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< Back Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority 1953- Marian Anderson and members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority receiving an award at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 1953- Marian Anderson and members of the Alpha Kappa Alpha (AKA) sorority receiving an award at the Philadelphia Academy of Music in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Source: Archives - Afro Newspaper/Gado / Contributor. Previous Next

< Back Merrick Washington Magazine Image description: Left image is a photograph of Mr. John Carter Washington- 1921-2017 sitting left of Mrs. Lyda Moore Merrick 1890-1987 Right side of image is the cover of an edition of the Merrick Washington Magazine. THE MERRICK WASHINGTON MAGAZINE Image description: Left image is a photograph of Mr. John Carter Washington- 1921-2017 sitting left of Mrs. Lyda Moore Merrick 1890-1987 Right side of image is the cover of an edition of the Merrick Washington Magazine. The Merrick Washington Magazine is one of DCL, Inc’s longstanding projects and was originally called the Negro Braille Magazine. Founded in 1952 by Lyda Moore Merrick and John Carter Washington, it was the first publication to cull articles from other publications and reprint them in Braille for the Black community. The magazine was self-published by Mrs. Merrick and her husband, Ed Merrick, for more than 20 years. DCL, Inc. adopted the project in 1975 and Mrs. Merrick continued to consult with the magazine’s new editorial staff until 1985. In 2013, DCL, Inc. expanded the Braille magazine to include a large-print edition for low-vision readers. When DCL, Inc.’s board learned that most blind readers preferred audio content and that many of the Braille readers’ addresses were becoming obsolete, DCL, Inc. discontinued the Braille edition and expanded the availability of its large print-edition to better serve low-vision readers. Today the magazine is distributed to more than 1,000 readers twice a year. (Fall/Winter 2020) ---- With integration, the Durham Colored Library became part of the Durham Public Library System. The DCL, Inc. board then turned its attention to another project, the Merrick Washington Magazine for the Blind. The Merrick Washington Magazine project (MWM) is a publication started in 1952 that brings news articles about and related to African American culture and history to a sight-challenged population who do not readily have access to Braille or large print editions of major publications. We hope to give our readers the independence to read these materials on their own, rather than rely on others to convey this information to them. The articles featured in each issue cover everything from American politics to health issues and are culled from a range of top-notch new sources, including The new York Times, Essence Magazine, and National Geographic Magazine, to name a few. The bi-annual publication is usually available in both Braille and large print editions, depending on funding. It is distributed to readers, organizations and schools round the U.S. that support the visually-impaired. Our target demographic includes people who have been sightless since birth and those dealing with diseases and medical conditions that affect eyesight. We publish MWM this in memory and in honor of the founders- Mrs. Lyda Moore Merrick (deceased – she was Aaron McDuffie Moore’s daughter and chaired the DCL, Inc. Board for several years) and Mr. John Carter Washington- and all of the Durham, N.C. leaders who believed in the mission and love behind this project. In particular, we honor the memory of John H. Wheeler (deceased), who in 1969 called together the members of the Durham Colored Library, Inc. board and led the decision to bring MWM under the guidance of that organization. We also honor the memory of Josephine Dobbs Clement (deceased), the first editorial board chair under this new arrangement, and the other members of that board: Constance Merrick Watts (daughter of Lyda Moore Merrick), John Carter Washington and W.C. Bennett (deceased). Over the years, many women's civic organizations have also continued to lend support to MWM. We are grateful for their faith in our project and mission. ---- Here Is A Little Background On These Two Visionary People. Lyda Moore Merrick (1890–1987) Founder of the Merrick/Washington Magazine for the Blind Durham, NC “My father passed the torch to me, which I have never let go out. We are blessed to serve.” “I was destined to do this. It was in my heart and in my lap, and I did the best I could day by day.” Lyda Merrick by birth and by marriage was a member of one of the most prominent families in Durham, regarded as the black capital of the state. Her father and her father in-law were among the founders of the NC Mutual Life Insurance Company. Lyda Moore were educated at Scotia Seminary and graduated magna cum laude from Fisk University. As a wife, mother, and community leader, she used her considerable resources of mind and heart to help others, especially in her work for the blind. --- Services for the Blind honors Johnny Washington, a Wonderful” Man The deck was stacked against John Carter “Johnny” Washington. A passerby found Washington on a cold January day in 1921 in an alley in Durham next to his mother, who later died at the hospital. An examination revealed that Washington had no eyes, and with nobody to claim him, he was raised by Lincoln Hospital and an orphanage before entering foster care. Blind since birth due to Norrie disease, a rare X-linked genetic disorder, Washington also developed progressive hearing loss to the point of becoming completely deaf in his later years. However, he refused to let this stop him. Determined to make an independent, self-supporting lifestyle for himself, Washington attained certification from the College of Swedish Massage in Chicago and later became known as “one of the best” in the masseur profession. In 1950, Washington married the late Ruth Brown, and remained married for 52 years. They had three children, eight grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren. In 1952, he founded Negro Braille Magazine, the first Braille magazine in the country (now called the Merrick/Washington Magazine for the Blind). A fervent advocate for the blind and deaf-blind, Washington and Sue Etheridge, Division of Services for the Blind (DSB) Deaf-Blind State Coordinator, founded the North Carolina Deaf-Blind Associates (NCDBA) in 1984 to serve the needs of the Deaf-Blind community. Throughout the years, many DSB Deaf-Blind Specialists have worked with Washington to help him maintain a successful life. As Washington’s hearing diminished, he was connected with Deaf-Blind Specialists to improve communication options through DSB’s Independent Living Counselor, Larry Schlesinger. These options included a Braille writer, teleBraille and a door alert that vibrated when the doorbell rang to let Washington know someone was there. “I love to just hear his voice, especially the word ‘Wonderful,’” said Kim Harrell, a Deaf-Blind Specialist that has worked with Washington. “It’s almost as if he sings it, ‘Won-der-ful!’” June 21-27 is Deaf-Blind Awareness Week in North Carolina, coinciding with the birth of Helen Keller. View the proclamation at: http://www.governor.state.nc.us/.../deaf-blind-awareness.... ---- Source: https://59b486d2-f72c-4a8e-af2d-6f005eaa7e5c.filesusr.com ... Source: https://www.susanmullally.com/lyda-merrick.html Source: https://news.ncdhhs.gov/.../services-for-the-blind-honors... Source: https://silo.tips/.../mwm-merrick-washington-magazine... Previous Next

< Back Fannie Lou Hamer "On this day (June 9th) in 1963, Fannie Lou Hamer and other activists were arrested in Winona, Mississippi, as they returned from a voter registration workshop. They had been traveling in the "white" section of a Greyhound bus. The police took the activists to a jail, where they ordered male inmates to take turns beating the women. Hamer needed more than a month to recover from her extensive injuries. The march continues." Previous Next

< Back Charles Sifford Golf legend and Charlotte native Charles “Charlie” Sifford is often referred to as “the Jackie Robinson of golf” for his role in breaking down color barriers in the sport. Charles Sifford, ‘the Jackie Robinson of golf,’ to be honored with centennial celebration in 2022 Plans to honor the Charlotte native include a feature-length documentary on Sifford’s life, re-release of his autobiography and more. By Katrina Louis / QCityMetro June 21, 2021 Golf legend and Charlotte native Charles “Charlie” Sifford is often referred to as “the Jackie Robinson of golf” for his role in breaking down color barriers in the sport. To mark his 100th birthday next year, the entities representing his estate are planning a centennial celebration that highlights his legacy for a new generation. Sifford, who died in 2015 at the age of 92, was the first Black golfer to hold a PGA Tour card and be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. He fell in love with the game while caddying as a boy. By the time he started playing professionally in the late 1940s, however, Black golfers faced discrimination and weren’t welcomed into the PGA membership under a “Caucasian-only” clause. Sifford was instrumental in getting the PGA Tour to formally terminate the clause in 1961. Prior to his acceptance into the PGA, which allowed him to compete as a 39-year-old rookie, Sifford played in United Golf Association tournaments alongside other Black golfers. In the 1950s, he won UGA’s National Negro Open six times — including five consecutive wins. “I knew what I was getting into when I chose golf,” Sifford told Golf Digest in 2006. “All the discrimination, the not being able to play where I deserved and wanted to play—in the end I didn’t give a damn. I was made for a tough life, because I’m a tough man. And in the end I won; I got a lot of black people playing golf. That’s good enough. If I had to do it over again, exactly the same way, I would.” WME Legends, a division of the global entertainment and media company WME, announced a representation deal earlier this month with management company JLMP LLC to co-represent Sifford’s estate. The team recently revealed plans for the centennial celebration. In the works is a feature-length documentary on Sifford’s life, produced and directed by Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Stanley Nelson. Additionally, Sifford’s autobiography, “Just Let Me Play,” is set for re-release with updated photos and a new epilogue edited by Sifford’s son, Charles Jr. The book picks up from where it ended in 1992 through his death in 2015. “Dad just wanted to play golf, but in the process, he helped open doors for others, which was important to him as well,” Charles Jr. said in a statement. “His life story is an essential part of racial and social justice movements – then and now. It offers an opportunity to reflect on humanitarianism and the Black American experience.” Russell Crockett, JLMP co-founder and friend of the Sifford family, said the team is also ironing out details for a collaboration with former New York Knicks star John Starks and his Legends Cigars company to brand a signature series for Sifford’s centennial. “If you know anything about Charlie, you know he always had a stogie. When he was playing golf, a lot of times it was stuck in his mouth, even when he was swinging the club,” Crockett said during a recent phone interview. Scholarships, celebrity golf tournaments and traveling memorabilia exhibits are other initiatives currently in development. Crockett said they’d like to host events in cities where Sifford lived, including Charlotte, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Houston and Cleveland. Sifford blazed a trail for golf athletes of color, including Tiger Woods, who called Sifford the grandpa he never had. Sifford and Woods’ father became friends when Tiger was a junior golfer. In Charlotte, a tribute to Sifford is recognized with a public golf course off of Remount Road in west Charlotte that bears his name: the Dr. Charles L. Sifford Golf Course at Revolution Park. Beyond his 2004 induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame, Sifford was awarded the highest civilian honor just months before his death. Former President Barack Obama presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. The award recognizes people who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.” Image description: Left-Charles Sifford working out at the Western Avenue golf course in Los Angeles, 1957. Sifford died in February 2015 at 92. Credit: Harold P. Matosian, AP file photo Right- President Barack Obama presents the Medal of Freedom to Golfer Charles Sifford during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House on Nov. 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. Credit: Olivier Douliery/Sipa USA via AP Images Source: https://qcitymetro.com/.../charles-sifford-the-jackie.../... Previous Next

< Back North Carolina A&T State University was founded on March 9, 1891 as a land grant institution for African Americans. ​ A&T-North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was founded as a land grant institution for African Americans. The school was originally named the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and was established as a result of the Second Morrill Act, enacted by Congress in 1890. Initially, the new college shared space with Shaw University in Raleigh, NC, but eventually moved to its permanent home in Greensboro, NC with the assistance of Dewitt Clinton Benbow, a Guilford County businessman and philanthropist, and Charles H. Moore, an African American educator and businessman. In 1915, the NC state legislature changed the name to Agricultural and Technical College. In 1967, the college became a university and took its current name, and in 1972, N.C. A&T became a constituent institution of the University of North Carolina system. Today, North Carolina A&T State University has more than 10,000 students and awards degrees in bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral programs with a strong emphasis on engineering, science and technology. It awards more degrees in engineering to African Americans than any other university in the country and is the second-largest producer of minority agricultural graduates nationwide. Pictured here is the N.C. A&T library in 1915. Photograph description : 9 Black students in the schools library, reading books and studying at desks and tables. Previous Next

< Back Bennett College-The Night the Sports World Revolved Around Two Black Women’s Basketball Teams in Greensboro ​ The Night the Sports World Revolved Around Two Black Women’s Basketball Teams in Greensboro “We were ladies, too,” Bennett forward Ruth Glover Mullen said many years later. “We just played basketball like boys.” A new podcast on the life of the great Ora Washington is reviving interest in the Jim Crow era of women’s sports, including a 1934 matchup between NC’s Bennett College For Women and the best Black women’s team in the nation. By Pamela Grundy /carolinapinedotcom Last Updated- December 19, 2022 10:47 am EST Originally Published - September 23, 2022 4:03 pm EDT It was March 12, 1934, and more than a thousand spectators filled the stands of Greensboro’s Sports Arena, eagerly awaiting one of the most celebrated basketball contests the city had ever seen. The Philadelphia Tribunes had come to town. Sponsored by Philadelphia’s Black newspaper, and starring the phenomenal Ora Washington, the professional Tribunes were the best Black women’s team in the nation. Excitement over their visit ran so high that the contest with the powerhouse team from local Bennett College was covered in Black newspapers across the country, and in the white Greensboro Daily News. “After having met and defeated in rapid succession all of the college teams that would accept to play,” the Daily News article ran, “the undefeated Bennett College team, seeking larger worlds to conquer, will risk its reputation against Otto Briggs’ Tribune female team,” led by “the indomitable, internally famed and stellar performer, Ora Washington.” On the appointed night, a large, racially mixed crowd filled the arena. “It was full . . . there were four sections and when they got filled up they had to lock the doors and have cops stationed outside,” one Bennett player recalled. “It was the largest place we had ever played in.” Spectators were not disappointed. The Tribunes matched their flashy play with flashy outfits, appearing in red and white for the first half, and purple and gold for the second, “with socks to match.” The play was fierce. In the words of the Atlanta Daily World, the “gallant, fighting, powerful” Bennett team “went down to defeat before a better, more experienced, and versatile aggregation of assured fast stepping, clever passing, and close guarding ball tossers.” The final score: Tribunes, 31 – Bennett, 22. In subsequent years, however, the teams that had caused such a stir faded from view. Leaders of many institutions, both Black and white, had always viewed basketball as an unladylike sport, unsuited to the development of “finer womanhood.” Over time, that influence spread. Bennett fielded its last varsity squad in 1941. The Tribunes disbanded the next year, following the death of key sponsor Otto Briggs. Loss and Recovery Following World War II, a national resurgence of conservative gender divisions sparked the rise of female cheerleading, but further undercut women’s sports, especially basketball. By the 1960s few competitive women’s teams remained. The stars of the 1920s and 1930s slipped into obscurity. In 1976, the founders of the Black Athletes Hall of Fame decided to honor Ora Washington, who had dominated Black tennis as well as basketball, and they launched an unsuccessful search to find her. They did not know that she had died five years before. Happily, interest in the sporting cultures of the Jim Crow era has revived, and the remarkable accomplishments of Black female athletes such as Serena Williams and the stars of the WNBA have prompted new research into Black women’s sporting history. The Bennett-Tribunes game comes to life again this week in the latest episode of “Untold Legends: Ora,” the terrific BBC podcast about Ora Washington’s life. As well as uncovering forgotten sports stories, revisiting the age of segregation highlights the remarkable culture of North Carolina’s historically Black colleges, especially the multifaceted womanhood they nurtured. Bennett College was a prime example of these efforts. Graduates of the private, all-female Methodist school were famed for their refined taste and manners and were often dubbed the Bennett Belles. But the social, political and economic challenges faced by African American communities meant that Black women had to do far more than serve tea and organize charity events. As a result, Bennett students and administrators shaped a flexible vision of womanhood that encouraged women to be competitive and assertive in certain situations, restrained and proper in others. “We were ladies,” explained Bennet star Ruth Glover, who hailed from Siler City, N.C. “We just played basketball like boys.” Bennett faculty carefully guarded their school’s reputation as the “Vassar of the South,” and demanded excellence in every realm of college life. Sports was no exception. Bennett students observed study hours from 7 to 9 every night, and basketball practice started after that, running from 9 until 11. On Saturdays, coach William Trent often arranged for his players to scrimmage against the boys’ team from nearby Dudley High School. He set strict standards for discipline and effort. “If you in any way showed any sign of not following instructions, and so forth, he would bench you,” Glover recalled. “He would call you off that team and sit you down for a while. Until you would straighten yourself out.” That hard work produced players who were disciplined and determined. Amaleta Moore, from Cape May, N.J., found her niche as a defensive specialist. “I played guard,” she explained. “I had long arms—I was a good-sized girl. So my interest was in keeping the forward from shooting. And that I would do. As Bill Trent used to tell me: ‘Go in there Amie and stop her.’ And I enjoyed it. I used to get down and put my hands on my knees and get a squat stance. And they’d hit me—I didn’t move.” Her most memorable moment came the night she stopped Shaw star Frazier Creecy, a hard-nosed, wily competitor. “She would dance like she was going that way, and you looked and she was going around this way,” Moore recalled. “She would throw the other guards off—they couldn’t keep up with her.” If someone did get between her and the basket, “she came with that hair flying – she’d come straight for you.” One night when Creecy was tearing up the floor Trent turned to Moore and told her to do something. Moore trotted to the court, determined to succeed. “I said: ‘I will brace myself and let her come,’” she explained. “And I stood there and she dribbled straight at me. She hit me, and I didn’t move. She fell back on the court—you heard her bones crack when she hit the floor—and they took her off on the stretcher. . . . I didn’t hit her or anything. I just stood there, but I braced myself first, because I knew she was going to do it. I said: ‘She’ll never run over me.’” Ruth Glover, in contrast, was a shooter who regularly hit the basket from half-court and who impressed the Philadelphia Tribunes’ coach so much that he tried to convince her to leave school and join the Tribunes on the spot. “I could tell exactly when that ball left my hand whether it was the right shot or not, whether it was going or not,” she explained. “It’s a feel that you just have . . . There’s an inner voice, if you just take time to listen to it, you know.” Glover had arrived at Bennett as “a little country girl,” intimidated by her new surroundings. “I was a little shy at first,” she explained. “A little shy and withdrawn. I was not an outgoing person.” Basketball stardom “gave me some confidence in myself. That I could accomplish. And even the president would make you feel good. I know when I would return to campus in the fall, he’d say: ‘Oh, we’re going to have some basketball this year!’ Things like that. He liked to kind of push girls, you know what I mean. He was behind you in whatever you wanted to do. He would follow you through and was enthusiastic about all of those things. That helped you to get confidence in yourself.” More Than A Game As well as nurturing individual strengths, basketball played a key role in players’ understanding of community – a central component of Black college life. “The whole idea was to go and contribute to the community where you lived,” Moore explained. “You were training for a given profession so that you could go back and contribute.” Amid the obstacles raised by poverty and discrimination, pursuing such endeavors required economic savvy, political skill and organizational ability, as well as energy, creative thinking, determination and confidence. Sports built those qualities while forging the emotional connections that helped communities work together. “You felt a sense of worth, and a feeling of security,” Moore continued. “You learned something about the value of support from your community, from other people. So that you don’t have this blown-up idea that you’re so important. . . . You have that support and you support [others] in the same way.” For young Black women navigating the challenge of Jim Crow, the expansive spirit nurtured by athletic expression could spill over into other arenas. The Bennett team traveled to its matches in the chauffeured Cadillac of Bennett president David Jones. “We would be riding along the highway and you’d meet some white fellows thumbing,” Moore laughed. “And we’d hang our heads out the window and say: ‘Jim Crow car!'” When I first looked into the history of Black women’s basketball, back in the 1990s, researchers had to search far and wide for information. We shared tips and stories, made trips to institutions to read documents and scroll through microfilm, tracked down players and descendants largely through word of mouth. It was an enjoyable, but somewhat lonely task. It’s so exciting to see these stories come alive again, and start reaching the broad audience they deserve. There’s plenty more to learn. I look forward to many more years of revelation. [Quoted material comes from oral history interviews conducted by Pamela Grundy and Rita Liberti. Grundy’s interview with Ruth Glover Mullin and Amaleta Moore is available in the archives of the Southern Oral History Program, Wilson Library, UNC Chapel Hill. More information on women’s basketball history, including North Carolina teams, coaches and players, can be found in Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women’s Basketball, co-written by Grundy and Susan Shackelford, from which parts of this article have been taken.] Previous Next

