Good morning, readers.
Why does local history matter?
That question was the theme of historian Jean Bradley Anderson’s 100th birthday party at the Durham County Library last month. The occasion celebrated not just an impressive birthday but also an impressive career in studying Durham’s past.
The celebration was supposed to end with an audience Q&A. But instead of asking questions, most of the audience members who took the mic simply thanked Anderson for her work. (“Librarians are not supposed to have favorite researchers, but I think if I were pressed you might be well up there at the top,” said a UNC librarian.)
When I sat down with Anderson two weeks after the party, she reflected on how much the area has changed since she moved here in 1955.
“There were really only two kinds of people: the town and the gown,” Anderson says. “The town was largely factory workers…cotton mills had mostly white workers, tobacco had largely Black.”
And since Anderson published her magnum opus—the nearly 600-page A History of Durham County—in 1990, the Triangle has become one of the fastest growing spots in the nation.
She doesn’t love all the new construction:
“In the 1900s…if someone took it upon himself to build a bank, he made it as beautiful as he could make it. Whereas today, you make it as cheaply as you can make it,” Anderson said.
But she welcomes the new residents and hopes they take the time to really get to know the place and its history.
“Talk to the locals and get a clue,” she says. “[Local history] deepens your understanding of the people there, and why things are there, and everything gels into a rational and understandable situation. And you…begin to feel that that’s your place and that you have a place, that you are not floating around.”
Have a good Tuesday.
—Chase
Durham
Habitat for Humanity Durham will host a youth build event next month.
Wake
The City of Raleigh is sponsoring a public art project to deter graffiti.
Parents are calling for the resignation of the East Wake High School principal.
Orange
Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools has narrowed down the focus for its bond plan.
North Carolina
NC Board of Elections officials are testifying about third party ballot access.
Today’s weather
Sunny with a high of 92 degrees, a chance of storms.
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