Curtis Hardison’s new book Griot: The Evolution of Edgecombe tells the story of a little African American community near Topsail Island called Edgecombe. Hardison grew up there, and his book chronicles his extraordinary journey in search of the community’s roots.
Month: March 2023
Memories of Plymouth: A Justice Crusader Goes Home
Civil rights attorney and activist James Williams began our tour of Plymouth, N.C., on the banks of the Roanoke River. He had come home, and he had invited me to accompany him on a tour of the small town in Eastern North Carolina where he was born and raised.
Minnie Evans: A Journey from Trinidad
I recently found a transcript of a 1971 interview with Minnie Evans, the African American visionary artist from Wilmington, in which she described her ancestors' journey from slavery in the British colony of Trinidad.
“All this Land is Called Pantego and Neus”
A 1730 map of the NC coast that I found in London reminded me that we can learn a lot from what is on maps but sometimes even more from what is not on them.
“I Never Ask for Anything”: Stories from Rose Hill
In the 1970s, the writer Reed Wolcott fit into life in Rose Hill, N.C., in some surprising ways. She went to prayer meetings. She loved to sit on a porch with a crowd of other women telling stories and shelling butterbeans. She was hard-nosed, and she had a taste for bourbon.
David Cecelski 