, 361 servants, 42 seamstresses, 113 porters, and 349 laborer – all listed in the 1891 City Directory – must not be overlooked as suggestive of the chief occupations of the Negro.”[4]

By 1921, Jim Crow laws had rapidly been put on the law books and white owners stopped renting space to Black business owners.  Many Black businessmen had purchased property on Hargett Street and so remained there. 

Between 1891 and 1917, Shaw University’s Leonard School of Medicine and Pharmacy as well as their Law School graduated students who planted roots upon graduation.  My grandfather was one of those graduates in 1918, just as Leonard’s school closed.

Before that, James Edward Hamlin opened People’s Drug Store in 1904, and that was the oldest drugstore in the State, as well as the oldest Black drugstore.  The name was changed in 1907 to Hamlin Drug Store, but it didn’t move to Hargett Street until 1964.  The store was purchased by Dr. John Johnson and his partner, Clarence Coleman in 1957.  Hamlin had another store on the corner of Blount and Lenoir Streets called Community Drug Store.

People’s Drug Store 1904

  Hamlin Drug Store

In 1935, my grandfather moved his family to Raleigh from Henderson, North Carolina, and opened Central Drug Store, at the corner of Swain and Cabarrus Streets.  His store was designed like so many of the stores at the time, long and narrow, with the pharmacy in the back of the store.  There was generally a soda fountain on one side of the store or the other, where sodas, ice cream, cookie and snacks were sold.

Central Drug Store

During this period, white families moved out of the downtown area, towards the north and west of the city.  Black families moved in from the more rural parts of the county and either purchased land and homes or rented towards the south and east parts of the city.  There were some mixed areas of population near mills, as well as the communities of Oberlin and Method to the west of the city.  As the city grew, so did the black businesses.

South and East Raleigh

In 1963, my father and uncle purchased the building where Dr. Hamlin’s 2^nd drugstore was located, at the corner of Blount and Lenoir Streets.  The store was called Community Drug Store.  While my uncle, Richard E. Wimberley, Jr., had an electrical business in Raleigh at the time, my father, William P. Wimberley, had been practicing pharmacy at his store in Durham, Garrett-Parker, in the Hayti community.  Unbeknownst to him at the time of purchase, the store was in the area of Durham’s black business development that was slated to be demolished to build the highway, a plan called Urban Renewal, that occurred throughout black communities across the country.  He had bought the drugstore from Dr. York Garrett, a family friend of my grandfathers from his upbringing in Tarboro.  Dr. Garrett owned 2 drugstores in Durham, Garrett-Biltmore and Garrett-Parker.

Community Drug Store

And this was the era that I mentioned at the beginning of the article, the era that in a 25-mile radius, there were actually 5 Black drug stores (through 1963), and afterwards, 4 drugstores and 5 Black pharmacists:  Dr. York Garrett, Mr. Richard E. Wimberley, Sr., Dr. John Johnson, Mr. Clarence Coleman, and Mr. William Wimberley.  When my grandfather died on March 7, 1977, the number of stores dropped to 3.  Dr. Garrett continued to practice well into his 90’s, Mr. Coleman passed in 1996, Dr. Johnson continued until he closed the store in 2017, and my father closed his store in 2003.

During that period, Black people generally supported one another in business.  In a directory of the Raleigh Business and Professional League (Directory of Negro Businesses and Professions in Raleigh) published Mary 1969, the following individual and business listings are shared:  4 pharmacies, 3 concrete/contractors, 1 jeweler, 9 grocers, 5 beauticians, 8 barbers, 6 realtors, 9 attorneys, 4 undertakers, 3 gas stations, 2 bondsmen, 5 physicians, 2 auto mechanics, 2 printers, 3 dentists, 4 insurance agents, 11 restaurants, 1 photographer, 4 cab stands, 2 music shops, 2 inn/hotels, 1 cleaner, 1 bank, 3 colleges, 1 drapery maker, 1 seamstress, 1 optometrist.  However, there were many other Black businesses that were not included in those numbers or the directory.

Some businesses are pictured below:

 Ice House on S. Bloodworth Street

What a rich Black history Raleigh has!  How much have we lost?  If this is home for you, and you have elders living, you should ask them to tell you about life in Raleigh before desegregation, including who they shopped with, where they ate, and who built and repaired things for them.

We don’t want to lose our history.

Footnotes

[1] Dr. Wilmoth A. Carter, The Urban Negro in the South, (New York:  Vantage Press, 1961) p. 47

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid. p. 49