< Back James W. Alston letter to H. H. Brimley mage: Excerpt of a letter from First Lieutenant James W. Alston to H. H. Brimley on November 1, 1918 about being only Black officer in a hotel in France. Image: Excerpt of a letter from First Lieutenant James W. Alston to H. H. Brimley on November 1, 1918 about being only Black officer in a hotel in France. From the collection of the State Archives of North Carolina. James William Alston was a First Lieutenant in the 372nd Infantry, an all-Black regiment, during World War I. Alston was born in Wake County, NC on January 16, 1876. In 1907, he started working as a janitor and messenger for the State Museum, later the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. During the war, Alston wrote several letters to H. H. Brimley, who was White. Brimley was a curator and the first director of the State Museum. . Below is a transcript of First Lieutenant James W. Alston's letter to H. H. Brimley. Transcript: Nov. 1st 1918 My Dear Mr. Brimley: You will probably think that I am a long time getting back to the front, but the [[object Object]] here is the boss and won't let me go, but promised this morning that I could go in about ten days. My wound is all healed and with the exception of a very little stiffness I am as good as ever. There is so much talk of peace I want to get back and have another try at Fritz before the finish. I think I have pretty well [[object Object]] evened the score with him but I want to give him some more for good measure. Fritz can fight like the very devil when he is under cover and has the most men, but can't stand the Yankee steel and these Yankees, white and black sure love to use their bayonet whenever they can get near enough to him. I am in the southern part of France in the town of Vichy and quartered in one ------- [[object Object]] of the best hotels in the town. There are about one hundred officers at the hotel and I the only colored one so you know I am lonesome. I was as hungry as a dog the first night that I was here but walking in the dinning room seeing about one hundred white officer and no colored officers I lost my appetite - but it came back by morning and has stayed with since. I am treated fine by all the officers but most of them say I am [[object Object]] a damn fool for wanting to get back to the front. I met Mr Thos. F Ryan's son he is a Sgt. in the Medical Corps he is sure one fine man, and is crazy to go to the front but the Col. won't let him. I wish you would send me Mr Garland Jones, and Bob's address so if any time I am near their outfit I can look them up. I see lots of people from the state but none from Raleigh [[object Object]] but prehaps [[object Object]] I will have luck enough to see some one before I come [[object Object]] back to the good old U.S.A. There is no news except Fritz is catching the very devil. My best regards to Mrs Brimley, Mr & Mrs Adickes [[object Object]] and all friends Yours very respectfully James W Alston 372 R. I. U. S. S.P. 179 France Source: Digital Public Library Of America - African American Soldiers -End Of Transcript- . . NOTE: Below is information about the life of First Lieutenant James W. Alston. James William Alston 18 Jan. 1876-14 Dec. 1940 Written by Matthew M. Peek, State Archives of North Carolina, 2015 James William Alston served in the U.S. Army during both the Spanish-American War and World War I. He was one of the first officers to be trained at the newly created African American officer's training school created at Fort Dodge, Iowa in the spring of 1917 and served as a First Lieutenant in the Army's 372nd Infantry, an all-Black regiment, during World War I. James William Alston was born in Wake County, North Carolina, on January 16, 1876. He attended common school for two years, followed by two years in a normal school. Alston would attend the historically-black school St. Augustine’s School in Raleigh, North Carolina, but he did not graduate from that institution. When the Spanish-American War broke out, Alston enlisted in the U.S. Army. Alston served with the 48th Volunteer Infantry, U.S. Army, from October 1898 to June 1901. Around 1907, Alston went to work for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture as a janitor and messenger. The Department of Agriculture housed in the early 1900s the State Museum (present-day North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences), to which Alston was assigned, working for $480 a year. When Alston was posted to Europe in World War I, he would exchange letters with Herbert Brimley, then director of the State Museum. James Alston re-enlisted in the U.S. Army on June 15, 1917, after the United States entered World War I. Now forty years old, Alston was sent to the first all-African American officers’ training school at Fort Dodge, near Des Moines, Iowa. On October 15, 1917, Alston was commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the 372nd Infantry, 93rd Division, U.S. Army. Alston served overseas from March 30, 1918, through January 19, 1919. Upon arriving in France, Alston was sent to one of the British Army’s training schools—the Fourth Army Infantry School—where he attended a five-week officer’s training course. He would serve under French command in the Meuse-Argonne sector, and later the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, in France. In an October 6, 1918, letter, Alston mentions that he was lying in a hospital bed either in France or Belgium, with “a machine gun bullet through my right shoulder.” Evidently, Alston was also severely wounded on October 24, 1918. He returned to the United States in January 1919, and was discharged in February 1919 without any disability being listed. Alston returned home to his wife and their daughter, and began work as a messenger and clerk in the Revenue Building for the North Carolina Department of Buildings and Grounds. James W. Alston died on December 14, 1940, in Wake County, North Carolina, and was buried in the Raleigh National Cemetery (United States National Cemetery located in the eastern part of Raleigh, North Carolina). Previous Next

"People are underrepresented because that's a consequence of being 'historically excluded' which is the cause" Unknown Activism, Civil Rights, Law, Politics & Social Justice Activism A narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings. After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War. Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots In this important study, former United States primary patent examiner Patricia Carter Sluby pays homage to the inventive spirit of African Americans. Beginning with the contributions of enslaved Africans brought to American shores, Sluby introduces inventors and patent holders from all fields up to and including the leading edge of today's technology. Along with such recognizable figures as George Washington Carver and Madam C. J. Walker, readers will discover little-known or forgotten pioneers When and Where I Enter is an eloquent testimonial to the profound influence of African-American women on race and women's movements throughout American history. Drawing on speeches, diaries, letters, and other original documents, Paula Giddings powerfully portrays how black women have transcended racist and sexist attitudes--often confronting white feminists and black male leaders alike--to initiate social and political reform. From the open disregard for the rights of slave women to examples of A narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings. After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War. Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots 1/4 In this Collection, we explore the brave North Carolinians who put their lives on the line as activists, protesting segregation, women's rights, labor inequality and more. Find out about the key role North Carolina activists played in serving people in North Carolina and the entire U.S. Law EBONY was focused on redefining the American narrative about daily American life being a Black person. Ebony was founded to provide positive images for Blacks in a world of negative images and non-images. It was founded to project all dimensions of the Black personality in a world saturated with stereotypes. — John H. Johnson "Publisher’s Statement," November 1975 Describe your image Describe your image EBONY was focused on redefining the American narrative about daily American life being a Black person. Ebony was founded to provide positive images for Blacks in a world of negative images and non-images. It was founded to project all dimensions of the Black personality in a world saturated with stereotypes. — John H. Johnson "Publisher’s Statement," November 1975 1/3 North Carolina has a long and storied history of African American lawyers who have made significant contributions to the legal profession. From pioneers like Julius Chambers, who fought tirelessly for civil rights, to modern-day trailblazers like Anita Earls, who continue to advocate for justice and equality, these lawyers have left an indelible mark on the state's legal landscape. Despite facing numerous obstacles and challenges, these individuals have persevered and made a lasting impact on North Carolina and beyond. Social and Environmental Justice The Registry looks at the origins of the Chanteys in 1882. A Chantey is a style of choral singing associated with black slave labor in the early United States. Historical records mention celebrations of Jonkonnu taking place near Edenton, N.C., as early as 1824. And, except for a single 19th-century historical reference to a Jonkonnu celebration in Suffolk, VA, historians have been unable to uncover any evidence that it was ever part of the culture in North America outside of North Carolina. In periods with good weather, the slaves on most slave ships would be brought up on deck in the mornings. Normally the women and children would be allowed to move freely around the deck. The men would be chained together, because it was commonly believed that they would be the ones that would cause violence and resistance. The Registry looks at the origins of the Chanteys in 1882. A Chantey is a style of choral singing associated with black slave labor in the early United States. 1/4 Music, dance, songwriting; all expressions of movement; all stem from the rich traditions of our African ancestors. North Carolina specifically has a tremendous amount of talented musicians, singers, songwriters, dancer etc., that have shaped, and continue to shape what we enjoy today. ​ Civil Rights Mike Wiley is a North Carolina-based actor, playwright, and director of multiple works in documentary theatre. His dramas relay the stories of fugitive slaves, civil rights game-changers, sports heroes and freedom fighters. Dynamic multi-character portrayals offer penetrating views into parallel lives whose roles within African American history have shaped a richer total American experience. Wiley’s remarkable one-man “cast” sometimes introduces dozens of characters over the course of a single "In the Inaugural Bull City Black Theatre Festival, Underserved African-American Theater Artists Go Straight to the Audience They Richly Deserve" By Byron Woods JaMeeka Holloway-Burrell has to stop and catch her breath for a moment. I've caught her between appointments on a busy day, moments before she rushes into a rehearsal for PlayMakers Repertory Company's upcoming world premiere of Leaving Eden. Over the last month, Holloway-Burrell has been assistant director for that production while als Jester Hairston was an African American choral composer and actor. Hairston was the grandson of slaves from the Hairston plantation at Belew's Creek, North Carolina, Mike Wiley is a North Carolina-based actor, playwright, and director of multiple works in documentary theatre. His dramas relay the stories of fugitive slaves, civil rights game-changers, sports heroes and freedom fighters. Dynamic multi-character portrayals offer penetrating views into parallel lives whose roles within African American history have shaped a richer total American experience. Wiley’s remarkable one-man “cast” sometimes introduces dozens of characters over the course of a single 1/4 North Carolina natives played a key role in the fight for Civil Rights in the United States. This Collection explores the people and the events that were central to the national fight for Civil Rights. Politics 1/3 Despite facing numerous obstacles and challenges, African Americans have made significant contributions to the political landscape in North Carolina. From the first African American elected to the state legislature in 1868 to the current representation in Congress, the story of African Americans in North Carolina politics is one of resilience, determination, and progress. TESTIMONIALS AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE THAT UNCOVERS THE HIDDEN GEMS ABOUT OUR ANCESTORS RICH HISTORY AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH CAROLINA. DEMETRIA TUCKER - FACEBOOK THIS IS A MUCH-NEEDE RESOURCE NOT ONLY FOR THOSE OF US IN NORTH CAROLINA BUT FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONSIDERABLE CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN/BLACK PEOPLE - ESPECIALLY IN OUR STATE. VALERIE ANN JOHNSON - FACEBOOK LOVE THE EFFORT TO SHARE AND HIGHLIGHT NC BLACK HISTORY! THE HISTORIC DETAILS SHARED HERE ARE A TREASURE! CHRISTINA ROOSON - FACEBOOK

"People are underrepresented because that's a consequence of being 'historically excluded' which is the cause" L.D. Edwards Cemeteries & Graveyards Cemeteries & Graveyards 1/5 North Carolina is home to many historic African American cemeteries and graveyards that hold significant cultural and historical value. These cemeteries serve as a reminder of the contributions and struggles of African Americans throughout the state's history. From the historic Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh to the Mount Hope Cemetery in Asheville, these sacred grounds offer a glimpse into the past and honor the lives of those who have passed on. Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! TESTIMONIALS AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE THAT UNCOVERS THE HIDDEN GEMS ABOUT OUR ANCESTORS RICH HISTORY AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH CAROLINA. DEMETRIA TUCKER - FACEBOOK THIS IS A MUCH-NEEDE RESOURCE NOT ONLY FOR THOSE OF US IN NORTH CAROLINA BUT FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONSIDERABLE CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN/BLACK PEOPLE - ESPECIALLY IN OUR STATE. VALERIE ANN JOHNSON - FACEBOOK LOVE THE EFFORT TO SHARE AND HIGHLIGHT NC BLACK HISTORY! THE HISTORIC DETAILS SHARED HERE ARE A TREASURE! CHRISTINA ROOSON - FACEBOOK

< Back Cotton field, Greenfield Farm, NC, c.1905. (PhC_96_16) African American woman worker in cotton field. (Likely a sharecropper.) Greenfield Farm, Chowan County, NC, c.1905. Cotton field, Greenfield Farm, NC, c.1905. (PhC_96_16) African American woman worker in cotton field. (Likely a sharecropper.) Greenfield Farm, Chowan County, NC, c.1905. (N.2000.11.99) Source: From the Ross and Frances Inglis Photograph Collection, PhC.96, State Archives of North Carolina, Raleigh, NC. Previous Next

< Back Gianna Floyd. Gianna Floyd. George Floyd's daughter. George Floyd was born in Fayetteville, NC. Much of his large family still calls North Carolina home, including his sister Bridgett Floyd, a Hoke resident. Image description: Gianna is a young Black girl with brown skin. She has black hair. She is smiling and happy. She is holding a photograph of her father, George Floyd holding her when she was about one year old. Previous Next

