Greensboro's African American Community, circa 1880-1925

Many newly freed slaves remained near the homes of their former masters in the years immediately following the Civil War. For this reason, it is often said that the U.S. Census of 1870 (the first to identify former slaves by name) is the most important for genealogists attempting to make the often difficult leap back to a slave ancestor's plantation household.       

But by the 1880s, African Americans were beginning to migrate to larger Southern towns in search of jobs and other opportunities. This is reflected in the U.S. Census of 1880 and Greensboro's city directories of this period, both of which identify black men on the staffs of hotels such as the Benbow and the McAdoo and as laborers at local factories that made spokes for wagon wheels and handles for axes. Many of these men were probably natives of Greensboro, but it also seems likely the town attracted African Americans from rural Guilford and surrounding counties.    

It was also during the decade of the 1880s that the first generation of African Americans born after slavery reached adulthood. They likely had different expectations for life in a free society than their slave parents. But when they drifted to Southern cities in search of opportunity during the late 19th century, they found themselves confronting not just a segregated society, but one in which "Jim Crow" was to become even more rigid, leading to political disfranchisement (this occurred in North Carolina in 1900 with passage of the "Grandfather Clause" amendment) and increased violence against blacks.        

And yet somehow African Americans in Southern cities managed to establish vibrant communities with successful merchants, a professional class, and even institutions of higher learning. Not long after the Civil War, the Warnersville Community (named after its founder, Yardley Warner, a Quaker from Philadelphia) was established here in Greensboro. Harmon Unthank, a former slave, is remembered as a prominent black leader during the community's early days. Other important early figures in Warnersville included: Aaron Mendenhall (1846-1906), grocer with the firm of Mendenhall and Galloway; George W. McAdoo (1861-1914), principal of Warnersville School; Dr. James C. Waddy (1881-1940), a prominent local physician; and Rev. Matthew Alston (1821-1884), who helped organize St. Matthews United Methodist Church, believed to be the first African American church established in Greensboro. Nearby Bennett College was founded in 1871; and the North Carolina Agricultural & Technical College was established in 1892.    

The names of these men, as well as many other black residents of Greensboro from this very important period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, can be found in the databases below.  


African Americans in the 1887 Greensboro City Directory

This is a complete list of African Americans in the 1887 Greensboro City Directory. Individuals whose names are italicized may also appear in the U.S. Census of 1880 (see #2).

African Americans in Greensboro’s 1880 U.S. Census

This database, which is intended to provide additional information on the families of men and women identified in the 1887 City Directory, is a partial list of African American households from Greensboro’s U.S. Census of 1880. Names in bold are probable, or at least possible, candidates for individuals also named in Greensboro’s 1887 City Directory.

Tombstones in Union Cemetery, Greensboro, NC

Union Cemetery is one of the most important burial sites for African Americans in Guilford County. The following is a list of burials with grave markers (there are many unmarked graves) with hyperlinks to photographs of the stones. Where possible, names are correlated with those appearing in the 1887 City Directory.