Authors & Poets Collection
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A True Story Of Slavery -The United States Governed by Six Hundred Thousand Despots
Written by John Swanson Jacobs
"Scholars say that the narrative, published outside the network of white abolitionist gatekeepers, is unique for its global perspective and its unflinching indictment of the United States."
John Jacobs was born in Edenton, North Carolina, in 1815. His mother was Delilah Horniblow, a slave of the Horniblow family who owned a local tavern. The father of John and his sister Harriet Jacobs (born 1813) was Elijah Knox. Elijah Knox, although enslaved, was in some ways privileged because he was an expert carpenter. He died in 1826.
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Dr. Helen Chavis Othow
(April 21, 1932 – January 1, 2022), was an author, college professor, freedom fighter and was a descendent of John Chavis (1763-1838). Dr. Helen Othow Chavis was the great-great-great granddaughter of John Chavis. He was one of the earliest Black educators in the United States.
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Excavating the Histories of Slave-Trade and Pirate Ships
Property, Plunder and Loss - This edited volume brings new perspectives on the topic maritime archaeology of the slave trade in the Caribbean. The book focuses on shipwrecks of the slave trade in the 18th century and suggests that there is a more complex and challenging social narrative than has previously been discussed.
Editors: Dr. Lynn Brenda Harris and Dr. Valerie Ann Johnson
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Jaki Shelton Green Is The First Black Woman NC Poet Laureate
On June 21, 2018 Governor Roy Cooper announced that he has appointed poet, teacher, and community arts advocate Jaki Shelton Green to serve as North Carolina's ninth poet laureate and the first African American to be appointed as the state's Poet Laureate.
Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard (October 11, 1861 – October 21, 1924)
Josephine Delphine Henderson Heard (October 11, 1861 – October 21, 1924) was a Black American poet and teacher.
Josephine was born enslaved in Salisbury, North Carolina to enslaved parents Lafayette and Anne H. Henderson.
Her parents ensured she received a good education, sending her to Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina, and later to Bethany Institute in New York.
Kelly Starling Lyons
Kelly Starling Lyons is a children's book author whose mission is to transform moments, memories and history into stories of discovery. Her books include NEATE: Eddie's Ordeal; picture books, One Million Men and Me, Ellen's Broom, Tea Cakes for Tosh, Hope's Gift and One More Dino on the Floor and the new Jada Jones chapter book series.
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Randall Kenan
A TRIBUTE TO RANDALL KENAN: THE VOICE OF SOUTHERN LITERATURE By The NC ARTS COUNCIL
Photo description: Randall Kenan, facing camera, smiling, he has a mustache and beard. There are book shelves behind him out of focus. Photo credit, UNC Chapel Hill
Raleigh, N.C. (August 31, 2020) — Randall Kenan, an inductee into the North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame and a 2005 recipient of the North Carolina Award for Literature, passed away August 28. He was 57.
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The Nine O'Clock Whistle: Stories of the Freedom Struggle for Civil Rights in Enfield, North Carolina
by Willa Cofield (Author), Cynthia Samuelson (Author), Mildred Sexton (Author). Part of the Margaret Walker Alexander Series in African American Studies.
When the whistle blew, all Black people had to be off the Enfield, North Carolina streets on Saturday night at 9pm.
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Uncovering Uncle William, A Search for Meaning in Art
by Dr. Shirley Davis Jones.
Dr. Shirley Jones, a niece of Harlem Renaissance sculptor William Ellsworth Artis, has recorded her findings about his life in a self-published book. Artis taught sculpture at Chadron State College, known then as Nebraska State Teachers College, from 1954 to 1964.
(Photo by Daniel Binkard/Chadron State College)
Viola Fletcher (née Ford; May 10, 1914 – November 24, 2025), also known as Mother Fletcher
"Don't Let Them Bury My Story"
Ms. Fletcher’s memoir was published in 2023. On the night of the massacre in 1921, she recalled seeing ash falling on the streets like snow. Houses burned. She passed piles of corpses, she said.
Credit: Mocha Media Inc.
Willie Ann Burnett Smith
Mrs. Willie Ann Smith, nee Burnett, was born in Goldsboro, N. C. , of pious parents. She exhibited an early love for books and was a remarkably apt pupil. Her intellectual aspirations and moral endowments soon reached a degree of prominence in the school and community to call forth frequent commendations, and gained for her the deepest interest of her teachers and the highest respect of her acquaintances.
