A Road to the Past

Southeast corner of East Lawson and South Alston streets in Durham North Carolina Central University is the historically black university in Durham, NC. Yes, there is another higher education school in Durham. It is a well-regarded school for a long time, though some policies had unintended consequences. I'll go a little bit into that, but for now, some quick facts about NC Central! Founded: 1909 (but some places on campus and on their website list the founding in 1910) Colors: Maroon and Grey Mascot: Eagles Athletics: NCAA Division 1-AA (yes, I still call it that. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, this is the D1 that has a champion determined with a traditional draw of 24 teams) Students: 6,2585 undergraduates, 1,801 graduates Academics: 78 degrees offered across bachelor's, associates, master's/first professional, and doctoral programs (with a well-regarded law school in NC) For this, I will refer to a couple of book and j

Just north of the northwest corner at South Wilmington and East Morgan in downtown Raleigh Y'all. Get ready for another really short post! The North Carolina Pharmaceutical Association. It's a professional organization for pharmacists in North Carolina, and now known as the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists. But way back when, it was established as the NCPA in 1880, as response to the NC Medical Society. See, what happened was that State Medical Board, as the Legislature was working on pharmaceutical regulation  (page 14), decided to be like "Let the State Legislature handle qualifications".  Context: the North Carolina Medical Board was established about 20 years ago to regulate and license qualified doctors, but no such body existed for pharmacists at this point. So what the Medical Board (i.e., doctors) was basically doing was like "Eh, it'll be fine, let the Legislature handle it. We don't know much about the pharmacists/pharmacy indust

Near the northwestern corner of the intersection of Buckhorn Quarter Road and US 58 (Southampton Parkway) UPDATE! One of my favorite podcasts - More Perfect - did an episode on the Dred Scott case, its political impact, and its impact on the descendants of the affected families! You can find the episode here . Enjoy! ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- We have arrived to Virginia now! I found this in/near Brunswick County (the home of the original Brunswick Stew, but that's another sign for another day). It looks like there's two parts to this story - one part on the family that owned him, and one part on Dred Scott himself - but actually it's all centered around Dred Scott. Also, for you handful of Grinnellians reading this, I also dusted off my old Con Law book from Strauber's class: Constitutional Law: Cases in Context: Volume 1: Federal Governmental Powers and Federalism  by James C. Foster and Susan M. Leeson (1

At the southwest corner of Hillsborough and Dawson in Downtown Raleigh L. O'B. Branch. Full name: Lawrence O'Bryan Branch. Also not one of my best pictures (granted, it was definitely one of the first pictures I took when I initially conceived the idea for this blog). Anyways, Branch was born on November 28, 1820, in Enfield, North Carolina, the youngest of six children. I initially thought he was a bit of an obscure character, as I couldn't find a lot of online-based sources discussing his biography. But I was wrong! This post ended up being pretty fun to research! However, I'll be using some book sources to support my discussion, and they are cited as the following: The Battle of Hanover Court House: Turning Point of the Peninsula Campaign, May 27, 1862 , by Michael C. Hardy Letters of Lawrence O'Bryan Branch , edited by A.R. Newsome (when I cite the pages for this one, it's the page number of the larger journal, not of this specific article) The Publ

Near the southeastern corner at the intersection of  Churton Street and Margaret Lane, Hillsborough, NC Billy Strayhorn! The cool this about this blog is that I discover things I never knew, even about the area I grew up in for years. This post is definitely one of those. It was enjoyable to write, because I got to listen to good jazz music while doing it😀 Billy Strayhorn ( Source ) Billy Strayhorn was born in Dayton, Ohio, on November 29, 1915, and he and his family moved to Pittsburgh shortly thereafter. So why did I find a sign on him here in Hillsborough, North Carolina, and not in Dayton, Ohio? Granted, I don't know whether a sign on him exists at all in Dayton, but I believe if I searched for one, I would find one. But we do know that his mother would send him to Hillsborough for extended visits with his grandmother here, as a way to protect him from his abusive father.  It was while he would be with his grandmother, who encouraged him to play on the keyboard (he

West side of North Wilmington between East Edenton and New Bern Place in Downtown Raleigh Ok, so this may be my shortest post ever. My bad guys. The Experimental Railroad! It was a horse-drawn railroad created in 1833 mainly to move stone from a quarry to where the Capitol building now stands. The quarry was located 1.25 miles southeast of the sign, and according to a quick view of Google Maps, was located next to what is now the state's Correctional Institute for Women (makes sense, I think). It's considered one of the first railroads in operation in the state. it was not the first experimental one created; that honor goes to an experimental railroad that the NCGA chartered in 1830 across many railroads including the Fayetteville Rail Road Company. That railroad went from Fayetteville to Campbellton further up the Cape Fear River, and was also horse-drawn. Campbellton had joined with Crossed Creek to create Fayetteville in 1783 , so I don't know what Campbellton