Schools That Changed Our Region

Rosenwald

How did a wealthy businessman from Chicago become so involved in educating school children in the South almost a century ago?

Increasingly lost in our collective memory is how Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Company, teamed up with Booker T. Washington, president of Tuskegee Institute and an African-American leader and philanthropist, to create school after school throughout our region in the early twentieth century.

Washington was known for saying, “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” Rosenwald did exactly that.

Rosenwald and Washington in 1915. Photo: University of Chicago Library.

In the segregated school systems of the Jim Crow era, the education of African-American students was woefully inadequate and underfunded. To offset this deficiency, Rosenwald established a fund that provided “seed money” to build almost 5,000 schools for African-Americans in 15 states—those that had joined the Confederacy and several bordering states. More buildings were constructed in North Carolina than any other state—813 were erected here.

Schools built in the Sandhills area of the state tell part of the story:

• Moore County’s surviving Rosenwald-funded school is in Pinebluff. Known as the Lincoln Park School, the one-story, four-teacher building that served Addor and nearby African-American communities. Built in 1922, it still stands at 1272 S. Currant St. Placed on the National Register in 1997, it hasn’t been used as a school for 70 years. In Moore County, a total of 15 Rosenwald schools (serving 50 teachers) were built during 1920-1929. 

Lincoln Park School.

• In Harnett County, 23 Rosenwald schools were built (during 1922-1930 for 73 teachers). Still surviving is a complex of six buildings known as Harnett County Training School that began as a two-story, 14-teacher structure built in 1922. When it opened in Dunn at 610 E. Johnston St., it served first through 11th graders and was the only brick multi-story school for African-Americans in the county. It became one of the largest Rosenwald schools in the state when it was expanded in 1927. Placed on the National Register in 2014, it is one of only three multi-story Rosenwald schools in the state still standing. 

Harnett County Training School.

• In Richmond County, 65 teachers taught in 21 Rosenwald schools, ranging from one- to 10-teacher structures, built during 1918-1930. As many as 17 are no longer identifiable or known to the Richmond County Historical Association; knowledge of them has vanished along with the structures. Still physically surviving is Liberty Hill School at 234 Covington Community Road northwest of Ellerbe that was placed on the National Register in 2008. The building has two classrooms as well as an industrial room where girls learned home economics and boys were trained to use farming tools. The one-story, two-teacher building—built in 1930 when construction of Rosenwald schools was ending in this area—was no longer used as a school by the mid-1950s. 

Liberty Hill School.

In addition to building schools, Rosenwald wanted to promote collaboration among white and black citizens. He required local communities to raise matching funds and white-controlled school boards to operate and maintain the schools.

Interior space of Liberty Hill School.

When the school-building program ended in 1932, the Rosenwald Fund had contributed $4.3 million to improve African-American education in the South. Raising money to match Rosenwald’s donations was not easy for cotton and tobacco tenant farmers in rural communities. The grassroots-fundraising literally collected a penny and a nickel at a time; however, eventually African-Americans in the South contributed $4.7 million. In North Carolina, they contributed more than $666,000 to the program.

The schools were designed very carefully because they originally had no electricity. To maximize natural light, their plans included detailed suggestions for window placement, blackboard location and desk orientation. By 1929, Rosenwald schools served one-third of the South’s rural African-American students and teachers.

Many schools were demolished after the Supreme Court ruling in 1954 that school segregation is unconstitutional. In most areas, these buildings have long decayed, been abandoned and lost in time with little trace of their existence. However, in a few communities, the old schools have found new lives as senior citizen housing, a town hall, community centers, and offices. Others have been preserved by being placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

As late as 2002, the National Trust for Historic Preservation began a campaign to raise awareness and money for protecting Rosenwald schools and named them as being near the top of America’s most endangered places.

The Rosenwald school-building program helped many African-Americans gain an education that otherwise would not have been available. These relics of a painful past are part of American history and very prominent elements of our regional culture. Unfortunately, they continue to decline and become more endangered with each passing year.

Rosenwald once said, “All the other pleasures of life seem to wear out, but the pleasure of helping others in distress never does.” How he helped others will continue to inspire us well into the future.

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Note: The post is based on my article about Rosenwald schools published in the September 2019 issue of OutreachNC Magazine.

Adding Bounce to Your Life

Would you invite Amos Owens into your home or ask him to attend your next party?

Perhaps the most famous moonshiner in North Carolina during his lifetime, Owens slipped into obscurity before many of us were born. In his heyday, however, he was often sought for his special concoction known as Cherry Bounce.

Amos Owens

His legendary recipe was three parts corn whiskey, one part cherry juice, and one part sugar. Although his corn whiskey was special, even more precious was the juice because it was pressed from the fruit by the bare feet of his beautiful daughters.

