Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Coordinator, Movement History Initiative
Photo of Worth Long taken from SNCClegacyproject.org
On May 8, 2025 Worth Westinghouse Long Jr., Folklorist and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (also known as SNCC) Veteran passed away. The Franklin Research Center and Rubenstein Library mourns this lost and remembers his contributions as not only an activist, but also as a cultural archivist and true Durham native.
Worth Long’s Alabama State Police file, undated, Alabama Photographs and Pictures Collection, ADAH. Photo found at https://snccdigital.org/people/worth-long/
Long joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) in 1963, organizing in Selma, Alabama, during a pivotal time in the Civil Rights Movement. He would later become a nationally recognized folklorist, committed to preserving and celebrating Black cultural traditions. His work with the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Library of Congress helped amplify the voices, music, and stories of Black communities across the South.
A proud son of Durham’s Hayti community, Long’s legacy bridges activism and cultural memory. We are grateful for his life and his enduring contributions to justice and history.
Civil Rights History Project Interview completed by the Southern Oral History Program under contract to the Smithsonian Institution ’s National Museum of African American History & Culture and the Library of Congress, 2015 https://www.crmvet.org/nars/long_w.pdf
Post contributed by Ama Kyereme, Curatorial Intern for the Archive of Documentary Arts (24-25) and curator of “Movement and Memory Through the Lens of Danny Lyon.” The exhibit is on display in the Rubenstein Library Photography Gallery through November 2, 2025.
In 1962, Danny Lyon, then a college student at university of Chicago, hitchhiked from Chicago to Cairo, Illinois, to document segregation to document segregation, and to join the Civil Rights Movement. Brought in by James Forman to work as the first staff photographer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Lyon traveled across the U.S. South documenting the conditions that initially prompted him to action. Armed with his camera, he made his way into spaces that his Black colleagues typically couldn’t go. From the Leesburg Stockade in Virginia to the Toddle House diner sit-in in Atlanta, the photographs Lyon made captured the ethos of the civil rights era. Facing hostile police and armed guards wielding bayonets, Lyon often placed himself in the middle of action to represent in photographs what he was experiencing.
Peaceful protests are foundational to the Civil Rights Movement, but violence is inextricable to the Movement’s history. That violence, both visible and invisible, is on full display in several photographs selected for this exhibition, from protests arrests to the funeral for the girls bombed in Birmingham, AL. While Lyon did not hold back from documenting the volatility of the revolution as he witnessed it, he focused his camera on capturing the Movement as it was to him and those around him. He directed the camera just as much towards moments of stillness, depicting the reality of the Movement within the image, as well as between and beyond the frame. He made evidence of organizing, protesting, rest, grief, and celebration, all equally deliberate actions towards an investment in an imagined future. Many of the images Danny created during this period became synonymous with SNCC and the Civil Rights Movement, and through their circulation were key in bringing about social and political change. The images of the young girls imprisoned in the Leesburg Stockade in Virginia were critical in making the public aware of the condition these girls were in, and ultimately led to their release. In this way, there is a cycle of action that Danny’s photographs take part in. Danny’s impulse to follow the action leads him to take photographs, and in turn he takes action through the intervention of taking a photograph. The photograph then goes on to act as a catalyst for other social and political action based on the content of the image. In addition to the iconic and spectacular images of the era, this exhibit includes images that provide a more comprehensive narrative of SNCC activism, through depictions of the South as a geographic hub, the role of women and youth, and the involvement of the church and religion as equally critical parts of the Civil Rights Movement.
The Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025-2026 travel grants. Our research centers annually award travel grants to students, scholars, and independent researchers through a competitive application process. We extend a warm congratulations to this year’s awardees. We look forward to meeting and working with you!
The travel grants for the Archive of Documentary Arts and Human Rights Archive have been paused for the 2025-2026 cycle.
Doris Duke Archives
Joan Marie Johnson, Northwestern University, “Doris Duke and the Business of Philanthropy”
Richard Treut, “Doris Duke’s Stewardship of Duke Farms”
Elon Clark History of Medicine Travel Grants
Jessica Brabble, Ph.D. Candidate, College of Willilam & Mary, “Her Best Crop: Eugenics, Agricultural Programming, and Child Welfare, 1900-1964”
Michael Ortiz-Castro, Lecturer, Department of History, Bentley University, “Acts of Citizenship: Belonging and Biology in the Post-Reconstruction US.”
