North Carolina History

Feb. 10: The Lumbees and the Road to Recognition. On Feb. 10, 1885, the Indians now known as Lumbees were legally recognized by the General Assembly. The act designated the tribe as Croatan, which reflected the idea from the time that the group was descended from the settlers of the “Lost Colony.”

For many years the government pushed the Indians of the Robeson County region to declare themselves either white or African American, but for the Indians, state recognition grew critical when the schools became racially segregated in the 1870s. In order for their children to attend public schools, the Indians had to deny their heritage. There were no public schools for Indians.

State recognition led the county to establish a three-part school system with schools at all levels for the Indians. In 1887, the legislature also established the Croatan Normal School to educate Indian teachers. The school is now known as the University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Struggling with its own identity and with federal recognition, the tribe adopted a number of names over the years, finally settling on Lumbee. The name comes from the Lumber River, which winds its way through the Indians’ traditional homeland.

Feb. 10: Seventies Performer Roberta Flack, native of Black Mountain. On Feb. 10, 1937, Grammy Award-winning singer, songwriter, and pianist Roberta Flack was born in Black Mountain.

The daughter of two pianists, Flack herself began playing piano at age 9 and was heavily influenced by the sound and style of gospel music. She graduated high school at 15 and received a bachelor’s degree in music education from Howard University. The unexpected death of her father in 1959 prompted Flack to enter the field of education in order to support her family. Her first teaching job brought her to Farmville, where she taught English and music at an African American school.

Flack continued to pursue music on the side and secured her big break in 1968 when jazz pianist Les McCann sent a copy of one of her performances to Atlantic Records. Flack released her first studio album, First Take, with Atlantic Records in 1969. The album initially failed to chart but the subsequent exposure of her music on television and in film pushed Flack to the top of the Billboard 200 and garnered a Grammy in 1972.

In all, Flack has won four Grammy awards and her album 1973 Killing Me Softly was certified double platinum.

Feb. 11: Annie Oakley, Star Attraction at Pinehurst. On Feb. 11, 1917, Annie Oakley exhibited her skills as a markswoman in Pinehurst.

Born Phoebe Ann Moses in Ohio in 1860, Oakley first demonstrated that she was skilled with a gun while hunting game as a teenager. She was discovered after defeating Frank Butler, a well-known sharpshooter, in an exhibition in Cincinnati in 1876, and married Butler soon thereafter.

In time she became an international celebrity. European royalty adorned her with medals and she was adopted as “Little Sure Shot” (she was 5 feet tall) by Lakota Chief Sitting Bull. One of Oakley’s favorite routines involved shooting an apple that had been placed on top of her dog Dave’s head.

A train wreck outside Lexington in 1901, involving Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West troupe, left Oakley temporarily paralyzed and brought an end to that part of her career.

Beginning in 1915, Oakley and her husband wintered at the Carolina Hotel in Pinehurst. There she mingled with society’s elite and taught women how to handle guns. She regarded her time in North Carolina as the happiest years of her life, since she was only employed part-time and enjoyed freedom in her schedule and the chance to rest.

In 1918, she was severely injured in an automobile accident in Florida, and she died in 1926.

Feb. 11: Harriet Jacobs of Edenton and Her Compelling Life Story: On Feb. 11, 1813, freedom seeker, writer and abolitionist Harriet Jacobs was born in Edenton.

Jacobs spent her childhood unaware of her station in life but, when her white mistress, Margaret Horniblow, died in 1825, she and her brother John were willed to Horniblow’s 3-year-old niece, Mary Norcom, and were placed under the control of Norcom’s father, Dr. James Norcom.

After suffering years of physical abuse and sexual harassment at the hands of Norcom, Jacobs fled in 1835 and went into hiding in the attic of her paternal grandmother, Molly Horniblow, a free black woman living in Edenton a block away from Norcom. According to Jacobs’ memoir, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, published in 1861, she lived in that restricted space for almost seven years until she managed to escape north via Edenton’s maritime Underground Railroad.

