Topics Related to African American History
On February 11, 1813, freedom seeker, writer and abolitionist Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton.Jacobs spent her childhood unaware of her station in life but, when her white mistress, Margaret Horniblow, died in 1825, she and her brother John were willed to Horniblow’s 3-year-old niece, Mary Norcom, and were placed under the control of Norcom’s father, Dr. James Norcom.
On February 10, 1937, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain.
On February 10, 1854, African American orator and teacher, Joseph C. Price was born in Elizabeth City. In 1863 his family moved to New Bern where he was enrolled in St. Andrew’s School. Price, though late in beginning his formal education, made exceptional progress. After completing his own education, he taught in Wilson, becoming the principal at a school there in 1871, but within a few years he returned to school to prepare for the ministry in the A.M.E. Zion Church.
On February 9, 1956, basketball legend Phil Ford was born in Kannapolis.Ford was raised in Rocky Mount, where he graduated from high school in 1974.As a point guard at UNC-Chapel Hill, he led the basketball team to four NCAA tournaments. Ford’s accolades during his college career were many. In 1978, he capped off his senior year by winning the coveted John R. Wooden Award, given annually to the country’s most outstanding college basketball player.He graduated that year with a degree in business administration.
On February 8, 1898, Warren Coleman and his associates laid the cornerstone for the nation’s first black-owned cotton mill in Concord.Congressman George H. White, himself a civil rights pioneer, was the main speaker at the event. The company represented the first major cooperative effort by North Carolina’s African American businessmen.
On February 6, 1971, Mike’s Grocery, a mom-and-pop store in Wilmington, was firebombed and burned. It’s unclear who was responsible for the arson, which came after a week of increasing racial tension and violence over the desegregation of the city’s high schools.
On February 1, 1960, four African American college students sat down at the lunch counter at Woolworth’s Department Store in downtown Greensboro and asked to be served. They were refused, launching a sit-in movement that would spread throughout North Carolina and the South.The four students, Ezell Blair, Jr. (later known as Jibreel Khazan), Franklin E. McCain, Joseph A. McNeil and David L. Richmond, were all freshmen from nearby North Carolina A&T State University.
On January 25, 1946, noted educator Orishatukeh Faduma died.Born in the South American country of Guyana to freed slaves from West Africa, Faduma settled in Sierra Leone while he was still in elementary school. Educated there by missionaries, Faduma was baptized with the name William James Davies.
Title page of the journal of the 1868 convention.On January 14, 1868, a North Carolina constitutional convention, now known as the “Convention of 1868,” opened in Raleigh.
St. Augustine’s College in 1900. Image from the Prezell R. Robinson Library.