Chowan Discovery Group

“Beginnings of African American Literacy” told in Richmond

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This presentation was well-received at the 2017 Black History Conference of the Afro American Genealogical and Historical Society chapters of Washington, D. C. and Maryland.  Marvin T. Jones will tell the stories about how African Americans gained literacy and skills against all odds and how school records are aids to genealogical research.  He will also show how those starting from illiteracy rose to great heights.  Among notable people in the presentation are Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Myrilla Miner and Julius Rosenwald.  Among the Winton Triangle examples included in Jones’ speech are Winton Librarian Katie M. Hart, Pleasant Plains School and Calvin Scott Brown School.

This presentation is co-hosted by the Greater Richmond Chapter of Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc. (AAHGS).

Winton Triangle History in Tuscon!

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Marvin T. Jones presents photographs, maps and narrative of his community’s 275 year-old history of landowning mixed-race people in North Carolina’s Hertford County area.  The written history of the Winton Triangle begin in 1584 when the English first learn about the area.  The three main towns of the Triangle are Winton, Cofield and Ahoskie. The Winton Triangle’s story is that of a new people who cobbled success and identity despite colonization, wars, slavery and discrimination.  Jones uses maps, documents and photographs to tell this 400+ year old story.  This presentation has been given many times in North Carolina – of course –  in Virginia, Maryland, Chicago, Tennesee, New York, West Virginia, and is now going across the Rockies.

 

Barbea Williams Performing Company and Family
Dunbar Pavilion – BWPC Dance and Art Academy
325 West 2nd Street, Tucson, AZ

Keynote speech by Marvin T. Jones

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Marvin T. Jones is the keynote speaker at the 2017 Black History Month Genealogy Conference (BHM) hosted by the State of Maryland and Washington DC chapters of the Afro-American Historical & Genealogical Society, Inc. (AAHGS) and the African- American Special Interest Group, Washington DC Family History Center.  The conference is scheduled for Saturday February 4, 2017 from 8:30 AM to 5:00 PM at the Laurel Family History Center. The theme for the 2017 conference is “From the Archives to the Classroom with African-American Genealogy: The Crucial Role of Education in the History of African Americans.”  Among the topics of Jones’ speech are Winton Librarian Katie M. Hart, Pleasant Plains School and C.S. Brown School.

This is a free conference where people can learn about advances in genealogy.  After January 6, please register at aaghs-conf2017@wdcfhc.org

The AAHGS State of Maryland and Washington DC Chapters along with the African American Special Interest Group at the Washington DC Family History Center are able to provide opportunities for researchers to come together for education and training from family history research basics to breaking brick walls, as we embrace the role of education in the history of African Americans.
 
 

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.

Preservation – saving Dr. Brown’s grave.

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In the sun again, visitors can view Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Scott Brown without bending under the branches of the cedar - its stump is lower right. (MTJ photo)
In the sun again, visitors can view Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Scott Brown without bending under the branches of the cedar – its stump is lower right. (MTJ photo)

For years, the graves of Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Scott Brown were threatened by a full-size cedar tree. There were fears that the cedar would eventually fall during a storm and either uproot the Browns’ graves or break the 6-foot high monument.  At the request of Chowan Discovery, Dr. Michael D. Perry, Superintendent of Hertford County Public Schools, quickly had the tree cut down.  For the first time in years, people can view the graves and monument under the open sky.  Thank you much, Dr. Perry!

Dr. and Mrs. Brown are the educational founders of what was Chowan Academy, later Waters Training School and now C.S. Brown High School in Winton, NC.  The school was launched by the efforts of local Baptist leaders of color who formed the Chowan Educational Association.  The Association owned Waters Training School until 1924 when it became part of the Hertford County public school system.  What was Chowan Academy in 1886 is now 128 years old.  C.S. Brown High now is a STEM school (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math).