< Back Herman Bryan (H.B.) Sugg ​ Herman Bryan (H.B.) Sugg born on September 15, 1885 - died December 27, 1980. Written by Steven A. Hill, 2017. Herman Bryan Sugg was born on September 15, 1885 in North Carolina. Following military service during World War One, Sugg became Principal of Colored Schools in Farmville, North Carolina, from November 1918 to 1959. In 1965, he was the first African American to be elected to Farmville’s School Board. The school H.B. Sugg led was named for him during the 1953-1954 school-year. H.B. Sugg’s parents, Bryant Sugg and Penny Briggs Sugg, were both born enslaved. Bryant Sugg told of his life as a slave and how he had fled his master’s plantation in Greene County to connect with Union General Sherman’s Army as it marched through North Carolina in 1865. Following the Civil War, Bryant and Penny worked as tenant farmers near Snow Hill, North Carolina, and reared a family of seven boys and six girls. During H.B. Sugg’s youth, he doggedly pursued learning: “My parents always allowed me to go [to school], provided I’d do my share of the work. . . . I’ve picked cotton many a time by moonlight so I’d be free to go to school the next day.” Sugg said that “by the time I got grown, I was considered ‘educated’ enough to be a teacher.” His first job was at a one room school in Greene County, close to Farmville. Despite having obtained a job as a teacher, Sugg knew that he needed more education. He lived at home until he was twenty one and helped his parents with farm work while also teaching. Starting at age twenty one, Sugg worked at C.D. Saul’s Store in Snow Hill and saved money for college tuition. In his mid-twenties, he attended the Mary Potter School in Oxford, North Carolina for four years and lived in the dormitory. He worked on campus during the school year and labored in Durham’s tobacco factory during the summer. After graduating from the Mary Potter School, Sugg enrolled at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where he earned his Bachelor of Science teaching degree in four years. In an age before student loans, Sugg worked on nearby farms milking cows, feeding livestock, and chopping wood to pay tuition and meet living expenses. During these summers, he worked as a waiter on a passenger steamship that sailed between New York and Massachusetts. After he received his teaching degree, Sugg worked as a teacher in Lillington, North Carolina for six years before moving to Farmville in 1918. It was in Farmville that “Professor,” or “Fess Sugg” was revered for being a faithful educational and community leader of the town's Black community. Where untouched forest once stood in 1918, by 1955 H.B. Sugg’s African American school campus occupied the site and included a modern classroom building, a vocational education building for boys, a home economics building for girls, and a band room and gym. According to a 1955 article in the Norfolk Journal and Guide, Farmville residents reminisced that in the first years of Sugg’s leadership, the “sounds of boys and men axing away at trees and undergrowth could be heard from the forest” during the early morning hours before school. Mr. Sugg and his “boys,” many of them now middle aged men and leaders in the local and other communities, cleared the land and prepared a place for what the then young instructor envisioned as the site for the school.” In 1941, the Farmville Enterprise newspaper highlighted Sugg’s effectiveness when the State Department of Education reported that the “Farmville Negro School” was rated among the best in the state and had “often been commended by leading educators and citizens, of both races, for the efficiency of its organization and administration.” And by the 1957-1958 school-year, H.B. Sugg’s school was the largest single school unit in Pitt County with over 1,000 students enrolled in twelve grades. H.B. Sugg played an important role in Farmville during the Jim Crow Era, when white and Black communities were separated by law. Funding for “colored schools” came from the white community. Interaction between Black and White was conducted via White leaders and Black leaders. As head of colored schools, Sugg served as a racial diplomat and the de facto “White-appointed ‘leader’ of his race.” In this capacity, Sugg led his community in many bi-racial efforts that ranged from anti-Tuberculosis campaigns, assistance to the Red Cross, and a community-wide “war on rats.” In addition to leadership in the school system, Sugg also served as a member of philanthropic organizations that advanced Farmville’s progress: the Masons, The Colored Elk Lodge, and the Macedonia Church. The racially divided power structure placed leaders like Sugg in a delicate position. Sugg’s actions as a leader speak to his adroit navigation of potentially dangerous realities to achieve tangible progress for African Americans while not compromising or losing the support of neither the white nor black communities. When the African American schools needed better facilities in 1918, Sugg organized his students to help him construct their own school buildings. White support came later, but in the form of second-hand materials when the school for Whites was dismantled and reconstructed for Blacks. In the 1930s, Farmville’s community publicly celebrated the colored school for having achieved state accreditation, while at the same time it acknowledged that the school was inadequate. Later, during the Great Depression, funding came from outside of North Carolina to assist Sugg in the form of New Deal funds that built a six-room addition on Farmville’s Colored school. When school buses were unavailable for Black students to attend the only colored high school in the county, Sugg organized an effort among Blacks to buy their own buses for their children. Sugg noted that “It wasn’t too long till we added another bus, and before too much longer, the county took over providing buses.” In the 1940s, Black students in the H.B. Sugg Marching Band had to buy their own instruments and uniforms until the county provided them years later. Despite being underfunded, Sugg was certain to publicly express gratitude in the Farmville Enterprise in 1938: “Every colored citizen should feel grateful for what is being done for the race and do all in their power to see to it that the authorities shall not be disappointed in their hope and expectations.” Sugg’s philosophy of education was rooted in his religious belief as well as in the ideals of Booker T. Washington. H.B. Sugg maintained “that the primary duty of the public school was to prepare and give back to the state a more alert, thrifty and law-abiding citizenship, where 'mastery of the three R's' " was as necessary as instruction that had a "Christian emphasis." Throughout his career, Sugg tirelessly advanced African American educational progress and was honored in Farmville for being a “potent factor in the harmonious relations between the two races in this community.” H.B Sugg married Aurelia Jones of Roper, North Carolina, and the couple had two children: Vera and Eulalia. Eulalia died before she was two years of age; Vera, like her parents, was a lifelong educator in Los Angeles, California, public schools. H.B. Sugg’s wife, Aureila, died in 1956. H.B. Sugg died on December 27, 1980 and was buried in the cemetery of Saint Peter Church in Snow Hill, North Carolina. . References: Mrs. Joe Phillips, “A Brief Synopsis of the Origin and Development of H.B. Sugg School” and “School Head for 41 Years, Sugg Retires” undated newspaper clipping from the collection of Dominque Baker. Carraway, Grace and Gene Carraway. “Farmville’s 100th Anniversary, April 6-12, 1972. Official Publication of the Farmville Area Centennial Corporation Farmville, North Carolina, Printed by MorMac, Farmville, North Carolina April, 1972, Pg. 27. U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014. Daily Reflector (Greenville, NC): June 24, 1938; January 5, 1940; May 10, 1940; November 15, 1940; October 17, 1941; January 27, 1954; January 27, 1980. Farmville Enterprise (Farmville, NC): October 13, 1933; May 2, 1935; October 9, 1936; February 21, 1941. “School Head for 41 Years, Sugg Retires” undated newspaper clipping from the collection of Dominque Baker. Norfolk Journal and Guide (Norfolk, VA), June 4, 1955 Rocky Mount Evening Telegram (Rocky Mount, NC), September 20, 1957. Blount, Hazel. “Looking Back on Farmville: the Last 100 Years” undated newspaper clipping from the personal collection of Dominque Baker. Image Credits: [H.B. Sugg.] Photograph. Date unknown. From the collection of Eulalia Williams. Used with permission. Previous Next

< Back Somerset Place ​ Josiah Collins I passed away #OnThisDay May 14,1819 at the age of 83. His will stated: “To son Josiah, Jr. during his lifetime the land on Lake Phelps with all improvements. Also all the negroes, ‘upwards of one hundred in number,’ for his lifetime.” By 1819 most of the enslaved families at Somerset Place had already formed a web of kinship that included all the enslaved people once owned by the Lake Company as well as people living on the neighboring Bonarva plantation. When Josiah, Jr., took over Somerset, he sought to increase the number of enslaved laborers. He forcibly sent people from properties he inherited in Chowan County and purchased others, including from the estate of Stephen Cabarrus in 1819 and John Littlejohn in 1826. Consequently, the enslaved population at Somerset grew from 117 in 1819 to 229 in 1830. Image: ledger with slave's names. Source for image and narrative: Somerset Place State Historic Site - North Carolina (Somerset Plantation) Previous Next

< Back North Carolina A&T University was founded on March 9, 1891 ​ On Monday, 03.09.1891,North Carolina A&T University was founded. *On this date in 1891, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University was founded. They are one of over 100 historically Black colleges and unversities in America. North Carolina A. and T. is a public, coeducational institution in Greensboro, North Carolina, part of the University of North Carolina System. The university confers Bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees in a wide range of fields. Courses offered include agricultural studies; animal science; chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, and industrial engineering; landscape architecture and design; arts and sciences; education; and transportation technology. Research facilities at the university include the Agricultural Research Center. Reference: Black American Colleges and Universities: Profiles of Two-Year, Four-Year, & Professional Schools by Levirn Hill, Pub., Gale Group, 1994 ISBN: 0-02-864984-2 ------ The history of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the first land grant college for people of color in the state of North Carolina, can be traced back to 1890, when the United States Congress enacted the Second Morrill Act which mandated that states provide separate colleges for the colored race. The "Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race" (now North Carolina A&T) was established On March 9, 1891 by an act of the General Assembly of North Carolina and began in Raleigh, North Carolina as an annex to Shaw University. The college made a permanent home in Greensboro with the help of monetary and land donation by local citizens. The college granted admission to both men and women from 1893 to 1901, when the Board of Trustees voted to restrict admission to males only. This policy would remain until 1928, when female students were once again allowed to be admitted. In the second half of the century, N.C. A&T experienced many changes. In 1967, The college was designated a Regional University by the North Carolina General Assembly and renamed "North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University." During this period, students would be involved with protests in connection to the Civil Rights Movement. Students staged sit-ins at local segregated businesses, and the campus served as the setting for a conflict between protesters and the US National Guard during the 1969 Greensboro Uprising. In 1971, the North Carolina General Assembly redefined N.C. A&T as a regional university and through legislation make it a constituent of the University of North Carolina. In the 21st century N.C. A&T was classified as a doctoral/research intensive university by the Carnegie Foundation. The university also generates contracts with major international companies, foundations and federal agencies securing funding to enhance academic programs, provide student scholarships, and reach its goal to position itself as a premier institution of higher learning and research on a state, national, and international level. The US Congress laid the foundation for the establishment of North Carolina A&T through the passing of The Second Morrill Act of 1890. Signed into law August 30, 1890, and aimed mainly at the confederate states, the second Morrill Act of 1890 required that each state show that race was not an admissions criterion, or else to designate a separate land-grant institution for persons of color. Unlike the schools under the first Morrill Act, states were granted cash to establish the endowments to support these schools. In order to comply with the Second Morrill Act and yet prevent admission of African Americans to the North Carolina College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts, now known as North Carolina State University, the college's Board of Trustees were empowered to make temporary arrangements for students of color. On March 9, 1891, the "Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race" was established by an act of the North Carolina General Assembly as an annex of the private Shaw University in Raleigh. The act read in part: "That the leading objective of the college shall be to teach practical agriculture and the mechanic arts and such learning as related thereto, not excluding academic and classical instruction." The college, which started with four teachers and 37 students, initially offered instruction in Agriculture, English, Horticulture, and Mathematics. The college continued to operate in Raleigh until the Board of Trustees voted, in 1892, to relocate the college to Greensboro. Other cities considered were Durham, Mebane, Raleigh, and Wilmington, North Carolina. With monetary and land donations totaling $11,000 and 14 acres (57,000 m²), the new Greensboro campus was established the following year and the college's first President, John Oliver Crosby, was elected on May 25, 1892. The main building of the new college, called "the college building" was completed in 1893. The multi-purpose building served as dormitories for men and women, food service, classrooms and offices. The building was destroyed by fire in 1930. The college conferred its first degrees in 1899 to W.T.C. Cheek, I.S. Cunningham, and A. Watson receiving Bachelor of Science degrees & A.W. Curtis, E.L. Falkner, J.M. Joyner, and P.E. Robinson receiving Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degrees. The college granted admission to both men and women of color from 1893, until the Board of Trustees voted to restrict admission to males only in 1901. This policy would remain until 1928, when female students were once again allowed to be admitted. In 1904, the college developed a 100-acre farm equipped with the latest in farm machinery and labor-saving devices. During that time, the university farm provided much of the food for the campus cafeteria. In 1915, the North Carolina General Assembly changed the name of the college to Negro Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina. With Land-grant colleges being required to provide military training as part of its core curriculum. The Junior Unit of Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps (R.O.T.C.) was inaugurated in 1919. This two-year program continued until the Senior Division R.O.T.C. was established in 1942, followed by the senior Air Force unit in 1951 In 1925, Dr. Ferdinand D. Bluford was selected as the third president of the college, and A&T became a member of the Colored Intercollegiate Athletic Association (now known as the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association). The next year, the College's National Alumni Association was established. In 1928, the 27-year ban on female students was lifted as the college once again was granted co-educational status. By December 1931, female students are allowed, for the first time, to participate in the student government as members of the student council. In 1939, the college was authorized to grant the Master of Science degree in education and certain other fields. Two years later, the first Master of Science degree was awarded to Roy Elloy. The 1940s and 1950s saw the college expand its land holdings. In 1946, the college acquired 96 acres of land adjacent to the original 14-acre campus [ In 1953, The School of Nursing was established, with the first class graduating four years later. 1955 saw more changes, as Dr. Warmoth T. Gibbs was selected as the fourth President of the College. Two years later, the college experienced another name change to the "Agricultural and Technical College of North Carolina". In that same year, the college's first white student, Rodney Jaye Miller of Greensboro, was admitted. In 1959, the college was fully accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). Previous Next

< Back Joan Little Joan Little was the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case also has become classic in legal circles as a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection. "Identity Intersections in the Spotlight: The Joan Little Case" Posted on 31 August 2017 by chaitra In June of 1974, a 21-year-old black woman was placed in a Beaufort County jail on a breaking and entering charge. By August of that same year, she was on the run after one of her white jailers, Clarence Alligood, was found dead in her cell, stabbed multiple times with an ice pick and naked from the waist down. After a week on the run, Little turned herself in and what followed was a fascinating clash of southern mores, international topics of activism, and the dark truths about the American criminal justice system. On the 43rd anniversary month of the start of the ordeal, this post intends to highlight how the case is documented in the Southern Historical Collection, various interpretations of the material, and why it is a significant part of our manuscript collection. The Southern Historical Collection has a small collection of materials on the Joan Little murder trial sold to us by James Reston Jr., a Creative Writing lecturer1 at UNC-Chapel Hill in March of 1976. Reston based his book, The Innocence of Joann Little: A Southern Mystery (1977) on this material. The collection includes transcripts of key witness testimonies from the defense and prosecution as well as news clippings and recorded interviews from significant participants in the trial. Reading through the transcripts, a researcher can put him or herself in the front seat of the courtroom. We learn how Alligood propositioned Joan repeatedly before the murder; we feel how Joan’s voice falters when she must relive her assault on the witness stand (Figure 1); we hear the crass interrogation as the prosecution tries to vilify Joan with assumptions about her sexual history and criminal lifestyle. Figure 1: From page 44 of Joan Little’s testimony in Folder 1, James Reston Jr., Collection of Joan Little Materials #4006, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Although it is easy for general audiences to be drawn to this case because of its ties to racism, sexism, classism, the criminal justice system, and sexual assault – there is much more to unpack. Many scholars have delved deeper into the broader historical, legal, and societal issues that make this a landmark case. For example, in “She Ain’t No Rosa Parks: The Joan Little Rape-Murder Case and Jim Crow Justice in the Post-Civil Rights South”, Christina Greene discusses how we may not want celebrate Joan’s acquittal in a southern courtroom as a sign of progress too quickly. On page 429, she reminds us that many poor black women without the national attention or high caliber defense team are being crushed by the same systems that almost crushed Little. Genna Rae McNeil’s article sums up many aspects of my interest in this case with her essay; The Body, Sexuality, and Self-Defense in State vs. Joan Little, in which she discusses the many important ways that Joan Little maintained her integrity and defended herself throughout the ordeal (p. 237). All accounts confirm that her personal life was challenging before her imprisonment (leaving home at an early age, not finishing high school, and falling in with a dangerous crowd) but she did not let those obstacles or how people may have perceived her control her future. She could have let that jailer rape her and follow through with her plans to get out of jail on bond for her breaking and entering charge in the weeks ahead. She could have fled the country when she escaped from jail, she certainly had enough lead time and connections to keep herself hidden for a long period. She could have fallen apart under the trauma of it all. She didn’t do any of these things, she fought for her life, she turned herself in, and in the trial, she withstood attacks on her character and spoke her truth (Figure 2). This woman embodies what it means to be free – which is probably why her story resonated with so many types activist groups. Figure 2: From page 152 of Joan Little’s testimony in Folder 1, James Reston Jr., Collection of Joan Little Materials #4006, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill There is no doubt that the SHC curators in 1974 saw the widespread appeal of Reston’s archival materials on Joan Little. “Women’s groups saw it as a test of a woman’s right to self-defense in a sexual attack. Civil Rights groups looked to it as a test of Southern justice for blacks. Prison reform advocates supported it as an inmate’s rights issue (from staff & wire reports, N&O 08/18/1975)”. In addition to these papers, the trial is well documented in other Wilson Library resources. There are over 40 folders of content from the trial in the Hamilton Hobgood (judge) papers. Access to North Carolina newspapers from Beaufort and Wake Counties as well as others throughout the state can be found on microfilm in the North Carolina Collection. Bernice Johnson Reagon’s song about Joan Little is featured on a Sweet Honey in the Rock album in the Southern Folklife Collection. This woman and her trial represent an important episode in our collective histories and I would challenge all of us to consider what her story means to each of us and why it matters. #ncmaahc #rememberourhistory #tellTheWholeTruth #Joanlittle #justiceforblackwomen #metoo #activisim #WeAreTheMessengers #DontLetThemForgetUs #Ilovemyblackspaces Source:https://blogs.lib.unc.edu/.../identity-intersections-in.../ (Illustrated image of Joan Little from https://alchetron.com/Joan-Little-721496-W) Previous Next

< Back Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Image 1 & 2: On April 3 1968, Dr. King and some of his associates returned to Memphis. After they landed, Dr. King checked into room 306 at the Lorraine Motel. Upon check-in at the Lorraine Motel, Dr. King and his associates attended a strategy meeting at the Centenary United Methodist Church led by Rev. James Lawson. After the meeting, Dr. King returned to his motel and was served an injunction in the courtyard, which prohibited the march planned for Monday, April 8th. Image 3: Early morning on April 4 1968 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. 54 years ago today, the world lost the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to an assassin's bullet. Rev. Dr. King was 39 years-old. In his last speech, the night before in Memphis, he said, "I just want to do God’s will, and God has allowed me to go up to the mountain; and I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the Promised Land." Previous Next

< Back Boddie-Wills Family Mausoleum "Spotted in Enfield., Halifax County, North Carolina." Image and narrative Source: African American Cemeteries of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina fb page. ---- Engraving on head stone: FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM "Spotted in Enfield., Halifax County, North Carolina." Image and narrative Source: African American Cemeteries of Tidewater Virginia and North Carolina fb page. ---- Engraving on head stone: FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM NASHVILLE, NC -- WASHINGINGTON TOWNSHIP ANCESTRY --- A HISTORICAL TREASURE THIS MAUSOLEUM IS DEDICATED TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE ANCESTORS OF THE BODDIE -- WILLS FAMILIES DILLA WOODARD GREAT GRANDMOTHER 1810 -1884 BANDY WOODARD BODDIE GRANDMOTHER 1845-1926 NORA BODDIE POWELL MOTHER 1873 - 1936 PEARLIE BODDIE WILLS DAUGHTER OF NORA BODDIE POWELL 1898 - 1983 Previous Next

< Back Geer Cemetery Geer Cemetary Durham, NC Jesse Geer buried black residents from 1877 to 1944, when the city of Durham shut it down. Lost to time: Overgrown Durham cemetery holds centuries of Black history By Julie Wilson and Cameron Clinard Sunday, February 03, 2019 Geer Cemetary Durham, NC Jesse Geer buried black residents from 1877 to 1944, when the city of Durham shut it down. Lost to time: Overgrown Durham cemetery holds centuries of Black history By Julie Wilson and Cameron Clinard Sunday, February 03, 2019 DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- A plot of land surrounded by houses in Durham is the location of more than 1,500 burials--most of them unmarked and lost to time. "This is a community of untold stories," Jessica Thompson Eustice said. Eustice is a historian with Friends of Geer Cemetery, a group working to preserve and restore the cemetery. It's easy to drive past Geer Cemetery. If you aren't paying attention, you'd never notice the cemetery nestled in the 800 block of Colonial Street. It is a wooded plot of land that stretches more than two acres. A marker at the front of the cemetery dates it as starting in 1877, but that's not the full story. According to the Museum of Durham History, that is the year Jesse Geer, a slave owner, sold the land to a group of Durham residents to be used as a graveyard for African Americans, according to. A year prior, an 11-year-old farmhand who worked for Geer died and was buried on the property. Eustice said she believes that young boy was not the first buried on the land. She believes the area was used as a graveyard for the people Geer enslaved, but official records that could help prove that do not exist. That's the case with a lot of things related to Geer Cemetery and Jesse Geer--there's no biography or easily searchable website filled with information. The Museum of Durham History has a small write up related to the topic in its History Beneath Our Feet section. Therefore, if any enslaved persons were buried at the present site of Geer Cemetery--as Eustice believes there were--there are no records to document their life or final resting place. Even after the cemetery became official, the record-keeping is filled with holes. In North Carolina, death certificates did not officially exist until 1913. According to our newsgathering partners at the News & Observer, at least 1,500 people were buried in Geer Cemetery from 1908 to 1944. Eustice's research suggests there have been at least 3,000 people buried in Geer Cemetery. Most of those have been lost to time. Walking through the cemetery you'll see toppled and broken headstones, as well as casket-sized depressions in the ground that signify unmarked, sunken graves where wood coffins are decaying. Early prominent members of the black community are buried there...somewhere. Friends of Geer Cemetery put up approximate markers to remember those like Reverend Augustus Shepard, the founder of Oxford Central Children's Orphanage and father to James Shepard, the man who would go on to establish North Carolina Central University. This plot of land is also the final resting place to Ediam Markham. "The organizer of Hayti Business District," Eustice said. "And he founded what is now St. Joseph's AME church. I think that time it was Union Bethel." Friends of Geer Cemetery isn't exactly sure when Markham is buried, but a headstone signifies an approximate location. Geer Cemetery was closed in 1944 by the Durham City Health Department for overcrowding. Now it sits as a marker of the past, one that hides thousands of stories of human beings who were discriminated against in life and again in death. It's that discrimination that Friends of Geer Cemetery hopes to rectify. "I think that was discrimination against African Americans that there haven't been records kept the way that (they were at) like Maplewood (Cemetery) for example." Eustice said. "My view is that this is a community of untold stories. The stories, as much as possible, need to be told." Friends of Geer Cemetery is always looking for volunteers to help rake and clean up the land. They're also looking for donations of materials and/or money. Email Eustice at JEustice50@gmail.com for more information. Source:https://abc11.com/5108665/?ex_cid=TA_WTVD_FB... Source:http://www.opendurham.org/buildings/geer-cemetery Previous Next

