Agenda - 10-03-2017 - 4-a - Endorsement of Proposed National Register of Historic Places Nomination for the Efland Home (NC Industrial Home for Colored Girls)

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7 NPS Form 10-900-a OMB Approval No.1024-0018 (8-86) United States Department of the Interior National Park Service National Register of Historic Places Continuation Sheet Section number 8 Page 9 North Carolina Industrial Home for Colored Girls Orange County,NC North Carolina reformatory and participate in fundraising efforts. In Bethune's keynote speech at NCFCWC's annual meeting in 1925, she urged attendees to continue the fight for equitable facilities and opportunities for African American youth.'° NCFCWC identified a 143-acre farm in Efland, approximately four miles east of Mebane, as an optimal location for the girls' reformatory. The site was easily accessible and had the added benefit of being only twenty-eight miles east of Palmer Memorial Institute. NCFCWC paid S. C. and Carrie Forrest$7,150 for the two-parcel tract on July 16, 1921. The Forrests had been cultivating tobacco on the property and retained ownership of their tobacco sticks and flues as well as all planted crops that had yet to be harvested that year. NCFCWC conveyed the acreage to NCIHCG trustees on August 3, 1922.11 NCFCWC elected a distinguished board of trustees with valuable professional and personal connections to implement the reformatory's mission. The 1925 roster included Charlotte Hawkins Brown and other leaders from across the state who had campaigned for the institution's creation. Honorary chair Fannie Bickett of Raleigh,who was white,was a powerful ally due to her roles as a NCFWC officer, Wake County's superintendent of public welfare, and the widow of North Carolina governor and social welfare program advocate Thomas Walter Bickett. Chair Minnie G. Pearson of Durham was married to Hillside Park High School principal and businessman William G. Pearson, who functioned as the board's "special treasurer." Maude B. Cotton's husband John A. Cotton pastored a Henderson congregation. Ophelia T. Griffin was a teacher at High Point Normal and Industrial School, where her husband Alfred J. Griffin served as principal from 1897 until 1923. Lula S. Kelsey and her husband William F. Kelsey operated a Salisbury funeral home. Lillian V. Mebane was a public school teacher in Rocky Mount.12 Although it took several years,the NCFCWC solicited almost$30,000 in private donations to allow for the reformatory's construction and operation. In May 1925, at its annual meeting held in Wilson, 10 Bethune had a North Carolina connection as she attended Scotia Seminary as a scholarship recipient from 1888 through 1893. She founded the National Council for Negro Women in 1935;served as the first African American female federal agency head—Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the National Youth Administration—from 1936 until 1944; and led civil rights initiatives until her death in 1955. National Council of Negro Women,Inc.,"Mary McLeod Bethune,"http://ncnw.org/about/bethune.htm (accessed February 2017);"Mary McLeod Bethune, 1875-1955," http://www.nps.gov/mamc/learn/historvculture/people marymcleodbethune.htm(accessed February 2017);"North Carolina Federation Women Held 16th Annual Session,Mrs.Brown,Pres.,"New York Age,May 30, 1925,p.2. 11 Orange County Deed Book 80,p.48;Deed Book 81,p.5. 12 William Pearson was instrumental in the founding of Mechanics and Farmers Bank,North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company,Fraternal Bank and Trust Company, Southern Fidelity and Surety Company,Bankers Fire Insurance Company,and the National Religious Training School and Chautauqua(now North Carolina Central University). Charlotte Hawkins Brown,undated financial statement,NCSBPWI,Box 163;U. S.Censuses,Population Schedules, 1900-1940;R. McCants Andrews,John Merrick:A Biographical Sketch(Durham: Seeman Printery, 1920),52-57.