Part One of this series began with a survey of private and religious efforts to educate Asheville’s black children in the decades following the Civil War. Next we saw how the city established a public school system in 1888 after a close vote of public approval in which black voters provided the crucial margin of
Throughout the year as I’ve continued to work on this series and it has gained traction and popularity, hints and suggestions as to what I should write about have come in from various sources. It has been a tremendous undertaking, and sometimes it’s a relief to hear from someone else what you ought to say,
Montford is one of Buncombe County’s most iconic historic neighborhoods. In this installment of 52 Weeks, 52 Communities, we could take almost any angle on Montford; there is just so much to talk about. So instead of trying to pick just one thesis, I decided that this would be a great opportunity to put together
Pleasant Alexander Calhoun lived most of his adult life in a place Horace Kephart described as the “back of beyond.” Until the beginning of the 20th century, it was so remote that few outsiders had ever ventured into the isolated community nestled deep in the Great Smoky Mountains. It’s not probable that he thought his final years would be spent in an
Part One: Blacks Vote for Public Education, Win a Separate but Unequal Place in the New School System When Asheville went to the polls in July 1887 and narrowly approved a resolution establishing tax-supported public schools, black voters provided the crucial margin of support. The city took this step forward during an era of educational
We’re over halfway there, folks! Here we are on community #34/52. And a few times throughout this series, we’ve taken the opportunity to teach you a little bit about how to most effectively use your time in the archives or navigate our public database, Presto, to do some of your groundwork from the comforts of
In our recent post “PART 2: A WHO’S WHO LIST OF PROMINENT BLACK ASHEVILLE BUSINESSMEN IN 1922” we were giving the story of Noah Murrough and said that he had joined the Maceo Volunteers, a company of “colored men under Capt. Thomas L. Leatherwood” that left Asheville in July 1898 for Cuba. It occured to me
Of all the communities on our list, one of the most photographed besides Downtown Asheville, may be Kenilworth. This Asheville Suburb in the southeast part of the city sprung onto the scene in the late 1910’s and rose in popularity into the 1920’s until the town, once incorporated and independent, was annexed by the city
Or . . .”How Well Do You Know Black Asheville History?” “Colored Race Prospers in Asheville as the Result of Attitude of White Citizens” was the title of an article published in an Asheville Citizen-Times on December 3, 1922. “While it would be difficult indeed to mention in a short article the numerous successful business