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< Back Billy Taylor Billy Taylor was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, educator and jazz activist. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. Billy Taylor born on July 24, 1921 and died on December 28, 2010, was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster, educator and jazz activist. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. A jazz activist, Taylor sat on the Honorary Founders Board of The Jazz Foundation of America, an organisation he started in 1989, with Ann Ruckert, Herb Storfer and Phoebe Jacobs, to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, later including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina. As a jazz educator, Taylor lectured in colleges, served on panels and traveled worldwide as a jazz ambassador. Critic Leonard Feather once said, "It is almost indisputable that Dr. Billy Taylor is the world's foremost spokesman for jazz. Taylor suffered from a stroke in 2002, which affected his right hand, but he continued to perform almost until his death. He died after a heart attack on December 28, 2010 in Manhattan at the age of 89.Taylor was survived by his wife of 65 years, Theodora Castion Taylor; a daughter, Kim Taylor-Thompson; and a granddaughter. His son, artist Duane Taylor, died in 1988. Taylor was born in Greenville, North Carolina, but moved with his family to Washington, D.C., when he was five years old. He grew up in a musical family and learned to play different instruments as a child, including guitar, drums and saxophone. He was most successful at the piano, and had classical piano lessons with Henry Grant, who had educated Duke Ellington a generation earlier. Taylor made his first professional appearance playing keyboard at the age of 13 and was paid one dollar. Taylor attended Dunbar High School, the U.S.'s first high school for African-American students. He went to Virginia State College and majored in sociology. During his time he joined Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. Pianist Undine Smith Moore noticed young Taylor's talent in piano and he changed his major to music, graduating with a degree in music in 1942. Taylor moved to New York City after graduation and started playing piano professionally from 1944, first with Ben Webster's Quartet on New York's 52nd Street. The same night he joined Webster's Quartet, he met Art Tatum, who became his mentor. Among the other musicians Taylor worked with was Machito and his mambo band, from whom he developed a love for Latin music. After an eight-month tour with the Don Redman Orchestra in Europe, Taylor stayed there with his wife, Theodora, and in Paris and the Netherlands. Taylor returned to New York later that year and cooperated with Bob Wyatt and Sylvia Syms at the Royal Roost jazz club and Billie Holiday in a successful show called Holiday on Broadway. A year later, he became the house pianist at Birdland and performed with Charlie Parker, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. Taylor played at Birdland longer than any other pianist in the history of the club.[6] In 1949, Taylor published his first book, a textbook about bebop piano styles. In 1952 Taylor composed one of his most famous tunes, "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free", which achieved more popularity with the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Nina Simone covered the song in her 1967 album Silk & Soul. The tune is widely known in the UK as a piano instrumental version, used for BBC Television's long-running Film... program. He made dozens of recordings in the 1950s and 1960s, including Billy Taylor Trio with Candido with Cuban percussionist Candido Camero, My Fair Lady Loves Jazz, Cross Section and Taylor Made Jazz. In 1958, he became music director of NBC's The Subject Is Jazz, the first television series focusing on jazz. The 13-part series was produced by the new National Educational Television Network with guests such as Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland, Bill Evans, Cannonball Adderley, Jimmy Rushing, and Langston Hughes. Taylor also worked as a DJ and program director on radio station WLIB in New York in the 1960s. During the 1960s, the Billy Taylor Trio was a regular feature of the Hickory House on West 55th Street in Manhattan. From 1969 to 1972, he served as music director for The David Frost Show and was the first African American to lead a talk-show band. Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich were just a few of the musicians who played on the show. In 1964, he established Jazzmobile in New York City as a way to promote jazz through educational programs. In 1981, Jazzmobile produced a jazz special for National Public Radio, for which the program received the Peabody Award for Excellence in Broadcasting Programs. Jazzmobile's 1990 Tribute Concert to Taylor at Avery Fisher Hall, part of the JVC Jazz Festival, featured Nancy Wilson, Ahmad Jamal Trio, and Terence Blanchard Quintet. In 1981, after being profiled by CBS News Sunday Morning, Taylor was hired as an on-air correspondent and then conducted more than 250 interviews with musicians. He received an Emmy Award for his segment on the multi-talented Quincy Jones. In 1989, Taylor formed his own "Taylor Made" record label to document his own music. You Tempt Me (1996), by his 1985 trio (with Victor Gaskin and drummer Curtis Boyd), includes a rendition of Ellington's "Take the "A" Train". White Nights (1991) has Taylor, Gaskin, and drummer Bobby Thomas performing live from Leningrad in the Soviet Union. Then came Solo (1992), and Jazzmobile Allstars (1992). In 1997, he received the New York State Governor's Art Award. His legacy was honored in a Harlem memorial service on January 11, 2011, featuring performances by Taylor's final working trio – bassist Chip Jackson and drummer Winard Harper – along with long-time Taylor associates Jimmy Owens, Frank Wess, Geri Allen, Christian Sands and vocalist Cassandra Wilson. Taylor appeared on hundreds of albums and composed more than 300 songs during his career, which spanned over six decades. His 1963 song "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel to Be Free" dealt with civil rights issues and became the unofficial anthem of the civil rights movement in the 1960s. It was selected as "one of the greatest songs of the sixties" by The New York Times and was the theme music of the 1996 film Ghosts of Mississippi. Engaging and educating more audience and young people was a central part of Taylor's career. He was the Wilbur D. Barrett Chair of Music at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a Duke Ellington Fellow at Yale. Besides publishing instructional books on jazz, he taught jazz courses at Howard University, Long Island University, the Manhattan School of Music, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he had earned his Master's and PhD in 1975.[citation needed] His extensive appearance in television series and jazz educational programs brought the music he loved to the masses at the grassroots level as well as more formal arenas. He was sometimes better known as a television personality than a pianist. He was quoted in a 2007 article in the Post Magazine: "there's no question that being an advocate eclipsed my reputation as a musician. It was my doing. I wanted to prove to people that jazz has an audience. I had to do that for me." On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed Billy Taylor among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire Taylor had more than 20 honorary doctoral degrees and was the recipient of two Peabody Awards for Jazzmobile, NEA Jazz Masters Award (1998), an Emmy Award (1983) for carrying out over 250 interviews for CBS News Sunday Morning, a Grammy Award (2004) Down Beat magazine's Lifetime Achievement award (1984), National Medal of Arts(1992), and the Tiffany Award (1991). In 1981, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the Berklee College of Music. He was honored in 2001 with the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) Jazz Living Legend Award, and election to the Hall of Fame for the International Association for Jazz Education. He served as artistic director for jazz at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, where he developed many critically acclaimed concert series, including the Louis Armstrong Legacy series, and the annual Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival. In addition, he performed at the White House seven times and was one of only three jazz musicians to be appointed to the National Council of the Arts. Taylor was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame in 2010 Previous Next

< Back Kendrick Ransome is a Black farmer with Golden Organic Farms that is responsible for the Black Farming Incubator. ​ Black Farming Incubator Wants To Bring Equity To Industry In NC North Carolina Public Radio | By Naomi Prioleau Published December 30, 2021 at 12:28 PM EST A Black farming incubator in Edgecombe County wants to help other aspiring Black farmers learn about agriculture. The goal of the incubator is to bring racial equity to eastern North Carolina through hands-on experiences, produce boxes and farming workshops. Kendrick Ransome is a Black farmer with Golden Organic Farms that is responsible for the incubator. Ransome said equity is important in the agriculture industry, especially for Black farmers. “When we talk about equity, we're talking about building our farms up first,” he said. “I have a 100-year family farm and you look at my infrastructure compared to another white farmer who's always been farming for 100 years, the infrastructure pieces are totally different. We're talking about focusing on us what we can do to help improve our situations.” A recent report from Modern Farmer magazine showed that over the last century, Black farmers have lost 90 percent of their land. Roughly, 98% of all farmland in the U.S. belongs to white landowners according to a 2020 report from the National Young Farmers Coalition. Ransome said Black people who get into agriculture cannot only help reverse those statistics, but it will also help to heal the Black community. "The mental health aspect of just having your hands in soil, it is eliminating depression, eliminating a lot of anxiety, a lot of anger,” he said. “Connecting with our souls you know through nature and understanding our bodies is another way that we can all heal." Ransome says the incubator will have workshops, equipment sharing programs and hands on experiences and opportunities for aspiring Black farmers. He hopes to have it up and running by the spring. -End Of Article_ --- From N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services October 9, 2020 Sometimes passion fuels us to explore a new career or hobby that we end up falling in love with. Although he did not grow up farming, Kendrick Ransome, owner of Golden Organic Farm LLC in Pinetops, NC loves agriculture and the impact he has on the world through it. Kendrick has been farming since 2018, but his families history with farming reaches far beyond that. “This current farmland has been in my family for about 100 years,” he said, “my great grandfather raised hogs and various vegetables here and I originally took it over because I wanted to have more control over my families food source and I ended up really enjoying it.” Today, Golden Organic Farm grows a variety of fruits and vegetables, including onions, peppers, tomatoes, collards, watermelon, cantaloupe and kale. “Kale has been a pretty recent crop for us,” Kendrick said, “I really like the way that it grows as well as its easy marketability.” Kendrick starts each day before the sun rises by feeding the livestock and working the garden until lunchtime. After lunch, he makes deliveries to his customers and Vidant Health Hospital before heading back home to continue working the garden until bedtime. “It’s an all day job for sure and it is constantly a juggle,” he said, “the whole package of farming is pretty intense because you don’t just plant and harvest the crops, but you also have to market the products and promote your brand at the same time.” Despite the hard work, he says that promoting health and seeing people inspired by his work is enough motivation to keep him going day after day. Products from Golden Organic Farm can be found on their online portal as well as through their CSA program. “We have worked with farmers markets in the past, but lately we have been marketing directly to consumers to establish and build those relationships,” he said. In addition to marketing directly to consumers, Kendrick works with Down East Partnership for Children to provide fresh fruits and vegetables to school-aged kids. “The program means a lot to me because my kids are included in it,” he says, “and it means a lot to be a part of the movement that is providing healthy foods for kids in school on a regular basis.” As stated above, Kendrick also provides his fruit and vegetable products to Vidant Hospital to promote healthy eating among patients and staff. “Nothing comes easy in this life, especially not farming,” he said, “it requires a lot of hard work and patience but brings a lot of joy at the end of the day.” In the future, Golden Organics hopes to become an incubator for young farmers, especially Black farmers, and create a market for them to work in. “Finding your platform and voice as a young person can be difficult, especially in the agriculture industry,” Kendrick said, “I hope to make that process easier by not only helping kids gain experience and reach their dreams in farming, but by also giving them a platform where they can do that.” Link To Golden Organic Farm FB page: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenOrganicFarmLLC/ Link to first Article: https://www.wunc.org/.../black-farming-incubator-bring... Link to Farm To School To Healthcare: https://www.facebook.com/Farm2School2Healthcare/ Previous Next

< Back Billy Strayhorn Innovative Composer And Jazz Pianist Billy Strayhorn- Innovative Composer And Jazz Pianist Billy Strayhorn (birth name William Thomas Strayhorn), was born on Monday 11.29.1915. in Dayton, Ohio, and was raised in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He gained most of his schooling, including private piano instruction, in Pittsburgh. He sought out Duke Ellington in 1938, attempting to work with his as a lyricist. Strayhorn introduced himself with his songs "Lush Life" and "Something to Live For." After becoming a regular contributor to the Ellington Orchestra, he contributed themes such as "Day Dream" and "Passion Flower" for the Ellington saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Other tracks that followed were "Take the A Train," "Raincheck," "Chelsea Bridge," and "Johnny Come Lately." Openly gay and an LGBT activist, Strayhorn and Ellington had a wonderful music-based relationship. Arriving in New York City, the young Strayhorn met jazz pianist Aaron Bridges, and the two lived together as lovers in Harlem for almost 10 years. Strayhorn came to the world of music with a sophisticated knowledge of chromatic harmony; this gave jazz performers and listeners classic melodies unlike any created before him. From the mid-1950s until his death, he wrote and arranged at a fever pitch, coming out with selections such as "Sweet Thunder," "Suite Thursday," and "Far East suite." Billy Strayhorn died on May 30, 1967. Reference: All That Jazz: The Illustrated Story of Jazz Music General Editor: Ronald Atkins Copyright 1996, Carlton Books Limited ISBN 0-76519-953-X Previous Next

< Back Nancy Cash (designed, pieces and quilted) and Marylin Cash-"THE POWER OF WORDS" "THE POWER OF WORDS" by Nancy Cash (designed, pieces and quilted) Marylin Cash (embroidery) Machine quilt and embroidered. — in Warrenton, NC. Previous Next

< Back J. Kenneth Lee *Photo-Civil rights attorney J. Kenneth Lee talks about the many social changes he has witnessed over his long career during an interview in Greensboro in 2009. He died recently at the age of 94.* Civil rights lawyer J. Kenneth Lee, who fought to integrate Greensboro schools has died. by Nancy McLaughlin Jul 23, 2018 GREENSBORO — J. Kenneth Lee, a civil rights attorney who represented five black children who sued Greensboro City Schools so they could attend an all-white elementary school — among the first students in the South to successfully do so — has died. The funeral for the 94-year-old Lee, a quiet force in the nation's fight for equality, is 11:30 a.m., July 30, at Providence Baptist Church in Greensboro. Visitation is 30 minutes before the service. A private burial is planned. Over a lifetime, Lee fought for equality not only for schools open to all children but also in economic opportunity that he knew could be life changing. He was a plaintiff in a case argued by Thurgood Marshall, then chief legal counselor with the NAACP's Legal Defense Fund, to desegregate UNC's law school, opening the university's doors for entry to other black students. Marshall would go on to become the first black U.S. Supreme Court justice and, upon graduation, Lee would argue civil rights cases across North Carolina. "My brother saw problems and got to work on solutions," said his sister, Winona Fletcher, of Maryland. Lee, who earned a degree in electrical engineering from N.C. A&T, decided to go to law school to fight Jim Crow laws. He represented the majority of the 1,700 civil disobedience cases in North Carolina that started with the Woolworth sit-ins of 1960 and included the arrest of his own son, Michael. He also founded American Federal, the first black federally-chartered savings and loan bank in the state. Lee, who sold his Benbow Park home and moved into assisted living recently, was preceded in death by his college sweetheart and wife, Nancy Young Lee, and an only child, Michael Lee. #ncmaahc #DontLetThemForgetUs #TellTheWholeTruth #Irememberourhistory Source:https://www.greensboro.com/.../article_e6d0e593-5f8f-5fa4... Previous Next

< Back Scotia Seminary in Concord, ca. 1891. Image courtesy of the Historic Cabarrus Association ​ Photograph: Scotia Seminary in Concord, ca. 1891. Image courtesy of the Historic Cabarrus Association One of Scotia Seminary's most famous alumna was Mary McCleod Bethune (1963-1955), who entered the school in 1887 on a scholarship, and graduated in 1894. It's difficult to do justice to Bethune's life and career in just a few sentences. But in a pattern often seen in graduates of women's schools, Bethune developed a passionate commitment to the advancement of women, education, civil rights, and social justice. As the National Women's Hall of Fame has said of Bethune, In Daytona, Florida, in 1904 she scraped together $1.50 to begin a school with just five pupils. She called it the Daytona Literary and Industrial School for Training Negro Girls. A gifted teacher and leader, Mrs. Bethune ran her school with a combination of unshakable faith and remarkable organizational skills. She was a brilliant speaker and an astute fund raiser. She expanded the school to a high school, then a junior college, and finally it became Bethune-Cookman College. Continuing to direct the school, she turned her attention to the national scene, where she became a forceful and inspiring representative of her people. First through the National Council of Negro Women, then within Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal in the National Youth Administration, she worked to attack discrimination and increase opportunities for Blacks. Behind the scenes as a member of the "Black cabinet," and in hundreds of public appearances, she strove to improve the status of her people. Barber-Scotia College Location: 145 Cabarrus Avenue, West Concord, North Carolina, USA Founded: In 1867 as Scotia Seminary. Became Scotia Women's College in 1916. In 1930, merged with another women's college, Barber Memorial College, and became Barber-Scotia Junior College for women. Became Barber-Scotia College in 1932. Granted its first bachelor's degree in 1945, and became a four-year women's college in 1946. Closed: Became co-ed in 1954. Lost accreditation in 2004, and has been struggling since then to regain its former status. Barber-Scotia began as a female seminary in 1867. Scotia Seminary was founded by the Reverend Luke Dorland and chartered in 1870. This was a project by the Presbyterian Church to prepare young African American southern women (the daughters of former slaves) for careers as social workers and teachers. It was the coordinate women's school for Biddle University (now Johnson C. Smith University). It was the first historically Black female institution of higher education established after the American Civil War. The Charlotte Observer, in an interview with Janet Magaldi, president of Piedmont Preservation Foundation, stated, "Scotia Seminary was one of the first black institutions built after the Civil War. For the first time, it gave black women an alternative to becoming domestic servants or field hands." As the current Barber-Scotia College website further explains, "The original purpose of the College was to prepare teachers and social workers to improve the '101 of the freedman and to provide a pool of leaders.' Accordingly, subjects classified as normal, academic, and homemaking were offered in a pattern which anticipated state certification, but which always pointed to the collegiate level." Scotia Seminary was modeled after Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (now Mount Holyoke College) and was referred to as The Mount Holyoke of the South. The seminary offered grammar, science, and domestic arts. In 1908 it had 19 teachers and 291 students. From its founding in 1867 to 1908 it had enrolled 2,900 students, with 604 having graduated from the grammar department and 109 from the normal department. Previous Next

< Back Evelyn Amanda Davidson White ​ Evelyn Amanda Davidson White was born February 1, 1921 and died July 2, 2007 She was a vocalist, choral instructor, author and educator, following her life's passion she become the Howard University Choral Director.. Evelyn White was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, to Rev. William H. Davidson, a Baptist minister, and Florence Gidney Davidson. She was influential in the training of many students who went on to make their marks in the music world, including Roberta Flack, Donny Hathaway, Jesse Norman, Samuel Bonds, and Richard Smallwood. She finished high school at 15, studied at Barber-Scotia College in Concord, N.C., and graduated from Johnson C. Smith University. She began her career as an English teacher at North Carolina Central University before coming to Howard University where she received bachelor's degree in music education in 1946 and immediately joined the faculty. In 1950, she received a master's degree in music education from Columbia University and married James Patrick White. She studied singing for more than 10 years with operatic baritone Todd Duncan, who originated the role of Porgy in "Porgy and Bess." She was a nationally renowned choir director, clinician and scholar of music who taught classes in choral conducting, music theory and singing. As associate conductor of the university choir, White led rehearsals and helped prepare the choir for performances with the National Symphony Orchestra and for a three-month international tour sponsored by the State Department in 1960. "She was really the power behind the Howard University choir," said Michael Cordovana, former director of the Catholic University choir. "She worked for the good of music, the good of the choir and the good of Howard University. It was really one of the best music schools in the country." Many of her students went on to have celebrated careers in music, including operas Jessye Norman, pop singers Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway, composer Richard Smallwood, composer-conductor Harold Wheeler and music producer George Butler. Dozens of her protégés became choir conductors at churches and schools throughout the country. "She had a way of inspiring students to want to learn," said Veronica Johnson, who enrolled at Howard in 1982 to study with Mrs. White, who had taught Johnson's mother decades before. "She used every ounce of her body and soul to convey what she wanted you to do." White was an outstanding singer in her own right, a mezzo-soprano with a voice "smooth as satin," in the words of former Washington Post music critic Paul Hume. She was the author of "Choral Music by Afro-American Composers" (1981), an annotated index of thousands of compositions for chorus that is scheduled for a third edition. After her mentor Warner Lawson died in 1971, White led the university choir for three years. In 1972, she directed a Howard alumni choir in a memorable tribute concert to her longtime mentor and colleague. "Responding to Mrs. White with instant precision and a rhythmic inflection that can only come from both the will to sing perfectly and the willingness to follow a gifted leader," Hume wrote in The Post of the choir members, "they poured out sounds and words that conspired with spirit in a way no other choral ensemble today seems to be able to." White resigned from her position as choir director in 1974 to care for her ailing husband and sister. Her husband, James Patrick White, died in 1983 but she continued teaching full time at Howard until 1985. As a conductor in 1976 she formed the Evelyn White Chorale, followed by the Evelyn White Chamber Singers, which specialized in African American music. She also led choirs at Peoples Congregational United Church of Christ before retiring in 1993. White was on the Howard faculty for 39 years and worked closely with Warner Lawson to develop the Howard University Choir into one of the nation's leading collegiate vocal ensembles in the 1950s and '60s. Evelyn Davidson White, who influenced generations of Howard University students as a choral conductor and music professor, died July 2nd 2007 of heart disease at her home in Washington. She was 86. Reference: Washington Post Previous Next

