Black History

Each day in February we will take a moment to highlight Black leaders, innovators, and change-makers across our great state. These individuals have a connection with North Carolina and have made an impact reaching far beyond the borders of our state through their talent, passion, and perseverance.


Celebrating Black History - Nina Simone
Nina Simone was born as Eunice Kathleen Waymon on February 21, 1933, in Tryon, NC. She was a singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, composer, and civil rights activist who often used her entertainment platform to promote civil rights. Nina is featured on a mural in her hometown that is part of the NC Musicians Mural Trail.

Celebrating Black History - Hiram Rhodes Revels
Hiram Rhodes Revels became the first African American senator in 1870. He was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was elected to the United States Senate to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871. Hiram Rhodes Revels was the first African American to serve in either chamber of the U.S. Congress.

Celebrating Black History - Thomas Sowell
Thomas Sowell is a social theorist, author, and economist born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1930. He has played a prominent role working as a faculty member at Cornell University, Amherst College and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He is a Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution and a political commentator.

Celebrating Black History - Chris Paul
Chris Paul is a professional NBA basketball player from Winston-Salem, NC. He played for Wake Forest University for two years and is currently the NBA point guard for the Golden State Warriors. He is regarded as one of the greatest point guards of all time and he established a foundation to support marginalized students and community organizations to support leadership development.

Celebrating Black History - John Coltrane
John Coltrane was a legendary jazz saxophonist born in Hamlet, North Carolina in 1926. He spent the first seventeen years of his life in High Point and started playing the saxophone while he attended William Penn High School. After moving to Philadelphia, he collaborated with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Earl Bostic, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis. He is featured on a mural in Hamlet as part of the NC Musicians Mural Trail and a statue of him appears in downtown High Point.

Celebrating Black History - P.B. Young
P.B. (Plummer Bernard) Young Sr. was a newspaper editor and publisher who ran The Norfolk Journal and Guide which became the largest selling Black newspaper in the South. Before moving to Norfolk, VA, P.B. Young was born in Littleton, NC and assisted his father who was the founder and publisher of The True Reformer in their hometown.

Celebrating Black History - Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk was a jazz pianist and composer who was born in 1917 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. In 1920 his family moved to New York City where he began taking piano lessons and went on to be the second-most recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. He has been recognized as one of the most inventive pianists of any musical genre and is featured on the NC Musicians Mural Trail in Rocky Mount.

Celebrating Black History - Sugar Ray Leonard
Sugar Ray Leonard is a legendary sports icon, Olympic champion, and professional boxer. He was born in Wilmington, NC before moving to Washington, D.C., and later Maryland. Sugar Ray competed professionally between 1977 and 1997, winning world titles in five weight classes. He established The Sugar Ray Leonard Foundation to fund research and create awareness for childhood type 1 & 2 diabetes.

Celebrating Black History - Anna Julia Cooper
Anna Julia Cooper was a writer, sociologist, teacher, and activist who championed education for African Americans and women. She was born into slavery in 1858 in Raleigh, earned a BA and a master's degree in mathematics, and later went on to earn her doctorate from the University of Paris, Sorbonne, making her the fourth Black woman in the United States to earn a PhD. She established and co-founded several organizations to promote Black civil rights.

Celebrating Black History - Charlie Sifford
Charlie Sifford was born in Charlotte and later became the first African American to play on the PGA Tour. He was introduced to golf as a young teen when he worked as a caddie at the segregated Carolina Country Club. He was the first Black golfer to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame and in 2014, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Celebrating Black History - Sarah Boone
Sarah Boone was born near the town of New Bern in 1832. She was the daughter of enslaved parents. Using a network tied to the Underground Railroad, she migrated with her husband and children to Connecticut where she worked as a dressmaker. She created an ironing board that improved her work and applied for a patent making her one of the first African American women to earn a patent.

