This was originally published on the Inshaw Blog on January 9, 2013.

I swear that I've written about Lucky C. Young before but I have not found him on my blog. Maybe it was one of those posts that never made it past the draft stage.

There are many houses in Truxton Circle that have housed more than one household. Several homes were built as two flat units, so when I was cleaning up data for the 1930 census it wasn't so unusual to have two households at 1203 New Jersey Avenue NW. What was unusual, and why I thought there was some clean up needed, one household was listed as Black and the other white. The first family were the African American Chambers family, with a father, mother and their 17 year old daughter. At the very end of the page were the Youngs, Lucky C. and his wife Estelle and they were clearly listed as white. Considering everyone else on the 1200 block of NJ Ave was Black, the Youngs didn't seem right, so I researched them.

I could not find anything on Estelle Young. She was 27 at the time and the census doesn't show how long she and Lucky were married.

Lucky C. Young was a different story.  He was a driver, born in 1905 in South Carolina, however, he wasn't white. Later WWII records list him as a Negro widower, and a driver, so I knew I had the same person even though his race and marital status had changed. Between the 1930 census and getting enlisted, a 1937 city directory had him living at 1508 6th St NW, only a few blocks (walking distance) from his old NJ Ave digs. That ends what I could find using Ancestry.com's website.

Switching over to ProQuest (at fine Public Libraries everwhere) Lucky C. Young finds nothing but trouble. In 1950 he was caught up in an embezzlement court case involving the Capitol Cab Co. The case was dismissed. In 1964 his violent death was reported. He was shot October 10th near the unit or 100 block of Q St NW (nw vs ne is debatable) in his cab, a few blocks from his home at 47 Randolph Pl NW. November 19th he died at a hospital. He is buried at Arlington Cemetery and his murder was unsolved. Looking at the 1960 City Directory he listed there with his 2nd(?) wife Irene B. Young.

What I find very interesting about Mr. Young are his movements around the neighborhood. He doesn't stay put, but he stays 'around'. Cities are dynamic place with people constantly on the move. He was in DC, as far as I could tell, for decades, but not in the same place. So I wonder what or even how does this case reflect on the lives of other Washingtonians.