John Hope Franklin Research Center
Irene Ahn, Faculty, American University, “Bridging Divides through Local Reparations: Examining How Communities Repair Racial Injustices”
Emmanuel Awine, Ph.D. Candidate, Johns Hopkins University, “The Socio-Political History of the Raided Communities in Northern Ghana and Southern Burkina Faso 1800-2000”
Carlee Migliorisi, M.A. Candidate, Monmouth University, “Asbury Park Uprising: Race, Riots, and Revenue”
Maria Montalvo, Faculty, Emory University, “Imagining Freedom”
Michael Ortiz, Faculty, Bentley University, “Acts of Citizenship: Belonging and Biology in the Post Reconstruction US”
Summer Perritt, Ph.D. Candidate, Rice University, “A Southern Reclamation: Understanding Black Identity and Return Migration to the American South in the Post-Civil Rights Era, 1960-2020”
McKenzie Tor, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Missouri, “The Black Temperance Movement in Nineteenth Century America”
Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
John Furr Fellowship for JWT Research
Raffaella Law, “Global Branding, Local Tastes: Nestle and the Rise of Internet-Age Food Advertising in the 1990s”
Joseph Semkiu, “Wartime Advertising and Radio Voices: Selling Masculinity On and Off the Radio to the 1940s US Home Front”
Alvin A. Achenbaum Travel Grants
James Bowie, “The 20th-Century Development of the Logo as a Cultural Object”
Bryce Evans, “Marketing Abundance: JWT’s Creative and Strategic Approach to the Pan Am Account”
Townsend Rowland, “Supplementation, Radiation, Mutation: Food and Scientific Authority in Postwar America”
Mark Slater, “Big Tobacco and Blackness: American Advertising, Black Culture, and Cigarettes in Post-WW2 America”
Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture Travel Grant Awardees
Mary Lily Travel Grant
Daniel Belasco, Independent Researcher, Al Held Foundation, “Total Revolution: The Origins of the Feminist Art Movement, 1963-1969”
Ayumi Ishii and Kate Copeland, Independent Researchers, Pacific Northwest College of Art, “Compleat and Infallible Recipes”
Chloe Kauffman, Graduate Student, University of Maryland, College Park, “’If women are curious, women also like to speak’: Unmarried Women, Sexual Knowledge, and Female Mentorship in the Eighteenth-Century Anglo-Atlantic”
Lucy Kelly, Graduate Student, University of Sussex, Sussex Center for American Studies, “’I want to fight the fight. I want my rightful place’: Queer Worldmaking in the American South, 1970-2000”
Lina-Marie Murillo, Faculty, University of Iowa, Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies, and History, “The Army of the Three and the Untold History of America’s Abortion Underground”
Melissa Thompson, Graduate Student, West Virginia University, “Redefining and Recreating the Meaning of Family, 1929 – 2010s”
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Travel Grant
Stephanie Clare, Faculty, University of Washington, Seattle, “Eve’s Pandas: Queer Futurity and the More-Than-Human”
Julien Fischer, Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer, Stanford University, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, “Writing the Incurable: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick on Love and the Impossible”
Archive of Documentary Arts Sidney Gamble Travel Grants
Doris Duke Foundation Research Travel Grants
Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Travel Grants
History of Medicine Collections
Human Rights Archive
John Hope Franklin Research Center for African and African American History and Culture
John W. Hartman Center for Sales, Advertising & Marketing History
Sallie Bingham Center for Women’s History and Culture (Mary Lily Research Grants)
Anyone whose research would be supported by sources from the Rubenstein Library’s research centers is eligible to apply. We encourage applications from students at any level of education; faculty and teachers; visual and performing artists; writers; filmmakers; public historians; and independent researchers.
For assistance determining the eligibility of your project, please contact AskRL@duke.edu with the subject line “Travel Grants.”
Eligibility
Applicants must reside beyond a 100-mile radius of Durham, N.C., and may not be current Duke students or employees.
Information Session
An online information session will be held Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 2-3 pm EST. This program will review application requirements, offer tips for creating a successful application, and include an opportunity for attendees to ask questions. This program will be recorded and posted online afterwards. Register for the session here.
Timeline
The deadline for applications will be Friday, February 28, 2025, at 6:00 pm EST.
Decisions will be announced by the end of April 2025 for travel during May 2025-June 2026. Awards are paid as reimbursement after completion of the research visit(s).
Last month in October we observed both American Archives Month and Informational Literacy Awareness Month. Within the proclamation, President Obama acknowledges the challenges that everyday citizens face as the amount of information we receive and process on a regular basis has increased exponentially over the years. He encourages us to “recognize the important role information plays in our daily lives, and appreciate the need for a greater understanding of its impact.”
Read President Obama’s National Information Literacy Awareness Month Proclamation Here [https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2009-10-07/pdf/E9-24290.pdf]
And who better to highlight in this blog post than those who continually care for the information literacy of others than the librarians within the Behind the Veil Collection.
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When using the occupation filter, you will find that there are a total of thirty-four librarians within the collection. One of them an archivist [link to the last blog post], others are also classified as teachers, a lawyer, and even a school librarian. Most of the oral histories belonging to these chief information officers can be found under the North Carolina location tag, with Louisiana coming in as a close second. You may find when searching through these librarians (as well as other parts of the collection) that some of these librarians cannot be accessed, such as Joan Coco’s interview and Carnell Clay, but don’t worry! You can always submit a request to receive a digital copy of the file and if you need some help submitting the request you can contact rlrepro@duke.edu.
There is much to be learned from the librarians within the collection. Much like the archivists, there are not many people that know specifically what librarians do. We often imagine them within libraries, finding and placing books on a shelf, but the interviews within the collection tell us more. Listeners learn not only about the different task that librarians did a various job, the condition of public schools during the time of segregation, and their lives outside of librarianship.
For example, Georgia Sutton who was born in New Bern, North Carolina in 1929 became what was known as a teacher librarian. She attended North Carolina College in Durham (later known as North Carolina Central) because it was one of the only Black colleges that offered a degree in Library Science. This was also the case for Arabelle Bryant who grew up in a small neighborhood not far from Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Bullock explains that when she attended the school in the early 40s, that the Library Science degree was only offered as a minor and thus those who wanted to graduate with it had to choose another major.
