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One can see the pride that the Pigeon Center emanates for African American history in Western North Carolina by the colorful mural that is painted on the side of the building. The mural incorporates African patterns and designs as a way to encompass…

Photos of the Lowery family and newspaper article about 'Nat the Cat'

This massive multimillion-dollar machine started operating in 1965, as Champion continued to grow. It could produce enough paperboard to make a pint milk carton for every man, woman and child in the United States. At that time, the mill's No. 20…

It is a photo of the historic Colonial Theater in Canton, North Carolina

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…