Topics Related to African American History

On November 27, 1981, Mel Tomlinson made his debut as the only African American member of the New York City Ballet.

Born in Raleigh in January 1954, Tomlinson became interested in dance after participating in gymnastics in high school. He received a B.F.A. from what’s now the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA) after studying there for only two years. After graduation, Thomlinson began touring the country with the Agnes de Mille Heritage Theatre, which was founded at the school.

On November 27, 1962, Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered a speech in Rocky Mount. Before a crowd of nearly 2,000 in the gymnasium at Booker T. Washington High School, King used a number of expressions that made their way into his landmark “I Have a Dream” address at the Lincoln Memorial, which was part of the March on Washington in August 1963.

On November 18, 1879, the first North Carolina Colored State Fair opened in Raleigh. Born out of the desire by men of the Colored Industrial Association of North Carolina to showcase the progress made by African Americans after Emancipation, the fair was based on the successful model of the State Fair held by the State Agricultural Society since the 1850s.

On November 10, 1898, the year’s white supremacy campaign culminated with a violent political coup in Wilmington, marking the onset of the Jim Crow era of segregation in the state. Though traditionally termed a “race riot,” many have called the event a massacre.

On November 9, 1973, civil rights activist Floyd McKissick broke ground on Soul City in rural Warren County.

On November 8, 1965, Specialist/SFC Lawrence Joel of Winston-Salem, a Korean War veteran, began a routine patrol near Bien Hoa, Vietnam. Joel and his unit, the 1st Battalion of the 503rd Airborne Infantry, were ambushed by a Viet Cong battalion that outnumbered them six to one.

On October 30, 1918, James Walker Hood died.  Hood, as a missionary in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, was sent in 1863 to North Carolina where he served black congregations in New Bern and Beaufort.  He established a North Carolina Conference of the AME Zion Church in 1864.

On October 26, 1858, James H. Young was born into slavery near Henderson. Thanks in large measure to his father’s emphasis on education, Young was hired to work in the office of Colonel J. J. Young, an internal revenue collector. While working in the office, he became involved with the Republican Party.

On October 25, 1969, the Malcolm X Liberation University opened in Durham. Founded by black activist Howard Fuller and named for then recently-slain civil rights leader Malcolm X, the school was founded in response to protests by students at Duke University over the lack of an African American studies program there. The school was first housed in what was once a hosiery mill on Pettigrew Street.