Jacobs gained her full and legal freedom 10 years later. While living the life of a freedom seeker, Jacobs became an anti-slavery activist and an abolitionist author. By the time of the Civil War, as a free African American woman, Jacobs served as a relief worker dedicated to assisting the newly freed people of the South.

Feb. 10: Noted Educator, Prohibitionist and Civil Rights Leader Joseph C. Price. On February 10, 1854, African American orator and teacher, Joseph C. Price was born in Elizabeth City. In 1863 his family moved to New Bern where he was enrolled in St. Andrew’s School. Price, though late in beginning his formal education, made exceptional progress. After completing his own education, he taught in Wilson, becoming the principal at a school there in 1871, but within a few years he returned to school to prepare for the ministry in the A.M.E. Zion Church.

In 1881 Price distinguished himself as an orator, speaking on prohibition and later on education and race issues. On a speaking tour in Europe, Price raised nearly $10,000 to establish a college for blacks in North Carolina. With the additional support of Salisbury residents, he became president of Zion Wesley College (now Livingstone College) in 1882. Price gained national attention while there. In 1890 he was elected president of the Afro-American League and the National Equal Rights Association.

Price’s promising life ended abruptly in 1893 after he contracted Bright’s disease, a disease affecting the kidneys. He was buried in a mausoleum on the campus of Livingstone College.

Feb. 11: Senator Lee Overman and the Red Scare of 1919. On Feb. 11, 1919, a subcommittee of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the influence of Bolshevism in America. Chaired by North Carolina senator Lee Overman, originally from Salisbury, the hearings are regarded as a forerunner of the House Un-American Activities Committee of the 1950s.

Overman’s committee was formed in 1918, as World War I drew to a close, to investigate the influence of German propaganda. Many Americans were uneasy about the repercussions of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917, so in February 1919, a resolution to expand the focus of Overman’s committee was passed unanimously by the Senate.

Hearings began shortly thereafter and lasted until March 19. Much of the committee’s questioning involved the upheavals caused by the revolution and subsequent civil war, and the potential threat of the revolution to American capitalism.

Anti-Semitic paranoia surfaced regarding the purported prevalence of Jews in the Bolshevik ranks. Accusations also circulated of pro-Bolshevism among American university professors and of promiscuity among Bolshevik women.

The committee’s final report was released in June 1919.While it provided little concrete evidence of Bolshevik activities in America, it coincided with and inflamed the emerging “Red Scare” panic that swept the nation.

Feb. 12: Hinton James: First Student at Chapel Hill. On Feb. 12, 1795, Hinton James became the first student to enter the University of North Carolina. James, who had walked to Chapel Hill from his home in New Hanover County, was the only student for the first two weeks of the school year. Academically gifted, James helped organize the first literary club and debating society on campus. He was awarded a bachelor’s degree as one of the seven students in the university’s first graduating class in July 1798.

After graduation, James became an assistant to Hamilton Fulton, a Scottish engineer hired by the state to make navigation improvements on the eastern rivers. He was put in charge of operations along the Cape Fear River, but left in 1807 upon his election to the state legislature. He served three terms in Raleigh, before serving as mayor and treasurer of Wilmington and as a magistrate of New Hanover County.

James died in 1847 and was buried at Hopewell Presbyterian Church near Burgaw. A dormitory at the University of North Carolina is named in his honor.

Feb. 12: Robert Ransom, Like Brother Matt a Confederate General. On Feb. 12, 1828, Confederate General Robert Ransom Jr. was born in Warren County.

Ransom was appointed to West Point where he graduated in 1850. The young officer was assigned to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Ransom returned to West Point as a cavalry instructor in 1854, and again was posted to the Kansas frontier in 1856.

