Black and White

Just wanted to drop a quick note that Lewis Shiner will be at the Regulator tonight, reading from, and signing, his new novel Black and White. Proceedings get under way at 7 pm.

Lew, by the way, will be on hand to talk about Black and White next week, July 20th, on Shooting the Bull. More details to follow.

Continue reading Black and White

Reality intrudes

Spotted on a recent trip through the Yadkin Valley:

Highway 286 at the Yadkin River, Ferguson, NC

Maybe it's simply that i never paid that much attention, but i had no idea that Tom Dooley was a real person.

Or that he may very well have been innocent.

Continue reading Reality intrudes

Welcome Endangered Durham readers

The post you're looking for is probably this one. But make yourselves at home while you're here.

Continue reading Welcome Endangered Durham readers

Signposts

Gary's been blogging Vickers St. all week over at Endangered Durham. On Monday, he pointed out that the old concrete street sign at the corner of Jackson and Vickers may be the last of its kind in Durham.

These guys aren't being used for their original purpose anymore, but there's at least a couple of dozen along Knox St. at the south entrance to Duke Park. They're there ostensibly to keep idiots from driving over the curb and into the park. Most of them have lost their name tags, but not quite all.



This one once occupied the corner of High St. and Moreland, about a mile or so southwest of the sign Gary featured.

UPDATE: Welcome Endangered Durham readers.

Here's one more photo showing how many of these signposts have made it over to Duke Park.

Continue reading Signposts

Royal Ice Cream sit-in to get highway marker

Via email from community activist John Schelp:

This afternoon, the State marker commission in Raleigh
voted to erect a State marker in Durham for the 1957
Royal Ice Cream sit-in.

The Durham delegation, led by R. Kelly Bryant and
Virginia Williams, did us all proud.

The N&O notes:

The new marker will be just the state's fourth commemorating a civil rights event. In all, more than 1,500 historic markers dot the state's highways, each denoting a person, place or event that members of this committee -- a revolving collection of history professors from across North Carolina -- have deemed of statewide significance.

Only four events in the history of the civil rights movement in the state of North Carolina are worth remembering? That can't really be true, can it?

UPDATE: More from N&O and Herald-Sun. The H-S story notes the approved text of the new marker:

"Segregation protest at an ice cream parlor on this site, June 23, 1957, led to court case testing dual racial facilities."

Got to say that seems a bit weak to me.

Continue reading Royal Ice Cream sit-in to get highway marker

Proposed text for "Royal Ice Cream Sit-in" marker

Advocates of a historical marker commemorating the 1957 Royal Ice Cream Parlor sit-in have released proposed text for the marker. They're seeking feedback at teh addresses listed below.

"1957 Sit-In at the Royal Ice Cream Parlor. Seven citizens challenged the traditions and the laws of racial segregation by moving from the 'colored' section to the 'white' section of a restaurant at this site on June 23, 1957. Police arrested the citizens. The Recorders Court and Superior Court found them guilty of trespass. The North Carolina Supreme Court upheld the conviction and United States Supreme Court denied additional appeals. Nevertheless, the Royal Ice Cream Sit-In, along with earlier acts of civil disobedience, subsequent demonstrations, and the passage of federal civil rights laws, helped to create a reformed legal and social respect for diversity and inclusion in North Carolina and in the United States."

Comments on the proposed text can be sent to R. Kelly Bryant (rkbryantjr AT aol DOT com) or Eddie Davis III (edavis3 AT aol DOT com).

Continue reading Proposed text for "Royal Ice Cream Sit-in" marker

Royal Ice Cream marker

There's a heightened push being made to get a commemorative marker installed by the state to make note of the 1957 sit-in for civil rights at the site of the Royal Ice Cream parlor on Roxboro St.

Although i've written about this event, (as have a number of other Durham bloggers), and the commemorative events that took place earlier this year marking the 50th anniversary of the sit-in, i don't know as i've flat out said here that i support, at a minimum, the state installing a commemorative marker at the site.

I'd like to correct that oversight. Put the marker up.

Continue reading Royal Ice Cream marker

Royal ice cream

Kudos to Jim Wise for an excellent article in yesterday's Durham News about the 50th anniversary of the anti-segregation sit-ins at the old Royal Ice Cream parlor on Dowd St. at Roxboro.

As usual, Gary has something worthwhile to add to the conversation.

(And speaking of Gary, don't miss his combo Durham Rising report/farewell to Bullsh@t post. He really needs to let his hair down a little more often.)

Continue reading Royal ice cream