African American
Showing results: 1 to 15 out of 50
Anne Atkins Encyclopedia
Despite being widowed at a young age and paying increased property taxes, Anne Atkins improved her family’s financial situation during the late 1800s.John H. Baker (1935-2007) Encyclopedia
John H. Baker served as North Carolina’s first African American sheriff. He served in this office for twenty-four year and proposed one of Wake County's first charter schools.Ella Baker ( 1903 - 1986) Encyclopedia
A North Carolina native, Ella Baker played a key role in the Civil Rights Movement and in forming the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at Shaw University.Civil Rights Movement Encyclopedia
Most North Carolinians believe the Civil Rights Movement occurred strictly in the 1960s, with the start of the Sit-Ins at the Woolworth’s store in Greensboro, North Carolina. The movement, however, began much earlier, and one can argue that its roots lay in the Civil-War period.Levi Coffin (1798 – 1877) Encyclopedia
A business owner, Quaker, abolitionist, and an organizer of the Underground Railroad, Levi Coffin was born in New Garden, North Carolina. According to Coffin, “The Underground Railroad business increased as time advanced, and it was attended with heavy expenses, which I could not have borne had not my affairs been prosperous.”Contraband Camps Encyclopedia
Before the end of the Civil War, as Union troops occupied more and more of North Carolina during the Civil War, more and more slaves fled to Union lines to live in what were then called contraband camps. Contrabands (freedmen) were escaped slaves from the Confederate territory into Union territory.Dorothy Counts (1942- ) Encyclopedia
Realizing desegregation was unavoidable, Charlotte School Board members ordered four black students to attend four non-integrated schools in the area. Dorothy Counts, one of the four students, was assigned to Harding High School and required to report there on September 4, 1957. While escorted by Reginald Hawkins, Counts was heckled, hissed, and spat upon while walking to the school.Daniel Russell (1845-1908) Encyclopedia
In 1864, a nineteen-year-old Daniel Russell started his political career as a Democratic state legislator. As he grew increasingly frustrated with Southern Democratic leadership, Russell joined the Republican Party. In 1896, he was elected governor in great part because the Populists and Republicans in the state had formed a political alliance called Fusion politics.Charles and Winnie Tally (dual tenure) Encyclopedia
From Oxford Township, Charles and Winnie Tally were among many freedmen using dual tenure to make ends meet.Dual Tenure (late 1800s) Encyclopedia
In theory, after the Civil War, land ownership seemed an attainable goal for North Carolina freedpeople. In actuality, racial division and limited finances made land ownership extremely difficult. Freedmen, therefore, practiced dual tenure.Freedmen's Bank Encyclopedia
After the Civil War, Northern missionaries and Freedmen’s Bureau agents encouraged emancipated slaves to participate in a free-labor economy and embody middle-class values. But the South lay in ruins. It was difficult for many whites to rebound financially and for former slaves to find work, much less start enterprising careers. Freedmen, however, adjusted quickly to the demands of a free-labor economy.Henry E. Frye (1932- ) Encyclopedia
Governor James B. Hunt appointed Justice Henry Frye, in 1983, to the North Carolina Supreme Court. He thus became he became the first African American to sit on the North Carolina Supreme Court.George Washington Carver College Encyclopedia
When North Carolina’s manufacturing sector started growing rapidly during the mid-twentieth century, African American students lacked educational opportunities to become marketable in the modern workforce. To meet this demand, C. A. Barrett in 1948 started George Washington Carver College in Asheboro.Greensboro Shootings Encyclopedia
On November 3, 1979, an armed confrontation between members of the Maoist Communist Workers Party (CWP) and several Klansmen and Nazis ended with four CWP members and one supporter being shot dead. Three trials soon followed, and CWP survivors and their supporters claimed that their anti-establishment views incited a conspiracy to have them killed.Greensboro Sit-In Encyclopedia
On February 1, 1960, four African-American students of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University sat at a white-only lunch counter inside a Greensboro, North Carolina Woolworth’s store. While sit-ins had been held elsewhere in the United States, the Greensboro sit-in catalyzed a wave of nonviolent protest against private-sector segregation in the United States.