8/9/2019 Governor McCrory Proclaims February Black History Month in North Carolina

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Press Release

Governor McCrory Proclaims FebruaryBlack History Month in North Carolina

Announces Appointments to the African-American Heritage Commission

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 919-814-2100

Saturday, January 31, 2015 govpress@nc.gov

Raleigh, N.C. -Governor Pat McCrory has proclaimed February Black History Month in NorthCarolina, encouraging citizens to learn about our state's rich heritage of black history and itsprofound place in the advancement of African American culture and life in the United States. Thegovernor also announced his appointments to the African-American Heritage Commission.

"The establishment of Shaw University, Bennett College, 'Black Wall Street' inDurham, the sit-ins at Woolworth's - these and many more were pivotal moments inthe history of our nation, and they reveal our state's wealth of courage, ambitionand resolve," Governor McCrory said. "The black history milestones achieved in NorthCarolina still resonate today."

Governor McCrory announced appointments to the African-American Heritage Commission,

which advises and assists the Secretary of Cultural Resources in the preservation, interpretationand promotion of African-American history, arts and culture. The term length is three years.

Dr. Antoinette Toppin (Durham County) Toppin is a professor and chair of theMusic Department at East Carolina University.

Walthea Yarbrough (Alamance County)Yarbrough is the director of communitycollege relations at N.C. A&T University.

Black History Milestones in Our State

July 1829: Raleigh printer Joseph Gales published George Moses Hortons The Hope ofLiberty, the first book by an African American in the South. Horton was from

Northampton County.

September 1829: Wilmington native David Walker published hisAppeal, an importantearly anti-slavery document.

1835:Elizabeth Keckley came to Hillsborough. After purchasing her freedom in 1855, shemoved to Washington, D.C., eventually working for the Lincolns at the White House asportrayed in the filmLincoln.

1861: Edenton native and fugitive slave Harriet Jacobs published her memoir,Incidentsin the Life of a Slave Girl, which recounted how she hid in an attic for nearly seven yearsuntil she managed to escape north via Edentons maritime Underground Railroad.

1865: Shaw University was founded as the first African American institution of higherlearning in the South.

February 1870: Fayetteville native Hiram Revels took the U.S. Senate seat formerlyoccupied by Confederate president Jefferson Davis, becoming the first black member of

Congress.

October 1896:the Pea Island Livesavers, the only all-black unit of the Coast Guardsforerunner, performed a dramatic rescue of survivors of the schooner E. S. Newman offthe Outer Banks.

Early 1900s:Parrish Street in downtown Durham was known nationally as Black WallStreet for its thriving African American businesses, including North Carolina Mutual LifeInsurance Company and Mechanics and Farmers Bank.

April 1942: Montford Point Camp opened at Camp Lejeune to train African Americanrecruits to the Marines. That branch had been all-white until 1941.

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8/9/2019 Governor McCrory Proclaims February Black History Month in North Carolina

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February 1960:Sit-ins at a Woolworths Department Store in Greensboro launch anational protest movement that helped built pressure to pass the major civil rightslegislation of the early 1960s.

April 1960:the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee was formed by notedactivists and Halifax County native Ella Baker at Shaw University in Raleigh.

November 1962:Martin Luther King, Kr. delivered a speech in Rocky Mountain with a

number of expressions that later became part of his I Have a Dream speech.

All of the above were drawn from the N.C. Department of Cultural ResourcesStories from BlackHistoryandThis Day in N.C. History series. Check them out to learn more.

Clickhere for a copy of the governor's proclamation.

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