Calvin E. Lightner

He proceeded to construct numerous commercial buildings along the road, thus sparking a shift in the concentration of Raleigh's black-owned businesses to East Hargett, which became known as the city's "Black Main Street."

In 1921 he built the Mechanics and Farmers Bank Building in Durham and the Lightner Arcade and Hotel in Raleigh.

The latter quickly became a center of social activity for Raleigh's black community and hosted musicians Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington.

[2] His father had been born into slavery and following emancipation farmed and worked as a carpenter, building homes in Chester.

His maternal grandfather, Joseph Thompson, served in the South Carolina General Assembly during Reconstruction.

He married Mamie A. Blackmon, a fellow student at Hampton and a Raleigh home economics teacher on July 7, 1909, in Wake County.

His construction company proceeded to erect numerous homes for members of the black middle class in the east and southeast portions of the city.

[1] Following his graduation from college, Lightner worked as a mortician's apprentice before establishing his own funeral home—the first such business for black people in Raleigh—despite not having an official charter to do so.

[9] During the Colored North Carolina State Fair, a group of undertakers met and formed such an association, electing Lightner its president.

[10] In the 1920s he established the private Hillcrest Cemetery for Raleigh's black residents on family property along Garner Road.

In 1919 he and two other black men, Laurence Cheek and Manassa Thomas Pope ran for municipal offices in Raleigh[11] with the endorsement of the Twentieth Century Voters Club, a political organization for people of color.

[15] During its existence it was one of two hotels in Raleigh that would accept black customers[1] and hosted musicians Cab Calloway, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington.

[15] Lightner also heavily remodeled Davie Street Presbyterian Church in 1922,[17] where he became a parishioner,[4] and in 1921 constructed the Mechanics and Farmers Bank Building in Durham.

[1] The following year he built a Mechanics and Farmers branch building on East Hargett Street in Raleigh.