Chowan Discovery Group

WHAT A PARTY WE HAD for CHOWAN DISCOVERY!

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Carol Joice-Jones, grilling burgers and half smokes high above Maryland.

Fantastic weather, a sunset view on the 20-story high roof, grilled half-smokes (a DC favorite), unusually delicious veggie burgers, bacon-flavored hamburgers, corn-and-black bean salad, rum cakes, a towering coffee-and-chocolate cake; and door prizes.  See the photographs here.

We will continue to throw this event in June so we can enjoy the early summer weather.  As for Chowan Discovery’s work, by the end of this month, we will surpass last year’s count of 11 presentations, which are mostly free to the public.  This year, we have presented to 5 student groups, including the student body of the Winton Triangle’s C.S. Brown STEM High School.  Another North Carolina Highway Historical Marker is coming later this year, making a total of 7!

We continue to earn the wonderful support you have given us!

Chowan Discovery’s Achievement Report for 2016

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So much has happened since Marvin’s first presentations in 2007 and the Winton Triangle stage production in 2009.  Over fifty presentations, seven articles, seven broadcast appearances, six highway historical markers, three films, three murals and one award are among Chowan Discovery’s achievements prior to 2017.  Here is our record for 2016:

Public Presentations

February: “A Chowanoke History” at Mt Pleasant Baptist Church in Harrellsville NC 
February: “Haiti’s Forts of Freedom” at the U.S. Park Service in Reston VA – closed event.
March: Showing the film The Campaigns of Molly Hundley at the Historical Society of Washington, Washington DC
April: Hosted the annual Chowan Discovery Fundraiser, Rockville MD
May: The new lecture, “Loyal Southerners” at Rock Creek Nature Center in Washington DC
September: “The Winton Triangle’s Civil War” at the Greenbelt Library in Greenbelt MD, hosted by C.R. Gibbs.
October: showing of the film The Campaigns of Molly Hundley and panel presentation on highway historical markers, at ASALH annual conference (Association for the Study of African American Life and History), Richmond VA
November: The new lecture, “Haiti and the Civil War” at Rock Creek Nature Center in Washington DC
November: “The Winton Triangle” for the Middle Peninsula Afro American Genealogical and Historical Society in Tappahannock VA
December: “Pleasant Plains School’s 150 Years” at Pleasant Plains Baptist Church, Winton, NC
December: The new lecture, “Memories of Mrs. Katie A. Hart”, Cultivator Bookstore, Murfreesboro NC

Publications:

– An essay, “Rebirth on the Chowan”, We Will Always Be Here, edited by Dr. Denise A. Bates, published by the University of Florida Press, May 2016
– “Foreword”, From Hilltown to Strieby by Margo Lee Williams, Backintyme Publishing, July 2016.

Recognition:

Placing Pleasant Plains Schoolhouse (a Rosenwald school) on the National Register for Historic Places, July, 2016

Final Note: It is important to recognize the efforts that were not ultimately successful: Chowan Discovery applied for a grant for a Winton Triangle photography project, and two marker nominations.  Despite this, the number of presentations for 2017 are set to exceed those of 2016.  More to come!

(For activities of previous years, visit the archives of the News and Events pages.)

Presentations on Pleasant Plain School and Katie M. Hart

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Pleasant Plains Trustee McCoy Pierce, Joanna Braswell and Marvin T. Jones at church fellowship hall.

 

Chowan Discovery took part in two programs on Dec 11, 2016 in Hertford County.  The first was was to celebrate three milestones at Pleasant Plains Church: its 165th anniversary, the 150th anniversary year of the founding of its school – Pleasant Plains School, and the school’s placement on the National Register of Historic Places.  After the service conducted by Pastor W. Robert Ashe, the church served a meal in the fellowship hall where Marvin T. Jones recounted the history of the school and the process of putting it on the Register.   Historic preservation consultant Joanna Braswell of Smithfield, Virginia was acknowledged for her valuable contribution to the nomination.

Chowan Discovery thanks Church Trustee McCoy Pierce,  Deacon Dr. Terry Hall, Reverend Ashe and the congregation of Pleasant Plains for making the day possible.

Mrs. Katie M. Hart in 1969.

Shortly after, the Cultivator Bookstore in Murfreesboro hosted a Chowan Discovery presentation about Mrs. Katie M. Hart.  She  founded and ran the Hertford County Colored Public Library from 1938 to 1969.  It was the only public library for people of color in northeastern North Carolina during the jim crow era.

Mrs. Hart, then a teacher supervisor, on her own, began a small library for people of color in 1931. In 1938, she began a bookmobile service and within a few years opened a library building in Winton.   Her bookmobile served Hertford and Gates counties, and her books were available to all people.  Mrs. Hart retired in 1969 at the time her library merged with the Albemarle Regional Library.  The talk/slide presentation has many images of Mrs. Hart, her bookmobile, library, home and gravesite. Included are an interview  with Dr. Dudley Flood and reminisces taken from Ben Watford, John Eley, Jacqueline Vann Jones and Shawnee Smith Ball.  Mr. Eley, a piano student of Mrs. Hart, attended.

Mrs. Hart’s 1938 bookmobile.