< Back Robert Lee Vann ​ Robert Lee Vann was an African-American newspaper publisher and editor. He was the publisher and editor of the Pittsburgh Courier from 1910 until his death. Born: August 29, 1879, Ahoskie, NC, Hertford County. Died: October 24, 1940, Philadelphia, PA Education: University of Pittsburgh at Titusville Known for: Pittsburgh Courier He was born in Ahoskie, North Carolina, the son of Lucy Peoples and an unknown father. He graduated as valedictorian of Waters Training School in Winton, North Carolina, in 1901, and attended Wayland Academy and Virginia Union University in Richmond, Virginia, from 1901 to 1903. He then attended Western University of Pennsylvania, (now the University of Pittsburgh) and graduated from its law school in 1909. He passed the bar examination in 1909 and married Jessie Matthews from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on February 17, 1919. Vann was one of only five black attorneys in Pittsburgh in 1910, a city with more than 25,000 African Americans. In early March 1910, Vann drew up incorporation papers for the Pittsburgh Courier and began writing contributions. Through Vann's connections, the paper was able to attract wealthy investors, including Cumberland Willis Posey Sr.. On May 10, 1910, the Pittsburgh Courier was formally incorporated, with Vann handling the legal means.. During the summer, the paper grew from four to eight pages, but struggled with circulation and financial solvency due to a small market and lack of interested advertisers. In the fall of 1910, original founder Edwin Nathaniel Harleston left the paper for financial and creative reasons,[8] and Vann became editor. The Courier under Vann prominently featured Vann's work as a lawyer and public figure. As editor, Vann wrote editorials encouraging readers to only patronize business that paid for advertisements in the Courier and ran contests to attempt to increase circulation.[9] In his Christmas editorial at the end of 1914, Vann wrote of the paper's intent to "abolish every vestige of Jim Crowism in Pittsburgh." In the 1920s, Vann made efforts to improve the quality of the news included in the growing paper. Under Vann, the "Local News" section of the Courier covered the social lives of the upper- and middle-class members of the Hill District. This included accounts of vacations, marriages, and parties of prominent families and the goings on of local groups, such as the Pittsburgh Frogs. Vann legitimized the Courier with a professional staff, national advertisements, a dedicated printing plant, and wide circulation. Vann stirred up controversy and 10,000 new readers by hiring George Schuyler in 1925, whose editorials and opinions made him famous as the "black H.L. Mencken" (who was a Courier subscriber). Under Vann, the Courier also worked as a tool for social progress. Most significantly, the paper extensively covered the injustices on African Americans perpetrated by the Pullman Company and supported the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters. Vann wrote to gain support for causes such as improved housing conditions in the Hill District, better education for black students, and equal employment and union opportunities.. However, Vann often used his Courier editorials to publicly fight with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and W. E. B. Du Bois over issues such as President Calvin Coolidge's grants of clemency to black soldiers involved in the Houston Riot and Vann's allegations that James Weldon Johnson embezzled money for personal use from the NAACP and the Garland Fund. This disharmony was resolved in 1929 by published apologies by Vann, Du Bois, and Johnson, and within the decade, Du Bois became a regular Courier contributor. But in 1938, Vann's Courier ended up at odds with the NAACP once again. Vann, through national campaigns and contact with President Franklin D. Roosevelt pursued inclusion of African-American units in the United States Armed Forces. Vann saw this as an achievable step on the path to integration of the military, but the NAACP leadership, primarily Walter White, publicly disagreed with this half-measure, despite the protests of Thurgood Marshall. As a result of the Courier′s influence and Vann's political clout, New York Congressman Fish successfully added an amendment prohibiting racial discrimination in selection and training of men drafted to the Selective Training and Service Act of 1940. In 1932, Vann officially put the Courier behind the party realignment of African Americans. He urged readers to vote for Democrats, writing, "My friends, go home and turn Lincoln's picture to the wall." After achieving prominence as the head of the Courier, Vann served as Special Assistant to U.S. Attorney General Homer Cummings from 1933 until 1935. Largely neglected and even ill-treated (staff stenographers often refused to take dictation from him because he was black), Vann could not get an appointment to see the Attorney General and in fact may never have met the man while in Washington. Vann resigned in 1935 to return to the Pittsburgh Courier; by 1938 the paper was the largest American black weekly, with a circulation of 250,000.. In 1939, Vann founded Interstate United Newspapers, Inc., an agency formed to sell advertising to the black press. Vann's widow succeeded him as president of Interstate United Newspapers. Source: http://www.ncmarkers.com/Markers.aspx?MarkerId=A-85... Source: :https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Lee_Vann Previous Next

< Back Back to Arts, Entertainment & Media The Carolina Times The Carolina Times was founded as The Standard Advertiser in 1921 by Charles Arrant, who was killed in 1922. In 1927 the newspaper was purchased by North Carolina Central University alumnus Louis Austin in Durham, North Carolina. The paper continues to be published today by Austin's grandson, Kenneth Edmonds, and is the only black-owned and operated newspaper in Durham. Image description: A December 1949 edition of the Carolina Times The Carolina Times was founded as The Standard Advertiser in 1921 by Charles Arrant, who was killed in 1922. In 1927 the newspaper was purchased by North Carolina Central University alumnus Louis Austin in Durham, North Carolina. The paper continues to be published today by Austin's grandson, Kenneth Edmonds, and is the only black-owned and operated newspaper in Durham. Austin edited and published The Carolina Times from 1927 until his death in 1971. The paper's motto was: "The Truth Unbridled." Austin used the paper to publicize racial inequities and to fight for racial equality in North Carolina and throughout the United States. In fact, The Carolina Times served as the campaign headquarters for the Durham Committee on Negro Affairs (DCNA), which was later renamed the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People. One notable success that Louis E. Austin had in his fight for equality (of many) was the arrest and conviction of a police officer who assaulted an African-American man. The officer would have not been reprimanded for his actions without the vocal support of The Carolina Times, as well as the efforts of the DCNA. On January 14, 1979, the building that housed The Carolina Times was burned to the ground; little survived the blaze, and their entire back stock of papers was destroyed. The authorities suspected that it was arson. However, the editor at the time, Mrs. Vivian A. Edmonds, Austin's daughter, continued the paper's publication, and had a new issue out that Thursday.[ ----- Here Is A Link To Digital Issues of The Carolina Times https://www.digitalnc.org/newsp.../carolina-times-durham-nc/ Sources: Gershenhorn, Jerry (January 2010). "A Courageous Voice for Black Freedom: Louis Austin and the Carolina Times in Depression-Era North Carolina". The North Carolina Historical Review. Raleigh, NC. 87 (1): 57–92. DigitalNC. The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.). North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources. Rogers, Jean (28 September 2005). "Durham tradition serves as voice of black community". Campus Echo, NCCU. Durham, NC. 97 (2). Oral History Interview with H. M. Michaux, November 20, 1974. Interview A-0135. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. N N P A. "Carolina Times Razed: Arson seen." New York Amsterdam News: A4. 1979. Burke, Gerard. "Arson blamed for fire that razed Carolina Times." Baltimore Afro-American: 17. February 6, 1979. 7. Gershenhorn, Jerry. Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2018. Previous Next

< Back Coach George Jones (left) with Willie Dean “Pat” White Pat White was Ligon High School’s sports prodigy. Excelling in tennis, basketball, football, and baseball. White was a football All-American scoring more touchdowns that any quarterback in the school’s history. Ligon High School Coach George Jones (left) with Willie Dean “Pat” White, 9 May 1962. Raleigh, NC. Pat White was Ligon High School’s sports prodigy. Excelling in tennis, basketball, football, and baseball. White was a football All-American scoring more touchdowns that any quarterback in the school’s history. Ralph Campbell, Jr., former Raleigh City Council member and State Auditor of NC, played alongside White. In a 2003 Interview with the News and Observer he remarked, “I’ve never seen any athlete that excelled in every sport that he played. From the standpoint of football, the numbers were just outta sight, his movements were so swift. Nobody could catch him.” Sadly, at age 19, only days after graduating from Ligon High School, white died of cancer. In 2003, nearly 40 years after his death, a monument honoring his life was unveiled at Hillcrest Cemetery on Garner Road. ___________ Photograph credit: NO.62.5.87 From the N&O negative collection, State Archives of North Carolina. Narrative credit: Olde Raleigh NC Previous Next

< Back Old Town Plantation ​ Researched & transcribed by Deloris Williams. The original house for Cool Spring Plantation burned down in 1899. The house at Old Town Plantation was built in 1785 by Jacob Battle, although it had originally been thought to have been built in 1742. Old Town is one of the homes which was a part of Cool Spring Plantation, owned by the Battle family, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. PLANTATION NAME: COOL SPRING PLANTATION ASSOCIATED LINK(s): OLD TOWN PLANTATION, a part of COOL SPRING ORIGINAL OWNER: Elisha Battle (1723-1799); later expanded by his grandson, James S. Battle (1786-1854). BUILT: ca 1747 ASSOCIATED SURNAMES: Battle HISTORY: Elisha Battle (1723-1799), planter, revolutionary patriot, and state legislator, was born in Nansemond County, Va. He was the fifth child and third son of William and Sarah Hunter Battle. Earlier paternal and maternal ancestors had emigrated from Yorkshire, England, in the mid-seventeenth century, his grandfather, John Battle, settling on a two-hundred-acre estate on the west bank of Nansemond River in Nansemond County, Va. In 1663 this same John Battle obtained a royal patent for 640 acres of land on Pasquotank River in North Carolina. Here Elisha Battle's father, William, was born in 1682. In 1690, upon the death of his father, William returned to Nansemond County, where he continued to reside until his death in 1749. By deed of record dated 17 Aug. 1747, Elisha Battle purchased four hundred acres on the north side of Tar River, in Edgecombe County, from Samuel Holliman. This purchase formed the nucleus of Cool Spring Plantation, near the present town limits of Rocky Mount, to which Battle moved with his family in late 1747 or early 1748. Subsequent purchases made Battle a large and prosperous landholder. He soon gained a reputation as a man of honest conviction, sound judgment, and considerable native ability. In 1742, Battle married Elizabeth Sumner, a first cousin to Brigadier General Jethro Sumner, who served in the Continental Army under Washington. To their union were born eight children: Sarah, who married Jacob Hilliard and, afterward, Henry Horn; John, who married Frances Davis; Elizabeth, who married Josiah Crudup, Jr.; Elisha, who married Sarah Bunn; William, who married Charity Horn; Dempsey, who married Jane Andrews; Jacob, who married Penelope Edwards; and Jethro, who married Martha Lane. Elisha's son Jacob Battle (1754-1814) lived in a house on the plantation about one mile from his father's, which was known as Old Town. James Smith Battle (1786-1854) son of Jacob Battle & Penelope Langley Edwards, enlarged his father's and grandfather's lands to 20,000 acres and the slaves to over 500. James restored his grandfather's old house, and in 1850, he built a new house in front of the old one. In 1854, on James S. Battle's death, the 20,000 acres were divided between his five surviving children. The eldest son William received the cotton & grist mills and the farm called California; Cool Spring (now 3000 acres) went to his son Turner Westry Battle (1827-1895); Walnut Creek farm went to daughter Martha Ann, later married distant cousin, Kemp Plummer Battle (1831-1919) son of William Horn Battle & Lucy Martin Plummer; Penelo Farm went to Penelope (who married Genl. William Ruffin Cos); Shell Bank & Elm Grove farms went to Mary Eliza (who married 1st William Dancy, later Dr. Newsome Jones Pittman). A slave on one of Battle's plantations became embroiled in an unfortunate quarrel with an overseer, as a result of which the overseer, a white man, was stabbed by the slave and died. After a careful investigation of the circumstances, Battle was convinced that the slave had acted in self-defense under extreme provocation. Battle therefore was determined to see that the slave received justice and thereby became perhaps the first slave owner in the South to defend a slave in court against the charge of murdering a white man. Battle engaged two leading members of the North Carolina bar to represent the slave, and to one of them he is said to have paid the very substantial fee of a thousand dollars. When the accused was judged guilty in a primary court and sentenced to death, an appeal was carried to the state supreme court, where the decision was reversed. The opinion of the Supreme Court of North Carolina in State vs. Will (18 N.C. Reports 121) is a landmark in southern jurisprudence. SLAVE POPULATION: In 1790, ELISHA BATTLE had 22 Slaves. His grandson, JAMES S. BATTLE, had about 229 Slaves in the 1850 Slave Schedules. His will was probated in 1854. A petition filed in 1856 by the heirs mention that he had between 300 to 400 Slaves at the time of his death. ========= Slaves named in ELISHA BATTLE Will-1799 To daughter ELIZABETH CRUDUP: VENUS LIKEY To Granddaughter CLOE LEE: CATE HARDY To JETHRO BATTLE: TONEY DANIEL To son DEMSEY BATTLE: BEN LUKE To Grandson ISAAC BATTLE: HARRY To Grandson JOEL BATTLE: BOB To Granddaughter ANN ROSS: DOLL See Elisha Battle Will & Deeds for additional details ******* In 1810, JACOB BATTLE had 57 Slaves. JACOB BATTLE, 1815-Slaves named in a Deed of Gift to daughter BETSY BATTLE: REUBEN, MEELY, HENRY, PRISSEY, SILLER, NED, WINNEY, JESSE, CINDA, LITTLE TONEY, BEN, MERIAH, MATILDA, SILAS, DANIEL, LITTLE CATE, MARY, JULEY, DAVEY, OLIVE, STARLING and SAM See Jacob Battle Will & Deed Abstracts for additional details ******* In 1810, DEMPSEY BATTLE had 42 Slaves. Slaves named in DEMPSEY BATTLE Will-1815 To daughter AMELIA BATTLE: DRED BEN the Younger ISOM HARDY TURNER CESAR DORSON ELY CLOE DORCAS CHARLOTTE LETTICE MARY CHARITY EMMY ELY CITTY To son ANDREW BATTLE: AFFY NOAH JORDAN MIAL SAMSON WILL MATIN LETTIS PINK MATILDA MARINA SABRA SEELY VINEY ROSE To son JOHN BATTLE: JONAS LITTLE PETER REDDING SILVER HANNAH EDE MARIA HETTY See Dempsey Battle Will for additional details ******* JAMES S. BATTLE had about 229 Slaves in the 1850 Slave Schedules; his will written December 8, 1847, was probated in August 1854. A petition filed in 1856 by the heirs mentions that he had between 300 to 400 Slaves at the time of his death. See James S. Battle will abstract 1847, for additional Names & Details. JAMES S. BATTLE Inventory, filed Edgecombe Court, Nov. Term 1854, List of Slaves (415 names): PHILLIS FEREBE PERRY JEREMIA SARAH POMPY WALTER ROSE JULIAN EUGENE ABBY JAMES DAVY SABRY LUKE EDY VIRGIL CHARLES CONSTANCE EVERETT COURTNEY PAUL WILL HELEN FANNY ALPHEUS HANNAH ISHAM CLARA CRAWFORD LUCY NEAL ISHAM DAVY ANN CILEA CYRUS OSCAR FELICIA GEORGE CHOCOLATE CELESTIA PEGGY STARLING RHODA ALFRED MARGARETT MARY DALLAS ESTER CONRAD SYVILLA RICHARD CEDDY ISABELLA EXUM HINTON KINGSTON DELIA LEAH SHADRACK LUKE CARY CYNTHIA MAHALA WHIT HORRACE TURNER ISRAEL LITTLE EDY WILEY ANNIS DANIEL JOSHUA JACKSON PUDLY EDWARD VINY JOHN MADISON DELHA LEVI BERTHA ROSETTA ENNIS SPOTSFORD HARRY JUDY MALVINA ARNOLD AMEY TONY HARRY HILLARD MARTHA RANDOL MARGARETT BENNETT PENINA CHARITY EDMUND HYMAN DAVY DELPHA CALEB TOM LUKE ARCHER MOSES ANNY SILAS PETER LUCY DAVY BENSUN MANERVA JONAS SMITH GRANVILLE PERCY MIDDY JULIUS PARKER ELISHA FORT SALLY ANN LAURA ROSE JIM ABRAHAM RHODA ELI BURRELL DREW JESSE ROSE ANNICE KITTEN CLARA MARIAH LESEND NORFLEET CASSANDRA ORPHY BERNICE VINEY EDY CHRISTIN ROBERT ASA CHARLOTTE PLEASANT JORDAN EMILY JACOB CLANTON JOB MATILDA MOURNING GEORGE SADIDA RANDAL JULY JINSEY ROBIN HORRACE SELAH DAVY PHILLIS NED FRANCIS DREW JOHN KING HASTY KING ALLEN JACKEY HENRY ANNIE DAVY JULIA PRESTON JUDY MARY DOSSEY WINNY HENDERSON GASTON BEDA CLARRISA SIMON BRADFORD WRIGHT BETHANY WASHINGTON CHANA ANTHONY NANCY SANDY RANSOM WILLIAM ALICE DRUCILLA TONY HAYWOOD PRISSY HANNAH JASMIN JANE MILLY RICHMOND PATIENCE NORFLEET HILLARD MARIAH TURNER MARTHA LEWIS LEAH CHANEY POWELL SALLY ANN JANE JESSE LOUISA VIRGINIA ALICE KATHLINE EMMA ORAN FELICIA LENA ALBERTA SELENA ISHAM JOFHY JACK(?) GENEVA RICHMOND FRANKY JOANNA JUSTICE DORA SAMSON CHARLES LEWIS DICY BLOUNT HESTER HYMAN LOUISA ROBERT JACKSON ANTHONY PETER LEWIS BRINAH ROSE CHARLOTTE SUE DOCK SYLVIA GRAND LIZZY ISAAC JOSEPH CLARISSA ESTHER GRANVILLE LUCY MARY NEPPY CALVIN ORPHY JASON JETHRO CLARA TRACY ISABELLA MILLY JIM ANNIE MILLY JOE JANE MARGARETT BECKY RISA CAROLINE CATHERINE EPHRAIM DELHA MANDY TONY HARRIETT DRED ISABELLA JOE PIETY GEORGE MOURNING GEORGE SUE TEMPY WASH AUSTIN CELY BARBARA GUSTIN TONY PEG JERRY LIZA LIZA MAHALA EVELINA ANDREW JACKSON PRISCILLA AMARILLIS SPENCER LEWIS WILL LILEY LUCINDA LILLIAN LEVENA WHIT REDDICK JERRY REDDIN RALPH HENRY CHARITY HAGER CEASAR DOCTOR RUFUS JUDY SUSAN ELIAS BYTHE PETER JINNY POMPY LOUISA CHARITY JOHN JERRY SAM DERY ESTER ALFRED JOINER CADMUS SUSAN JASON DENNIS JONAS KIZZY MILLY KEARNEY CYRUS JOHN SAM JUDY EMMANUEL MILLY PINK HARREL MEALY PAT SARAH JORDAN NORFLEET CEASAR BECK HENRY AGGY AMOS LAUREN PEGGY ALBERT BENNETT LAZ LIZA MARY RICHMOND SALLY ANN HILLARD HENRY FRED CAROLINE DRED POWELL VEAZY(?) MARTHA BELL BOSTON ABEL JASON JOHN CHLOE ALFRED HESTER JOE GEN. TAYLOR DOCTOR CELY ELLA JACK DICK PALDA PAST PENNY PRISSY HORRACE MISCELLANEOUS: Resources: Biography of Elisha Battle; Biography of James S. Battle; The Battle Book, Cool Spring Plantation; Battle Family Papers; Landmark Case of Slave Named Will ; Old Town Plantation National Register of Historic Places; Old Town Plantation House ; Old Town Plantation Narrative; Biography of Kemp P. Battle; Will of Elisha Battle,1799 ; Will of Dempsey Battle,1815; Will of Jacob Battle,1815; Will, Estate & Inventory of James S. Battle,1854. Source: http://www.ncgenweb.us/.../plantations/cool_spring_edgec.htm Previous Next