Part 1 43:35 “…I majored in Mathematics and minored in Library Science, which was kind of an odd combination because usually it was English or Social Studies or something like that as a major, but I didn’t want either one of those. What I really wanted to do was—my sister was a Home Economics teacher and I wanted to major in Home Economics and minor Library Science, but you couldn’t do that. So, I had to choose. I chose Mathematics. So, my major was really in mathematics. And later they did eventually break up to a full library science program. So I had to go back summers and get my degree in Library Science” (Arabelle Bulluck Bryant)
Condescendingly, after graduating Bryant went to New Bern to work within the school system and Sutton landed her first job in Quitman, Georgia. Instead of going back home, Sutton decided to go to Georgia because they paid year-round, versus in North Carolina where they only paid 9 months out of the year.
Sutton and Bryant both speak about the conditions of public schools during their tenure as teacher librarians. Bryant in New Bern mentions that the newspapers were “all showing how bad the white schools were, old, run-down toilets and things… And so, you know if the whites were like that, imagine what the Black schools were like.” She began teaching at West Street, the only public school as a librarian and math teacher, teaching only math during her first year. She did not work in the library until the current librarian left the school a year later. This is because in North Carolina, as well as all over the south, many schools did not hire full time librarians. Sutton, who also taught math was working during the time of the Brown vs. Board of Education decision. And while she could not remember her feelings toward the decision, she did look forward to Black students being “exposed to all the things that White children were exposed to because under segregation, especially in the South, there was a tremendous difference in how the schools were set up or the materials that were used or given.” Sutton would also teach world history and social studies, speaking to the challenges of being able to teach her children history that pertained to their own heritage. When Rhonda Mawhood, one of the interviewers asked Georgia Sutton whether she was able to teach her students Black history, Sutton answered bluntly:
Part 38:54 “The only way you were going to would do that, you’d have to sneak that in Now. It was just never included in textbooks. Some teachers did it. It was a part of their curriculum but not of the schools… I do know something about my cultural heritage and whatever. But the children today know very little. I will tell you why. For one thing, the White teachers are not knowledgeable of African-American history and they don’t want to be. The majority of them could care less about a Black child’s heritage and he’s being cheated. I feel very strongly about that.” (Georgia Sutton)
And while there are a lot of similarities between the two librarians, one component that sticks out from Sutton’s interview, that was not found in Bryant’s was her mentioning the reason she wanted to become a librarian.
Part 2 34:24: “You must remember there were not many avenues open to us. Teaching was one of them. In fact, it was the main one. As I told you, it was prestigious to be a teacher in the community. You were looked up to. Then too, to tell you the truth, I really liked children. I always have liked to read, and that’s why I went into library science. It was that book thing that got me involved in that, and I still read a great deal” (Georgia Sutton)
Similarly, Sandra Moye Wilson [Sandra Wilson interview record, 1994 June 09 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository, a Durham native born in 1945, spoke about her love for books and the joy that she found at the library. While she does not plainly state this is what led her into the librarianship, she does state that she knew she was an adult at the age of 10 because “I could take my other brothers and sister and walk them to the library by myself.” Wilson was listed as a librarian but does not talk much about her career. Yet, she does mention that she was active in the NAACP at an early age, helping with voter registration and protests.
Anne McKay Ducan [Anne Duncan interview recording, 1993 June 02 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository] also has a shorter interview and mentions she too participated in organizations outside of her profession. She was a member of Delta Sigma Theta and a part of the Hampton Alumni Association. She graduated from Hampton University in 1934, double majoring in English, after attending a high school in Fayetteville, North Carolina where she was born.
2:46 “Hampton was a beacon during that time. There seemed to be two choices among the young people who grew up in Fayetteville, Howard University and Hampton Institute. And if you didn’t make it to either one of those, then you were more than apt to remain at home and go Fayetteville State. It was called State Normal then. It’s now Fayetteville University.” (Anne Mackay Ducan)
Ducan would attend college at the age of fifteen, graduating at the age of nineteen. She worked as a teacher for about ten years and then obtained another bachelor’s degree, this time in Library Science from Atlanta. Within her career she would serve as a librarian at the Avery Institute in Charleston, SC and then receive her Master’s in Library Science from Catholic University in Washington. She would work at North Carolina Central’s law library for 25 years, where she enjoyed her occupation the most.
Sadie Hughley slides: On the steps of Stanford Warren Library (segregated), Durham, N.C.: Mrs. Hughley, left rear, Mrs. Merrick, right rear, 1940s [https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/btvst007021001
She began working at the Standofrd Warren Library in the mid-40s and from her interview you can tell that she truly enjoyed her time there. She recalled that there was a public school that was down the block from library, but it was important that they as librarians reached the parents first in order to get to the children, a common sentiment within many of these interviews that involve education.