< Back Nat Williamson and E.H. Anderson, F.S.A. official. Williamson was the first [Black farmer] in the U.S. to receive a loan under the tenant purchase program. (Right) Nat Williamson and E.H. Anderson, F.S.A. official. Williamson was the first [Black farmer] in the U.S. to receive a loan under the tenant purchase program. Guilford County, North Carolina. Date of photograph: April 1938 Photographer: John Vachon Source: (FSA) Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress). . . Click link to see photograph of his wife. https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=861628919299134&set=a.464200284304559 Previous Next

< Back Donna Choate and her husband Sabe standing in front of a quilt draped on a wooden fence behind them. A color photograph of Donna Choate and her husband Sabe, standing in front of quilt draped on a wooden fence behind them. Donna has on a blue button down blouse and she is looking at the viewer, she has her hands behind her. Her husband Sabe has on a tan button down long sleeve shirt and is wearing blue denim overalls. There is an old wooden building behind them. Donna's oral history about her life and her family's life was recorded in Sparta, Alleghany County, North Carolina, September 25 and 26, 1978. This story is a part of the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (AFC 1982/009). Below is a portion of Donna Choate's oral history. "My grandmother was a slave." Transcription: GJ: Mrs. Choate, can you tell me a little bit about yourself? / DC: Well, I was born near Baywood Virginia, in 1909. My parents were James and Lucindy Greer. And my grandmother was a slave. Yes, my grandmother was a slave. My mother was raised, white people raised her, from a child up to her marriage. She was raised in North Carolina. Where do I go from there? / GJ: How did it happen that white people raised your mother? / DC: Her mother, my grandmother, was a slave and she lived with these people, and she died, and my mother was a little girl, about ten or eleven years old. And these white people kept her, and raised her. She even went to school. She had very good she could read very well. And count, too. [...] But I have three sisters, and seven brothers, and there's only two of us living. And, of course, I only have a public school here, I guess you would call it, education. I finished the seventh grade and that was as far as they taught those days. They had high schools of course in Sparta, but they were not open to the black people. So I finished the seventh grade when I was thirteen years old, and that was as far I got with school. But I did a lot of reading in my time. I did a lot of reading. My mother and my father too would bring newspapers home from the places where they worked, and I would read the news to them until they got where they could, able to subscribe to a magazine, or a newspaper, something like that, but I was the reader. They said the reason I read so well, I didn't like to wash dishes. [laughter] I could always find something interesting to read at dishwashing time. See, I married in the year of 1933. And we have one child, and she's in Chicago. So it's the two of us here alone. My husband was raised down in North Carolina, but I was raised practically in Virginia. But we moved to North Carolina, oh, I think it was the year of '21. Here is another portion of her interview. "She'd make a little flower basket." Donna Choate is an African-American woman who learned to quilt from her mother who was taught to piece quilts by the white family who raised her. Although at the time of the interview Mrs. Choate had not made quilts for several years, she describes the process, both as her mother practiced it and as she had done it herself. Mrs. Choate had made both utility and fancy quilts, for the use of her family, not for sale. - Transcription: GJ: Any patterns like you have that were popular, like Around the World, or anything? / DC: Uh, maybe so. I think my mother had that. And she had a basket quilt. She'd make a little flower basket. It'd be in a triangle. It was a flower basket. And the top, she would use a solid piece which would be in the shape of a V, and put it at the top of the square. I don't know whether you get what I'm talking about or not. And she would piece this, uh, basket, up to the top and then she'd leave the center. Now am I right. Yeah. And it would be solid. It would be a solid triangle. Come down here just like that. That would be the basket. Basket's down here, over in these corners, down here. And then this would be a solid piece up here. And then go to this trouble, taking that little bias thing and put it on for the handle. That was work. That was work. I never have pieced 'em. You Can Listen to the recorded version of each of these oral history interviews by clicking the source links. Source Link :https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000036/ Source Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000050/ Photograph Source Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/qlt000244 Previous Next

< Back Black Farmers sleeping in White camp room Image: Black farmers sleeping in White camp room in warehouse. They often must remain overnight or several days before their tobacco is auctioned. Durham, North Carolina, November 1930. Photographer: Marion Post Wolcott, 1910-1990, who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty, the Jim Crow South, and deprivation. Source: LOC Previous Next

< Back Jereann King Johnson's creation, Mr. President: Black, White and Blue Mr. President: Black, White and Blue by Jereann King Johnson — with Heritage Quilters Giving Circle, Inc. Previous Next

< Back Mollie Huston Lee was born on January 18, 1907 in Columbus, Ohio. ​ Mollie Huston Lee was born on January 18, 1907 in Columbus, Ohio. "After graduating from Columbia in 1930, she moved to North Carolina to begin working as a librarian at Shaw University. She was instrumental in organizing the North Carolina Negro Library Association in 1934. It became the first association controlled by blacks to be admitted as a chapter of the American Library Association. But in 1935 there were only twelve black public libraries in North Carolina, and the Olivia Raney Library in Raleigh only served white citizens. So Lee and a group of community members met with the white mayor George A. Isley to start a public library that would serve blacks" Black Libraries ~ Mollie Huston Lee Mrs. Lee was the founder of Raleigh's Richard B. Harrison Library. Mrs. Lee also was instrumental in the foundation of the North Carolina Negro Library Association (NCNLA). Lee started and maintained a collection chronicling the African American experience both locally and nationally. The collection has grown to over 5,000 volumes, composed of both adult and juvenile fiction and nonfiction, serials, pamphlets, and vertical file materials. The vertical file collection has a special focus on documenting the lives of African Americans in Raleigh communities. The online collection consists of biographical information about Lee and African American actor Richard B. Harrison, for whom the library is named. The selections include flyers and clippings related to the 1960 boycotts and sit-ins in Raleigh as well as documents about the library's history. Mollie Huston Lee (January 18, 1907 – January 26, 1982) was the first African American librarian in Raleigh, North Carolina and the founder of Raleigh's Richard B. Harrison Public Library, the first library in Raleigh to serve African Americans. Her greatest achievement was developing, maintaining, and increasing public library service to the African American people of Raleigh and Wake County, North Carolina while striving to achieve equal library service for the entire community. Mollie Huston Lee was born in Columbus, Ohio on January 18, 1907 to Corrina Smith Huston and Rolla Solomon Huston, a private business owner and politician. As the only child of "learned parents," there were always books around the family home and growing up, Lee developed an interest in public affairs. She married Dr. James S. Lee in 1935 and had one son, James S. Lee Jr While attending Howard University, Lee worked as a student library assistant under the direction of E..C. Williams, (Edward Christopher Williams), the man she described as the first black librarian to ever receive a library degree in this country. Lee acknowledged E. C. Williams as the inspiration for her future efforts as a pioneering librarian. After earning an A.B. from Howard University, Lee received a scholarship to attend library school at Columbia University. Upon earning a bachelor of library science from Columbia University, Lee returned to North Carolina in 1930 and began working as a librarian at Shaw University. During her five-year employment at the Shaw University Library, Lee recognized the need among blacks in the surrounding community for a special African-American literature collection. She recognized that this need could be met through the services of a public library. In 1905 public library service was extended to blacks in Charlotte, North Carolina but Raleigh had to wait another thirty years. By 1935 there were only twelve black public libraries in North Carolina, however little action was taken in most areas of North Carolina to open libraries to blacks. Mollie Huston Lee was an advocate for bringing a library that would serve African Americans to Raleigh. Lee and a group of community members met in 1935 with the white mayor, George A. Isley, to discuss the creation of a public library that would serve blacks. Fulfilling a goal to establish a black literary collection at a library, the Richard B. Harrison Public Library opened on November 12, 1935. Lee valued community outreach and frequently brought the library to patrons when they were unable to visit the library themselves. Her actions encouraged community members to use the library and its resources. Despite trying economic conditions, the library's resources continued to expand due to Lee's efforts. In addition to establishing a library and services for African Americans in Raleigh, Lee also assisted in the training of future librarians. Library science students from Atlanta University, North Carolina Central University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill learned from firsthand experiences at the Harrison Library under the direction of Mollie Huston Lee. She served as the supervisor of Negro School Libraries in North Carolina from 1946 to 1953. Lee was known as a "librarian's librarian." Reflecting on her career as a librarian, Lee expressed, "I don't know of anything else that can help anyone grow more than working in a library." Mollie Huston Lee told a radio audience in 1951, "a public library is the recorded memory of mankind, serving the community. Its function is to make available to all, information and thought in all fields of human knowledge and experience and to help each person, whatever his interest may be, to find and use the books and other library facilities and material which best serve his needs." During her thirty-seven year career at the Harrison Library, she saw the library evolve from a tiny, one-room storefront library on Hargett Street to a $300,000 structure on New Bern Avenue. She retired from a forty-two year library career on June 30, 1972 to "have fun and do some of the things I have not had time for. The Mollie Huston Lee Collection Of Black Literature Lee's dedication to the African American populations in Raleigh, Wake County, and North Carolina are best evident in the extensive collection of books and other resources by and about African Americans she established, making the Harrison Library groundbreaking. It was her hope and desire that the African American community would know and be proud of their African American heritage. Lee established this quality collection as a result of meticulous efforts to collect publications about African Americans. In an interview, Lee stated, "I felt there was a need to emphasize black books. Black collections were not popular then like they are today. I felt more people should know about black history, black authors, and the contributions of black people." Commonly, publications about African Americans were only in print for two years, as a result, Lee attentively monitored publishers and vendors of African American books. She would even visit the University Place Book Shop in New York City to select and purchase rare items for the collection. This collection of over 5,000 volumes ranging from adult and children's fiction and nonfiction, serials, pamphlets, and vertical file materials grew gradually but slowly during the thirty-eight years Lee served as librarian at the Harrison Library. An annual appropriate from the State Library of North Carolina over the period of twelve years provided the greatest financial assistance for the collection. The collection now became accessible to the public libraries of North Carolina through the State Library's Interlibrary loan, thus recognizing the value of the collection. In 1972 the "Negro Collection" was renamed the Mollie Huston Lee Collection of Black Literature. Mollie Huston Lee viewed the civic education of community members as essential and she created a well-defined philosophy of community affairs that is evident throughout her career. Lee stated: "If you're a public librarian, you have to be with the people to find out their wants and needs and supply them with the materials to give them the insight to a more wholesome life through reading materials. You can't just sit behind a desk and issue books." Programming at the Harrison Library included lectures featuring black and white speakers, children's authors, and an expanded story time. An emphasis was placed on adult education, "[teaching] them how to live better, longer, fuller and more enjoyable lives." Educational programs directed to residents of the rural Raleigh area provided instruction in the development of reading and writing skills. Discussion groups on relevant topics were also created for patrons of all ages with the idea of keeping community members informed and aware of current news issues. The Harrison Library was well known regionally and nationally for providing services and programs for the aged, blind, disadvantaged, and illiterate. Programming at the Harrison Library fulfilled a need within the community. Children were provided with educational and recreational tools to assist with their formation as good citizens and adults were provided with materials to aid with their wholesome and useful life within their community The esteem to which Mollie Huston Lee was held is indicated by her selection as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) library delegate and her appointment as a trustee of the State Library of North Carolina. Lee also was instrumental in the foundation of the North Carolina Negro Library Association (NCNLA) which dissolved once the American Library Association (ALA) and the North Carolina Library Association opened membership to African Americans. She was the second African American elected at-large to the ALA council, serving from 1950 to 1954 and in 1971 Lee represented ALA at the White House Conference on Aging. In 1971, Lee was the first African American woman elected "Tar Heel of the Week" as a result of her numerous professional and civic contributions to the state of North Carolina. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mollie_Huston_Lee Source:http://www.candidslice.com/not-so-famous-north.../ Previous Next

< Back Negro Tobacco Planter's Family May 1940. “Negro tobacco planter’s family. The three children in the background are those of a neighbor. Near Farrington, Chatham County, North Carolina.” Photo by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration. Previous Next

< Back Katie Hart ​ Groups Hope To Bring Back Historic Bookmobile Discovered in Va. By Paul Nielsen The Daily Reflector Feb 22, 2021 Marvin Jones is holding out hope an important artifact from Hertford and Gates county history discovered just across the state line in Virginia will someday return home. About 10 years ago, Jones, executive director of Chowan Discovery, said he located the 1938 station wagon education pioneer Katie Hart used a bookmobile to loan books to African-American residents, especially students, of Hertford and Gates counties. Back in 1939, Hart turned her private library collection into the Hertford County Colored Public Library. The library was in operation from 1939 to 1969 until it merged with the Albemarle Regional Library. During its existence Hart’s library was the only public library for people of color in northeastern North Carolina during the Jim Crow era. But Hart’s library was more than just a building, Jones told the audience for Museum of the Albemarle’s virtual History for Lunch program Wednesday. Hart, who is part of the museum’s “Women Breaking Barriers in Northeastern North Carolina” exhibit, also used a 1938 station wagon as a bookmobile. Jones said he learned of its location from an old article he found in the Virginian-Pilot newspaper. “I found the owner and I looked him up and he allowed me to see the bookmobile,” Jones said. Jones was shocked to find the bookmobile in excellent condition and he immediately took out his camera and snapped dozens of pictures. “It has shelves inside and I photographed it from all angles, from the inside and from the front and back and so on,” Jones said. “It may be the only African-American bookmobile in the nation that is still in existence.” Jones made an offer to buy the bookmobile but the owner wasn’t interested in selling. The vehicle’s owner did say he would be willing to loan it to Hertford County if it could find an adequate place to display it. Jones contacted several people on the Hertford library board at the time but those discussions went nowhere. “You need a committee behind you when you make a request like that,” Jones said. Jones hasn’t given up on bring the bookmobile back to Hertford and said people interested in helping the effort should contact him at Chowan Discovery. He was joined for Wednesday’s presentation by Hertford County resident and current Cultivator Bookmobile owner Caroline Stephenson. “Caroline and I and others are looking for the means to bring the bookmobile back to Hertford County,” Jones said. “I don’t know if it runs and it doesn’t need to run. It just needs to be on display. If anyone has any ideas on how to do that or other suggestions, we are very open to it.” Stephenson said finding Hart’s bookmobile was a “miracle.” “We want to get (Hart’s) bookmobile back home,” Stephenson said. “It’s amazing that her original vehicle from the late 1930s is still here.” Hart’s bookmobile was a lending service that made stops all over the two counties. There were even a few times when Hart had to go collect overdue books. One such trip was to see Ben Watford. Watford, a retired math professor who is now a renowned potter in Hertford, received a visit at when he was a child at his home by Hart who was in search of several overdue books, Stephenson said. “Watford has great stories in his book about Katie Hart coming to his house and asking for him to return the books he had borrowed from the bookmobile,” Stephenson said. “The books were so precious to him and he had them hidden away under his bed, apparently. It shows the power of books and how important they were to him.” Source: https://www.dailyadvance.com/.../article_bab3af5f-5e39... Previous Next

< Back Freedom Riders ‘surrendered’ in Hillsborough N.C. Arrested & Placed in Bl/Wh Chain Gangs. 2 Year Protest v Seg. Buses. ​ 1949 Freedom Riders ‘surrendered’ in Hillsborough N.C. Arrested & Placed in Bl/Wh Chain Gangs. 2 Year Protest v Seg. Buses. On March 21, 1949, the Freedom Riders surrendered at the Orange County Courthouse in Hillsborough and were sent to segregated chain gangs. In 1946 the U.S. Supreme Court declared that segregation on interstate buses and trains was unconstitutional, though segregation was still widely practiced across the south. The Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) decided to test compliance with the court’s ruling across the South by having interracial groups of protesters travel on Greyhound and Trailways buses. This “Journey of Reconciliation,” as it was dubbed, began in April 1947, and the protesters who participated became known as the “Freedom Riders. In Chapel Hill in April 1947, four riders, including one of the organizers, Bayard Rustin, were arrested and later went to trial. In 1949, Rustin and two white protesters surrendered and were sent to segregated chain gangs. Rustin published journal entries about the experience. His writings, as well as the actions of the “Journey” riders in April 1947, in time inspired Rosa Parks’ nonviolent protest in 1955 and the Freedom Rides of 1960-1961. Source:https://www.ncdcr.gov/.../freedom-riders-surrender-in... Previous Next

