history

Durham architect to design museum

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:23:11 -0400

A Durham architect was selected today to help design the new Smithsonian Museum of African American History and Culture on the National Mall.

Philip Freelon and his Freelon Group, along with a team of colleagues, were among six finalists in a competition to design the new Smithsonian museum, which is expected to be one of the most important architectural works in recent years, Barb Barrett reports.

The museum, expected to open in 2015, will include experiences central to the history and culture of North Carolina, a former slave state and the site of such historic civil rights events as the Greensboro sit-in.

Freelon envisions a stone building crowned in shimmering copper, evoking the ancient art of West Africa, the American struggle for equality and the joy of the African-American communal experience.

Freelon , whose firm formed a team with three other companies, said in an interview last month that the group wanted a museum that was "both dignified and exuberant."

"We tried to let the site tell us what it wants to be," Freelon said at the time. "We know we want this building to be more than a vessel that holds exhibits, not just a beautiful building but one that is part of the themes of what the museum will be."

Miller move helps historic buildings

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 09:14:03 -0400

A new public lands bill includes a provision to save historic landmarks.

President Obama signed the bill into law Monday. It includes a provision from U.S. Rep. Brad Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, to preserve landmarks around the country.

Miller and Republican Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio have pushed a preservation bill for the past year. It would have put congressional authority behind two existing programs, Save America's Treasures and Preserve America.

After the bill was blocked in the Senate, its provisions were added to the public lands bill.

The provision authorizes $300 million during the next four years for two grants programs: One on preserving historic buildings, the other for tourism and education.

In North Carolina, a Save America's Treasures grant is already being used to preserve the Woolworth building that was home of the Greensboro sit-in. (N&O)

More on the first GOP mayor

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:17:08 -0400

Want to know more about the first GOP mayor of Raleigh?

Here's a snippet from "Historical Raleigh," a 1913 history by Moses Neal Amis on Joseph W. Holden, who beat Tom Fetzer to the punch by more than a century:

(Gov. William W. Holden's) eldest son was Joseph W. Holden, who was Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives in 1868, 1869 and 1870, and enjoyed the reputation of being the most capable officer who had ever occupied that position in this State. He was afterwards elected Mayor of the City of Raleigh. He died at an early age and was undoubtedly one of the most talented men that the State has ever produced. His poem of "Hatteras" was written before he entered politics and this piece of composition will last until the everlasting rocks of Cape Hatteras and time are no more. He died in 1875, aged thirty-one years.

Amis was evidently a fan.

Cuts: N.C. history programs

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 13:42:08 -0400

Two history programs aimed at kids could be cut.

In recent years, the N.C. Department of Cultural Resources has run an annual "History Bowl" tournament for fourth- and eighth-graders.

Starting with local competitions, the teams of students answer questions on North Carolina history, such as how many state-supported Indian tribes there are or who Isaac Hunter was.

The number of students has dropped from 230 in 2003 to 189 in 2008, said spokesman Joe Newberry. By comparison, the Tar Heel Junior Historians, a scholastic competition, and the national History Day celebration were drawing more interest.

The annual competition cost $17,194.

In addition, the department has had a full-time staffer developing N.C. ECHO, a Web site that features links to state historical collections of interest to K-12 students and curious Web surfers. That position paid $67,232.

Gov. Beverly Perdue has proposed ending state support for the History Bowl and eliminating the Web developer, though the site would remain online.

Basnight and Obama talk history

bniolet — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:27:30 -0400

State Senate leader Marc Basnight and Barack Obama spoke briefly before a rally in Raleigh on Wednesday.

Here, according to a Basnight spokesman, is how it went.

Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, said he was from Roanoke Island. Obama immediately knew that was the site of the first English settlement in the New World and site of the Wright Brothers' flight.

Senator Basnight replied, "There's a lot of history there, but I got to make history myself yesterday by voting for you."

Labor comm. race's moment in the sun

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:19:57 -0400

The labor commissioner race is having its moment in the sun.

With Democratic candidates Mary Fant Donnan and John C. Brooks in a runoff next Tuesday for the right to face incumbent Republican Cherie Berry in November, the normally low-profile office is getting a little more attention than usual.

But what does the commissioner do?

As head of the N.C. Department of Labor, the commissioner is responsible for overseeing the health, safety and well-being of more than 4 million workers in the state, including enforcing federal regulations laid down by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

The major divisions including Occupational Safety and Health, which enforces federal worker safety laws; Research and Policy, which compiles labor statistics; and Standards and Inspections, which inspects elevators, amusement park rides, and rock quarries, among other things.

The department also protects workers from discrimination based on genetic testing, service in the National Guard, or filing a workplace complaint, though complaints related to race, gender, etc., are handled by the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The department was started in 1891, when the legislature created the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It's been a full-blown agency since 1931.

Presidential spoilers in N.C. history

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 16:47:17 -0400

There have been five presidential spoilers in N.C. in the last century.