Part 2 22:40 “But the children would come from school and the parents who were interested in helping their children, they knew that the library was the first stopping place. And we did a library, very, very wonderful things with the children…: I would take them in and develop programs for the children there— Then we decided that we should give the Children’s Library a name. And I put on a contest of the children to come up with things that they would like for their library to be. And one little girl came up with Key Corner, which was perfect. And she won first prize. So, it’s still the children’s library there for the children’s room. It’s called Key Corner.”
A group of children gather around a librarian at the desk in the Key Korner. [https://durhamcountylibrary.org/exhibits/slw/archive/sw252.php]
She would continue working at the Stanford Warren Library for eleven years and then transition over to North Carolina Central, gaining her master’s degree in Library Science at the institution and working there for twenty-one years. She would work at the library within administration but mentions that she really enjoyed working with the children at the public library.
Part 2 19:57 “I enjoyed working with children very much. I really did. But I liked books and it meant that getting into more academic part of it was good for me.”
Hughley would work at North Carolina Central for twenty-one years. In that time, she would serve as the President of the Durham Library Association, serve on the National Board of Women’s International, she was a member of the Democratic National Committee and an honorary board member of the United Nations board of directors for the Orange Counties.
These are just a few of the librarians whose impactful stories can be found within the Behind the Veil Collection. Their legacies have shaped the history of Black librarianship and also serve as inspiration for future and present-day librarians. Here at the John Hope Franklin Research Center, we encourage you to delve deeper into this rich collection, where each narrative reflects a journey of resilience and historical relevance!
Sadie Hughley, seated at her desk, assists a young boy in checking out books. [https://durhamcountylibrary.org/exhibits/slw/archive/sw245.php]
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Outreach and Research Associate, John Hope Franklin Research Center
Behind the Veil: American Archives Month and the Celebration of Libraries
While the first thing that may come to people’s mind about the month of October is Halloween, pumpkin spice, and the beginning of the holiday season. But the month of October is also American Archives Month. Meant to remind and celebrate the importance of archives and those who protect them, American Archives Month is also the time to give a big thank you to those who work hard to protect, enhance, and make the archives accessible to everyone.
And since the Behind the Veil collection is considered a digital archive, its only right to highlight the only archivist within the collection. Florence Borders, born 1924 (in New Iberia, LA) is not just any oral history interview. Florence Edwards Borders was an influential black archivist that left a legacy not only through her papers but also through her recorded oral history which can be found here: https://repository.duke.edu/dc/behindtheveil/f0174cbd-e7f1-418d-89dc-1134add4debc
Image of Florence Borders found at https://obits.nola.com/us/obituaries/nola/name/florence-borders-obituary?id=1741328
Born Florence Edwards, Borders oral history is rich with details about her family as they were living in New Orleans during a time of segregation. Har father, a teacher instilled a love for education within all of his children, regardless of the discrimination going on around them. After striving to obtain his own education, he began to focus on making sure his children received a decent education while learning to navigate through the period of Jim Crow segregation.
Part 1 8:30 “So, I had learned to read early. And as I would be going to Drive Street with my father…. I would spell out words. And one word that I kept seeing was C-O-L-O-R-E-D. And I was trying to sound out the word, and I said, “Colored. What is Colored?” He told me, “That’s Colored, and it means you.” And I was looking at things that were marked for my use that looked different from things that had W-H-I-T-E over them, and I always wanted to know why these things didn’t look as nice, why the lunch counter in the ten cent store that had Colored on it was at the back and were smaller and just less attractive in general…And so my father was trying to help me understand the kind of society in which I had to live. And he just told me that no matter what labels other people placed on me, I determined what I was. And so, I didn’t really fret a great deal about going to public schools that didn’t have enough textbooks and that did not want to let us have new ones at any rate. I got to think that the people who made these decisions were kind of stupid…”
Her love for reading and books would increase because of her father. He would collect books while he was in college and afterward begin to subscribe to Black papers and magazines. She mentions that while they did not have a library to hold all the materials, her father would continue to grow their collection. And while the materials and lessons that she received from the public school were not up to standard, her father would continue to make sure she had new books every school year. Perhaps it was during this time in her life that Borders was influenced the most to pursue a career in librarianship.
She would attend the historic McDonogh 35, the first and only four-year public high school for African Americans during that time, during her 10th and 11th grade years. After graduation she would start college at her father’s alma mater, Southern University in Baton Rouge. At the beginning of World War II, she would start her freshman year. She recalls listening to the radio to hear about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This would affect the college experience for many students as many of the young men begin to start preparing to leave for war. “A lot of the girls cried, sometimes because the young men involved were tehri boyfriends… This was a goodbye, and our paths might never cross again. So instead of all the joy that I had expected for my freshman year of college, within a few more weeks, the country was at war.” (Part 3 1:34)
Another effect of the war was the marriage of many of the female college grads to their male classmates as they returned from the war and re-enrolled in school under the G.I. Bill. An increase of students on college campuses also meant that that were a need for more staff. And so, after finishing library school, with a slew of jobs that needed filling in front of her, Borders, decided to work at Bethune Cookman College. It was here that she met and married her husband, James. B. Borders III, a G.I. that was returning to gain his education as well.
But Borders was not concerned about the returning G.I.s when it came to picking where she would work.
