History Hindsights

The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission invited the High Point Museum to add a historic marker to their North Carolina Civil Rights Trail in 2022, one of a number of sites in the state where challenges to racial segregation took place. The marker in High Point commemorates the actions leading to the desegregation of Blair Park Golf Course in 1956. Often these local protests are left out of the larger narrative of the civil rights story in our state, and the Trail highlights many inspiring “everyday” people who made a difference. The golf game played by three doctors at Blair Park in December 1954 was the first step of many to move High Point toward racial integration and is an important event in High Point’s history. 

Sammie Chess, Jr., a legal and civil rights trailblazer from High Point, died in July 2022, leaving a remarkable record of service. In today’s blog post, Linda Willard summarizes his journey from high school dropout to North Carolina Superior Court Judge.  

Longleaf Productions recently debuted at the High Point Museum their documentary on Rosenwald Schools in North Carolina. Unlocking the Doors of Opportunity / The Rosenwald Schools of North Carolina (2023) features scholars as well as teachers and students of these schools, and our program also included a short talk by one of these scholars, Dr. Tom Hanchett. In his presentation, Dr. Hanchett identified ten Rosenwald schools that operated in Guilford County. Carol Brooks takes a look at the Florence School, in the eastern part of High Point.