DigitalNC is excited to introduce a new primary source set on North Carolina foodways. From world-famous barbecue to special regional dishes like livermush, the Tar Heel State has a unique cuisine that many enjoy. More than being something for consumption, food has deep connections to the cultural traditions and social movements of North Carolina. The North Carolina primary source set explores how food has both influenced and been influenced by the state’s economy, politics, and culture.

Consisting of various written, visual, and audiovisual materials, the North Carolina Foodways set demonstrates key aspects of food history in the state through primary sources. The set also includes sections for context statements, background information, a timeline, discussion questions, and relevant outside resources. Here is a quick look at the North Carolina Foodways primary source set:

North Carolina Foodways

Timeline: 1903-2005

Whether it is barbecue, okra, or biscuits, food represents North Carolina and its people. The rich history and culture of the state are reflected through North Carolina’s unique cuisine, revealing how food plays a role in shaping community, social change, and state identity. Many foods are representative of North Carolina, but barbecue is one of the state’s most popular dishes. While the two main types of barbecue served in North Carolina are often a topic of debate, the beloved pork dish still brings people together through events like the Lexington Barbecue Festival. Similar public events celebrate other North Carolina foods, farmers, and restaurants. Multiple apple-themed festivals are held across the state, and native vegetables like ramps are celebrated in springtime events in western North Carolina. Although food festivals are an important way of bringing communities together, food can also create meaningful connections through the passing down of recipes from family member to family member, or through the creation of community cookbooks.

Food is also linked to North Carolina history and politics. The state has made several foods and food festivals official state symbols (e.g., the Scuppernong grape is the state fruit), but many of the bills introduced to create these symbols have been surprisingly controversial. Food is also rooted in inequality and social change. During the Civil Rights Movement, for example, Black activists like the Greensboro Four sat at “whites only” lunch counters to protest segregation laws in North Carolina and throughout the country.

Teachers, students, researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about the foodways of North Carolina can find the primary source set on our resources page. If you would like to provide feedback on this set or others, please contact us here.

We have another new primary source set on DigitalNC. This new set focuses on the eugenics movement and selective sterilization in North Carolina, and is largely composed of newspaper articles and advertisements that discuss eugenics or sterilization. Other than the sources themselves, the set includes background information, discussion questions, outside resources, a timeline, and context statements for each source. Here’s a brief introduction to the Eugenic Movement in North Carolina set:

Eugenics in North Carolina

Time period: 1913-2014

Eugenics is the theory that humankind can improve itself by selectively breeding out what are considered undesirable traits, while selectively breeding for what are regarded as desirable traits. Eugenics was first proposed by a mathematician, explorer, and anthropologist named Sir Francis Galton, whose ideas helped spread eugenicist thought and practices into widespread popularity, even in North Carolina. Through the early to mid-twentieth century, a practice known as sterilization played a key part in the state’s own eugenics movement.

Sterilization is a medical procedure that impedes a person’s ability to reproduce. Through sterilization, North Carolina prevented people who were considered undesirable from having children. “Undesirable” people included individuals with mental disabilities, who were often referred to as “mentally defective” or “feebleminded.” Eugenics supporters believed that the children of such people could inherit their “inferior” traits, causing a “burden” on the parents, the public, and the state. By sterilizing these individuals, they thought the burden could be eased. While groups like the Human Betterment League claimed that the procedure was done with the consent of the patient or their family, many individuals were forced or coerced into sterilization.

Official apologies for sterilization were made in 2002, but it was not until 2010 that North Carolina created a compensation plan for victims of forced sterilization. Victims received $20,000 as payment, but many have criticized the program for its eligibility requirements and for coming too late; by the time the program was established, many victims were thought to have died.

Teacher, students, researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about the eugenics movement in North Carolina can find the primary source set on our resources page. If you would like to give us feedback on the sets, please contact us here.

New to DigitalNC is our primary source set on the Blue Ridge Parkway, which traces the history of this popular tourist destination from its initial creation and construction in the 1930s to the building of its final “missing link” decades later. The Parkway is a well-loved and widely visited attraction today, but its history shows that conflict, especially disputes over land and route planning, played a key role in preventing the Parkway’s construction.

The Blue Ridge Parkway set consists of various written (newspapers) and visual (photographs, maps, postcards) material to demonstrate the history of the road through primary sources. Other sections of this set include background information, context statements, discussion questions, outside resources, and a timeline. Here is a brief look at the primary source set for North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway:

North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Parkway

Time period: 1933-1962

The Blue Ridge Parkway is a scenic road that stretches 469 miles across the states of Virginia and North Carolina. Since the 1940s, the Parkway has been a favorite destination of tourists, who travel the road to experience its mountain views and visit nearby towns and attractions. The project to create the Parkway was first funded by the Public Works Administration (PWA) in 1933. As one of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal agencies, the PWA was established to fight the impact of the Great Depression by providing funds to large public works projects where young men could find employment.

After the Parkway project received funding from the PWA, conflict over route planning began. The Parkway was meant to connect two national parks together: Shenandoah National Park in Virginia and the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina and Tennessee. Officials from North Carolina and Tennessee gave conflicting proposals on the Parkway’s route, giving way to a long fight over which proposal would receive approval. Other conflicts soon followed, most related to Parkway routes or land ownership. Eminent domain issues troubled Appalachian landowners; the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians fought against routes that would cut through important sections of their land; one businessman pushed back against a route that would impact his mountain tourist attraction, preventing the Parkway’s completion until 1987.

Although the Blue Ridge Parkway was created to connect two national parks, increase tourism in the region, and provide jobs for the unemployed, conflict played a part in preventing the achievement of these goals and in extending the Parkway’s construction.

Teachers, students, researchers, and anyone who is interested in learning more about the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina can find the primary source set on our resources page. If you would like to provide feedback on the sets, please contact us here.

