It will still be a few weeks until we officially roll out The Thread, but we’re getting started by sending you a few recent Assembly stories of interest to Greensboro readers.
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Morning, gang.
We’re still gearing up for this newsletter’s official launch next month, but we wanted to share some stories with you this week and wish everyone a happy Juneteenth. Here in Greensboro, there are plenty of great ways to celebrate, from the Juneteenth SOULebration to the Juneteenth Triad Black Farmers Market.
If you’re looking for something uniquely Greensboro—something to connect you to our history and also prompt you to reexamine our present—you’re going to want to look at this weekend’s Juneteenth Green Book Bike Tour. A collaboration between the Greensboro History Museum and bicycling advocacy group Bicycling In Greensboro, it’s an easy, family-friendly 3-mile tour of area sites featured in the Negro Motorist Green Book.
The Green Book, published annually from 1936 to 1966, helped Black travelers safely navigate the nation in the Jim Crow era by finding and highlighting areas and businesses where they wouldn’t face discrimination, be refused service, threatened, or be at risk for violence. The groundbreaking publication book highlighted 12 sites in Greensboro, including the site of a once thriving Black-owned taxi service and the still active Historic Magnolia House, which hosted Black luminaries like James Brown, Jackie Robinson, and Ike and Tina Turner when they were in town.
The tour started in 2021 and has grown every year, with spaces going quickly and new volunteers coming on to expand the event.
Glenn Perkins, the museum’s curator of community history, is an avid cyclist and was able to make the connection with Bicycling In Greensboro.
“We wanted to do something to commemorate Juneteenth and the history around us every day,” said Carol Hart, director of the Greensboro History Museum. “Getting people out and seeing some of these locations on bicycles was a natural for that.”
The tour connects people with a rich and too often forgotten history, Hart said.
“Most of the locations are no longer active businesses,” Hart said. “But it gives us the opportunity to point out where they were and to help them be aware it wasn’t that long ago you really had to think about your traveling if you were African American. Your choices were limited.”
A lot of people think they don’t like history because they only encounter it in school books, Hart said. But a history tour is different.
“Doing something active like this, in the city where you live and seeing things you might pass every day without realizing the significance, you see how it connects with your life today,” Hart said. “It brings it to life and really helps you get to know your city.”
—Joe Killian
Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
We took a road trip along one of the state’s oldest highways to probe what the “Carolina Core” marketing effort might mean for the region’s future.
Matthew Vincent reports for The Assembly.
At A Crossroads
We took a road trip along one of the state’s oldest highways to probe what the “Carolina Core” marketing effort might mean for the region’s future.
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Recent Greensboro Stories
A Conservative Newspaper Looks To the Future
For over 30 years, The Rhino Times has been an anomaly—a right-wing alt-weekly in left-leaning Greensboro. With its founder retiring and a new owner stepping in, the publication is looking to the future.
A Town’s Entire Staff Resigned. What Happens Now?
Summerfield was incorporated in 1996 to keep itself separate from Greensboro. Now that all nine town employees have resigned, the future of the antigrowth suburb is more uncertain than ever.
Trump Snubbed Him Twice. Now Mark Walker Has New Life.
The former minister was a rising star in Congress before he fell out of favor with top Republicans. But he’s back in Donald Trump’s good graces—and back in the game.
Around the State
Nothing to See Here
Last year, North Carolina lawmakers gave themselves the ability to sell, destroy, and disclose their legislative records as they see fit. Despite bipartisan pushback, few are choosing to be transparent.
Turning On a Dime
Food festivals have tried to correct for exploitation and elitism, but still struggle financially. The demise of Asheville’s Chow Chow is just the latest.
How Pinehurst Became a Destination for Dreamers and Golfers Alike
The Assembly, Plott Hound Media, and Perfect Cadence Productions bring you a new podcast on the backstory of Pinehurst and the U.S. Open.
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