Fourth Ward native Charles R. Davis was a force of nature whose rhythmic heartbeat bridged the distance between the African continent and the American South. Davis was born on Jamaica St. and graduated from Ligon High School in 1954 and originally trained as a naval medical corpsman but eventually traded his nursing scrubs for flowing African robes, declaring that while nursing was the "cure," dance was the "prevention." As the visionary founder of DanceAfrica and the Durham-based African American Dance Ensemble, he transformed the stage into a sacred space using traditional West African movement to combat racism and foster community healing. A literal and figurative giant, he earned the nickname of “Baba” the African word for father and was recognized as one of America's "100 Irreplaceable Dance Treasures," yet he remained a man of the people, known for his all-encompassing hugs and his universal mantra, "Peace, love, and respect for everybody."
]]>Effie Whitaker was a lifelong educator whose work helped shape the North Carolina School for the Deaf. Growing up in Raleigh’s Fourth Ward, she became a strong advocate for deaf students at a time when specialized education was still developing in the state.
Whitaker championed the use of American Sign Language in the classroom and helped create hands-on vocational programs which gave students practical skills and greater independence. She also played an important role in moving the school from Raleigh to its long-term home in Morganton, a change that expanded access to education for deaf children across North Carolina.
Her commitment to inclusion, communication, and opportunity continues to influence the school’s mission today.
]]>During World War I, the Wake County Red Cross opened canteens in Raleigh to support soldiers traveling through the city. Since many Raleigh goods and services were segregated, Black troops were turned away. In response, local leaders created the Oak City Auxiliary on July 8, 1917, to ensure African American service members received food, care, and dignity.
The Auxiliary’s nurses were recruited and organized by prominent Black women in the community, who also served on its executive board. One of its key leaders was Dulcina Blanch Torrence DeBerry. A Shaw University graduate and the wife of a minister, DeBerry chaired the Auxiliary from September 1917 to March 1918, and guided the work to meet the needs of Black servicemen during the war.
After the war, DeBerry continued her commitment to education and public service. She taught grade school North Carolina, and later became the first Black librarian in the Huntsville-Madison Public Library System. She was honored by a library branch in Huntsville, Alabama, named in her honor.
]]>Dr. Lovelace B. Capehart was a Shaw University trained physician and professor who constructed a building which quickly became the center of life for the Fourth Ward community. He named it after himself, Capehart Hall, and it became a lively hub of Black enterprise and culture in Raleigh. The space pulsed with community life, Black owned businesses filled its rooms, and groups like the Knights of Pythias hosted elegant gatherings in its halls. Over the decades, Capehart Hall evolved with the neighborhood, housing everything from a A&P grocery store to the Paradise Club, to a Black Panther food bank in the 1960s. Though the building was demolished during urban renewal in the early 1970s, its legacy endures as a reminder of a once thriving center of African American resilience, creativity, and community care.
]]>The large building shown here was known for many years as Tent Sisters’ Hall, the meeting place of the United Order of Tents. This organization, founded and led by African American church women, was a secret society devoted to community care. Members provided healthcare, end of life care, and financial assistance to people in need. The hall stood at the northeast corner of Cannister and Battle Streets in the Southside neighborhood.
Women’s fraternal groups such as the Tents also played a major role in creating social welfare programs for older adults. The Grand United Order of Tents, founded in Norfolk, Virginia, in 1866, opened an Old Folks’ Home in Hampton in 1897 to support orphaned children and members who could no longer care for themselves. A similar home for elderly members was later established in Raleigh.
In 1909, civil rights leader, W.E.B. Du Bois highlighted the Tent Sisters’ Hall in his book, Efforts for Social Betterment Among Negro Americans, calling it, “the most interesting experiment in the country.”
]]>For more than 60 years, Willie Virginia Otey Kay created elegant, custom gowns which made her one of North Carolina’s most sought after clothing designers. Born at 125 West Cabarrus Street, she was the youngest of eight children. Kay graduated from Shaw University in 1912 with a degree in Home Economics, winning the school’s dressmaking competition along the way.
She married John Walcott Kay and moved to Wilmington, but after his death in 1927, she returned to Raleigh with five children to support. With help from her sisters, Josephine, Inez, Gloria, Constance, and June, she opened her own dressmaking business. The Otey name soon became known across the state for fine formal wear, serving both Black and white clients.
Kay remained deeply connected to her faith as a lifelong member of Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church. Her children later honored her legacy by dedicating a stained-glass window in her memory.
