Today, this school building is seemingly ordinary – students with backpacks chat with their friends, struggling to carry their textbooks and school projects, as the busses line up outside on the street. Durham High School, founded in 1922 and now known as Durham School of the Arts, was a crucial site in the…
Education
It is impossible to miss the grand steeple topped with a Haitian vevè and the elegant stained glass windows of the Hayti Heritage Center as…
El Centro Hispano (ECH) was founded in 1992 to advocate for and address the needs of Durham’s growing Latinx and Hispanic community. By 1997, ECH became an independent nonprofit, and in 2000, it was a partner in the opening of the first Latino Community Credit Union (LCCU) in the state. ECH has grown…
Village of Wisdom (VOW) is a Durham community organization that seeks to uplift Black youth by closing the academic opportunity gap between students of different races and cultivating a positive racial self-concept for Black children. To eliminate racial injustice in education, VOW develops resources and…
African American leaders in Durham understood the power of the word. They knew their community needed a safe haven where they could gather to read, learn, and discuss ideas. Thus was born the Durham Colored Library, later renamed as the Stanford L. Warren Library. …
Durham has made a commitment to its youth since the founding of the John Avery’s Boys & Girls club. In the spirit of John Moses Avery, the John Avery Boys & Girls Club reflects a sense of community in Durham for African American youth and Avery’s pursuit for equality of African Americans and enforcement of his beliefs. John Moses Avery…
“What shall we teach our children about race and race relations?” This question from Wallace Nelson, a Cincinnati representative of the Congress for Racial Equality, silenced the Hillside High School Parent-Teacher Association meeting on January 14th, 1952.
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A Ku Klux Klan leader and a civil rights activist becoming best friends? Who would have thought? Certainly not CP Ellis and Ann Atwater, but this is exactly what happened after a meeting was organized to discuss the status of Durham public schools.
CP Ellis was the president of the KKK in Durham and Ann Atwater was a black civil rights…