People from all over the South traveled to visit him and taste his celebrated beverage, which was renowned as far away as the Mississippi River. Old-timers even claimed that it had medicinal value. 

Rutherford County in western N.C. celebrates this legacy with the Cherry Bounce Trail to promote sightseeing in the area. As visitors enjoy the beauty of the county’s landscape and rural history, they can reminisce about “the memories of old-time moonshiners who frequented these hills and valleys years ago.” The trail passes by Cherry Mountain, a high peak on the horizon, where cherry trees still grow wild -- and once offered a safe haven to Owens and his moonshining neighbors for distilling liquor.

Owens, who was born in 1822, brought 100 acres near Cherry Mountain in 1845 and by 1851 had earned enough money from moonshining to buy the entire mountain itself. Here, according to a local schoolteacher who recorded Owens’ life history at his request before he died in 1906, cherry trees yield “every June a crop of fruit remarkable for its size and flavor.”

Every second Sunday in June, Owens invited friends to celebrate the black-heart cherries when they were the ripest. His festival was known for its food, dancing, and physical contests. His granddaughter observed that “people danced and drank for as long as the food and drink and money lasted. Some would get so drunk and carried away that they danced in the nude.”

Although the trees on Cherry Mountain are “found nowhere else,” versions of Cherry Bounce existed well before Owens’ lifetime. A popular drink in the 1700s, it was even made at Mount Vernon for George Washington (although without Owens’ illicit moonshine).

Owens’ arrests are still legendary. Once when revenue agents discovered his operation, he invited them into his home for breakfast. Although they declined food, they did accept his kind offer to sample his Cherry Bounce. After several drinks, one officer passed out, and another staggered into the woods and did not return for hours. Owens made no attempt to escape, and the officers arrested him when they regained their sobriety. After serving six months in jail, Owens returned to his home (known as “The Castle”) and renewed his operations.

Cherry Bounce served by Gary
Crunkleton at State of the Place conference

For most of his life, Owens was the Cherry Bounce King. Although he was also once locked up for an entire year, he continued to make moonshine until 1890 when he was arrested again. During this trial, a judge convinced him to stop violating “the law.” He returned home, became a devout member of his church, and never again fired up his still.

Fortunately today, Cherry Bounce enjoys new life in the hands of skilled mixologists, such as Gary Crunkleton, who operates his private eponymous club in Chapel Hill. When I attended the “State of the Plate” conference, which explored local and global connections of Southern foodways, Crunkleton was a speaker and provided samples of Cherry Bounce inspired by Owens’ recipe. Attending a conference never provided such a rewarding benefit.

Celebrate cherries from the N.C. mountains – whether you enjoy the fruit or drink – and think about the man who enhanced the lore of this state.

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Note: This post appeared originally in the June 2015 issue of OutreachNC, a monthly magazine distributed in 10 counties of central North Carolina. Click here to see the article as it appeared in print.

Bluegrass Music in the Mountains

Want to hear authentic bluegrass music performed by an internationally known artist? Then travel the Music Trails of the Blue Ridge National Heritage Area that take you to the opry house in Maggie Valley, NC. This performance venue is in Haywood County, where the banjo has played in unison with the fiddle for generations since the Scots-Irish began to settle the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge Mountains to make “mountain music.”

The banjo skills of Raymond Fairchild draw guests each night to the Maggie Valley Opry House.

When I visited, I enjoyed music by Raymond Fairchild and the Maggie Valley Boys that connected me to the traditional folklife of the mountains. Fairchild played his five-string banjo as if he were performing again at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville rather than the opry (“opera” in Southern dialect that sometimes pronounces a final “a” as a “y”) in Maggie Valley. Born in 1939, Fairchild has yet to slow down. He performs with his band nightly April through October (the months that the opry house is open).

With 300 seats, the opry house has plenty of room for guests. Banjos on sale and memorabilia on the wall greets visitors as they arrive.

Fairchild has received many awards and honors, including two gold records. Most significant is the Bluegrass Banjo of the Year Award five times from the Society for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music in America, which has also inducted him into its Hall of Greats.
     
 

Fairchild’s gold records and other awards are on display next to the stage.

Fairchild is often touted as the fastest five-string banjo player. When he plays an instrumental solo as part of a number with his band, his legendary dexterity is amazing. As Fairchild performs, the expression on his face is very solemn – almost a poker-face with no expression. A gifted musician for decades, he learned to play the guitar when he was 11, although he didn’t pick up a banjo until he was 18.

Fairchild performs nightly at the opry house with the Maggie Valley Boys.

