African American Experience of Morganton
Overview
According to the 2020 Federal Census, 6.9 % of Burke County’s total population identify as African American. The history of race relationships between the white citizenry and the African American community in Burke County is much like it is in other Southern, rural communities: complex. Depending on the time period, the narrator, and the stories told, the African American experience in Burke County and Morganton (the county seat) can look quite different. Dr. Leslie McKesson shares, "Having been in Burke County since very shortly after European settlers first colonized Indigenous territories, African Americans have a very long and complex local history. Their stories demonstrate a variety of cultural viewpoints and concerns."
“During the 1950’s and 1960’s civil rights activists and progressive whites challenged Morganton’s racial status quo numerous times. White moderates responded to this activism by utilizing a combination of civility, paternalism, and accommodation to prevent protest and preserve Morganton’s progressive reputation. Concerned that protracted civil rights protest would hinder industrial development in Morganton, white moderates diplomatically dealt with challenges to segregation. This pattern of race relations manifested itself in both the private Department of Recreation and public space of the Morganton City School System. Analyzing how white moderates utilized these tactics in both private and public spaces evidences the pervasiveness and effectiveness of the moderate strategy. This history, however, has been neglected by scholars and misrepresented by amateur historians.”
African American Culture In Morganton | As seen through…
The funding and creation of the Etta Baker Statue was lead by former CoMMA Directors Bill Wilson and Dr. Jim Smith, along with Burke Arts Council Executive Director, Deborah Jones, along with Ed Phifer, Cecelia Surratt, and former Morganton mayor Mel Cohen. Baker’s family and friends, along with community leaders and members, attended a the dedication ceremony, May 25th, 2017.
The Legend of Etta Baker
Legendary Piedmont Blues guitarist, Etta Reid Baker, learn to play the guitar at the age of three.
Born in Caldwell County, in 1913, Etta Lucille Reid was one of eight children in a musical family. Hymns, rags, parlor music, and Tin Pan Alley songs were passed from her grandfather, to her father, and then to her and her siblings.
Etta didn’t receive notoriety for her contribution to Piedmont Blues until she was in her 60s but her work had a major influence on musicians such as Taj Mahal, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Ray Charles. This was due to Paul Clayton who in 1956, while collecting field recordings, met Etta and her father. Clayton’s record Instrumental Music of the Southern Appalachians, one of the first commercially released recordings of African American banjo music.
Etta married and raise nine children, working 24 years at Skyland Textile Company, outside Morganton. At the age of 60, Etta retired to focus on her music.
““I was so tiny when I started playing that I would ... stand up by the bed and play about three frets down on the guitar and look at daddy and he would have such a smile, I can just see it now, this smile he had on his face when I would make a good chord, you know, he would holler, that’s my girl. I was three.””
Unveiling May 25th, 2017, at CoMMA. Family, friends, community members and leaders were on-hand for the dedication ceremony. Photo by Justin Epley courtesy of The News Herald
African American Culture In Morganton | As seen through…
The Heritage of Gaston Chapel
Gaston Chapel AME Church, named for Rev. Mose Gaston, an early AME minister, recently celebrated its 153rd anniversary. The church, built at the turn of the century by the congregation and Philo G. Harbison is the oldest in the Burke County to be built for an African American congregation. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it is the second oldest church building in Morganton.
Rev. Mose Gaston lead the church through its early years from 1863-1866 during some of the most difficult times in our nations history. The Church was named for Gaston in 1912, after former North Carolina governor Tod Caldwell gave church elders land to replace the wood-frame church with a brick structure at 102 Bouchelle St. in Morganton.
Before the Civil War, the African American congregations were prohibited, as slaver holders feared it would stir dissension. It was common for slaves to use clearings in the woods to worship, but sometimes, slaveholders would allow their slaves to worship in their churches. The “Methodist Episcopal Colored Church” evolved out of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, an all-white religious organization which allowed black communities to worship- either accompanying whites or in separate congregations, as in Morganton.
The Legacy of Rev. Mose Gaston
The legacy of Rev. Gaston is carried forward in Morganton, and abroad by the Gaston family. One of his descendants, highly-esteemed journalist Ed Bradley, beloved for his 26 years as a correspondent on CBS News’ 60 Minutes, was recently memorialized in a mural in the West Philadelphia, where he grew up. Bradley, who passed away in 2006, was the first black television correspondent to cover the White House and the recipient of dozens of prestigious journalism awards, including Emmys, Duponts, Peabodys, and both the George Polk and Paul White awards.
African American Culture In Morganton | As seen through…
Ed Bradley
“Unlike other immigrants to these shores, we did not come voluntarily. We came in chains, and we came in tears, and we brought with us a culture from another land. A culture that many tried to take from us...
Because I listen to the “Amens” and the “Hallelujahs” and the “Yes Lords”, I am reminded of the call and response that is traditional in African culture. It could not be killed, It has survived. We have survived...
And as I listen to the words of “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, I heard a few lines that kind of summed up, I think, the history of our people, in this county and this society, our adaptation to this society. It summed up our past, our present, and our future:
Sing a song full of faith that the dark past has tought us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.”
— Ed Bradley during the Gaston Chapel Commemorative Service, Morganton, NC, February, 24th, 1985
American television journalist Ed Bradley, 1981. Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images
Gaston Chapel Commemorative Service
February 24th, 1985
Jimmy Carter and Ed Bradley, 1978
The Ed Bradley Mural in Philadelphia was completed by Ernel Martinez in June 16, 2018. Photo Courtesy of Steve Weinik.
African American Voices in Morganton
An Oral History of the Black Experience, compiled by the Burke County Cultural Arts Coalition, 1979
Black and White: The Story of Harriet Harshaw and 'Squire' James Alfred Dula by Leslie D. McKesson, Ed. D. recent appointee to the African-American Heritage Commission.
My Story: This Is How It Was by Helen Phillips Hall, the first African-American associate superintendent of Caldwell County Schools
Glimpses of Fonta Flora, by sisters Helen Norman and Patricia Page, who grew up near Lake James
Giving Back: A Tribute to Generations of African American Philanthropists by Valaida Fullwood, a writer and project consultant who grew up in Morganton
An Oral History of the Black Experience (Part One)
Burke Cultural Arts Coalition, 1979
An Oral History of the Black Experience (Part Two)
Burke Cultural Arts Coalition, 1979
