George Henry Black made bricks in Winston-Salem, but many other African-Americans were important to the design and construction of buildings across North Carolina. Many of them are featured in a new exhibit at the Mount Airy Museum of Regional History.
The exhibit, "African-American Builders and Architects in North Carolina," started in September and runs through Jan. 14.
Black is not featured in the exhibit, said Amy Snyder, curator of the museum, but many other African-Americans who influenced the architecture across the state and in Northwest North Carolina are.
The exhibit was created by Preservation North Carolina, a private, nonprofit organization that promotes preservation across the state.
The Mount Airy museum, though, tried to tie in local architects and builders, said Matt Edwards, the museum's executive director.
Edwards said the exhibit plays up the J.J. Jones High School gymnasium, which was built by masonry students in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The school was the first all-black high school in Surry County, and the students there wanted a place for athletics.
"The school board was unwilling or unable to allocate sufficient funds for the construction of the gymnasium," he said. "So what the school did is they actually brought in a masonry instructor, made their own bricks, and taught to kids how to make bricks and do masonry. They actually built the gymnasium from the ground up."
Edwards said the exhibit includes some of the bricks made by students at the high school, as well as the tool boards the students used.
He said the exhibit primarily focuses on antebellum architecture and on building that happened immediately after the Civil War.
"It talks about the free black community and the builders within that community," Edwards said. "And it talks about the early African traditions that were incorporated into American architecture, and then talks about the slave trade and how slaves were utilized in the building and construction industry throughout the South."
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