History Lesson

Published 3:17 pm Tuesday, April 11, 2023

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AHOSKIE – The Winton Triangle Building Exhibit will be on display beginning at 11 a.m. on Thursday, April 17 in the Freeland Building (Community Room) on the campus of Roanoke Chowan Community College.

The exhibit will run through Monday, April 17.

Cofield native Marvin Tupper Jones of the Chowan Discovery Group is the producer of the exhibit.

“The exhibit is for those who want to remember and learn the best of our Winton Triangle community,” Jones said. “We have buildings – some worn or in ruins – that tell stories of a successful community of color that rose through the Civil War, Reconstruction, Jim Crow and supported the Civil Rights movement that provided so many freedoms and opportunities.”

Jones noted that the subjects of family, war, education, business, religion, farming, Civil Rights and politics are all part of the Winton Triangle’s 437 year-old history.”

“Our research brings out the importance of the people connected to these buildings and sites,” he said. “Our storytelling and photography present that research to the viewer. We hope that people will find new value in the world that immediately surrounds them.

“Before much of our community’s past is forgotten, this extensive, 75-foot-long exhibit allows us to present significant people of the past who contributed much to enrich our community. I hope this exhibit will renew paths of accomplishment that are also important to our futures,” Jones added.

Each 20”x30” panel features a main photograph of a building or site, along with text and another image about a significant person or persons associated with the panel. Elders in the local community still remember some of the featured people such as Dr. Joseph D. Weaver and Howard Hunter, Sr., but stories of the local founders of C.S. Brown School, the community’s greatest institution, are forgotten.

Others featured in the 30 panels are Katie M. Hart, Saluda Hall, Georgia Hall Weaver, Reverend John L. Scott, Dr. Calvin Scott Brown, Charles S. Yeates, Charlie Press McGlohon, Robert L. Vann and Hobson R. Reynolds.

The exhibit project is funded by North Carolina Humanities and the Chowan Discovery Group. For more information visit www.chowandiscovery.org or call Marvin Tupper Jones at 202-236-2030.