< Back James Edward Barnes STUDIO SHOT, NO. 176: JAMES EDWARD BARNES. This photograph shows James Edward Barnes (1926-1955), in his World War II uniform. In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Frank Barnes, 22, farm laborer; wife Iantha, 17; and children James E., 4, and Oza, 1. STUDIO SHOT, NO. 176: JAMES EDWARD BARNES. This photograph shows James Edward Barnes (1926-1955), in his World War II uniform. In the 1930 census of Black Creek township, Wilson County: Frank Barnes, 22, farm laborer; wife Iantha, 17; and children James E., 4, and Oza, 1. In the 1940 census of Wilson, Wilson County: at 311 New Bern Street, owned and valued at $700, John Scott, 82; wife Sarah, 42, cook; son-in-law Fate Daill, 38, tobacco factory laborer; Fate’s wife Iantha, 32, tobacco factory laborer; their children Ollie, 15, and Clyde, 10; and grandchildren James, 14, Inza, 13, and Atha Barnes, 12. James Edward Barnes registered for the World War II draft in 1944. Per his registration card, he was born 26 February 1926 in Wilson County; lived at 410 Lane Street; his mailing address was 1018 1/2 Wainwright Avenue; was unemployed; and his contact was Iantha Dale. On 26 May 1947, James Edward Barnes, 21, of Wilson, son of Frank Barnes and Iantha Scott Barnes, married Dorothy Lee Watson, 18, daughter of John McNeal and Virginia Pendergrass, at Watson’s grandmother’s house in Toisnot township. Elder William Mercer performed the ceremony in the presence of Joseph Knight, Leland Pendergrass, and Jannie Barron. James Edward Barnes died 5 December 1955 in Wilson. Per his death certificate, he was born 29 February 1926 in Wilson County to Frank Barnes and Iantha Scott; was married; was a World War II veteran; worked as a candy cook for Acme Candy Company; and lived at 307 Lane Street, Wilson. Informant was Dorothy Lee Barnes. Dorothy Watson Barnes applied for a military headstone for James Edward Barnes on 6 December 1955 via Talmon Hunter of Hunter’s Funeral Home. The application indicated that he served in the U.S. Navy as a Steward’s Mate 2nd Class between June and November 1944 Photo courtesy of Ancestrydotcom user scottywms60. Source- Black Wide-Awake Web Site: https://afamwilsonnc.com/.../studio-shot-no-176-james.../... Source- Black Wide-Awake fb page: https://www.facebook.com/blackwideawake Previous Next

< Back Dr. Willa B. Player ​ Dr. Willa B. Player (August 9, 1909-August 29, 2003) In 1953, Dr. Player became the first female president of Bennett College for Women In Greensboro, NC and the first African American woman in the country to be named president of a four-year fully accredited liberal arts college. During the peak of civil rights demonstrations in Greensboro, when almost 40 percent of the Bennett student body was arrested and jailed, Player visited students daily and arranged for professors to hold class and administer exams for jailed students. She also arranged for Martin Luther King to speak in Feb 1958, when no other group in Greensboro was willing to host him." It was the local NAACP chapter that sponsored King's visit 60 years ago, but as the story goes, members almost gave up in frustration as door after door was slammed while the chapter tried to find a place to hold the rally. Many people didn't know how to respond to the brave orator who declared that segregation was wrong and that it was time to break the bondage On campus, King sat for an interview with reporters from the student newspaper, the Bennett Banner, who asked a range of questions from race relations in Montgomery after the bus boycott to President Dwight Eisenhower's the use of federal troops to integrate Central High School. "Many of these persons are bitter," King responded to the question about the success of the bus boycott, " and they are just as determined to preserve segregation as Negroes are to lift the thing." Source:http://crdl.usg.edu/people/p/player_willa_b/?Welcome Source:http://www.journalnow.com/.../article_76627f23-56df-574a... Previous Next

< Back Photo shows an African American man in a plowed field, with plow and horse. Photo shows an African American man in a plowed field, with plow and horse. [Untitled photo, possibly related to Roanoke farms, Enfield, North Carolina]. 1938 Apr. Photo shows an African American man in a plowed field, with plow and horse. Negative has a hole punch made by FSA staff to indicate that the negative should not be printed. Photographer: John Vachon, (1914-1975) Source: LOC - Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information Black-and-White Negative Previous Next

< Back Mrs. King and her four children Image: "In April 1968, Mrs. King and her four children flew from Memphis back to Atlanta with Rev. Dr. King’s body for burial. As Rev. Dr. King’s body was being taken from the plane, there was just a moment when the family came together in the doorway." Photograph and narrative by Harry Benson Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr was murdered by a sniper in TN, on April 4, 1968. Previous Next

< Back Bennett College-Five students pose on stage for a show ​ 1941, Five students pose on stage for a show at Bennett College For Women, in Greensboro, NC. Sourced from: The Art Shop (Greensboro, N.C.) (Photographer) - Greensboro History Museum. Previous Next

< Back Kellis Earl Parker Kinston, Lenoir County, NC native Kellis Earl Parker, an accomplished lawyer, activist, scholar, and musician. Kellis Earl Parker 13 Jan 1942 - 10 Oct 2000 Kinston, Lenoir County, NC native Kellis Earl Parker, an accomplished lawyer, activist, scholar, and musician, was born January 13, 1942 in Kinston, North Carolina. In addition to his distinguished career, Parker was also well known for several firsts: he was one of the first black students to enroll at UNC-Chapel Hill, the first black student to run for a campus-wide office at Carolina, and the first black professor of law at Columbia University. Kellis Parker’s parents, Maceo Sr. and Novella, were business owners in Kinston and operated the only black dry cleaning facility in the city. Kinston had a thriving music scene and the entire Parker family played music: Kellis and his younger brothers Maceo Jr. and Melvin had a band together, having been taught the basics by their mother and father. Kellis’ chosen instrument was the trombone, which he would continue to play throughout his life and career, using jazz music as a tool to illuminate to his students the legal challenges facing black Americans. One of his classes at Columbia was called “Jazz Roots Revisited: The Law the Slaves Made.” Maceo, whose chosen instrument was the saxophone, and Melvin, drummer, would go on to be career musicians and collaborate with James Brown. From his own recollection, Parker’s work as a civil rights activist began as a teenager. As the head of the band at the segregated high school he attended, Parker successfully petitioned the Kinston Chamber of Commerce to change the rule requiring black schools to march at the back of a town parade. Parker matriculated at UNC-Chapel Hill in 1960, one of only four black students to enter as freshmen that year. He was deeply involved with the YMCA, working on numerous committees and holding multiple official positions, as well as with the student chapter of the NAACP. He was a leader in civil rights activism while at UNC with an eye on the community outside of campus; for example, coordinating the boycott of a Durham movie theater (the Rialto) that refused to integrate. In 1962, a fundraising campaign spearheaded by fellow Kinstonians raised money to help Parker travel to Greece as the first black undergraduate delegate to the United Nations International Students Conference. Parker became the first black student at UNC elected to a campus-wide position when he was chosen by the student body to attend the National Student Congress in 1963. He was also a member of the Order of the Grail, the highest undergraduate men’s honorary organization, and the Order of the Old Well. Parker’s accomplishments continued after leaving Carolina in 1964. He went on to attend Howard University Law School, where he graduated at the top of his class, and then taught at the University of California at Davis. In 1972, he became the first black law professor at Columbia University, receiving tenure in 1975. Parker’s civil rights work remained central: he was director of the NAACP's Legal Defense and Educational Fund and produced numerous publications considering legal remedies for race issues in the United States. Kellis Earl Parker died of acute respiratory distress syndrome on October 10, 2000 in New York City. Previous Next

"People are underrepresented because that's a consequence of being 'historically excluded' which is the cause" L.D. Edwards Black Culture Keepers Black Culture Keepers A narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings. After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War. Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots In this important study, former United States primary patent examiner Patricia Carter Sluby pays homage to the inventive spirit of African Americans. Beginning with the contributions of enslaved Africans brought to American shores, Sluby introduces inventors and patent holders from all fields up to and including the leading edge of today's technology. Along with such recognizable figures as George Washington Carver and Madam C. J. Walker, readers will discover little-known or forgotten pioneers When and Where I Enter is an eloquent testimonial to the profound influence of African-American women on race and women's movements throughout American history. Drawing on speeches, diaries, letters, and other original documents, Paula Giddings powerfully portrays how black women have transcended racist and sexist attitudes--often confronting white feminists and black male leaders alike--to initiate social and political reform. From the open disregard for the rights of slave women to examples of A narrative history of America's deadliest episode of race riots and lynchings. After World War I, black Americans fervently hoped for a new epoch of peace, prosperity, and equality. Black soldiers believed their participation in the fight to make the world safe for democracy finally earned them rights they had been promised since the close of the Civil War. Instead, an unprecedented wave of anti-black riots 1/5 North Carolina is home to a rich African American culture, and there are many individuals who have dedicated their lives to preserving and promoting it. From artists and musicians to historians and community leaders, these culture keepers play a vital role in ensuring that the traditions and stories of African Americans in North Carolina are passed down to future generations. Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! The African Diaspora 1/1 More great content coming soon! Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! Coming Soon 1/1 More great content coming soon! TESTIMONIALS AN EXCELLENT RESOURCE THAT UNCOVERS THE HIDDEN GEMS ABOUT OUR ANCESTORS RICH HISTORY AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH CAROLINA. DEMETRIA TUCKER - FACEBOOK THIS IS A MUCH-NEEDE RESOURCE NOT ONLY FOR THOSE OF US IN NORTH CAROLINA BUT FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE CONSIDERABLE CONTRIBUTIONS OF AFRICAN AMERICAN/BLACK PEOPLE - ESPECIALLY IN OUR STATE. VALERIE ANN JOHNSON - FACEBOOK LOVE THE EFFORT TO SHARE AND HIGHLIGHT NC BLACK HISTORY! THE HISTORIC DETAILS SHARED HERE ARE A TREASURE! CHRISTINA ROOSON - FACEBOOK

< Back Mr. Charlie Williams-Harness Racer Mr. Williams is 86 years young and a community member from Ahoskie, North Carolina who has been Harness Racing since he was a young boy. Mr. Charlie Williams-Harness Racer "Creekside would like to acknowledge Mr. Charles Williams in honor of Black History Month. Mr. Williams is 86 years young and a community member from Ahoskie, North Carolina who has been Harness Racing since he was a young boy. Creekside has a picture of Mr. Charles Williams and his horse at that time "Southampton Linda" hanging in our hallway from September 25, 1949 from the Atlantic District Fair Ground here in Ahoskie. The day this picture was taken Mr. Charles Williams and "Southampton Linda" were winners of the Free Fall Trot with a time of 2:03. Mr. Williams still races and is such a wonderful friend to our residents of Creekside. In his spare time he comes to visit residents and tells great stories of races he has been in. Mr. Williams also brings a horse at least once a year to visit the residents. The resident and staff of Creekside would like to thank Mr. Charles Williams for his friendship, love and history he shares with everyone at Creekside". Image credit: The Accordius Health at Creekside Care FB page-posted Feb 10, 2020 We thank #CultivatorBookstore for sharing this Black History! ----- USTA Profile: Charlie Williams Tuesday, November 24, 2015 - by Charlene Sharpe If you’ve been to a fair south of the Mason-Dixon Line, chances are you know Charles Williams. The soft-spoken octogenarian, known to friends as “Red Eye” or “Brother Williams,” is a fixture at small-town harness racing festivals. He doesn’t have a large stable and you won’t find him atop the driver’s standings, but his horses, whose gleaming coats are accented by bright red saddle pads and bandages, are hard to miss. Williams, at 82, is a horseman who truly loves the Standardbred horse. “Make them feel safe and loved and you can do anything you want,” he said. The Virginia resident traces his affinity for harness racing back to his childhood, though unlike many in the industry he did not come from a harness racing family. Instead, he came from a big family—one big enough that he often found himself overlooked or in the way. “There were 13 of us kids,” he said. “I had a twin sister and she passed when I was four months old. My father passed when I was 4 years old. The others didn’t have much time for me.” Comic books kept the young Williams entertained. He was entranced by the stories of cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. It was the horses they rode that particularly interested him. “The horses were looking so good it put it into my head,” he said. He was captivated enough that when he was 7, he made his way to the local fairgrounds—at that time the Tidewater Sportsman’s Park--for the weekend matinee races. He quickly developed a relationship with trainer Frank Albertson, the man who gave Williams the moniker of Red Eye. Decades later, it was a nomination from Albertson’s daughter that earned Williams the Harness Tracks of America Caretaker of the Year Award in 1998. “After school I was there,” Williams said. “On weekends I was there.” He’s worked with Standardbreds ever since. Though it was always a hobby he enjoyed, for the past 20 years it’s what’s kept him busy. Upon retirement from the Newport News shipyard, where he worked for 35 years, Williams has spent his time traveling to fairs and tracks like Ocean Downs and Colonial Downs to race. When asked if he thought he’d still be training and driving horses at 82, Williams replied with an emphatic “yes.” “I just love ‘em,” he said. Williams’ stable currently consists of one trotter and one pacer. While he admits that his low budget and willingness to give any horse a try often leave him with horses most would consider rejects, Williams does the best he can with them. And while they’re not world champions, Williams takes pride in his work when the Standardbreds do their best. “I love for horses to perform well,” he said. “If a horse is racing good he’s getting everything he needs—good feed, good care, the right shoes, the right equipment. It’s almost similar to an automobile. In order to get anything out of it you’ve got to have it in top condition. That’s what I try to do.” He works on a horse the hard way, through trial and error. He starts by simply giving the animal plenty of time and care and goes from there. “If you ask questions you’re going to get all kinds of answers,” Williams said. “No two people are going to tell you the same thing about a horse. I do the searching myself.” Oftentimes the home remedies he learned as a child working for Albertson are enough to get a horse back on track. He recommends a concoction made of mullein leaves—Williams said he finds the plant, which looks like “a tobacco leaf with frost on it,” along a span of railroad track—for sore knees. Williams uses something he calls poke salad for horses with ulcers. “You’ve got to brew the stuff on the stove,” he said. “It’s got big leaves with blueberries. Once you get the broth you put some ginger in it. If a horse has a bad stomach it’ll straighten him right up.” Williams, who’s made it a point to keep a handwritten book of remedies, has also got a number of recipes for salves and colic cures. It’s not unusual for a local horse owner to call him for help when they’ve got a problem. “They call me when they can’t get a vet,” Williams said. “A lot of times they won’t come out if it’s late and if they do they’re going to charge you an arm and a leg.” He recently helped a man with an aging show horse that was having stomach trouble. Williams said the horse, whose ribbons adorned an entire room in the barn, was a nice-looking chestnut. “It ain’t the money,” Williams said when the grateful owner offered to pay him for his time. “I just love horses.” A desire to share that love with his community is what prompted Williams to join forces with municipal officials to bring harness racing back to the Atlantic District Fairgrounds in Ahoskie, North Carolina, this summer. The fairgrounds, which are privately owned, had been quiet for years. Williams and another trainer stabled their horses there, but little else went on at the historic site. According to Amy Braswell, executive vice president of the Ahoskie Chamber of Commerce, the property has been passed down through the generations and the group of people who retain ownership of it now know little of horses or racing. “They’re investors,” she said. It took a horseman like Williams to bring harness racing back to Ahoskie. “Mr. Williams is a trainer and he’s well-known,” Braswell said. “He’s the kind of person people come to for advice.” Williams used his harness racing contacts to convince some horsemen from the region to make the trip to Ahoskie for a summer matinee. He advised town officials how the site would need to be fixed up before the event. “They did everything we asked,” Williams said. “The place looked better than it did the first time I came down here in 1949.” Braswell said the event, meant to be a tourist attraction, came about through teamwork, with assistance from town employees, chamber members and individuals like Williams. “You got the sense of it being a community effort,” she said. The work paid off, as the well-attended event gave many in the area their first glimpse of harness racing. They enjoyed a festival-type atmosphere, complete with an opening parade and carriage horse competitions in addition to the racing. “It was a lot of fun,” Braswell said, adding that she hoped to see racing at the fairgrounds develop into something like a steeplechase, with food tents and vendors for the fans. “We want it to grow.” She credited Williams with helping get the event off the ground. “We really appreciate Mr. Williams,” she said. “He’s a delightful man and such a gentleman.” For Williams, reestablishing racing at the Atlantic District Fairgrounds was simply a chance to bring life back to a dying facility. During a year when he lost his brother and then had his home burn to the ground, it was something positive for him to work on. He doesn’t want to see the stables and grandstand sit empty year after year, he wants to show townspeople and tourists alike the joys of racing. “I know what it takes,” he said. “I’m the last of the older guys around. I’m the one keeping it going.” #BlackHistoryMonthDay42 2020 #Bhm365 #HarnessRacing #AhoskieNC #CharlieWilliams #horses #teachTheChildren #education #Irememberourhistory #nchistory #horseracing Source: http://xwebapp.ustrotting.com/.../templ.../hoofbeats.aspx... Previous Next