]]>Baseball was a favorite pastime for many children growing up in the Fourth Ward, where neighborhood teams played one another across Raleigh. Wilbur Allen “Pete” Wilder, born on McKee Street, was one of those kids who fell in love with the game. He graduated with the first class of Washington High School in 1927 and later studied journalism locally at Shaw University, as well as at New York University and at Fordham University.
Wilder played baseball at Shaw and went on to pitch professionally in the Negro Leagues. In 1937, he founded the Raleigh Grays, a semi professional team who played at Shaw Alumni Field and later at Chavis Park. After World War II, he and Arthur Dove launched another team, the Raleigh Tigers, in 1946.
Wilder’s impact on Raleigh sports was long-lasting. He was inducted into the Shaw University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1992 and the Raleigh Hall of Fame in 2010.
]]>Edward Austin Johnson was born into slavery in Wake County in 1860 and went on to become one of North Carolina’s most influential Black educators and civic leaders. He attended Raleigh’s Washington School and later graduated from Atlanta University in 1883. Returning to Raleigh in 1885, he became principal of Washington School and enrolled in the first class of Shaw University’s new law school, the only law program open to African Americans between Washington, D.C., and Atlanta, Georgia.
While at Shaw, Johnson wrote, A School History of the Negro Race in America (1891), the first textbook by a Black author approved by the North Carolina State Board of Education for public school use. After he earned his law degree in 1890, he lived in the Fourth Ward near South West Street and West Lenoir Street, and was elected alderman for the ward seven years later. Johnson later taught at his alma mater and served as dean of the law school from 1903 to 1906.
He moved to New York City soon after, where he became active in politics and, in 1918, served as the first Black member of the New York State Assembly. He attempted a run for New York state senate seat in 1928. When Johnson died in 1944, much of his estate was dedicated to supporting a music scholarship at Shaw University and providing assistance for blind African American youth in Raleigh.
]]>In 1950, a corner of Raleigh’s South Dawson Street transformed into a culinary landmark when Peter Pavlakos and Michael Thevis joined forces to open the Pete and Mike’s Grill. Both men were seasoned veterans of the city's cafe scene. Pavlakos already established himself with the Fruit and Lunch Store and the Lincoln Cafe, while Thevis, a Greek immigrant from Sparta, brought a lifetime of experience to the partnership. Their collaboration was more than a business deal, it was a family affair, rooted in the kinship between the Thevis and Pavlakos households residing nearby on Dawson and Martin Streets.
The restaurant advertised in the 1950-1952 Negro Travelers Green Book. The information book listed Black owned or sympathetic businesses where Black travelers could get service. It became indispensable for Black families traveling across the United States. The guide identified hotels, restaurants, gas stations, and private homes who would welcome Black travelers. This system helped them avoid the humiliation of being turned away or the physical danger of "sundown towns".
]]>Construction on Memorial Auditorium began in 1932 to honor Raleigh’s soldiers who died in World War I. The site had a long history: Originally home to the Governor’s Palace, built in 1814-16, later became the Centennial Graded School, established in 1876 as Raleigh’s first public school and the only the second in North Carolina. The school served white children and was eventually replaced by a larger brick building in the 1880s before being demolished in 1931 to make way for the new auditorium.
The auditorium welcomed generations of Black performers, students, and community members who were often barred from other venues. From local Fourth Ward artists to nationally known African American entertainers passing through the Jim Crow South, the building became a rare space where Black talent could shine. Its history holds not only the memory of fallen soldiers, but also the creative resilience of Raleigh’s Black community.
]]>Lewis O. “Dusty” Dewberry, born in 1947, discovered his passion for cars while studying auto mechanics at Ligon High School, where he graduated in 1966. In the 1980s, he opened his own repair shop, which quickly became an anchor for the Fourth Ward community. Dusty and his wife, Barbara, ran the shop as more than a business, they offered food, shelter, and support to neighbors during hard times.
Dusty’s shop closed in March 2017, and two years later the space became home to Sam Jones BBQ. Dewberry passed away in 2020, leaving behind a legacy of skill, generosity, and community care.
