Exploring the History, Literature, and Culture of the Tar Heel State
“When it comes to actual crimes — real rapes — at the turn of the twentieth century, the record is full of silences. There seems not to have been any investigation into the alleged crime wave in eastern North Carolina at the end of the 19th century, even though supposed black crime furnished the rationale for a bloody attack on blacks in Wilmington and for subsequent disfranchisement….”
— From “Southern History Across the Color Line“ by Nell Irvin Painter (2002)
The week-long Southeast Championship Rodeo and World’s Greatest Wildwest Show was held at Charlotte Memorial Stadium in April 1948. Curiously, the autographs printed on the program cover belong not to the visiting rodeo stars but to the sponsoring Jaycees.
Among events: a donkey-riding contest for kids. “Center donkey is for the girls,” the program explains. “End donkey is for little white boys, and the donkey in front of the colored section is for the little colored boys….”
“From the first seeds planted in 1963 to its eventual completion in 1990, Interstate 40 would go from a nearly 20-year oversight to a statewide priority. The I-40 saga…. would place the state’s two port cities — Morehead City and Wilmington — into a decade-long competition in which only one could win….”
— From “To The Shore! – North Carolina’s Struggle to Build Interstate 40 to the Atlantic Coast” by Adam Prince at gribblenation.org (Aug. 14, 2016)
Did this distinctive if humble item spring from Robin Hayes’s campaign for Concord City Council? For N.C. House? For Congress? For governor?
Regardless, the Cannon Mills scion’s hortatory washcloth bears a Cannon Mills label (84 percent cotton, 16 percent polyester) — and even found its way to a booth at the mammoth antique mall now occupying the former Cannon-owned Gibson Mill in Concord.
“Some upcountry non-slaveholding whites had already become disillusioned fighting the slaveholders’ war.
“Alexander H. Jones of eastern North Carolina helped organize the 10,000-man Heroes of America, which laid an ‘underground railroad’ for White Unionists in Confederate territory to escape.
“‘The fact is,’ Jones wrote in a secret antiracist circular referring to the rich planters, that ‘these bombastic, highfalutin aristocratic fools have been in the habit of driving negroes and poor helpless white people until they think…. that they themselves are superior….”
— From “Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America” by Ibram X. Kendi (2016)
“Send 5 cents and we will mail you pre-paid, anywhere in the U.S., a 5-cent sack of ‘Bull’ Durham, a Book of cigarette papers, and this 14K gold plated ‘Bull’ Watch Charm, Free….
“We will also send you an illustrated booklet showing how to ‘roll your own’ cigarettes….”
— From a full-page ad in Popular Mechanics magazine (May 1914)
The chain was probably added by an early owner.
“There was no reckoning with the [News & Observer’s] role in the Wilmington coup until 2006, when Timothy B. Tyson, a historian at Duke University, authored a sixteen-page special section detailing the events. The editorial board also issued an apology….
“Without the News & Observer’s stories — and especially the cartoons — a hostile takeover would not have been possible. ‘You can’t underestimate the heat involved in these political cartoons,’ he said. ‘They were the cable news of their day. You didn’t even have to be literate to understand them.'”
— From “On Atonement: News outlets have apologized for past racism. That should only be the start.” by Alexandria Neason, Columbia Journalism Review (Jan. 28)
“The Raleigh Canteen House and Service Station… will cause thousands of soldiers to look back as long as they live to their one hour’s stay in Raleigh as being altogether different than any other experience they had on the way from home to France and from France back home. The Raleigh Canteen and Service Station is like an oasis in the desert; or the shadow of a great rock in a weary journey….”
— From “Raleigh was a welcome stop for WWI troop trains” in the News & Observer, July 21, 1918 (reprinted in Teresa Leonard’s Past Times column)
The Raleigh Canteen was oft-photographed, but I haven’t seen this image online.
“I will drop you a card to let you know that I am well….” the postcard writer tells his cousin in Greenview, Ill. “The Red Cross served us with aples, sigarettes & candy.”
Another postcard promoting the canteen.