Greensboro, North Carolina

Corinne Gregson

Local History Institutions:

“Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum.” NC Historic Sites. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://historicsites.nc.gov/all-sites/charlotte-hawkins-brown-museum.

  • Charlotte Hawkins Brown founded the Palmer Memorial Institute in 1902 near Greensboro for rural African American youth. It was a fully accredited school that received national recognition and that emphasized both academic and industrial education. This site is useful for learning about African American children and education in the early- to mid-twentieth century in Greensboro and the surrounding areas.

“Greensboro History Museum.” Visit the Greensboro History Museum in Downtown Greensboro NC. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://greensborohistory.org/.

  • The Greensboro History Museum is a free history museum in downtown Greensboro that hosts collections and exhibits related to Greensboro’s history. Current exhibits center on themes of democracy, WWI, Greensboro’s Asian American population, and Greensboro’s neighborhoods.

“Home.” The International Civil Rights Center & Museum. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://www.sitinmovement.org/.

  • The International Civil Rights Center and Museum is on the site of the former Woolworth’s store in which four NC A&T students staged a sit-in at the “whites only” counter beginning on February 1st, 1960. The museum focuses on this act of protest as well as other protests during the Civil Rights Movement across America. The museum is one of the top ten sites on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail and is an International Site of Conscience.

“Preservation Greensboro: Saving Greensboro’s Treasured Places.” Preservation Greensboro Incorporated. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://preservationgreensboro.org/.

  • Preservation Greensboro was established in 1966 to preserve Greensboro’s historic buildings and neighborhoods. They operate an architectural salvage warehouse to repurpose old building materials and they also operate the Blandwood Historic House Museum and Carriage House.

“Welcome to Terra Cotta.” Terra Cotta Heritage Foundation. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://terracottaheritage.org/.  

  • The Terra Cotta community was a company town built in 1886 for workers of the Pomona Terra Cotta Manufacturing Company which made terra cotta pipes, roof tiles, and chimney liners. The Terra Cotta community was primarily comprised of African American families and continued to develop until a factory explosion in 1962. The Terra Cotta Heritage Foundation produces oral histories and exhibits as a collaboration between the Foundation and UNCG Public History students.

Libraries and Collections:

 

“Greensboro Library.” Greensboro Public Library. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://library.greensboro-nc.gov/home.   

  • The Greensboro Public Library houses genealogy databases as well as Greensboro population statistics and other government records.

Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Collection. Bennett College. Gateway, University of North Carolina Greensboro. Greensboro, North Carolina.  https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/bennett%3AA100

  • The Greensboro Truth and Reconciliation Collection was created by Bennett College and is housed by UNCG’s Gateway. It contains materials related to the Greensboro Massacre of 1979.

City of Greensboro Scrapbook Collections. Community Collections. Gateway, University of North Carolina Greensboro. Greensboro, North Carolina. https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/community%3ACC0077

  • The City of Greensboro Scrapbook Collections, housed by UNCG’s Gateway, contains newspaper clippings related to Greensboro’s urban development and public works developments in the postwar era. 

Map Collection. Gateway, University of North Carolina Greensboro. Greensboro, North Carolina. https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/ghm%3AMaps

  • The Map Collection is a collection of maps of Greensboro held by the Greensboro History Museum and housed by UNCG’s Gateway. The maps are dated as early as 1882 and include a variety of styles and purposes (topographic, land use, tax, railroad, etc.).

Textiles, Teachers, and Troops: Greensboro, 1880-1945. State Library of North Carolina. Gateway, University of North Carolina Greensboro. Greensboro, North Carolina. https://gateway.uncg.edu/ttt

  • The Textiles, Teachers, and Troops collection documents Greensboro from Reconstruction to WWII in the areas of the textile industry, education, and wartime. This collection is a collaborative project between UNCG, Bennett College, NC A&T, Guilford College, Greensboro College, and the local and state libraries.

A&T Four: A Closer Look. F.D. Bluford Library, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. Greensboro, North Carolina. https://digital.library.ncat.edu/atfour/

  • The A&T Four collection contains materials related to the members of the A&T Four that began a sit-in at the “whites only” counter at Woolworth’s store in 1960: Ezell Blair, Jr. (Jibreel Khazan), Franklin McCain, Joseph McNeil and David Richmond.  

