Topics Related to African American History

Author and orator. Born enslaved, he escaped & wrote autobiography in 1837. Toured Britain as abolitionist. Born nearby.

Prominent congregation of African American Muslims in N.C., est. in 1956. Hub of outreach. Mosque opened here, 1972.

Born enslaved, escaped ca. 1857. Author of The Bondswoman’s Narrative, based on her life, penned between 1853 and 1861. Lived two blocks north.

Walter Fenner “Buck” Leonard was an American first baseman in Negro league baseball and in the Mexican League. After growing up in North Carolina, he played for the Homestead Grays between 1934 and 1950, batting fourth behind Josh Gibson for many years. The Grays teams of the 1930s and 1940s were considered some of the best teams in Negro league history.

The almost forgotten Anderson Elementary School in Mars Hill is being reborn. It evolved from a school for black children built in 1928 to enable African Americans still weighed down by the impact of slavery to seek a better life.The black community remained in western North Carolina as slavery ended for the small population of enslaved there. A split in pro-Confederate and pro-Union sentiment locally-led many blacks to move from Yancey to the Union-leaning Madison County at the Civil War’s end.

Photo from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill Libraries.Ann Atwater was a woman to be reckoned with, a woman not to be ignored. She was a fierce fighter for rights for poor African Americans who shook up the white power establishment in Durham, N.C. in the 1960s. From then on, she demanded to be heard.

Bertha Landis (center) with her children in 1985. Photo provided by Tom Davenport.

Halifax, North Carolina, was an important part of the Underground Railroad in North Carolina. With the largest free Black population of any county in the state in the antebellum period, the community provided a network to help freedom seekers as well as a place to blend in.

Abolitionist & maritime captain. Emancipated self and family. He published autobiography ca. 1843. Labored & lived nearby.

African American culture and history have deep roots in North Carolina. Across the state, these stories are preserved in special locations dedicated to honoring the experiences and achievements of African Americans. Here are 10 places to explore Black history in North Carolina: