Joe Blackwell/Blacknall

Joseph H. Blacknall operated a cafe in Raleigh that was advertised in the Green Book as “Joe Blacknails [sic] – 407 ½ Blount St.” under “Taverns” in Raleigh from 1939-1940.¹

Joseph H. Blacknall and his wife, Annie, owned a restaurant called Blacknall’s Cafe in Raleigh, NC during the 1930s and early 1940s. The cafe was open from about 1934-1940.²

Joseph H. Blacknall and Annie Jeffers Blacknall were married in Raleigh, NC in 1912. Joseph worked at the Yarborough Hotel early in their marriage, where he was head waiter. The Yarborough Hotel served white travelers. Joseph and Annie Blacknall both worked at the hotel (Annie was a waitress) and they lived in a home at 408 S. Bloodworth Street. Several lodgers lived with them, all of them hotel employees. While employed at the hotel, Joseph helped his 14 year-old niece escape a difficult home situation (she was being raised by her white mother and white step-father, who mistreated her due to their racial prejudices).  He arranged for her to attend St. Agnes Nursing School, but she was arrested and likely returned to her parents.³

The Yarborough Hotel burned to the ground in 1928. Joseph Blacknall continued to work as a hotel waiter, though where he worked has not been found. The Blacknall’s opened their cafe by 1934, when they are first listed as owning a cafe in the city directory. The cafe was listed at 218 E. Cabarrus and at 225 E. Cabarrus. It was never listed in the city directory as being at 407 ½ Blount Street, and the business does not appear at that address in city directory listings.⁴

The 1939 and 1940 city directories and 1940 census indicate that the Blacknalls continued to own a restaurant; however, a name or location for the business is not listed in the city directory or the census. The cafe and the Blacknalls are no longer listed in the city directory by 1942.⁵

Annie Jefferies Blacknall died in Virginia in 1949. It is not clear when Joseph Blacknall passed away, but Annie’s death certificate notes that she was a widow at the time of her death. ⁶

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2024

Notes

1.  Victor Green, 1955 Green Book, 54; Victor Green, 1956 Green Book, 46; Green, 1957 Green Book, 47; Green, 1959 Green Book, 52; Green, 1960 Green Book, 73; Green, 1961 Green Book, 69; Green, 1962 Green Book, 74; Green, 1963-1964 Green Book, 58; Green, 1966-1967 Green Book, 58.
2. Hill’s Raleigh City Directory, 1934-1942, street listing, alphabetical listing, classified listing; “Joseph H. Blacknell,” 225 Cabarrus Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com.
3. “Joseph H. Blacknal [sic] and Annie Jeffers [sic],” January 7, 1912, Wake County, North Carolina Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Girl Refuses To Go To Her Parents, In Jail,” The News and Observer, August 20, 1915, p. 8, accessed from www.newspapers.com; “Joseph H. Blacknall,” 114 East Cabarrus Street, Ward 3, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1920 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com; (“Joseph Blackwell [sic], 405 [sic] Bloodworth Street, Ward 3, Raleigh, Wake County, 1930 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com.
4. “Yarborough House Hotel,” North Carolina Architects & Builders: A Biographical Dictionary, accessed from https://ncarchitects.lib.ncsu.edu/buildings/B000832;  Hill’s Raleigh City Directory, 1934-1942, street listing, alphabetical listing, classified listing; “Joseph H. Blacknell,” 225 Cabarrus Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com. 
5. Hill’s Raleigh City Directories, 1939-1942; “Joseph H. Blacknell,” 225 Cabarrus Street, Raleigh, Wake County, North Carolina, 1940 United States Federal Census, accessed from www.ancestry.com.
6.  “Annie Blacknall,” February 28, 1949, Newport News, Warwick, Virginia Death Records, 1912-2014, accessed from www.ancestry.com.