Greensboro, NC
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Raising Awareness of Greensboro's
African American
Architectural and Civil Rights History
The City of Greensboro has been awarded a 2024 African American Civil Rights Program Grant of $75,000. This is the second grant from the National Park Service. The funds allow the City to continue the oral history research and documentation of African American architectural and civil right history.
Many oral history interviews have been conducted with longtime residents and two community scanning sessions have collected memorabilia from residents that have been archived at the UNCG digital collections.
What is the Historic Resources Inventory?
The Historic Resources Inventory is a product of systematic field surveys by qualified architectural historians. Surveys record architectural and historical data that can be used to determine if a property or neighborhood may be eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.
Greensboro's first survey was conducted in 1975. The City was re-surveyed in 1990 and again from 2006-09. (Reports from the 2006-09 survey are available on this page.) The book Greensboro, An Architectural Record by Marvin Brown was published in 1995.
The most recent survey, conducted in 2019-20, was of post WWII neighborhoods in east and southeast Greensboro. (Links to sections of that survey are also on this page.) That survey resulted in the proposed South Benbow Road Historic District being determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
The district is significant for its Modernist architecture and architects trained at NC A&T State University, and also because it was the home of leaders of and participants in the Civil Rights Movement in Greensboro. It will be Greensboro's first historically African American neighborhood to be listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Oral histories are being archived at the State Archives of North Carolina in Raleigh and will be available online. For more information, contact Mike Cowhig, 336-373-2755 or e-mail.
South Benbow Road Historic District Story Map
Conversations in Black: African American History and Heritage: Greensboro, NC
Designed by Clinton Gravely, this Greensboro home was indicative of Mid-Century Modern architecture's theme of connecting the inside with the outside. Gravely was the third African American architect to work at Edward Loewenstein's firm. Gravely later started his own firm. Photo courtesy of Clinton Gravely and North Carolina Modernist Houses. See many more photos and descriptions of these local treasures at this story map.