< Back Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association ​ On Mon, 07.01.2002, the Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association staged a “prayer vigil and sit in.” Black farmers from Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Mississippi and other southern states, and the national president of Black Farmers & Agriculturalists Association (BFAA), Gary R. Grant, participated. The first of five protests took place at the Farm Services Agency (FSA) offices in Brownsville and Bolivar, Tennessee. It was in support of Black farmers who had been denied or delayed operating loans. At the time of the sit-in, corn was ready to be harvested, cotton plants were setting their blooms, and vegetable crops were ripe for picking. Many Black farmers who had applied for operating loans to plant their 2002 corps had not received their loan proceeds in Haywood and Hardeman Counties, Tennessee. "The main thrust of the Prayer Vigil and Farmers' Sit-in is to garner public and ultimately congressional support for the establishment of a Separate but Equal lending agency specifically for African American borrowers. To do otherwise will all but guarantee the demise of the African American farmer in the United States," charges Tom Burrell of the Tennessee-BFAA Chapter. Black farmers who prevailed in the April 14, 1999 Pigford v Glickman (USDA) class action lawsuit are entitled to operation loans. They are still being denied access to loan benefits, which were made available to them by the Consent Decree, signed by Judge Paul Friedman. Reference: The Associated Press permissions 450 W. 33rd St., New York, NY 10001. Jet Magazine Johnson Publishing 820 South Michigan Avenue Chicago IL 60605 B.F.A.A. ---------------- And Then, In 2014, The Black Farmers Protested Again! --- Black Farmers Protest Government Behind Lawsuit Craig D. Frazier | 4/24/2014, Three years ago, after years of protests, numerous failed congressional bills and dozens of lawsuits, President Barack Obama signed the bill authorizing compensation for discrimination in farm lending at the hands of the United States Department of Agriculture. The settlement benefits thousands of Black farmers who say they were denied loans and other assistance for years by federal agriculture officials because of their race. Thousands of farmers received payments as part of a 1999 class action settlement in a case known as Pigford I. This second round of payments (Pigford II) is part of legislation designed to pay farmers who missed the filing deadline for Pigford I. Obama, who supported the settlement when he was a senator, signed the bill into law in December 2010. “The U.S. District Court’s approval of the settlement between the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and plaintiffs in the Pigford II class action lawsuit is another important step forward in addressing an unfortunate chapter in USDA’s civil rights history,” said Obama. “This agreement will provide overdue relief and justice to African-American farmers and bring us closer to the ideals of freedom and equality that this country was founded on. I especially want to recognize the efforts of Secretary [of Agriculture Tom] Vilsack and Attorney General Eric Holder, without whom this settlement would not have been reached.” Recently, Black farmers protested in front of the USDA office in Montgomery. The farmers say they’re not getting their payments and their complaints are going unanswered. “We have findings of discrimination, breaches of contracts, and we also want to continue to farm the land. We are coming to stand today to fight for justice, because the USDA has destroyed all our lives and discriminated against us across the country,” said Michael Stovall, a Black farmer from Alabama who has been fighting the USDA for 20 years. The protests are not just in Alabama. Similar demonstrations are being held nationwide. “I have been advocating for justice for Black farmers for the past 30 years. I went to Congress and successfully campaigned for three bills,” said John W. Boyd Jr., a fourth generation Black farmer, businessman and civil rights activist. He is the founder and president of the nonprofit National Black Farmers Association, a position that has frequently placed him in the national spotlight. Boyd said Congress lifted the statute of limitations for his group’s claims in 1998. In 2008, Congress passed a bill allowing the claims of late filers to be heard. Then, in 2010, Congress approved $1.25 billion in payments to compensate the Black farmers. “The struggle seems never to be over for Black people. We won in court. We won in Congress. Now that we have prevailed, playing by all the rules, the game is suddenly flawed.” Source:http://amsterdamnews.com/.../black-farmers-protest.../ Previous Next

< Back Albion Academy Albion Academy (1878-1933), a school for black elementary and high school students, founded by the Presbyterian Board o'f Missions for Freedmen, and State Colored Normal School at Franklinton, Franklin County, N.C. was once known to be one of the best black high schools. Albion Academy (1878-1933), a school for black elementary and high school students, founded by the Presbyterian Board o'f Missions for Freedmen, and State Colored Normal School at Franklinton, Franklin County, N.C. was once known to be one of the best black high schools. “The Albion Academy was designed to prepare young men and women to be teachers in schools intended for the instruction of colored people in the Southern States. “It was organized by the late Rev. Moses A. Hopkins, its first principal, and aided by his Presbyterian friends North and South." “Like all schools, at its commencement, it had many obstacles to fight. But by prayer, and the indefatigable energy and push of its founder, it grew gradually until it attracted the public in such a way, that the State of North Carolina, feeling the need of having intelligent, warmhearted citizens who will exercise their right of suffrage intelligently, and for the good of their country, the elevation of the race, and the glory of God, established six Normals, and located one at Franklinton, in connection with the Albion Academy.” Founded in 1878, this school was established by the State Board of Education by an act of Legislature in 1881. Dr. Moses Aaron Hopkins, a black Virginian, educated at the College and Theological Seminary of Lincoln University in Pennsylvania, came to Franklinton in 1878 as an educator and minister. His school, the Albion Academy~ was funded by the Presbyterian Board of Missions for Freedmen and opened in that same year. - The Academy was one of several such schools funded by the Board of Missions throughout Virginia and North Carolina as part of their humanitarian effort to provide necessary training to freed slaves. The headquarter of the Board of Missions was Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Dr. Hopkins served as the principal of the Albion Academy until 1885 when he was appointed the United States Minister and Consul to Liberia in Africa where he died of a contracted fever in 1886. Dr. John A. Savage was the next appointed principal of the Albion Academy, arriving in Franklinton around 1895.. Savage was born in Louisiana,. but grew up in Africa with his missionary parents. He returned to America to be educated and as did Hopkins, received his college degree from Lincoln University. Dr. Savage served as a highly capable and dynamic leader of the Academy until his death in 1933, shortly after which the school closed its doors to students. The Albion Academy first opened on the corner of College and Main Streets, but soon relocated east of the railroad tracks on College Street. From a small tract of land and only a few frame classroom and dormitory buildings, the school grew rapidly to accommodate some 500 students at its peak. By 1924 the Academy one some 60 acres on which stood a large frame classroom with a central tower; a brick dormitory for boys and a frame dormitory for' girls; teachers cottages; a brick dining hall and laundry; an infirmary; the principal' home and several barns. Of this extensive facility, only the dining hall and the principal home remain today. Students at the Academy came from all over North Carolina and some neighboring states. They attended classes from elementary through high school grades that prepared the students to be teachers, farmers, nurses, and mechanics as well as other vocational skills. The Albion Academy was the first "community" to generate its own running water in the county before 1900. The students developed a ram system from a natural spring on the Academy grounds, drawing water into the various buildings. Electricity was provided through underground wires. Following Dr. Hopkins death in 1886, the Albion Academy was operated by some of his associates until Dr. Savage Was appointed principal circa 1895. The State of North Carolina began to assist the Board of Missions in funding the school when the Academy was chartered as a Normal School .in 1881 along with four other schools in the state. The Albion Academy in Franklinton, and the other Normal Schools in New Bern, Plymouth and Salisbury were given $500 annually from 1881 to 1887 when the amount Has increased to $1500.00 annually. Dr. John Savage was the main promoter and force of the Albion Academy. It was through his efforts that the school grew to be such a large and well-equipped facility. Dr. Savage's motto to his students Has "Make money, save money, and behave yourselves." When the State Department of Education began to accredit schools in the 1920's, the Albion Academy High school received an 'A' rating. Upon Dr. Savages death in 1933, Reverend John Percy Mangrum became the principal of the Albion Academy. The school was assimilated into the Franklinton Public School system in 1933-1934, but when water pipes burst in the winter of 1934, the school board refused to repair the damage. The city voted to construct a new school - the B.F. Person Albion School - which is today the Franklinton Elementary School, leaving the Albion Academy to deteriorate and be ravaged by fire and vandalism until there are only two buildings remaining. Dr. Savage;s house is still owned by his daughter, Carrie Savage Hawkins, and is rented as a duplex while the former dining hall/laundry is owned and used by the Holiness Trinity Church. The struggle to provide education for the freed blacks in North Carolina after the Civil War was hindered by lack of support for new legislation to provide such education, lack of money and lack of qualified black teachers. Long-held beliefs among the white population maintained that blacks should not and could not be educated. This basic racist premise, combined with the total, war-time depletion of monies from the state coffers, created serious stumbling blocks against the movement to write the needed legislation to provide equal public education for blacks and whites. The lack of qualified black teachers was a major problem not only because there were not enough to staff schoolrooms, but also because black leaders believed that white teachers with black pupils would try to continue the doctrine that blacks were inferior to whites. This need for more black teachers was an issue supported by Governor Zebulon Baird Vance in 1877-1879 and again by Governor Thomas J. Jarvis 1881-1885, resulting in the increased expenditures for State Normal Schools in 1881, one of which was the Albion Academy. The Albion Academy provided excellent training and education for black students in North Carolina and the surrounding states. It is unfortunate that in the process of trying to transfer the responsibility for such schools from the private organizations that founded them to the states, many of the schools were lost. Source: https://files.nc.gov/ncdcr/nr/FK0025.pdf Previous Next

< Back Black farmers sleeping in White camp room ​ Image: Black farmers sleeping in White camp room in warehouse. They often must remain overnight or several days before their tobacco is auctioned. Durham, North Carolina, November 1930. Photographer: Marion Post Wolcott, 1910-1990, who worked for the Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression documenting poverty, the Jim Crow South, and deprivation. Source: LOC Previous Next

< Back Joan Little Zinn Education Project THIS DAY IN HISTORY Aug. 15: 1975: Joan Little Acquitted Time Periods: Post-Civil Rights Era: 1975 - 2000 Themes: African American, Criminal Justice & Incarceration Joan* Little was acquitted on this day in 1975, the first woman in U.S. history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. She had killed a guard in self-defense while incarcerated. Her case received national attention, leading her to say: My life is not in the hands of the court. My life is in the hands of the people. There were “Joanne Little Legal Defense Committees” all over the United States, including a local chapter formed by Rosa Parks in Detroit. The Washington Area Spark offers the following description: Little was jailed for minor crimes in the Beauford County, North Carolina jail. On August 27, 1974 white guard Clarence Alligood was found dead on Joan Little’s bunk naked from the waist down with stab wounds to his temple and heart. Semen was later discovered on his leg. Little claimed self defense against sexual assault but was charged with first degree murder. The case attracted national attention in part because Little would have received the death penalty if convicted. Civil rights advocates, death penalty opponents and women’s rights advocates all rallied to her defense. The jury of six African Americans and six whites deliberated for about an hour and a half before delivering a not guilty verdict. Little may have been the first woman in United States history to be acquitted using the defense that she used deadly force to resist sexual assault. Her case also has become classic in legal circles as a pioneering instance of the application of scientific jury selection. Read in full. The blog Prison Culture asks, One has to wonder what it would take to build a similar coalition of groups and individuals in 2011 to take aim at dismantling the unjust prison industrial complex. The “Free Joan Little” movement is instructive because it underscores that it is possible to come together to address prisoner injustice and to WIN. Continue reading ‘Free Joan Little’: Reflections on Prisoner Resistance and Movement-Building. Read more in Black Herstory: The Trial of the Decade at Ms. Magazine and At the Dark End of the Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance — A New History of the Civil Rights Movement from Rosa Parks to the Rise of Black Power. Listen to the song Joanne Little by Bernice Johnson Reagon, sung by Sweet Honey in the Rock. It became an anthem for the “Free Joan Little” movement. (Lyrics below.) I always walked by the golden rule, steered clear of controversy … Till along come this woman, little over five feet tall Charged and jailed with breaking the law … First-degree murder she was on the loose, Joanne …What is she to you? Joanne Little, she’s my sister. Joanne Little, she’s our mama. Joanne Little, she’s your lover. Joanne’s the woman who’s gonna carry your child… This is 1975 at it most oppressive best. North Carolina state, the pride of this land, made her an outlaw… Tell me what she did to deserve this name? Killed a man who thought she was fair game. When I heard the news, I screamed inside. Lost all my cool. My anger I could not hide. … Joanne is you. Joanne is me. Our prison is the whole society ’cause we live in a land that’ll bring all pressure to bear on the head of a woman whose position we share. *Note Joan is pronounced Jo-ann so often spelled Joann or Joanne. Photo description: Left image - Joan Little (left) and one of her attorneys (Karen Galloway) wait for an elevator July 14, 1975 in the Wake County Courthouse where Little was on trial for the 1974 stabbing death of one of her jailers. Source: Washington Area Spark. Right Image- Supports of Joan protesting her arrest. Source: U.S. Prison Culture website. Source: https://www.zinnedproject.org/.../joan-little-acquitted/... Previous Next

< Back Citizens Cemetery Youths, Volunteers Uncover More Hidden Slave's Graves In Historic Black Cemetery In Madison, Rockingham County, NC By Susie C. Spear- staff writer for RockinghamNow - May 29, 2019 Editor’s Note: This is the first installation of a series that will explore African-American history and forgotten historic black settlements in Rockingham County. Youths, Volunteers Uncover More Hidden Slave's Graves In Historic Black Cemetery In Madison, Rockingham County, NC By Susie C. Spear- staff writer for RockinghamNow - May 29, 2019 Editor’s Note: This is the first installation of a series that will explore African-American history and forgotten historic black settlements in Rockingham County. MADISON — As Trenton Phelps parted waist-high grass last fall to uncover tombstones here, he realized he could rally young hands to help reveal part of his small Southern hometown’s African-American history. Some nine months later, the teen and other community volunteers and historians are poised to ask state and federal agencies to designate Citizens Cemetery, which sits within the bounds of the town’s pre-Civil War black settlement Freetown, as a protected historic site. “These were the people who helped the town … who built the town and did a lot of work and helped Madison become what it is today,’’ Phelps, 17, said of the more than 325 gravesites in the long-neglected burial grounds on Nichols Street, where volunteer researchers have already discovered the graves of nine slaves. “When I first came here and I saw all the grass up high … and when I started reading all the names and going to the graves, it gave me a real human-like feeling, and I thought, ‘How can these people be buried like this?’ ’’ said Phelps, who with his father Travis Phelps, and other town and community members orchestrated a transformative clean-up of the site in late fall. Trenton gathered other young members of his service club Your Community United Juniors, or YCUJ, and his dad coordinated with Madison Town Manager Kevin Baughn and local attorney Jack Webster. Baughn volunteered time and equipment for the spruce up, along with Chief Mike Rutherford and Capt. Jason Hood of the Madison Police Department. The effort also saw local landscaper Shawn Reeder and leaders of area black churches turn out with weed eaters and mowers to skirt marked and unmarked graves. After bushwhacking tall grasses, youngsters moved in with soapy buckets and brushes and scrubbed mildew and dirt from scads of monuments marking well-known names in the black community — Moseley, Dalton, Scales, LeSeuer, Camp, Wall, Foust, and more. Since then, the Phelps father-son team, YCUJ kids, and dozens of volunteers have shifted to the task of recording names and tallying the number of graves along the rolling acreage where dozens upon dozens of unmarked plots appear as gentle divots. “When kids got out here to clean this thing, they started asking real questions: Who are these people, how many graves are there, and who were they in life?’’ said Travis Phelps. “As moms, dads and grandpas, we couldn’t answer those, so that’s how the research started.’’ The youths’ enthusiastic burst in response to finding historic evidence is a type of curiosity that’s familiar to teacher and historian Valencia Abbott of Reidsville. In fact, Abbott helped fellow black historian Fletcher Dalton lead the very seminar about Freetown last August at the Madison Public Library that ignited Trenton Phelps’ interest in the settlement. “When we allow these students to see these diverse stories … when they become personally connected and engaged with them, it becomes what they are interested in. It’s not my story, it’s our story,’’ Abbott said. “We have to pass those stories down.’’ “History in our own backyard’’ is powerful and has a “deeper connection” for students, Abbott said. And when a student knows about an historic site and can say, “this is a mile from my house, this is where my family grew up … it starts making pieces fall into place.’’ Beyond that, Citizens Cemetery is a touchstone to family lineage for many area African-American families who may not have the benefit of a thorough paper trail to the past, Abbott said, explaining vital records for blacks were not thoroughly maintained by the county and state during past centuries. For African-Americans, “cemeteries can be that link to finding your roots,’’ Abbott said. “You have to remember, if someone is looking for validation of their past, that headstone could be the only source they have. That could be it.’’ Hopeful that the state Department of History & Archives will ultimately deem the site an historic landmark, Abbott said, “For some people, this is it, and if we don’t preserve it, it could be lost forever.’’ Trenton Phelps has watched his black elders walk the grounds and discover their connections to the graves. Saturday saw the Phelps duo and a host of volunteers out studding grave sites of known veterans with American flags for Memorial Day. “When you get to meet some of the other community members and they say, ‘I knew that person when I was younger,’ it gives you the feeling that this has to be fixed, ‘cause these were real people and they had friends, families and loved ones, just like everybody else,’’ Trenton Phelps said. “I feel excited for doing something for the black community … after how they were treated.’’ In an effort to record the graves, volunteers like grandmother Wendy Puckett have discovered dozens of unmarked sites that extend several acres through a heavily wooded thicket to a creek. Travis Phelps hypothesizes that scads of yet-to-be uncovered graves … likely those of slaves … are closest to the creek. When genaeology enthusiast Puckett of Sandy Ridge isn’t walking the cemetery grounds with her notebook, trying to solve riddles of relationships between scores of souls, she’s searching for clues within family Bibles and on internet ancestry sites. Her three grandchildren are active in helping with the cemetery project through YCUJ. And you could say she’s developed something of a kinship with those who rest here. “These are my people,’’ Puckett said, chuckling, while surveying the grounds on a recent afternoon. Reciting names and biographical tidbits about Madison’s late African-American citizens, she said, “I mean, I can almost tell you where half the people are here.’’ “One amazing man was Anderson Scales,’’ she said of the slave whose grave she recently located. “He ended up starting his own draying business. He took mail from the train depot in Madison all the way to Mount Airy on horse, two or three days a week. He had a grocery store on Ayersville Road,’’ she said of Scales, who died at 96. “And at night, he taught people.’’ Another grave she identified is that of James Foust, a slave from Alamance County who moved to Madison and founded his own brick business before building the first Mount Carmel Holiness Church in Madison, Puckett said. The next step for volunteers is to seek formal recognition from North Carolina’s Office of Archives and History within the state’s Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Through the agency, the cemetery may become a part of the North Carolina Cemetery Survey, a program for recording vital statistics from the state’s cemeteries whereby graves are officially identified, mapped and permanently preserved. Further protection for the cemetery could come from a federal initiative to create a national database of historic African-American burial grounds as part of the National Park Service. The legislation for the proposed African-American Burial Grounds Network Act was introduced this spring by U.S. Reps. Alma Adams of North Carolina and Donald McEachin of Virginia. Such a statute would mean federal funding for research and technical support in the preservation of such sites. “To honor them is of the utmost importance, so I’m hoping that will happen,’’ Abbott said of state and federal recognition and support. “My sincere hope is that if we’re going to talk about true history, we have to talk about all the truths and all the perspectives.” Image: photograph of Citizens Cemetary before volunteers began clearing it. Madison, NC -Photo credit Travis Phelps Source:https://www.greensboro.com/.../article_ec2ee78c-12ce-5cae... Previous Next

