RESEARCH AND RESOURCE

"John Price & Son, Butchers, Stall 4, City Market, Raleigh, N.C.--Among the oldest and most reliable butchers in Raleigh none have succeeded in winning the confidence of the public in their line of trade more than the firm mentioned above.  The senior proprietor is one of Raleigh's oldest colored citizens, and has been engaged in his present business for a life time, while his son has a full knowledge of the business in all its details.  At this stall will be found at all times all the choicest cuts of fresh meats, of fine quality and at moderate prices, while for polite attention the public may always feel secure.  The proprietors have built up a well merited trade from an appreciative public.  See page 22."

Ad on page 22 is in the blog image.

This advertisement is found in The City of Raleigh Historical Sketches From Its Foundation.  A review of the City in all its varied aspects - Commercial, Industrial, Statistical, Religious, Social, Etc. 1887

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...

Captain James E. Hamlin (1859-1924) was an amazing man whose name is synonymous with Raleigh's Black history.

A graduate of Shaw University, he operated several businesses in the Raleigh area, and worked as a clerk at the Post Office.  The businesses included:

• Green Front Saloon on S. Wilmington Street (1890's)
• People's Drug Store with partner Walter T. Harris (more on that later!)
• Ideal Cafe
• Billiard hall

The Green Front Saloon served as a recruitment center for Blacks who wanted to participate as a regiment in the Spanish-American War (1898).  He helped create the famous Black Third NC regiment of US infantry in the Spanish-American War and became a Navy Captain.  Stationed in the Philippines, they fought bravely in El Caney and Santiago de Cuba.  After the war, he adopted a native young man, Valentin Cortez Hamlin, who became a pharmacist.

People's Drug Store, which was at 13 E. Hargett Street, was the oldest Black pharmacy in the country and the 1st...