< Back William Day - Black abolitionist, educator, minister and editor of A weekly newspaper ​ William Day - Black abolitionist, educator, minister and editor of A weekly newspaper, In 1879, Day also opened Livingstone College with J.C. Price, William H. Goler, and Solomon Porter Hood. It ws established in Salisbury, NC, for Black students, which remains a predominantly black college. Day traveled to the United Kingdom in 1859, preaching at a large congregational church in Lincolnshire, England, and he worked with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). While in England, he and several colleagues formed the African Aid Society. Day attended Oberlin College. After graduation he spent the rest of his life campaigning for the rights of Blacks. He became the secretary of the National Negro Convention in Cleveland in September 1848. He was a committee member along with Frederick Douglass and others who generated the "Address to the Colored People of America." In 1858, Day was elected president of the National Board of Commissioners of the Colored People by the Black citizens of Canada and the United States. Day was born in New York City, where his mother, Eliza, was a founding member of the first AME Zion Church and an abolitionist. His father, John, was a sail maker who fought in the War of 1812 and in Algiers, in 1815, and died when his son was four. William Howard Day made an impression as a child, on a white ink manufacturer who was an advocate of abolition and temperance. Day attended Oberlin College. After graduation he spent the rest of his life campaigning for the rights of Blacks. He became the secretary of the National Negro Convention in Cleveland in September 1848. He was a committee member along with Frederick Douglass and others who generated the "Address to the Colored People of America." In 1858, Day was elected president of the National Board of Commissioners of the Colored People by the Black citizens of Canada and the United States. Day traveled to the United Kingdom in 1859, preaching at a large congregational church in Lincolnshire, England, and he worked with the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA). While in England, he and several colleagues formed the African Aid Society. Day returned to the United States after the Civil War and worked for the Freedmen's Bureau. He became an inspector of schools in Maryland and Delaware before being ordained a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1867. In 1878 Day was elected school director in Harrisburg, PA. He was the first Black school board member and president. He won reelection in 1881, retaining his position on the board until 1884. Though he did not seek reelection in 1884, the public appealed for his return in 1887, and he was easily elected to another three years as Harrisburg School Board president. In "The Rising Sun," Dr. William Wells Brown praised Day's professional conduct: "As a speaker, Mr. Day may be regarded as one of the most effective of the present time; has great self- possession and gaiety of imagination; is rich in the selection of his illustrations, well versed in history, literature, science and philosophy, and can draw on his finely-stored memory at will." Day died in Harrisburg on December 3, 1900, at the age of 75. William Howard Day Cemetery was established in nearby Steelton in the 1900s as a burial place for all people, including people of color who were denied burial at the nearby Baldwin Cemetery. It remains a popular burial site for local African American families. Reference: The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, (919) 962-2211 Copyright 2003 The Anti-Slavery Society Previous Next

< Back Carolyn Robertson Payton Carolyn Robertson Payton was born May 13, 1925. She was an African American Psychologist and global peace administrator and advocate. She was born in Norfolk, Virginia to Leroy Solomon Robertson and Bertha Flanagan Robertson. Her father was a chef and her mother a seamstress and homemaker. She had an older sister, Jean Robertson Scott, who went on to become an elementary school supervisor. Payton and her sister grew up during the Depression and her childhood was marked by memories of ramped racism. She vividly remembered the outdoor toilets for blacks at her elementary school, the "for whites only" signs and the many other injustices. Her parents were very supportive of education. Her father chose Bennett College in North Carolina and a professor influenced her and the first Black woman president of the college, Dr. Willa B. Player, was a strong role model for Carolyn during her undergraduate years. Payton was also influenced by Eleanor Roosevelt, whom she met while she was at Bennett College, as well as many pioneer civil rights leaders such as Mary McCloud Bethune, Nannie Burroughs, Mary Church Terrell, and Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Payton had majored in home economics at Bennett College and left with only nine credits in psychology. Because of the remaining required courses in psychology, it took her three years to get her masters degree. While at the University of Wisconsin, she was the only black student in her classes. During this time, she moved to what she called the "Bush," a Black ghetto in Madison. In this community she found the support she had been missing and soon married a police detective, Raymond Rudolph Payton, to whom she was only married for four years. In 1948, she received her M.S. degree in clinical psychology. She applied and was hired at Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina. She continued working at Livingstone for the next five years, until she learned of a position as Dean of Women and psychology instructor at Elizabeth City State Teachers College in North Carolina. The challenge of the administrative responsibilities appealed to her greatly and she accepted the position. As Dean of Women she was considered a role model for female students and was to serve as a substitute parental figure for them. Three years later, she was recruited to become associate professor of psychology at Virginia State College. The position was very attractive to her; it enabled her to be closer to her family. In this position she conducted psychological testing and provided psychotherapy to students. In 1952, she began taking summer courses at Columbia University's teachers college. In 1958 she applied as a doctoral candidate. She took a leave of absence from Virginia State College to pursue this degree and received her Ed.D. in 1962. In 1959, Payton became an assistant professor at Howard University in Washington D.C. Here she worked in a primate laboratory that led to her award of a three year grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Her work focused mostly on perception, with the ultimate goal of building on the research and studying racial perception in young children. Around this time, however, President Kennedy was establishing the Peace Corps and Payton was recommended by her university to assist in the design of selection procedures for Peace Corps service. She later became a field assessment officer for trainees preparing to serve in West Africa. She employed psychological tests, interviews, clinical observations, peer reviews and other data to assess trainees' physical, mental and technical qualifications for service. Over the next few years, Payton became increasingly involved in the Peace Corps, eventually living on camp sites and traveling extensively overseas. She became particularly interested in determining the conditions that would lead to the most satisfying experience for the volunteers. She was appointed deputy director for the Caribbean region in 1966 and the next year director of the post. At the time, Payton was one of few women appointed to such positions; she was one of only two female country directors. In 1970, she returned to Howard University to direct the University Counseling Service (UCS). Payton expanded the small agency into a large, multi-service counseling and training center that was very involved in the university and community. She redefined the mission of the agency by demonstrating that academic advising was not enough that staff and students could benefit from psychological services. She was a powerful advocate for women's and minority rights, a pioneer in cross-cultural and ethnic minority psychology as well as the early movement for specialized training for psychotherapists for treating clients of an ethnic minority. Not only was she the first woman and the first African American psychologist to hold the position of director of the U.S. Peace Corps, but also she was the agencies first individual psychologist. Carolyn Robertson Payton died on April 11th 2001. Reference: Feminist Voices Previous Next

< Back Winslow Homer's "A Visit from the Old Mistress. ​ "A Visit from the Old Mistress," by Winslow Homer 1876 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of William T. Evans, 1909.7.28 Gallery Label A Visit from the Old Mistress captures a tentative encounter in the postwar South. The freed slaves are no longer obliged to greet their former mistress with welcoming gestures, and one remains seated as she would not have been allowed to do before the war. Winslow Homer composed the work from sketches he had made while traveling through Virginia; it conveys a silent tension between two communities seeking to understand their future. The formal equivalence between the standing figures suggests the balance that the nation hoped to find in the difficult years of Reconstruction. Exhibition Label, Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2006 ----- " It was one of several works that Homer created during a mid-1870s visit to Virginia, where he had served as a war correspondent during the Civil War.. Scholars have noted that the painting's composition is taken from Homer's earlier painting Prisoners from the Front, which depicts a group of captive Confederate soldiers defiantly regarding a Union officer. It, along with Homer's other paintings of black southern life from this period, have been praised as an "invaluable record of an important segment of life in Virginia during the Reconstruction." Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Visit_from_the_Old_Mistress ----- "This painting depicts an awkward stare-down between recently emancipated slaves and their former owner after the Civil War. The tension is palpable. Note in particular the differences in their clothing. The formerly enslaved women wear humble homepsun garments, including the long aprons and headscarves that were typical of enslaved women's dress. The mistress, on the other hand, dons a finer gown and lacy fichu. By highlighting how unequal power relations continued shape the lives of formerly enslaved women during Reconstruction, Homer explodes the feminist myth of kinship between female slaves and their mistresses." Source: Fashioning the Self in Slavery and Freedom fb page Previous Next

< Back Alma S. Adams Photo Credit: Congresswoman Alma S. Adams. Taken at the 1991 opening of The African American Atelier, INC Art Gallery in Greensboro, NC The African American Atelier, Inc. celebrates 30 years today. I was co-founder with my mentor, the late Eva Hamlin Miller. We continue to promote the work of African American Art and Artists and work in harmony with other Ethnic groups." -Congresswoman Alma S. Adams Photo Credit: Congresswoman Alma S. Adams. Taken at the 1991 opening of The African American Atelier, INC Art Gallery in Greensboro, NC --From Their Web Site: Movement, Expression, Beauty, and Awareness Arts, Culture, & Education around the African American Experience, is who we are! The formation of an art gallery focusing on African American art and artists in Greensboro evolved from a long standing dream of Greensboro resident and nationally acclaimed artist-educator the late Eva Hamlin Miller. In 1982, Miller opened and operated the Z Gallery in Greensboro for five years in the dental office of her late husband, Dr. WLT Miller. In 1990, Eva Hamlin Miller and her former student Alma Adams conceived the idea of establishing a non-profit, professional art gallery (African American Atelier, Inc.) in the Greensboro Cultural Center. “Atelier”, French for “artist studio” seeks to: promote an awareness, appreciation and sensitivity to the arts and culture of African Americans; educate and train in the visual arts; and work in harmony with other ethnic groups. Joined by local artists and patrons: James C. McMillan, Floyd Newkirk, Vandorn Hinnant, John Rogers, Henry Sumpter, Candace Ray and Paula Young, the African American Atelier, Inc. was officially chartered and incorporated by the state of North Carolina on September 28, 1990. James McMillan served as the first president of the organization and Eva Hamlin Miller served as the first curator. The gallery opened its doors to the public in the Greensboro Cultural Center (in an 800 square foot space) on January 13, 1991 approximately four months after the Greensboro Cultural Center officially opened. The gallery’s grand opening featured works by Atelier founding member artists to establish the First Annual “Founding Members Exhibition”. Generous financial support by local residents and businesses including: Gerald and Althea Truesdale; Joseph and Georgia Williams, Joe and Eunice Dudley; Koury Corporation and Mechanics and Farmers Bank provided up fitting of the facility. Local supporters, friends and corporate leaders sustained the operation of the gallery during its first year because Atelier received no state or federal funds. ​ The African American Atelier has evolved into a creative venue for Guilford County and North Carolina showcasing artistic works, sponsoring forums, gallery talks, educational seminars and highlighting contributions and culture of African Americans and other ethnic groups. Annually, the Atelier’s programs serve thousands of youth, adults and seniors of all socio-economic backgrounds. The organization has exhibited an extensive number of local, regional and national emerging and professional master African American artists and other artists through a series of year round, annual rotational, group and solo exhibitions. John Biggers, Varnette P. Honeywood, Gilbert Young, Samella Lewis, Margaret Burroughs, Synthia Saint James, Kadir Nelson, Olivia Gatewood, Juan Logan and Eric McRay were among some of the exhibiting artists. Since 2002, Atelier has sponsored the annual county-wide African American Arts Festival, formerly produced by the United Arts Council of Greensboro. The organization became a member of the United Arts Council in 1995. In the spring of 1992, former Atelier Board Member and chair of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. Arts and Letters Committee, the late Alberta Cuthbertson, organized and curated the first Minority Student Exhibition at the Atelier. This collaborative effort continues today between the two organizations. Many student artist participants have pursued professional and academic careers in the visual arts. “Atelier Around the World” youth program was established in the summer of 1992 to enhance self-esteem and to promote cultural awareness through the visual arts for children ages 5-16 years from low wealth communities. This year round program culminates with an annual student exhibition and continues today as one of the oldest year round visual arts programs in the state serving more than a thousand children each month through Art! After School, Saturday Enrichment Workshops and Murals, Minds & Communities Summer Art Camp programs. In 2004 Atelier relocated to its current site in the Greensboro Cultural center, acquiring space three times larger than its original site which allowed for program expansion and outreach and a satellite gallery space for Bennett College. Financial support to help up fit the new space was generously provided by Maryland artist Joseph Holston and his wife Sharon and Bennett College. After two decades of service to citizens of Greensboro and North Carolina the African American Atelier is recognized nationally as a unique catalyst and venue for professional and emerging artists. It partners with over 30 community organizations, universities and businesses to culturally enrich community residents, participating artists, students and other visitors who come to the facility. The acquisition of funding from local and state agencies as well as foundations, corporate sponsors and individuals within and beyond the state reflect the strength and success of the gallery’s performance to meet the needs of the community and its mission. The African American Atelier continues today as a viable organization and an exciting community experience providing an environment for visual and cultural exposure, educational exchange and a showcase for African American art and artists. Source Link And Web Site: https://www.africanamericanatelier.org/about-1 Previous Next

< Back Elizabeth City State (NC) Panhellenic Council 1964. Elizabeth City State (NC) Panhellenic Council 1964. Elizabeth City State (NC) Panhellenic Council 1964. Sourced from: ECSU Archives/ncdigital Previous Next

< Back New Bern's African American Heritage Trail Dennard, who will make remarks at the June 19 dedication during the Juneteenth celebration, said that the signs convey some stories previously untold that add to the narrative of blacks in New Bern's overall history. Dennard has consulted on the N.C Highway Historical Marker Program, sometimes called "history on a stick." More than 1,600 markers dot the state map, usually limited to a snippet of information on people, places and events. He said New Bern's project goes to a new level in presentation and information. It is a legacy trail with 16 panels at 10 sites – single, double and three-sided 3-by-4-foot reader-friendly displays of meticulously-researched information, photographs and graphics. Maps at each site assist in an easy self-guided tour. "What we are recognizing now is that history is not conveyed by simply one method and we have an audience now, a generation that is more visual than previous generations," Dennard said. "They need to see a picture, to see the story, not just hear the story. Previously we thought we could tell individuals the story and they would create a mental picture. Now we know we need to prompt them with some other developments and that's where we use artifacts (such as images)." The signs are installed within the greater Craven Terrace/Dryborough neighborhoods and explain and interpret significant historic events, people and places that pertain to African American heritage. The 10 a.m. dedication is at The Great Fire signage at the intersection of Broad and Roundtree streets at Craven Terrace. The Great Fire of 1922 burned 40 city blocks and left 3,000 people homeless, mostly African Americans. The panel topics and events trace to before the Civil War, with titles such as Dryborough, Citizens of the Republic, West Street, Saving Grace, Five Points, Grand Army of the Republic, Fighting for Freedom, Queen Street, Public Housing for America, At Home in Craven Terrace, The Great Fire, Education for the Future, A New Beginning and Winds of Change. Heritage Trail Fruit of Five-Year Project The development of the signs has been a five-year project guided by a committee chaired by local historian Bernard George and sponsored by the Historic Dryborough Neighborhood Association, the New Bern Historical Society, the City of New Bern and the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Office. Professor John Hope Franklin, a noted scholar of African American history at Duke University through the second half of the 20th century once remarked that New Bern and Craven and Carteret Counties have, perhaps, the most interesting African American stories in the nation. Yet these stories were systematically suppressed by the revisionist historians of the Jim Crow and segregation eras. In recent years, renewed interest has resulted in research, lectures, books and reenactments that have brought these stories back to life. These signs will continue that interest. "He (Franklin) said something that has stuck with me," Dennard said. "He said that each generation is expected to write its own history and has an obligation. That means we must deal with history as an unfinished mosaic." He dismisses the idea that all history is written in stone, meaning it is always changing for accuracy and updated information. "It is being revised, it is being rewritten as we uncover new evidence," he said. "We are trying to get a more complete story." This can lead to hard choices in the face of long-held and long-retold versions of history. "In some cases, old stories must be abandoned, because they are no longer accurate when we get more evidence on the topic," he said. "That's where history changes and each generation has to assume responsibility for presenting history and making the necessary changes." Dennard said the signs are a continuation of New Bern's longtime leadership among Eastern North Carolina cities in sharing and updating black and white history as an overall story. "You all are heads above everyone that I know about in Eastern North Carolina," he said. "I think is just the history of New Bern, explaining it." He pointed to the late Kay Williams, executive director of Tryon Palace, under whose leadership the North Carolina History Center was built; an African American Lecture Series, Jonkonnu celebration dancers and black re-enactors all became part of its programming for several hundred thousand annual visitors. "She came up with the observation that we have many stories, but one history," Dennard recalled. It is the underlying premise of why projects such as the Heritage Trail should be of interest to all segments of society. Sign committee Chairman Bernard George said that getting the stories and the facts right was the major time-consuming work over the past five years by the signs' committee. ”It was a very painstaking process because much of the information was very sparse and scattered over a variety of documents, first-hand knowledge and oral histories,” George said. He added that these signs are a solid start in the creation of additional signs telling remarkable stories. The Heritage Trail project came about in 2015 because of the destruction of physical black history when Craven Terrace public housing – built in 1942 and 1953 - was leased under private management to a Florida company. Evergreen Partners Housing collaborated with TCG Development and the New Bern Housing Authority to redevelop and revitalize Craven Terrace. A $27.1 million renovation project began in April 2016 and was completed in 2018. As part of the mitigation for seven structures that were demolished, Craven Terrace LP provided $35,000 for the sign project. The signs describe how communities like Dryborough and Five Points were formed and developed, how housing was at first a joy and then destroyed by Jim Crow, and the subsequent struggle to regain what was. Along with George, the committee includes Vice-Chairman Carol Becton, Secretary Susan Cook, Lynne Harakal, McDaniel, Jon Miller, Mary Peterkin, Ethel Staten, Morgan Potts, Jeffrey Ruggier, Tharesa Lee and John Wood. Description of Photo Collage: Top Left-Map of Heritage Sign Location. Bottom Left-Rue Chapel AME Church, where the Saving Grace Heritage Sign points out Black Churches Information. Credit: Charlie Hall / Sun Journal Right Image: Announcement Public Is Invited to the June 19th New Bern Heritage Trail Dedication . Source: https://www.newbernsj.com/.../five-years.../7664965002/... Previous Next

< Back Alma Boykin, a beloved volunteer at Hunter Elementary ​ Meet 94-year-old Alma Boykin, a beloved volunteer at Hunter Elementary for 13 years By Amber Rupinta Tuesday April 17, 2018 WTVD "Each day for the last 13 years, 94-year-old Alma Boykin has walked across the street from her Raleigh home to volunteer at Hunter Gifted & Talented/AIG Basics Magnet Elementary. "I just like working with kids," Boykin said. "They make me feel young. Better than to be sitting around the house looking at the tv, and I feel better working with kids. I love kids. They say they like me." Boykin volunteers mostly in the kindergarten classrooms. The students love her. They all affectionately simply call her 'Granny'. "All the time pulling on me all the time, 'Granny, Granny, Granny, I love you. I love you,'" Boykin said. The teachers say Boykin is a special part of the Hunter family. "Just how excited the kids get when she walks in, they're like 'Granny is here!'" said kindergarten teacher Alicia Tanceusz. "She's a huge help," said kindergarten teacher Cullen Eller. "She does everything and she's here every single day so no matter what's asked shes up for trying something new," Eller said. Boykin began her volunteering through the city of Raleigh's Foster Grandparent Program. The program pairs seniors 55 and up with schools to serve as a role model for children. Foster Grandparents serve a minimum of 20 hours per week and receive benefits such as an hourly stipend, transportation reimbursement, ongoing training and supplemental insurance according to the city of Raleigh's website. For Boykin, the program is exactly what she needed after retiring from a cosmetics company. "I like working with kids," Boykin said. "I just like kids period. I just love 'em because I couldn't have any of my own." Click the Link to view the video. Source: http://abc11.com/.../meet-94-year-old-alma.../3338586/ Previous Next

< Back Elizabeth City State University-ECSU's Century-Old Rosenwald School ​ ECSU's Century-Old Rosenwald School to Take on New Role By Melissa Stuckey, an Assistant Professor of History at Elizabeth City State University and member of the board of the Friends of the Museum of the Albemarle. Nestled within the modern campus of Elizabeth City State University is a 100-year-old Rosenwald school building. This modest schoolhouse, formerly located on Parkview Drive, was once bursting with activity. Within its walls, student-teachers, neighborhood children, and expert professors of education fulfilled the university’s original mission of preparing normal school students for teaching careers in North Carolina’s segregated public school system. Established in 1891 as Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School, ECSU has had some form of practice teaching on campus from its first years of existence in rented buildings in the historic Shepard Street-Road Street neighborhood through today. After the university moved to its permanent location in 1912, practice teaching, like all other academic and administrative activity took place in Lane Hall, the first permanent campus building. In 1921, desperately needing more academic space, the university began constructing buildings like Moore Hall, a spacious academic and administrative building, the principal’s home, and the Rosenwald School, a space dedicated solely to student teaching. In announcing the new building program, the Elizabeth City Independent wrote that the practice school would “be in every way a model two-teacher country school, the building and grounds designed to be an example for rural school districts generally to follow.” It opened its doors on Monday, September 11, 1922. ECSU’s Rosenwald school was built according to standard plans developed by the Rosenwald fund. This fund, established by philanthropist Julius Rosenwald in consultation with famed educator Booker T. Washington, was established to improve school facilities for African American children in the South. Two hundred thirty-five such schools were built in northeastern North Carolina. Among the thousands of children educated at ECSU’s Rosenwald School were children of alumni, faculty, and other neighborhood children whose parents could afford to pay the small tuition fees collected to help pay the expense of operating the school. The small wooden schoolhouse served its purpose admirably from 1922 until about 1939, when it was supplanted by a newer and larger, brick practice school building, also constructed with the aid of the Rosenwald Fund in 1933. In later decades, the old Rosenwald school building was used for many other purposes. First, it was headquarters for the campus YWCA. It was then moved to its current campus location in 1957. From this spot, where it is now flanked by residence halls, it housed a cosmetology program, served as a laundry facility, operated as an observation laboratory kindergarten, and finally, served as headquarters for ECSU’s ROTC program for about thirty-three years. Although currently vacant and showing its years of service through wear, tear, and some disrepair, this century year old monument to ECSU’s normal school past is poised to take on new life. A $50,000 grant from the Institute for Museum and Library Services has allowed the university to work with Raleigh-based Vines Architecture to complete a comprehensive interpretive and design plan. With this plan now completed, we will begin drawing blueprints and, if all goes well, commence construction in early 2023. Within a few years, the rehabilitated Rosenwald school building, along with the equally historic Principal’s home, will become the Northeastern North Carolina African American Research and Cultural Heritage Institute. Here, the university and region’s stories about African American life and educational pursuits will have a permanent home. Photos: left - Girls playing in front Lane Hall in 1916, courtesy of the Jackson Davis Collection, University of Virginia. Right: ECSU’s Rosenwald School building, courtesy of the Elizabeth City State University Archives. Source: Museum of the Albemarle Previous Next