]]>Union Grove Baptist Church took root around 1905 under the leadership of Reverend Alex A. Jones, beginning as a humble wooden sanctuary on South Saunders Street. By 1935, members like recording artist Hamp Jones who journeyed from South Carolina in search of new opportunities during the Great Depression. Jones and others found the small Baptist congregation and helped raise the wooden church that still stands today. While much of the surrounding neighborhood was erased by urban renewal in the 1960s and 1970s, Union Grove Baptist Church endured, becoming the lone surviving spiritual landmark of its community. Its doors remain open, carrying forward more than a century of faith, resilience, and fellowship in Raleigh.
]]>Established in 1872, Mount Hope Cemetery was the first municipal burial grounds for the newly freed in North Carolina. Many of these individuals, born into slavery, created a thriving and diverse community. Those interred in the cemetery owned shops and businesses, became pioneers in education, and were skillful entrepreneurs. There were also many who fought for their country and led the struggle for equality.
The City of Raleigh appointed three prominent African American citizens to locate and purchase land for a new cemetery expressly for the interment of African Americans. On January 16, 1872, the City bought eleven and one-half acres on the south side of the city for the new Mount Hope Cemetery. Mount Hope provides a peaceful retreat to reflect and remember. Almost 1,500 monuments mark only a few of the 7,000 burials in the historic portion of the cemetery. The identities of many more who rest here have been lost over time.
]]>Washington School was founded after the Civil War to educate newly freed African Americans at the corner of McDowell and South Streets. As Raleigh grew, a new school building was constructed in 1923–1924 to serve the rising number of students. For many years, Washington Graded and High School was the only secondary school available to Black students in the city, a role it held until John W. Ligon Junior–Senior High School opened in 1953. The school later integrated in 1971.
In 1982, Washington became part of Raleigh’s magnet program, offering a Gifted & Talented curriculum for elementary students. Its long legacy in public education was recognized in 2005, when the school was added to the National Register of Historic Places.
]]>The roots of First Congregational Church date back to 1867, when the American Missionary Association founded a school and church for newly freed African Americans. As the congregation grew, members built a wood frame church with a corner tower in 1896. Under the leadership of Reverend Perfect Robert DeBerry, they later constructed a larger brick church in a Gothic Revival style at the corner of South and Manly Streets.
First Congregational became a vital center of religious and civic life in the Fourth Ward. It hosted North Carolina’s first African American Boy Scout troop and, in 1944, the inaugural meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) North Carolina State Conference.
During urban renewal in 1976, the congregation was forced to relocate to Creech Road, and the original chapel was demolished. The church community, however, continues its work and legacy today.
]]>In 1867, the American Missionary Association (AMA) met with Black residents in a small one room building on South Street near Manly, where they helped establish the Freedmen’s School. This early partnership laid the foundation for what would become First Congregational Church.
The church soon grew into a beacon of hope for the Fourth Ward community. In 1877, Reverend George S. Smith became its first Black pastor. Nearly a century later, in 1976, urban renewal forced the congregation to relocate, and the original church was demolished. Many treasured features such as the stained-glass windows, the pipe organ, curved pews, and pulpit furniture were carefully moved to the new building on Creech Road. The congregation held its first service there on July 3, 1977, continuing a legacy of faith and resilience.
]]>In 1895, a small group of African Americans purchased land to build a church of their own. Reverend John T. Pullen, pastor of “The Little Mission Church” at 751 Fayetteville Street, agreed to sell them the property. The original building was modest but welcomed the first congregation of 16 members. On August 1, 1895, the group bought the church for $800—paying $50 upfront and the rest in yearly installments of $100 over seven and a half years. They named it Fayetteville Street Little Mission.
When urban renewal forced the congregation to relocate, the church purchased 9½ acres on Cross Link Road to build a new home. In 1970, the congregation opened its new doors under a new name, First Cosmopolitan Baptist Church.
]]>The founding of the school which would become Shaw University in 1865 profoundly shaped African American life in Raleigh and across the nation. Just months after the Civil War ended, Union veteran and missionary Henry Tupper established a school for newly freed men and women. Over its first 50 years, Shaw expanded beyond general education to include professional programs that met the needs of the Black community, including schools of pharmacy and law.
Located along the boundary between Raleigh’s Third and Fourth Wards, Shaw University became a major center of learning, leadership, and opportunity. Today, it continues to educate students and stands as one of the oldest Historically Black College and University in the United States.
