The Triangle’s Black history overflows with 6 names you should know — and many others
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The Triangle’s Black history
Black History Month is an opportunity to recall the people prominent in our past. It’s a way to recognize that their work, their contributions and their very existence are woven tightly into the tattered-but-intact American tapestry. Here are six stories — some familiar, others not as well known — of people in the Triangle who made a difference.
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Within a single generation, Raleigh witnessed slavery, emancipation, reconstruction and Jim Crow — a turbulent period that produced both heroes and heartaches.
In that time, it was possible for a Black man in North Carolina to be born a slave, graduate from college, become a professor and Episcopal bishop only to be forced to ride in the back of a trolley — a story lived by Henry Beard Delany.
A Black woman in Raleigh could grow up as a white man’s property, then earn a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne in Paris, as did Anna J. Cooper.
President Gerald Ford proclaimed the first U.S. Black History Month in 1976, starting the annual celebration in the same years as the nation’s 200th birthday.
Ford noted at the time that Black Americans had not readily experienced the ideals of freedom and individual rights on which the nation had been founded. A generation and a half later, the struggle to fulfill that founding vision of equity for all continues.
And yet, in neighborhoods, towns and cities across the nation, Black writers, educators, government officials, musicians, dancers, athletes, scientists, lawyers and entrepreneurs have always done that most American thing: They labored to make important contributions in their fields.
They often did so nearly anonymously.
Black History Month is an opportunity to name them again, to recognize that their work, their contributions and their very existence are woven tightly into the tattered-but-intact American tapestry.
With this package of stories, we’re spotlighting some of the key figures in the Triangle’s Black history.
News & Observer readers: Click here to read the first story in this series on Dr. Manassa Pope.
Durham Herald-Sun readers: Click here to read the first story in this series on Dr. Manassa Pope.
This story was originally published February 20, 2022 at 6:00 AM with the headline "The Triangle’s Black history overflows with 6 names you should know — and many others."
