Black History Month 2022: Exploring North Carolina's Black history landscape

Celebrated each February, Black History Month offers North Carolinians an opportunity to explore the rich and diverse contributions of Black residents past and present.

Black residents have shaped state politics and institutions, literary traditions, religious practice, and the lives of their fellow North Carolinians.

Here are 10 sites across the state that allow visitors to explore the historical impact that Black citizens have made on the state’s cultural and physical landscape, and the painful truths of that past too often left out of history books.

African American Heritage Tour, 203 S. Front St., New Bern

Tryon Palace’s African American Heritage Walking Tour explores the history and heritage of more than 20 historic locations around downtown New Bern. The city served as a haven for many African Americans during the early stages of the Civil War after Union forces occupied New Bern in 1862. The walking tour takes in historical homes, churches and businesses with rich legacies from Colonial times to the modern era, with sites of local sit-ins inspired by the Greensboro Woolworth sit-ins. Many of New Bern's houses and public buildings were built by African American craftsmen, while the city was also home to some of the oldest African American congregations in the Southeast.

Kinston Music Park, Spring Hill and South Queen Street, Kinston

Located in the Sugar Hill district where musicians including Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong once played, Kinston Music Park serves as a gathering place to celebrate the rich African American music of Eastern North Carolina. The signature element of the park is a 12-foot high, 23-foot wide sculpture with images of famous jazz, rhythm and blues, soul and gospel musicians from Kinston and surrounding communities. Intersecting glass panels feature historic photographs, vintage maps and original artwork that pay tribute to Kinston’s African American musical community.

Montford Point Marine Memorial, 900-928 Lejeune Blvd., Jacksonville

Approximately 20,000 Black recruits received training at Montford Point Camp during World War II after President Franklin Roosevelt established a presidential directive giving them an opportunity to be recruited into the Marine Corps. Due to segregation, the Black recruits were not sent to the traditional boot camps of Parris Island, South Carolina and San Diego, California, instead receiving basic training at Montford Point. The memorial is part of the Lejeune Memorial Gardens, which includes the Beirut Memorial, 9/11 Memorial Beam, Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Eagle, Globe and Anchor reflective pool.

Washington Waterfront Underground Railroad Museum, corner Of Main and Gladden Street, Washington

Housed in a caboose, the Underground Railroad Museum’s collection details the history of enslaved people in Washington and Beaufort Counties. The train car provides a home for the collection while also serving as a powerful reminder of the Underground Railroad, the network of people, Black as well as white, that offered shelter and aid to escaped slaves. The museum is designated by the National Parks Service’s “Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.”

Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture, 551 S. Tryon St., Charlotte

The Harvey Gantt Center for African American Arts and Culture serves as a destination to present, preserve and promote African American art, culture and history. Inside its four-story building, which references quilt designs from the Underground Railroad era and woven textile patterns from West Africa, the center continues a four-decades-long celebration of the cultural contributions of Africans and African Americans and serves as an epicenter for music, dance, theater, visual art, film, arts education programs, literature and community outreach.

Black Wall Street, Parrish Street, Durham

Situated in the center of Durham’s downtown district are historical markers that tell the story of what was once known as “Black Wall Street.” In the early decades of the 1900s, despite Jim Crow-era regulations across North Carolina, businesses owned by Black residents lined Parrish Street, including N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co. and Mechanics and Farmers Bank. Nationally recognized, the business district acquired the nickname “Black Wall Street.” The four-block area complemented the Hayti community just to the south, the principal residential district for black Durham residents.

Halifax Underground Railroad Trail, various locations, Halifax County

Halifax County received three state designations for National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom sites. The first site is located at 25 David St., Halifax. Markers tell the story of the “runaways” in wanted ads that ran in North Carolina papers. The second site is located in Weldon at River Falls Park, 100 Rockfish Drive. The site offers sweeping views of the Roanoke River and allows visitors to understand the dangers the river presented. The third site is located at the Roanoke Canal Museum and Trail, 15 Jackson St. Ext, Roanoke Rapids. This site explores how the Roanoke Navigation Company bought and sold slaves that helped build the canal and how the canal itself was used as an escape route for freedom seeking slaves.

Harriet Jacobs Trail, 108 N. Broad St., Edenton

Edenton native Harriet Jacobs escaped slavery and wrote one of the first narratives about the struggle for freedom by female slaves in the South. The autobiography documented her experiences as a slave in North Carolina during the antebellum period. Today, you can follow a self-guided tour of Edenton sites that relate to Jacobs’ life, or participate in guided tours offered periodically throughout the year.

International Civil Rights Center & Museum, 134 S. Elm St., Greensboro

The International Civil Rights Center & Museum is located in the heart of downtown Greensboro in the former F.W. Woolworth retail store – the site where, in 1960, four freshmen from N.C. A&T State University sat down at the “whites only” lunch counter and challenged the state’s segregation laws. The ICRCM brings history to life with permanent installations, exhibits, photography, artifacts, video re-enactments and interactive galleries.

Nina Simone Plaza, 60-74 S. Trade St., Tryon

The Eunice Waymon – Nina Simone Memorial Project honors the remarkable life and legacy of a native daughter who achieved international recognition for her formidable contribution to the musical arts and Civil Rights movement. Nina Simone Plaza honors its namesake with a sculpture that includes a bronze heart containing Simone's ashes welded to the interior of the figure's chest.

This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: From Nina Simone to Black Wall Street: Explore 10 NC historical landmarks