Words on image: Durham, NC- By 1911, John Merrick, along with C.C. Spaulding and Dr. Aaron Moore, established the Durham Knitting Mill (also called the Durham Textile Mill) at the southwest corner of South Elm and Fayetteville Streets.

Photograph: Mill interior, 1911: Durham, NC.

Image source: Courtesy Duke Rare Book and Manuscript Collection. Scanned by Digital Durham.
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The Durham Knitting Mill, located at 702-704 Fayetteville St had its place in history cemented by visits and commentary from both Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois.

After Julian Carr broke the taboo against employment of African Americans as machine operators at Durham Hosiery Mill No. 2 in 1903, John Merrick was determined to show that similar success could be achieved with not only African American mill workers, but African American ownership as well.

By 1911, Merrick, along with C.C. Spaulding and Dr. Aaron Moore, established the Durham Knitting Mill (also called the Durham Textile Mill) at the southwest corner of South Elm and Fayetteville Streets.

The operation is described by Booker T. Washington in 1911:
"I was ready to go home, but they wanted to show me one more successful Negro plant. This was the plant known as the Durham Textile Mill, the only hosiery mill in the world entirely owned and operated by Negroes. Regularly incorporated, they operate eighteen knitting machines of the latest pattern, working regularly twelve women and two men and turning out seventy-five dozen pairs of hose each day. The goods so far are standing the test in the market, being equal in every way to other hose of the same price. They are sold mainly by white salesmen, who travel mostly in North Carolina, New York, Indiana, Georgia, South Carolina, and Alabama..."

W.E.B. DuBois visited the mill in 1913; his description:
"...we went to the hosiery mill and the planing mill. The hosiery mill was to me of singular interest. Three years ago I met the manager, C.C. Amey. He was then teaching school, but he had much unsatisfied mechanical genius. The white hosiery mills in Durham were succeeding and one of them employed colored hands."

Amey asked for permission here to learn to manage the intricate machines, but was refused. Finally, however, the manufacturers of the machines told him that they would teach him if he came to Philadelphia.

He went and learned. A company was formed and thirteen knitting and ribbing machines at 70 dollars apiece were installed, with a capacity of sixty dozen men's socks a day.

"At present the sales are rapid and satisfactory, and already machines are ordered to double the present output; a dyeing department and factory building are planned for the near future."

As W.E.B. DuBois mentions, Charles C. Amey was manager of the mill, and lived nearby at 514 Elm Street. Although Anderson states that the mill closed in 1916, by 1915, the city directories no longer list the mill, and Mr. Amey is noted to be employed as a teller at the North Carolina Mutual company.

Anderson notes the mill's demise resulted from a slump in textile production due to World War I.

Soon thereafter, 704 Fayetteville St. became home to the Royal Knights of King David.

Source: https://www.opendurham.org/.../durham-knitting-mill-royal...