< Back Mrs. Hattie Maynard is pictured standing with her husband and grandson in front of her house. Top photograph: Mrs. Hattie Maynard, Reidsville, Rockingham County, N.C., 1939. Mrs. Hattie Maynard is pictured standing with her husband and grandson in front of her house. Bottom photograph: Mrs. Hattie Maynard is pictured seated inside her home with her grandson and two other people. The two women are stringing tobacco bags. Mrs. Hattie Maynard has 1 grandchild living with her, whose mother and father are dead. She is 66 years old and her husband is 79. Reside at Reidsville, N.C. INCOME: They have no income except what they make by stringing tobacco bags. Food costs them about $2.50 a week. Rent is $1 a month. HOME CONDITIONS: The house is just a cabin and has 4 rooms. They only have enough land for a small garden. They own a cow and a few chickens. They have a sewing machine and an old piano. Although the house is small it is very well kept. She has been stringing bags about 35 years and makes $17.00 or $18.00 a month. This is their only income and they couldn't live without this work. Since she is so old, this work bothers her eyes a little. . Photographers: Stutz, Carleton, Maxfield, Peter A. Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. North Carolina Collection. Digital Collection Tobacco Bag Stringing. Previous Next

< Back Maceo Parker On February 14, 1943, saxophonist Maceo Parker was born in Kinston, NC, and is best known for his work with James Brown, Parker brought his funk style to the soul music of the James Brown Band. For nearly 20 years, Brown’s call “Maceo, I want you to Blow!” summoned his unique sound. He also collaborated with a host of artists including George Clinton, Prince, Ray Charles, James Taylor, the Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers On February 14, 1943, saxophonist Maceo Parker was born in Kinston, NC, and is best known for his work with James Brown, Parker brought his funk style to the soul music of the James Brown Band. For nearly 20 years, Brown’s call “Maceo, I want you to Blow!” summoned his unique sound. He also collaborated with a host of artists including George Clinton, Prince, Ray Charles, James Taylor, the Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers Parker was exposed to music early in his life. His father played at least two instruments, and both of his parents sang for their church. His brother was also musical, and the pair joined James Brown’s band together in 1964. . Among Parker’s many accolades and awards are the 2003 Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award, the 2012 Les Victories du Jazz in Paris Lifetime Achievement Award and the Icon Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. Parker continues to tour internationally and is featured in the book "African American Music Trails of Eastern North Carolina", published by the North Carolina Arts Council. Photograph: :Maceo Parker at the Liri Blues Festival, Italy, in 2009 Read More About This One Of A Kind Musician Here: http://maceoparker.com/biography.html Previous Next

< Back Addison Scurlock Addison Scurlock was an African American photographer. Addison Scurlock photographed Black and White notables in D.C. Addison Scurlock was born on Tuesday, 06.19.1883. He was an African American photographer. He was born in Fayetteville, N.C., where he graduated from high school. In 1900, he moved with his family to Washington, D.C. His father, George Clay Scurlock, had run unsuccessfully for the North Carolina Senate. He also worked as a messenger for the U.S. Treasury Department, while studying law and he later opened a law office on the 1100 block of U Street. Young Scurlock began his career as a photographer as an apprentice to Moses P. Rice, who had studios on Pennsylvania Avenue. By 1904, he learned the basics of photographic portraiture and the entire range of laboratory work. That same year, he started his own business at his parents’ home on Florida Avenue. He photographed students at Howard University, M Street, Armstrong high schools, Black universities, and high schools throughout the South. In 1907, he won a gold medal for photography at the Jamestown Exposition. He opened the Scurlock Studio in the African-American community’s theater district in 1911, and concentrated on portraiture and general photography. His clients included brides, successful people, politicians and presidents, convention guests, and socialites. A 1976 Washington Post article by Jacqueline Trescott read, "For years one of the marks of arriving socially in black Washington was to have your portrait hanging in Scurlock’s window." In addition to studio portraits, he mastered the use of the panoramic camera and shot conventions, banquets, and graduations. By the 1920s, he had earned a national reputation. He was the official photographer of Howard University until his death in 1964, and he recorded all aspects of university life. Scurlock also produced a series of portraits of African-American leaders that historian Carter G. Woodson distributed to African-American schools nationwide. One of his most significant photographs was that of Marion Anderson singing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939. A famous story told about him is that while shooting President Coolidge with the Dunbar Cadet Corp on the White House Lawn, he walked up to the president and moved him to another position for the sake of a better picture, much to the dismay of the Secret Service. Scurlock and his wife, Mamie Estelle, lived just a few blocks from the studio with their four sons — Addison, Robert, George, and Walter. Mamie served as the studio’s business manager. From 1948 until 1952, Robert and George managed the Capital School of Photography. Among their students were future Washington Post photographers and a young Jacqueline Bouvier who became the wife of John Kennedy. As founder of the Scurlock Photographic Studio, he took portraits of such notables as educators Booker T. Washington and Mary McLeod Bethune, composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, engineer Archie Alexander, political leader W.E.B. DuBois, former first lady Mamie Eisenhower, singer Billy Eckstine, physician Charles R. Drew, opera singer Madame Lillian Evanti, and poet Sterling Brown while documenting key moments in Washington, D.C. history. In 1964, Robert bought the Scurlock studio from his father and purchased a studio on Connecticut Avenue. The Connecticut Avenue studio closed in the early 1970s and the 9th Street studio was demolished in 1983 for the Metro system. Addison Scurlock died on December 16, 1964 at the age of 81. Reference: The African American Atlas Black History & Culture an Illustrated Reference by Molefi K. Asanta and Mark T. Mattson Macmillam USA, Simon & Schuster, New York ISBN 0-02-864984-2 Previous Next

< Back John Biggers John Biggers was a muralist who came to prominence after the Harlem Renaissance and toward the end of World War II. John Thomas Biggers (April 13, 1924 – January 25, 2001) John Biggers was a muralist who came to prominence after the Harlem Renaissance and toward the end of World War II. Biggers has worked on creating art that is critical of racial and economic injustice. He served as the founding chairman of the art department at Houston's Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University)." "Biggers was born in a shotgun house built by his father in Gastonia, North Carolina. His father Paul was a Baptist preacher, farmer, shoemaker, schoolteacher, and principal of a three-room school. His mother Cora was a housekeeper for white families. The youngest of seven, Biggers was reared in a close family that valued creativity and education. When Cora's husband died in 1937, she took a job in an orphanage for Black children, and John and his brother Joe were sent to Lincoln Academy, an American Missionary Association school in Kings Mountain, North Carolina" Biggers was born in a shotgun house built by his father in Gastonia, North Carolina. His father Paul was a Baptist preacher, farmer, shoemaker, schoolteacher, and principal of a three-room school. His mother Cora was a housekeeper for white families. The youngest of seven, Biggers was reared in a close family that valued creativity and education. When Cora's husband died in 1937, she took a job in an orphanage for Black children. She sent John and his brother Joe to Lincoln Academy, an American Missionary Association school for African American children in Kings Mountain, North Carolina. After graduating from Lincoln, Biggers attended Hampton Institute (now Hampton University), (HBCU) an Historically Black College - University. Biggers planned to become a plumber (his Hampton application included boiler room drawings). His life took a dramatic change of course when he took an art class with Viktor Lowenfeld, a Jewish refugee who in 1939 had fled from Nazi persecution in Austria before World War II. Lowenfield introduced his students to works by African Americans and helped them understand the religious and social context of African art, of which the Hampton Museum had a significant collection. Afterward, Biggers began to study art. At Hampton, Biggers also studied under African American painter Charles White and sculptor Elizabeth Catlett. He also began to learn the work of Mexican muralists Jose Clemente Orozco, David Alfaro Siqueiros, and Diego Rivera; and American regionalists Grant Wood, Reginald Marsh, Thomas Hart Benton, and Harry Sternberg. He was exposed to and influenced by Harlem Renaissance artists William Artis and Hale Woodruf, and writers W. E. B. Du Bois and Alain Locke. In 1943, Biggers was drafted and joined the U.S. Navy, which was segregated, like the other armed services. He remained stationed at the Hampton Institute and made models of military equipment for training purposes. In that same year, his talents were recognized when his work was included in a landmark exhibit Young Negro Art at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Biggers was discharged in 1945. When Viktor Lowenfeld left Hampton to teach art education at Pennsylvania State University, he persuaded Biggers to follow. In 1946, Biggers enrolled at Pennsylvania State where he earned bachelor's and master's degrees in art education in 1948. In that same year, he married Hazel Hales. He earned a doctorate from Pennsylvania State in 1954. He was awarded an honorary doctor of letters degree from Hampton University in 1990. His works can be found at Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, primarily in the campus library. The University Museum at Houston's Texas Southern University houses a collection of Biggers's works. Biggers was hired to be founding chairman of the art department in 1949 at Houston's Texas State University for Negroes (now Texas Southern University). "Over the next thirty-four years Biggers trained the next generation of African American artists and teachers that form a vital part of Biggers's legacy." Mr. Biggers retired from Texas Southern University in 1983. He lived at 3527 Ruth Street while he taught at TSU. In 1950, Biggers won first prize for his painting The Cradle at the annual exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. "Segregationist policies, however, allowed black visitors into the museum only on Thursdays, so he could not attend the show's opening." From 1950 to 1956 Biggers painted four murals in African American communities in Texas, the beginning of his work in murals. He painted many public murals in Houston and elsewhere, including two in 1991 for Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina. Most are still in place. Biggers received a mural commission by the Young Women's Christian Association of Houston in 1952, for the Blue Triangle branch. Thinking of the YWCA as a place for African American girls and women to be empowered, Biggers was inspired to draw from his mural for his doctoral thesis. His mural was titled The Contribution of the Negro Woman to American Life and Education. Biggers wanted the mural to represent the world of the girls and women who would see it. It honors the sacrifices and endeavors of African American women on behalf of their families and communities, and human rights for women of all races. The mural was revolutionary, symbolizing the sociological, historical, and educational influences of heroic women Biggers received a fellowship in 1957 from UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization. With it, he was one of the first African American artists to visit Africa. Under the auspices of UNESCO, he and his wife Hazel traveled to Ghana, Benin, Nigeria and Togo to study West African cultural traditions first-hand. Biggers described his trip to Ghana and Nigeria as a "positive shock" and as "the most significant of my life's experiences." He adopted African design motifs and scenes of life from his travels as important elements of his subsequent work. Biggers returned to Africa again in 1969, 1984 and 1987 In a 1975 Houston Oral History Project interview, Biggers spoke of his experiences. "We spent most of our time in the country. People call it "bush," you know, that's a name sort of like the hunter. I don't care for that name for the country people because country people have a great traditional culture. And these cultures are all over the country. They are beautiful. They have endured." Biggers credits Lowenfeld with influencing his artistic development, giving him a larger perspective on the anguish that people have suffered because of race or religious beliefs. He died at age 76 in Houston When Biggers studied African myths and legends, he was particularly drawn to the creation stories of a matriarchal deistic system, contrasting with the patriarchal images of the European world. As his ideas and images of Africa melded with memories of his rural Southern life, his work became more geometric, stylized and symbolic. He used quilt-like geometric patterning as a unifying element of his work and made his colors richer and lighter. In later years, Biggers shifted from creating works that were overtly critical of racial and economic injustice (Victim of the City Streets #2, 1946) to more allegorical works (Birth from the Sea, 1964 and Shotguns: Third Ward, 1987). Robert Farris Thompson notes how Biggers gives iconic treatment to household items associated with everyday domestic life. For instance, he portrays the shotgun house as a symbol of collective dignity and cultural identity. The recurring symbol of the simple shotgun with a woman standing on the porch can be interpreted not only as the simplest type of housing but also as a reference to women, through whom all creation comes. He uses a repeated triangular roof shape similar to pieces of a quilt, a reference to making a beautiful whole cloth from many irregular pieces, as another symbol of the creative force. In 1994, Biggers illustrated Maya Angelou's poem "Our Grandmothers". In 1995, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston hosted a retrospective exhibition of Biggers's work titled The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room. The show also traveled to Boston, Hartford, Connecticut, and Raleigh, North Carolina. "He is someone who has retained, over 50 years, an emphasis on African-American culture," said Alvia J. Wardlaw, curator of the exhibition, a recognized author on African American Art, and professor and curator of Texas Southern University's Museum. The catalogue Wardlaw created for the retrospective, The Art of John Biggers: View from the Upper Room (published by Harry N. Abrams in 1995), includes a broad selection of Biggers's paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures. In 1996 Biggers was invited to create the original design for the Celebration of Life mural in North Minneapolis, a predominantly African American community. The mural was completed by a number of local Minnesota artists, including a few of considerable reputation such as Seitu Jones and Ta-coumba Aiken. Due to the creation of a new housing development, the mural was taken down in 2001. In 2016, The Mint Museum in Charlotte, N.C., opened a multi-year exhibit John Biggers: Wheels in Wheels, which includes 12 important paintings, drawings and prints, as well as a rare example of the artist's sculpture. "Through the use of a rich symbolic language and beautiful craftsmanship, Biggers found connections between personal, familial, and regional histories, traditions, symbols, which he wove together to articulate broader cultural and historical concerns," the exhibit promotion stated. Themes that repeat throughout his career - the importance of women, family and triumph over adversity - are evident in the works on display. Auction Records On October 8, 2009, Swann Galleries set an auction record for any work by Biggers when they sold the painting Shotguns (1987), acrylic and oil on canvas, for $216,000 in a sale of African American fine art. A stellar representation of the shotgun-style houses found in Southern black communities, the painting had been widely exhibited and was considered a culmination of Biggers's work. It had remained in a private collection since being acquired directly from the artist in 1987. Biggers's papers, including correspondence, photographs, printed materials, professional materials, subject files, writings, and audiovisual materials documenting his work as an artist and educator are located at Emory University's Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library in Atlanta, Georgia. His works are in such collections as noted below. Selected Collections Minneapolis Institute of Art, Minneapolis, MN Williams College Museum of Art, WCMA, Williamstown, MA Hampton University, Hampton, VA The University Museum at Texas Southern University, Houston, TX Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, TX National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C Source: https://www.tshaonline.org/.../entries/biggers-john-thomas Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_T._Biggers Source: https://thejohnsoncollection.org/john-biggers/ Source: https://aaregistry.org/.../john-biggers-brought-african.../ Previous Next

< Back Racial Bias in Flexner Report Permeates Medical Education Today — Landmark study forced all but two Black U.S. medical schools to close by Elizabeth Hlavinka, Staff Writer, MedPage Today June 18, 2020 Note from #Irememberourhistory: Leonard Medical School at Shaw University in Raleigh, NC was the first 4 year medical school (White or Black) in the country. The Flexner Report caused it to close for good. End Note. The early 20th century report that laid the framework for the modern North American medical school is also partially responsible for the disproportionately low number of Black physicians in the workforce today, historians and education specialists say. In the early 1900s, the Carnegie Foundation and the American Medical Association tasked Abraham Flexner, an education specialist, with traveling to all 155 medical schools in the U.S. and Canada to assess the state of medical education. His findings, published in 1910 in what is now known as the Flexner Report, provided criteria to standardize and improve medical schools, forcing closed many institutions that didn't have the resources to implement more rigorous instruction. By 1923, only 66 medical schools remained, and five of seven existing Black medical schools were closed. In 1910, African Americans comprised 2.5% of U.S. physicians, which would actually decrease to 2.2% in 2008 before rising to about 5% of the workforce today; African Americans account for about 13% of the general U.S. population. "The Flexner Report was a catalyst," said Wayne A.I. Frederick, MD, president of Howard University in Washington, D.C., one Black medical school that remained along with Meharry Medical College in Nashville. "It started us down a road that is hard to undo." The Flexner Report centralized the scientific method, increased the number of academic institutions, and reduced the number of for-profit, proprietary schools. Johns Hopkins Medical School, where the medical school curriculum consisted of 2 years of basic science followed by 2 years of clinical science, was held up as a reference standard. In his report, Flexner wrote that African-American physicians should be trained in "hygiene rather than surgery" and should primarily serve as "sanitarians," whose purpose was "protecting whites" from common diseases like tuberculosis. The schools that closed, including Flint in New Orleans, Leonard in Raleigh, and Knoxville in Memphis, were "wasting small sums annually and sending out undisciplined men, whose lack of real training is covered up by the imposing MD degree," Flexner wrote. Although some standardization of medical education was necessary, Flexner's report gravely diminished the number of African Americans who could have become physicians, said Earl H. Harley, MD, of Georgetown University, who has written about the forgotten history of defunct Black medical schools. "The opportunity to train to be a physician is still not where it should be," Harley told MedPage Today. "More than 100 years later, we are still trying to make up for the deficit." HBCUs Help Close Gaps Most Black medical schools in the early 20th century educated students from rural, low-income communities, and they did not have the resources or philanthropic backing necessary to implement the rigorous standards Flexner called for in his report, said Marybeth Gasman, PhD, of the Rutgers University Center for Minority Serving Institutions, whose research focuses on historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs). "A lot of these places that were shut down were producing doctors for Black communities and rural white communities, and were doing so on a shoestring budget, so they were not going to be prioritized," Gasman told MedPage Today. "We don't prioritize these things now." HBCUs and Black medical schools help close gaps in the workforce by increasing the number of Black undergraduates with science degrees, as well as Black medical students. Four of the top 10 colleges sending African Americans to medical school are HBCUs, and Howard University has graduated more African-American physicians than any other institution, Frederick said. "The role that HBCUs play both as a pipeline and as a training opportunity for physicians in this country is absolutely critical," Frederick told MedPage Today. "Unfortunately, we have an outsized impact today despite the fact we don't have the resources of predominantly white institutions and the students we train are coming from circumstances where they have less financial fortitude." African Americans are overrepresented in low-income communities and have reduced access to educational opportunities compared to white Americans. With physicians graduating medical school hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt, low-income students are also underrepresented in medical schools, said Louis W. Sullivan, MD, president emeritus of the Morehouse College of Medicine and former secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. "We've set up a system whereby the cost of becoming a doctor is so great that the percentage of students from low-income families going to medical school has decreased over the past two to three decades," Sullivan told MedPage Today. The free tuition program at the New York University School of Medicine is one example of a way to circumvent these financial barriers, Sullivan said. "The program at NYU got a lot of attention and I'm hoping we see much more responses like that so that students who come from low-income backgrounds can see it's not unrealistic for them to want to become a doctor," Sullivan said. Racial Bias and Health Outcomes Black medical schools train a higher proportion of primary care physicians who care for underserved populations, not only increasing representation in the field, but also providing culturally sensitive care to African-American patients. Racial bias in medicine contributes to disparate health outcomes faced by African Americans, with half of white medical students believing Black patients have a higher pain tolerance than white patients, for example. Racial bias can also permeate things like Crisis of Care Standards guidelines or algorithms commonly used to guide care decisions, including which patients will receive transplants. In the COVID-19 pandemic, all of these disparities in health have been exposed -- mortality in majority-Black counties is six-fold higher compared to predominantly white counties. Increasing the number of Black doctors in the workforce could help reduce disparate health outcomes affecting Black patients, including disproportionately high infant and maternal mortality rates. An effective health encounter involves sharing sensitive, private information, but if a patient is going to share that information with a healthcare professional, they have to believe that a healthcare professional has their own interest at heart," Sullivan said. "That is why having diversity in the healthcare profession helps because in our current society, the individual from that same group has a greater understanding of the historical and cultural set of beliefs that the patient has." Flexner acknowledged Black students' rights to education, but thought Black patients could only be seen by Black doctors. However, he also stated that there would not be enough Black physicians to care for all of the Black Americans at the time. From 1910 to 1930, there was one Black doctor for every 3,000 African Americans, but this varied widely among states. In Mississippi, for example, a state in which far more of the population was Black than in northern states, there was one doctor for every 14,000 Black people, Gasman said. Howard University and Meharry University, the two schools that survived the post-Flexner reforms, were then left to produce enough doctors to serve around 10 million African Americans living in the country at the time. The ripple effect of this disparity is evident today, Gasman said. "I'm not saying the Black medical schools that closed were doing everything right because they didn't have good resources, but they were doing the best they could," Gasman said. "It would have been interesting if the Carnegie Foundation and other foundations had invested money in them instead of closing them, and really grown them to serve African-American populations." Dismantling Racism in Medicine Today, predominantly white medical schools also have a role to play in increasing representation overall and in leadership. The systems that have developed in the past century since Flexner's report cannot be ignored, said Katharine Lawrence, MD, an internal medicine resident at the NYU School of Medicine. "In the 100 years since the Flexner Report, there were all sorts of stakeholders in place to suppress the reinvigoration of Black medical education," Lawrence told MedPage Today. "We have to do an evaluation of what the medical community has been doing in the past 100 years that allowed that to happen." In 2012, the Beyond Flexner Alliance was created to address some of the disparities established in 1910 that still exist today. As part of George Washington University, it collaborates with other professional organizations and hosts annual conferences at which physicians can develop tools for dismantling racism or other structural issues in health systems. "At the core of Beyond Flexner is that as healthcare professionals and physicians, we have made a commitment to the health of patients and the public," said Candice Chen, MD, MPH, chair of the Beyond Flexner Alliance. "We have a responsibility to do this." Harley sees the current coronavirus pandemic as an inflection point. "With COVID-19, things have turned completely upside down, and this is the chance for us to look at the whole system of medical education and make changes and correct some of the things that were affected by Flexner," Harley said. "We can make great strides right now." Link To Read The Flexner Report: http://archive.carnegiefoundation.org/.../Carnegie... Link To Read Earl H. Harley, MD, of Georgetown University, the forgotten history of defunct Black medical schools. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/.../pdf/jnma00196-0027.pdf Article Source: https://www.medpagetoday.com/publi.../medicaleducation/87171 Previous Next

