Press Releases

An example that the pen is mightier than the sword is journalist Louis Austin, who advocated for and advanced social justice and civil rights as publisher of the “Carolina Times” newspaper in Durham. The Halifax County native will be recognized with a N.C.

When most people think of the first landing of a man on the moon, they don’t think of a behind the scenes bureaucrat, but there was James E. Webb.

William Gould was a plasterer in Wilmington who escaped from slavery with seven other men via the Cape Fear River. They were picked up by the USS Cambridge and joined the Union Navy.

 A king of the swing era of big band music, Kay Kyser, will be recognized with a N.C. Highway Historical Marker, Oct. 5, at 4 p.m. in his hometown. Kyser was born in Rocky Mount and went on to become perhaps the best-known bandleader in America. The marker dedication will be at First United Methodist Church Annex, 273 Sunset Ave., Rocky Mount, N.C. It will be. followed by a musical performance at the Imperial Centre at 270 Gay St. in Rocky Mount.

The Ku Klux Klan planned a rally near Hayes Pond in Maxon, N.C. Jan. 18, 1958, with the intent of intimidating the area’s Lumbee Indians. Locals learned of the plans and decided to confront the Klan. As part of the annual Lumbee homecoming celebration, a North Carolina Highway Historical Marker will be dedicated July 5 to commemorate that Robeson County encounter. The 3 p.m. marker dedication will be part of a commemorative program that starts at noon. The dedication will be at the intersection of NC Highway 130 and Hayes Pond Road.

Irish-born James Gillespie eventually settled in Duplin County and became active in the fight for freedom from British rule. During the Revolutionary War he was a militiaman, advancing to the rank of colonel.

He was the most feared of captains during the Golden Age of Piracy, and in June 1718, four vessels under his command sailed into what was then Topsail Inlet (now Beaufort). Blackbeard’s flagship, Queen Anne’s Revenge (QAR), became stranded in the inlet’s shallow water. To commemorate the effective end of a piratical career, a North Carolina Highway History Marker will be dedicated Thursday, June 7, 1 p.m., near the entrance on the drive into Fort Macon at Atlantic Beach.

A community of Jewish immigrants was recruited to settle in rural eastern North Carolina at one of six colonies envisioned and financed by Wilmington’s Hugh MacRae, beginning early in the 1900s. He hoped to recreate the close-knit rural communities of Europe.

The N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, requests the public’s help in locating a missing historical marker about B. Everett Jordan.

The Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, which manages the North Carolina Highway Historical Marker Program, requests the public’s help in locating a missing historical marker. The marker was located on Lejeune Boulevard adjacent to the base in Jacksonville and it detailed the history of Camp Lejeune.