< Back Lucy Herring ​ Lucy Herring (B.1900- Oct.21, 1995 at age 94 ) Teacher, supervisor, principal, and consultant. "Lucy Saunders Herring, the Jeanes Teacher in Buncombe County, North Carolina remembered, “We did move mountains!”93 In a 1995 documentary film, The Jeanes Supervisors: Striving to Educate, Narvie Harris proudly said, “They only gave us straw, but we made bricks.”94" --- Lucy Saunders was born in the mill town of Union, South Carolina, in Union County, on October 24, 1900, the seventh child of Nettie Ann and Albert Thomas Saunders. Her father attended a white handicapped bookstore owner, Allen Nicholson, and also served as his groom and gardener. During his employment, Saunders accompanied Nicholson on trips to the North Carolina mountains and overseas, broadening his world view and that of his children. Lucy's mother laundered for middle-class whites in order to earn money while remaining at home for her children. Herring recalled her mother's demand for quality in ironing and folding laundry, "Folding the apparel the way Mama wanted it was a difficult task, but we mastered it." For her first job at the age of twelve, Lucy Saunders ironed clothes for fifty cents a day. Her four brothers attended trade schools at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and at Benedict College and State A&M College in South Carolina, probably to prepare for their later jobs in house painting and brick masonry.2 Saunders recalled that even children of ten to twelve years of age worked long hard hours in the fields. Henrietta Young Goodwin, Lucy's colleague and an African American teacher in Asheville for fifty years, grew up with her in Union. She recalled that African American children helped their families earn a living through farm or mill work, leaving little time for school. Mothers cleaned homes, cared for white children, or washed and pressed clothes for white housewives.3 In 1914, at the age of fourteen, Saunders moved to Asheville, North Carolina, with her mother to improve the health of a brother. Like others who journeyed to Asheville, the family knew of the healing properties of the mountain air, and the move was probably inspired by her father's experience with his disabled employer. Albert Saunders and Lucy's sisters joined the family in Asheville later. Lucy commuted to South Carolina and completed high school in 1916 at State A&M College in Orangeburg. Impressed with her dedication and exemplary academic record, State A&M College president Robert Shaw Wilkinson recommended Saunders for the position of teacher-principal at South Carolina's Great Branch School for the next school year, a position she accepted.4 * * * Black schools had operated at a disadvantage since North Carolina's newly organized Republican Party of blacks and whites drafted a state constitution in 1868 providing for free public education for all children between the ages of six and twenty-one. In 1875, North Carolina. ---- In 1916, 16-year-old Lucy Saunders, a young black teacher from Orangeburg County, South Carolina, presided over a classroom of 16 students, age 6 to 17 years old, at the lower Swannanoa Colored School in Asheville, North Carolina. Many could not read. One seventeen year old had never progressed beyond the first grade. Eventually, he advanced to second grade, learned to write a letter, and studied arithmetic with the fourth grade students. Although the school term lasted only three months, Lucy’s long school day was not over until 5 P.M. The one room schoolhouse had unpainted walls, a pot-bellied stove, homemade desk with no finish, two blackboards so worn that they were impossible to write on, and no maps, pictures, or window shades. Saunders taught reading, music, and art, as well a chair caning, basket weaving, corn shuck mat-making in her “Work Corner,” “industrial” crafts considered appropriate in educating African Americans at the time. The children proudly exhibited their crafts at the county fair. Lucy Saunders’s early classroom experience mark the beginning of a 52 year career in education. As a teacher, reading specialist, and community and educational leader, her contributions helped transform African-American education in North Carolina, particularly in the western region. For 52 years Lucy Saunders Herring, North Carolina Jeanes Supervisor and African American Educator, 1916-1968, dedicated her life to teaching. 35 of these years were spent in the Buncombe County and Asheville City Schools. She served as a teacher at Swannanoa, Hill Street, and Stephens Lee schools and as principal at Mountain Street, a school that was later named in her honor. She was founder and director of a summer reading clinic for teachers at NC College at Durham, NC and was Associate Professor, Director of Reading at Livingstone College in Salisbury, NC. She was a member of the Asheville Chapter of the American Association of University Women, Gamma Gamma Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and a life member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. She served as an officer of the Retired Teachers Association, the Council on Aging, and the Asheville City and Buncombe County Human Relations council. Mrs. Herring served pupils, principals and teachers in the black elementary schools of North Carolina, primarily as a reading specialist. In Asheville she taught at Hill Street School, Stephens-Lee School and was principal at Mountain Street, a school that in 1963 was named in her honor. Her memoir Strangers No More was published in 1983. She remained active in local affairs after retirement, as an officer of the Retired Teachers Association, the Council on Aging, and the Human Relations council. Here she serves on a panel for a 1982 event for Black Heritage week in Asheville, organized by the Equal Employment Opportunity Committee. L to R: Lucy Herring, John Baxter and Lacy Haith. Lieutenant Colonel Asa Herring who was a Tuskegee Airman, was her only son. Here Is A List Of Her Educational Positions 1916-1920-Teacher, Swannanoa School, Buncombe County, NC 1920-1923-Teacher, Hill Street Elementary School, Asheville, NC 1923-1935 Elementary supervisor, Harnett County Schools, NC 1935-1941-Teacher, Stephens Lee High School, Asheville, NC 1941-1949-Principal, Mountain Street School, Asheville, NC 1949-1964-Elementary supervisor, Asheville, NC Elementary supervisor, Buncombe County, NC 1964-1968-Director, reading center, Livingstone College, NC 1945-1960-Reading consultant in NC, SC and TN Reading clinic for teachers, NC College, Durham, NC 1962-1965-Reading workshops for teachers, Livingstone College --------- Mrs Mrs. Lucy Saunders Herring was the lead creator in the Heritage of Black Highlanders Collection ca. 1888-1972 "African-Americans helped create what we know today as home. The labors of women and men helped build our land while the lives they lived helped create the mountain culture. Black children learned from their elders skills needed to survive and prosper as Asheville and Buncombe County experienced and emerged from the Reconstruction era. What we do with this remarkable inheritance is entirely up to us." -Dr. Dwight Mullen, from An Unmarked Trail, exhibit created by Debbie Miles, Center for Diversity Education. Description: Often excluded and invisible from the histories of the Southern Appalachian Mountains, those of African-American descent contributed much to the physical and cultural environment of these highlands. Those who were credited as being responsible for the creation of Buncombe County and Morristown, eventually the thriving tourist and trade center known as Asheville, owed much to those who were enslaved. This site focuses upon the donations of Mrs. Lucy Saunders Herring, Mr. Johnny Baxter, Jean McKissick McNeil, the Southern Highlands Research Center and YMI Cultural Center. Supplementing these valuable donations are additional resources from various donors and sources. These additional resources are listed below to expand the temporal framework, for the history of these people extended before and after the dates of the original donated material. For instance, the labor of these slaves not only helped build Asheville, but also fed, clothed, and served those of privilege. Additionally, those of African-American descent contributed greatly to the folkways of Southern Appalachia dispelling the myth of a homogenous society and culture in this region. Following emancipation, these people built their own thriving environment segregated from the majority population but still vital to the culture and economy of Western North Carolina. *To Read More About This Collection Please Click this Link: http://toto.lib.unca.edu/.../black.../default_blackhigh.html (To Read More About The Lucy Saunders Herring Collection, Please Scroll Down To Link.) 1. Lucy Saunders Herring interview by Louis D. Silvera, July 26, 1977, transcript, Southern Highlands Research Center Oral History Collection, D.H. Ramsey Library Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville, hereinafter cited as Herring interview; Lucy Saunders, “Strangers No More”: Memoirs (New York: Carlton Press, 1983), 58-61 http://toto.lib.unca.edu/.../herring/default_herring.html Source: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23522401?seq=1 **Part of this Black Herstory was provided by contributing researcher, Stan Best.** Previous Next

< Back Paula Dance ​ Monday Dec 03, 2018 GREENVILLE, NC (WITN) - History was made today with the swearing in of a new sheriff in Pitt County. Paula Dance becomes the first African American woman sheriff in the state of NC and only the fifth in the entire country. She was sworn in this morning before hundreds of people at the Greenville Community Christian Church. Dance was a major with the sheriff's office prior to her election and has 28 years of law enforcement experience. Former Sheriff Neil Elks decided not to seek a third term, and Dance defeated Gary Weaver, a former state trooper, last month. Previous Next

< Back Charles W. Bundrige Charles W. Bundrige (1921-1997) joined Palmer Memorial Institute faculty in 1952 "...one of Palmer Memorial Institute's most well-known veterans. Charles W. Bundrige (1921-1997) joined Palmer’s faculty in 1952. Bundrige graduated from North Carolina A&T State University and served in the 183rd Engineer Combat Army Battalion during World War II. Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown hired him while he attended graduate school at Duquesne University in Pennsylvania. He taught history and physical education and coached all the boys’ sports. He later served as the school’s business manager and as the fourth and final president until PMI closed in 1971. Image description: In this photo, Bundrige (standing) gives the football team a pep talk. Source: https://www.facebook.com/.../a.3762.../10157891179183534/... Previous Next

< Back Environmental Racism PCB landfill protest ​ Fighting Environmental Racism in North Carolina Photo collage description: Photo top left corner is David Caldwell, Jr.,he and fellow activists have tried for decades to push local, state, and federal officials to counteract environmental racism. Photograph by Jeremy M. Lange Photograph by Jeremy M. Lange. Photo at bottom left is of a land field- Despite an agreement with the surrounding community, the landfill in Rogers-Eubanks, outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, has continued to expand over the past forty years.Photograph by Jeremy M. Lange. Photo on right side North Carolina State Troopers pick up protesters on the road to the Warren County Landfill in Afton, North Carolina, September 1982. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) These protesters are Black community residents and supporters; they are on the ground refusing to move. The NC state patrol are attempting to pick them up to remove them from the road. --Warren County NC Is the Birthplace of the Environmental Justice Movement! Environmental Racism - Dolly Burwell is considered the Mother of the Environmental Justice Movement Against Environmental Racism. Her daughter, Kim Burwell who was nine years old looked at her mother and said, "mom, this seems like environmental racism" Environmental Justice --Warren County, NC- The Dumping of Toxic PCP In/near Black Communities Was Fought Against By The Grassroots Organizing Of The African Americans Who Lived In And Near The Areas Where Dumping Occurred. ------------ NY Times Article Fighting Environmental Racism in North Carolina By Vann R. Newkirk II - January 16, 2016 On an autumn afternoon in 1972, the people of Rogers-Eubanks, a historically black community just outside Chapel Hill, North Carolina, gathered beneath a tree to witness the end of a dispute. They were led by David Caldwell, Sr., one of Chapel Hill’s first black police officers, in whose back yard they stood. Before them was a delegation of local politicians, including Howard Lee, Chapel Hill’s first black mayor. For the previous five months, the community had been at odds with the county, the city, and the state university over the placement of a new landfill on Eubanks Road. Now Lee made a proposal. In exchange for agreeing to the construction of the landfill, Rogers-Eubanks would receive some of the municipal services that it lacked—sidewalks, water and sewer connections, a community center. After the landfill reached capacity, it would be turned into a recreation area. Caldwell and his neighbors relented. They looked on as an agreement was signed. Chapel Hill purchased eighty acres of land and began development. More than four decades later, the landfill has been expanded and there is no recreation area. A manhole cover near the site of the agreement serves as a symbol of services not rendered; many of the original residents of the community still lack sewer connections. “The most disgusting thing that I have with Chapel Hill was that it did not follow through with what I thought was an honest commitment,” Lee, who is now retired from public life, told me recently. “Unfortunately, when I left, they had amnesia.” Local residents have been fighting continuously to see Lee’s promises realized, first under the auspices of the Rogers-Eubanks Neighborhood Association (rena), then with the Coalition to End Environmental Racism (ceer). The movement has spanned generations. David Caldwell, Jr., the son of the man under whose tree the original meeting took place, and who was present there as a boy, is one of today’s activists. “We had to learn how to fight,” he said. The American environmental-justice movement began in Afton, a small town sixty miles north of Chapel Hill, ten years after the agreement in Rogers-Eubanks. In 1978, Jim Hunt, who would go on to serve four terms as governor of North Carolina, faced one of his first political crises. A local trucker and his sons had dumped thousands of gallons of oil on state roads, rather than disposing of it lawfully. The oil contained polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a class of chemicals so toxic that Congress banned their production the following year. With the support of the fledgling Environmental Protection Agency, state officials—including Lee, who had by then become the secretary of the North Carolina Department of Natural Resources and Community Development—chose a site in Afton for a landfill to contain the hazardous waste from the cleanup effort. Warren County, where Afton is located, is one of the most vulnerable counties in North Carolina, with a quarter of its population living in poverty. Like Rogers-Eubanks, it was a landing place for former slaves during Reconstruction, and it continues to have one of the highest proportions of black residents of any county in the state. Four years of litigation, independent scientific examination, and criticism in the local media could not dissuade Hunt and the E.P.A. from disposing of the PCBs in Afton. In 1982, as construction moved along on the landfill, organizations such as the United Church of Christ and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference sent in organizers to assist the protesters there. One of those organizers was Benjamin Chavis, a longtime activist in the civil-rights movement. “Warren County made headlines,” he said. “And because it made headlines in the media, we began to get calls from other communities. But you know that in the eighties you couldn’t just say there was discrimination. You had to prove it.” In 1987, the United Church of Christ, through its Commission for Racial Justice, prepared a report, “Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States,” which provided the concrete evidence that had so far been lacking. The church’s researchers found that race was more strongly correlated with the placement of a hazardous-waste facility than any other single factor, and remained so even when they controlled for income and geographic area. The report also indicated that three of the country’s five largest commercial hazardous-waste landfills, comprising forty per cent of the nation’s entire commercial-landfill capacity, were located in black or Hispanic communities. Subsequent studies of the health effects of living near such facilities have been indeterminate, in part because it is difficult to track residents through a lifetime of exposure. Nevertheless, a review of fifty epidemiological studies, published in 2000, found that increases in self-reported health problems were common, and that adverse pregnancy outcomes, such as low birth weight, genetic defects, and infant mortality, were associated with living near a landfill that handles toxic chemicals. Two decades after its initial report, the United Church of Christ published a follow-up, “Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty.” It found that little had changed in the intervening years; most of those living within 1.8 miles of a hazardous-waste facility today are people of color. Rogers-Eubanks provides an object lesson in the political and regulatory difficulties that communities of color can face once a hazardous-waste facility is built. For three decades, none of the parties listed on the original deed of sale for the 1972 landfill—the Town of Chapel Hill, the Town of Carrboro, and Orange County—followed through on Lee’s promises. In the same time period, the county requested grants from the E.P.A. to extend water and sewer services to two mostly white communities in the same watershed. Then, in 2007, instead of closing the landfill on Eubanks Road, the board of county commissioners voted unanimously to approve a solid-waste transfer station as an addition to the already sprawling complex. Later, facing stiff opposition from the community and local media, the board backpedalled. According to the Reverend Robert Lee Campbell, the leader of rena and ceer, local governments relied on the legal concept of extraterritorial jurisdiction, which allows municipalities to make decisions about areas beyond their official limits. Even though Rogers-Eubanks citizens could vote for county commissioners, they were politically excluded from Chapel Hill, the town that managed and used the land, and neither the county nor Chapel Hill had any obligation to provide services, aside from places to drop off waste. “Most of the council members didn’t even know where [the landfill] was,” Campbell said. In 2007, Campbell filed a claim with the E.P.A.’s Office of Civil Rights. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents government entities that receive federal funds from discriminating and provides mechanisms by which individuals can seek redress. But as Chavis noted, the burden of proving discrimination is extraordinarily high. An independent review of the E.P.A.’s track record, conducted by Deloitte in 2011, found that the agency had “not adequately adjudicated Title VI complaints.” In its forty-five years of existence, the agency has yet to make a single formal finding of discrimination. It rejects the vast majority of Title VI claims before investigation. At the time that Campbell filed his claim, the E.P.A. had performed no civil-rights investigations in North Carolina since digital record-keeping began, in 1993. Ultimately, the agency rejected most of Campbell’s claim, on the grounds that it lacked jurisdiction, because it had not granted funds to Chapel Hill or Carrboro. rena and ceer continued their push. In November, 2009, representatives of the organizations were invited to the White House Clean Energy Forum on Public Health to present their case to the E.P.A., which had recently been taken over by its first black administrator, an Obama appointee named Lisa Jackson. ceer activists also waged a grassroots campaign in Orange County. Residents learned how to perform land, soil, and water studies with equipment that they borrowed from university scientists. What they discovered—raw sewage seeping from yards, elevated levels of fecal and E. coli contamination in local water sources, toxic chemicals in the air—was startling enough to bring in investigators from the Orange County Department of Health, whose findings were even more serious than what residents expected. Less than half of all septic systems were in compliance with code, numerous sources of drinking water were contaminated with fecal bacteria, and nine out of eleven wells tested failed to meet health standards. Finally, in 2012, soon after the E.P.A. announced that it would investigate part of Campbell’s claim, Orange County yielded, pledging to build a community center in Rogers-Eubanks. The following year, county officials decided to extend water and sewer services. The community center was finished in 2014, and engineering studies are under way for laying down sewer and water lines sometime this year. Local, state, and federal officials are finally moving to keep the promises that were made forty-three years ago. Community leaders are pleased with the progress but not yet content. “I don’t feel anybody should fight as long as we’ve been fighting to get something that’s God-given,” Caldwell told me. “It’s not a temporary thing. You fight until the end. You fight until you can’t fight anymore. And that’s my goal, to fight until it’s done.” Source link: https://www.newyorker.com/.../fighting-environmental... Previous Next

