Events

Join us for an evening of powerful storytelling as we honor New Bern’s place in Civil Rights history and reflect on the journey from segregation to integration in our local schools.

Over the years, the AAHCC Oral History series has featured community members who helped open the front doors—and lunch counters—of local businesses like: Kress Department Store, Bob Clark’s Drug Store, The Holiday Inn, A&W Root Beer, and Pollock’s Grocery. We’ve heard from local leaders like, Rev. Mrs. Ethel Sampson, who met Rosa Parks and a young Yolanda King at the 1962 SCLC Conference, Eileen and Dorothy Dove who with their father Oscar Dove, courageously participated in local protests and sit ins and honored Rev. Willie Hickman and Rev. Leon “Buckshot” Nixon, who guided youth activism in New Bern.

This Year’s Focus: The Legacy of J.T. Barber High School

Despite the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling, desegregation was slow and met with resistance. J.T. Barber High School (1956–1970), like many Black schools of the era, operated with limited resources and secondhand books. Nonetheless, the school sent students into the world who would be highly successful in their chosen fields-a testament to the strength and determination of the students, faculty, and community. Among them are doctors, lawyers, consultants and a number who pursued careers in higher education. Some excelled academically, going on to work in medicine, engineering, education, law, and other fields. Others went on to professional sports careers.  We will also hear from students who, as juniors at J.T. Barber in 1970, spent their senior year at the formerly all-white New Bern High School—part of an integration effort that began in 1964 with just four Black students, a full decade after the landmark Supreme Court ruling.

Come listen, learn, and honor the legacy of those who helped shape a more just and inclusive New Bern.