Most people in Greensboro know Windsor Recreation Center as a neighborhood landmark. Fewer know the story of the man whose name it carries—a story of courage, defiance, fraternity, and the harsh reality of segregation.
William Blackstone Windsor (1879–1932) was born in Reidsville, NC, the son of a teacher. After earning multiple degrees from Bennett College—then co-educational—he became a teacher himself and later principal of Warnersville Graded School. By the early 1900s, he was shaping young Black minds in Greensboro. He also helped build community through brotherhood, serving as a charter member of the Tau Omega Chapter of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., one of the earliest fraternal anchors of civic leadership in Greensboro.
In 1914, Windsor made a bold move: he bought a house at Martin and Gorrell streets, on the “wrong” side of Greensboro’s unwritten racial boundary. White neighbors tried to buy him out, offering not only the purchase price but repayment for upgrades he had made. Windsor refused.
His refusal forced Greensboro’s leaders to make segregation official. City commissioners rushed through an ordinance barring people from moving into blocks dominated by another race—the city’s first written housing segregation law. Windsor was ultimately pressured to sell, losing money in the process. Still, his defiance shattered the illusion that segregation was merely “custom” and exposed it for what it was: enforced by law and power.
Despite this attempt to silence him, Windsor continued to lead. He survived efforts to have him fired and rose to become superintendent of all Black schools in Greensboro. Tragically, his life was cut short in 1932 when he was struck by a car crossing Market Street.
Five years later, in 1937, the city opened Windsor Recreation Center on Gorrell Street—the very street where Windsor was denied the right to live. It was rebuilt in the 1950s and today stands at the heart of a major transformation. Backed by a $50 million bond referendum passed in 2022, the site is set to become the Windsor Chavis Nocho Community Complex, carrying forward Windsor’s legacy of resilience, education, and community.
The house Windsor once tried to call home still stands at Martin and Gorrell. It remains a reminder that one man’s determination to claim his place in Greensboro’s future forced a city to reveal its color line—and, eventually, to reckon with it.
Today, that same site is being redeveloped with a focus on equity and inclusion. Among the firms involved is United Maintenance Group, led by Bro. Danny Brown (Spring ’13, 6th District Region IV MSP Chair) continuing the tradition of Black leadership tied to Windsor’s name and legacy.