Celebrating Black History - Michael Jordan
Michael Jordan was born in Brooklyn, NY, but moved with his family to Wilmington, NC when he was a toddler. He played college basketball for three seasons with the UNC Tar Heels before becoming a professional basketball player for the Chicago Bulls, winning six NBA championships. He is a global cultural icon and businessman who provides funding for many philanthropic organizations including medical clinics in North Carolina.

Celebrating Black History - Dr. Darin Waters
Dr. Darin Waters is the Deputy Secretary of the Office of Archives and History at the NC Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. Originally from Asheville, he was an Associate Professor of History at UNCA and the Executive Director of UNCA’s Office of Community Engagement.

Celebrating Black History - Romare Bearden
Romare Bearden was an artist, author and songwriter born in Charlotte, NC in 1911. His family eventually settled in Harlem and he graduated from New York University. His early paintings often focused on scenes of the American South and much of his work were collages of photographs and painted paper depicting aspects of American black culture in a style derived from Cubism. He is considered one of the most important African American artists of the 20th century.

Celebrating Black History - Golden Frinks
Golden Frinks was a civil rights activist who brought early civil rights victories to North Carolina. At age nine, his family moved to Tabor City, NC, and at age sixteen he joined the US Navy. After moving to Edenton, he began the Edenton Movement, a series of protests and pickets in the early 1960’s to desegregate public locations that helped successfully desegregate the courthouse, library, and high school in Edenton. He earned the name “The Great Agitator” from his picketing methods and frequent arrests. Frinks served as a field secretary of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and worked closely with Dr. Martin Luther King to organize civil rights activities.

Celebrating Black History - Betty Davis
Betty Davis was born Betty Mabry in Durham, NC in 1945. She is a pioneer funk, soul and rock singer-songriter. She moved to New York City in the 1960s where she captivated jazz legend Miles Davis, whom she would later marry. In the early 1970s, Betty Davis embarked on her solo career and became a trailblazer for women artists in the music industry. You can see her featured on the NC Musicians Mural Trail in her hometown of Durham.

Celebrating Black History - Buck Leonard
Walter “Buck” Leonard was one of the best pure hitters to play in the Negro Leagues. He was born in 1907 in Rocky Mount, NC, played semi-pro baseball for the Rocky Mount Elks and Rocky Mount Black Swans, and went on be a key player with the Homestead Grays, who had some of the best Negro League teams of the 1930s and 1940s. Leonard wasn't able to get a high school diploma until the age of 52, because his hometown didn't have a high school that allowed education for African-Americans. Always an advocate for civil rights, he was an ambassador for Negro League baseball and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972.

Celebrating Black History - Moms Mabley
Loretta Mary Aiken was a stand-up comedian and performer known by her stage name, Jackie “Moms” Mabley. She was born in Brevard, NC and joined the vaudeville circuit at age 14. She became a regular performer at the Cotton Club, recorded multiple comedy albums and was the first female comedian to play the Apollo Theater.

Celebrating Black History - Dennis Robinson
Dennis Nelson Robinson was born in Brevard in 1942 and attended high school in Hendersonville before the schools were integrated in Brevard. At age 14, he joined the Tams, a rhythm and blues band that became popular at universities along the east coast. In Los Angeles he acquired the stage name “Mr. Excitement” and played bass guitar for the Ike and Tina Turner Revue. His entertainment career spanned decades in California and North Carolina.

Celebrating Black History - Crystal Fox
Crystal Fox is an actor and singer who was born in Tryon, NC, raised in Detroit for twelve years and grew up in Atlanta. She is best known for her work playing Luann Corbin in the series In the Heat of the Night and Hanna Young in The Have and the Have Nots. She is also the niece of famed singer Nina Simone.

Celebrating Black History - Brad Daugherty
Brad Daugherty is a former professional basketball player who played college basketball for the UNC Tar Heels and in the NBA with the Cleveland Cavaliers. He was born in Black Mountain, NC and led the Charles D. Owen High School Warhorses to the state finals. He was inducted into the NC Sports Hall of Fame and was a five-time NBA All Star.

