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The Times

1896

Plessy v. Ferguson: The Supreme Court rules that “separate but equal” public facilities for whites and blacks are legal. Related Link

1898

Coup d'état in Wilmington removes biracial elected government.

1900

North Carolina Democratic Party campaigns on platform to improve public schools and to complete disfranchisement of black voters.

1901

Durham City limits quadruple in size.

Lincoln Hospital opens for African Americans.

1902

N.C. disfranchisement amendment comes into law.

1903

The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. DuBois is published.

Lincoln School of Nursing opens.

Most Durham County white students live within five miles of a high school.

1905

President Teddy Roosevelt speaks at Trinity College. Related Link

1906

Atlanta Race Riot occurs.

NC Mutual and Provident Association opens the Parrish Street office. Related Link

1907

Mechanics and Farmers Bank founded.

The Negro Rural School Fund, usually referred to as the Jeanes Fund, is incorporated.

Anna T. Jeanes Fund chartered.

1908

Durham High School for whites is ranked one of the best in the state.

1909

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) founded.

North Carolina Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs founded.

1910

Dr. James E. Shepard founds National Religious Training School and Chautauqua.

1911

Booker T. Washington calls Durham “a city of Negro enterprise.” Related Link

1912

Julian Carr, school board chair, gets big bond passed to build new (white) schools.

W. E. B. DuBois writes an article entitled “The Upbuilding of Black Durham.” Related Link

Whitted School, the black city school, expands to eight grades and is called a "colored high school."

1913

State Department of Public Instruction creates associate supervisor of rural education position to "promote Negro education" (paid for by General Education Board and Jeanes Fund) and hires N. C. Newbold for the position.

State legislature enacts six-month term minimum and compulsory education for 8-14-year-olds. 

Lowes Grove and Bahama open farm life schools to encourage rural students to attend school. Lowes Grove has dormitories for students.

Dr. Aaron Moore organizes what will become the Durham Colored Library. Related Link

1914

World War I begins in Europe.

General Education Board and US Dept of Agriculture fund Jeanes teachers to work during the summer with homemaker clubs.

Julius Rosenwald gives $30,000 to build schools in seven southern states, including North Carolina.

1915

Frank T. Husband becomes Durham County’s first Jeanes supervising teacher.

National Religious Training School and Chautauqua becomes the National Training School.

Film Birth of A Nation opens.

First Rosenwald Fund school is built in North Carolina at Warren Grove in Chowan County.

1916

Durham Colored Library becomes part of city library, a public facility.

Durham Business League founded (local chapter of group founded by Booker T. Washington).

Annie Wealthy Holland is hired as Newbold’s assistant to coordinate and supervise Jeanes teachers’s activities. Paid by Jeanes Fund and North Carolina Teachers Association (an African-American teachers’ organization) until 1921.

Orange County Training School opens for blacks in Orange County. Durham County has no training school (the term whites use for high schools for blacks).

1917

Mattie N. Day becomes Durham County’s second Jeanes supervising teacher.

The US enters World War I “to make the world safe for democracy” April 6, 1917.

Whitted School, the city school for blacks, adds grades 9 and 10.

The “Great Migration” of blacks out of the South affects Durham. Dr. Aaron Moore and C. C. Spaulding meet with Durham Chamber of Commerce on the “problem” of black migration, and Southern University Commission on Race Relations meets in Raleigh on problem of black labor shortage.

North Carolina has thirty-five Jeanes teachers, the most of any state.

Julius Rosenwald Fund charted to construct schools for African-Americans.

Spanish influenza hits Durham.

Thousands of blacks gather at Durham County Courthouse to send off black soldiers.

Race riot in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

1919

Durham’s first Rosenwald school built in Rougemont, a four-year process.

North Carolina legislature passes a law that high schools must have a 12th grade.

North Carolina legislature passes a child labor law raising legal working age to fourteen.

In the “Red Summer,” race riots occurred in 26 cities including Chicago, Washington, DC, Omaha, Knoxville, and in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Texas B. Ritchie comes to Durham to organize a local branch of the Loyal Order of the Klansmen. 

Scarborough Home (later nursery) opens a shelter for destitute families and children.

Rosenwald Fund moves from Tuskegee and from black control to white control.

1920

Amendment for women’s suffrage passes. Not ratified by North Carolina Legislature.

Before the fall election, 55 African-American women register to vote.

Innocent black Durham man lynched for alleged assault of girl in Person County. A $400 reward is offered for any news of those who were members of the lynch mob. No one responds.

YWCA for white women opens.

Julius Rosenwald Fund opens its office in Nashville, Tennessee, with Samuel L. Smith as director. Publishes community school plans. Related Link

1921

Division of Negro Education formed by legislation in North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. N. C. Newbold, associate supervisor of rural education in the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction,  becomes a state employee. W. F. Credle hired to be supervisor of the Rosenwald Fund. George E. Davies hired to work with black community.

Mutual Building and Loan Association organized.

West and East End schools and Whitted School burn. Some think it is arson, to get new school buildings.

National Religious Training School and Chautauqua becomes North Carolina College for Negroes with mission to train black teachers.

Tulsa, Oklahoma Race Riot occurs.

New Carnegie library for whites is built.

Boll weevil infestation sweeps the Carolinas.

1922

The Colored Voters League is formed in Durham.

High school courses at the 7th grade level are offered at two of the county’s black schools.

The county has three high schools for white students.

1923

Carrie T. Jordan becomes Durham’s third Jeanes supervising teacher.

The National Training School becomes Durham State Normal School.

The city of Durham’s Hillside Park High School is the first black high school in the state to be granted a class “A” rating.

County pays for county students who have completed the 7th grade to attend Hillside Park High school or the National Training School. Must provide own transportation.

Library buys a bookmobile for white rural schools and communities.

Harriet Tubman YMCA for African Americans opens after four years of work.

1924

The Child Labor Commission Report notes that Durham County has one of the best records in the state with respect to child labor conditions.

United Daughters of the Confederacy places statue of a Confederate soldier on the Durham courthouse lawn.

Town limits expanded; Durham now fourth largest city in state.

National Negro Finance Cooperation founded, formerly Durham Commercial.

Fire destroys Lincoln Hospital.

1925

New Lincoln Hospital opens and becomes supported in part by Durham County government.

Only 25% of blacks own their farms.

Durham State Normal School changes name to North Carolina College for Negroes and becomes a liberal arts college (later North Carolina Central University).

1926

Gertrude Taylor becomes Durham’s fourth Jeanes supervising teacher.

Daisy E. Scarborough Day Nursery opens for black children.

Biltmore Hotel opens in Hayti, a black section of Durham.

1927

One third of black babies in Durham die in first year of life. Sixty-four percent of blacks die before age 40.

Fact-finding conference on the status of blacks takes place in Durham. Attended by W. E. B. Dubois, Alice Dunbar Nelson, and Georgia Douglas Johnson.

1928

Hillside High School is the only site for black county students to complete high school.

State Board of Health and Durham City and County pay the salary of a black dentist for school children. White school children have had a dentist since 1919.

Rosenwald begins to phase out school-building program.

The four-thousandth Rosenwald School, Berry O’Kelly Training School, opens in Method, in Wake County.

Mr. Rosenwald visits Durham and tours most of the Rosenwald schools.

1929

Great Depression starts.

1930

Last two Rosenwald schools built in Durham County.

Mill Grove School adds all high school classes for county students, in addition to its elementary classes.




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