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Reporter's
Notebook: Here's What's In A Name By Ralph
Grizzle Her name
is AnnieB. That's not Annie, followed by the initial B. It is one word,
AnnieB. "Most people ask me what the B stands for," she says.
"It doesn't stand for anything. They want to call me Annie Belle,
but that's not my name. I remember coming home from school one day and
asking my mother what the B stood for. She said it didn't stand for
anything. I don't particularly like the name Annie. Whenever someone
calls me Annie,
I say B. They've gotten pretty good about it around here." Around
here is the Tryon Palace Visitors Center. I have stopped here on my
way back from Beaufort. The month is December, and Tryon Palace is decked
out for Christmas. A snow and ice storm threatens a narrow corridor
along the East Coast. Back in Beaufort, the weather forecast said the
road from Kinston to Raleigh would be treacherous but clearing late
in the afternoon. I wanted to get back home, so I drove away from the
coast. In New Bern, I stopped to wait out the storm. In the
snug Visitors Center, I talk with the ladies working the front counter.
The weather outside is brisk. Business inside is anything but. I tell
them I am an Our State reporter and ask if they would mind if I ask
them a few questions about their town. One lady has lived here all her
life. I write down her name and phone number so that I'll have a contact
when I come back to write my Perfect Weekend story. Another lady moved
here from up north. She tells me about how nice it is to live in this
quaint Southern town. I turn
my attention to AnnieB. We talk for a few minutes about New Bern. I
go to write her name on my pad. "Now it's Annie B., like this?"
I ask. "No,"
she says. "It's all one word. Annie, and a capital B at the end." "So
it's AnnieB, like this?" I ask. She nods as she looks at my correction. The other
ladies are surprised. "I never knew that," one says. As a
reporter, I've found that it always pays to ask for spellings of names,
even if those names seem obvious. AnnieB
Gibbs tells me she was the first black person to work as a guide at
Tryon Palace. Seeing this intrigues me, she rattles off a few other
firsts. She proudly proclaims being the first black to own a home in
New Bern's downtown historic district. She was the first black to work
with the town's Historical Preservation Commission. She was the first
black (in 1964) to be integrated as a teacher into a predominately white
school, Central Middle School. Not surprisingly,
AnnieB grew up poor, in the then-black section of town north of Queen
Street, an area known as Duffyfield. Her mother was a housewife. Her
father worked on a train owned and operated by a local lumber company.
His job was to keep the steam engine stoked. AnnieB
attended school in a four-room schoolhouse. In high school, when it
became apparent that she was on her way to graduating as class salutatorian,
she heeded the words of her principal, who encouraged her to attend
the Winston-Salem Teachers College. She went on a full scholarship.
"It was as good as going to New York for me," she says. "I
had never been to the western part of the state. Having been reared
in the swamp lands, I found Winston-Salem beautiful with its hills and
snow." She returned
from Winston-Salem to work in the Craven County school system. She married,
had two daughters and now has grandchildren - one granddaughter following
in her footsteps academically, having graduated UNC-Chapel Hill with
honors, an achievement that AnnieB crows about, understandably, of course,
to anyone who falls within earshot. Of New
Bern, AnnieB says the town has a rich African-American Heritage. She
piques my interest, and after I leave I do some research. In the early
1800s, New Bern's slaves outnumbered whites. The town's population of
5,432, was comprised of 689 free blacks, the largest percentage of free
blacks in the state, and 2,383 slaves - and only 2,360 whites. Thousands of slaves who attained freedom early in the Civil War converged on New Bern, a relatively safe haven for blacks as the town was occupied by Union troops from 1862 until the end of the war. The busy port town provided many opportunities for free blacks as seaman, ship stevedores and peddlers. They built many of New Bern's historic homes and public buildings. Some free blacks actually owned slaves. John Carruthers Stanly, a barber and businessman who had accumulated several plantations, owned more than 100 slaves. The character interpreter "Money," at Tryon Palace's historic Hay House, portrays a slave freed by Stanly. Many visitors are surprised to learn that prominent successful free black citizens owned slaves. New Bern offers visitors the chance to broaden their understanding of the African-American heritage in North Carolina. The town produces a brochure, "A Walk Through New Bern's African-American Heritage" that orients the visitor to 32 historic sites where blacks lived, conducted business or congregated. But the richness of New Bern's black history may not be all apparent to the visitor. Like the spelling of a name that seemed to be straightforward, there may be more to the story. It never fails to astonish me as to what we can learn by asking questions that we assume would have seemingly obvious answers. I could have missed an entire segment of New Bern's history had I not asked AnnieB simply to spell her name. |
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Grizzle, 28 Kenilworth Road, Asheville, North Carolina 28803 |
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