Part 3 13:15 “So I could have had my pick of jobs just about because librarians were very much in demand. And so, I chose to go to Bethune Cookman College because of Mrs. Bethune. I looked forward to meeting her, and I hoped that I was going to meet Zora Neale Hurston, who had once been employed on the campus. And I did not know that she was no longer employed there, so about the first thing I wanted to know when dawn came—I arrived in the middle of the night—where is Zora Neale Hurston?”
This would only be one of the many institutions that Borders would share her expertise with. She would serve as a catalog librarian at Tennessee State University and then a move to Grambling State University after the sudden death of her husband. The longest part of her career was spent at the Amistad Research Center where she was first considered an archivist. It was here that Borders would leave a lasting impression by constantly championing and uncovering the lives of Black women within the collection. She would retire from the Amistad in 1989.
Borders would publish papers and articles that would highlight the lives of Black women in Louisiana and their legacies. She would also create a group called the Chicory Society in 1983 that would continue to honor the contributions of African American in Louisiana. She would consult on documentaries and televisions programs. “She appeared in Liberty Street Blues, a documentary movie about the history of New Orleans jazz, and worked as a researcher for The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow. The late filmmaker Marlon Riggs drew on her expertise for his documentary, Black Is, Black Ain’t, and she was consulted for the film House Divided…” (Source)
And even as she continuously worked within her passion as a researcher, writer and archivist, she was still dedicated to the people around her, wanting to bring more young black professionals into her field.
Part 4 9:39“Now I’m hoping that I can influence some of out students to become archivist because there are not that many African American archivists. We have a little what we call third world archivist within the Society of American archivist and I’d like to see more of our young people come into the pression. I’m hoping that Ill influence a couple of kids from SUNO to choose that as profession”
The Black Librarians Project [https://lhrt.news/honoring-black-women-librarians/]
“Florence E. Borders: Archivist, Librarian, and Scholar (1924-2018)” [https://lhrt.news/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/borders-florence-e.docx.pdf]
Neal, Kathryn M. “Borders on Excellence: Florence Borders Carves Out Career in Libraries and Archives.” Archives & Archivists of Color Newsletter 12, no. 1 (Spring 1998). [https://files.archivists.org/groups/aac/newsletter/AACv12n1.pdf]
School is back in session and we at the John Hope Franklin Research Center would like to welcome back all the students! For September, we want to focus on the place that so many students, academics, and residents call home, Durham, North Carolina.
You cannot talk about the history of black business without mentioning the legacy of Black Wall Streets. The collective effort of African Americans through business ownership and the growth of communities through increased financial means was a product of Jim Crow and segregation throughout the South. After the Civil War, while still barred from opportunities of their white counterparts, African Americans took advantage of their new status as citizens by taking matters into their own hands and creating the American dream for themselves.
In the late 19th, early 20th century places like the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the Auburn Historic district in Atlanta, Georgia, Farish Street in Jackson Mississippi, and West Ninth Street in Little Rock, Arkansas were filled with insurance agencies, banks, barber shops and other black owned businesses. More importantly they served as cultural hubs that fostered community collectiveness through churches, clubs and organizations, and schools.
And because we are located in the beautiful and historic city of Durham, it is only right to discuss the history of Black Wall Street that prospered in the Hayti District, once located between Pettigrew and Fayetteville Streets. This area was filled with black business and neighborhoods that were the homes of many prominent African Americans figures. Some of the people found within the Behind the Veil Collection were a part of this historic time, and speak in detail about their lives and the lives of others around them. This week, we learn about these people.
“When Harlem in New York City became the Mecca of the “New Negro” and the center of the Negro Renaissance, the capital of the black bourgeoisie was Durham, North Carolina,” Black Bourgeoisie by E. Franklin Frazier
After W.E.B. DuBois visited Durham in 1912 he wrote “Three men began the economic building of black Durham: a minister with college training, a physician with professional training, and a barber who saved his money.”( The Legacy of Durham’s Black Wall Street | Discover Durham) The three men that DuBois was referencing was Aaron M. Moore, John H. Merrick, and Charles C. Spaulding. Also known as “Triumvirate,” together they grew the first black business that would create the bridge for the creation of other businesses: the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company. Started in 1898 (and moving to Parish Street in 1904) NC Mutual, as it is commonly known, would provide investment opportunities, small business loans, and life insurance. It was the first black owned insurance company in the state and the largest in the country, servicing African Americans in not only North Carolina, but later states throughout the south.
An ad for the North Carolina Mutual and Provident Association, from the Seeman’s Durham North Carolina Directory, 1911-1912. Photo Source: https://lib.digitalnc.org/record/25144?ln=en
We learn this by listening to the oral history of William (Bill) Alexander Clement [William Clement interview recording, 1993 May 28 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository]. While Clement was born in South Carolina, his father, Arthur was a North Carolina native. And after Arthur graduated from Johnson C. Smith in 1905, he began working for NC Mutual, establishing an office in Charleston. While in college, Bill knew that he wanted to go into business, and as soon as he graduated, he began working at NC Mutual. He was invited by the agency director to come to Durham and after training for six weeks, he was sent to Memphis to start working for $12.50 a week.
Part 1 31:02 “Things were pretty rough. But $12.50 a week was more than what the teachers were getting. The teachers in South Carolina and Tennessee and mostly Georgia were earning about $37.50 a month. $37.50 a month. And to ger $12.50 a week, that was the equivalent of almost $50 a month.”