Celebrating Black History - Pic & Bill
Charles Edward Pickens and Billy Mills were soul singers from North Carolina. Charles (Pic) grew up in the southside community of Asheville. Charles was a member of the band The Untils when he heard about a competitive group in nearby Brevard, NC called The Tams with William (Bill) Mills. Charles and William would come together to the soul group Pic and Bill. They recorded their first album for Smash Records and would record over 25 songs and music for commercials. In 1965 they were based in Fort Worth, Texas where they recorded many singles and an album, Thirty Minutes of Soul. Charles Pickens took part in the production of their eleven singles of the era as well as writing many of the songs. They went separate ways for other projects, but in 1987 the duo reunited under an Asheville label to release additional songs.

Celebrating Black History - Roberta Flack
Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain in 1937. The daughter of two pianists, Flack began playing piano at age 9 and later received a bachelor’s degree in music education from Howard University. Flack has won four Grammy awards and her album 1973 Killing Me Softly was certified double platinum. In 2009, she was inducted into the North Carolina Music Hall of Fame, and she is featured on the NC Musicians Mural Trail in her hometown of Black Mountain.

Celebrating Black History - Harthorne Wingo
Harthorne Wingo was born in Tryon, NC in 1947. He made history as a senior by being part of the first integrated class at Tryon High School. The Tryon High Tigers won the Foothills Conference regular season and tournament championships with Wingo. He played for a year at Friendship Junior College and moved to New York City where he signed with the New York Knicks. He played four seasons and won a league championship with the team in 1973.

Celebrating Black History - Shirley Hemphill
Shirley Hemphill was born in Asheville in 1947. She was a graduate of Stephens-Lee High School, and she worked at American Enka and an outpatient clinic of Mission Hospital before starting her comedy career. She caught the attention of Flip Wilson with her stand-up recordings in the 1970s and moved to Los Angeles where she was cast as Shirley Wilson on the sitcom “What’s Happening!!” She would later star in her own sitcom “One in a Million” and “What’s Happening Now!!”

Celebrating Black History - William Barber
Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II is minister, professor and social activist who moved to Washington County, NC as a child with his parents who participated in the desegregation of the public school system. He received his bachelor's degree in political science from NCCU, a Master of Divinity degree from Duke University in 1989, and a doctorate from Drew University with a concentration in public policy and pastoral care in 2003. Later he served as president of the North Carolina NAACP and has led the Moral Movement with marches and protests to fight injustice.

Celebrating Black History - Elizabeth Cotten
Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten was born in Chapel Hill in 1893. She taught herself to sing and play the guitar and left an profound mark on the folk music genre with her unique style and fingerpicking technique. At a young age, Libba learned to play her brother's guitar, but she played it upside-down and left-handed, which created a distinct sound that became her trademark. Her musical talent remained unknown until she was discovered by the Seeger family, in the late 1940s.

Celebrating Black History - Chuck Brown
Chuck Brown is known as the "Godfather of Go-Go" and pioneered a musical blend of Latin beats, African call-and-response chants, rhythm and blues, and jazz linked to the District of Columbia. The guitarist, bandleader and singer was born in Gaston, NC before moving to the nation’s capital. He formed a group called the Soul Searchers and earned further fame with his song and album titled “Bustin’ Loose.”

Celebrating Black History - Greensboro Four
On February 1, 1960, four black students (The Greensboro Four) from North Carolina A&T State University, staged a sit-in at the Woolworth store in Greensboro, NC. David Richmond of Greensboro, Franklin McCain of Union County, Ezell Blair Jr. (Jibreel Khazan) of Greensboro, and Joe McNeil of Wilmington, sat at the ‘white only’ counter of Woolworths and were refused service. Known as the Greensboro Four, they peacefully protested and inspired thousands of demonstrators including Hendersonville twins Frank and Harry Wilson Jr. who participated. Five and a half months after the sit-in began, local businesses agreed to serve African Americans alongside their white patrons.