Minutes 10.10.2019NEW HANOVER COUNTY MANAGER’S OFFICE
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NEW HANOVER COUNTY COMMISSION ON
AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY, HERITAGE & CULTURE (NHCAAHHC or Commission)
Human Resources Training Room A, New Hanover County Government Center
October 10th, 2019 – 4:30 PM
Committee Members Present: Christopher Eaton, Brenda Fong, Bernice Johnson, Manuel Lloyd, Tonia McKoy, Sandra Oglesby, J’vanete Skiba, Islah Speller, Linda Thomas, George Vlasits, and
Stephanie Walker. Ex-Officio – Travis Souther, NHC Library, and Jan Davidson, Historian. Guests – Sheryl Mays, Cape Fear Museum Director.
Absent: Angela Gaines and Deborah Maxwell.
Staff Present: Tufanna Bradley-Thomas, Assistant County Manager.
I. Call to Order
Chairman Lloyd called the meeting to order at 4:36pm. Quorum established.
II. Approve Agenda -
Ms. Islah Speller submitted her resignation – Chairman Lloyd made a motion to accept Ms. Speller’s resignation; Ms. Skiba seconded. Those wishing to join the board must do so by the
November 2nd deadline.
III. Approve Minutes - Chairman Lloyd motioned to accept the corrected minutes; Mr. Vlasits seconded.
IV. Old Business
Committee Appointments – Chairman Lloyd appointed the following members:
Cemetery Committee – Mr. Eaton, Ms. Johnson, Ms. Thomas, and Ms. McCoy.
Education Committee – Ms. Skiba and Mr. Vlasits.
Outreach Committee – Ms. Fong.
Research Committee – Ms. Oglesby, Ms. Skiba, and Ms. Walker.
V. New Business
New Hanover County Cemeteries – Bambie Karabin, Engineering CAD Specialist – presented a PowerPoint to the Commission.
111 Cemeteries in New Hanover County
30 are abandoned
25 African-American Cemeteries (+1 old cemetery) – 5 abandoned, 2 adopted.
There is no separate list for African-American cemeteries in the county.
Tablet grave markers are unique to African-American cemeteries.
The state of North Carolina has statutes regarding cemeteries.
Ms. Karabin does grading permits for cemeteries
Works with developers to protect, ex. Old Nixon Cemetery (slave graves exist in this cemetery); sometimes conch shells were used as grave markers;
Ms. Karabin does stone repair in spare time; has made repairs in Maides Cemetery.
Freeman Cemetery – 3 acres of this cemetery are abandoned (near Hank’s)
McIntyre Cemetery – Must be listed with Department of Archeology; cemetery is across a body of water and canoes are needed to access (contact Dillon from Parks and Rec); in decent shape,
but needs care; at least 25+ Veteran graves exist here.
Rice Road Cemetery – Named for a military leader; the County took over, but in 2014 an AME Zion Church took ownership of cemetery.
Maides Cemetery – African-American cemetery; was a peanut farm in 1800s; 1970 was last internment.
H.R. 1179 – ‘African-American Burial Grounds Network Act’ – Ms. Bradley-Thomas recommended signing up for alerts on the progress of this U.S. House Bill; subcommittee hearings held May
22nd, 2019; opportunity to apply for cemetery grants.
City Directory – Travis Souther, Librarian, New Hanover County Library
Presented his work on creating searchable Wilmington Street directories for the years 1900-1915 using Wilmington City Directories, Excel, and Google Maps;
Working from North Carolina Room in the downtown NHC Library;
For the year 1902, there were 9,500 records with specifics on names, professions, and also African-American businesses;
He welcomes volunteers to take part building the street database; can give access to Sharepoint – could invite students from CFCC, UNCW, and local high schools.
Committee Meeting Times – Commission members agreed to discuss best times to meet for each separate committee at the next meeting.
VI. Public Comments
People from the public commented on wanting to do guided tours for African-American history; they were referred to Ms. Spicer-Sidbury with the City of Wilmington for Urban History Hikes.
Question was asked about how individuals in the public can help, and they were encouraged to reach out to volunteer for committees.
VIII. Adjourn - Chairman Lloyd adjourned the meeting at 5:33 pm.