Buncombe County Special Collections
  • Home
  • HeardTell Blog
  • About
    • About Us
    • About The Collection
    • Plan A Visit
  • Resources for Researchers
  • Search Our Collections
  • Community-Based Archives
    • View Archives
    • Black AVL History Project
  • Become a Friend
    • Become a Friend
    • Board of Directors
  • Events
  • Request Materials
© 2021 Buncombe County Special Collections. All rights reserved.
Friday, February 12, 2016 / Published in African Americans, Exhibits, Local History, Manuscript Collection, Photograph Collection

Black History Month

ON DISPLAY NOW:  Black History Month. The North Carolina Room at Pack Memorial Library is exhibiting four special exhibits for the month of February.

ASHEVILLE’S EAST END, 1970:  Photographs from the Andrea Clark Collection. 

(Main level library exhibit area)

Andrea’s powerful photographs show the story of a community and its collision with urban renewal.

65-4

Aaron Workman and Doc Briggs sitting on porch rail on Valley Street.

***

The Ruth Bomar and Benjamin F. Scott and Daughter Bennie Scott Davis Family Photograph Collection.  

(Two exhibit cases, main level library exhibit area.)

M 301_001A image 2 002

Ruth Bomar Scott

This is a recently donated collection that begins with Ruth and Benjamin Scott moving from South Carolina to Asheville in 1919. Their daughter Bennie, who collected these images, married Frank Davis in 1925 and they lived first on Asheland Avenue where she housed Black members of the Asheville Tourist Baseball team, when they could not stay in area hotels for whites.

M 301_001A image 1 001

Bennie Scott Davis

Bennie moved to 332 Montford Avenue in 1972 where she died in 2003. Many photographs in this collection are of unidentified people that we are hoping the community can help us identify. The photo below was found in a frame underneath a more recent photo. Do you know anyone in the photo or where and what the function might have been?

M 301_001A image 3 003

***

The Life of Isaac Dickson, Pioneer Black Businessman, Leading Citizen and Member of Asheville’s First City School Board.  

(Exhibit case lower level by Youth Services.)

Dickson-3

Dickson was born a slave in Shelby, N.C. in 1839. He and his wife Delia moved to Asheville in 1870. Asheville is indebted to his achievements and contributions.

Bring your children by. The Dickson display is in conjunction with a “History Mystery: Who Was Isaac Dickson” scavenger fact hunt in the Youth Services Department.

***

The Ruth Jackson Cannon and Shirley Cannon Singleton Collection. 

(Exhibit case lower level at North Carolina Room.)

MS147_002F

Shirley and Joseph Singleton with Shirley’s parents Ruth And John Cannon at Birdland Night Club in New York “Last Christmas Together, 1960.” John died in 1961.

This collection contains scrapbooks, memory books, photographs and baby books of Ruth Jackson Cannon and her daughter Shirley Elaine Cannon Singleton. Following two generations, this collection gives a strong social and cultural sense of a middle class, African American family in Asheville, N.C. from around 1915 to the mid-1930s when Shirley Cannon graduated from Stephens-Lee High School in Asheville.

***

Miscellaneous photographs are on display on the wall display in the hall to the NC Room.

L943-DSb

Enter a caption

Portrait of the band The Untils showing the group in 1959-60 when the members were in high school. Members are back row L to R: Ernest Fair Jr., Stanley Baird, Clifford Cotton II, Bruce Friday and Marshall McCallum. Front L to R: Bynum “Jimbo” Griffin and Cornell Proctor.

Post by Zoe Rhine, librarian

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Email
  • Print

Like this:

Like Loading...
Tagged under: Andrea Clark, Asheville, Bennie Scott Davis, Black History Month, isaac Dickson, Ruth Bomar and Benjamin Scott, Ruuth jackson Cannon, Shirley Cannon Singleton, The Untils

What you can read next

Asheville City’s Sunday Blue Laws
North Asheville: Get Those Photographs Out of Your Attics!
Wonderful Western North Carolina: WWNC

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Search Our Site

Categories

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 4,471 other subscribers
TOP
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: