Evangeline Grant Redding Briley The unveiling of a Mural of the New Deal Tillery Farms Resettlement is the highlight and focal point of a special program at the Tillery Community Center “Campus” on Saturday, November 12, 2016 sponsored by the Concerned Citizens of Tillery (CCT). The unveiling and dedication of the Mural painted by local noted artist Napoleon Hill kicks off a major fundraising effort to repair and save historic structures on the “campus” of the Tillery Community Center, 321 Community Center Road, Halifax (Tillery), NC. These structures built in the mid 1930s have lasted over 80 years with minimum repair.
Starting at 11:00am, CCT’s award winning documentary We Shall Not Be Moved: The Story Of The Tillery Resettlement Community will be shown and a full discussion will follow.
Following the documentary showing, for a contribution of $10.00 one can have a “Healthy Southern Meal” including fried and baked chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas, potato salad, rice, okra combo, candied yams and many other delicious items.
The unveiling program of the Mural by local artist Napoleon Hill will begin at 2:00pm with several illustrious speakers. Starting with Spencer Wood, PhD, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS where he has taught since 2007. He has published works broadly ranging on issues of democracy, the sociology of agriculture and food, rural community and development, the sociology of knowledge and science, social inequality, and racial inequality. Wood will give some major history on the New Deal program of President Roosevelt and the transitioning impact from sharecropper to land owning.
Native North Carolinian Katherine Mellen Charron, PhD is an Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University. Her M.A. is in Afro-American Studies and her Ph.D. in History is from Yale University. Her teaching and research expertise includes 20th century U.S., African American, southern, and women's history. She is the author of the award winning Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark (2009). Dr. Charron will highlight the Early Civil Rights Efforts in Tillery and Halifax County.
Michael Stewart, Jr. was born in New Orleans, LA to Michael and Deborah M. Stewart Sr. He had the pleasure of spending his summers and holidays on his Uncle Sonny’s farm in Tangipahoa Parish, LA throughout his childhood. By middle school, with his God given talent, he would take up the piano and saxophone and would later be accepted at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts under the tootaledge of master teachers Edward and Kent Jordan, and Alvin Baptists. Having pursued his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Howard University, Michael currently is teaching Political Science at Howard University on a graduate assistantship and writing his dissertation on the Political Impacts of Social Movements. PhD Candidate Mr. Stewart will focus on the Black Farmer Movement around the now historic Pigford vs. Glickman (1998) Class Action by Black farmers with much of its beginning in the Tillery Farms Resettlement.
Evangeline Grant Redding Briley, a second generation resettler, is one of those fascinating multidimensional individuals as a civil rights activist, writer, and humanist, who generates life as the proverbial wall flower or as a high flying Scorpio. Understanding the racial pathology of the media and the power of self-definition, in 1974 Evangeline entered an entrepreneurial partnership with her brother, Gary R. Grant, by establishing Evan-Redd Productions Inc. This led to her most notable television work, the award winning Heritage of Hope, financed by a first time grant to an independent company from N C Public Television. Under the Evan-Redd label, two books were published: nothing: the mentality of the black woman, used as a resource text in a reported 16 U S colleges and universities, and reviewed in several academic periodicals; and Something Special, by a local Southeast Halifax High School athlete, Anthony Debro. Briley will present on “The Women of the Resettlement.”
This auspicious cultural event promises to be a fantastic program with music by the OMS Chorus, keyboardist Charlie Hill, Jr., special poetry by former Congressman Frank Ballance, Jr., words from the Halifax County Arts Council and the artist himself Napoleon Hill.
The event is open to the public and there is no charge for admission. CCT expresses great appreciation for the Halifax County Arts Council’s support of this Mural and the event. Come be a part of this wonderful historic occasion as the CCT Family works to save historic buildings of a bygone era of true Family Farming. There will be a Special Souvenir program for purchase. All fundraising will go to protect and restore the historic buildings.
For more information, contact the CCT office at [email protected] or phone 252-826-3017.
Starting at 11:00am, CCT’s award winning documentary We Shall Not Be Moved: The Story Of The Tillery Resettlement Community will be shown and a full discussion will follow.
Following the documentary showing, for a contribution of $10.00 one can have a “Healthy Southern Meal” including fried and baked chicken, collard greens, black-eyed peas, potato salad, rice, okra combo, candied yams and many other delicious items.
The unveiling program of the Mural by local artist Napoleon Hill will begin at 2:00pm with several illustrious speakers. Starting with Spencer Wood, PhD, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS where he has taught since 2007. He has published works broadly ranging on issues of democracy, the sociology of agriculture and food, rural community and development, the sociology of knowledge and science, social inequality, and racial inequality. Wood will give some major history on the New Deal program of President Roosevelt and the transitioning impact from sharecropper to land owning.
Native North Carolinian Katherine Mellen Charron, PhD is an Associate Professor of History at North Carolina State University. Her M.A. is in Afro-American Studies and her Ph.D. in History is from Yale University. Her teaching and research expertise includes 20th century U.S., African American, southern, and women's history. She is the author of the award winning Freedom's Teacher: The Life of Septima Clark (2009). Dr. Charron will highlight the Early Civil Rights Efforts in Tillery and Halifax County.
Michael Stewart, Jr. was born in New Orleans, LA to Michael and Deborah M. Stewart Sr. He had the pleasure of spending his summers and holidays on his Uncle Sonny’s farm in Tangipahoa Parish, LA throughout his childhood. By middle school, with his God given talent, he would take up the piano and saxophone and would later be accepted at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts under the tootaledge of master teachers Edward and Kent Jordan, and Alvin Baptists. Having pursued his undergraduate and graduate degrees at Howard University, Michael currently is teaching Political Science at Howard University on a graduate assistantship and writing his dissertation on the Political Impacts of Social Movements. PhD Candidate Mr. Stewart will focus on the Black Farmer Movement around the now historic Pigford vs. Glickman (1998) Class Action by Black farmers with much of its beginning in the Tillery Farms Resettlement.
Evangeline Grant Redding Briley, a second generation resettler, is one of those fascinating multidimensional individuals as a civil rights activist, writer, and humanist, who generates life as the proverbial wall flower or as a high flying Scorpio. Understanding the racial pathology of the media and the power of self-definition, in 1974 Evangeline entered an entrepreneurial partnership with her brother, Gary R. Grant, by establishing Evan-Redd Productions Inc. This led to her most notable television work, the award winning Heritage of Hope, financed by a first time grant to an independent company from N C Public Television. Under the Evan-Redd label, two books were published: nothing: the mentality of the black woman, used as a resource text in a reported 16 U S colleges and universities, and reviewed in several academic periodicals; and Something Special, by a local Southeast Halifax High School athlete, Anthony Debro. Briley will present on “The Women of the Resettlement.”
This auspicious cultural event promises to be a fantastic program with music by the OMS Chorus, keyboardist Charlie Hill, Jr., special poetry by former Congressman Frank Ballance, Jr., words from the Halifax County Arts Council and the artist himself Napoleon Hill.
The event is open to the public and there is no charge for admission. CCT expresses great appreciation for the Halifax County Arts Council’s support of this Mural and the event. Come be a part of this wonderful historic occasion as the CCT Family works to save historic buildings of a bygone era of true Family Farming. There will be a Special Souvenir program for purchase. All fundraising will go to protect and restore the historic buildings.
For more information, contact the CCT office at [email protected] or phone 252-826-3017.
Spencer Wood
Katherine Charron
Michael Stewart, Jr.
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