Fairchild, who is proud of his Cherokee heritage, graciously shares the stage with the other musicians. Their rhythm guitar, bass, and harmonica combine in harmony with his guitar to produce music that makes you want to dance. In fact, during the performance, several visitors in the audience when to the elevated dance area and clogged to the tune being played. Fairchild also features his manager John Lucas as a vocalist in several selections. Lucas’ rendition of “Amazing Grace” in the Cherokee language is incredibly beautiful.

Singing “Amazing Grace” in the Cherokee language, John Lucas demonstrates his talented, rich voice as he is accompanied by Fairchild and the Maggie Valley Boys.

Although the evening was enjoyable, I would have enjoyed more music to demonstrate Fairchild’s elaborate, fast picking and skills to make the banjo mimic animal sounds such as those by mules in his performance of “Whoa Mule” (illustrated in this video recorded earlier in his career).

During intermission, band members “jam” with visitors.

The opry house has been operating continuously since 1988, even during earlier years when Fairchild was on the road for other performances. Although the music by Fairchild and the Maggie Valley Boys are the reason guests continue to attend the nightly shows, Fairchild gives credit during performances to his wife Shirley for the success of the opry house. In addition to managing the opry house and selling tickets before the performance, she multitasks during intermission by selling popcorn and soft drinks at the concession stand.

Fairchild (with display of moonshiner Popcorn Sutton in background) sells music and souvenirs during intermission as wife Shirley operates concession stand.

Maggie Valley is famous for several notable people, including Popcorn Sutton (legendary moonshiner), but Raymond Fairchild is clearly the hometown favorite and a beloved member of the community.

Maggie Valley proudly proclaims itself as the home of Raymond Fairchild.

Strawberry Adventure: Finding the World’s Largest

Want to go on a strawberry adventure? As spring days become warmer, the trip can be a visit to a festival, a you-pick-it farm, or a noteworthy strawberry landmark. Strawberry ice cream, shortcake, or fresh berries themselves are the rewards for making the visit, particularly in the American South where one place claims to have the world’s largest strawberry.

A fruit with a long history

The only fruit with the seeds on the outside rather than the inside, the strawberry has been a favorite of not only Southerners but others around the world because its sweetness, juicy texture, and bright red color are unmatched. The history of the strawberry dates back to Romans who gathered wild strawberries, but it wasn’t cultivated in Europe until the 1300s. Although it had become a common garden plant by the 1500s, the strawberry from eastern North America, introduced to Europe in the early 1600s, is the variety that is credited by developing today’s big-fruited strawberry.

This variety was popular with Native Americans who mixed crushed berries with cornmeal that was baked as strawberry bread. After trying this bread, according to some scholars, the colonists modified the recipe and created an early version of strawberry shortcake.  

Strawberry shortcake is frequently featured at regional strawberry festivals. Michigan claims the “national” strawberry festival, although many states, particularly in the South, celebrate with at least one festival, such as in Georgia, South Carolina, and West Virginia, and some festivals were inaugurated well before Michigan began its event in 1976.

North Carolina even has two: the Carolina festival in Wallace and the N.C. festival in Chadbourn. In fact, Chadbourn, NC, considers itself as the strawberry capital of the world because it claims the largest one-day shipment of strawberries – 180 rail boxcar loads – picked by 15,000 workers between one sunrise and sunset as well as a historic festival that began as early as 1926.

Florida began its festival four years later in Plant City, which claims to be the winter strawberry capital of the world. Lasting more than 11 days with about half a million visitors, the Florida festival is not only huge but also the earliest of the year, sometimes starting as early as late February.

You-pick-it farms help promote
local economy.

Rather than being satisfied with attending a festival, many strawberry fans visit a you-pick-it farm to select fresh berries each season. Strawberry associations in states such as North Carolina help by providing strawberry farm locators online.

When I was searching for a “strawberry event” to attend, I became interested in finding the world’s largest strawberry at The Berry Patch near Ellerbe, NC (population of 1,021), and I made it my destination one day. Because The Berry Patch, which began as a small strawberry farm in 1995, is owned by a family whose last name appropriately is Berry, I thought that it should be worth the trip.

The world's largest strawberry (actually an ice cream stand) at The Berry Patch in Ellerbe, NC

All homemade -- but
strawberry tops the list.

What I found was not a farm but an ice cream stand in the shape of a huge strawberry about 20 feet tall. When I arrived, several people were waiting in line to place their orders while others who had already been served were walking with cones or cups and looking over fresh produce from the local area for sale in the market area. Although The Berry Patch offers 19 homemade flavors, why pick any other than strawberry? It was definitely a winner and the most popular choice.

Although easily seen from the highway,
signs point to the new location.

The Berry Patch is easily seen from the highway although it had been in a much more visible location near the Berry’s farm. The N.C. state government took that property by eminent domain to construct Interstate 73-74, and Lee Berry, the owner, had to move the huge strawberry stand, which had been built in 2002, two miles north to keep serving his customers, many who are on their way to or from the beach.  It took eight hours to get the four-ton berry stand onto a mover’s truck. Because it was so wide and no traffic could pass, state troopers had to escort it on the slow journey to the new location.

Market area with local produce

Visiting the “world’s largest strawberry” was well worth the trip because the homemade ice cream is excellent. It clearly surpasses a competing “world’s largest strawberry” claimed by Strawberry Point, Iowa, (population 1,463) that is only 15 feet high and stands in front of the town’s city hall without any homemade strawberry ice cream to offer. Knowing that the 20-foot berry stand required a police escort for its move made it that much more noteworthy to visit.

A Burger Fit for Aunt Bee

Want to eat at an old-fashioned place with time-honored values that seems to thrive even as its town has fallen on hard times? Then travel to Siler City, a historic railroad town with about 8,000 residents in a farming community in the center of North Carolina. The town where Aunt Bee (Frances Bavier) retired after starring on The Andy Griffith Show, Siler City is better known as the home of Johnson’s Drive-In.

Johnson’s Drive-In has a history of satisfying customers for more than 65 years. It is the choice for many Southerners traveling on U.S. 421 or U.S. 64 that slices through the town. Now a four-lane road with constant traffic, U.S. 64 was a gravel road when the drive-in was opened by Leonard and Christine Johnson in 1946.

Claxton Johnson, son of the late founders, was on the grill when I arrived. Several customers, standing by a wall, were chatting in small groups and with others in the drive-in that they recognized. Although a few just wanted to order food to go, most were waiting for a place to sit because all 12 seats at the counter as well as the booths by the front window were occupied. As I waited, a long-time local customer clued me in on the restaurant’s history. I was lucky only 10 people were waiting; if the day had not been rainy, the drive-in would have been more crowded.

After a brief wait, I took a stool at the counter next to a lady who travels between Raleigh and Salisbury; this visit was the first time in many attempts that she was able to get a seat. Now that I was only an arm’s length from Johnson, I could observe the master at work. His focus on cooking 12 patties at a time was interrupted by only an occasional greeting from a familiar face. Each burger starts as a hunk of Western grain-fed, USDA-choice beef (the second highest rating after prime) that Johnson presses into a patty after it has withstood the initial sizzling hot surface.

After the only flip, he adds a slab of Velveeta cheese, just cut from a block by the grill. Before taking each patty off the grill, he adds half of the bun for a few moments before laying the patties on the rest of the buns lined in a row at the next station on wax paper and dressed to the customers' orders (with lettuce, tomato, slaw, chili, or other fixin's). As Johnson moves about the grill, family members weave around each other behind the counter without speaking like a dance ensemble that knows each other’s every move in advance.

Open only four hours on Tuesdays through Saturdays, Johnson’s Drive-In (which no longer serves outside but still retains drive-in in its name) is definitely a place no one should arrive late. After the meat bought that morning is gone, the drive-in closes. All fixin’s are also bought fresh in the morning, and nothing is saved for the next day.

As I left, Daniel Routh, known for guitar and vocals with the bluegrass group Nu-Blu that has won the Carolina Music Award for Country Band of the Year, rang up my bill. In 2006 Routh married Johnson’s daughter Carolyn, who has worked in the restaurant all her life and continues the family’s dedication to good food started by her grandfather, who was working at the restaurant only a few hours before he passed in 1985.

Although business at Johnson’s is thriving, Siler City has been beset by several economic problems best illustrated by the closing in 2011 of a poultry plant by Townsends Inc., the town’s largest employer, and the loss of more than 600 jobs. One way that the town has sought to recover from the impacts of such major declines has been to reinvent itself as a hub of creative arts. It is now capitalizing on the economic value of arts-based small businesses and is serving as the home to the N.C. Arts Incubator. However, Johnson himself makes a more significant statement about the economic value of community pride and the benefits of no-frills hard work and excellent service that provides continuity for customers as well as his family in his small town setting.

However, as Aunt Bee might have known, the importance of Siler City is not just the arts (and the monthly Third Friday Artwalk from 6 to 9 pm). It is the sense of community and family shared by many as they eat at Johnson’s. Rather than retire to her native New York City or glamorous Hollywood or Mount Airy (considered by many to be the fictional town of Mayberry, where close friendships in the community were paramount), she chose a small town in central North Carolina, where she fell in love with "all the pretty roads and the trees." When she died in 1989, she was buried in the Siler City’s Oakwood Cemetery, only a few minutes away from the establishment known for its hometown atmosphere, traditional family values and delicious burgers.

Although modern enough to have a page on Facebook, Johnson’s continues to serve old-fashioned burgers in a time-honored tradition that would have made Aunt Bee as proud as the local residents and the current travelers who stop for good food in a family setting.