Innes Street Drug Store

Introduction

Text-to-speech Audio

“Negroes ate at the drug counters. A crack in the door. It will open wide as time goes on,” wrote Mayzonetta “Miss Mary” Lash wrote her diary on March 7, 1960.[6] During the Jim Crow era, laws and unwritten rules kept Black-Americans and White-Americans segregated in public spaces. The first attempt to desegregate lunch counters in Salisbury occurred a few weeks by three African-American men at Woolworths on Main Street.

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Backstory and Context

Text-to-speech Audio

On March 7, 1960, at around 10 am, eight Livingstone students entered five locally-owned drug stores in Salisbury. In pairs of two, the students entered drug stores across the city. They purchased items from the store section and made their way to the lunch counters.

Bailey's Drug Store on Main Street and Purcell's Drug on West Innes refused to serve the African-American students. However, three student pairs received sit-down service at the Innes Street Drug Store on Main Street, Innes Street Drug Store at the Ketner Center, and Purcell’s Drug Store on the square. The removal of racial barriers at the drug stores marked the first time African-American patrons received service at lunch counters in Salisbury and were among the first cases of a desegregated lunch counter in North Carolina. The sit-ins that day ended without any instances of violence or arrests.[1] The next day members of the Salisbury Spencer Ministerial Fellowship commended the leaders of Salisbury and Rowan County in a meeting at the Yadkin Hotel for their progress in improving the race relations in the city.[2]

The first Innes Street Drug Store opened in 1926 with two locations on Main Street and the Ketner Center. The local Fuller family has managed both stores since 1947.[3] During the desegregation in 1960, the drug stores operated under Edwin R. Fuller and Henry N. Fairley Jr. with Billie E. Pittman as the manager of the Ketner Center location.[4] Justin Wells and Steve Fuller, the grandsons of Edwin R. Fuller, continued the family legacy in 2017 when they re-opened Innes Street Drug Store on Main Street, now called the Fuller Market. Fuller Market contains the old soda machine and the iconic soda fountain counter, which patrons can still enjoy.[5]

Sources

[1] “Negro Students Given Service Seated At Local Lunch Counters.” Salisbury Post. 7 March 1960. Edith Clark Reading Room Microfilm Collection, Rowan County Public Library.

[2] “Race-Relations Progress Here Draws Praise of Clergy Group.” Salisbury Post. 8 March 1960. Edith Clark Reading Room Microfilm Collection, Rowan County Public Library.

[3] Jessica Coates, “Innes Street Drug will close after 91 years in business,” Salisbury Post. 2 August 2017. https://m.salisburypost.com/2017/08/02/innes-street-drug-will-close-after-91-years-in-business/

[4] Nelson’s Salisbury, North Carolina City Directory. 1960. North Carolina City Directories Digital Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25682?ln=en.

[5] Coates, “Innes Street Drug will close after 91 years in business”; Coates, “A family tradition reimagined: Innes Street Drug reopens as Fuller Market,” Salisbury Post. 26 November 2017.

[6]1960 Diary of Mayzonetta Lash. Lash Collection, Series 2, Folder 26. Edith Clark History Room, Rowan County Public Library.