Thanks to our partner, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a batch of fill-in issues of the Winston-Salem Chronicle spanning from 1975 to 2013 are now available on our website. Included among the issues added were February 7, 1985 and June 27, 1985. These particular issues are notable for their articles written on Darryl Hunt, a Black Winston-Salem man who was falsely convicted of murdering (among other charges) Deborah Sykes in 1985.

Criminal or Victim?

The Winston-Salem Chronicle staff was among the many community members that voiced their concerns over the arrest of Darryl Hunt. In the February 7, 1985 issue of the paper, executive editor Allen H. Johnson writes a large, three page article on the case, using every inch of the pages to humanize Hunt and point out the inconsistencies of the case.

Winston-Salem Chronicle, February 7, 1985.

In the article, Johnson includes several interviews from community members and organizations such as Alderman Larry Little, Hunt’s uncle William Johnson, and the NAACP. In these interviews, many community members mention their shock and vehement disbelief that Hunt could have committed murder. Even Hunt’s sixth grade teacher was interviewed, saying: “‘I cried like a baby because I knew he wasn’t guilty,’ […] I know that kid and there’s no way …. I’d bet my life on it that he isn’t capable of this horrendous crime.'”

Despite inconsistencies, lack of concrete evidence, and efforts by the community, Hunt was convicted and sentenced to life in prison on June 14, 1985. In 1989 however, the North Carolina Supreme Court overturned the previous conviction due to the original prosecutors introducing false statements made by Hunt’s at-the-time girlfriend which she recanted before the initial trial. On appeal, Hunt was released on bond and offered a plea bargain where he would be sentenced to the time he had already served (five years) for a guilty plea. Hunt rejected the bargain and went through a retrial. He was again convicted and sentenced to life in prison. 

Darryl Hunt (left) and his grandfather, William Stroud (right).

After the second conviction, Hunt’s attorneys Mark Rabil and Ben Dowling-Sendor filed for the DNA gathered from the crime scene to be tested. The results came back in October of 1994 and determined that the DNA did not match Hunt’s. Despite the results, requests for an appeal were rejected. The reasoning given for the denied appeal was that new evidence was not absolute proof that Hunt was not involved.

Ten years after learning that the DNA did not belong to Hunt, authorities ran the crime scene DNA through the state’s database. It was discovered that the DNA actually belonged to Willard E. Brown, a man who was already incarcerated for another murder. Finally, after serving 19 years in prison, Darryl Hunt was exonerated on February 6, 2004.

To read more issues of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, please click here.

To view more newspapers from across North Carolina, please click here.

To learn more about the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, please visit their website.

Information about the Darryl Hunt case was gathered from Phoebe Zerwick’s Beyond Innocence: The Life Sentence of Darryl Hunt, the Innocence Project, and DigitalNC graduate assistant Sophie Hollis.

Thanks to our partner, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, issues that fill in previous holes in our site’s holding of the Winston-Salem Chronicle from 1975 to 1982 are now available on our website.

Since 1974, the Winston-Salem Chronicle has published weekly issues that focus primarily on news about and events in Winston-Salem’s Black community.

To view all issues issues of the Winston-Salem Chronicle available on our website, please click here.

To view more newspapers from around North Carolina, please visit our North Carolina Newspapers Collection here.

To learn more about the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, please visit their website.

Special Coverage of the Special Olympics Spring Games in 2017 in the Winston – Salem Chronicle.

Digital NC is happy to announce the new additions of the Winston – Salem Chronicle for the years 2017 and 2018. With help from our partner, Forsyth County Public Library, the new additions join previous editions from 1974 – 2016.

Founded in 1974, the Winston-Salem Chronicle bills itself as the oldest African American newspaper in the city. The newspaper is published every Thursday and discusses local stories that focus on Winston-Salem and surrounding areas.

One story within the Winston-Salem Chronicle discusses the Special Olympics spring games, which were held at Walkertown High. Over 900 athletes from ages 3 and up, gathered to compete in special events at the high school’s football stadium. The story made the front page of the sports section.

To learn more about the Winston-Salem Chronicle, visit them here.
Special thanks to our partner, Forsyth County Public Library. To view more materials from them, visit here.
To view the rest of our NC Newspaper Collection, visit here.

