Raleigh

American Visions, April-May, 1995 by Bridgette A. Lacy

What do Marion Barry, mayor of Washington, D. C., Marian Wright Edelman, president of the Children's Defense Fund, and former Georgia legislator julian Bond have in common? They all gathered at a historic meeting on the campus of a black college in Raleigh, N.C., during the civil rights struggle--and while here, they helped change America.

Ella Josephine Baker, who was then the executive director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, raised $800 to bring together college students who were participating in sit-ins across the South in 1960. From that meeting at historically black Shaw University, the activists organized SNCC, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and helped transform not only the civil rights movement, but America.

Today in Raleigh, the late Baker's picture hangs in the Women's Exhibit Gallery at the North Carolina Museum of History. The museum's brief video summarizes the contributions of Baker--and of the Edenton, N.C., slave Harriet Ann Jacobs, whose autobiography, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, faithfully depicted the brutality and depravity of slave masters.

Black history figures prominently elsewhere in the museum, as well. For instance, on view is the Salisbury, N.C., Woolworth's lunch counter, scene of a February 1960 sit-in. Within three months of that sit-in, blacks and white's were served together at the same counter.

Reaching further back in time, the museum traces the life and work of the skilled free black craftsman Thomas Day, whose beautiful furniture raised commonplace objects to the level of art. Day ran his own business in Milton, N.C., from 1824 to 1861. His signature statement was the S-curve design frequently found on the legs of his furniture. His customers included Davis S. Reid, the state's governor at the time. At the museum, look for the mahogany lady's bureau designed by Day. If you want to learn more, stop by the museum's gift shop, where you can pick up a copy of Thomas Day. Cabinetmaker and other books about African Americans from North Carolina.

After touring the museum, a great place to take a picnic lunch is the Martin Luther King Memorial Gardens in southeast Raleigh, one of the city's black neighborhoods. Here, a life-size statue of the late civil rights leader shares an acre of space with flowers. There are plenty of parking spaces and benches for sitting, though there is but little grass in what is more a cement square and place of ceremonial gathering than a park.

If it's raining and you're tired of deli sandwiches and fast food, you may want to pass up the King Gardens and instead stop by Ma Perry's Country Kitchen in downtown Raleigh. Wearing her trademark apron, Ma Perry is often seen at the oven, taking out a pan of hot rolls or adding butter to mashed potatoes. Fried chicken and fish, stewed chicken, fresh vegetables and homemade cakes are the order of the day at Ma Perry's. Large pitchers of sweet tea line the counter, and bottles of hot sauce sit on the table.

Just a few blocks away is historically black St. Augustine's College, which was founded in 1868. Its campus was once the home of Sarah Delany, known as Sadie, and her sister, Elizabeth, known as Bessie, whose father, a former slave, graduated from St. Augustine's and went on to become the school's vice principal. Sadie, now 105, and Bessie, now 103, are the authors of the recent best-selling memoir Having Our Say. The Delany Sister,s' First 100 Years.

When you visit St. Augustine's, think a moment on this: Though several of the campus buildings have been declared National Historic Landmarks, few of the college's original buildings remain. Most were destroyed in an 1883 fire, in part because the white fire company didn't cover black blazes, and the black fire company was poorly equipped!

But before there was St. Augustine's College, there was Shaw University, the oldest historically black college in the South. The school, founded in 1865 by a missionary from New England, today has two buildings listed in the National Registry of Historic Places. Estey Hall, the first dormitory on a coeducational campus built to house women, and the Leonard School of Medicine, the South's first four-year medical school for African Americans, still stand as testaments to a people's vigorous rise Students a against the constraints of segregation.

Be sure to stop by Estey Hall. The Italianate building with three floors of porches was known for its elegant parlor. Its grandeur is the more noticeable following a recent $1.7 million renovation.

Another Raleigh stop that testifies to fine craftsmanship is the Mordecai House in Mordecai Historic Park. The park, located near downtown Raleigh, has several historic structures, including a church built by slaves. The church exemplifies both sturdiness and beauty--how appropriate! You'll also find here the childhood home of Andrew Johnson, the 17th--and perhaps most controversial--president of the United States. Johnson, the only senator of a seceding state to remain loyal to the Union, went on to become President Lincoln's vice president and successor, and is best known for his opposition to Reconstruction--an opposition that led to his being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.