Chowan Discovery is thankful to Barbara Boone Buescher for sending information about Mrs. Hart and her mother; and to Caroline Stephenson and Jochen Kunstler of Cultivator for the invitation to present.

Two Chowan Discovery Presentations at ASALH

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Panelists Dr. Rhonda L. Jones, Dr. Sandra Jowers-Barber and Marvin T. Jones.

In October 2016, the 101st conference of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History took place in Richmond.  Dr. Rhonda L. Jones and Dr. Sandra Jowers-Barber invited Marvin T. Jones to their panel, Documenting, Idenifying and Marking Hallowed Spaces.  Jones’ presentation was on highway historic markers called “Curbside Classroom: Demystifying the Process of Highway Historical Markers” and was based on Chowan Discovery’s experience in successfully nominating six North Carolina Highway Historical Markers. This presentation was first given at an Afro American Genealogical and Historical Society conference in Greensboro in 2012.

The Chowan Discovery-produced film, The Campaigns of Molly Hundley, was also shown.  At conferences like ASALH, frequently friends gather and this was no less true.  CDG advisor and friend, Dr. Arwin D. Smallwood, led a group of students and faculty from A&T University where he is chairman of the history department.

Marvin and Chowan Discovery want to thank Drs. Jones and Jowers-Barber for the invitation!

Dr. Smallwood (l) with his group and Jones.

Pleasant Plains School on the National Register!

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(L-r) Scott Powers, intern and Reid Thomas of the NC Office of Historic Preservation hear Pleasant Plains Church Trustee McCoy Pierce tell of his experiences of Pleasant Plains Schoolhouse when it was a community center.

June 2016: A nomination put forth by Chowan Discovery, historic preservation consultant Joanna Braswell and Pleasant Plains Baptist Church has resulted in the placing of Pleasant Plains School on the National Register of Historic Places.  This was just in time for the 150th anniversary of the school’s founding!

The school was founded in 1866 by Pleasant Plains Baptist Church.  Among the builders of the first school house were Marmaduke Hall, James Reynolds and church founders Jesse Keene, Willis Weaver and William Jones Sr.  William David Newsom, who later served in the N.C. House of Representatives, was the first teacher.  Within 30 years, Pleasant Plains School and its leaders were the parents of four other schools: Union School, Cotton School, Walden School and the everlasting C.S. Brown School. Within a few years of the school’s founding, it began part of the Hertford County public school system although the church continued to own the land up to now.

Historic preservation consultant Joanna Braswell researching land records at the Hertford County Courthouse in 2015.

Before the nomination process began, N.C. State Office of Historic Preservation agents, Scott Powers and Reid Thomas, visited the current Pleasant Plains School house and community.  This school house, which succeeded the 1866 one, is a Rosenwald building funded in 1920.  The school closed in 1950 and the church bought the 3-room schoolhouse from the Hertford County public school system for one dollar in 1951.

After making repairs to the schoolhouse, Pleasant Plains Church added in-house plumbing, gas heating electricity, a kitchen and a bathroom.  Playground equipment was purchased for the grounds.  Pleasant Plains Schoolhouse then became a community center and fellowship hall, hosting Vacation Bible School programs, the Pleasant Plains Boy Scouts, family reunions, teas, parties, picnics, activities for the Hertford County Office of Aging, and a summer camp for a Washington, D.C. school.

The is the Pleasant Plains Schoolhouse funded in part by the Rosenwald Foundation in 1920. The first schoolhouse was built in 1866.

Joanna Braswell, a consultant from Smithfield, Virginia, provided guidance, historical research, architectural assessments and the final writing for the nomination.  Using interviews with former students and document research, most of the nomination’s history section was produced by Marvin T. Jones of Chowan Discovery.  Part of the research included support for the documentary film ROSENWALD.   Jones met several times with the film’s director Aviva Kempner, contributed a blog post about Pleasant Plains School, and spoke to theater audiences at the first public showings of the film.  Jones also presented the school’s history at the second National Rosenwald Schools Conference in Durham.

Support for this milestone was made possible by support  from the Pleasant Plains Baptist Church deacon and trustees boards, led by Reverend W. Robert Ashe, Deacon Dr. Terry Hall and Trustee McCoy Pierce, and the Chowan Discovery donors, volunteers and advisors.

Ahoskie Main Street Public Art Project

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WhitesMurual_001Mural: Whites Department Store (2014) – 5.5 ft x 22 ft

Artists: Gary Johnson and Marvin Ryan; Art Coordinator: James Messer, all of the Roanoke Chowan Community College

Wall Owner – Jamie Johnson; wall location is on Mitchell Street at Main Street, Ahoskie, NC.

Funders: Ace Hardware Ahoskie & Murfreesboro, Evans Johnson, and the Chowan Discovery Group

The mural wall is the 3-story former Garrett Building which was a hotel and a furniture store dating back to the 1920’s. The Whites Department Store mural is taken from a 1960’s photograph that currently resides at the Ahoskie Chamber of Commerce.

The Whites Department Store was constructed in 1956 for property owner Mary Saluda Hall and is still in use by another tenant.  The contractor was Thomas Newsome of Ahoskie, who also constructed the New Ahoskie Baptist Church.  White’s is long remembered for its hot dog counter.