Topics Related to Durham County

Governor. 1961-1965. World War II veteran, U.S. Senator, and Duke University president. His tomb 6/10 mile NE.

Black U.S. Army soldier shot nearby in 1944 for resisting Jim Crow laws on a bus. Aftermath of killing helped revitalize North Carolina’s NAACP.

Est. in 1922 by African Americans. Hosted many American Tennis Assoc. tournaments. Durham Committee on Negro Affairs org. here, 1935.

Educator & civil rights activist. Chair, Education Dept., N.C. College for Negroes, 1948-1963. Her grave is nearby.

Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities.

In the early decades of the 1900s, Durham acquired national reputation for entrepreneurship. Businesses owned by African Americans lined Parrish Street. Among them were N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Co. (moved to Parrish, 1906), led by John Merrick, Dr. Aaron Moore, & C. C. Spaulding, and Mechanics and Farmers Bank (1907), led by R. B. Fitzgerald and W. G. Pearson.

Lowes Grove credit union, first in South, formed to serve local farmers. Est. Dec. 9, 1915, on initiative of John Sprunt Hill.

Oldest public library in North Carolina supported by local taxpayers. In 1898 opened its doors at site 1/2 mile west.

Opened in 1980 as state-supported, residential high school. Campus was site of Watts Hospital (1909-1976), built by Geo. Washington Watts.

Black business leader. In 1898 he founded what is now N.C. Mutual Life Insurance Company. His grave is 85 yds. N.W.