In this June 27, 1985, file photo, Nina Simone performs at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. The childhood home of the iconic musician and civil rights activist will be indefinitely preserved in North Carolina. (AP Photo/Rene Perez, File)
North Carolina is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous state in the U.S. Located in the country’s Southern region, its current population is 67.58 percent white and 21.35 percent Black or African American citizens, according to the World Population Review.
One North Carolina city, Fayetteville, has the highest percentage of Black-owned businesses in the U.S., according to a February 2022 LendingTree study.
The town of Princeville in eastern North Carolina was settled in 1865 by former enslaved Africans and was known as Freedom Hill. The town was incorporated in 1885 and 20 years later was renamed for one of its citizens, Turner Prince. It is the only incorporated “all Black” town in North Carolina, according to Soul of America.
Here are the 10 most famous Black Americans who were born or raised in North Carolina.
Noble Drew Ali was a Moorish American who founded the Moorish Science Temple of America. Considered a prophet by his followers, in 1913, he founded the Canaanite Temple in Newark, New Jersey, before relocating to Chicago. He was born on Jan. 8, 1886, in North Carolina.
Popular 1990s R&B quartet Jodeci was formed in 1989 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Its members included DeVanté Swing, Mr. Dalvin, K-Ci, and JoJo. Their debut album, “Forever My Lady,” went triple-platinum.
Born Jermaine Lamarr Cole on a military base in Germany, he was raised in Fayetteville, North Carolina. J. Cole has seen become one of hip-hop’s most prominent artists and producers. Cole initially gained recognition as a rapper following the release of his debut mixtape, “The Come Up,” in early 2007.
Considered one of the greatest National Basketball Association point guards of all time, Chris Paul was born in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, to Charles Edward Paul and Robin Jones. He grew up in Lewisville with his older brother, Charles “C.J.” Paul. Currently playing for the Phoenix Suns, Paul has won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award, an NBA All-Star Game Most Valuable Player Award, two Olympic gold medals, and led the NBA in assists five times and steals a record six times.
Nina Simone is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. She was born on Feb. 21, 1933, in Tryon, North Carolina. Her father, John Divine Waymon, worked as a barber and dry-cleaner. He was also an entertainer. Her mother, Mary Kate Irvin, was a Methodist preacher. Simone was the sixth of eight children and her family was poor. She began playing piano at the age of three or four. She went on to become what some regard as a musical genius. She was a singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist, who often used her entertainment platform to promote civil rights.
Born in Gastonia, North Carolina, in 1930, the 92-year-old Sowell is an important social theorist and economist. Over the years, he has played a prominent role working as a faculty member of many prestigious universities, such as the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Cornell University. Today, he is a political commentator who is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Jazz saxophone legend John Coltrane was born on September 23, 1926 in Hamlet, North Carolina. He died: July 17, 1967. He won a Pulitzer Prize and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and was canonized by the African Orthodox Church.
.Plummer Bernard Young Sr. (July 27, 1884 – Oct. 9, 1962) was a newspaper editor, publisher, community leader, and founder of the Norfolk Journal and Guide. Better known as P. B. Young, he was a newspaper editor, publisher, community leader.
Thelonious Monk was born on Oct. 10, 1917, in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. In 1922, the family moved to Manhattan, New York City. Between about the ages 10 to 12, Monk’s piano teacher was Austrian-born Simon Wolf, a pianist and violinist who studied under Alfred Megerlin, the first violinist and concertmaster of the New York Philharmonic. Monk become one of the world’s most influential jazz pianist and composer. Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. He died Feb. 17, 1982.
Hiram Rhodes Revels (Sept. 27, 1827– Jan. 16, 1901) was an Republican politician, minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and a college administrator. He was born free in North Carolina, he later lived and worked in Ohio. Elected by the Mississippi legislature to the United States Senate as a Republican to represent Mississippi in 1870 and 1871 during the Reconstruction era, he was the first African American to serve in either house of the U.S. Congress.
In this June 27, 1985, file photo, Nina Simone performs at Avery Fisher Hall in New York. The childhood home of the iconic musician and civil rights activist will be indefinitely preserved in North Carolina. The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020, that its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, in partnership with World Monuments Fund and Preservation North Carolina, recently secured permanent protection of the singer-songwriter’s childhood home in Tryon. (AP Photo/Rene Perez, File)
