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RALEIGH, N.C. (December 5, 2023) — The N.C. Civil Rights Trail adds a new avenue with today’s launch of a podcast series amplifying the student-led protest story that anchors the International Civil Rights Center & Museum in Greensboro. The free podcasts, which accompany a newly extended guide at VisitNC.com, can be accessed through Simplecast, Apple, Spotify, Audible and other major platforms.

“Most people know the essential story of the Greensboro Four, the students who took a stand against segregation with their sit-in at the Woolworth lunch counter,” said Wit Tuttell, executive director of Visit North Carolina. “The three new podcasts trace the overarching story and add details and insights while introducing other people who played important roles. It’s striking how many of them are women, from 15-year-old Dorothy Counts in Charlotte to the Bennett Belles at Bennett College and student organizer Ella Baker.”

The podcasts, produced by Tanner Latham of Ingredient Creative, represent a partnership of Visit NC, the state’s tourism marketing organization; the N.C. African American Heritage Commission, architects of the N.C. Civil Rights Trail; and the U.S. Civil Rights Trail Marketing Alliance. The series advances these organizations’ efforts to direct travelers to places significant to the pursuit of civil rights.

The first podcast, “NC Students Start a Revolution,” begins in 1957 with Dorothy Counts braving abuse as she enters Harding High School in Charlotte, then continues to Greensboro, where a 1958 speech by Martin Luther King Jr. has inspired students at Bennett College and N.C. A&T to act. The second episode, “The A&T 4 Sit Down,” delves into the planning of the Woolworth sit-in, the events of Feb. 1, 1960, and the aftermath. The third episode, “Greensboro Sparks a Movement,” travels east to a W.T. Grant lunch protest led by students at Elizabeth City State Teachers College (now University) and then reaches Shaw University in Raleigh, where Ella Baker organized the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

“Hearing the voices of history-makers underscores how vital these stories remain,” Tuttell said. “It also stirs the desire to visit the sites that preserve, present and interpret the actions that led to transformation.”

Greensboro, Raleigh and Durham, which are home to North Carolina landmarks on the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, make ideal starting points, Tuttell said. The newly updated guide at VisitNC.com adds multidimensional experiences in Fayetteville, Wilmington, Shelby and High Point to a trip plan that highlights designated stops on the N.C. Civil Rights Trail. The VisitNC.com feature also connects users to the stories behind the state trail’s 27 markers, including one for the Elizabeth City sit-ins. The state trail’s website adds more depth by pinpointing Harding High, other protest sites, meeting spaces, and places tied to legal action and visits by Civil Rights icons.

“The more we understand our history, the better our ability to chart our future,” Tuttell said. “The podcasts create a meaningful way to extend our knowledge and inspire us on a critical journey to learn more.”

For more information to inspire a trip, stop by VisitNC.com.

About Visit North Carolina:
Visit North Carolina is part of the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, a private nonprofit corporation that serves as North Carolina’s economic development organization. The EDPNC focuses on business and job recruitment, existing industry support, international trade, tourism and film marketing. 

As the official destination organization for the state, Visit North Carolina’s mission is to unify and lead the state in positioning North Carolina as a preferred destination for leisure travel, group tours, meetings and conventions, sports events and film production, maximizing economic vitality statewide. North Carolina welcomes approximately 43 million visitors annually whose spend more than $33 billion in the state. The tourism industry employs more than 216,000 jobs throughout the state and generates nearly $2.5 billion in state and local tax revenues. For more information about Visit North Carolina, go to VisitNC.com.

About the N.C. African American Heritage Commission:
Created in 2008, the African American Heritage Commission is a division of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. The commission works across the department to preserve, protect and promote the state’s African American history, art and culture for all people. Its endeavors include the identification of heritage sites, compiling resources for educators, extending the work of national programs such as the National Park Service’s Network to Freedom Underground Railroad, and independent initiatives including Oasis Spaces: Green Book Project. aahc.nc.gov

About the U.S. Civil Rights Trail:
The U.S. Civil Rights Trail is a collection of churches, courthouses, schools, museums and other landmarks primarily in the Southern states where activists challenged segregation in the 1950s and 1960s to advance social justice. Developed as a collaboration among the 14 member states of the Travel South USA consortium, the trail highlights such key sites as the former F.W. Woolworth in Greensboro, site of the landmark 1960 sit-in; Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.; Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas; the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.; and Dr. King’s birthplace in Atlanta. The people, locations and destinations included in the Civil Rights Trail provide a way for families, travelers and educators to experience history firsthand and tell the story of how “what happened here changed the world.” For details about dozens of significant sites and to see interviews with civil rights foot soldiers, visit CivilRightsTrail.com.

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CONTACT:

Veda Gilbert ǀ Suzanne Brown
media@VisitNC.com