Southeastern North Carolina Black History Month facts: Week 1

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - WECT proudly celebrates Black History Month.

All month long we will highlight places, people, and moments that shaped Black history in southeastern North Carolina.

Sloop Point Elementary

Sloop Point Elementary is one of the eight remaining Rosenwald School buildings in Pender County.

The one-room schoolhouse sits next to Manhallow Missionary Baptist Church in Hampstead.

In the early 1900′s, Julius Rosenwald (then president of Sears, Roebuck and Co.) created a fund to provide education to African Americans in the rural South.

That money helped build more than 5,000 Rosenwald schools.

More than 800 of those schools were in North Carolina.

Giblem Lodge

The Giblem Lodge was built in 1871 on Princess Street.

It became Wilmington’s first African American Masonic Lodge.

In 1875, the Giblem Lodge hosted the first African American Agricultural and Industrial Fair in the country.

The building also served as Wilmington’s first African American Library in 1926, and in 1983 the Historic Wilmington Foundation recognized the site as a landmark.

Mable Munn

Mable Munn was the first female Black fire fighter in Columbus County.

She started volunteering at the Whiteville Fire Department back in September of 1979 with a goal of making a difference in the community.

Munn continued her work with the department for more than 14 years.

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