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Morning, gang,
Today we take a closer look at the escalating problems at Preservation Greensboro, the local nonprofit devoted to protecting historic homes and properties. The group has had leadership and financial problems for years, but this year it’s seen mass layoffs and the closure of its signature property, Blandwood Mansion, to the public. Last week it lost its executive director and the president of its board.
This week we also welcome reporter Sayaka Matsuoka, a Greensboro native whose work on everything from politics to food and features you’ll have seen in Triad City Beat. The storied weekly ended its 11-year run last month, but we’re happy to add her to our Greensboro bureau. This week she’s moderating a panel on a new book about local civil rights attorney and activist Lewis Pitts.
Let’s get into it.
– Joe Killian
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Leadership Shifts and Mass Layoffs at Preservation Greensboro
At the entrance to historic Blandwood Mansion on West Washington Street, the arches are beginning to crumble, showing deep cracks and holes.
At the beginning of the year nonprofit Preservation Greensboro Inc., which owns the building and is charged with its care, hung a sign.
“Sorry, We’re Temporarily Closed,” it reads. “Due to rising costs and an essential need for funds we will be closed until April 1, 2025.”
In an emergency meeting of Preservation Greensboro’s board last week, Board President Kimberly Cameron resigned. The board voted to lay off Executive Director Haley Moloney. She joins much of the rest of the organization’s staff, who were let go earlier this year as the group attempted to cut costs and continue paying a fundraising consultant. That April 1 re-opening date now looks wildly optimistic.
The Thread reached out to Interim Board President Ginny Olson following last week’s meeting but has not heard back.
“Right now there is no firm date for re-opening,” said Greensboro City Council Member Hugh Holston, who joined the Preservation Greensboro Inc. board last year.
“The challenge that we have with PGI is that over the years, PGI was top of mind for a lot of folks in our community—a lot of support and a lot of interest,” Holston said. “Unfortunately, that support has waned. The same level of interest in what PGI does, in Blandwood and the like, hasn’t been there.”
Several past and current board members spoke with The Thread over the last few weeks, asking not to be identified so they could discuss internal matters at the non-profit, including contracts.
Those board members said the organization has for decades failed to properly care for and make necessary repairs to Blandwood, its greatest asset. The Italian villa-style house, built in 1795, was once home to two-term North Carolina Governor John Motley Morehead. The home, its four acres, and its carriage house have been Preservation Greensboro’s property since 2011. The group operated it as a museum and event space for 35 years before officially taking ownership.
Benjamin Briggs, executive director of Preservation Greensboro since 2002, left in 2023 to become president and CEO of Preservation North Carolina. Though structural and financial problems became more apparent after his departure, former leaders of the group said it was falling behind in fundraising for years before that.
Nancy Hoffmann, another Greensboro City Council member and former board member, said she hopes the organization—and Blandwood—can be salvaged.
“It’s very sad to see board leadership and staff leadership decline over a period of time,” Hoffmann said. “I hope that somebody can step up. It’s going to be a giant effort at this point.”
Holston said the board is working to raise funds and attention for Blandwood.
“The city absolutely has an interest,” Holston said. “It’s a part of our history and our community, like the International Civil Rights Center and the Greensboro Science Center. And it’s right there in downtown, across from the [Melvin Municipal Office Building]. We need to do everything we can to preserve this history and make it a part of our community again.”
– Joe Killian
Read this newsletter online or contact The Thread team with tips and feedback at greensboro@theassemblync.com.
Charting the Life of a
“Movement Lawyer”
I can’t exactly remember when I first met civil rights attorney Lewis Pitts, but it must have been some time in 2018 when I moved back to Greensboro after a few years in the Triangle. That was the year Marcus Deon Smith was killed after Greensboro police officers used a restraining method on him known as hog-tying. Pitts, a retired civil rights lawyer, wasn’t on the Smith family’s legal team. But he became one of the most outspoken advocates for the Smith family and criticized the police and city’s handling of the case.
In 2022, the family won a $2.57 million settlement from the city and county in a civil suit. The win was a monumental moment for the city and its residents. But for Pitts, it was another notch in his belt of activism.
In his book, The Life of a Movement Lawyer, author Jason Langberg outlines Pitts’ career from his humble beginnings in 1968 as a floundering, white, Southern college kid through his work with the survivors of the Greensboro Massacre. It covers his defense of Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, residents, and his work as a pro bono lawyer and activist after his retirement. The book says a “movement lawyer” is one who “supports and advances social movements that are led by those most directly impacted, focuses on building and exercising collective power, and aims at achieving systemic change.”
In the preface, Langberg writes it took much convincing to get Pitts to agree to have a book written about his life. And it makes sense.
If you’ve ever met Pitts, he works hard to ensure his voice is a tool to challenge oppression, never the centralizing force. As Langberg writes, Lewis sees his life as a “pearl necklace, with himself as a string winding through the lives of people—beautiful and unique pearls—who he struggled alongside.”
That’s ultimately what convinced Lewis to move forward with the book. He understood, in many ways, that it wouldn’t be just about him but would illuminate the struggles and wins of the courageous people he defended and supported. Their stories would be the lessons, while his presence and actions would be the throughline.
As a journalist, that resonates with me deeply.
It was deeply humbling and exciting when Lewis asked if I would co-moderate a panel with him and activist Steve Sumerford to discuss Lewis’s career and the book. This Friday, we will recount events from Lewis’s career, the resolute and inspiring people with whom he worked, and the lessons learned from movement lawyering in this political moment.
As a preview, I’ll leave you with a sentence from a 2013 letter Lewis wrote to Langberg, who was about to welcome a new child and was worried about the state of the world.
“We retain, even during the dark hours, the freedom to choose our response to injustice.”
We hope you’ll join us Friday, March 21, at 6 p.m. at Scuppernong Books, 304 S. Elm St. in Greensboro.
– Sayaka Matsuoka
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What We’re Reading
Profiles in Courage: When women first joined the Greensboro Fire Department in 1978, they weren’t exactly welcomed with open arms. Today the department has 34 female firefighters. This Women’s History Month, O. Henry Magazine profiled four of them, giving a window into their death-defying careers.
Around the State
Miso Made the Masterful Way–But in North Carolina
Rutherfordton-based Miso Master has become the world’s largest organic producer of a Japanese culinary staple.
Why Thom Tillis Shouldn’t Worry About the Primary
Trump and his advisers have bashed the N.C senator. A political scientist explains why their efforts to replace him are almost certain to fail.
‘Of Course People are Yelling’: Rep. Chuck Edwards Faces Protesters at Asheville Town Hall
The GOP lawmaker’s answers were tough to hear over disruptions from the crowd of about 300 people.
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