< Back Keith Stokes' Ancestral Doll ​ Narrative and owner of doll: Keith Stokes Photographer: Frank Jackson Thank you professional photographer Frank Jackson for this striking image of our 1830 slave doll. The doll is made from the clothing of an enslaved woman in my great, great grandmother’s home. The image is a chilling reminder of early America. Previous Next

< Back President Lyndon B. Johnson #OTD July 2, 1964 , President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Today marks the 55th anniversary of the signing of The Civil Rights Act of 1964. This legislation outlawed discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Start date: July 2, 1964 Titles amended: Title 42—Public Health And Welfare Acts amended: Civil Rights Act of 1957; Civil Rights Act of 1960 Enacted by: the 88th United States Congress Statutes at Large: 78 Stat. 241 --- "The passage of this legislation championed the fight for equality in the United States. What started as a Black liberation movement, soon escalated into outlawing discrimination based on all races, religions, sexes, and national origins. ⁣However, the Black liberation movement was often seen as a "threat to internal security" in the United States, and activists were often harassed, intimidated, and divided from within by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the years leading up to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the FBI targeted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., with one goal; "to find avenues of approach aimed at neutralizing King as an effective Negro leader." They bugged his hotel rooms, followed him and his family, and even attempted to blackmail him into suicide. Simultaneously, FBI agents sent anonymous letters that incited violence between street gangs and Black Panthers which resulted in the killings of four Black Panther members, in addition to numerous beatings and shootings across various United States cities. As the FBI worked to dismantle the movement both internally and externally, divisions across groups arose based on methods and approaches to liberation. The Congress of Racial Equality, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the National Urban League were all working towards the liberation of Black people oppressed by systemic racism that plagued the entire Nation. However, personal rivalries and political disagreements led to disunity within the coalition. The Civil Rights coalition eventually broke down, with each organization going their separate ways. This was not before violence and death plagued the lives of leaders within these coalitions, and therefore their members. The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. once remarked how the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was nothing less than a "second emancipation." Despite challenges from within and from outside forces, the legislation paved the way to end legal segregation in the United States with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968. " Laurie A. Cumbo Majority Leader, New York City Council District 35 ---- Read More about The Civil Rights Act of 1964 Here:: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964 And Here: https://www.eeoc.gov/stat.../title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964 And Here: https://www.history.com/.../black-history/civil-rights-act #Irememberourhistory #NCMAAHC #TheGCFHawleyMuseum #TellMeMore #AboutFreedom #Justice #Equity #CivilRightAct1964 #NotThatLongAgo #AmericanHistory #MLK Previous Next

< Back Elinor Powell Photograph:Elinor Powell (right) with a fellow nurse at POW Camp Florence in Arizona, circa 1944-1945 (Photo courtesy of Chris Albert) Photograph:Elinor Powell (right) with a fellow nurse at POW Camp Florence in Arizona, circa 1944-1945 (Photo courtesy of Chris Albert) The Army’s First Black Nurses Were Relegated to Caring for Nazi Prisoners of War Prohibited from treating white GIs, the women felt betrayed by the country they sought to serve. By By Alexis Clark SMITHSONIAN.COM MAY 15, 2018 On the summer afternoon in 1944 that 23-year-old Elinor Powell walked into the Woolworth’s lunch counter in downtown Phoenix, it never occurred to her that she would be refused service. She was, after all, an officer in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, serving her country during wartime, and she had grown up in a predominantly white, upwardly mobile Boston suburb that didn’t subject her family to discrimination. But the waiter who turned Elinor away wasn’t moved by her patriotism. All he saw was her brown skin. It probably never occurred to him that the woman in uniform was from a family that served its country, as Elinor’s father had in the First World War, as well as another relative who had been part of the Union Army during the Civil War. The only thing that counted at that moment—and in that place, where Jim Crow laws remained in force—was the waiter’s perception of a black army nurse as not standing on equal footing with his white customers. Infuriated and humiliated, Elinor left Woolworth’s and returned to POW Camp Florence, in the Arizona desert. She was stationed there to look after German prisoners of war, who had been captured in Europe and Northern Africa and then sent across the Atlantic Ocean, for detainment in the United States during World War II. Elinor, like many other black nurses in the Army Nurse Corps, was tasked with caring for German POWs—men who represented Hitler’s racist regime of white supremacy. Though their presence is rarely discussed in American history, from 1942 to 1946, there were 371,683 German POWs scattered across the country in more than 600 camps. Some POWs remained until 1948. And these POWs were kept busy. Prisoners of war, under rules set by the Geneva Convention, could be made to work for the detaining power. And, with millions of American men away serving in the military, there was a significant labor shortage in the United States. Farms, plants, canneries, and other industries needed workers. For black nurses, the assignment to take care of German POWs—to tend to Nazis—was deeply unwelcome. To the African-American women who had endured the arduous process of being admitted into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps, this assignment felt like a betrayal. They volunteered to serve to help wounded American soldiers, not the enemy. Long before World War II, black nurses had been struggling to serve their country. After the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, black nurses tried to enroll in the Red Cross, which was then the procurement agency for the Army Nurse Corps. The Red Cross rejected them, because they didn’t have the required membership in the American Nurses Association (ANA), which didn’t allow blacks to join at the time. A few black nurses eventually served in the First World War, but not because they were finally admitted into the Army Nurse Corps. The 1918 flu epidemic wiped out so many thousands of people that a handful of black nurses were called to assist. More than two decades later, after Hitler invaded Poland, the United States began an aggressive war preparedness program, and the Army Nurse Corps expanded its recruiting process. Wanting to serve their country and receive a steady military income, thousands of black nurses filled out applications to enlist. They received the following letter: “Your application to the Army Nurse Corps cannot be given favorable consideration as there are no provisions in Army regulations for the appointment of colored nurses in the Corps.” The rejection letter was a crushing blow, but also an honest appraisal of how the country regarded black nurses: They weren’t valued as American citizens or seen as fit to wear a military uniform. The National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses (NACGN)—an organization founded in 1908 for black registered nurses as an alternative to the ANA, which still hadn’t extended its membership to black nurses—challenged the letter. And with political pressure from civil rights groups and the black press, 56 black nurses were finally admitted into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in 1941. Some went to Fort Livingston in Louisiana and others to Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, both segregated bases. When Elinor Powell entered the army in 1944, she completed her basic training an hour outside of Tucson, Arizona, at Fort Huachuca, which had become the largest military installation for black soldiers and nurses. The army had a strict quota for black nurses, and only 300 of them served in the entire Army Nurse Corps, which had 40,000 white nurses. It was evident the military didn’t really want black women to serve at all, and they made this clear. Elinor’s cohort of newly trained Army nurses soon received shocking news: There had been too much fraternization between white nurses and German POWs at Camp Florence. So the Army was bringing in black nurses as replacements. POW camps would become an ongoing assignment for the majority of African-American nurses. The remainder were stationed at segregated bases with black soldiers, who mostly performed maintenance and menial jobs during the war, and understood what it meant to wear a U.S. military uniform and still be treated like a second-class citizen. Life for a black army nurse at a POW camp could be lonely and isolated. The camps in the South and Southwest, in particular, strictly enforced Jim Crow. The list of complaints from black nurses included being routinely left out of officer meetings and social functions, and being forced to eat in segregated dining halls. The trips to nearby towns were also degrading because of establishments that either relegated blacks to subpar seating and service or barred them from entering altogether. At the hospitals in the POW camps, black nurses weren’t that fulfilled either. A great many of the prisoners were in good health, which had been a requirement to make the trans-Atlantic journey in the first place, so the black nurses weren’t utilized to full capacity. There were typical bedside nursing duties and occasional appendectomies performed, but rarely were there critical cases. In some ways, from a social standpoint, the German POWs fared better than the black nurses. Local white residents, U.S. Army guards and officers were friendly toward them—a level of respect that black laborers, soldiers, and nurses did not experience with any regularity. When German prisoners first arrived in the United States, many were shocked by the racial hierarchy entrenched in American culture. They saw the segregated bathrooms and restricted dining halls at train stations, and during their days-long journeys to their respective POW camps had black train attendants bringing them food and drinks and calling them “sir.” It was clear that in the United States, there was an inherent expectation of subservience to whites, even to those from Hitler’s army. Once at camp, life for German POWs, for the most part, was comfortable. From the clean accommodations and regular meals, to the congeniality of Americans, some POWs were relieved to have been captured. And the interactions with black nurses were largely civilized. But there were occasions when black nurses found themselves humiliated by German POWs and not backed up by the U.S. Army. At Camp Papago Park, outside of Phoenix, a German POW said he hated “niggers” in front of a black nurse. She reported the incident to the commanding officer, expecting a swift reprimand. The nurse later discovered the commanding officer didn’t think any punishment was necessary. She complained about the incident in a letter to the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses: “That is the worst insult an army officer should ever have to take. I think it is insult enough to be here taking care of them when we volunteered to come into the army to nurse military personnel…All of this is making us very bitter.” Meanwhile, even though black nurses were underutilized, there was an urgent need for more nurses to care for the returning American soldiers, wounded in battle. Nevertheless, white nurses were tasked to tend to Americans almost exclusively. Yes, thousands of white nurses also had POW camp assignments—there were very few black women in Army Nurse Corps. But if a black unit could replace a white one at a camp, the swap was made. As the war entered its final year, the numbers of wounded men rose exponentially. President Roosevelt made the alarming announcement of legislation to establish a nursing draft in his State of the Union Address on January 6, 1945. Radio announcements said the draft would be instituted unless 18,000 additional nurses volunteered. At the time of the president’s address, there were 9,000 applications from black nurses hoping to enlist in the Army Nurse Corps. But those nurses didn’t count toward the goal, or dissuade FDR’s announcement—to the dismay of NACGN, the black press and civil rights organizations. Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., the esteemed minister from Harlem, famously denounced the decision: “It is absolutely unbelievable that in times like these, when the world is going forward, that there are leaders in our American life who are going backward. It is further unbelievable that these leaders have become so blindly and unreasonably un-American that they have forced our wounded men to face the tragedy of death rather than allow trained nurses to aid because these nurses’ skins happen to be of a different color.” The draft legislation stalled in the Senate and the conscription of nurses never occurred. But with morale among black army nurses reaching record lows, the NACGN approached First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt for help, given her commitment to equal rights. And the meeting was a success. In the final year of the war, black nurses were no longer assigned exclusively to POW camps. After a few months they were transferred to army hospitals for wounded American soldiers. Elinor remained at POW Camp Florence for the duration of the war, and fell in love with a German prisoner, Frederick Albert. While fellow Americans humiliated her with segregation, a German, of all people, uplifted her. The two shunned the racist policies of Jim Crow and Nazism, seeking solace in a forbidden romance. They would spend their lives together in constant search of a community that accepted them, more than 20 years before laws banning interracial marriage were struck down in the 1967 Loving v. Virginia decision. By war’s end, only about 500 black nurses had served in the U.S. Army Nurse Corps during WWII, even though thousands had applied. Despite the discrimination they faced, black army nurses demonstrated a persistent will to be a part of the U.S. Army Nurse Corp and serve their country. Their efforts paid off when President Truman issued an executive order to desegregate the entire military in 1948. And by 1951, the National Association of Colored Graduate Nurses dissolved into the American Nurses Association, which had extended its membership to all nurses regardless of race. Source:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../armys-first-black.../... Previous Next

< Back Spurgeon Neal Ellington Tuskegee Airman Was Born In Winston-Salem and Taught At Pender County Training School Before Taking To The Air BY Claudia Stack Spurgeon Neal Ellington/American Air Museum in Britain Tuskegee Airman Was Born In Winston-Salem and Taught At Pender County Training School Before Taking To The Air BY Claudia Stack Spurgeon Neal Ellington/American Air Museum in Britain A decorated Tuskegee airman was a young teacher at Pender County Training School in Rocky Point, NC before he began his military training. Spurgeon Neal Ellington was born in 1919 in Winston-Salem, NC . He graduated from Winston-Salem Teachers College in 1939. In 1941, at the age of 21, he stated on his draft card that his employer was J.T. Daniel of Rocky Point. Daniel was the longtime principal of Pender County Training School. J.T. Daniel and his wife Leona were education leaders who fostered success for several generations of African American students in Pender County, NC (see The Daniels: Leaders in Excellence at an NC Rosenwald School). Ellington was inducted into the Army at Fort Bragg, NC in April, 1942. Subsequently, transferred to Tuskegee for flight training and earned his wings in May, 1943. At Tuskegee, Ellington’s group trained under the legendary Charles Anderson. The History.com article “6 Renowned Tuskegee Airmen” states that: Known as the father of Black aviation, Charles Anderson was Tuskegee’s chief civilian flight instructor during World War II. In 1932, after receiving his pilot’s license, he was the only Black flight instructor in the United States...In 1941, as the chief aviation instructor at Tuskegee, Anderson gave First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt a flight during her visit to Tuskegee. She had heard, in her words, “that colored people couldn’t fly,” but after their short trip could say, “Well, I see you can fly all right!” Coverage of her visit helped cement support in Washington for the program. Although some sources state, incorrectly, that Ellington was a member of the 99th Fighter Squadron (the first group of Tuskegee Airmen) the application for his military headstone confirms that Ellington was a member of the 100th Fighter Squadron . Ellington was part of the second group of pilots trained by Tuskegee, although his unit soon joined the 99th Fighter Squadron in Europe as part of the 332nd Fighter Group. The History.com article “Tuskegee Airmen” states that: In February 1944, the 100th, 301st and 302nd fighter squadrons arrived in Italy; together with the 99th, these squadrons of Black pilots and other personnel made up the new 332nd Fighter Group...After this transfer, the pilots of the 332nd began flying P-51 Mustangs to escort the heavy bombers of the 15th Air Force during raids deep into enemy territory. The tails of their planes were painted red for identification purposes, earning them the enduring nickname “Red Tails.” Apparently, Ellington was a confident man who lived with bravado. In The Tuskegee Airmen: The Men Who Changed A Nation, Charles E. Francis wrote: “One of the most unforgettable characters I have ever met was Lieutenant Spurgeon Ellington. If there was ever a proud man, it was Ellington. He was not only proud of being a pilot, but proud in general. To him, there was only one person – Ellington. He figured he could out-talk and out-smart anyone. Needless to say, he also pictured himself as God’s gift to women.” A 1945 article in The Carolinian newspaper, “Ellington Returns for a Visit” reported that Ellington was in NC to visit his mother. His flight accomplishments are listed there in brief: During the previous 18 months in Europe, he flew 124 missions. Ellington earned the Distinguished Flying Cross for bravery in military aviation, the Air Medal, and numerous ribbons. The article also notes that Ellington had married Marie Hawkins, a successful jazz singer and niece of another notable, Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Brown founded the Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia, NC in 1902, an influential African American school that operated until 1971. Hawkins was an alumna of the Palmer Memorial Institute and met and married the dashing aviator. However, their married life ended tragically with Ellington’s death in a training accident. After Ellington’s death, the young widow eventually returned to the stage and met Nat King Cole, whom she married in 1948. A blog post from the Forsyth, NC Public Library states that: Maria continued her career while Spurgeon was off flying in Europe, first with the Count Basie Orchestra, then with Duke Ellington’s band. When the war ended in August, 1945, Spurgeon was assigned as an instructor at a training base in Georgia. Then one day he was riding in the back seat with one of his fellow pilots. The plane crashed. A simple pilot’s mistake accomplished what no German pilot could. Spurgeon’s body came home on a train and was buried at the Odd Fellows Cemetery in Winston-Salem. In the same 1945 article referenced above about his visit home, Ellington was interviewed by the reporter about his thoughts for the future: Questioned with reference to post-war plans, Ellington stated that he hoped to enter the field of commercial aviation. “Negro pilots have played a great part in this war. They are great fellows and good flyers. We can do just as good a job with planes when the war is over.” Although he would become best known for his skill and bravado as a fighter pilot, Ellington retained the heart of a teacher. His life ended at the young age of 26, while he was teaching another pilot in a military training exercise. Ellington never got to test his idea that African American pilots would be accepted in commercial aviation after the war. Sadly, Ellington’s hope the bravery and skills of Tuskegee airmen would result in acceptance by civilian airlines was not realized. As things unfolded, it would be almost two decades until the Supreme Court ruled in 1963 that another African American pilot, Marlon Green, was unlawfully discriminated against when a commercial carrier refused to hire him because of his race. This is original content from NewsBreak’s Creator Program. Source: https://www.newsbreak.com/.../tuskegee-airman-was-born-in... Previous Next

< Back Buffalo Soldiers-Circa 1899 Image 2/3: 1899 photo of Buffalo Soldiers in the 24th Infantry carrying out mounted patrol duties in Yosemite. Image 2/3: 1899 photo of Buffalo Soldiers in the 24th Infantry carrying out mounted patrol duties in Yosemite. Retrieved from: NPS- Buffalo Soldiers. Previous Next

< Back CECIL J. WILLIAMS Prayer on the front lines of the fight for civil rights, 1963 PHOTO BY CECIL J. WILLIAMS Previous Next

