On February 21, 1933, Nina Simone, often called the “high priestess of soul,” was born in the small town of Tryon in Polk County.
Determined to become one of the first highly-successful African-American concert pianists, Simone spent a summer at the famed Julliard School after graduating high school in Asheville in 1950. Denied admission to music school in Philadelphia, Simone took menial jobs there.
On February 20, 1885, 22 years after Emancipation, freedmen in Edgecombe County incorporated Princeville, the state’s first town founded by African Americans.
Its claim to first in the nation is rivaled only by Eatonville, Florida. Along with James City in Craven County and Roanoke Island in Dare County, the community was among the state’s three resettlement colonies for former slaves.
On February 17, 1963, American basketball superstar Michael Jeffrey Jordan was born in Brooklyn, New York. Before his first birthday, Jordan’s parents moved to Wilmington, where he played three sports at Laney High School and was named to the McDonald’s All-American team.
On February 13, 1969, African American student activists at Duke University occupied the school’s main administrative building. The takeover of the Allen Building was sparked by the slowness of racial reform at the university.
Black undergraduates were not admitted to Duke until 1963. In the mid-60s, the Afro-American Association formed on campus, influenced by the Black Power movement. By early 1969, the Association and its supporters had become impatient with the progress of promised reform.
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.