Wood & Melvin
Wood & Melvin Taxi was listed in the 1939 Green Book as “Wood & Melvin —” under the “Taxi” section. No street name or street number was included in the listing.1
A business called Wood & Melvin Taxi was advertised in the Green Book in 1939. It was located in Fayetteville but no additional information was given. In 1939, there was one African American taxi driver with the last name Wood working in the city – Mabson Wood, who co-owned Big Four Taxi Company (located at 461 Hay Street) with John F. DuPree, Bernard P. Barnes, and Martin L. Levy. The only other African American cab company in town was Fayetteville Taxi Company at 473 Hay Street; that business was owned by Estervius S. Bayne, Peter Gerald, and Archie Garland Clark. Henry Melvin was also a cab driver working in Fayetteville, though his place of business was not listed in the city directory.2
Henry Melvin was married to Ethel Melvin and lived at 830 Cumberland. Mabson Wood was married to Loretta Wood and lived at 6 North Water Works Road at the westside of Murchison Road. Mabson Wood passed away in 1941.3
Essay by Brandie K. Ragghianti, 2022
Notes
- Victor Green, 1939 Green Book, 32.
- Hill’s 1939 Fayetteville City Directory, 42, 102, 188 283, 400, 401 (alphabetical listing).
- Hill’s 1939 Fayetteville City Directory, 188, 283 (alphabetical listing); Mabson Wood, July 7, 1941, Fayetteville, Cumberland County, North Carolina, US Death Certificates, 1909-1976, accessed from www.ancestry.com.