Articles by Kellie Slappey Nothstine

Civil War

Curtis Hooks Brogden (1816-1901)

1776-1835

Curtis Hooks Brogden served the state of North Carolina for half a century as a state representative, state senator, state comptroller, U.S. Congressman, lieutenant governor, and finally as the 42nd governor.

Governors

Alfred Moore Scales (1827 – 1889)

1836-1865

Alfred Moore Scales was born on November 26, 1827 in Rockingham County on his family’s plantation, Ingleside. Caldwell first studied at the Caldwell Institute in Greensboro before transferring to the University of North Carolina in 1845. Scales studied law under the tutelage of Judge William Battle and passed the bar exam in 1852.

Civil War

John Motley Morehead (1796-1866)

1776-1835

Known as the “Father of Modern North Carolina,” John Motley Morehead was the 29th governor of the Tar Heel State from 1841-1845. 

Civil War

David Lowry Swain (1801 – 1868)

1776-1835

The twenty-sixth governor of North Carolina from 1832-1835, David Lowry Swain was born in Buncombe County and later went on to be the third President of the University of North Carolina.

Women

Tabitha Ann Holton

1836-1865

The first woman to be licensed as an attorney in North Carolina and in the Southern United States was Tabitha Ann Holton.

Colonial North Carolina

Cornelius Harnett

1664-1775

Cornelius Harnett, was an American merchant, farmer, and statesman from Wilmington, North Carolina.  He was a leading American Revolutionary in the Cape Fear region and a delegate for North Carolina in the Continental Congress from 1777 to 1779.

Civil War

Sarah Malinda Pritchard Blalock (1839-1903)

1836-1865

Sarah Malinda Pritchard Blalock is one of only two women known for having served in any North Carolina Confederate regiment.

Political History

Lillian Exum Clement Stafford (1894 – 1925)

1866-1915

Lillian Exum Clement (later Stafford) became the first woman elected to the North Carolina General Assembly and the first woman to serve in any state legislature in the American South.

Political History

Woodson v. North Carolina

1946-1990

Woodson v. North Carolina was a case that went before the US Supreme Court in 1976 and ended being the catalyst that overturned the Tar Heel States mandatory death sentence.

Business and Industry

Waste Industries USA, Inc

1946-1990

Waste Industries USA, Inc. is based out of Raleigh, North Carolina and is one of the fastest growing waste and recycling service companies in the Southeast. Lonnie C. Poole Jr., a graduate from NC State University, founded the company in 1970.

Colonial North Carolina

Capital Punishment

1946-1990

North Carolina’s violent crime rate is the 18th highest in the country, and the Tar Heel State’s use of capital punishment ranks them in 5th place in the nation.

Modern Era

Racial Justice Act

1990-present

During the 2009 Session of the General Assembly, Senator Floyd McKissick(D) from Durham County introduced the Racial Justice Act SB461. The act provides a process by which statistical evidence could be used to establish that race was the basis for seeking or obtaining the death penalty in any case. The Act allows pre-trial defendants and inmates on death row the opportunity to challenge the decision to seek or impose capital punishment.