Wiley I. Lash Historic Marker

Wiley Immanuel Lash graduated from Livingstone College in 1934 after he returned from Howard University at the start of the Great Depression. The Lash family owned and operated seven grocery stores in Salisbury. Lash attributed his success to his family grocery store businesses that his mother and father established in the early nineteenth century with a $37 investment. Decades before Lash ran for city council or helped write the plans for the desegregation of Salisbury, he worked in one of his parents’ grocery stores. From the age of ten, Lash and his brother Traugott Hezekiah Lash managed a community store on Caldwell Street. Lash learned civic engagement and the possibilities of integration from his parents, who established integrated patronage from its beginning in 1910, fifty-four years before the Civil Rights Bill of 1964 ended segregation in public spaces. Mary Lash managed the family businesses and often used her position as a businesswoman to aid her community, and she helped put underprivileged children through school.[1] Lash traced his popularity in the community to his family grocery store. During his adult years, Lash operated Lash’s Self-Service Store for about fifty years until he retired in 1979. As one of the first Black businesses in downtown Salisbury, Lash’s Self-Service Store served as an informal hub for political activism. Like his mother, Lash tried to meet the needs of his community as a business owner.

Lash began his civic career as a charter member of Salisbury’s Negro Civic League and became the Treasurer in 1964. He worked to bring attention to the needs and concerns of the African-American community to city officials. While a member of the Negro Civic League, Lash helped organize several voter registration drives in African-American neighborhoods. Lash worked for the election of several local candidates and supported African-American attempts to secure official positions in the local government. Lash supported A. R. Kelsey in his first bid for a seat on City Council in 1963 and supported Ozell K. Beatty in his bids for city council in 1965 and in 1967.[2]

Lash helped construct the city’s integration plans and engaged in the private negotiations to secure the peaceful desegregation of Salisbury. In 1954, Lash served on an interracial committee that planned the integration of Salisbury schools in the aftermath of the 1954 decision of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Ten years later, in 1964, Lash joined the City School Board of Education. Salisbury schools desegregated, and the Board improved local schools during his fifteen-year tenure on the board. He also wrote the plans for the desegregation of movie theaters and bowling lanes in the city. In 1979, Lash joined the Salisbury City Council and acted as the mayor pro tem. Wiley I. Lash became the first African-American mayor of Salisbury in 1981 at 72 years old with 2,398 votes. Lash reportedly became mayor to build on the relationship between Whites and Black in the city, a cause which he remained dedicated to until his death on November 3, 1995.[3]

During his lifetime, Lash served on the boards of Hospice, the United Negro College Fund, Rufty-Holmes Senior Center, the Community Service Council, Head Start, N.C. League of Municipalities, the Chamber of Commerce, the Salisbury-Rowan Human Relations Council, the National Conferences of Christians and Jews, the N.C. Board of National Resources and Community Development, Lincoln Parks Apartments, Livingstone College, and Nations bank.[4]

[1] “First Black Mayor Unmoved By Place In Salisbury History,” Oracle, Winter 1981-Spring 1982, Lash Collection. Rowan County Public Library, Edith Clark History Room; Finding Aid, Lash Collection, Rowan County Public Library, Edith Clark History Room.

[2] Louise Marie Rountree, “A Brief Chronological History of Black Salisbury-Rowan,” (Salisbury, North Carolina: Bicentennial Committee of Salisbury Rowan, 1976), 22; Notebook #1, Lash Collection, Series 1, Folder 8, Rowan County Public Library, Edith Clark History Room.

[3] “First Black Mayor Unmoved By Place In Salisbury History,” Oracle, Winter 1981-Spring 1982,  Lash Collection. Rowan County Public Library, Edith Clark History Room.

[4] Finding Aid, Lash Collection, Rowan County Public Library, Edith Clark History Room.