Allen Sidney was born a slave in the seaport of Edenton, North Carolina, in 1804. More than 50 years later, in 1856, he escaped from a steamboat on the Ohio River and followed the Underground Railroad to Canada. At the age of 90, he told the story of his life to a newspaper reporter.
Freedom Stories
The Day Mrs. N. F. Harper Sang “Pass Me Not O Gentle Savior”
Nearly twenty years ago, scholar and archivist Linda Simmons-Henry led an extraordinary oral history project with African American elders in Pamlico County, N.C.. What I found most unforgettable about the project's interviews, back then and still today, is how much they are a history of faith and the spirit.
Remembering a Barbecue Legend: The Rev. Adam Scott of Goldsboro, N.C.
The Rev. Adam Scott was a Pentecostal Holiness minister born in Goldsboro, N.C., in 1890. He went on to become barbecue royalty. He was called a "barbecue artist" and the "Barbecue King" of Eastern North Carolina. In 1933, he threw a barbecue for Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt in the White House's Rose Garden, bless its dearly departed soul.
“Charles Branford was a black army recruit in Wilson, N.C.”
There are times when I hear a story, sometimes even a very small story, that seems to say more about our history than a whole shelf of history books. On Facebook yesterday, the historian Dr. Charles McKinney related such a story about North Carolina during World War II.
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.
The Nine O’Clock Whistle
One of this year's most highly anticipated new books on America's civil rights movement has just come out-- Willa Cofield, Cynthia Samuelson, and Mildred Sexton's The Nine O'Clock Whistle: Stories of the Freedom Struggle for Civil Rights in Enfield, North Carolina.
“As Long as a Star Can Be Seen”: Remembering the Plymouth Massacre
I was recently asked to give the keynote address at an extraordinary event held in Plymouth, N.C., to commemorate the Plymouth Massacre of April 1864. I found the event deeply moving, and I was honored to be there. This is a copy of my remarks and photographs of the day's events.
In Remembrance: Robert Hinton (1941-2023)
I just learned that my old friend Robert Hinton passed away late last year. He was an inspiring historian, and a good man, and he forever changed the way that I and many others think about the history of Eastern North Carolina. To honor Robert, I am sharing a special lecture that he gave in Tarboro, N.C., in 2001.
Learning Instructions for Everyone … in prison and out (by Phillip Vance Smith II)
Phillip Vance Smith II, an inmate at the Nash Correctional Institution, has just published a remarkable book of poetry called "Life: Learning Instructions for Everyone … in prison and out." His poems are a primer in survival without hope, or perhaps in how to find hope, and how to make a life with meaning, in a hopeless world.
A Beautiful Day in Piney Grove
At first light we gathered at the Friendship Holiness Church in Piney Grove, a community in the far southeastern part of the North Carolina coast. The descendants of Caesar Evans were going searching for the community's past in the local woods and swamps, and they had invited me to go with them.
Remembering Cedar Hill
I will never forget the day I spent with George Beatty, Jr. exploring the Gullah Geechee heritage of Cedar Hill, a community founded by the survivors of a rice plantation on the banks of the Cape Fear River.
On a Beautiful Autumn Day in Red Hill
A few days ago, a large crowd gathered in Red Hill, North Carolina, for the unveiling of a state historical marker commemorating the establishment of an Equal Rights League there in 1866. Sponsored by the Phoenix Historical Society, the ceremony was hosted by the Red Hill Missionary Baptist Church, the heart of that rural community 18 miles northeast of Rocky Mount.
The Trouble at the Woodville Convict Labor Camp
Today I am excerpting a passage from a Ph.D. dissertation by Dr. Susan Thomas at UNC-Greensboro. The excerpt focuses on a convict labor strike in Perquimans County, N.C., in 1935 that played a key role in ending the practice of flogging prisoners on chain gangs and in the state's prisons.
“For all the Poor People”: Notes on Sarah E. Small & Her Run for the U.S. Congress in 1965
Sarah E. Small of Williamston, N.C. was the first African American woman in North Carolina history to run for the U.S. Congress. When she ran for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1965, she may even have been the first black woman to do so in American history.
The Griot of Topsail Sound
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.
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.
The Rose Hill Poultry Workers Strike of 1968
The Rose Hill poultry workers strike of 1968 was one of the unsung chapters in the story of the black struggle for justice and equality in Eastern North Carolina.
The Revolt of the Lint Dodgers: The Lumberton Cotton Mill Workers of 1937
Today I am exploring the story of a historic strike and union organizing campaign that occurred in Lumberton, N.C., in 1937. That story involves more than a thousand cotton mill workers and a legendary champion of social justice struggles named Myles Horton, the co-founder of the Highlander Folk School.
In the Small Town Where I Grew Up
A year before I was born, in the small town where I grew up, three African American children walked into my future elementary school while a line of U.S. Marines with rifles watched over them.
“We Returned Home to our Enemies”: Black Marines and the Struggle for Racial Equality at the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station
On the 23rd of May, 1963, Corporal Bernard Shaw, a 23-year-old black Marine, sent an extraordinary letter to the commanding general of the Second Marine Air Wing and to other senior officers at the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in Havelock, North Carolina.
Jim Grant, in Memory
For half a century, James Earll "Jim" Grant was there when people needed him, standing by the side of the persecuted and oppressed: migrant and seasonal farm workers, tenants facing eviction, victims of police brutality and anyone else who yearned for justice.
“All Roads Lead Back to North Carolina”
Whether they were in New York City, Boston or Hartford, the Sons and Daughters of North Carolina kept a close eye on what was happening back home in the Tar Heel State.
Emancipation Day At Mother Zion
On January 12, 1934, the New York City chapter of the Sons and Daughters of North Carolina held an Emancipation Day celebration at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem, one of the most historic churches in America.
David Cecelski 