Chowan Discovery Group

Winton Triangle Presentation in Tappahannock, VA

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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.

Hosted by the Middle Peninsula African-American Genealogical and Historical Society of Virginia.

Pleasant Plains School History at Rosenwald Conference

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The 1920 Rosenwald-funded Pleasant Plains School became a community center in the 1950's.
The 1920 Rosenwald-funded Pleasant Plains School became a community center in the 1950’s.

Founded in 1866 by its church, Pleasant Plains School was a result of the Union victory in the Civil War.  Several of the church’s founders were among the builders of the first schoolhouse. In 1920, it was replaced when the Rosenwald Fund provided $350 towards the construction of  the 95 year-old schoolhouse across from the current Plains Pleasant Plains Baptist Church chapel (1951).  The Church and community contributed $750 and much skill and labor.

On June 18, Chowan Discovery’s Marvin T. Jones will present the school’s history at the Second National Rosenwald Schools Conference in Durham.  The presentation will feature photographs and documents (including an 1880 receipt for 12 windows).  While registration for the conference is required, this presentation will shown in the future.  Winton’s Dr. Dudley Flood is the conference keynote speaker, and our friends Caroline Stephenson and Jochen Kustler from Como are showing their latest film about Nansemond County Training School.

 

Race in the Winton Triangle: Symposium at C.S. Brown

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How did race play a role in the Winton Triangle?  Chowan Discovery Group founder and Executive Director, Marvin T. Jones, will discuss this issue at a forum with fellow panelists and the audience at the C.S. Brown Cultural Arts Center in Winton, N.C.  The Winton Triangle’s unusual tri-racial history provided extra dimensions to the usual white v. black descriptions of southern life.  Copies of book, Carolina Genesis: Beyond the Color Line, will be available for signing by Jones.  Jones’ essay in the book gives a history of the Winton Triangle.  Here is a NC Public Radio interview about the the Winton Triangle.

The “Who Are We” forum is hosted by P. Michelle Felton, and is the first James Andrew Felton and Annie Vaughn Felton Symposium.

At the Smithsonian: The Robbins Family at War

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When the Union military invaded northeastern North Carolina February of 1862, the mixed-race Robbins family had already survived colonial wars, near-extinction, racial oppression and other calamities dating back to the 1580’s.  It was during and after the Civil War that the Robbins came into their own, warring in Virginia, South Carolina and Florida.  This is the CDG’s 3rd presentation at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum.

Interview with the Publisher of Carolina Genesis.

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Stacy Webb, the publisher of CAROLINA GENESIS – BEYOND THE COLOR LINE will interview Marvin T. Jones about the Winton Triangle.  This is the fourth broadcast of CDG this year.  The show starts at 4pm EST at http://backintyme.biz/chowan-discovery-group-marvin-t-jones/  Be sure to view the images that scroll on the website, and please share!

New AAGHS chapter hosts the Winton Triangle

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The Montgomery County Chapter of the Afro American Genealogical and Historical Society is in its first year which ends with Marvin T. Jones’s lecture on the Winton Triangle.  Since Chowan Discovery is constantly researching, each Winton Triangle lecture adds new information.  As always, our CDG lectures are full of photographs, stories and new insights into the past of the landowning Mixed Race People of Color in the Hertford County, NC area.