NC Mutual was the only job that Clement held in his entire life. Working in South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, Clement would get to know CC Spaulding, Ed Merrick (the son of John Merrick) and Mr. John Hervey Wheeler. He would serve as the region supervisor, assisting director and agency director before named executive vice president in 1975 and retiring in 1978.
Photo of William Clement from his obituary. Photo Source: https://dlg.usg.edu/record/aarl_afpc_clementwilliamalexander20010401
Joseph C. Hargett. https://www.hargettfuneralserviceinc.com/who-we-are
Bynum’s interview is filled with Durham’s black business history as she details businesses and their locations. And because of where she lived and her parent’s involvement within the community, she grew up knowing some of the most influential leaders of Black Wall Street like “Triumvirate”, because “Most of them lived right up Fayetteville Street.”
Part 1 11:36 “As I said, the library was on the corner of Pedigree Street and Fayetteville Street across from it was Mr. John Merrick’s house. Then you had another house next to that, then was the street where White Rock Baptist Church set on the corner. That was on the right-hand side of the street coming down on the other side of the street. Dr. Moore’s home. And then you had businesses, drug store, Pearson’s Drug Store. Ed Green’s grocery store…Then there was cafeteria. Then on the corner was St. Joseph’s Church and next to St. Joseph’s church was the parsonage. Next to that was WG Pearson…FK Watkins, who was your first Black movie house. And coming down on this side of the street from up there, [indistinct 00:15:52] library. Then there were homes until you got those section you called—That’s what’s what you call Haiti. When they talk about Hayti. And that in there was where you had a theater on this side the street, the Southern Fidelity started on that side the street and coming.”
Along with the history of Durham’s Black Wall Street, listeners also learn about Bynum’s strong opinions about working at the funeral home. She states multiple times that she did not want to have a career in funeral services, regardless of her family legacy. But her loyalty to her father was stronger and she became the first Black women embalmer in the state and the first women president for the Funeral Directors & Morticians Association of North Carolina. She would also end up working at North Carolina Mutual and then at the Merrick Moore School and Lincoln Hospital.
Photo of Scarborough Family members https://www.scarboroughhargettcelebration.com/who-we-are/history-and-staff
These two oral histories are just a tip of the iceberg. Within the collection you can also learn about Nathaniel White [Nathaniel White interview recording, 1995 February 17 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository}, printing service owner whose business also sat on Parrish Street, Alexander Rivera [Alexander Rivera interview recording, 1995 June 02 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository ] a journalist approached by Dr. James E. Shepard to start and organize a news bureau at North Carolina College (later North Carolina Central) because his father was his dentist, and many others. With fifty oral histories categorized under the Durham location tag and over one hundred within North Carolina, who knows the stories that one may find that mention Durham’s Black Wall Street!
We hope you’ve enjoyed “Digging Through the Tapes: Welcome Back to Durham” and that you continue to take the time to learn more about the history and legacy of the city you can call home!
Post contributed by Leah M. Kerr, Our Story, Our Terms Project Archivist
DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 2024
TIME: 11:30-1 ET, 1:30-3 ET, 3:30-5 ET
LOCATION: Zoom webinars (please register to receive links)
Please join Our Story, Our Terms (OSOT) Project Archivist, Leah M. Kerr and her colleagues explore the idea of “(re)Imaging” as the process of updating, recreating, and adding to the representation of Black activists and artists in the predominately white libraries and archives. As if a switch has been flipped, more artists are turning to primary source images for use in their expressions of their lives. More movement activists are recognizing the need to document themselves for their own records, and to provide truth to future historians. These changes also require archivists to accurately describe, arrange, and gather the materials of previously underrepresented communities.
In three conversations, Black activists, artists and archivists gather to discuss the thoughts behind capturing primary sources as art; the need to correctly document actions in movement work; and the steady change of recognizing the need for archives to reexamine traditionally white patriarchal and hierarchical practices that have limited the thoughts on the collection and availability of Blackness in special collections.
Image: (noun) a physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible.
Order of Conversations –
Conversation 1 (11:30am-1:00pm ET ): Say it Loud – Telling Our Stories- explores evolving methods of capturing, interpreting, and documenting Black stories.
Conversation 2 (1:30pm-3:00pm ET): Fight the Power – New Memory Keeping – offers discussions around the recognition of Memory Work, its applications, and implications for strengthening Black representation.
Conversation 3 (3:30pm-5pm ET): Alright – Strengthening the Black involvement in Archives – making Black memory work a movement rather than a moment requires community education, diversifying staff in libraries and archives, and simplifying methods of institutional documentation. But how do we make these things happen?
Post Contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Outreach and Research Associate
Digging Through the Tapes: Celebrating Black Business Month in August.
While we celebrate Black History month in February, August also holds a number of African American commemorations and celebrations that are recognized. Marcus Garvey Day is celebrated on August 17th. Nat Turner’s Revolt and the beginning of the Haitian Revolution also happened within the month of August. Black August, a month-long commemoration that focuses on the lives and works of political prisoners and freedom fighters is meant to be a time of educating and reflecting on the fight for black liberation and those who have risked their lives for it.