DigitalNC is excited to introduce a new primary source teaching set on Native Americans in North Carolina. While Native Americans have long inhabited the land that now makes up North Carolina, this set focuses on the group’s history from 1900 to the present day. 

This set is composed of written (newspaper articles, poetry, theatre playbills, a school catalog) and visual materials (photographs, maps) sourced from our partners. Other sections of this set include background information, context statements, discussion questions, a timeline, and helpful outside resources. Here’s a closer look at the primary source set on Native Americans in North Carolina, 1900 to the Present:

Native Americans in North Carolina, 1900 to the Present

Time Period: 1920-2019

Today, North Carolina is home to eight state-recognized tribes, which include the Coharie tribe, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, the Haliwa-Saponi tribe, the Lumbee tribe, the Meherrin Indian tribe, the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, the Sappony, and the Waccamaw Siouan tribe. Only one of these groups, the Cherokee, has received full federal recognition. While the Lumbee tribe received partial recognition in the Lumbee Act of 1956, they have since worked towards gaining full recognition through petitioning and forming committees in hopes of receiving the same benefits and funds as the Eastern Band of Cherokee.

The 20th century brought another source of change for Native Americans: education. Beginning in the mid-1800s, Native children in North Carolina and across the country were forced to attend segregated boarding schools led by white instructors. Students were banned from participating in their cultural practices and punished for speaking Native American languages, like Cherokee. In recent years, however, Native Americans like Robert Bushyhead have made efforts to protect the language by creating Cherokee courses at different North Carolina colleges and universities.

Just as Bushyhead worked to protect the Cherokee language, so too have other Native Americans worked to preserve their cultures and practices. While Native Americans across North Carolina have faced changes and challenges from the 20th century on, their communities have created poetry and art about their cultures, established Native American clubs on college campuses, and have shared and celebrated their practices in events like the American Indian Heritage Celebration. 

Teachers, students, researchers, and others interested in learning more about Native Americans in North Carolina from 1900 to the present can find the primary source set on our resources page. If you like to provide feedback on this set or others, please contact us here.

DigitalNC is excited to introduce a new primary source teaching set on urban development and renewal in North Carolina. While urban renewal impacted communities across the United States and North Carolina, this set focuses on how two neighborhoods in Durham and Raleigh experienced loss and displacement as a result of redevelopment. Additionally, this set discusses other community “revitalization” trends in North Carolina, such as the Finer Carolina contest of the 1950s.

Like our other primary source sets, this urban renewal set is made up of various written (newspaper articles, pamphlets) and visual (maps, scrapbooks, government records) materials. Other sections include discussion questions, outside resources, background information, and a timeline, as well as context statements for each item. Here’s a closer look at the Urban Development and Renewal primary source set:

Urban Development and Renewal

Time period: 1954-1974

The passing of the Housing Act in 1949 allowed the federal government to provide funding for cities across the United States to seize and demolish “blighted” or “slum” neighborhoods. “Urban renewal” was the term used to describe this process, as these programs promised to construct better housing, invite in new industries, and generally improve urban areas. Redevelopment programs often targeted neighborhoods with a high percentage of Black residents, many of whom were displaced as a result of urban renewal. Despite the positive assurances made to these communities, many areas never received the promises made by their cities’ redevelopment commissions. Low-income housing, revitalized business, and most other plans made never materialized, even many years after urban renewal began.

Despite the often harmful consequences of these programs, urban renewal generated a broader trend of redevelopment in North Carolina. In the 1950s, the Carolina Power and Light Company created the Finer Carolina contest, in which cities and towns across the state competed for cash awards by “beautifying” and making improvements to their communities. Although Finer Carolina programs did improve infrastructure and attract new industry in North Carolina towns, many contest scrapbooks show that historic buildings were destroyed in the process due to their “shabby” or “unsightly” appearances.

Teacher, students, researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about urban renewal in North Carolina can find the primary source set on our resources page. If you would like to give us feedback on the sets, please contact us here.

We are pleased to announce the addition of two new primary source sets on our site, the World War II, Part 1: North Carolina Before Pearl Harbor set and the World War II, Part 2: North Carolina After Pearl Harbor set. While these sets are centered on different aspects of North Carolina in relation to the Second World War, they both use carefully selected primary sources from the DigitalNC collections, supplied from our partners across the state. World War II is a broad topic relevant to many other regions, but these sets focus on how North Carolina and its people were impacted by the war.

Making up each set is a variety of written (journal entries, newspaper articles, letters), visual (photographs), and audio materials (oral histories). General background information, an event timeline, discussion questions, and links to outside resources are available in both sets, as well as short context statements provided for each item. Here’s a look at Part 1 and Part 2 of the World War II primary source sets:

World War II, Part 1: North Carolina Before Pearl Harbor

Time period: 1940-1941

Although the United States did not enter World War II until the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the nation and the state of North Carolina were attentive to the ongoing conflict in the years before the U.S. entered the war. Using a photograph, journal entry, college publication, oral history, and several newspaper articles, this set focuses specifically on how North Carolina was impacted by nation-wide war preparations. Additionally, this set portrays the different perspectives that North Carolinians had on the war.

World War II, Part 2: North Carolina After Pearl Harbor

Time period: 1941-1945

Japanese military forces attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, drawing the United States into World War II and causing significant and lasting impact on the country as well as on North Carolina. This set uses photographs, newspaper articles, letters, and a scrapbook to explore North Carolina’s culture and economy as it was changed by the Second World War.

Teachers, students, researchers, and anyone interested in learning more about the Tar Heel state before and after the attack on Pearl Harbor can find the World War II primary source sets (as well other sets about different topics) on our resources page. To give us feedback on the sets, please contact us here.