Greensboro

Martin's Studio photographers Carol W. Martin and Malcolm A. Miller practiced assignment photography for most of their careers. Unlike freelance documentary photographers, they did not choose the times, places, or subjects. However, instead of working at careers that could have easily become tedious and uninteresting, these former newspaper and studio photographers created a vast and amazing body of work, shooting almost every imaginable aspect of community life. Martin and Miller focused their work on Greensboro and Guilford County, but phone calls and appointments took them to all areas of the state. Included in this book are images from Greensboro, as well as Candor, Cape Hatteras, Chapel Hill, Charlotte, Lexington, Manteo, Ocean Isle, Raleigh, Reidsville, and Winston-Salem. Images from the Martin's Studio Collection were first published in Martin's and Miller's Greensboro, also by Catlett, which was created as a companion to the Greensboro Historical Museum's exhibit, which will remain on display through the autumn of 2003. Dateline Greensboro: The Piedmont and Beyond includes entirely different historical images from the archive, and unlike the thematic arrangement for the earlier book, this volume takes readers on a chronological journey-a camera ride-from the 1930s through the 1960s. Three chapters offer readers the opportunity to relive three complete days in the life of the studio, with a timeline of images made from early morning to late night.

Historic First Presbyterian Church Cemetery was established in 1831 and over time has survived vandalism, storms, an earthquake, and threats of removal. It is a lasting remembrance to the early citizens of Greensboro who carved a city out of the wilderness. Originally the cemetery was located on the edge of town, but because of Greensboro's growth, it is now nestled in the center of the cultural district behind the Greensboro Historical Museum. Those buried in the cemetery are from all walks of life-from wealthy to poor, those with doctorate degrees to the illiterate, the famous to those whose names are lost for all time, the newborn to the centenarian, the saint to the sinner, and the slave owner to the abolitionist. The early builders of the city and state and veterans of four wars now rest in the First Presbyterian Church Cemetery.

Greensboro has reinvented itself in recent decades. By the time of its 1958 sesquicentennial, Greensboro was North Carolina's second-largest city and the world's largest producer of denim. It was home to many textile companies, including the world's largest; major insurance firms; and manufacturers of other products. Greensboro holds an important place in the civil rights movement, with the sit-ins at Woolworth's department store, a site now preserved as the International Civil Rights Center & Museum. In 1982, a grocery store opened in Greensboro that wanted to bring the old-fashioned market experience back to consumers. The Fresh Market has since expanded to over 100 stores in more than 20 states. Greensboro's roster of colleges and universities has grown over the years, and it remains a key education and research center. Founded in 1991, RF Micro Devices, Greensboro's largest company, makes components of most cell phones. Greensboro showcases the rich commercial and community history of this city over the past 50 years.

Walking along the streets of downtown Greensboro today, we are constantly reminded of those who came before us. Their names grace the city's street signs, businesses, plaques, buildings, and markers, demonstrating to us the extreme growth that has taken place in the 190-year-old history of this, one of North Carolina's most-loved cities. With over two hundred rare images, many never before published, Greensboro takes readers on a delightful journey back to the days when this small town was transformed from a quiet village to a thriving city referred to as both "the denim capital of America," because of its mill; and "the Hartford of the South," due to its insurance industry. Among these pages we meet prominent citizens like the Cones, who founded a textile empire; writer O. Henry; First Lady Dolley Madison; and the famous Greensboro Four, who challenged segregation with their sit-in at Woolworth's lunch counter in 1960. We also visit with everyday people who grew up here and worked in the mills or downtown shops and firms.

Historian G. Ward Hubbs first encountered the Confederate soldiers known as the Greensboro Guards through their Civil War diaries and letters. Later he discovered that the Guards had formed some forty years before the war, soon after the founding of the Alabama town that was their namesake. Guarding Greensboro examines how the yearning for community played itself out across decades of peace and war, prosperity and want. Greensboro sprang up as a wide-open frontier town in Alabama's Black Belt, an exceptionally fertile part of the Deep South where people who dreamed of making it rich as cotton planters flocked. Although prewar Greensboro had its share of overlapping communities--ranging from Masons to school-improvement societies--it was the Guards who brought together the town's highly individualistic citizenry. A typical prewar militia unit, the Guards mustered irregularly and marched in their finest regalia on patriotic holidays. Most significantly, they patrolled for hostile Indians and rebellious slaves. In protecting the entire white population against common foes, Hubbs argues, the Guards did what Greensboro's other voluntary associations could not: move citizens beyond self-interest. As Hubbs follows the Guards through their Civil War campaigns, he keeps an eye on the home front: on how Greensborians shared a sense of purpose and sacrifice while they dealt with fears of a restive slave populace. Finally, Hubbs discusses the postwar readjustments of Greensboro's veterans as he examines the political and social upheaval in their town and throughout the South. Ultimately, Hubbs argues, the Civil War created the South of legend and its distinctive communities.

With 230 more intriguing scenes from Greensboro's past, Greensboro Volume II: Neighborhoods highlights the changing architecture of area homes, churches, and schools, and invites readers to meet the residents who have contributed to the community's growth. The images in this collection, many of which are previously unpublished, have been selected from the extensive archives of the Greensboro Historical Museum. Join author Gayle Hicks Fripp on a fascinating photographic tour that continues to explore the city's impressive transformation. Discover unique 19th-century homes such as Blandwood, Gov. John Motley Morehead's estate; learn about African-American churches established at the end of the Civil War; and witness the impact of transportation developments on the city's expansion and housing patterns. The residences of well-known citizens, including textile entrepreneurs Ceasar Cone and Emanuel Sternberger, World War II flyers George Preddy and Mary Webb Nicholson, and developer A.M. Scales, are also featured.

On November 3, 1979, in the Morningside neighborhood of Greensboro, North Carolina, a caravan of Ku Klux Klan and Nazi Party members arrived on the scene of an anti-Klan protest. After a scuffle, some of the Klan and Nazis opened fire on the mostly unarmed, racially mixed gathering of political activists, labor organizers, and children. While news cameras filmed, five protesters were killed and ten were wounded. Police officers were notably absent at the time of the attack. State and federal criminal trials resulted in acquittals of the shooters by all-white juries. The City of Greensboro consistently denied any responsibility for the events. In 2001, Greensboro took its first groundbreaking steps toward confronting the past through an independent Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Inspired by South Africa's efforts to tackle injustice and seek reconciliation on a larger scale, Greensboro explicitly and controversially connected its experience to other contexts of injustice and launched a novel undertaking for a U.S. community. Learning from Greensboro provides an insider's look at the truth and reconciliation process, including how it worked, the challenges it faced, and the local context in which it existed. The book offers valuable practical insights into the process of truth-telling and gives testimony to the possibility that denial, indifference, and hidden histories can be made to yield to a deeper and lasting justice.