Exploring the History, Literature, and Culture of the Tar Heel State
— Is adding diversity to the Capitol monument community “baldly racist, sexist, and classically Marxist”?
— Just how rare is that “rare” photo of two slave children found at a Charlotte yard sale?
— Will a forthcoming book of Salisbury photos include a well-known sign on N.C. 150?
“Even in maturity, long-legged (6 ft. 6 in.) Clarence E. McVey, 49, a carpenter of Graham, N.C. (pop. 5,000) could not forget the misery of his schooldays. He had grown so fast that he towered above all his classmates, was so gangling and awkward that he became the butt of their jokes. He swore that his five-year-old son David, already over four feet tall, would never have to suffer from the family curse of being ‘too big for his age.’
“He decided last fall to start David in school a year early, even though North Carolina law forbids pupils to enter before they are six. At first, no one was the wiser, and David became one of the best pupils in the first grade. Then one day someone told David’s dreadful secret.
“The teacher asked Clarence McVey to take David out of school. McVey flatly refused. A few weeks later, the county school board made the same request, but McVey still refused. Last week, when he ignored a formal order from North Carolina’s Tenth District Superior Court to keep David at home, he was hauled off to jail. Said McVey: ‘I’ll stay here and rot before I take little David out of school.’ This week, there he stayed — and David stayed in school.”
— From Time magazine, April 9, 1951
Two weeks later Time reported Judge Leo Carr’s decision: Since David had nearly finished the school year, he could stay on and be promoted with his class. But father McVey would have to pay a $150 fine or [serve] another 20 days in jail for contempt of court.
Time dropped the story at that point, but the Burlington Times News reported (hat tip to Lisa Kobrin at May Memorial Library) that McVey chose the 20 days.
On this day in 1941: Reacting to Charles Lindbergh’s opposition to United States involvement in the war against Germany, Charlotte City Council changes the name of Lindbergh Drive to Avon Terrace.
A property owner had complained to the city that “judging from the man’s stand in regard to his country, he does not deserve to have a street in Charlotte named for him.”
This image shows students enjoying the Kessing Pool shortly after its completion in 1943. Named for Commander Oliver Owen Kessing, the pool provided aquatic training for the Navy Pre-Flight School which trained pilots during WWII.
A recent email question led me to the discovery of a fascinating little book in our Vault Collection describing a visit to Heaven. Luzene Chipman, a Quaker from Guilford County, North Carolina, was “taken sick” in April 1877. After about two weeks she apparently passed into a coma and was believed to have died. According to her descendants she regained consciousness after she had been laid out for her wake. Chipman believed that she had indeed died and been taken to Heaven by an angel, who guided her through the gates and for a brief time showed her the New Jerusalem and its inhabitants. Eventually she was told that she must return to earth to bear witness to what she had seen. I can think of many books in our collection in which folks describe close encounters with death, but A Wonderful Revelation of Heaven is the only one I have seen giving a first hand account of the world to come.
This month, Documenting the American South highlights the complex and troubled history of North Carolina’s official policies governing the rights and disposition of its indigenous Native Americans.
Check it out at: Native Americans in North Carolina
Many of the original items can be found and used in the North Carolina Collection.
For a mouth-wateringly good read try the News & Observer‘s article on the 25 tasty dishes that define North Carolina, at least in terms of food. Barbecue, fried chicken, banana pudding, and pork chop sandwiches are all there. I particularly approved the authors’ plug for fried chicken gizzards which, along with fried chicken livers, you can’t hardly get no more. What a shame. I suppose this just goes to show that the real fun is coming up with a list of your own. What’s on your menu?
I’m happy to announce the availability of DigitalNC.org, the online home for materials published by the North Carolina Digital Heritage Center. The site is sure to be a treasure-trove of North Caroliniana and is a must-visit for regular readers of North Carolina Miscellany.
There are several projects available on the site now, including North Carolina College and University Yearbooks, Images of North Carolina, Digital Davie, Durham Urban Renewal Records, and Wilson County’s Greatest Generation: The Memories of the World War II Veterans of Wilson County. Visit often, as new materials are being added to all of these collections on a regular basis.
The North Carolina Digital Heritage Center is a new, statewide digitization and digital publishing program housed in the North Carolina Collection at UNC-Chapel Hill. The Center operates in conjunction with the State Library of North Carolina’s NC ECHO (North Carolina Exploring Cultural Heritage Online) project. It is supported by the State Library of North Carolina with funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act.
“Over the course of my career [as police chief in New York, Philadelphia and Miami, the lament I heard repeatedly from citizens was] ‘the only thing I really want is a cop on the beat, like the guy who patrolled the streets when I was growing up.’
“I found this lament was not of recent vintage…. My research [finally] took me to Hollywood, where I think I found our missing beat officer. His name was Officer McShane. He walked a foot beat in the 1945 movie ‘A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.’ Officer McShane knew the problems of the people on his beat intimately. He was around day and night, and he looked after the neighbors on his beat, including the family with the alcoholic father and exasperated wife and two adorable little girls. Eventually and predictably, the father dies from his affliction and Officer McShane is there to ease the widow’s pain….
“Yes, I found the beat officer, or should I say, I found the myth…. It is the job of every police officer and every police chief to help make the myth a reality, or at least make the ideal a goal.”
— From “Beat Cop to Top Cop” by John F. Timoney (2010)
Perfectly cast as McShane in the movie version of Betty Smith’s novel: Lloyd Nolan (no relation to the protagonistic Nolans).
Tip o’ the Miscellany mortarboard to delanceyplace.com
According to a recent article in the News and Observer, North Carolina now has a state horse. Called mustangs by the General Assembly but banker ponies in our clipping files, our new state horse has been around for quite a while on the Outer Banks. Many believe these smallish steeds descend from horses which escaped from Spanish explorers in the 16th century. They join a growing list of official state things. I wonder if there is a state blog?