See a First Look photo gallery of President Obama's visit to Raleigh.
CHHS enters conference basketball tournaments as top seeds
Submitted by ewarnock on 02/12/2012 - 15:24Chapel Hill High School won a coin flip Saturday to get the top seed in the Carolina-6 Conference's girls basketball tournament. That means, if they win their semifinal game on Wednesday, that the Tigers would host the finals for both boys and girls in the Carolina-6 Conference tournament on Friday night.
Mythbusters tour adds stop in Raleigh
Submitted by paigemaxwell on 02/10/2012 - 15:57
If you missed seeing your favorite mythbusting duo in person at the NC Science Festival in 2010, you've got another chance to see them at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium in March.
First Baptist celebrates 200 years
Submitted by tleonard on 02/08/2012 - 11:43
Visitors to Capitol Square might wonder about the First Baptist Church on one corner of the square and another First Baptist Church on the opposite corner. The two churches actually began as one congregation, and both are marking their bicentennial this year.
In 1962, Jane Hall wrote about each of the churches and their development.
It all began on a winter night early in 1812 when Raleigh had approximately 1,000 inhabitants and not a single church building. On that night both white and Negro citizens met in the State House where they heard a powerful and eloquent sermon by the Rev. Robert T. Daniel. The result was the organization of Raleigh's First Baptist Church, with both white and Negro members.
Six years later the congregation constructed its first church building at a cost of $600 on South Person Street in the block between Hargett and Martin streets. In 1822, the city granted the congregation permission to move the church to Moore Square where it was located in a grove of magnificent oaks. Ever since, the square, which faces the present city market, has been called "Baptist Grove" by local citizens.
By 1826, when the Rev. Mr. Daniel resigned, the congregation numbered 224 and of these 157 were Negroes. Shortly after, during the pastorate of the Rev. Amos J. Battle (1839-44), the congregation purchased from Willie Jones the present lot on the corner of Morgan and Wilmington streets and a church was built there. ...
Finally, in 1858, during the first pastorate of the Rev. Thomas E. Skinner, a site was purchased on the corner of Edenton and Salisbury streets and a church erected there.
At the same time, the Negro members of the congregation -- led by Henry Jett -- started a movement for the establishment of a separate church and on a motion by P. F. Pescud the request was granted.
The First Baptist Church Colored retained the Morgan and Wilmington streets site but on Sept. 17, 1859, the congregation sold it to the Rt. Rev. P. N. Lynch, Roman Catholic Bishop of Charleston, S. C., and the Catholics used the property until 1879 when they bought from Palaski Cowper the site where Sacred Heart Cathedral now stands.
Meanwhile, in the years between 1859 and 1896, the congregation purchased and disposed of two other sites. One site was on Salisbury Street, between North and Johnson streets, which was subsequently sold on Jan. 17, 1907 to B. F. Montague for $2,500. The other site was on the northwest corner of Blount and Hargett streets which was sold in 1907 to the City of Raleigh for a fire station.
On April 18, 1896, the First Baptist congregation bought back from the Catholics the present lot on the corner of Morgan and Wilmington streets for $2,000. ...
The cornerstone of the present church was laid in 1904 during the pastorate of the Rev. W. T. Coleman. The earlier building on the site had become physically unsafe and had been demolished. -- The News & Observer 2/18/1962
Church discipline in [the] early days was strict and to the point. Until 1827, members were required to attend the communion service. They were excluded from membership if the charge of intoxication was proved against them. A woman member ... was expelled for "heresy."
In another instance, Major W. W. Vass was brought before the church conference charged with having attended a circus. His description of what he saw and heard at the circus so moved his hearers with interest and muted hilarity, the charge was quietly dropped.
The church also reprimanded a non-member -- J. J. James, editor of the Biblical Recorder -- for his criticism of their pastor. James said he would give $100 on a new building if the church would get an interesting preacher.
The most significant expulsion ... was that of I. G. M. Buffaloe in 1849. Buffaloe was charged with "being guilty of conduct unbecoming to a Christian in having formed a co-partnership for the purpose of speculation in Negroes."
He was ordered to cease from such traffic and make a suitable apology to the church. Buffaloe refused and the congregation unanimously expelled him for "conduct unbecoming to a Christian."
This action [according to the church's historian] showed clearly the attitude toward the slave traffic of Christians in North Carolina generally and the membership of the Raleigh Baptist Church in particular 12 years before the beginning of the War Between the States and at a time when many church members owned slaves. -- The News & Observer 2/25/1962
Both congregations celebrate their 200th anniversary this year. One event marking this milestone will be Two Buildings/One Heart: 200 Years of the First Baptist Churches of Raleigh, a performance by Burning Coal Theatre Company that will begin in one church and end in the other.
Raleigh developing downtown's biggest solar energy farm
Submitted by johnmurawski on 02/02/2012 - 17:34Raleigh officials said today the city has begun construction on what will be the biggest urban solar energy plant in downtown Raleigh.
The 500-kilowatt system planned for the rooftop of the Raleigh Convention Center is expected to start generating electricity in April.
The system is financed in an unusual arrangement. Two alternative energy companies, FLS Energy and PowerWorks, will build, own and operate the solar panels. Progress Energy will buy the electricity.
The city is leasing space on the Convention Center roof to house the solar array. It is Raleigh's 10th solar energy plant with a total output capacity of 2.15 megawatts.
However, 500 kilowatts (1/2 megawatt) is not the largest system in the state. Several systems in development are about 5 megawatts and one, in Davidson County, is 15.5 megawatts.
