The Perry-Weston Educational and Cultural Institute Inc. was formed in January 2009 to promote black history, genealogy, culture and arts, particularly in Edgecombe County and North Carolina.

The Institute also promotes the conservation and preservation of selected black buildings, sites and records. The Institute sponsors classes, lectures, exhibits, demonstrations, publications and special projects and programs.

The Perry-Weston Institute is named for the Rev. John W. Perry, first rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Tarboro, and his daughter Catherine Perry Weston. Mrs. Weston was the wife of Rev. the Milton Moran Weston, the second rector of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church; the mother of the Rev. Dr. Milton Moran Weston Jr., rector of St. Phillip’s Episcopal Church in New York (Harlem); and the great-aunt of the Rev. Dr. Kwasi Thornell, an Episcopal priest formerly with the National Cathedral in Washington, D..

Perry and Mrs. Weston were early pioneers in black education in Tarboro, and we want to honor and perpetuate their community work and contributions. Mrs. Weston’s parents, the Rev. John W. Perry and Mrs. Mary Eliza Pettipher Perry, operated St. Luke’s Parochial School beginning in September 1881.The school continued until 1957. In later years it was operated by their daughter Catherine Perry Weston and her husband, the Rev. M. M. Weston. The Perry School was on Panola Street, adjacent to the Mount Lebanon Masonic Hall.

The Perry-Weston Institute Trustees are C. Rudolph Knight, chairman, Dr. Florence A. Armstrong, vice-chairwoman, and Dr. Lawrence W. S. Auld, secretary/treasurer.

The Institute often calls on selected individuals to help plan and organize specific events and projects.The Institute also provides assistance to individuals in their local history work, offering consultant services on genealogy, family and church histories, and related topics.

A variety of events have been sponsored over the past 14 months.

The initial event sponsored by the Perry-Weston Institute was a February 2009 exhibition at Quigless Clinic of paintings by Christopher Bryant and Jamil Barnes, two black artists from Rocky Mount.

Dr. Vann Newkirk gave a talk, "Lynching in North Carolina: A History 1865-1941," last March at the Mount Pisgah Presbyterian Church in Rocky Mount.

"Thy Noble Sons, Thy Daughters Fair," a commemorative booklet featuring photographs and class rosters for W. A. Pattillo High School from 1924-70, was published last July.

Approximately 25 people attended a “Candlelight Service of Remembrance for Departed Loved Ones” on Sunday, Nov. 22 at St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church. The service was co-sponsored by Baker Funeral Home.

A Nonagenarian Tea, honoring nine individuals in our community who are 90 years of age or older, was held Jan. 23, 2010. As a part of the program, the George Henry White Community Service Award was presented to Dr. Giselle Corbie-Smith, associate professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, for her work with Project GRACE in Nash and Edgecombe counties.

On Feb. 10, C. Rudolph Knight gave a short talk on local black American history to the Boy Scout Troop at Howard Memorial Presbyterian Church.

On Feb. 16, Knight presented “Builders of Our Community” at Edgecombe County Memorial Library. The program featured brief biographies of 10 blacks from Tarboro and Princeville.

Feb. 18 and 25, the Princeville Museum and Welcome Center, the Edgecombe County Public Schools, the Target Foundation and the Perry-Weston Institute hosted nearly 600 fourth-graders graders. The students saw the current museum exhibit, “Over the Tar River: Bridging Princeville & Tarboro,” and observed demonstrations of quilting and making sedge brooms.

St. Stephen Missionary Baptist Church asked Knight to give a talk on Tarboro and Princeville history on Feb. 29, as a part of their Black History Month program.

On March 11, LaRae Umfleet talked about "A Day of Blood: The 1898 Wilmington Race Riot" at the Princeville Museum and Welcome Center. Umfleet is chief of collections management for the state Department of Cultural Resources.

Upcoming events and projects include:

On Thursday, the Perry-Weston Institute, the Braswell Memorial Library and East Carolina University will announce the gift of the Frank Davis papers from Josie Davis and the Davis family to the University Library’s Special Collections. The announcement will be made at 6 p.m. at Braswell Memorial Library in Rocky Mount. The collection covers the years 1876-1955 of Frank Davis, a leading Rocky Mount, Edgecombe County, and North Carolina black businessman and entrepreneur. Also included are manuscripts, photographic prints, negatives, scrapbooks, printed materials and oversized materials.

A one-day seminar on Saturday will focus on the preservation of black churches in Eastern North Carolina. More specifically, the seminar will consider preserving church histories, preserving church buildings, and preserving church cemeteries. The registration fee for the seminar is $15 per person which covers a box lunch and hand-out materials. The seminar will be at Edgecombe Community College.

As a part of Tarboro’s 250th anniversary celebration, David Hursh will talk about his book "Good Music, Good Medicine" at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 8 at Edgecombe County Memorial Library. This is the story of Alice Morgan Person who marketed a patent medicine of her own making, collected southern folk music, and lived for a time in Tarboro. Hursh is music librarian at East Carolina University. A reception and book signing will follow the talk, and copies of the book will be available for purchase.

Other projects are in various stages of planning. These include

• Publishing a second edition of "Thy Noble Sons, Thy Daughters Fair," a booklet about W. A. Pattillo High School's history.

• Preparing a booklet detailing the histories of four black neighborhoods in Tarboro: East Tarboro, Water Street, Keech Town, and The Depot. This is planned as a part of Tarboro’s 250th anniversary.

• Assisting Edgecombe County in developing Shiloh Landing into a tourist attraction. Many of the enslaved black ancestors of persons now living in the area were imported through this site.

• Collecting oral histories from teachers and alumni of the 26 Rosenwald Schools in the county.

The Institute is available for consultations for genealogical studies and family, church and school histories. Call 823-0275 for more information.



C. Rudolph Knight is a Tarboro native and a retired educator from Edgecombe Community College. Look for his monthly reports on Edgecombe County's black history on the Community page.