"City Directories are a fantastic record group for urban research.

They can help you prove where someone lived in a non census year, narrow down the time period when an ancestor may have moved, or help you learn more about and ancestor's occupation.

If you know which town your ancestor lived in, you might find them on Digital NC. They have a collection of over a thousand city directories in North Carolina. "

Source: Narrative and image from:
North Carolina Genealogical Society

Note-from @IrememberOurHistory, during the Jim-Jane Crow segregation years, phone directories were also segregated, so if you are looking up Black people in NC, you will find a "Negro Section" in most phone books that are archived
-End Note.

Link to Archived NC Phone Book Directories:
https://www.digitalnc.org/collections/city-directories/...