Promoted to captain in January 1861, Ransom resigned shortly after his promotion to join the Confederacy. He received a commission as a captain in the Confederate Army and was ordered to raise a regiment. With his regiment designated the First North Carolina Cavalry, he was promoted to colonel and placed in command.

Ransom was elevated to brigadier general in the spring of 1862 and to major general a little more than a year later. In May 1863, he was ordered to assume command of Richmond.

Ransom, who battled a number of serious illnesses over the years, fell ill in the summer of 1864 and remained on sick leave for the duration of the war. In 1878, he was hired as assistant to the U.S. civil engineer in New Bern, a job that gave him the opportunity to improve harbors and waterways throughout the Carolinas.

He died in 1881 and is buried in New Bern.

Feb. 13: Students Storm Duke’s Administration Building, 1969. On February 13, 1969, African American student activists at Duke University occupied the school’s main administrative building. The takeover of the Allen Building was sparked by the slowness of racial reform at the university.

Black undergraduates were not admitted to Duke until 1963. In the mid-60s, the Afro-American Association formed on campus, influenced by the Black Power movement. By early 1969, the Association and its supporters had become impatient with the progress of promised reform.

Early on the morning of February 13, a group of black students took over a portion of the Allen Building and issued 11 demands for change.

White students sympathetic to the protesters soon gathered outside. The administration negotiated with the occupiers and agreed to most of the demands, but gave the protesters only an hour to accept their offer and leave or face arrest.

The students in turn threatened to burn the university’s records, but eventually complied. The takeover ended as police tear gassed the white students outside.

None of the occupiers were expelled from school, though many were put on probation. Continuing frustration with the process of change at Duke led to the creation of the short-lived Malcolm X University in Durham later in the year.

Many items from the Allen Building Takeover Collection at Duke University have been digitized and are available online.

Feb. 13: Camp Lejeune and Females in the U.S. Marine Corps. On Feb. 13, 1943, the first women to sign up for non-clerical duties enlisted in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve.

The Women’s Reserve was formed in 1942 when plans were put in place to build a women’s area at Camp Lejeune, consisting of several barracks, mess halls and other support facilities. Unlike other branches of the military, the Marine Corps did not drastically relax its training regimen or admissions policies for females.

About 3,000 women trained elsewhere while facilities were being prepared at Camp Lejeune. The base remained the primary source of female Marines during World War II. During the course of the war, more than 23,000 women enlisted and nearly 1,000 held commissions. By the war’s end, almost 18,000 women who trained at Camp Lejeune were on duty, including Eugenia Lejeune, daughter of the general for whom the base is named.

Enlistees were inducted into specialties ranging from cooks and clerks to transport personnel and mechanics. One-third of the women served in aviation-related fields, especially at the nearby Marine Corps Air Station at Cherry Point. After the war, female Marines were considered expendable and scheduled for elimination. The women’s schools were disbanded in September 1945 and the entire reserve was discharged in March 1946.

Feb. 14: Maceo Parker of Kinston Brought the Funk. On Feb. 14, 1943, saxophonist Maceo Parker was born in Kinston. Perhaps best known for his work with James Brown, Parker brought funk to the soul music of the James Brown Band. For nearly 20 years, Brown’s call “Maceo, I want you to Blow!” summoned his unique sound.

Parker was exposed to music early. His father played at least two instruments, and both of his parents sang for their church. His brother was also musical, and the pair joined James Brown’s band together in 1964. He has gone on to collaborate with a host of artists including George Clinton, Prince, Ray Charles, James Taylor, the Dave Matthews Band and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Among Parker’s many accolades and awards are the 2003 Rhythm and Blues Foundation Pioneer Award, the 2012 Les Victoires du Jazz in Paris Lifetime Achievement Award and the Icon Award at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam.

Parker tours internationally to this day.

Nation and World History

Feb. 10: Prisoner Exchange: On Feb. 10, 1962, the Soviet Union exchanged captured American U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet spy held by the United States.