< Back The Birthplace Of The Environmental Justice Movement! Photo: 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) --Warren County, NC Is The Birthplace Of The Environmental Justice Movement! 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. Warren County, North Carolina, doesn’t seem the most likely place for the environmental justice movement to have started. It’s a small, rural county northeast of Raleigh, and might have stayed just that if not for a decision to dump a toxic landfill in its midst in 1978. The response of Warren County’s primarily black residents earned the county the national spotlight and inspired decades of environmental justice activists. As Martin Luther King Day once again prompts us to consider issues of equality, Warren County is a poignant reminder that environmental quality extends far beyond science: it has an immediate and sometimes devastating impact on human well-being. Warren County’s struggles can be traced to some landmark environmental progress, ironically enough. In the early ’70s, researchers found increasing evidence that PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) were toxic and carcinogenic, leading the EPA to ban production of the chemical in the US. The 1976 Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) went further by stipulating proper disposal of PCBs. RCRA was inconvenient for Robert Burns. His trucking company was hired in 1978 by Ward Transformer Company, located in Raleigh, to dispose of PCB-laden transformer fluid. Under RCRA, the transformer fluid should have been brought to a special facility, but Burns decided to circumvent the extra expense associated with this process by illegally dumping the fluid. For about three weeks, he and his sons drove along NC highways at night, spraying the 31,000 gallons of transformer fluid onto the soil alongside the roadway. The “midnight dumpers,” as they were later called, ultimately contaminated about 240 miles of soil, landing Robert Burns, his sons, and Robert Ward of Ward Transformer in jail. The sticking point with environmental problems, though, is that booking the perps and filing lawsuits does little to limit the hazard. The roadside soil with its dangerously high concentrations of PCBs was still roadside, posing health risks to those living nearby. Thanks to the EPA’s recent regulations of toxic chemicals, North Carolina couldn’t ignore the problem even if it wanted to: the soil had to be cleaned up. The Love Canal crisis occurred shortly after the midnight dumping, adding social pressure to the legal impetus. It wasn’t yet possible to detoxify PCBs, so the most viable solution was to sequester the contaminated soil in a landfill. That left the thorny question of where exactly to site a landfill loaded with toxic soil. In late 1978, Governor Jim Hunt announced that the state would be placing the landfill in Afton, located in Warren County, raising plenty of suspicion. At the time, Warren County had the highest percentage of black residents in the state and nearly the lowest per capita income, and residents feared that demographics were the real reason their county had been selected. Alarmed that they were being targeted because of their race and economic status, residents formed an action group and began attending the EPA’s public meetings. It soon became clear that something dodgy was underway. The state had claimed that Afton featured optimal physical conditions for the landfill, but facts increasingly undermined that assertion. At the first public meeting in January 1979, state officials asked the EPA to waive a regulation requiring at least 50 feet between the base of a landfill and the underlying groundwater. Convenient, because Afton’s water table was at a meager 7 feet. Later, a scientist hired by residents reported that Afton’s soil was not ideal for containing landfill leachate, as it could not compact sufficiently. Based on those facts, a landfill in Afton was liable to leak and contaminate the shallow groundwater. The next two years saw a jumble of lawsuits from the NAACP, Afton, and landowners, while the contaminated soil continued to sit along highways. The landfill was finally given the green light in 1982. When dumptrucks pulled into Afton that September, they were greeted by four to five hundred protesters, some of whom laid in the street in front of the trucks. Resistance had been organized by local religious and civic leaders, such as Rev. Luther Brown, Dollie Burwell, and Ken and Debra Feruccio, along with national civil rights organizers like Floyd McKissick and Rev. Benjamin Chavis, who had convened in Warren County in anticipation of the dump. Expecting objection, the dumptrucks were accompanied by hundreds of state police officers and members of the National Guard, who proceeded to arrest a total of 523 people over the next several weeks as the dumping continued. Despite the best efforts of residents, the landfill was not derailed, and Warren County became the new home of 40,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil. The EPA almost immediately found itself with egg on its face after years of assuring residents they were constructing the “Cadillac of landfills.” Before the landfill could be capped, rain caused erosion and added 500,000 gallons of water to what was supposed to be a dry landfill. Governor Hunt, in an attempt to mollify the protesters, promised that the soil would be detoxified as soon as technology became available. However, infuriatingly, monitoring wells near the landfill were not tested until 1994. Those tests reported PCBs and dioxin (a highly toxic chemical) in groundwater up- and downhill from the landfill. The state responded with indifference, claiming that “[w]e see no reason for alarm,” and that the landfill could not be definitively identified as the source of the toxins. At last, remediation funds were included in the 1998 state budget, and cleanup began in 2002. The detoxified landfill was closed at the end of 2003. The Warren County landfill had profound impacts on the national conscience. It marked the first time citizens mobilized in advance to protest a landfill, and established such protests as a way of objecting to environmental threats. Environmental justice still draws heavily on approaches used by civil rights advocates in Afton, and it is now standard to question whether race and/or socioeconomic status influence the location of environmental hazards. The landfill also impacted legislation aimed at avoiding environmental racism in the future. In direct response to Warren County, the General Accounting Office issued a report in 1983 revealing that 3 out of 4 hazardous waste sites in the EPA’s Region 4 (roughly the Southeast) were located in primarily black communities. The Warren County landfill may have also influenced a 1984 amendment to RCRA that attempted to limit hazardous waste production and control it from cradle to grave. Environmental justice earned the ultimate acknowledgement in 1994, when an Executive Order demanded that federal agencies create an environmental justice agenda and incorporate it into their mission. The best way to end a story like this is to put it back into the hands of the residents who fought so hard to prevent the landfill and subsequently attempted to force North Carolina and the EPA to follow up on their promises to minimize negative impacts. The following quote was collected from an Afton community member as part of UNC’s Exchange Project: “Where the environment is not protected then not only does the birds of the air, the fish of the sea lose, but people lose because everything is turned into an opportunity, an it … If you’re not responsible to Mother Earth, most likely you’re not going to be responsible to the children of Mother Earth … The impact that this movement has had on our nation, at many levels, not only in terms of racism but also in terms of humanizing the environmental struggle, is significant.” Previous Next

< Back JOHN CLEMON WILLIAMSON, M.D. DR. JOHN CLEMON WILLIAMSON. Born near Lucama in 1876 to Alex and Gracie Shaw Williamson, John Clemons Williamson attended Slater Industrial (the precursor to Winston-Salem State University), then Leonard Medical School. He returned to Winston-Salem to practice medicine and founded a private sanitarium in 1914. In the 1880 census of Springhill township, Wilson County: farmer Elic Williamson, 44; wife Gracy, 29; and children John, 14, Lugen, 11, Joseph, 9, Jennie, 7, Mary, 6, Clem, 4, Sarah J., 2, and Pall, 1. In the 1900 census of Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina, John C. Williamson, 24, is listed as a pupil at Slater Industrial and State Normal School. On 14 January 1905, John C. Williamson, 28, of Winston-Salem, son of Alexander and Gracie Williamson of Wilson, married Callie S. Hairston, 22, of Winston-Salem, daughter of Robert and Catherine Hairston of Winston-Salem. In the 1906 Winston-Salem, N.C., city directory: Williamson John C (Callie) tchr Slater Sch r[esidence] Columbian Hts In the 1910 Winston-Salem, N.C., city directory: Williamson Callie S tchr Graded Schl [boards at] 605 Chestnut. Also, Williamson J C (Callie) student h 930 Ida Bell av, Columbian Heights In 1918, John Clemon Williamson registered for the World War I draft in Winston-Salem. Per his registration card, he was born 19 May 1876; resided at 1326 East Bank Street; was a physician at 408 Church Street; and was married to Callie S. Williamson. In the 1920 census of Winston-Salem, Forsyth County, North Carolina: Dr. J.C. Williamson, 43, physician; wife Callie S., 38; and daughter Plummer M., 7; niece Pearl Whitley, 22, office assistant to Dr. Williamson; and boarders John J. Green, 34, merchant; Rev. C.A. Nero, 38, of Nevis, West Indies, clergyman at Saint Stephens Episcopal Church; and nieces Liggitt Hairston, 15, of Saint Kitts, West Indies, and Catherine Hairston, 11. In the 1923 Winston-Salem, N.C., city directory: Williamson Jno C (Callie) pres Eureka Drug Co and Phys 800 N Ridge av h 1326 E Bank John Clemon Williamson died 17 April 1927 in Winston-Salem. Per his death certificate, he was born 19 May 1876 in Wilson County to Alexander Williamson of Nash County and Grace Shaw of Wilson County, and he was a physician. John C. Williamson left a straightforward will leaving all his property to his wife. Probate but anything but smooth though, as creditors disputed Callie Williamson’s handling of her husband’s estate and petitioned for her removal as executrix for mismanagement. The doctor’s $12000 estate was illusory, as his real property was encumbered by deeds of trust and his accounts receivable proved uncollectible. In 1929, Callie Williamson pulled up stakes and moved to Harlem with her daughter and infant granddaughter. In the 1930 census of Manhattan, New York County, New York: at 196 Edgecombe Avenue, rented for $150/month, Callie Williamson, 48, widow; daughter Plummer, 17, domestic; and grandchild Jacqueline, 11 months, born in North Carolina; plus 13 roomers. Callie Williamson died 27 May 1930 in Manhattan. *Click Link to read Other newspaper articles* Source: Black Wide-Awake https://afamwilsonnc.com/.../dr-john-clemon-williamson/... Previous Next

< Back Bennett College May Queen and her court ​ The Bennett College May Queen and her court stand outdoors and pose for a photograph on the campus, circa 1941. Source: Gateway-Triad Digital History Collections -Photograph part of the Art Shop Collection housed at the Greensboro History Museum. Source link: https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/ghm%3A13364 Previous Next

< Back Bennett College student, Marjorie Cox (born & raised in Dunn, NC), and my dad Ivan McRae Jr (from NYC) ​ From Brian McRae - “My mom Marjorie Cox (born & raised in Dunn, NC), and my dad Ivan McRae Jr (from NYC) standing outside a Bennett College building, likely her dorm, dated March 1944. She entered Bennett in '42, graduated in '46. My father was in Air Corps cadet training in Greensboro when they met at a campus function. He later moved on to Tuskegee where he earned his twin-engine pilot wings on December 28, 1944 with class 44-J-TE." Photograph and narrative source: Mr. Brian McRae Previous Next

< Back Food Workers Strike Photograph: Food Workers at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill protest their working conditions and employment terms under SAGA Food Services. Fifty years ago, food services workers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill went on strike for better wages and working conditions. The Black Student Movement supported the strike, which put a spotlight on labor and racial inequities at the university. On Sunday, Feb. 23, 1969, food workers at Lenoir Dining Hall set up their dining stations as usual. But when their supervisor, Ottis White, opened the cafeteria doors around 4 p.m. and students began shuffling in, the workers left their positions behind the food stations and sat down at the cafeteria tables. The employees refused to move, even as students surrounded them, banging their trays on the counter and demanding to be served. The following morning, nearly 100 Lenoir employees refused to report to work, marking the beginning of UNC’s first major labor strike. “The strike was a result of UNC cafeteria workers not receiving adequate responses from the University administration to grievances that they had submitted previously,” UNC archivist Nicholas Graham said. Among these grievances were inadequate pay, inaccurate job classifications and poor treatment by supervisors, all of which were highlighted by workers months before the strike began. n October 1968, dining hall employees sent a list of 21 suggestions to improve their work conditions in a memorandum addressed to the “Employers of Lenoir Dining Hall.” Their suggestions were ignored, and later that month, food service director George Prillaman laid off 10 employees after a major drought halted dishwashing operations. Following Prillaman’s actions, workers turned to students — specifically the newly formed Black Student Movement — for help. “One of the things that the Black Student Movement did early in their tenure was issue a series of demands to the University administration for better treatment for Black students on campus, more resources on campus, a number of different things in the interest of Black student life on campus,” Graham said. “Their demands also included support for African-American workers on campus and also community members.” In fall 1968, nearly 100 percent of UNC’s non-academic staff members were Black, while less than 1.5 percent of enrolled students were Black, according to UNC Libraries. Although desegregation was the official stance of the University, some believed that the treatment of Black students, staff and community members by UNC suggested otherwise. “Early on, very early on in its tenure, the student leaders in the Black Student Movement were engaged in advocating for African-American workers on campus,” Graham said. A core group of food workers, led by employees Mary Smith and Elizabeth Brooks, joined forces with BSM leader Preston Dobbins and planned the Feb. 23 demonstration. In the days following the demonstration, students stood outside Lenoir distributing pamphlets about the strike. Because it was unoccupied at the time, Manning Hall was transformed into a temporary dining hall called the Soul Food Cafeteria where strikers served meals to students boycotting Lenoir. In early March, after UNC Chancellor Carlyle Sitterson refused to meet with workers because of student involvement in the strike, protesters took a different approach. Strike-supporting students entered Lenoir and took their places in the serving lines among their classmates. They proceeded to purposefully slow down the service provided by the few remaining workers and took up entire tables with nothing in hand but a glass of water. On March 4, 1969, the strike gained the attention of North Carolina’s Gov. Robert Scott. “A scuffle broke out (in Lenoir) and many of the student protesters overturned tables,” Graham said. “This was portrayed by some media as a kind of a riot, or a more violent outburst. The reaction around the state was pretty angry from a lot of people.” In an attempt to keep Lenoir from closing, Scott sent five units of riot-trained Highway Patrol officers to the campus and announced that the National Guard was standing by in Durham. But rather than quell the situation, the Governor’s intervention prompted more students and faculty members to become active in the protest. Following Scott’s actions, the food workers formed the UNC Non-Academic Employees Union. The union’s requests included a $1.80 per hour minimum wage (approximately $12.47 in 2018), the appointment of a Black supervisor and adequate pay for overtime work. Scott agreed to the demand of a wage increase and the strike ended on March 21, 1969. “(The strike was) something that did not happen just out of the blue here at UNC,” North Carolina Collection gallery keeper Linda Jacobson said. “It was something that was going on across the South and it was part of a bigger movement by African-American workers across the South who were striking for better wages, and it was happening right in the midst of all that.” Although Scott agreed to provide higher wages and better working conditions for UNC’s non-academic employees, the food workers struggle for fair treatment did not end there. In May 1969, UNC ceased University-operated dining services and entered into a contract with a company called SAGA Food Services. On Nov. 7, after SAGA issued layoffs and some of the Governor’s promises for better working conditions were still unfulfilled, 250 of UNC’s 275 food workers declared a second strike. The second strike showed similar patterns as the first. It was centered on justice for Black non-academic employees and included significant involvement from students and faculty. UNC’s BSM told SAGA they planned to hold a protest in the Pit on Dec. 8 if working conditions were not improved. The second strike ended on Dec. 9, 1969 after an agreement was signed between SAGA and union representatives. In January 1970, SAGA announced they would not renew their dining contract with the University. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the strikes, University Libraries has curated a special exhibit titled “Service, Not Servitude: The 1969 Food Workers’ Strikes at UNC-Chapel Hill.” Located in Wilson Library, the exhibit is free and will be open to the public until May 31. On March 20, the PlayMakers Repertory Company will perform “Voices from the Archives: The 1969 UNC Food Workers’ Strike.” The performance will take place in Wilson Library’s Pleasant Family Assembly Room and is free to the public. Graham said he thinks this is an important moment in the history of the University and it laid the groundwork for future protests and advocacy by campus workers. “We're especially excited to have this opportunity to talk about the work on campus that may often go unseen and unheralded,” he said. Source:https://www.dailytarheel.com/.../lenoir-workers-strike-0229 Previous Next

< Back Elizabeth City State University Early graduating class, Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School (circa 1900). ​ Photo: ECSU, Early graduating class, Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School (circa 1900). Photo courtesy of North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. Previous Next

< Back Lincoln Hospital-Durham, NC THE FIRST Lincoln Hospital was erected on the corner of Proctor Street and Cozart Avenue with a gift of $8,550.00 from Mr. Washington Duke. The plant was completed in July 1901 and was opened for patients in August of the same year. Mr. Washington Duke first had in mind the erection of a monument, on the campus of Trinity College, now Duke University, to the memory of the Negro slaves for the part they played in the dark days of the Civil War. The late Dr. A. M. Moore, Durham's first Negro physician, together with Mr. John Merrick and Dr. S. L. Warren, convinced Mr. Duke that a hospital for the descendants of the slaves would be more serviceable. Through the years the hospital proved its merit and gained public support and confidence until larger quarters were needed. Messrs. J. B. Duke and B. N. Duke, sons of Mr. Washington Duke, offered to give $75,000.00 for a new building provided a like amount would be raised in the community of Durham. It was during the campaign to raise the additional $75,000.00 that the whole community evidenced its appreciation of the work the hospital was rendering the community. Both white and colored citizens, as well as the County and City Governments, responded to the appeal, and the required funds were raised. The new Lincoln Hospital was completed in November 1924 and was opened to patients in January 1925. The cost of the site for the new building was $8,500.00, almost as much as the cost of the original hospital. The land was paid for by Messrs. John Sprunt Hill, J. B. Duke, B. N. Duke, and George W. Watts. Credit for securing the present site is due entirely to Mr. John Sprunt Hill. The Nurses' Home, a modern, well-appointed tapestry brick building, was added to the hospital later as a gift from Mr. B. N. Duke in memory of his son, Angier B. Duke. This structure was erected at a cost of $25,000.00, and contains bedrooms, reception rooms, class rooms, recreation room, laundry, library and science laboratory. Mrs. Mary Duke Biddle, daughter of Mr. B. N. Duke, has made donations from time to time for improvements to the home. Lincoln Hospital has had only three superintendents during its thirty-eight years of service to the community of Durham and vicinity. The late Dr. A. M. Moore was its founder and first superintendent, and served in that capacity until his death in 1923. His interest was definitely centered in Lincoln Hospital and during the twenty-two years that he served he never accepted any compensation for his services. At his death he bequeathed three houses on Cozart Avenue to the hospital. The income from these houses is to be used to help worthy girls who are desirous of taking nurse training, and to help indigent patients. The income from this property has amounted to $7,500.00. The widow and daughters of Dr. Moore, together with their husbands, donated the equipment and furnishings for the nurses' home at a cost of $1,500.00. Dr. Moore was succeeded by the late Dr. Charles H. Shepard as superintendent. The task of organizing the new hospital fell to Dr. Shepard, who was a highly efficient administrator. It was during his superintendency that Lincoln Hospital was approved by the American Medical Association, for the training of interns, and by the American College of Surgeons. Lincoln Hospital also attained national recognition at this time as one of the leading Negro hospitals in the country. The success of Lincoln Hospital has been largely due to the guidance and help of several other people, namely: Dr. S. L. Warren, who was one of the founders of the hospital, and is still serving as Chairman of the Board of Trustees. Dr. Warren not only helped to secure the funds to make the hospital possible, but has labored tirelessly in the interest of Lincoln Hospital. Miss Patricia H. Carter, R.N., came to Lincoln Hospital in 1912 succeeding Miss Julia A. Latta as Superintendent of Nurses. Miss Carter served in that capacity until 1935 when she was made Assistant Superintendent of the hospital. Her life has been given entirely to the care of the sick and the training of student nurses. The spiritual and cultural qualities of her life have influenced the many students whom she has taught. Although not connected with the hospital professionally, no one is more interested in its welfare than Dr. C. C. Spaulding, President of the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. As a member of the Board of Trustees, and Chairman of the Finance Committee, he has worked untiringly for the advancement of the institution.. Note: This information above is from the: LINCOLN HOSPITAL Thirty-Eighth Annual Report 1938-Published June 1939 1301 Fayetteville Street-Durham, North Carolina You Can Read More From The 38th annual Report Here: Source: https://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/lincoln38/lincoln38.html Previous Next

< Back Annie Mae Tucker Annie Mae Tucker, circulation librarian at the Stanford L. Warren Library in Durham, NC, is captured in this mid-1940s photograph with a group of patrons choosing books from the Bookmobile on a stop in the Rougemont area. Annie Mae Tucker, circulation librarian at the Stanford L. Warren Library in Durham, NC, is captured in this mid-1940s photograph with a group of patrons choosing books from the Bookmobile on a stop in the Rougemont area. In 1942 the bookmobile services went to such areas as union, Lower Fayetteville Road, Hicks town, Rocky Knoll, Bragtown, Rougemont, South Lowell, and Barbee’s Chapel. History Of The StandFord L. Warren Library-1940 - 1965 The first 25 years at the new Stanford L. Warren Public Library were filled with activity and change. Selena Warren Wheeler (daughter of Dr. Warren) had assumed the role of head librarian after Hattie B. Wooten’s death. Wheeler, with the benefit of a comfortable new space, was able to build upon the foundation that Wooten had established to keep growing the library into a vibrant community center. Wheeler retired in 1945 and was replaced by Ray N. Moore, who maintained the position of head librarian until 1966. The 1940s and 1950s saw the introduction of many activities for adults and children, including the Saturday Morning Movie Hour, the Story Telling Institute, Book Review Forums and the American Heritage Series. Book Review Forums were monthly meetings where attendees gathered to listen to a speaker—usually an African-American educator, civic leader or writer—review a book or discuss an issue. The Book Review Forums attracted many prominent speakers such as authors Pauli Murray and Peter Abrahams, and educators John Hope Franklin and Horace Mann Bond. The American Heritage Series, which lasted for three years beginning in 1953, was a series of periodic community meetings jointly sponsored by the American Library Association, the North Carolina Library Commission and local libraries. Each meeting centered on a theme of contemporary social life discussed within the context of traditional American values. Meetings were held on the themes of "The Role of the Family in Democratic Living," "The Freedom to Read," and "One Hundred Per Cent Americans," among others. A significant piece of the library’s history is contained in what became known in 1942 as the Negro Collection. The original 799 volumes with which Dr. Aaron Moore began the Durham Colored Library contained a number of books by and about African Americans and African-American culture. Related titles were steadily added to the library’s collection over the years. In 1942 Selena Wheeler, recognizing the uniqueness and importance of many of the African-American materials owned by the library, designated the Negro Collection as a special, non-circulating collection. It was renamed the Selena Warren Wheeler Collection in her honor in 1990. A unique development at the library and in the community came in 1949 thanks to Lyda Moore Merrick, chairwoman of the board of trustees and the daughter of library founder Dr. Aaron Moore, and her friend John Carter Washington. Washington had been blind since infancy, and Merrick spent much time at the library reading to blind patrons. The two started the Library Corner for the Blind to provide a center for information resources and recreational opportunities for blind Durham residents. The Corner was a huge success, and in 1951 Merrick and Washington founded the Negro Braille Magazine, a publication that printed Braille versions of news and feature stories of interest to African Americans. The magazine was renamed Merrick-Washington Magazine for the Blind in 1981 and is still in operation today. Throughout the 1940s and into the 1960s, the Stanford L. Warren Library strove to expand service to all African-American residents of Durham County, not just those with easy access to the library building. The library began operating its first bookmobile in 1941. Previously, distance services had been provided through book deposit stations throughout Durham County. These were less than ideal. Most were operated through schools, so they were open only eight months out of the year and did not provide services for adults. Paid for through funds from the North Carolina State Library Commission and other state agencies, the bookmobile was a tremendous success. Every other week, it went to locations throughout the county, traveling nearly 600 miles per month. Rural residents deeply appreciated their new access to library services. As a result of the newly-expanded service, Annie Tucker and Gladys Whitted were hired as permanent staff. The library bought a new, bigger bookmobile in 1948. Once again the library was outgrowing its facilities. In 1949 the board of trustees decided to borrow $20,000 from North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company to build an addition onto the library. The addition, completed in 1951, provided the library with a new children’s room, extra storage space, a room to house bookmobile supplies, and extra workspace. Between 1954 and 1961 the Stanford L. Warren Library built three branches. The McDougald Terrace Community Library opened in 1954, the John Avery Boys Club branch opened in 1960 and the Bragtown branch opened in 1961. The McDougald Terrace Community Library, located in the McDougald Terrace housing project, provided reading material and activities to the nearly 250 families who lived there. The John Avery Boys Club branch was operated by the director of the Boys Club, Lee Smith. The McDougald Terrace and Bragtown branches are still in operation today. In 1964 the library held a "50 Years of Service" celebration at White Rock Baptist Church, site of the original Durham Colored Library. The Stanford L. Warren Library had grown and developed impressively over those fifty years. The library remained a cultural hub for Durham’s African-American community, but the 1960s brought sweeping changes to the city’s landscape, and the library could not avoid being caught up in them. Source: https://durhamcountylibrary.org/exhibits/slw/1940s.php Previous Next