August is also Black Business Month. Started in 2004, the month is meant to recognize and support Black entrepreneurs and their businesses. And while you may have taken the time to buy from your favorite black business and support your brother/sister/ cousin/ friend who considers their selves an entrepreneur, we at the John Hope Franklin Center encourage you to take it a step further by learning about some of the black businesses that are mentioned within the Behind the Veil digital collection!
There is an array of oral histories within the collection that mention or focus on Black businesses within the South during Jim Crow. To start there are two oral histories that fall under the occupation of being “self-employed”. One of them belonging to Roosevelt Cuffie [Roosevelt Cuffie interview recording, 1994 June 29 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository] of Sylvester, GA. The other from Charles Gratton [Charles Gratton interview recording, 1994 June 22 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository] of Birmingham, AL who became a business owner in 1957/58, operating the Green Acres Café. Green Acres Café is now its own franchise, having multiple locations. It is ran by Charles Gratton’s son, Greg Gratton and has received the 5 Star Business Award, given by the Mayor of Birmingham. You can learn more about its history here: https://www.greenacrescafe.org/
When listening to many of the other interviews, you will notice that the interviewers often ask about person’s family history. Those interviewed often going into detail about the lives of their parents, grandparents, and as far back as their great grandparents. And while the person being interviewed may not be a business owner or entrepreneur, you may find that perhaps one of their elders were.
York Garrett [York Garrett interview recording, 1993 June 03 / Behind the Veil / Duke Digital Repository], born in Princeville, NC, the oldest black town within North Carolina, recalls his father owning and operating a grocery store called “Plain and Fancy” in Tarboro, NC. Garrett tells a fascinating story of how this “Black and White” store came into the possession of his father and the relationship that his father had with the previous white owners.
By the time he was born, his father had been owning the store for a few years. His experience in the store would influence his decision to be a store owner himself.
Part 1 37:26 “So after I came back home, I asked Pa, I said, “What you going to do?” I said, “Well, only thing I can see is you train me, Father. If I can get in the pharmaceutical school, I can be a druggist and I could do—All the thing you teach me to selling and all the stuff like that, that would be my field. Only thing about it, it’ll be professional.” So he said, “If that’s what you want to do, do it.” So instead of entering dental school or Howard Medical school, which I didn’t want to do, into Howard’s Pharmaceutical School. And I graduated and came out of school, passed the board. My father was still in business in this store, in Tarboro on Main Street. And saved some money and all of the trouble of it. And he had enough money to buy things that I needed, and I opened my first store. Brand new store, everything custom built, in Edgecombe County, in Tarboro. That was in 19 something. It was 1920. I finished Howard in ’20, in pharmacy, and I took the board that year. It took me a year to build the furniture and everything. The new store, I was going to put up in Tarboro. And I opened my first store May the 2nd, 1921.”
Garrett’s Drug Store was the only Black drugstore in Tarboro at the time and Garrett talks about it with much pride. His oral history not only details a unique personal history within eastern North Carolina, but also stretches into historic Hayti in Durham.
Garrett’s oral history as well as the many others that fall into the category of business owners, even those people who experienced working within a black owned business, share a since of pride and accomplishment that just like those today will pass down to others. Not even Jim Crow could stop the genius and persistence of black ingenuity. Which is why, for Black Business month, we challenge all readers and listeners to not only “buy black” but to also learn about the struggles, success, and determination of black businessmen and women throughout South.
Post contributed by Mattison Bond, Project Research and Outreach Associate
We at the John Hope Franklin Research Center are back again with another blog post to highlight some of the unique oral histories that can be found in the Behind the Veil Digital Collection. Last week’s post featured interviews from folks from Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, and South Carolina. This week, we take a deeper look into the collection by focusing on the interesting items that can be found from Tennessee and Virginia.
While the Tennessee location filter contains over one hundred items, it is also home of a very unique occupation within the collection. There are three baseball players mentioned in the collection and pictures of baseball teams from different universities. Two of the oral histories were recorded in Tennessee and the other was in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Today we will focus on the oral history of Joseph Burt Scott, World War II veteran, left hander, and major league baseball player.
Scott was born and raised in North Memphis to a single mother and four other siblings (one passing in infancy). He attended Corns Avenue School and enjoyed learning and working for what he wanted. He speaks highly of the people in his life throughout the interview. Mentioning the dedication of his mother keeping his siblings within the church, and the refined principle and teachers that molded much of his early life.
At an early age he loved baseball and began playing in Memphis as a child. When moving to Chicago to attend high school, he would continue to play, joining little leagues and amateur leagues within the city. He would join the service in 1942 and play on the service team, being the only black player. Scott seems unphased by this and other instances dealing with race throughout the whole interview. He recalls a time when sitting in a restaurant with his teammates, the waitress and manager refusing to serve him, until his lieutenant threatens to make the whole team leave the restaurant. He does not press the issue, saying that he would “look for further adventures” elsewhere if need be. His upbringing and early experiences instilled in him the ability to effortlessly brush off any of the negative products of Jim Crow and persist with determination.
Part 1 16:39 “And I’ve had a lot of words said that a lot of people wouldn’t like, but in my coming up through Chicago little leagues, my coach would always say, “Let it go in one ear and out the other.” And I did that all the way through my career. I never paid any attention to the bad talk about race. And I enjoyed listening to it because I would be laughing at it. As my coach would say, “Let your bat do the talking and your legs do the running,” and that’s what I did.”
