RALEIGH, N.C. – Born into slavery in Raleigh in 1803, Lunsford Lane worked industriously, started a business, and eventually bought his freedom. He also lectured to abolitionist groups and authored a memoir. The achievements and contributions of Lunsford Lane will be recognized with a N.C. Highway Historical Marker to be dedicated Tuesday, Aug. 20, 10 a.m. Remarks and a dramatic reading from Lane’s memoir will be held in the House Chamber at the State Capitol in Raleigh.
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The Algonquin Tennis Club was formed in 1922 in Durham to give aspiring African American tennis players a place to meet and play. The American Tennis Association was created in 1916 to encourage and support competitive tennis among African Americans and created the club, where nationally known players competed. A N.C. Highway Historical marker will be dedicated to the club Thursday, Aug. 15, at 6:30 p.m. at W.D. Hill Recreation Center in Durham.
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, requests the public’s help in locating a missing historical marker. The marker was located at US 70 at Eno River bridge northwest of Hillsborough. It identified Hart’s Mill, which was located outside of present-day Hillsborough and was the site of a large, well-publicized meeting of Regulators opposed to British rule in 1766.
He was appointed North Carolina’s “Ambassador of Goodwill” by Gov. R. Gregg Cherry in 1949 and was so recognized by seven governors. The Washington, N.C. native also was a preservationist and instrumental in establishing Historic Bath State Historic Site. Humorist and preservationist Edmund Harding will be recognized with a N.C. Highway Historical Marker to be dedicated Wednesday, July 10, 1 p.m., at West Main Street at South Washington Street in Washington.
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, requests the public’s help in locating a missing historical marker. The marker was located in Southport at Supply Road at N.C. Highway 133 (Old Bridge Road) and is about a fort that the U.S. government began construction on but that was taken over by Confederates in 1861. It is named for Governor Caswell.
The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, requests the public’s help in locating a missing historical marker. The marker was located at the corner of Broadway and Chestnut Streets in Asheville and is about Locke Craig, North Carolina governor from 1913 to 1917.
In 1948 polio rapidly spread through North Carolina causing 147 deaths with 2,517 cases recorded. The Guilford County outbreak was the highest per capita both in the state and the nation. Citizens rallied and built a hospital there in just 95 days after fundraising began. After the epidemic subsided, the facility was used as a jail for civil rights protestors in 1963. The unique evolution and roles of the facility will be recognized with a N.C. Highway Historical Marker Saturday, June 15 at 3 p.m.
An example that the pen is mightier than the sword is journalist Louis Austin, who advocated for and advanced social justice and civil rights as publisher of the “Carolina Times” newspaper in Durham. The Halifax County native will be recognized with a N.C. Highway Historical marker to be dedicated Friday, June 14, 9 a.m. at 122 SE Railroad St., Enfield.
When most people think of the first landing of a man on the moon, they don’t think of a behind the scenes bureaucrat, but there was James E. Webb. Born in Tally Ho, in Granville County, raised and educated in Oxford, N.C., Webb was picked by President John Kennedy to take control of the fledgling National Aeronautics and Space Administration in early 1961. Four months later he charged Webb and NASA to land a man on the moon within a decade and safely return him. He did.
William Gould was a plasterer in Wilmington who escaped from slavery with seven other men via the Cape Fear River. They were picked up by the USS Cambridge and joined the Union Navy. Gould kept a journal of his experiences for three years, producing the only known account by a sailor who was formerly a slave. He will be recognized with a N.C. Highway Historical Marker Nov. 13 at 10 a.m., dedication at the corner of 5th and Market Streets.