< Back Carol Brice Carol Brice became one of the first African American classical singers with an extensive recording repertoire. Carol Brice (1918 - 1985) Photograph by Carl Van Vechten ---------- Contralto singer Carol Brice was born in Sedalia, North Carolina on April 16, 1918 into a musical family. Eventually she became one of the first African American classical singers with an extensive recording repertoire. Brice trained at Palmer Memorial Institute in Sedalia and then enrolled in Talladega College in Alabama, where she received her Bachelor of Music degree in 1939. She later attended Julliard School of Music between 1939 and 1943 where she trained with Francis Rogers. In 1943 Brice became the first African American musician to win the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Foundation Award. Carol Brice first attracted public acclaim at the New York World’s Fair in 1939 when she performed in the opera, “The Hot Mikado.” Her next major public performance came in 1941, when she sang at a Washington concert honoring the third inauguration of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Her brother, the pianist Jonathan Brice, was frequently her accompanist at concerts and competitions. Ms. Brice’s Broadway career accelerated after World War II when her talent for both opera and musical theatre became apparent. In 1946 she received her first recording contract from Columbia Records for Manuel de Falla's El Amor Brujo, which was performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Fritz Reiner. She sang with the Pittsburgh Symphony for all of 1946 and later performed as Addie in the New York City Opera’s 1958 production of Marc Blitzstein’s Regina. Brice remained with the New York City Opera until 1963. She performed with Volksoper in Vienna, Austria from 1967 to 1971 and the Houston Grand Opera from 1976 to 1977. She played Maria in the Houston Grand Opera production of Porgy and Bess. The recording of that performance won a Grammy and the entire show moved to Broadway where it won a 1977 Tony Award for Most Innovative Production of a Musical Revival. Brice also had a successful career on Broadway. She played Kakou in the original Broadway cast of Harold Arlen’s Saratoga (1958) and Maude in the 1960 revival of Finian’s Rainbow. During the 1960s her numerous roles included Catherine Creek in The Grass Harp, Harriett Tubman in Gentlemen, Be Seated, and Queenie in Showboat. While performing in Vienna in 1968, she met her husband, the baritone Thomas Carey. The couple had two children. Mr. Carey returned to the U.S. in 1969 to teach at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, and Carol Brice joined him there after another stint on Broadway. Ms. Brice officially joined the University of Oklahoma faculty in 1974. One year later she and her husband founded the Church Circuit Opera Company in Norman, Oklahoma. The company was renamed the Cimarron Circuit Opera in 1981 and continued until Thomas Carey’s death in 2002. Carol Brice died on February 14, 1985 in Norman, Oklahoma. She was 66 years old. Source:http://www.blackpast.org/aah/brice-carol-1918-1985 Previous Next

< Back Poll Tax Receipt *Photo: Receipt for poll tax fee that Black people had to pay to vote.* ___ By Allison Keyes SMITHSONIAN.COM MARCH 18, 2016 On March 24, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Electors, that poll taxes for any level of election were unconstitutional. (NMAAHC) Recalling an Era When the Color of Your Skin Meant You Paid to Vote Celebrating the 50th anniversary of a ruling that made the poll tax unconstitutional ---- In January 1955 in Hardin County, Texas, Leo Carr had to pay $1.50 to vote. That receipt for Carr’s “poll tax” now resides in the collections of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. In today’s dollars, Carr paid roughly $13. “It’s a day’s wages,” explains William Pretzer, the museum’s senior history curator. “You’re asking someone to pay a day’s wages in order to be able to vote.” Pretzer says the museum accepted the donation of the receipt from Carr’s family in 2012 as a vivid and a significant example of the way that voting rights were denied to African Americans. Poll taxes, quite simply a tax to pay to vote, were enacted in the post-reconstruction era from the late 19th to the very early 20th century. But they remained in effect until the 1960s. This month marks the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections decision to strike down poll taxes. And as voters head to the polls for the upcoming 2016 presidential elections, some, including former U.S. Attorney Eric Holder, have suggested that voting rights are once again under siege. “After the 1870s, particularly in the southern states, there was an effort to restrict any kind of political power for African Americans,” Pretzer says. In the immediate post-Civil-War era, when voting rights were accorded to African Americans in the south, thousands registered, voted and ran for office. “There was great concern on the part of the white power structure that this was a revolution in their lives.” Southern legislators began to find ways of limiting African-American rights, and one of the major ways was to enact barriers to prevent them from voting. A series of laws were passed state by state in the south, ranging from literacy tests to poll taxes. This was an effort to keep blacks as far out of politics as possible without violating the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibited governments in the nation from denying a citizen the right to vote based on that citizen’s “race, color or previous condition of servitude.” By 1902, all 11 of the former Confederate states had enacted a poll tax, along with other measures including comprehension tests, voter intimidation and worse. “When people went to register to vote, their names would become known in the local community,” Pretzer says. “What you see is everything from simple harassment—people being insulted, pushed, shoved or harassed on the street—to being murdered.” Poll taxes survived a 1937 U.S. Supreme Court challenge in the case Breedlove v. Suttles, which upheld a Georgia poll tax on the grounds that voting rights are conferred by the states, and that the states may determine voter eligibility as they see fit, save for conflicts with the 15th Amendment concerning race, and the 19th Amendment concerning sex. But during the tumultuous battles of the civil rights movements, particularly following the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954, activists saw poll taxes and similar policies as barriers to the voting rights of African Americans and the poor. In 1962, the 24th Amendment was proposed, prohibiting the right to vote in federal elections from being contingent on the payment of a poll tax. It was ratified in 1964. But five states still retained the use of poll taxes for local elections. Two years later, on March 24, 1966, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, that poll taxes for any level of election were unconstitutional. Lena Carr says she donated the 1955 Texas poll tax receipt from her uncle, Leo, partly because of her surprise that her family had been involved in the battle for voting rights in the Civil Rights era. The family found the receipt in a suitcase, after Leo’s mother passed away. When they went through it, there it was, nestled among old family pictures. “I really was surprised, because my uncle never really talked a lot about voting,” says Carr, 54, who now lives in Kansas City, Missouri. “It shocked me that he actually went out and participated and paid. . . . In that era, I didn’t really know my family actually did any of that until I opened up that suitcase.” Carr says the other reason she chose to donate this piece of her family’s history is because she thought it would be useful and inspiring. “A lot of the young people don’t realize the things people had to go through to vote,” Carr says thoughtfully. “I thought they would recognize and realize what people did before them, how far they came, and what they got from that generation.” Carr says that she is concerned about the voting restrictions that are being enacted in states ranging from Texas to Virginia to Wisconsin. “I feel like history repeats itself, and if people don’t start to become aware of what’s happening in the world and take stock, we’ll be back at that point,” Carr says. In 2012, then-U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder blasted Texas over its voter ID law, saying “we call those poll taxes,” adding that many of those without IDs “would have to travel great distances to get them, and some would struggle to pay for the documents they might need to obtain them.” Smithsonian curator Bill Pretzer sees similarities. “You have to have a particular kind of ID,” he explains. That includes identification offered through the state or federal government, military IDs, a state handgun license, a U.S. citizenship certificate, or a U.S. passport. “The kinds of documentation that’s needed for this voter ID cost money,” Pretzer says. “An individual who doesn’t have their own transportation, or would need to take time off on an hourly basis … is going to suffer economically.” The Department of Justice is in ongoing litigation related to voter ID laws in both Texas and North Carolina, saying both states laws would “have the result of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color, or membership in a language minority group.” Texas was allowed to enforce its law during the 2014 elections and also during its primary this month. Last August, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruled that the Texas law discriminated against African-American and Latino voters. But it also said that a district court must re-examine its conclusion that Texas acted with discriminatory purpose, and that the lower court should seek ways to change the voter law without overturning it entirely. At the time, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement saying the intent of the law “is to protect the voting process in Texas,” and noting that the U.S. Court of appeals had rejected the claim that the law was a poll tax. This month, the full 15-member Fifth Circuit voted to hear the case again. Paxton called the decision “a strong step forward in (Texas’) efforts to defend the state’s voter ID laws.” “There are some very standard issues from time immemorial, about power, about control, about hierarchy, about opportunity, about equality, that people struggle over,” Pretzer says. The Carr family poll tax receipt will likely go on view in the new museum (which opens on September 24, 2016) some time in 2018 and until then will become available online. Pretzer says such artifacts are important because they make real something that is hard to imagine. At the BET Honors in Washington, D.C., this month, former U.S. Attorney General Holder issued a call to arms to people who are considering not voting in this current election season. “There is absolutely no excuse not to vote,” Holder said. “People fought and died for the right to vote. It is an obligation of every American. … Otherwise, you are doing a disservice to the people who shed blood.” #ncmaahc #TellTheWholeTruth #Irememberourhistory #DontLetThemForgetUs #racistpolltax #jimcrow #Vote #BlackPeopleVote #unconstitutional #NMAAHC Source:https://www.smithsonianmag.com/.../recalling-era-when.../ Previous Next

< Back Journey of Reconciliation The Journey of Reconciliation has also been refrerred to as the "First Freedom Ride." In 1947 the Congress of Racial Equality & local citizens, black & white, protested bus segregation. Setting out from Washington, D.C., "freedom riders" tested compliance with a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring segregation on interstate buses. On April 13, riders arrived at local bus station then 20 yards west. A mob attacked one rider. Four others were arrested and sentenced to 30 days on chain gangs. In the aftermath of World War II, a rising tide of challenges to segregation in the South led to racial tensions. In 1946, the U. S. Supreme Court held that state laws requiring segregation on interstate buses and trains were unconstitutional. However, bus companies across the South simply ignored the order. In the spring of 1947, members of the Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) decided to test the enforcement of court’s decision by sending teams of bus riders through the Upper South to challenge segregation through non-violent means based on the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi. This was the origin of the “Journey of Reconciliation,” a precursor to the Freedom Rides of 1960-1961. On April 9, 1947, eight African American and eight white members of CORE, headed by the organization’s leaders, Bayard Rustin and George Houser, set out from Washington, D.C., on Greyhound and Trailways buses staying that evening in Richmond before moving on to Petersburg the following day. On April 11, the Greyhound bus left Petersburg for Raleigh while the Trailways headed to Durham. While passing through Oxford, the Greyhound bus driver sent for the police when Rustin refused to move from his seat in the front of the bus. The police refused to make an arrest, and the bus instead was delayed for forty-five minutes while neither the driver nor Rustin would budge. The following day both buses arrived in Chapel Hill. That night they met with the Intercollegiate Council for Religion in Life. The council included students from UNC, Duke University, and North Carolina College for Negroes. The next morning several of the riders, black and white, attended services led by the Revend Charles M. Jones at the Presbyterian Church of Chapel Hill and met with a delegation of the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen. As the buses departed Chapel Hill for Greensboro on April 13, four of the riders were arrested, two blacks for refusing to move to the rear of the Trailways bus, and two whites for interfering. The commotion aboard the buses drew a large crowd of spectators, including several white taxi drivers. The men were taken to the police station across the street, with a fifty dollar bond placed on each man. As white rider James Peck got off the bus to pay their bonds, a taxi driver struck him in the head. Shortly thereafter, the men arrested were reunited in Greensboro with the remaining “freedom riders.” Racial tensions only heightened in the aftermath of the riders’ exodus. On April 14, Martin Watkins, a white, disabled war veteran and UNC student, was beaten by several taxi drivers for speaking with an African American woman at a bus stop. Watkins pressed charges, but the judge also brought charges against Watkins arguing that he started the fight. Debates raged for nearly a week in both the Daily Tar Heel and Chapel Hill Weekly over the incident and race relations. The “Journey of Reconciliation” continued on, eventually passing back through western North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and then returning to Virginia and Washington, D.C. In May 1947 those members who had been arrested went on trial and were sentenced. The riders unsuccessfully appealed their sentences. On March 21, 1949, Rustin and two white protesters surrendered at the courthouse in Hillsborough 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.ncpedia.org/journey-reconciliation-1947 Previous Next

< Back N.C. Mutual executive R. Kelly Bryant, Jr. N.C. Mutual executive R. Kelly Bryant, Jr., tosses lollipops, and Santa Claus (William McBroom) receives onlookers’ cheers during a “Black Christmas” parade, November 29, 1968. Sponsored by the Black Solidarity Committee for Community Improvement as part of its boycott of certain White-owned businesses that would not hire Black people, and still held to Jim Crow laws. The parade was held on Fayetteville Street at the same time as the Durham Merchants Association’s traditional parade downtown. The motto was “don’t spend where you can’t work “. Photographer: Harold Moore, Durham Herald Sun. Source: Durham Civil Rights Heritage Project Collection (NCC.0040), North Carolina Collection, Durham County Library, NC . Photo ID: mss_0040_059 Previous Next

< Back G.C. Hawley High School Class of 1939 G.C. Hawley High School-Creedmoor, NC This is the first graduating class- 1939 Principal G.C. Hawley, is on the left side of the graduates. G.C. Hawley High School-Creedmoor, NC This is the first graduating class- 1939 Principal G.C. Hawley, is on the left side of the graduates. ----- A Brief Summary of The G. C. Hawley High School's History G. C. Hawley High School began as a one teacher elementary school in the early '20'. It was an old tobacco barn with a dirt floor, no heat, no bathroom, no running water. In 1933, two teachers were hired and in the fall of 1936, Reverend Grover Cleveland Hawley, a 1931 graduate of the college and theological departments of Lincoln university, Lincoln, Pennsylvania, was selected to serve as principal of the Creedmoor Negro Elementary School. During this same year Principal Halwey established a high school department From 1936-1938, children either walked to school or were transported by the parents that were able to do so. By the Spring of 1938, a school bus was purchased with contributions made by the parents, teachers and the county, which resulted in rapid student growth for the school. The first class was graduated in 1939, and at that time the school was named, The G. C. Hawley School. The progress made was tremendous, with land being donated to expand the school into a modern, spacious environment for learning for the negro students. The parents volunteered to clear the land by hand and Principal Hawley lead the determined group to Butner, NC to glean wood from Camp Butner that the military structures no longer needed. In September 1952, the doors of a new facility opened with 44 teachers and 1380 students. Under the leadership of Rev. Hawley, the school had been brought from three teachers to 44; from 100 students to 1380; from one small room to five educational buildings and from no buses to 15 school buses. The G.C. Hawley School was a segregated union school for the Negro students in Creedmoor, until 1969, when the high school department was closed and it's students were integrated into the White South Granville High School. Then, on a cold January night in 1970 a fire destroyed he predominantly White Creedmoor Elementary school. Four days later, the faculty and students Creedmoor Elementary School were transitioned and housed with the faculty and students of The G. C. Hawley School. The fire brought a change from segregation to integration in Granville County,NC Today, G. C. Hawley is a Middle school, which still continues serving not just the African American students of the area but, all students in the district. The vision of Rev. G. C. Hawley, continues to do what he set out to do, provide an equal and proper education. *NOTE, unfortunately, at this time we don't know the names of these graduates and we are searching through records to identify them.* Previous Next

< Back Legacy of New Farmers of America Below is an article from hbcuconnect dot com. Posted By: Kennedy Williams on May 23, 2022 N.C. A&T Professors, Alums Pen Historical Book on Black Farmers The book explores the Black youth organization which was founded in 1935 to promote vocational agriculture education in public schools throughout the South and teach farming skills and leadership and citizenship values to young Black males. It is available at Barnes &Noble, Target NFA’s first national headquarters was at A&T, and S.B. Simmons, an A&T faculty member in agricultural education, served as a senior NFA leader for two decades. Similar in purpose and structure to Future Farmers of America, NFA had more than 58,000 members in 1,000 chapters when it merged with FFA in 1965, a year after the federal Civil Rights Act banned racial segregation. A&T has what it believes to be the largest collection of NFA materials to be found anywhere — documents, records, correspondence, banners, medals, photographs and many other items. Much of it has never been seen publicly. In February, Cox and Alston received a three-year grant of $324,422 from the National FFA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the National FFA Organization to digitize an estimated 150,000 pieces of memorabilia from New Farmers of America. The project also will offer online access to the materials so students, scholars and the public can learn more about an organization that played a vital role during segregation. Cox, who serves as head of serials and government documents at F.D. Bluford Library, is the principal investigator on the grant. Alston serves as the co-principal investigator. The New Farmers of America History and Legacy Collection held by the library will add important pieces to the historical record because agriculture employed so many people throughout the South and the nation during NFA’s existence. Founded in 1928, the National FFA Organization develops leadership, personal growth and career success of youth through agricultural education. FFA has more than 735,000 student members in grades 7-12 in more than 8,800 local chapters in all 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. SOURCE N.C. A&T About The Authors: North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University professors and alumni co-authored a new book about New Farmers of America, a former national youth organization that helped train generations of Black farmers and leaders. Released on May 2 by Arcadia Publishing, "Legacy of New Farmers of America," was penned by Antoine J. Alston, Ph.D., a professor of agricultural education and associate dean of academic studies in A&T’s College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, and Netta S. Cox, a university librarian and associate professor of library services, and Dexter B. Wakefield, PhD, Alcorn State University professor and associate dean for academic programs within the School of Agriculture and Applied Sciences. Previous Next

< Back Ernie Barnes Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Ernie Barnes is the artist behind the iconic image, "The Sugar Shack," featured on the series, Good Times, and Marvin Gaye's album, "I Want You!"-Image: The Sugar Shack. Copyright © Ernie Barnes Family Trust The North Carolina Roots of Artist Ernie Barnes Exhibit -Jun. 29, 2018, through Mar. 3, 2019 Born and raised in Durham, North Carolina, Ernie Barnes is the artist behind the iconic image, "The Sugar Shack," featured on the series, Good Times, and Marvin Gaye's album, "I Want You!"-Image: The Sugar Shack. Copyright © Ernie Barnes Family Trust This exhibition showcases many unpublished Ernie Barnes original paintings, as well as artifacts from his life. Barnes was born and raised in Durham, North Carolina. After five seasons as a professional football player, he retired at age 27 to pursue art. In his prolific body of work, Barnes chronicled his personal experiences with football, music, dance, love, sports, education, church, and the South. Widely-known as the real painter of the artwork in the groundbreaking African-American sitcom Good Times, Barnes' style has been widely imitated. It is best exemplified by his iconic Sugar Shack dance scene that appeared on a Marvin Gaye album cover and in the closing credits of Good Times. This painting, "The Sugar Shack," was inspired by an actual dance at the Durham Armory. Barnes is best known for his unique style of elongation, energy, and movement. Affectionately nicknamed “Big Rembrandt” by his teammates, he is the first professional American athlete to become a noted painter. “Although I never got a chance to meet Ernie in person, I was so honored to be able to work on this exhibit- because now I feel like I do know him,” said exhibit curator Katie Edwards. “He was a remarkable human being who defied odds and became a renowned artist. This exhibit is an amazing opportunity for the state of North Carolina. It’s a chance for visitors to see a number of Ernie’s works that he painted throughout his life and see the impact that the state had on him and his career.” Born July 15, 1938, Barnes grew up in Durham (Durham County). Shy, sensitive, and bullied throughout childhood, he sought refuge in his sketchbooks and eventually transformed his body and attitude through exercise and discipline. In high school, Barnes excelled as an athlete. By his senior year at Durham’s Hillside High School, he became the captain of the football team and state champion in the shot put. Barnes graduated high school in 1956 with 26 athletic scholarship offers. Segregation, however, prevented him from considering nearby Duke University or the University of North Carolina. He attended the all–African American North Carolina College at Durham (formerly North Carolina College for Negroes; now North Carolina Central University), where he majored in art on a full athletic scholarship. Barnes was selected in the 1960 National Football League draft by the Baltimore Colts. After five seasons as an offensive lineman for the San Diego Chargers and Denver Broncos, he retired in 1966 at age 28 to devote himself to art. He settled in Los Angeles, where he died of cancer at age 70 on April 27, 2009. “The family is proud to kick-off Ernie Barnes’ 80th birthday here in his home state with his first public exhibition in 11 years,” said Luz Rodriguez, Barnes' longtime assistant and estate trustee. “I hope his fans -- and those new to Ernie Barnes -- discover more about his extraordinary career. His unique journey is inspirational and important to American culture.” ----- Here Is A Podcast Interview with Luz Rodrigues About Ernie Barnes Ernie Barnes and the Merger of Art and Athlete, a conversation with Luz Rodriguez, trustee of the Ernie Barnes Estate Noted for his unique style of elongation and movement, artist Ernie Barnes was the first American professional athlete to become a noted painter. His work as an artist led him far from his home in Durham, yet his childhood roots remained a constant influence as shown in an exhibition at the North Carolina Museum of History, The North Carolina Roots of Artist Ernie Barnes (June 29, 2018–March 3, 2019). Approximate run time: 29 minutes. https://soundcloud.com/.../the-north-carolina-roots-of... Previous Next

