“The Long Road Traveled…”
Many of the old-time Holly Springs residents recall when Holly Springs Road was referred to as Rhamkatte Road, when the town limits were one square mile measuring out from the center of town, and when “West Holly Springs, Princetown, St. Mary’s, Ward Hill and Utleytown” were smaller communities outside of the Holly Springs town limits. These longtime residents go about their lives, some working jobs in other towns, others keeping small farms, many living on property that has been handed down from father to child for several generations.
Still recognizable in the community today are names like Judd, Leslie, Adams, Cotton, Wood, Norris, and Utley – names of families, many of which are descendants of slaves, share croppers and tenant farmers – names whose current holders have seen a transformation of the town they call home from a sleepy agricultural society to the “fastest growing town in North Carolina.”
Since the town’s founding through the restoration years after the Civil War, life stayed much the same for Holly Springs residents. Folks worked, went to church, raised their children, and cared about their neighbors.
During the years prior to and after World War I & II, men of Holly Springs – black and white, side by side – went off to fight for their country, returning home to the stability and security of the hometown they left.
In the post-war years leading up to the 1960s, Holly Springs was what analysts refer to as “racially balanced” with a somewhat equal number of blacks and whites living within the one-mile square town limit. On the outskirts of town in areas like West Holly Springs and Buckhorn, resided a higher number of black households on farms that families either owned or sharecropped.
Longtime residents Thomas Tillage, the late Parrish Womble and Luncie McNeil all had similar observations on life in Holly Springs in the 1960s. Womble remarked how “everyone got along; it was a close-knit community. Everyone looked out for each other.” He added that after ballgames the team members, black and white alike, would head to the Packhouse for a cold soda and to revel in the victory or cool off after a defeat, whatever the outcome was.
Holly Springs was very different from other towns of the old South. Interviews with these residents stressed how blacks and whites got along; there were no troubles or incidents that other towns were experiencing. There were not separate entrances to stores or restaurants, with “black only” or “white only” signs in Holly Springs, but that was not the case in Raleigh, Apex, Fuquay Springs and Varina, which became Fuquay-Varina. In agreement with Womble, Tillage and McNeil added that they had similar experiences of segregation in neighboring towns but not in Holly Springs. McNeil said, “The Holly Springs children played together, black and white together; it didn’t matter.” The late Cora Lassister, who had lived in Holly Springs most of her life recalls folks, blacks and whites, attending her uncle’s annual corn-shucking and enjoying themselves without any trouble or friction between the races; “people just got along.”
The positive interaction exhibited in Holly Springs between the two races did not overshadow the need for racial equality for blacks. No doubt, there were individual incidents of racism in Holly Springs, reflective of the times. As a result, many residents were actively involved with the civil rights movement at various levels across the state of North Carolina.
The civil rights movement opened doors and encouraged minorities to run for political offices. In the 1970s, three men stepped up to leave their marks on Holly Springs history; Bernice Lassister, Floyd Turner and James Norris threw their hats into the political ring to run as the town’s first black commissioners. Lassister and Norris were sworn into office in December of 1973. Norris went on to become the town’s first black mayor in 1980 when Mayor Jimmy Hancock resigned from office. Other black men to follow in the footsteps of these men as town leaders include John Mc Neil, Parrish Womble, Edison Perkins, George Kimble, and Otis Byrd.
Holly Springs’ black leaders have served as exemplary role models for youth. Although the list is longer than what can be mentioned in this write-up, an honorable mention of a few of the Holly Springs residents who are remembered in this fashion includes:
Dr. George Grisgby Jr., his father George, served as Scout Master of Troop #156, was a brick mason, plumber, electrician and carpenter, and his mother Gladys, who ran the Packhouse herself after the passing of her husband.
Cora Lassister, who finished the elected term of her late husband Bernice and therefore, became the first black female to serve in this capacity.
Betty Lawrence, a leader of the Holly Springs Boys Club for numerous years.
Nancy Womble, the first elected black female serving a two-year term as town commissioner from 1975-1977.
Robert King, assistant principal of the Fuquay-Varina High School and Board of Elections prescient chief judge.
William Earl Hunt, principal of the Holly Springs Negro Elementary School. (Although not an official resident, Hunt lived in town from Sunday evening until Friday afternoon while employed by Wake County Public Schools in Holly Springs.)
These mentors have laid a foundation for today’s leaders to build upon, paving the way for the betterment of the Holly Springs community.