Joseph Scott Profile from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum https://nlbemuseum.com/history/players/scottj.html
Scott would go on to play for many other major professional teams such as the New York Black Yankees, the Pittsburgh Crawford, and Chicago American Giants, and of course the Memphis Red Soxs. There would be times where Scotts would be paid for playing, and other times he would just play for fun because of his love for the sport. He would also play for the Zulu Giants, a team created by Abe Saperstein, owner of the Harlem Globetrotters.
Separate accommodations were a well-known product of the Jim Crow era as it came to many entertainment and sports teams. Scott speaks about it, but never seems discouraged by the discrimination that he faced. Even when he is asked about race relations while working at Teamsters, a union trucking job he worked after getting injured during his baseball career, Scott says this:
Part 1 37:57 “Oh, what I can say, race is always going to be a problem in the world, in the entire world. It’s a culture of an animal, just like we are animals, just like a cat and a dog. They square with each other. But I don’t have no complex, like a lot of folks do. I don’t envy any race. I don’t. I will only tell you that the way I come up, not to beg and not to borrow. I don’t like that. I like to work for what I want and I like to help people. I’ve always been a type of guy that will give out a lending hand, although I may get burned later on by doing it, which I have over the years, but I don’t look back. I still look ahead”
Virginia has a total of 63 oral histories, with a majority of teacher within this part of the collection, most who have multiple occupations. Evelyn Peevy is in some ways no different.
Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy 1923- 2017, Obituary from Legacy.com https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pilotonline/name/evelyn-peevy-obituary?id=17672435
Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy, born in 1923 was a guidance counselor, civil rights leader, and writer in Norfolk Virginia. She grew up in a well to do neighborhood as the daughter of a mother and father that owned two businesses. Her home doubled as a place to live and a commissary that her parents ran. She recalls the rest of childhood, being the seventh among fifteen children and the responsibilities that she had
6:59 “: I cooked. I sewed. I remember I had to sew my brothers’—If they lost buttons on their shirt, it was my job to sew them on because I was next to the oldest girl. Since the oldest one was gone, I did a lot of cooking and sewing, plus working in the store. I got my lessons while I was working in the store. I always felt that my mother had a heavy load, and I wanted to do all I could to help her. So, some of my brothers and sisters called me Miss Goody-Two-Shoe.”
She, along with all of her sisters, graduated from the Hampton Institute. She recalls the culture of Hampton women that was taught to her by the dean of women, having “teas on Sunday afternoon,” not smoking or wearing pants and wearing gloves and hats when going to town to shop.
After graduating from the Hampton Institute majoring in English and minoring in social studies, Dr. Peevy married her first husband. The marriage was unsuccessful and after going back to work, she was given the opportunity to study at Virginia State in counseling. Peevy attended a few different universities, deepening her education. But the running away of her two children served as the largest lesson of her life during this time.
13:35 “They were with my sister in Hampton. They said my sister was pregnant, and she was evil to them. So, the two younger children, they were about 10 and 12, got the little money that I was sending them for spending change, got on their bicycles, went to the grocery store in Hampton, bought luncheon meat and bread, and went to the recreation playground and played all day. My sister finally found them, whipped them profusely, and made them sit down and write me and tell me what they had done. I got that letter, and I cried. I said, “Here I am out here in California trying to learn what to do to help other people, and my own children are suffering.” I never left them again. I started taking them with me to all of the regional conferences and all of the national conventions, because I said it wasn’t worth it if I lose my own children.”
The rest of Dr. Peevy’s oral history details her time within the Iota Phi Lamba Sorority, serving as president for a time. When asked about the racism that she experienced in her life, Dr. Peevy admits that for her it was “like living in a colorless world”. But when she was the head of the guidance department during the time of integration, she started to noticed the effects of racism.
16:22“They sent two women over from North Side Junior High School who were counselors there. They didn’t want to come, and they didn’t want to work under a Black. I had a time with them because they were used to sitting in the lounge reading the paper. What I’d do is go through the lounge to go to the bathroom, and they were saying, “Don’t come over here checking on me.” I said, “I don’t have time to check on you. I had to use the restroom.” You see, that was when I began to realize this thing, this racism is here. Here are these ladies going to come to this Black junior high school and sit around, read the paper or sit in the lounge and could care less about counseling our children.”
While she does not talk about it, she was also the first African American to be appointed to the Norfolk Electoral Board and also served s the Chair of the Advisory Board for Tidewater Community College. She also wrote a weekly column for The New Journal and Guide, a weekly newspaper based in Norfolk Virginia.
Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy passed in 2017 and is remembered for her work within the schools she served, her sorority, and her community.
“In Loving Memory of Alpha Chi’s White Rose Queen Soror Dr. Evelyn Sears Peevy” https://iotaalphachi.org/honoring-leadership
We have come to the end of part of the series that highlights interesting oral histories that can be found under the many location filters that are listed within the collection. But no fear!! We will be back with more interesting oral histories!
If you have been enjoying the series let us know in the comment section below. We would love to hear from you!
Dispatches from the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Duke University