Winston-Salem Chronicle, March 17, 1988.

The front page of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, June 23, 1988. The article title reads “Community Upset over NAACP Plan” and provides a photo of the Winston-Salem chapter NAACP President Walter Marshall.

In an effort to fill in gaps of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, DigitalNC has added the year 1988 to our digital collection. This brings us to a near completion of digitized issues running from 1974 to 2016, with only the year 2000 missing. We would like to thank our partners at Forsyth County Public Library for making these additions available.

Founded in 1974, The Chronicle serves the community of Winston-Salem, N.C. by focusing their attention on local news. Common topics covered in 1988 include People, Sports, Religion, Forum Q&As, and Letters to the Editor. Part of the African-American press, The Chronicle directs its reporting towards issues and events in and of the Black community, such as addressing company closures and job loss in terms of Black demographics as well as following NAACP disputes. Additionally, Black College Sports Review inserts can be found throughout the year.

As 1988 was an election year, there is also an issue highlighting the local effects of the election aftermath.

Front page of the Winston-Salem Chronicle, November 10, 1988. Headlines include “Republicans Take Lion’s Share; Local Black Contenders Lose”, “Results of National Elections: Who Else Won and Where”, and “Candidates Say Straight Voting Hurt”.

If you would like to browse all of the digitized editions of the Winston-Salem Chronicle available on DigitalNC, click here. To learn more about Forsyth County Public Library, click here, and to see all digitized content we have from them, you can visit their contributor page by clicking here.

The only issue we have (so far) of a Carver High School newspaper. Mount Olive, NC, May 1950.

From our estimation, DigitalNC shares more digitized historical North Carolina African American newspapers than any other source. Contributors range from our state’s HBCUs to local libraries and museums. To help pull these titles together, we created an exhibit page through which you can search and browse eleven community papers and nine student papers. There are also links to more available on other sites.

Below we’ve re-posted the essay from the exhibit, giving you a brief history of these papers. We hope that we’ll hear from others who may be interested in sharing more of these rare resources online.

~~

Since the publication of Freedom’s Journal in 1827 in New York City, African American newspapers have had a long and impactful history in the United States. Begun as a platform to decry the treatment of enslaved people, the earliest African American newspapers appealed to whites, who were politically enfranchised. After the Civil War, as newly freed African Americans claimed the right to literacy, the number of African American newspapers around the country grew exponentially and the editors began addressing Black people instead of whites. Papers turned their focus from slavery to a variety of subjects: religion, politics, art, literature, and news as viewed through the eyes of African American reporters and readers. Communication about Black political and social struggles through Reconstruction and, later, the Civil Rights movement, cemented newspapers as integral to African American life. 

In North Carolina, the first African American papers were religious publications. The North Carolina Christian Advocate, which appears to be the earliest, was published from 1855-1861 by the North Carolina Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, followed by the Episcopal Methodist, a shorter-lived publication produced during the Civil War by the same organization. After the Civil War, the number of African American newspapers continued to grow in North Carolina, reaching a peak during the 1880s and 1890s with more than 30 known titles beginning during that time.

The longest running African American paper established in North Carolina is the Star of Zion, originating in Charlotte in 1876 and still being produced today. Other long-running papers in the state include the Charlotte Post (begun 1890), The Carolina Times (Durham, begun 1919), the Carolinian (Raleigh, begun 1940), Carolina Peacemaker (Greensboro, begun 1967), and the Winston-Salem Chronicle (begun 1974). Many of these long running papers powerfully documented Black culture and opinion in North Carolina during the 1960s-1970s, with numerous editorials and original reporting of local and national civil rights news.

Occasionally overlooked sources for African American newspapers are North Carolina’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) and, before integration, African American high schools. You’ll find links on DigitalNC to newspapers from eight of North Carolina’s twelve current and historical HBCUs as well as two African American high schools.

While many African American newspapers have found their way into archives and libraries, it’s common to see broken runs and missing issues. You can find a great inventory of known papers from the UNC Libraries. If you work for a library, archive, or museum in North Carolina holding additional issues and would like to inquire about digitizing them and making them available online, please let us know.