Greensboro, North Carolina

• 1. Founding And Early Settlement

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  In 1808, the town of Greensboro was planned around a central courthouse square to succeed Guilford Court House as the county seat. The county courts were thus placed closer to the county's geographical center, a location more easily reached at the time by the majority of the county's citizens who traveled by horse or on foot. Three major Interstate Highways later intersected at this city in the Piedmont region of central North Carolina. Prior to the arrival of Europeans, the inhabitants of the area that became Greensboro were the Saura, a Siouan-speaking people. Quaker migrants from Pennsylvania arrived at Capefair in about 1750. The new settlers began organized religious services affiliated with the Cane Creek Friends Meeting in Snow Camp in 1751. Three years later, 40 Quaker families were granted approval to establish New Garden Monthly Meeting. The action is recorded in the minutes of the Perquimans and Little River Quarterly Meeting on the 25th of May 1754. The settlement grew rapidly over the next three years, adding members from as far away as Nantucket, Massachusetts. It soon became North Carolina's most important Quaker community. Property for the future village was purchased from the Saura for $98. Three north, south streets were laid out intersecting with three east, west streets. The courthouse was built at the center of the intersection of Elm and Market streets. By 1821, the town was home to 369 residents.

• 2. Civil War And Confederate Endgame

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  In April 1865, the commanding officer of the Army of Tennessee instructed General P. G. T. Beauregard to prepare to defend the city. During this time, Confederate President Jefferson Davis and the remaining members of the Confederate cabinet had evacuated the Confederate Capital in Richmond, Virginia. They moved south to Danville, Virginia. When Union cavalry threatened Danville, Davis and his cabinet managed to escape by train. They reassembled in Greensboro on the 11th of April 1865. While in the city, Davis and his cabinet decided to try to split up and make their way west of the Mississippi River to continue the war effort. Shortly thereafter, the cabinet left Greensboro and separated. Greensboro is notable as the last place where the entire Confederate government met as a group. At nearly the same time, Governor Zebulon B. Vance fled Raleigh before the forces of Union General William Tecumseh Sherman swept the city. For a brief period beginning the 16th of April 1865, he and other officials maintained the state capital in Greensboro. Vance proclaimed the North Carolina Surrender Declaration on the 28th of April 1865. Later, he surrendered to Union officials in the parlor of Blandwood Mansion. Once surrender negotiations were completed at Bennett Place between General Johnston and General Sherman on the 26th of April 1865, Confederate soldiers in Greensboro stacked their arms. They received their paroles and headed home.

• 3. Textile Industry And Industrial Growth

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  After the war, investors worked to restore the textile mills and related industry. In the 1890s, the city continued to attract attention from northern industrialists including Moses and Caesar Cone of Baltimore. The Cone brothers established large-scale textile plants changing Greensboro from a village to a city within a decade. By 1900, Greensboro was considered a center of the Southern textile industry with large-scale factories producing denim, flannel, and overalls. The resulting prosperity was expressed in the construction of notable 20th-century civic architecture. This included the Guilford County Courthouse and West Market Street United Methodist Church by S. W. Faulk. Several buildings designed by Frank A. Weston also appeared during this era. The Julius I. Foust Building of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro was designed by Orlo Epps. During the first three decades, Greensboro grew so rapidly that there was an acute worker housing shortage. Builders set a construction goal of 80 to 100 affordable housing units per year to provide homes for workers. Greensboro's real estate was considered the wonder of the state in the 1920s. Growth continued even through the Great Depression as Greensboro attracted an estimated 200 new families per year. Other notable industries became established in the city including Vicks Chemical Co known for over-the-counter cold remedies such as VapoRub and NyQuil. Carolina Steel Corporation and Pomona Terra Cotta Works also operated here.

• 4. Civil Rights Movement And Sit-Ins

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  In 1960, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Greensboro's population as 74.0% white and 25.8% black. As in the rest of the state, most blacks were still disenfranchised under state laws. Jim Crow laws and customs were in effect and public facilities including schools were racially segregated by law. This was after the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Facilities reserved for blacks were generally underfunded by the state and city governments which were dominated by conservative white Democrats. On the 1st of February 1960, four black college students sat down at an all-white Woolworth's lunch counter. They refused to leave after they were denied service. They had already purchased items in other parts of the store and kept their receipts. After being denied lunch service, they brought out the receipts asking why their money was good everywhere else in the store but not at the lunch counter. Hundreds of supporters soon joined in this sit-in which lasted several months. Such protests quickly spread across the South ultimately leading to the desegregation of lunch counters and other facilities at Woolworth's and other chains. The largest civil rights protests in North Carolina history took place in Greensboro in May and June 1963. Each night more than 2,000 protesters marched through Greensboro's segregated central business district. At one point approximately 1,400 blacks were jailed in Greensboro.

• 5. The Greensboro Massacre Of 1979

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  On the 3rd of November 1979, members of what would become the Communist Workers Party held an anti-Ku Klux Klan rally at the Morningside Homes public housing project. Four local TV news stations covered it. During the protest, two cars containing Klansmen and neo-Nazis arrived. After a confrontation, the KKK and CWP groups exchanged gunfire. Five CWP members were killed. Eleven CWP members and one Klansman were injured. Television footage of the actions was shown worldwide and the event became known as the Greensboro massacre. In November 1980, six KKK defendants were acquitted in a state criminal trial by an all-white jury after a week of deliberation. Families of those killed and injured in the attack filed a civil suit against the city and police department for failure to protect citizens. In 1985, a jury in this case found five police officers and two other individuals liable for $350,000 in damages. The monies were to be paid to the Greensboro Justice Fund established to advance civil rights.

• 6. Modern Economy And Logistics Hub

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  In 1998, FedEx built a $300 million mid-Atlantic air-cargo and sorting hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport. The project was challenged in court based on the quality of planned noise and pollution abatements from neighborhoods near the site. The hub opened in 2009. Originally projected by FedEx to employ 750 people in its first two years of operation and eventually 1,500, local FedEx employment has been nearly the same as before the facility was constructed. In March 2015, HondaJet with a manufacturing facility in Greensboro announced that it had received provisional type certification from the United States Federal Aviation Administration. This achievement indicates the FAA's approval of the HondaJet design based on certification testing, design reviews, and analyses completed to date. In 2022, construction began on the Boom Supersonic factory at the airport and it was completed in June 2024. The site will be used as a final assembly line and test site for its supersonic passenger aircraft Overture. Twelve Amtrak passenger trains also stop in Greensboro daily. The Crescent has its platform on the main Norfolk Southern line between Washington and New Orleans by way of Atlanta. The Carolinian and Piedmont trains have their platform at the start of Norfolk Southern NC-Line that runs from Greensboro to Goldsboro.