8 prominent figures with ties to NC to know for Black History Month

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — In 1926, Carter G. Woodson founded the first Negro History Week during the second week of February. This coincided with President Abraham Lincoln’s and Frederick Douglass’s birthdays as both men were seen as “symbols of freedom.”

In the decades that followed, officials across the country began to recognize this historical week. It would not be until 1976 that President Gerald Ford extended this observation to a full month in February, one honoring the contributions of Black people and their staple in American history.

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Today, Black History Month is observed to honor the legacy and identity of Black people across the United States.

Many prominent Black people we recognize — from civil rights activists to athletes and musicians — have ties to the Triangle and cities across North Carolina. Many names you may be shocked to find out about.

Here are eight notable figures born in N.C. or who had significant ties to the state.

Ella Baker

Born in December 1903, in Norfolk Virginia, Ella Josephine Baker grew up in Littleton North Carolina. She started her pursuit of civil rights activism and social justice at an early age due partly to her grandmother’s stories about life as a slave.

Ms. Baker played a significant role in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1940 until 1946. She served as a field secretary and then later as a director of branches. Baker also moved to Atlanta to work alongside Dr. Martin Luther King’s new organization called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference

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As a student at Raleigh HBCU Shaw University in 1960, Baker hatched the idea that became a turning point for young people during the Civil Rights Movement; organizing a meeting for student leaders of the sit-in movement and founding the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) at Shaw.

Charles W. Chesnutt

Charles Waddell Chesnutt is notably known best for his fiction novels and short stories such as “The Conjure Woman,” “The Goophered Grapevine” and “The Wife of His Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line.”

He was born in Cleveland, Ohio in June 1858 to the parents of free blacks who migrated from Fayetteville, N.C. When Chesnutt was a child, his family moved back to Fayetteville.

Chesnutt was also an educator and political activist. He not only attended what is now known as Fayetteville State University, but he also taught and was a principal of the school. Chesnutt was also one of the first Black Americans recognized to get a short story published in an issue of “Atlantic Monthly” in 1887.

Harriet Jacobs

Harriet Jacobs was a writer and abolitionist. She was born into slavery in 1813 in Edenton, N.C. In 1842, Jacobs escaped to freedom in Philadelphia and then Rochester, N.Y. and was later involved with abolitionists with Frederick Douglass’ paper, “North Star.”

She released her autobiography “Incidents of a Slave Girl” in 1861 which is noted as one of the first books that discussed the sexual and physical abuse slave women endured.

Jacobs continued to be a part of the abolition movement up until the Civil War. According to PBS, after the war, Jacobs “worked to improve the conditions of the recently freed slaves.”

Thelonious Monk

Considered one of the most influential jazz composers of all time, Thelonious Sphere Monk was born in Rocky Mount in 1917.

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He moved to New York when he was around five years old and began his jazz career as a late teen. Monk’s improvisational, angular, hard bebop style is something that contributed to the overall standard genre.

Though he moved from N.C. at an early age, many believe his time in the South contributed to his musical style. Sam Stephensons, author of an Oxford American article about Monk, stated that the southern train whistles and railways may have inspired Monk’s composition “Little Rootie Tootie.”

Moms Mabley

Born Loretta Mary Aiken in Brevard, N.C. in 1897, Moms Mabley was a stand-up comedienne and pioneer in the “Chitlin Circut” of black vaudeville. She joined the performance space at just 14 years old.

Mabley became a headliner at the Apollo Theater and a regular performer at the Cotton Club, according to an article from the National African American Museum of History and Culture. Her on-stage persona consisted of raunchy jokes with Mabley dressed as an old lady in a housedress. Her outfit choice was meant to spark conversation on the racist perception of Black people.

She later went on to record comedy albums and was even featured on numerous variety shows.

Michael Jordan

Considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Michael Jeffrey Jordan moved to Wilmington, North Carolina with his family at just 5 years old. He attended Emsley A. Laney High School where he started his athletic career by playing football, baseball and basketball.

Now, we all know the story of Jordan’s game-winning shot that landed the Tar Heels to the 1982 NCAA title. It’s incredible to think back to that now as just the beginning for the legendary athlete.

Jordan played in the NBA for fifteen seasons (1984-2003) winning six championships for the Chicago Bulls. He has also played Minor League Baseball.

In 1985, a “modern sneaker culture had its roots in the air” and the original Air Jordan was released, becoming one of the most well-known sneaker brands in the country.

In 2009, Jordan was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as the headliner of the class.

Jordan is also a philanthropist who has donated to multiple charities, including a recent record-breaking $10 million to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in 2023.

Sugar Ray Leonard

Boxing champion Ray Charles Leonard was born in Wilmington. He joined the Wilmington boxing club in the early 1970s as a teenager.

He began his career as a lightweight and went on the win five titles in different divisions and even won a Golden Gloves Award in 1972.

Leonard had an exceptional career including 25 knockouts, 36 titles and was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 1997.

He chose his name “Sugar Ray” Leonard as an homage to another championship boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.

Maya Angelou

Though her roots didn’t begin in the Carolinas; renowned poet, author and civil rights leader Maya Angelou made Winston-Salem her home in the later years of her life for over 30 years until her passing.

Best known for her works “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, “Phenomenal Woman” and “And Still I Rise”, Angelou was a singer, Grammy award winner, dancer, Pulitzer Prize nominee and civil rights leader who fought against social injustice.

Before her notable works that were released in the early 1970s, Angelou pursued a career in entertainment in the 1950s. She traveled worldwide as a performer and writer throughout Europe and later moved, having her work span several African countries.

When she returned to the States, she was heavily involved in the Civil Rights Movement. She worked with the Organization of African American Unity led by Malcolm X and also alongside Martin Luther King to help promote the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

Angelou moved to North Carolina in 1981 after accepting a lifetime teaching position at Wake Forest University. She had a positive impact on the state and local community, winning the North Carolina Award for Literature in 1987 and giving her name in support of the Maya Angelou Center of Health Equity at Wake Forest School of Medicine.

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