PORTSMOUTH, Va. (WTKR) – Inside a retention portion successful Portsmouth, Virginia, Emanuel Yancey has a communicative to tell.
“When I saw this, I said, this is powerful,” Yancey said pointing to a paper nonfiction dating backmost to the 1940s. “I couldn’t find her anywhere."
The communicative of a apt trail-blazing Black woman. Mrs. E.K. Wilson was a concern proprietor successful 1949. She ran her barber store for astir 5 decades successful an manufacture dominated by men.
“She was not lone a barber but a maestro barber,” said Yancey.
Yancey said Wilson is simply a large portion of history.
“For america to conscionable beryllium concern owners is significant, but past erstwhile you person a pistillate concern proprietor successful the 40s and past successful an all-male occupation, I deliberation that is precise important to history,” helium said.
During a bidding war, Yancey won the retention portion for a small little than $500.
A barber’s seat from Wilson is 1 of the archetypal things helium noticed. Then helium dug a small deeper and made an invaluable discovery.
Yancey recovered a programme for a "Women’s Day" event. Mrs. Martin Luther King Jr. was the impermanent speaker.
“This programme present is successful beauteous condition,” Yancey said. “This was exciting. This was truly breathtaking to maine due to the fact that not lone was Mrs. E.K. Wilson important but the radical she knew and visiting places the aforesaid arsenic Mrs. King.”
Yancey has recovered immoderate different chartless treasures including a representation of Dr. King himself, piles of vintage jewelry and adjacent sports memorabilia.
“Mike Tyson, Muhammad Ali, Buster Douglas,” Yancey said pointing to autographed boxing gloves.
Yancey plans connected selling astir of his humanities finds and utilizing the wealth to support paying it guardant done his nonprofit Emanuel’s HOPE Foundation.
“I privation to radiance a airy connected the needs of our seniors successful our community,” helium said.
What started arsenic motion to assistance his grandma arsenic a boy, Yancey present gives his clip to assistance different seniors who are financially oregon physically incapable to support up with their lawns.
“It’s been hard for a batch of our seniors and they’re an underserved assemblage but a increasing community, truthful my bosom goes retired to them,” Yancey said. “I privation to springiness them that feeling that my grandma had erstwhile she’d look astatine her tract and say, wow this is beautiful.”
As acold arsenic immoderate of the nostalgia successful Yancey’s retention unit, he’s inactive figuring retired what to sell. As for however overmuch it mightiness each beryllium worth.
“I would accidental it’s priceless,” helium said. “It’s hard to enactment worth connected it.”
This communicative was primitively reported by Antoinette DelBel connected WTKR.com.