The North Carolina State Capitol will host a free lecture by Dr. Craig Friend about his new book “Becoming Lunsford Lane: The Lives of An American Aeneas” on June 24 at 6 p.m. The State Capitol is administered by the N.C. Division of State Historic Sites within the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Topics Related to Black History
Thomas Day State Historic Site is pleased to announce that starting May 13, the site will offer regularly scheduled walk-in tours to visitors for the first time. Previously, tours were available by advance reservation only. Acquired by the N.C. Division of State Historic Sites in 2024, the site is still under development and will continue to expand opportunities for the public to learn about the life and times of Thomas Day.Thomas Day State Historic Site is at 148 NC-57 in Milton, N.C.
The American Association for State and Local History (AASLH) has selected the North Carolina State Capitol as a 2025 Award of Excellence winner for the site’s digital humanities project, “From Naming to Knowing: Uncovering Slavery at the North Carolina State Capitol.” The project was researched, developed, and published by staff public historians Kara Deadmon, Natalie Rodriguez, and Terra Schramm. The State Capitol is administered by the N.C. Division of State Historic Sites within the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.
Bennett Place State Historic Site will commemorate the 160th anniversary of its Civil War surrender with two public programs on April 25-26. These programs mark the end of the 160th-anniversary commemorations of the American Civil War in North Carolina by North Carolina State Historic Sites.
On Saturday, March 8, Brunswick Town/Fort Anderson State Historic Site will host the North Carolina Rice Festival. The festival celebrates how rice and Gullah-Geechee culture shaped the North Carolina Lowcountry.
Opening Nov. 16 at Historic Stagville, Maya Freelon: Whippersnappers will premiere large-scale sculptures, archival photographs, paintings, and collages that transform the former plantation.
On Saturday, Feb. 15 at 2 p.m., Bennett Place State Historic Site will host a free lecture with local historian Ernest Dollar entitled “Jublio: Moments of Freedom, 1865.”Dollar, who serves as director of the Museums Section for the City of Raleigh, will highlight how enslaved people found and claimed freedom for themselves in the final days of the Civil War in North Carolina. This program will explore perspectives of African American men and women’s first moments of freedom as part of the site’s Black History Month programming.
The State Capitol will bring back a popular walking tour series centered on protest and civil rights in downtown Raleigh to commemorate Black History Month. The "We've Always Been Out There" tour will be a short (0.5 mile) walking tour that discusses the lengthy history of protest and civil rights demonstrations in Raleigh. The tour covers events from the early 19th century to the 1980s, and includes the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s, women's suffrage, Prohibition, the anti-Vietnam War movement, and the city’s first ever Pride parade.