Feb. 10, 2014: Joe Paterno’s family released its response to Penn State’s report on the Jerry Sandusky scandal, attacking Louis Freeh’s conclusion that the coach hid sex abuse allegations against his longtime assistant. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford took charge of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan. At the Grammy Awards, Fun. won song of the year for “We Are Young”; Gotye’s “Somebody I Used to Know” picked up record of the year.

Feb. 10, 2019: Israel carried out a wave of airstrikes in Syria that were ordered after Israel intercepted an Iranian drone that had infiltrated its airspace; it was the most serious Israeli engagement in Syria since the war erupted there almost seven years earlier. In a tweet that appeared to take aim at the rising #MeToo movement, President Donald Trump wrote that “lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation;” the tweet came in the aftermath of the resignation of a pivotal aide, Rob Porter, who’d been accused of abusing two ex-wives. The Korean women’s hockey team, the first in Olympic history to combine players from the North and South, lost its debut game, 8-0, to Switzerland before a cheering, chanting sellout crowd at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

On Feb. 11, 1945, President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin signed the Yalta Agreement, in which Stalin agreed to declare war against Imperial Japan following Nazi Germany’s capitulation.

On Feb. 12, 1809, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was born in a log cabin in Hardin (now LaRue) County, Kentucky.

On Feb. 12, 2023, President Joe Biden called on President Vladimir Putin to pull back more than 100,000 Russian troops massed near Ukraine’s borders and warned that the U.S. and its allies would “respond decisively and impose swift and severe costs” if Russia invaded. (Russia would invade Ukraine eight days later.) Paris police fired tear gas against a handful of demonstrators on the Champs Elysees Avenue who defied a police order by taking part in a vehicle protest against virus restrictions.

On Feb. 13, 1935, a jury in Flemington, New Jersey, found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr., the 20-month-old son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)

On Feb. 13, 1633, Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrived in Rome for trial before the Inquisition, accused of defending Copernican theory that the Earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around. (Galileo was found vehemently suspect of heresy and ended up being sentenced to a form of house arrest.)

On Feb. 13, 2023 airlines canceled flights to the Ukrainian capital and troops there unloaded fresh shipments of weapons from NATO members, as the country’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought to project confidence in the face of U.S. warnings of possible invasion within days by a growing number of Russian forces. Playing in their home stadium, the Los Angeles Rams beat the Cincinnati Bengals 23-20 in the Super Bowl.

On Feb. 14, 1989, Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of “The Satanic Verses,” a novel condemned as blasphemous.

On Feb. 14, 2019: A gunman identified as a former student opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School near Fort Lauderdale, Fla., killing 17 people in the nation’s deadliest school shooting since the attack in Newtown, Conn., more than five years earlier. (Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty to murder in October 2021 and was sentenced in November 2022 to life in prison without the possibility of parole.)

On Feb. 15, 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes signed a bill allowing female attorneys to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

On Feb. 15, 2023: Russian President Vladimir Putin said he welcomed a security dialogue with the West as his military reported pulling back some of its troops near Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden said the U.S. had “not yet verified” Russia’s claim and that an invasion still remains a distinct possibility. (Russia would invade Ukraine five days later.) The families of nine victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting agreed to a $73 million settlement of a lawsuit against the maker of the rifle used to kill 20 first graders and six educators in 2012.

On Feb. 16, 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba a month and a-half after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.

On Feb. 16, 1862, the Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee ended as some 12,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered; Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s victory earned him the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant.”

On Feb. 16, 2022 Ukrainians defied pressure from Moscow with a national show of flag-waving unity, while the West warned that it saw no sign of a promised pullback of Russian troops from Ukraine’s borders despite Kremlin declarations of a withdrawal. (Russia would invade Ukraine four days later.) The Catholic Church said baptisms performed by a priest who served in Arizona for 16 years are now presumed to be invalid because he used incorrect wording on a subtle but key component of the sacrament.