The historically significant site once saw significant river herring and shad fishing, back-breaking work done almost exclusively by enslaved and free Black laborers.
Black History Month
Landowners find Black lifesaving hero’s forgotten grave
Retired Coast Guard Cmdr. Gavin Wente and his wife Renee didn’t know when they bought their property last year that it included the unrecorded gravesite of Capt. Lewis Wescott, who participated in one of the most daring ocean rescues in Outer Banks history.
Fort Fisher aquarium to celebrate Black History Month
The first of the aquarium’s Community Day Series, organizers said that the debut event welcomes visitors to explore the cuisine of the Gullah Geechee, find inspiration in the spoken word, and dive into a life-saving history.
‘The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks’ free showing Friday
The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences at Whiteville is offering the screening in recognition of Black History Month.
ECSU Choir marks 90 years of bringing music to the people
The Elizabeth City State University Choir, which performed recently at First Flight High School in Kill Devil Hills, has been sharing its songs with audiences across the region since 1933.
‘Colored Silk: A Mother’s Civil War Odyssey’ set for Feb. 16
The one-woman play based on the life of Lizzie Keckley, a formerly enslaved woman who worked as a seamstress in the Lincoln White House, is in celebration of Black History Month.
Library to screen documentary on African American schools
“Lessons from the Rosenwald Schools” includes footage from hundreds of interviews with alumni and former teachers who share their experiences at historic African American schools.
Talk on Freedman’s Colony set for Feb. 14
The Dare County Library Adult Speakers Series will feature “Roanoke’s Forgotten Colony: The Freedmen’s Colony of 1863-1867” with Fort Raleigh National Historic Site Ranger Josh Nelson.
History for Lunch program to cover P.W. Moore High
The presentation examines the middle period of the school’s history, from the mid-1930s to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision.
Families of the US Colored Troops lecture set for Feb. 1
Documentarian Marvin Tupper Jones will discuss the role of these soldiers and their families during a presentation at the Museum of the Albemarle in Elizabeth City.
For some, Pamlico River was part of underground railroad
“Freedom seekers used this river,” says Leesa Jones, executive director of the Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum.
Our coast’s people: Last daughter of Davis Ridge
Historian David Cecelski shares the story of Nannie Davis Ward, who grew up at the now-uninhabited Davis Ridge in Down East Carteret County, and her description in an interview before her death of the remote community of formerly enslaved watermen and island women.
Community races against time to restore dilapidated church
Half of the $1 million needed has been raised to restore the mid-1800s Reaves Chapel, which has fallen into disrepair over the last 15 years since a congregation last worshipped within its walls.
New Bern’s African American community focus of event
Dr. Erroll L. Royal will share highlights during a virtual presentation Feb. 17 on his most recent book, “Traces of Places and Faces of African Americans from the New Bern Community.”
Beaufort’s Union Town Civil War marker unveiling set
The newly installed Civil War Trails marker on Mulberry Street in Beaufort provides historical information about Union Town, a refugee camp built in 1862 by African Americans who fled enslavement to Union-occupied Beaufort.
Program on Cape Fear’s Black, faith-based communities set
Explore the legacy of Rev. Richard Keaton and the Black Missionary Movement in the Middle Cape Fear Region during the Feb. 18 program at the Pender County Library’s Burgaw location.