]]>The 1915 Curtis House, a two-story Late Victorian/Neoclassical dwelling, is a stylish family home built by William A. Curtis for his mother and siblings. After the death of his father, William, his mother, and his eldest siblings pursued work and education to help support the younger Curtis siblings. William worked three jobs and his mother ran a hairdressing business in the previous family home on New Bern Avenue. In 1913, William purchased parcels in the newly developing African American neighborhood of Lincoln Park and built the house around 1915. Notable architectural features are the leaded and beveled glass in windows and the front door, classical columns and balustrade at the wraparound porch, and corbelled brick chimneys. Neoclassical style is evident inside, particularly at mantels and the grand center-hall stair.
Date: ca. 1915
]]>Mount Hope, established around 1872, is one of the first municipal cemeteries for African Americans in the state. City Cemetery’s African American section was full by 1871 and the city purchased eleven or so acres south of town for additional burial grounds. It was common in this period for cities to establish such cemeteries for whites, but very rare to do so for African Americans. Those buried at Mount Hope include some prominent professionals and businessmen from late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century Raleigh, such as Dr. Manassa T. Pope, whose family home is another historic landmark. The cemetery features a garden design characterized by looping drives in contrast with the rectilinear design of City Cemetery. The funerary sculpture is particularly notable and is one of the largest collections of African American funerary art in the county.
Date: ca. 1872
]]>In 1894 Berry O'Kelly and others on the School Committee for House Creek Township District # 2 purchased one acre of land for a school. Through numerous additions over the years, including as late as 1962, the campus eventually grew to approximately eight acres before its closure as a school in 1966. Today only two of the numerous classroom, vocational, dormitory, and assembly buildings that were erected during the school’s history remain. Its vocational curriculum in agriculture, among others, necessitated land for agricultural demonstration, and the physical fitness programs also required land and facilities. The site was large enough to require internal vehicular circulation, which still serves that purpose today, along with new parking areas added to serve the current community park facilities.
Dates: ca. 1928; ca. 1959; ca. 1988
]]>The grave of Berry O'Kelly School's founder is the only grave on the church grounds south of the school parcel. A stone plinth also accommodates a planter with a small boxwood that partially obscures the dressed face of the stone. The dressed portion is divided into three parts – the larger central part is concave with BERRY O'KELLY carved into its face. The flanking sections, also concave, are dressed with a sinuous foliate motif carved at their tops. The footstone reads
BERRY O'KELLY
DIED
MARCH 14, 1931
Symbolizing the esteem within which the community still holds O’Kelly, north of the grave on the former school parcel is a commemorative granite obelisk erected in 1986 by alumni and friends of the school. It has a carved likeness of O'Kelly and below his likeness the inscription
BERRY O'KELLY
ABOUT 1864-1931
HUMANITARIAN
LEADER IN BUSINESS AND EDUCATION
Dates: 1931 and 1986
]]>Following Berry O’Kelly’s death in 1931, his namesake school continued to serve the community of Method. As more schools for African Americans were established in the area, its enrollment began to fall. The push toward integration further affected the school’s enrollment (eventually leading to its closure in 1966). Nonetheless, there continued to be advocates for “separate but equal” school facilities for blacks and whites. This was probably a factor leading to construction of the gymnasium as advocates pressed for equalization of facilities in schools serving African Americans. The utilitarian brick building features the clean lines of mid-century modern design, with horizontally-proportioned grids of windows in large openings daylighting the interior spaces. A barrel-arched roof supported by metal bow trusses spans the large gymnasium space, flanked on three sides by one-story wings.
Date: ca. 1950
]]>Gethsemane Seventh-Day Adventist Church at 501 South Person Street was the first SDA church, black or white, established in Raleigh. Many of Gethsemane’s elders and pastors went on to become influential leaders in the black SDA movement, most notably Benjamin W. Abney, its founding pastor. In the early 1920s, after a year or so of tent meetings led by Abney, the growing group of Seventh Day Adventists managed to erect a sanctuary. The modest building has classic Gothic Revival-style elements like buttresses and pointed-arch windows with stained glass.
The wall material is rare for the period of construction and unique in its ornament. The walls boast distinctive concrete blocks adorned with pebbled quartz. The blocks were probably made onsite by the congregation members. Block-making machines were affordable and widely available—you could buy one from the Sears catalog. Advertisements bragged “one man can make from 100 to 150 perfect blocks a day…and can do it day after day.” The concrete blocks were formed in a mold and then decorated with quartz pieces that were pressed into the face of the block. The roof structure of the church was seriously damaged in the tornado of 2011; it was lifted and then dropped back on the walls. The building was declared unsafe by the building official and came within days of being demolished before it was purchased and restored by Phuc Tran.
Date: 1922
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