North Carolina Central University is a public historically black university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by James E. Shepard in affiliation with the Chautauqua movement in 1909, it was supported by private funds from both Northern and Southern philanthropists. It was made part of the state system in 1923, when it first received state funding and was renamed as Durham State Normal School. It added graduate classes in arts and sciences and professional schools in law and library science in the late 1930s and 1940s.
Montfort Stokes was an American Democratic politician who served as U.S. Senator from 1816 to 1823, and the 25th Governor of North Carolina from 1830 to 1832.
Thomas C. Dula was a former Confederate soldier who was convicted of murdering Laura Foster. National publicity from newspapers such as The New York Times turned Dula's story into a folk legend. Although Laura was murdered in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Dula was tried, convicted, and hanged in Statesville. Considerable controversy surrounded the case. In subsequent years, a folk song was written, and many oral traditions were passed down, regarding the sensational occurrences surrounding Laura Foster's murder and Dula's subsequent execution. The Kingston Trio recorded a hit version of the murder ballad in 1958.
Kaye Gibbons is an American novelist. Her first novel, Ellen Foster (1987), received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Special Citation from the Ernest Hemingway Foundation and the Louis D. Rubin, Jr. Prize in Creative Writing from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Gibbons is a member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers and two of her books, Ellen Foster and A Virtuous Woman, were selected for Oprah's Book Club in 1998.
John Gray Foster was an American soldier. A career military officer in the United States Army and a Union general during the American Civil War, he served in North and South Carolina during the war. A reconstruction era expert in underwater demolition, he wrote a treatise on the subject in 1869. He continued with the Army after the war, using his expertise as assistant to the Chief Engineer in Washington, DC and at a post on Lake Erie.
The University of North Carolina School of Law, sometimes referred to as Carolina Law, is the law school of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Established in 1845, it is among the oldest law schools in the United States and is the oldest law school in the state of North Carolina.
William Edwin Foster was the head men's basketball coach at Rutgers University, University of Utah, Duke University, University of South Carolina, and Northwestern University. He is best known for guiding Duke to the NCAA championship game in 1978, and that year he was named national Coach of the Year by the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Foster was inducted into the Rutgers Basketball Hall of Fame and was the first NCAA coach to guide four teams to 20-win seasons. Foster was a graduate of Elizabethtown College.
Sarah Jane Woodson Early, born Sarah Jane Woodson, was an American educator, black nationalist, temperance activist and author. A graduate of Oberlin College, where she majored in classics, she was hired at Wilberforce University in 1858 as the first black woman college instructor, and also the first black American to teach at a historically black college or university (HBCU).
Amanda Crowe was an Eastern Band Cherokee woodcarver and educator from Cherokee, North Carolina in the United States. A graduate of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, her work has been widely exhibited and is held by a number of museums. Crowe dedicated much of her career to teaching and training the next generation of Eastern Cherokee artists.
Carla D. Cunningham is an American Democratic politician. She has served as a member of the North Carolina House of Representatives from the 106th district since 2012.
Rosa U. Gill is a Democratic member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. She has represented the 33rd district since her initial appointment in 2009.
Sara Foster is an American chef, restaurateur and cookbook author in Durham, North Carolina. She is the founder and owner of the gourmet cafe and market Foster's Market, which opened in Durham in 1990. She is the author of four cookbooks, and has appeared in many national magazines. She has been a frequent guest on The Today Show and Martha Stewart Living since 1995. Foster is known for her use of fresh vegetables and herbs in southern food and for her long history of advocating for the use of locally grown produce in her restaurants and in home cooking.
Vievee Elaure Francis is an American poet. She is an associate professor of English and Creative Writing at Dartmouth College. She earned an MFA from the University of Michigan in 2009, and she received a Rona Jaffe Award the same year. Vievee is the author of three collections of the poetry, the third of which, Forest Primeval, won the 2016 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for poetry and the 2017 Kingsley Tufts poetry award.
Evelyn Abrams Terry is an American politician from North Carolina. She was first elected to the North Carolina House of Representatives in 2012. A member of the Democratic party, she represented the 71st district from 2013 to 2023. Terry previously served on the Winston-Salem city council from 2005 to 2009.
Mary Gardner Belk is a Democratic member of the North Carolina General Assembly representing the state's eighty-eighth House district, which includes portions of Southeast Mecklenburg County. 2017 was her first year in North Carolina House. In the 2017–2018 session, Belk served on the Transportation, Banking, and Justice and Public Safety Appropriations Committees.
Kristin Bernhardt Cooper is an American lawyer who has been First Lady of the state of North Carolina since January 1, 2017.
Allison Anne Dahle is a Democratic member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. Dahle has represented the 11th district since 2019.
Sarah Suzanne Stevens is a Republican member of the North Carolina House of Representatives. She has represented the 90th district since 2009 and has served as speaker pro tempore since 2017.
Kyle Hall is a businessman and politician, currently serving in the North Carolina House of Representatives.
Natalie S. Murdock is an American politician and a Democratic member of the North Carolina Senate. Upon being sworn in, she became the first black woman under the age of 40 to serve in the NC Senate.
