Phillip's

Phillip’s Tavern was listed as “Phillip’s – 415 S. Queen Street” under “Taverns” in Raleigh, North Carolina. The business was actually located in Kinston, North Carolina.¹

Phillip’s Grill was a restaurant that operated in Kinston, North Carolina in the early 1950s. A 1950 advertisement for the restaurant noted that it served soft drinks, beer, and sandwiches. The business was owned by World War II veteran Roosevelt Phillips. Phillips and his wife, Effie, lived next door at 417 S. Queen Street.²

Roosevelt Phillips was born in 1922 in Richlands, Onslow County, North Carolina. He moved to Lenoir County as a young man. Phillips enlisted in the U.S. Army at Fort Bragg in 1943 and served in an Air Force support unit. He married Effie Lee Hall in 1944 and was discharged due to illness in 1945.³

After Phillip’s Grill closed, Roosevelt Phillips worked as a plasterer. He married Fannie Arch in 1957 and passed away in 1989. The building that housed Phillip’s Grill is still standing.⁴

Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022

Notes

1. Victor Green, 1951 Green Book, 54; Green, 1952 Green Book, 54.

2. Hill’s 1951 Kinston (Lenoir County, N.C.) City Directory, p. 215 (alphabetical listing), p. 61 (street guide); Roosevelt Phillips. Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips, Roosevelt Phillips, January 6, 1921, Kinston, Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips, October 1945-November 1945, Kelly Fld. Texas, U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1945, accessed from www.ancestry.com; “Advertisement,” The Carolinian, December 2, 1950, p. 6 (Image 14), accessed from https://newspapers.digitalnc.org.

3. Roosevelt Phillips. Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S., World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips, Roosevelt Phillips, January 6, 1921, Kinston, Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S. World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips, October 1945-November 1945, Kelly Fld. Texas, U.S., World War II Hospital Admission Card Files, 1942-1945, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips and Effie Lee Hall, 23 October 1944, North Carolina, U.S. Marriage Records, 1941-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com.

4.  Roosevelt Phillips and Fannie Arch, July 22, 1957, Lenoir, North Carolina, U.S. Marriage Records, 1741-2011, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips, October 9, 1989, Fayetteville, Cumberland, North Carolina, U.S. Death Indexes, 1908-2004, accessed from www.ancestry.com; Roosevelt Phillips, Hill’s 1954 Kinston, NC City Directory, p. 284 (alphabetical listing); Roosevelt Phillips, Hill’s Kinston, NC City Directory, 1958, p. 471 (alphabetical listing); Mike Parker, “Kinston group tries to place historical markers,” The Free Press (Kinston, NC), August 2, 2021, https://www.kinston.com/story/news/local/2021/08/02/african-american-he…;