GREENSBORO, N.C. — Greensboro residents have an opportunity to help chronicle African American history as part of an effort to add a Triad neighborhood to the National Register of Historic Places.
What You Need To Know
- The City of Greensboro and several partner organizations are asking residents of the South Benbow Road area to help document African American history
- They are scanning memorabilia into the historical record to support the area’s nomination to the National Register of Historic Places
- Anyone interested in contributing to the project can contact UNCG Associate Professor and Digitization Coordinator, David Gwynn here or at jdgwynn@uncg.edu
The City of Greensboro and several partner organizations are asking residents of the South Benbow Road area to share memorabilia that can be scanned into the historical record and support the nomination to the national register. UNCG Associate Professor and Digitization Coordinator, David Gwynn said they are interested in everything from past political rallies to opening presents on Christmas morning.
“This particular neighborhood is specifically important because a lot of the major players in the civil rights movement in Greensboro were from this neighborhood. They were living in the houses in this neighborhood, patronizing the businesses, going to the many churches,” Gwynn said. “There’s a lot of history in this neighborhood and in this whole quadrant of the city that we think it’s important to make it available.”
Sharon Graeber grew up in the area and attended a community scanning session for the project. She became a registered architect in the late 1980s, a time when she said there were only 40 Black female registered architects in the country. Graeber explained that the people who called the South Benbow Road area home affected both her life and the area at large.
“They always say ‘see it, be it.’ That was a part of our life. Because these neighborhoods had doctors, they had lawyers, they had dentists, they had educators, and they had civil rights leaders, they had sports figures. So we didn’t have to go searching for people. They were here,” Graeber said.
Graeber, whose parents moved into the neighborhood in the 1950s, brought in several family photo albums to be included in the project. She also brought in a collection of other items from her family’s time in the neighborhood.
“There’s a lot of history in the South Benbow Road area of Greensboro that has not been documented previously. The neighborhood is still really close, but we also have a lot of new people who have moved in that really don’t know the history of the area that they’re moving into,” Graeber said.
Anyone interested in contributing to the project can contact David Gwynn here or by email at jdgwynn@uncg.edu.