The Concerned Citizens of Tillery joined Nash Stop The Pipeline, the Alliance to Protect Our People and the Places We Live and other groups on a June 16 protest walk near the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline.

They targeted the section where Governor Roy Cooper’s father grew up in Elm Grove. Gov. Cooper was invited to attend the walk, but he did not show up. His father once wrote of Elm Grove, “I thank God that I have been privileged to live between the creeks with family, close friends, and with nature at its finest.”

The marchers took water from the Little Sapony Creek at the beginning of the march and mixed it with the waters from the Big Sapony Creek in a ceremony to draw symbolic attention to the impacts the pipeline project might have on the water systems in eastern North Carolina.

For more on the walk, see the coverage in The Rocky Mount Telegram and the Spring Hope Enterprise.

King David Wilson and Dominque Wilson of Atlanta filmed the music video for King David’s “Malcolm X” in Tillery, with extension scenes of the Tillery Community Center and History House. The Wilsons will feature Tillery in the first episode of a documentary they host and produce, “Culture Quest.” The song will serve as part of the documentary's soundtrack.

The June 2018 issue of Our State magazine features the Tillery Farms Resettlement community in its package of stories on the transformations of the 1940s in North Carolina (article attached below). Gary Grant and Hilda Walden are featured in the piece, which discusses how land ownership provided a foundation for educational achievement and civic engagement for a generation of black Tillery farm families.

For reprints of the piece, contact editorial@ourstate.com. To order bulk copies of this issue to share with friends and families, contact the circulation department: circulation@ourstate.com.