Since 1908, third-party candidates in the presidential race have earned enough votes to affect the race between the Republican and the Democrat on the ballot in 1912, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 1996.

In the first two cases, the third-party candidate came in second.

George Wallace was the most successful, earning 31.3 percent of the state vote in the 1968 race as the nominee of the segregationist American Independent Party. The winner, Republican Richard Nixon, won 39.5 percent, while Democrat Hubert Humphrey came in third with 29.2 percent.

The next most successful was former president Teddy Roosevelt, who ran on the Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party in 1912, earning 28.4 percent. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the state with 59.2 percent, while Republican incumbent William Howard Taft came in third with 12 percent.

In the other races, the third-party candidates came in third, but got more votes than the margin of difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates.

In 1992, Texas businessman Ross Perot earned 13.7 percent of the vote, far more than the 0.79 percent margin that incumbent George H.W. Bush beat Bill Clinton by in North Carolina, despite losing the national race.

Four years later, Perot was roughly half as popular — picking up just 6.7 percent — but he still drew more votes than the 4.7 percent difference between winner Bob Dole and Clinton.

And in 1980, Independent candidate John Anderson won 2.9 percent, slightly more than the 2.1 percent difference between winner Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.

The five closest N.C. presidential races

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:57:12 -0400

Over the past century, North Carolina has rarely been a battleground.

Since 1908, the average margin of victory in the presidential race here has been 18 percentage points, and the median has been 12.4 points.

The closest race out of those 25 elections was Bill Clinton's challenge to incumbent President George H.W. Bush in 1992. As a Southern governor running on the economy, Clinton campaigned heavily in the state, but he was helped by a strong third-party showing by Ross Perot.

Bush only won by 0.79 percentage points, beating Clinton 43.4 to 42.7 percent. (Perot got 13.9 percent of the vote, the third-best showing for a third-party candidate in North Carolina after George Wallace in 1968 and Teddy Roosevelt in 1912.)

The next closest race was 1956, when Democrat Adlai Stevenson edged Dwight Eisenhower by 1.32 percentage points despite losing the national election.

In third place was Ronald Reagan's 2.12 point win over Jimmy Carter in 1980. In fourth place, John Kennedy's 4.22 point win over Richard Nixon in 1960. And in fifth place, Bob Dole's 4.69 point win over Clinton in 1996 despite losing the national election.

Otherwise, North Carolina was reliably Democratic from 1908 to 1964, and reliably Republican from 1968 to 2004 (with the exception of Carter's post-Watergate win in 1976.)

John Hope Franklin's childhood game

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 15:38:36 -0400

John Hope Franklin says Barack Obama's nomination is "amazing."

In a brief interview posted on Duke University's Web site, the 93-year-old renowned historian says that he did not think an African-American nominee for president would happen in his lifetime.

Franklin, who is black, said that he used to joke about it.

My mother and I used to have a game we'd play out in public. She would say if anyone asks what you want to be when you grow up, tell them you want to be the first Negro president of the United States — and just the words were so far-fetched, so incredible that we used to really have fun just saying it.

Franklin, who endorsed Obama in the primary, said he is hesitant to talk about the obstacles.

"Anyone who's lived in the United States 10 minutes knows that they exist," he said. "The question is does he have the capacity and the resources to overcome them?"

Hat Tip: Anne Blythe

Rob's answers to reader questions

ryanteaguebeckwith — Mon, 19 May 2008 10:58:11 -0400

Rob Christensen recently took Dome reader questions on his new book, "The Paradox of Tar Heel Politics."

Here are his answers to a few of those questions:

Is the book you wrote the book you set out to write? If different, how so?

This is pretty much the book I set out to write. I wanted to write the book that I wanted to read: a book that connected the dots, that provided some context, and that involved some story-telling.

In reviewing the period covered, did you have any eureka moments? What were they?

A long the way, there were a number of surprises. Who knew that we almost had a governor lynched or that the first woman candidate for governor was a KGB agent, or that a North Carolina senator was a Nazi sympathizer? But what was most interesting to me is how the same issues play out time and time again. As Harry Truman once remarked, the only thing new in the world is the history you don't know.

Who was the most fascinating unheralded political figure you encountered or learned about?

Gov. O. Gardner, who was elected in 1928. He was a textile plant owner and a lawyer who pretty much invented state government as it exists today. After leaving office, he moved to Washington to become one of the first of the super lobbyists. But for 20 years he continued to run the state from his suite in the Mayflower Hotel.

Is there anyone who in your estimate should have but didn't achieve political success warranted by his or her ability? Who was the most memorable overachiever?

The memorable overachiever was two-term Sen. Robert Reynolds (1932-1944) who won election saying that the sitting senator, Cameron Morrison, a Charlotte plutocrat, ate fish eggs and red Russian fish eggs at that, and wasn't it time to elect a senator who didn't mind eating regular old North Carolina hen eggs.

What would be the subject of a book about N.C. politics that you have no intention of writing?

A boring history of the administration of each governor.