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As Black History Month continues, I’d like to reshare a column I previously wrote in 2023 about the North Carolina Civil Rights Trail. It’s a cool project where history markers are erected throughout the state to share local stories about the Civil Rights movement. The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission (AAHC) is in charge of the project, which began in 2020.

I wanted to reshare this information because it’s an easy way to learn more about interesting parts of our history. The trail is a great excuse to travel around the state to visit the sites, but there’s also a virtual version available online as well.

And it still continues to be updated. Since I wrote the original column, Hertford County has added another marker on the trail to honor Hobson R. Reynolds, who served as the Grand Exalted Ruler of the Improved and Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, an organization that works towards racial justice and equality. He donated his family farm in Winton to serve as the national headquarters for the organization.

A slightly-shortened version of my previous column about the trail follows:

The AAHC’s website explains, “For generations, people in North Carolina have used spaces and places to organize, strategize, and protest to advance the civil rights of people of color, especially African Americans. It is here that young people – from Raleigh to Durham, from Elizabeth City to Greensboro – were activated to protest racial injustice. It is here where everyday people from Rocky Mount, to Robeson and Halifax Counties resisted oppression and intimidation.”

The goal is to place a total of 50 markers across the state to highlight these different endeavors. The markers point out birthplaces of important people, sites of legal action, specific places where protests and other activities occurred, and even locations where civil rights leaders visited.

One of the first markers approved and placed on the trail was right here in Hertford County, and my editor, Cal Bryant, covered the story for this newspaper.

The marker was placed at New Ahoskie Baptist Church in August 2021 during a celebratory event that brought together many of those who worked towards ending segregation in the 1960s. The local church served as a meeting place during the Civil Rights movement where leaders planned efforts to end local segregation and expand access for the Black community to public offices, resources, and employment.

Another local connection on the Civil Rights Trail is a marker dedicated to James H. Jones of Northampton County. Other former reporters of this newspaper and myself have written about Jones’ legacy before.

Jones led local efforts for school integration in the 1960s and 1970s, and became the first African American to serve on Northampton County’s school board, beginning in 1971. He later became the chair of that board in 1981, the first Black person in all of North Carolina to hold that title. His daughter, Anna Jones, later produced a documentary to share her father’s story with a wider audience.

There are plenty of other stops on the trail in the Roanoke-Chowan area and the surrounding counties. Indian Woods Baptist Church in Bertie County, for example, is included on the map for hosting the Black Belt Civil Rights and Anti-Poverty Conference in 1965, where attendees worked to advocate for voter rights registration. The conference drew over 1,000 people from 14 counties.

Further east, there are points on the map in Edenton – to mark a visit from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in May 1966 – and Elizabeth City – to mark sit-ins and marches organized by local students from Elizabeth City State Teachers College (present day ECSU).

To the south, there are points on the map in Williamston – to mark the Williamston Freedom Movement and Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1963 – and Bear Grass – to mark a civil rights rally during that same year.

And to the west, there are a trio of points in Enfield (Halifax County) to celebrate the birthplace of Louis Austin (a Black newspaper editor), to remember the Halifax County Voters Movement, and to detail the 1966 Johnson v. Branch court case (that protected Black teachers from termination due to civil rights activities).

The map spans all across North Carolina, from the mountains in the west to the Virginia and South Carolina boarder and several points in between. There are plenty of compelling tales to read about.

I was interested in the Adkin High School Walkout story from November 1951, where all 700 students simply got up from their desks and headed outside to the streets. The students organized the event without the knowledge of their parents, teachers, or even the school administration. The protest was planned after the Kinston School Board denied a request to fund facility improvements, including modernizing the gym.

Though many of the stories featured center around schools and churches and similar gathering places, there are others which remind readers of how deeply segregation ran. For example, two Black doctors in High Point forced the city to desegregate recreational facilities. They did this by coming to play golf at the Blair Park Municipal Golf Course repeatedly until city officials finally relented.

These are only a few examples of stories along the NC Civil Rights Trail. You can read more about them online by visiting the aahc.nc.gov website.

There is a lot of interesting history all around us, if we take the time to discover it!

Holly Taylor is a Staff Writer for Roanoke-Chowan Publications. Contact her at holly.taylor@r-cnews.com or 252-332-7206.