Press Releases

A free online program hosted by the Western Office of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources will examine the formation of the Ku Klux Klan. Historian Steven Nash will present an in-depth look at the rise of the Ku Klux Klan during Reconstruction and its terroristic campaign against the biracial Republican political coalition that emerged in the late 1860s.

Tickets are now available for Bentonville Battlefield State Historic Site’s illumination event, which will take place on the evening of March 19. The program will commemorate the 157th anniversary of the battle with luminaries for all 4,133 of those killed, wounded, or missing from the battle. Gates will open at 6:30 p.m., with the last admission at 9 p.m.

The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center is expanding. The Center will unveil its final phase of permanent exhibits to the public March 12. Entitled “The Civil War in Eastern North Carolina,” these exhibits will examine a variety of aspects of the Civil War including causes, military engagements and personalities, and the involvement of African Americans and women.

Montgomery County has been chosen as the subject of a comprehensive survey of historic buildings and landscapes planned from 2022-23. Funding for this architectural survey comes from the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund (ESHPF), administered by the National Park Service, for hurricanes Florence and Michael.

Nominations are open for the North Carolina Heritage Award, the state’s highest honor for traditional artists, until May 2. A program of the N.C. Arts Council, the Heritage Award honors active traditional artists, recognizes artistic excellence in a traditional art, celebrates contributions to communities, and promotes North Carolina’s cultural heritage. Artists who are recognized within their communities as keepers of North Carolina’s living traditions may be nominated for the award. Anyone can nominate a traditional artist or group of artists for a N.C. Heritage Award.

Nominations are being accepted for the 2022 North Carolina Award, the highest civilian honor bestowed by the state, now through April 15. Created by the General Assembly in 1961 and administered by the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, the award recognizes “notable accomplishments by North Carolina citizens” in the fields of literature, science, fine arts and public service.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources and the State Historic Preservation Office (HPO) seek to conduct oral history interviews with persons active in the Civil Rights Movement between the years 1941 to 1976 in northeastern North Carolina.

The North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources is pleased to announce that one district boundary increase, two districts and four individual properties across the state have been added to the National Register of Historic Places. The following properties were reviewed by the North Carolina National Register Advisory Committee and subsequently nominated by the North Carolina State Historic Preservation Officer and forwarded to the Keeper of the National Register for consideration for listing in the National Register., which is maintained by the National Park Service.

The CSS Neuse Civil War Interpretive Center is growing again.

Somerset Place State Historic Site will commemorate Black History Month with a virtual program, “The Anthropology of Adornment and Identity at Somerset Place.”