A chance to view history—and a wish not to repeat it

The Holt's Chapel Community Center is, in itself, a monument to the perseverance of the people living in Pamlico County and the discrimination that existed here. Built in the town of Oriental in 1921, it was originally one of the nearly 5,000 schools founded by the Rosenwald School project, whose mission was to provide Black children in the rural South—who were barred from public schools attended by white students—with access to a comparable education.

This month, in the large room where primary school classes were once taught, one can see black-and-white photographs of the segregation era by Joe Holloway, a white photographer who worked for United Press International and then for the Associated Press.

Walking up the ramp to the one-story wooden building, you can imagine a teacher ringing the hand-bell for the start of class. When it was a school, there was no electricity, running water or heat; its large windows were the only source of light and heat. Today, the newly restored windows enhance the warmth of the room, which is now used for concerts, theater productions and meetings.

Elizabeth Cordes, the photographer’s daughter and a resident of Oriental, assembled the prints for exhibition at the center as part of Black History Month.

“One of my pandemic projects was to go through and make a digital file of the contents of the many boxes of photographs taken by my dad, Joseph Ogburn Holloway, Jr. They fell to me to store when my mother died,” explains Elizabeth Cordes to a room-full of people at the exhibition opening. “I challenged myself to select one photograph for each day of the month, find out more about it, think about it and post it.” (You can follow Elizabeth’s Instagram here.)

Among the photos on display is a framed image of Coretta Scott King, strong and impenetrable, surrounded by the image of her late husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. Propped against an old school desk is a photo of police teargassing protesters after James Meredith, the first Black student admitted to the racially segregated University of Mississippi, was shot in 1966 in Hernando, Mississippi, while engaged in his 220-mile “March Against Fear.”

“(We saw) these pictures spread over the kitchen table, the coffee table, the whole house when we were children. (They) helped us form our opinions about the world, race relations, and our country,” Elizabeth explains. “Photography is art, and while many of the pictures here are first and foremost news photography, some were taken just to be pleasing to the soul and the eye. All of them were taken to make you think.”

“The main reason this project has been important for me is to give voice to the often heard quote, ‘Those who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it.’ We do not want that to happen,” she says, adding a strong thank you to educators nation-wide.

At the entrance to the room there is also information about the history of the Rosenwald Schools, a collaboration between Booker T. Washington, an educator and philanthropist who was president of the Tuskegee Institute, and Julius Rosenwald, president of Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Standing near a photo of Booker T. Washington, Teresa Badger, the president of Holt’s Chapel Community Center, tells me, “I hope that some folks see the photographs and realize the struggle (the people who went through this history) had — the fight they had — that led to the freedoms we have today.” She pauses, adding, “and that struggle isn’t over.”

If you would like to donate to the Holt’s Chapel Community Center, please send a check to their 501(c)(3) at: P.O. Box 616, Oriental, NC 28571 For questions about the center, call Teresa Badger at 252-249-1251.

If you have ideas for future bulletins, feel free to message or email me: [email protected]

To see more photos, follow me on Instagram @andreabruce