RESEARCH AND RESOURCE

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...