< Back Elizabeth City State University founder, Mr. Hugh Cale, who was born in Perquimans County, NC in 1835 and died July 22, 1910. ​ Image: undated, Mr. Hugh Cale, who was born in Perquimans County, NC in 1835 and died July 22, 1910. Note: There are different historical writings about Mr. Cale's life in which some say he was born enslaved, others say he was born free because his parents were free. We are adding in both types of historical accounts to this post. -End Note- --- Hugh Cale. by Lisa Y. Henderson Historical Documents of Genealogical Interest to Researchers of North Carolina's Free People of Color Born free in Perquimans County in 1835, Hugh Cale worked at Fort Hatteras and on Roanoke Island during the Civil War. In 1867, he moved to Elizabeth City where he worked as a merchant and held a host of offices including county commissioner. He was one of thirteen African Americans to serve in the state legislature in 1876, the first of his four terms. In 1882, Cale, an active A.M.E. Zion layman, was appointed a trustee of Zion Wesley Institute in Salisbury, which in 1885 became Livingstone College. He was among the initial group of nine trustees of the North Carolina Agricultural and Mechanical College for the Colored Race (now North Carolina A. & T. State University) in Greensboro and served in that position from 1891 to 1899. He was a delegate to the Republican national convention of 1896.In 1891, during his last legislative term, Cale introduced House Bill 383 to establish “Elizabeth City Colored Normal School” for the education of black teachers. Now known as Elizabeth City -State University, the institution has honored Cale with a scholarship in his name. He died in 1910. Source: https://ncfpc.net/2013/03/28/hugh-cale/ --- FREE BLACKS - NORTH CAROLINA HUGH CALE by Benjamin R. Justesen Published in print:15 March 2013 Published online: 31 May 2013 Excerpt: "...merchant, public official, religious leader, and longtime state legislator, was born in Perquimans County, North Carolina, the eldest son of free, mixed-race parents John Cail (Cale) and Elizabeth Mitchell, a homemaker, who were married in 1827. His father worked as a miller, later as a fisherman, and moved his large family—as many as nine children—to Edenton in nearby Chowan County in the 1850s. Little is known of Hugh Cale's early life or education, although he had learned to read and write by the end of the Civil War. After the Union army occupied much of northeastern North Carolina in early 1862, Cale began working as a manual laborer for federal installations at Fort Hatteras and Roanoke Island. In 1867 he moved to Elizabeth City North Carolina where he commenced a singularly successful career as a grocer and held a number of local offices during and after ...Source: https://oxfordaasc.com/browse;jsessionid... Previous Next

< Back Allegra Westbrooks ​ Beatties Ford Road Library Renamed For Allegra Westbrooks, NC's First Black Public Library Supervisor WFAE | By Gracyn Doctor Published August 3, 2021 at 5:25 PM EDT You may notice some changes at the Beatties Ford Road Library. Last April, it officially became the Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library: Beatties Ford Road. But the COVID-19 pandemic quickly scrapped plans for a ceremony to celebrate the name change. “Our monument sign was changed. The etching, my glass doors was changed,” said branch manager Hannah Terrell. “We sent out a press release. So, for all intents and purposes, we weren't defeated by COVID in that we are officially the Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library.” Terrell joined the Beatties Ford Road team three years ago, after the decision to change the branch’s name was already in place. But she jumped in and began planning the ceremony. Since it was canceled, she’s spent the pandemic working to make people aware of the change and the history of Westbrooks. Allegra Westbrooks was the first Black public library supervisor in North Carolina. She served as head of acquisition for all Charlotte Mecklenburg public library branches from 1950 to her retirement in 1984. Westbrooks was born in 1921 in Maryland. She attended Fayetteville State Teachers College, now known as Fayetteville State University. At 26, she moved to Charlotte to head Acquisition of Negro Library Services and the Brevard Street Library. This was 1947, a time where the Brevard Street branch was one of two locations open to Black residents in North Carolina. Westbrooks made great strides for the Black community while in this position. She was known as a pioneer and became the bridge between the Black community and the public library. Branch librarian Jeremy Lytle said Westbrooks created many ways to connect Black people to books. “She would work with community organizations, churches, schools, to try to put library books in their facilities so that instead of having to go all the way to the Brevard Street branch, they could go to their local organization,” Lytle said. In addition to starting a delivery service between the Brevard Street branch and the main branch, Westbrooks started a mobile book service in 1948 that lasted 17 years. She would travel to schools and areas in the county where Black people couldn’t easily access the library — or even books. Regardless of her position, she still faced challenges from people who didn’t support her or her work. In a 2007 interview for UNCC’s Brooklyn Oral History Project, Westbrooks detailed an experience she had while out in the bookmobile at Sterling High School. “I remember the county superintendent happened to come when I was out there one day with the bookmobile and he said, 'What are you doing with this thing out here? You just get it away from here, get it away from here,'” Westbrooks said. “And I said, 'Well Mr. Wilson, the school library doesn't have books to serve them. And this was a central place where I could meet them.' And he said, well, to 'get it away from here.' So, I moved.” Although she had a lot of power as the supervisor of all the public libraries in Charlotte, she wasn’t really able to use it. She wasn’t even allowed to enter branches outside of the Brevard Street location until 1956, when the library officially integrated. “Whoever is in that position now can just send an email and say 'You need to do this, make it happen,'” Lytle said. “She couldn't really do that, so she had to be more gentle and suggestive about it as opposed to, you know, 'I'm your superior. I'm giving you an order.'” Westbrooks spent a good chunk of her life serving the Black community in Charlotte. The prominent Black speakers she invited to the library helped increase attendance at the Brevard Street branch. She helped form a coalition of people working in human services to strengthen what the library had to offer. She even served as a co-director of the North Carolina Library Association, giving her the opportunity to speak at the American Library Association’s convention in Canada. She was a member of the Charlotte Links Organization and of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Incorporated. As a Black woman, branch manager Hannah Terrell says she’s honored to head the branch named after Westbrooks. She says Westbrooks' sacrifice is why she’s able to lead a library today. “This location is named and was renamed after just a humble woman who didn't think at the time that she was making the impact that she did by being the courier in some instances, being the connector in other instances, from the Black community and literature, the Black community and access,” Terrell said. As more people learn about the name change and of Westbrooks, Terrell says she just wants people to be present in the significance of the moment. The Allegra Westbrooks Regional Library: Beatties Ford Road isn’t just the only branch in Charlotte named after a person, but also the first branch in the city to be named after a Black woman. Westbrooks retired in 1984 after 37 years of service. She died in April 2017 at 96 years old. Image description: Left image - Westbrooks and the library's bookmobile, with children lined up to get books. The bookmobile ran for 17 years offering services for the Black communities. Middle image- Allegra Westbrooks at her desk in the Branch/CMS Library. Right image- photograph of the Brevard Street Library for Negroes. Bottom image - Allegra Westbooks sitting in chair with paintings on easels behind her. Westrbooks retired in 1984. She died in 2017 at 96 years old. Source: https://www.wfae.org/.../beatties-ford-road-library... Previous Next

< Back SOUL CITY FARM COVID-19 Relief Bill Offers Long-Denied Aid to Black and Other Minority Farmers By Martha Quililin /N&O March 16, 2021 09:00 AM, Updated March 16, 2021 02:30 PM In 2017, Latonya Andrews bought a 60-acre tract of Warren County land to become the fourth generation of her family to farm it. A former Air Force medic who now works as a research assistant at UNC, she took a methodical approach to reintroducing agriculture on land that had lain dormant for more than a decade. She consulted with other Black farmers in the community, and they all offered the same advice. “Read the fine print,” Andrews said they told her. “Don’t let anybody take your land from you.” Since the end of Reconstruction, Black farmers have learned their biggest threat is not drought, blight or insect infestation, but something more insidious: Discriminatory practices by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the very agency that is supposed to help farmers stay on the land and be productive. The USDA has admitted it systematically denied Blacks and other people of color access to the same loan and grant programs that have helped generations of white farmers get the financing they needed to hold onto their land in lean years and even expand their operations. Help may be on its way finally through a provision in the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill approved by Congress and signed into law last week by President Joe Biden. The package provides $5 billion for socially disadvantaged farmers of color, including $4 billion for the forgiveness of outstanding debt and $1 billion for training, outreach, education, technical assistance and grants. “It’s a significant piece of legislation that’s going to help thousands of farmers get relief,” said John Boyd Jr., founder and president of the non-profit National Black Farmers Association. Boyd, also a fourth-generation Black farmer, launched the organization in the mid-1990s to fight discriminatory practices at USDA that contributed to his losing one of his two farms and were a factor in the massive loss of land by other farmers of color. LOSING PROPERTY At the turn of the 20th century, formerly enslaved Black people and their heirs owned 15 million acres of mostly Southern farmland, according to America’s Black Holocaust Museum and federal agricultural census data. In an investigative series published in 2001 called “Torn from the Land,” the Associated Press documented how Black landowners had lost their property as a result of violence, intimidation, trickery and legal manipulation well into the 1950s. By 2012, just 1.6% of U.S. farms were Black-owned, accounting for 3.6 million acres. North Carolina reported 1,435 farms on which 1,699 Black farmers were the principal producers in the USDA’s 2017 Census of Agriculture. Black owners held 3% of North Carolina’s 46,418 farms in that most recent census. Black people make up just over 22% of the state’s population according to the U.S. Census Bureau. In 1997, Cumberland County farmer Timothy Pigford filed a class-action lawsuit in which he and other claimants said federal farm programs had systematically discriminated against Black farmers by denying loans, loan-servicing and benefits, or by setting unfair terms on Black farmers’ loans. That suit, and a subsequent suit referred to as Pigford II, resulted in settlement payments totaling more than $2 billion. Similar suits later were filed on behalf of Native American farmers and Hispanic farmers. Advocates continued to argue on behalf of socially disadvantaged farmers, saying the USDA had not done enough to correct its policies and to prevent discrimination by agents in local field offices. Throughout the South, including in North Carolina, Boyd said, thousands of Black and other minority farmers remained at a financial disadvantage, holding less competitive loans on smaller farms compared to their white counterparts. “White farmers were getting their debts written off, or getting loan amortization and rescheduled payments,” said Boyd, who still farms in Virginia, near the North Carolina border. “They weren’t offering any of that to Blacks. The USDA hasn’t been friendly to Black farmers.” TILLIS OPPOSITION The Black farmers aid provision in the COVID-19 relief bill was controversial, with some Republican lawmakers saying it was unfair to offer debt relief only to people of color. Sen. Thom Tillis was opposed to it. In a statement, he said, “All North Carolina farmers work hard to feed our state and the rest of the country and they have faced an especially difficult time during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was unfair and potentially unconstitutional for Congressional Democrats to award federal assistance based solely on a farmer’s race instead of their individual economic need.” Boyd, who worked with advocates in Washington to help craft the provision in the federal relief bill, said the most important part of it is debt relief. For eligible farmers, that will mean forgiveness of loans made or guaranteed by the USDA, plus enough money to cover the tax that will be levied on the forgiven debt. The USDA makes and guarantees loans for farmers unable to get loans from commercial lenders. The loans can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. “Debt relief gives farmers a chance to regroup,” Boyd said. “If you don’t have that debt hanging over your head, you can revamp your farming operation.” Boyd said the next challenge will be making sure the USDA uses the money as the bill intends, and that it makes sure field agents don’t discriminate in deciding who is eligible “A lot of Black farmers don’t trust USDA,” Boyd said, so the agency will have to invest in outreach to encourage farmers to apply for aid provided in the relief bill. Latonya Andrews didn’t ask the USDA for money when she bought her farm, in part, she said, because mentors in the farming community cautioned her about the agency’s tainted history in dealings with Black people. Andrews, 42, grew up in Raleigh but was a frequent visitor to the family farm outside Norlina. It came into her family in the 1940s, when her great-grandmother, Suzie Valentine Andrews, bought it. On her death, it passed to Andrews’ grandfather, Merlin, who raised pigs, goats, soybeans, tobacco, cucumbers and other crops on the gently rolling property. As a child, Andrews visited her grandparents regularly in the summer and on weekends. She can still remember where the hog lot stood, and which crops were grown in which fields. Andrews’ father, John, later inherited the property, but he had no interest in farming and leased the land for a time to other growers. When he retired, he told Andrews he planned to sell the property. ‘I’LL TAKE ON THE FARM’ Andrews had gone into the Air Force in 1997, right after graduating from Enloe High School. She got out in 2006. For the past five years, she has worked full time as a research assistant at UNC on a project studying HIV in women. “I was away from home for a long time while I was in the Air Force,” Andrews said. “I never thought about going back home, going back to the farm, until I was back here and the opportunity came, and I was like, ‘Sure. I’ll take on the farm.’” Andrews said she wondered whether, as a Black woman veteran and first-time farmer, she would have trouble getting financing. But she borrowed the money from a bank and paid her dad, giving him a cushion for his retirement. She set about learning land-management techniques from the USDA and extension specialists, forming a plan to bring the farm back to life. In 2018, she planted broccoli, squash, cabbage and collards. As the 2021 spring growing season approaches, Andrews has seedlings at her home in Raleigh getting ready for transplant. On the farm last week, she had a crew cutting young pines and clearing undergrowth, burning the debris. Gray smoke lifted and swirled against the blue sky on an unseasonably warm afternoon. Ash from the fire will be churned back into the chocolate-brown soil to enrich it. Andrews will plant about 11 crops on about three cleared acres this year, most of which she expects to sell through a faith-based CSA, or community-supported agricultural cooperative. Arugula, several varieties of lettuce, bok choy, turnips, beets — Andrews is learning to grow them all. She hopes to get certified as an organic grower, relying on natural pest-control practices that will make the food she raises more healthful and worth more on the market. She has other plans for the farm as well, leasing some to hunters, keeping some in forest, and developing an outdoor event site along a creek that runs through it, for weddings and family reunions. SOUL CITY FARM Andrews named her operation Soul City Farm, because it’s close to one of the boundaries of Soul City, a planned development designed in the early 1970s as a new town that would provide housing and employment opportunities for minorities and the poor. Soul City floundered when it lost federal support, but Andrews has fond memories of summer visits to the pool there, and hopes the development might one day be revived. Walking through a deeply furrowed section of field in her cowboy boots and jeans, Andrews said she feels the presence of her forebears on the farm, and feels lucky to be able to keep it in the family, something many Black farmers have been unable to do. “I think about what my great-grandmother had to endure to get the money, to save it, and for people to believe that she could actually do it,” Andrews said. “That’s emotional. It means so much for me. “I feel like with this new bill coming into play, that will give me the opportunity to pass down that generational wealth that we are all looking to give to our children and our children’s children. Every farmer’s hope and dream is that their hard work can be passed down to their kids and then their kids, so that they can enjoy the fruits of their labors. “That’s a precious gift.” ---- Photo collage description with article: -Left image is of Latonya Andrews standing in a newly cleared field Friday, March 12, 2021, in Norlina, NC, that will be returned to farming. Andrews is the 4th generation of her family to farm these 60 acres, starting with her great-grandmother, who bought it in the 1940s. Congress is considering providing $5 billion in aid to disadvantaged farmers (including debt relief) in the federal relief bill. credit: Juli Leonard/N&O -Right top image is a green colored street sign named "James Andrews DR". it is a private road. There is a brick house behind the sign. Latonya Andrews named a road on the family's land in Norlina, NC, after her father. Andrews is the 4th generation of her family to farm these 60 acres, starting with her great-grandmother, who bought it in the 1940s. Congress is considering providing $5 billion in aid to disadvantaged farmers (including debt relief) in the federal relief bill. credit: Juli Leonard/N&O. -Bottom right image is of Demetrius Hunter, a friend of Latonya Andrews, he is helping remove large stones from a newly cleared field Friday, March 12, 2021, in Norlina, NC, that will be returned to farming. Andrews is the 4th generation of her family to farm these 60 acres, starting with her great-grandmother, who bought it in the 1940s. Congress is considering providing $5 billion in aid to disadvantaged farmers (including debt relief) in the federal relief bill. credit: Juli Leonard --- Martha Quillin is a general assignment reporter at The News & Observer who writes about North Carolina culture, religion and social issues. She has held jobs throughout the newsroom since 1987. Source: https://www.newsobserver.com/.../article249839933.html... Previous Next

< Back Clara Adams-Ender Clara Adams-Ender was born In Willow Springs, North Carolina on Tue, 07.11.1939. She is an African American U.S. Army General, Nursing advocate and author. General Clara Adams-Ender, Army Trailblazer *Clara Adams-Ender was born In Willow Springs, North Carolina on Tue, 07.11.1939. She is an African American U.S. Army General, Nursing advocate and author. She was the fourth child of ten and grew up in a family of sharecroppers. Her parents were Caretha Bell Sapp Leach and Otha Leach. She attended North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University earning her B.S. degree in nursing in 1961. After that Adams-Ender joined the U.S. Army Nurse Corps. She entered the service as a second lieutenant and received training at Brooke Army Medical Center in Fort Sam Houston, Texas. In 1963, she was assigned overseas, beginning as a staff nurse for the 121st evacuation hospital in the Pacific theater near North Korea and would later serve in Germany. In 1964, she worked as a medical-surgical nursing instructor at Fort Sam Houston. In 1967, she became the first female officer to receive an Expert Medical Field Badge and returned to school. After earning her M.S. degree from the University of Minnesota, she began working at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C. Adams-Ender’s first assignment was as a medical-surgical nurse instructor, then as an assistant professor, until she was promoted to education coordinator in 1972. In 1975, while the assistant chief of the Department of Nursing at Fort Meade in Maryland, Adams-Ender entered the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. She graduated in 1976 as the first woman to earn a Master of Military Art and Science degree at the College. She graduated from the U.S. Army War College in 1982 as the first African American Nurse Corps officer in the Army. in 1987, after working as the Chief of the Department of Nursing in the 97th General Hospital, Chief of Nurse Recruiting at Fort Sheridan, Illinois, Chief of the Department of Nursing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Adams-Ender was promoted to the rank of Brigadier-General and became the Chief of the Army Nurse Corps . In 1991, she was selected to be Commanding General, Fort Belvoir, Virginia, and served in this capacity as well as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Military District of Washington until her retirement in 1993. Throughout her career, Adams-Ender was known for being active in nurse recruiting, initiating nursing units and advocating on behalf of critical care nurses for increased pay. She has received a Distinguished Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Legion of Merit award, an Arm Commendation Medal and Meritorious Service Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters. She has also received non-military awards, including the Roy Wilkins Meritorious Service Award of the NAACP, the Gertrude E. Rush Award for Leadership from the National Bar Association, and, in 1996, was named one of the 350 women who changed the world by Working Women magazine. She is currently the President of Caring About People With Enthusiasm (CAPE) Associates, Inc. In 2001, she published her autobiography, My Rise to the Stars: How a Sharecropper's Daughter Became an Army General. Reference: Black Box interview African American Registry Box 19441 Minneapolis, MN 55419 Previous Next

< Back Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Assination Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was assassinated while standing on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he died at 7:05 p.m. Photograph by Joseph Louw / The LIFE Images Collection. . Summary of events leading up to his assassination: On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed while standing on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in the city to speak on his growing Poor People's Campaign and to support an economic protest by Black sanitation workers. About two months earlier, 1,300 African American Memphis sanitation workers began a strike to protest low pay and poor treatment. When city leaders largely ignored the strike and refused to negotiate, the workers sought assistance from civil rights leaders, including Dr. King. He enthusiastically agreed to help and, on March 18, visited the city to speak to a crowd of more than 15,000 people. Dr. King also planned a march of support. When the first attempt was violently suppressed by police, leaving one protestor dead, Dr. King resolved to stage another peaceful march on April 8. He returned to Memphis by plane on April 3, braving a bomb threat on his scheduled flight. Once in Memphis, he stayed at the Lorraine Motel and gave a short speech reflecting on his own mortality. The next evening, April 4, Dr. King was shot as he stepped out onto the motel balcony. He was rushed to nearby St. Joseph's Hospital and pronounced dead at 7:05 pm, leaving a nation in shock and sparking mournful uprisings in more than 100 cities across the country. Just 39 years old, Dr. King left behind a wife, Coretta Scott King, and four young children. James Earl Ray, a white man, was later convicted of his assassination. Narrative source: eji Previous Next