The Quaker Archives. Hege Library, Guilford College. Greensboro, North Carolina. https://library.guilford.edu/archives/quaker

  • The Quaker Archives houses materials and publications related to the Quaker community in Greensboro which founded Guilford College. It contains cemetery and genealogical records, manuscripts, and textiles.

Underground Railroad in Guilford College Woods. Hege Library, Guilford College. Greensboro, North Carolina. https://library.guilford.edu/undergroundrr

  • The Underground Railroad collection at Guilford College contains materials related to the college’s history and participation in the underground railroad. This collection includes letters written by Harriet Peck, a student at Guilford College (then called New Garden) and writings by Addison and Levi Coffin.

 

Newspapers:

 

“The Greensboro Patriot (Greensboro, N.C.).” DigitalNC. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://www.digitalnc.org/newspapers/the-greensboro-patriot-greensboro-n-c/.

  • The Greensboro Patriot was in print between 1826 and 1922 and was the primary news source for Greensboro residents during its run. Over 4,000 issues are now available through DigitalNC.

Greensboro News and Record. Accessed February 28, 2024. https://greensboro.com/.   

  • The Greensboro News and Record began in the 1980s and is the current newspaper for Greensboro residents. It is now only available online.

 

Books:

 

Bermanzohn, Paul C., and Sally A. Bermanzohn. The True Story of the Greensboro Massacre. New York, NY: C. Cauce, 1980.

  • The True Story of the Greensboro Massacre is written by two Communist Workers Party members and Massacre survivors, Paul and Sally Bermanzohn. It covers the events of the 1971 confrontation between the KKK and the American Nazi Party and the CWP. 

Brown, Marvin A. An Architectural Record: A Survey of the Historic and Architecturally Significant Structures of Greensboro, North Carolina. Greensboro, NC: Preservation Greensboro, 1995.

  • This book pictures and describes the architecturally significant structures and neighborhoods in Greensboro.

Chafe, William H. Civilities and Civil Rights: Greensboro, North Carolina, and the Black Struggle for Freedom. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1981.

  • This book describes the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro, to include the Woolworth’s sit-in, and also describes the ways in which racism is still perpetuated (as of 1981) in Greensboro.

Kipp, Samuel Millard. “Urban Growth and Social Change in the South, 1870-1920: Greensboro, North Carolina as a Case Study.” UNCG University Libraries, 1974. https://gateway.uncg.edu/islandora/object/uncg%3A3881.  

  • This dissertation by Princeton Ph.D. History student Samuel Kipp presents the urban growth in Greensboro in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century.

Sieber, H. A. White Water, Colored Water: The Historicity of the African-American Community of Greensboro, North Carolina. Greensboro, NC: Simkins-Smith Center, Project Homestead, Inc., 1993.

  • This book examines the roots of the African American neighborhoods in Greensboro. It is currently out of print but is available through NC A&T’s Special Collections.

Stockard, Sallie Walker. The History of Guilford County, North Carolina. Knoxville, TN: Gaut-Ogden Company, 1902.

  • Stockard’s book was the first published history of the Guilford County region and covers the region from Native American settlements through the late nineteenth century. 

Wheaton, Elizabeth. Codename Greenkil: The 1979 Greensboro killings. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009.

  • In Codename Greenkil, Wheaton focuses on the sixteen years prior to the 1979 Greensboro Massacre to discuss the events that led to the massacre. She also covers the legacy and lasting effects of the massacre.

 

Documentaries:

  

February One: The Story of the Greensboro Four. PBS, 2005. https://www.pbs.org/independentlens/documentaries/februaryone/.  

  • February One is a PBS documentary on the four NC A&T students who staged a sit-in at the “whites only” counter at Woolworth’s store on February 1st, 1960, launching a civil rights protest in Greensboro.

Greensboro: Closer to the Truth. DVD. New York, NY: Filmmakers Library, 2009.

  • Greensboro: Closer to the Truth is a documentary on the 1979 Greensboro Massacre directed and produced by Adam Zucker. It focuses on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was created in the aftermath of the massacre to investigate its events.

 

Other:

 

Woodward, Eric, Cheri Szcodronski, and Heather Slane. “Modernism and the Civil Rights Movement.” ArcGIS StoryMaps, August 3, 2021. https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/b5708095c9d247f69fc54347366176c9.  

            This StoryMap presents an architectural survey conducted in 2019 of post-WWII neighborhoods in Greensboro. This survey identified mid-century modern structures designed by black architects at NC A&T University and that were central to the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro.