The daughter of a formerly enslaved man, Ethel Bryant was born on October 21, 1934, in Washington, North Carolina. She was rebellious at times while growing up during the Jim Crow era. She was a member of the first graduating class from P.S. Jone High School in 1952. Bryant’s musical talents were many. She was …
Born in 1941 in Edgecombe County, NC, Gladys Johnson proudly says she is “85 plus.” She grew up working on her father’s farm, who was a tenant farmer, along with her other ten siblings. She marched with civil rights protestors while a student at Fayetteville State University in the 60’s and then went on to …
Joneice Carroll was born in Washington, NC, in 1954. She credits her tight-knit family for preparing her for the challenging road ahead as a Black woman. Racism was no stranger to her as a child and throughout her adult life. And despite these challenges, she became a teacher for 34 years and, for the last …
At 83, Charles Oden has touched many lives. Growing up just east of Washington, NC, he recalled as a child playing in the dirt, sand, and mud, and working his father’s tobacco field. Little did he know that he would go on to spend 40 years in education, many of which were as a middle …
On a gorgeous Spring day, 94-year-old Loraine Mason, 83-year-old-Milbert Whitley, and 79-year-old Yvonne McClure gathered to share their heartfelt stories of growing up in Pantego, North Carolina, and their life journeys, which eventually brought them back home once again.
Born in 1948, Reginald Willis grew up in the rural community of Blounts Creek, North Carolina, where he still resides today. He says his work on the family farm as a child taught him how to survive, as it meant rising at 4:30 in the morning and not stopping until dusk. After graduating from the …
Listen to our latest interview for the Black Oral Histories of Beaufort County project. blackoralhistories.blubrry.com. Born on July 3, 1946, in Pantego, North Carolina, Wayland Whitley has pretty much seen it all in his life. As a child child he helped to work the land on his father’s farm, and he and his siblings helped …
Born in 1933, 92-year-old Ledell Moore grew up in a small two-room house with her five other siblings in Blounts Creek, NC. She never wore shoes in the summer, and when the only pair she got for school in the fall wore out, her dad would use hog rings to patch them up. And, despite …
Born in 1949, Joyce O’Neal grew up in Belhaven, NC. As a child, she experienced segregation and racism firsthand and admits to being a bit rebellious at times with some of the things she encountered. She credits her success in life to those who recognized her potential and helped to get where she needed to …
Luther Harvey was born in rural Beaufort County in 1946. He has seen and experienced so much in his first 79 years. He says nothing in his life was planned, “it just sort of happened.” Harvey says his parents and a lot of other good Black folks“taught him right,” but the one thing that changed …