Integrating Raleigh's schools
Submitted by tleonard on 02/01/2012 - 10:52
The Raleigh City Museum is re-opening its standing Civil Rights exhibit with a month of special events. Let Us March On: Raleigh's Journey Toward Civil Rights has undergone a major redesign and includes new photos and information. On February 18, Joe Holt, the first African American student to try to integrate Raleigh schools, will share his documentary, “Exhausted Remedies: Joe Holt’s Story” and hold a Q&A session.
In 2004, to mark the 50th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, the Supreme Court decision outlawing segregated schools, former N&O writer Tim Simmons revisited Holt's story.
In the recent history of Atlanta, William "Bill" Campbell is a former mayor. But in school board minutes of 1960, he is a 7-year-old boy -- the first black child to attend a white school in Raleigh.
It wasn't for lack of trying that Joseph Holt Jr. didn't precede Campbell by several years.
Holt was 13 years old in the summer of 1956 when his parents tried to send him to ninth grade at the all-white Daniels Junior High School. The Raleigh school board, apparently caught by surprise, rejected the application, saying it came too late to be considered.
"When our photo was put in the paper, it sent shock waves through the community, especially the black community, " said Holt, 60, a retired Air Force officer who tutors at Shaw University. "After that, the pressure was enormous."
Holt's parents applied again in 1957, this time to have Joe attend Broughton High School as a 10th-grader. Again, the board rejected the application, saying the transfer wasn't in his best interest.
The family filed suit in federal court, only to lose the first round in 1958. The court ruled that the district could reject the application because the family sent a lawyer to its transfer hearing instead of attending in person.
Looking back over 50 years of history, Holt can see there was no way Raleigh schools would enroll a black child in 1956.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in 1954 that the doctrine of "separate but equal" had no place in America's schools, it did not say how towns should resolve the inequities. Those looking to the federal government for help found no guidance, particularly not from President Dwight Eisenhower, who pointedly refused to say whether he approved of the court's ruling.
Deliberately slow
By 1955, when the Supreme Court said states must integrate their schools "with all deliberate speed, " many lawmakers chose to focus on "deliberate" rather than "speed." That was especially true in the North Carolina General Assembly, which met just a few miles from Joe Holt's home.
Looking for a way to preserve segregation without defying the courts, Gov. Luther Hodges helped guide legislation that relieved the state and local school districts from the responsibility of integration by requiring that parents request transfers. Boards then rejected the requests for a variety of reasons that officially had nothing to do with race.
The state offered private school tuition vouchers to parents who did not want their children to attend integrated schools. It also allowed communities to close schools by public referendum if desegregation occurred.
If those messages weren't clear enough to black families, those who knew the Holts also understood the issue on a personal level. It wasn't long before Joe Holt Sr. was demoted and then fired from his job at a local warehouse.
Freedom of choice
By the time Bill Campbell enrolled at Murphey School, a handful of school boards were claiming integration by granting small numbers of transfer requests.
Sometimes called "freedom-of-choice" assignments, the transfers were considered only if families asked. Routinely, school administrators screened applicants in visits to their homes.
In Raleigh the task often fell to Fred Carnage, the city's only black school board member of that era.
"Basically, a family needed a recommendation from Mr. Carnage before they would be considered, " said Sylvia Ruby, a white woman who was active in the League of Women Voters during the 1950s and later served on the Wake school board. "This kept things gradual, which was the only way any integration was going to occur in the city." -- The News & Observer 5/2/2004
Ten years after the Holt family's case, Joe was in the news once again, this time as a hero. A member of the Military Airlift Command based at McGuire AFB, he "helped bring a crippled C-130 Hercules in for a safe landing in the Philippines after a tense 2 1/2-hour trip and a series of inflight emergencies over the South China Sea." -- The Raleigh Times 11/29/1967
Students protest in front of Raleigh Public School offices on Devereux Street. N&O File PhotoRaleigh collects nearly 800 gallons of cooking grease and oil
Submitted by paigemaxwell on 01/30/2012 - 11:03The City of Raleigh collected 797 gallons of cooking oil and grease in its third annual holiday collection program.
'Lemony Snicket' comes to Raleigh - but you might not recognize the name
Submitted by chelseak on 01/19/2012 - 11:02Quail Ridge Books & Music hosts an author by the name of Daniel Handler this week, here to talk about his new book, 'Why We Broke Up.'
The name may not ring many bells at first - until research reveals that he also writes under the name of Lemony Snicket, scribe of the popular Series of Unfortunate Events novels.
Red Hat speaks out against SOPA and PIPA
Submitted by toristilwell on 01/18/2012 - 16:24Open source software-maker Red Hat took to its blog Wednesday to speak out against controversial Internet legislation meant to prevent online piracy.
Red Hat and other critics of the Stop Online Piracy and the Protect IP acts, known as SOPA and PIPA, claim that the legislation would censor the Internet and throttle innovative American businesses.
"What we really do depends on the freedom of the Internet, and anything that could lead to greater censorship is of serious concern to us," said Rob Tiller, a member of Red Hat's legal team.
Red Hat's blog post stated that the legislation "poses a threat to the future success of Red Hat and other innovative companies" because the bills overreach, raising "enormous concerns for North Carolina home grown technology companies."
Raleigh to collect trees with yard waste
Submitted by paigemaxwell on 12/29/2011 - 11:12The City of Raleigh will collect Christmas trees with weekly yard waste collection.
Residents should place trees at the curb on the regular collection day, and must make sure the tree has been stripped of all lights, ornaments and hardware.
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