< Back Pictured is the sharecropper family of Wade Keith in Wake County c. 1911. Shown are, left to right, Cephus Keith, John Keith, Susie Durham, Esther Keith, Hudie Keith, Viola Allen Keith, Wade Keith, and Rufe Keith. Pictured is the sharecropper family of Wade Keith in Wake County c. 1911. Shown are, left to right, Cephus Keith, John Keith, Susie Durham, Esther Keith, Hudie Keith, Viola Allen Keith, Wade Keith, and Rufe Keith. Sharecropping became a common practice for both white and Black farmers in the South after Reconstruction. This legal agreement allowed croppers to farm the land in exchange for a share of the crops produced. Since sharecroppers were at a social and economic disadvantage, they were very often taken advantage of by the land owners by compounding their debt and manipulating crop prices. This left the farmers no choice but to stay and continue farming for little in return. __________ Source: N.91.8.20-From the General Negative Collection, State Archives of NC Previous Next

< Back Harold “Happy” Hairston A L.A. Laker And Man Of The Community Harold “Happy” Hairston, A L.A. Laker And Man Of The Community He was born on May 31, 1942 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. American professional basketball player. He was best remembered for playing with the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), along with stints with the Cincinnati Royals and the Detroit Pistons. He was a member of the 1971–72 NBA championship Lakers, a team that won 33 games in a row, a record not duplicated in any other American professional sport. Hairston was a 6'7" (200 cm) 225 lb (102 kg) forward. He was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Hairston attended Atkins High School in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He played college basketball for coach Lou Rossini at New York University from 1962 to 1964 where he graduated. One of his teammates was Barry Kramer. The two smashed almost every record for the NYU Violets. Hairston averaged 21 pts per game led NYU on all time rebounding and totaled 1350 pts in his college career for which he was inducted into NYU hall of fame in 1981. Drafted by Now defunct Cincinnati Royals, he played professionally for the Cincinnati Royals and Detroit Pistons before joining the Lakers in 1969. While often overshadowed by Chamberlain and West, Hairston was seen as the ultimate “glue guy” for the Lakers. He was hailed by legendary broadcaster Chick Hearn as “one of the fiercest rebounders the Lakers ever had” while his coach in L.A., Bill Sharman, called him the “perfect role player.” In 1971-72, Hairston grabbed 1,045 rebounds; his teammate Wilt Chamberlain pulled down 1,572. Hairston astoundingly led the Lakers in both rebounds and field goal percentage during the 1973–74 and 1974-75 seasons, and set an NBA record for most defensive rebounds in a quarter with 13 (vs. the Philadelphia 76ers, November 15, 1974). During his 11 seasons in the NBA, Hairston averaged 14.8 points and 10.3 rebounds. From 1970 until his death, Hairston appeared in 17 television shows or movies including Happy Days and Airport ’79. “A lot of us cry wolf,” Hairston told The Dallas Morning News in 1996. “We get huge amounts of money and don’t put anything back. The [Youth Foundation] is my way of putting back.” After his retirement in 1975,he settled in Marina del Rey and established the Happy Hairston Youth Foundation in Century City. With financial help from celebrities such as Kelsey Grammer, the foundation found bright children from broken homes and paid for their college education. He also hosted a celebrity golf tournament and had a small role in the 1981 Happy Daysepisode "Tall Story," where he played the father of an epileptic high school basketball player. Hairston died in Los Angeles in 2001 from respiratory complications brought on by prostate cancer. He was 58 and was survived by a daughter, Amber, and three sisters all of whom live in North Carolina. Source: The Associated Press Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hairston Source:https://www.journalnow.com/.../article_4b652b12-f7eb-11e6... Previous Next

< Back Michael Evans Michael Jonas Evans (November 3, 1949 – December 14, 2006) was an American actor, best known as Lionel Jefferson on both All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Michael Evans was born in Salisbury, North Carolina, many will remember him as the actor who was “Lionel” in the TV shows, “All in the Family” and “The Jeffersons.” He also co-created and wrote the hit show “Good Times.” Evans attended Palmer Memorial Institute in 1966 before moving to Los Angeles to pursue acting. Michael Jonas Evans (November 3, 1949 – December 14, 2006) was an American actor, best known as Lionel Jefferson on both All in the Family and The Jeffersons. Evans was born in Salisbury, North Carolina. His father, Theodore Evans Sr., was a dentist, and his mother, Annie Sue Evans, a teacher. He attended Palmer Memorial Institute, a school created by Dr. Charlotte Hawkins Brown during the era of segregation in North Carolina, It was a private school for young Black Americans located in Sedalia, North Carolina, just outside Greensboro. His family later moved to Los Angeles, where he graduated from Los Angeles High School. He studied acting at Los Angeles City College A college student majoring in drama but with no acting experience, Evans caught his big break when All in the Family producer and director John Rich hired him to play Lionel Jefferson, the son of the Bunkers' new Black neighbors. Show developer Norman Lear preferred Cleavon Little for the role, but Rich lobbied to cast an actor who would appear less threatening. Evans continued to play the role on the spinoff The Jeffersons, but left after the first season to pursue other aspects of his career. According to Jimmie Walker, Evans had threatened to leave if he was not given more screen time, and Norman Lear let him out of his contract. Actor and opera singer Damon Evans (no relation to Michael) then took the role of Lionel, but Mike Evans returned in the role for the sixth through eighth seasons. Evans was also one of the creators and writers of the series Good Times (1974–79). Evans played Lenny in the cast of the 1976–1977 Danny Thomas situation comedy The Practice during its second and final season. Evans was also a real estate investor and owned properties in California's Inland Empire. Actress Berlinda Tolbert who played Evans' wife, Jenny, on The Jeffersons is just one day younger and they were also both born in North Carolina. In July 1974, Evans met Helena Jefferson (June 18, 1952 – September 11, 2002). They married on January 10, 1976. On September 11, 2002, Evans lost his wife to breast cancer after she was diagnosed on February 24, 2001. Four years after her death, Evans died of throat cancer at his mother's home in Twentynine Palms, California, at the age of 57. He is survived by his two daughters, Carlena and Tammie, his mother Annie Sue, his brother Thomas, his cousin Harold and his niece Chrystal. Photo Collage Description: Left-Mike Evans, circa 1975 Middle - Cast of The Jeffersons, clockwise from top: Mike Evans, Sherman Hemsley, and Isabel Sanford (1975) - Publicity photo of American actors Isabel Sanford, Sherman Hemsley and Mike Evans promoting the upcoming January 18, 1975 premiere of the television series The Jeffersons. Right - Cast of All in the Family – Back row, L–R: Jean Stapleton, Mike Evans, Carroll O'Connor. Front: Sally Struthers, Rob Reiner (1973) - Photo of the cast of the television program All In the Family. Standing, from left: Jean Stapleton (Edith Bunker), Mike Evans (Lionel Jefferson), Carroll O'Connor (Archie Bunker). Seated: Sally Struthers (Gloria Bunker Stivic) and Rob Reiner (Mike Stivic) Photographs Source: Wikipedia Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Evans_(actor) References "Mike Evans". Biography Resource Center Online. Gale, 2007. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Gale, 2009. Updated June 1, 2007. Retrieved 16 January 2009. Document Number: K1650005514. FoundationINTERVIEWS (2011-06-28), John Rich Interview Part 10 of 14 – EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG, retrieved 2018-08-10 FoundationINTERVIEWS (2017-02-07), JIMMIE WALKER, retrieved 2018-12-01 Good Times Full Cast and Credits at IMDb "'Jeffersons' Actor Mike Evans Dies". CBS News, 2006. Published December 22, 2006, 9:42 a.m. Retrieved February 1, 2014. Further Reading Associated Press (2006-12-22). "Mike Evans, 57; Lionel in 'Jeffersons' created 'Good Times'". Los Angeles Times. p. 1. Archived from the original on 2007-05-14. Retrieved 2006-12-22. E! Online (22 Dec 2006, 02:56:00 PM PST): "Jeffersons Star Dead", by Joal Ryan Buffalo News, December 23, 2006. Variety, January 8, 2007. Previous Next

< Back William Claudius Chance, Sr., William Claudius Chance, Sr., (23 Nov. 1880–7 May 1970) was an educator and humanitarian, was born in Parmele. His parents were W. V. and Alice Chance; his grandparents, who reared him, were Bryant and Penethia Chance; all were former slaves. A photograph of the Martin County Training School published in 1917. Image from the Internet Archive. William Claudius Chance, Sr., (23 Nov. 1880–7 May 1970) was an educator and humanitarian, was born in Parmele. His parents were W. V. and Alice Chance; his grandparents, who reared him, were Bryant and Penethia Chance; all were former slaves. Brought up on a small farm in poverty-stricken Martin County, Chance set out at an early age to improve his living conditions. After struggling through high school, while working on the farm, he entered North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College in Greensboro. Four years later he was graduated with honors with an A. B. degree in agriculture. He received additional education from Howard University in Washington, D.C., spending four years there, of which the last year was devoted to the study of law. He earned other credits, intermittently, from Hampton Institute in Hampton, Va., North Carolina College at Durham, and La Salle University in Chicago, Ill. It was after attending Howard's law school that Chance became impressed with the idea of building a school to improve the plight of blacks in Martin County. Upon returning to Parmele in 1909 he witnessed, among other deficiencies, the dreadful condition of the only local school for blacks. This school had one room, sixty pupils, one teacher, and a $160 annual appropriation from the state for its operation. To help remedy this situation, he founded a private school, using his home and a community church as the facilities. Serving as principal and one of the three teachers, he initially attracted about thirty students. For two years the teachers, mostly without salaries, provided a practical education, emphasizing agriculture, industrial and mechanical arts, and domestic science. Chance's school was the first in Martin County to initiate a longer school term, eight months yearly. Later, in 1911, the black public school and his private school merged to become Parmele Industrial Institute, a public school, of which Chance was chosen principal. With the aid of such distinguished people as U.S. Representative John H. Small and Dr. Anson Phelps Stokes, secretary of Yale University, he was able to attract enough funds to erect the first brick school building in Martin County in 1914. Expanding from year to year, Parmele Industrial Institute had by 1948 experienced substantial growth. In that year the school had 460 students, 12 teachers, 78 veterans enrolled in the veteran trade school, and 4 buildings. Five years later the enrollment had increased to 600 students, 200 veterans, 15 regular teachers, and 5 additional teachers for the veterans. Because of Chance's devotion to his school throughout the years, the community changed the name of the school to W. C. Chance High School. Under his leadership, the school in 1948 had the highest percentage of graduating seniors entering college (70 percent) of any school in Martin County (the average was 50 percent). Many of his former students rose to become attorneys, doctors, college presidents, college deans, businessmen, ministers, school principals, and teachers. Having achieved many of his goals, Chance retired in 1951. Four years later a fire destroyed most of the school complex, although classes continued to be held in the elementary school building until 1969. Although he was going into retirement, Chance by no means was destined for inactivity. Realizing the inequities in the white and black schools in Martin County, he was instrumental in organizing black parents behind Attorney Herman L. Taylor of Raleigh, who filed a petition with the board of education in 1951. This petition demanded either equality in the distribution of appropriations to the school system or integration. It was alleged in the petition that more money, teachers, and buses were given to the white than the black schools, although 53 percent of the students in the county were black. Although no immediate remedies for the problems resulted, the petition did serve notice that Chance and other blacks were ready for some drastic social changes. Chance became perhaps more widely known for his successful challenge of the Jim Crow policy on the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad. He filed suit to recover damages from the railroad on the grounds that because of his race, he was wrongfully ejected from a railroad car on 25 June 1948 in Emporia, Va., and subsequently subjected to unlawful arrest and imprisonment in connection with this ejection. At the time of the incident he was returning from a business trip in Philadelphia, Pa. Between July 1948 and November 1952, four court actions were heard in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, which ruled in favor of Chance and outlawed the Jim Crow policy in interstate travel. Having won such a significant victory at the age of seventy-two, Chance still remained active in community affairs. He was a Presbyterian and a member of the NAACP and the Republican party. Chance was married twice: in 1917 to Evelyn Payton, who died in 1927; and in 1929 to Julia Johnson, who died on 8 Mar. 1972. He had seven children; William C., Jr., attorney in New York City; Warren C., teacher in New York City; Anson G., of the Seaboard Coastline Railway; Harold P., former teacher in New York, now deceased; Mrs. Anice C. Wilson, executive director of Hopkins House Association in Alexandria, Va.; Wilbur J., former school principal in Caroline County, Va., now deceased; and Edward A., psychiatric social worker and director of social services at Spring Grove State Hospital in Baltimore, Md. Chance died in Lynchburg, Va., while visiting his daughter and ailing wife, a patient in Guggenheimer Hospital. His body was returned to Bethel for burial about four miles from his birthplace in Parmele. Source:https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/chance-william-claudius Previous Next

< Back Artist and photographer Leigh Richmond Miner teaching a drawing class to students at Hampton Institute, ca. 1900 ​ Image: Artist and photographer Leigh Richmond Miner teaching a drawing class to students at Hampton Institute, ca. 1900. Photo taken by, photographer Frances Benjamin Johnston. Source: LOC , from the Frances Benjamin Johnston collection. . Leigh Richmond Miner (1864–1935) who was a photographer in the United States. He was the principal photographer at Hampton Institute and his work appeared throughout the school’s extensive publications and publicity materials during the first three decades of the twentieth century. He was photographed by Frances Benjamin Johnston as a part of her celebrated series of early publicity images for the college, appearing in several images teaching art classes in school classrooms. As a member of the Hampton Institute Camera Club, his photographs illustrated five of Paul Laurence Dunbar's six books of poetry illustrated with photographs. Miner illustrated the last three books in the series individually while running a photography studio in Yonkers, NY during an leave from the school in 1904-07. Based upon these images alone, he ranks among the most published photographers of images of African Americans. Miner was born in 1864 in Cornwall, Connecticut, to a family of schoolteachers. After studying drawing at the Academy of Design in New York (1886–91), and Applied Arts at the Pennsylvania Museum School in Philadelphia (1891), he traveled to Yakutat, Alaska during the Gold Rush, where he closely observed and collected Inuit and indigenous Northwest coast crafts. He began teaching Art at Hampton Institute in 1898 and became Director of Applied Art in 1912 until his retirement in 1933. He photographed Gullah people on St. Helena Island off the coast of Beaufort, South Carolina in several trips from 1906 to 1924. The photographs include educational methods, midwives, students, and alumni of the Penn Normal Industrial and Agricultural School, a satellite of Hampton, as well as illustrating activities at the Penn health clinic and trades, living conditions, and craft traditions of area residents. During his lifetime, Miner’s images made at Hampton and the Penn School were published in several Progressive national magazines, including The Survey Graphic, Outlook, Progressive Education, and two covers of W.E.B. DuBois’ The Crisis. Large-format glass negatives of his Sea Islands work, found decades after his death in the attic of a Penn School building, were published in 1970 in a book, Face of an Island Saint Helena Island, South Carolina. Miner was also an author and poet in his own right, having published his own writing in Hampton’s in-house magazine, Southern Workman, as well as contributing essays and poems to several national magazines. Miner was an accomplished craftsman his entire life: a potter, print maker, metal worker, furniture maker, collector of African American and native American craft objects, painter, photographer, cinematographer, interior designer, and landscape designer. In 1933, he retired from Hampton to his home near the campus and died in 1935 after an lengthy stay at Dixie Hospital, the school’s training hospital for nurses. He is buried in the integrated cemetery on the Hampton campus, remembered on his epitaph, for his landscape design of the school, as the “Beautifier of Hampton.” Source: Wikipedia Previous Next

< Back Combo AKA Jenny ​ "This dress was constructed by an enslaved woman named Combo for her owner Janie Wright Robeson in 1864. A brief biography of Combo was written inside the bodice. Combo worked on the Robeson Plantation near Tar Heel, North Carolina and was married to the plantation's carriage driver Jim Dry. The calico, from which Combo constructed the dressed, cost $8/yard and was imported on a blockade runner. Though the dress was preserved as a testament to the supposed cordial race relations between enslaved peoples and their owners in the Old South, Ms. Janie Wright Robeson insisted on maintaining an up-to-date wardrobe at the height of the Civil War at the expense of greater labor demands on Combo. The dress is today held in the permanent collection of the North Carolina Museum of History. According to census records, Combo changed her name to Jenny after emancipation and moved to Wilmington, where she worked as a seamstress. She remained with Jim Dry. The dress is a testament to the talents and skills of Jenny, showing her fine attention to details in her work." See less Previous Next

< Back Windser E. Alexander ​ On November 17,1970, Winser E. Alexander received patent number 3,541,333 for his System for Enhancing Fine Detail in Thermal Photographs. His invention provides a device and thermal enhancement method that detects, discriminates, and more effectively displays differences in infrared radiation, thus resulting in increased resolution and an increase in the effective dynamic range of the infrared observation system. His research furthered expertise in the area of digital signal processing. Alexander was a professor of electrical and computer engineering at North Carolina State University. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree from North Carolina A&T University in 1964 and his Master of Science degree in 1966 and Ph. D. in 1974 from the University of New Mexico. A thermographic camera (or infrared camera) detects infrared light (or heat) invisible to the human eye. That characteristic makes these cameras incredibly useful for all sorts of applications, including security, surveillance and military uses, in which humans are tracked in dark, smoky, foggy or dusty environments. Archaeologists deploy infrared cameras on excavation sites. Engineers use them to find structural deficiencies. Doctors and medical technicians can pinpoint and diagnosis problems within the human body. Firefighters peer into the heart of fires. Utility workers detect potential problems on the power grid or find leaks in water or gas lines. Astronomers use infrared technology to explore the depths of space. Scientists use them for a broad range of experimental purposes. There are different types of thermal imaging devices for all of these tasks, but each camera relies on the same set of principles in order to function Human eyes are wonderfully complicated and intricate organs. They're made for seeing visible light. This light reflects off of objects, making them visible to us. Light, which is a type of radiation, comes in more flavors than just the visible kind. The range of light spans an entire electromagnetic spectrum, comprised of visible and invisible light, as well as X-rays, gamma rays, radio waves, microwaves and ultraviolet light. By understanding infrared, we can use thermal imaging devices to detect the heat signature of just about any object. Nearly all matter emits at least a little bit of heat, even very cold objects like ice. That's because unless that object is at absolute zero (minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius), its atoms are still wiggling and jiving, bumping around and generating heat. Previous Next