2009 Official Visitor & Dining Guide for Greensboro, North Carolina - (Page 3) HISTORy OF GREENSBORO a successful maker of bib overalls. In 1935, attracted by the city’s railroad and airport, Burlington Industries moved its headquarters to Greensboro. Guilford Mills began operations in 1946. And VF Corporation’s world headquarters are now located in Greensboro. Another strong manufacturing base in Greensboro and the South has always been cigarettes. Lorillard Tobacco Company still maintains its headquarters in Greensboro. Greensboro was again a military center during World War II when railroads brought thousands of soldiers here for army training. In 1944, the training facility became the Overseas Replacement Depot (ORD) for the Army Air Corps in the Eastern United States. A CENTER OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HERITAGE A quest for diversity is a part of Greensboro’s past, with significant events forming the content and context of African American history. As early as 1830, Quaker antislave advocate Vestal Coffin was prominent in the movement of slaves from Greensboro. From 1830 until the end of the Civil War, Vestal and his cousin Levi took part in an informal network known as the Underground Railroad, providing shelter and assistance to hundreds of slaves seeking freedom. Levi later relocated to Ohio, where he was known as “President of the Underground Railroad.” Greensboro’s Guilford College campus was a location known as a hiding place for runaways. In the early 1900s, Dr. Charlotte Hawkins founded a preparatory school for African Americans called the Palmer Memorial Institute. Located just east of Greensboro, the school operated until 1971, when integration and adequate high schools lessened the appeal of a separate black school. The school now is the site of the Charlotte Hawkins Brown Museum at Historic Palmer Memorial Institute, the first state historic site honoring an African American woman. Two college communities also have played a part in shaping the area’s African American history. Bennett College now is a liberal arts school for African American women. North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University, the largest African American school in the state, boasts alumni astronaut Ron McNair and civil rights activist and Minister Jesse Jackson, among many others. One of the most significant civil rights protests in American history began with the birth of the nation’s sit-in movement at the segregated lunch counter in Greensboro’s downtown F.W. Woolworth store on Feb. 1, 1960. On that day four North Carolina A&T State University freshmen sat down at the counter and asked for service, an act of courage that ignited a spark that fueled protests across the country, ultimately breaking down barriers across the South. To commemorate this momentous event, the International Civil Rights Center & Museum is being constructed in the former Woolworth Building in Greensboro’s center city. The Museum and its associated programmatic and archival units will not only chronicle civil rights history, but also will focus on current civil right issues and freedom movements around the world. A CENTER OF DIVERSITy Greensboro traces its origins to people with distinctive cultural backgrounds. Today that influence has multiplied tenfold, as immigrants and refugees arrive from across the state, the nation, and the world. Greensboro’s cultural life, public schools, and even restaurants shine with an exciting international hue. Well-known Southern traditions flourish, too. www.VisitGreensboroNC.com 3 http://www.VisitGreensboroNC.com
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