A few days ago, a journalist, poet, and prison activist named Phillip Smith II sent me the news that the on-line magazine Bolts has just published his article "Priced Out of Phone Calls Home." Phillip is an inmate at the Neuse Correctional Facility in Goldsboro, N.C.-- and his article is worth reading.
Month: July 2025
“The Huckleberry Capital of the World”: Sampson County’s Wild Blueberries, 1850-1950
As I drove along the Black River, I thought about the history of Sampson County's once legendary wild blueberries. Long before the country's first blueberry farm was established, the county's wild blueberries were famous as far away as New York City and Boston. Locals called them "huckleberries." In the rest of the world, they were known as the "Sampson blues."
Remembering Betty Town
One day I hope that I will know more about Betty Town, a free African American community that white raiders destroyed just before the Civil War to make way for the founding of Aurora, North Carolina.
The Town Where Ella Baker Grew Up
In these days when we seem to have forgotten who we are, and what is best within us, I have found myself thinking often about the legendary civil rights activist Ella Baker and a spring day two years ago when I visited Littleton, the small town in Halifax County, N.C., where she grew up.
David Cecelski 