WS Chronicle

By Felecia Piggott-Long, Ph.D.  

Since 2013, Triad Cultural Arts has worked to preserve an architecturally significant shotgun house as a symbol of African American resilience in Happy Hill. In the midst of ongoing urban renewal, this site honors the men and women who built lives for their families before and after emancipation, ensuring the permanence of their legacy. 

Triad Cultural Arts (TCA) seeks to transform this significant landscape of Happy Hill into a heritage site. This transformation began in 2013 when the organization intervened by saving one of the shotgun houses from demolition. With more than 20 years of African American cultural preservation experience, TCA is positioned to display the presentation of Black history through the Shotgun House Legacy Site. 

On Saturday, March 8, men, women and children followed the signs through Happy Hill to find the shotgun house where two lectures would provide background on the legacy and the vision of the shotgun house on Humphrey Street.  

Cheryl Streeter Harry introduced Dr. Elwanda Ingram and intern Jasmine Hoeffner as they came to address the crowd about Black female trailblazers, community founders, and the history associated with the shotgun house. 

“Many people want to know what the project is about. The Shotgun House Historic Site is a public-facing house museum that illustrates the historically Black community founders, to civil rights and education,” said intern Hoeffner. “This project is important because Black historic sites have a history of being intentionally underfunded, severely neglected, or allowed to fall into disrepair. The Shotgun House Historic Site serves as a powerful example of the outcome of support for Black historic sites, as well as demonstrates the impact of commitment to the restoration and preservation of Black history,” Hoeffner said. 

According to the intern, each of the rooms in the shotgun house have historical value because they represent themes. For example, one room displays The Gilded Age (1870s -1900s). The themes here are legacy and architectural history. 1816 marks the segregation of God’s Acre cemetery; Black folks are no longer allowed to be buried there. 1865 marks Freedom Day, and 1872 marks the establishment of the Happy Hill community. 

Another room marks the Progressive Age (1900s – 1930s). The themes here are early activism, Jim Crow, religion, education and family. Two of the historical actors and events are Wade Bitting, Sr. and Simon G. Atkins, the principal of the largest grammar school for Black people in North Carolina. The 1900s call for a dramatic increase in the infrastructure affecting the Black community, organizations like the Safe Bus Company, and John Leonidas Wheeler’s Winston Mutual, an insurance company. In 1936 Wade Bitting secures the building of a footbridge in Happy Hill. In 1938, the Kate Bitting Reynolds Memorial Hospital was built for Black doctors to serve Black patients. 

The final room speaks to the Civil Rights Era (1940s – 1960s). The prominent actors include Gwendolyn Bailey, who integrated Reynolds High School; Carl Matthews, who staged a one-man sit-in; and the members of Local 22:  Theodosia Simpson, Velma Hopkins, Etta Hobson, Christine Gardner, Ruby Jones, Moranda Smith, and Viola Brown. 

Dr. Ingram’s presentation focused on international, national and local African American female trailblazers. She began with Lucy Terry, who wrote the earliest known work of literature by an African American. Phillis Wheatley wrote her book, “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral,” in 1773. Maria Stewart was an early abolitionist and feminist, and Ida B. Wells was a champion against lynching and one of the founders of the NAACP. Mary McLeod Bethune was the founder of the National Council of Negro Women and a friend to Eleanor Roosevelt 

 Dr. Ingram included Claudette Colvin, who was the first African American to refuse to give up her seat on the bus.  

“We have heard of Rosa Parks, but Claudette was an unwed teen mother. She did not have the right image to be celebrated. But now she is being celebrated,” said Dr. Ingram. 

Ingram then included Ella Baker, one of the founders of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Ingram also focused on Althea Gibson, the first Black woman to win Wimbledon, and Toni Morrison, who was recognized as the first African American woman to win the Noble Prize for Literature. 

“In the film world, Hattie McDaniel was the first African American woman to win an Oscar for her role in ‘Gone With the Wind.’ She broke the barrier. Halle Berry was rewarded for her role in ‘Monster’s Ball’ and Lorraine Hansberry was the first African American to have a play on Broadway – ‘A Raisin in the Sun,’” said Ingram.  

Ingram honored local women as well: Dr. Mae Jemison, Katherine Johnson, Velma Hopkins, Dr. Virginia Newell, Mazie Woodruff, Vivian Burke, Judge Denise Hartsfield, Lee Faye Mack, the late Sylvia Sprinkle-Hamlin, and Dr. Selma Burke, a sculptor. Ingram was very thorough in her scope. 

For more information on the Shotgun House Heritage Site, visit https://www.shotgunhousews.org/.