Browse Items (475 total)

This newspaper article from the Waynesville Mountaineer highlights Jones Temple AME Zion Church and its history in Haywood County. Despite dropping membership over the past decade, the spirits of the congregation are high. In the article, Rev.…

Ronnie Carr is originally from South Carolina and was born in the town of Orangeburg in 1961 and moved to New York where he grew up as a child and eventually returned to Orangeburg to graduate high school. He played Basketball for Western Carolina…

List of Haywood County African-American veterans

Alice Lowery is a large part of desegregation in Haywood County. Her notable community changes include the desegregation of the local theater. Her family includes Nat the Cat, a prominent local DJ, as well as her daughter, Natalie, who was one of the…

This newspaper article focuses on the Lowery family and their achievements, including Alice Lowery's bold act of attending a white-only movie theater with her daughter. For Alice Lowery, it was a risk to her safety and an almost unthinkable action.…

Featured in the photo are Nathaniel and Alice Lowery. Both are people are ahead of their time in regards to the fact that for one Nathaniel was widely known black DJ that introduced black jazz and pop music radio world. Alice Lowery became important…

Stepin Fetchit, whose real name was Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, was one of the first successful African-American actors in Hollywood. Unfortunately, his fame was achieved by accepting movie roles which were caricatures made entirely of…

This movie poster from the 1934 movie "Judge Priest" is notable for its inclusion of Stepin Fetchit on its list of stars. Barely any black actors were ever billed at all, and achieving fame was incredibly hard. Stepin Fetchit, however, managed to…

The building that would eventually become Jones Temple AME Zion Church was first built in 1855 and used by Waynesville First Methodist until 1883, when a new church was built just off Pigeon Street. Jones Temple AME Zion Church broke off from…

The graduating class of Reynolds High School, class of ‘64, was a product of school segregation in Haywood County, N.C. Though Brown Vs. Board paved the way for school integration in 1954, state governments implemented integration slowly across the…