The History of Franklinton Center at Bricks, continues as living stories. Our past guides us on the journey of life. We receive and acknowledge the importance of that legacy upon which and without whom we would be unnamed.
We are often asked about our place in history. Our answer is often complicated and intersectional. We exist at the point of intersection of many stories and are called to speak from the margins of their telling, even as we seek to move into a future filled with liberation. We use the complexities of our many stories as a starting point… a reminder (often) that movement folk of today are building on a rich legacy, that we and they are not alone. What follows is an ever evolving living document. It has many beginnings, it grows and expands regularly (and all of it’s pieces cannot be contained or explained here).
Tribal History — Tuscarora Nation of North Carolina
1788-1792 — Afro-Christian Convention
- Read on the Treatise Against Negro Slavery
- Essay on Negro Slavery by James O’Kelly
1871-1953 — Franklinton Christian College (Franklinton Center), Franklinton, NC
- Collection is archived at Elon University, Elon, NC
1895-1933 — Joseph Keasbey Brick Agricultural, Industrial, and Normal School which went on to become Brick Junior College (Brick School)
- Julia Elma Brewster Brick (1819-1902) – Benefactress
- Married: Joseph Keasbey Brick (1812-1867)
- Children: Joseph (1850-1851), Brewster (1853-1856), Gordon (1854-1855)
- Home: 200 Lafayette Avenue in Brooklyn, NY
- Church: Clinton Avenue Congregational Church
- Brooklyn Clay Retort & Fire Brick Works: 88 Van Dyke Street, Brooklyn, NY
- Green Wood Cemetery (Lot 15173, Section 158), 500 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
- The Brewster Genealogy by Emma C. Brewster Jones
Rev. Thomas Sewell Inborden (1865–1951) – Principal of Agricultural, Industrial & Normal School
- Married: Sarah Jane Evans Inborden (1866–1928) – Wife, Teacher
- Children: Julia E. Inborden Gordon (1893-1962), Dorothy V. Inborden Miller (B 1897), Wilson P. Inborden (1899-1972)
- Westwood Cemetery, Oberlin, Ohio
- History Of Brick School (compiled and written in 1937) by Thomas Sewell Inborden
- An Estimate of Negro Life and Character by Thomas Sewell Inborden
- A Trip to California, and several addresses to the Negro Farmers’ Congress of North Carolina by Thomas Sewell Inborden
- Suggestions to Teachers by Thomas Sewell Inborden
- A Biography : Thomas Sewell Inborden : early educator of color by Robert Ewell Greene.
- The Leary-Evans, Ohio’s free people of color. By Robert Ewell Greene.
- “Inborden, Thomas Sewell” in the Literary Map of North Carolina.
John C. Wright (Dates Unknown) – President of Brick Junior College
- Historians:Dr. Willa Cofield
- Brick School: Answering the Cry for Life and Liberty
- Willa Cofield Brick School Legacy
C. Rudolph Knight and Dr. Lawrence Auld
- Historical Reflections on African American Tarboro by C. Rudolph Knight Tarboro: Perry-Weston Institute, 2014.
- African American Heritage Guide: Tarboro, Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County, published in November 2013.
- The Education of a Generation: The Rosenwald Schools and Other African American Schools in Edgecombe County, A Preliminary History, by C. Rudolph
Knight and Lawrence W. S. Auld, Ph.D. Tarboro: Perry-Weston Institute, 2012. - Bricks School by Rudolph Knight. The Daily Southerner, October 19, 2011
1934 to ? — Brick Rural Life School: Director Neill A. McLean
- Collection is archived at Tulane University, New Orleans, LA
- Men of the Soil the Story of Brick Rural Life School
- The Pew and the Picket Line: Christianity and the American Working Class edited by Christopher D. Cantwell, Heath W. Carter, Janine Giordano Drake
- Education for Liberation: The American Missionary Association and African by Joe M. Richardson, Maxine D. Jones
1933-1946 — Brick Tri-County Public School: Brick High School
- School records possibly available in Edgecombe, Halifax, or Nash County Public School
- North Carolina Association of Black High School Alumni
- Edgecombe County, Philips High School in Battleboro (1949-1972)
- Halifax County, Inborden High School in East Hannon Street, Enfield (1946 to 1966)
- Nash County, Swift Creek High School in Whitakers (1950-1970)
1953-Present — Franklinton Center at Bricks, Inc.
- Remembering Jim Crow: African Americans Tell About Life in the Segregated South edited by William H. Chafe, Raymond Gavins, Rober Korsted
- Thesis: Cultural Landscape Conservation Guiding Future Development by Dr. Laura Elizabeth Schuetz
- Thesis Defense by Dr. Laura Elizabeth Schuetz
- https://muslimjournal.net/remembering-our-safe-spaces/
- Southern Movement Assembly: 2018 Synthesis & Action Plan
Current Collections
- Kornegay Room “Local History”
Braswell Memorial Library
727 N. Grace Street, Rocky Mount, North Carolina 27804
(252) 442-1951 Email: lhrequest@braswell-library.org - Belk Library Archives and Special Collections “Afro-Christian Convention History”
Elon University
2550 Campus Box, Elon, North Carolina 27244
(336) 278-6599 Email: belkarchives@elon.edu - Amistad Research Center “American Missionary Association History”
Tulane University
Tilton Hall, 6823 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118
(504) 862-3222 Email: reference@amistadresearchcenter.org
Further Readings
- Louis Austin and the Carolina Times: A Life in the Long Black Freedom Struggle by Jerry Gershenhorn
- History of the American Negro and His Institutions edited by Arthur Bunyan Caldwell
- https://archive.org/details/josephkeasbysicb00jose/page/n1
- NC Historical Marker https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=16244
- http://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b068-i304
- http://digital.ncdcr.gov/cdm/ref/collection/p16062coll15/id/561
- http://www.lostcolleges.com/brick-junior-college
- https://www.ncpedia.org/brick-school
- https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/inborden-thomas-sewell
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Franklinton Center at Bricks (FCAB) builds upon the lessons of history by creating forward looking programs that are relevant to the global struggle for justice and equality. FCAB has a rich and varied past, with many names and uses. Today it is a conference center where local, regional, national and international justice advocates, leaders and truth seekers continue to learn and do the work needed to transform lives. Your generous contributions support the life of Franklinton Center at Bricks and our community.
