From the Herald Sun (with a reference to Russell Banks):
CHAPEL HILL — UNC officials dedicated a dormitory on Monday to George Moses Horton, a Chatham County slave and poet who contributed greatly to the intellectual life of the university.
George Moses Horton Residence Hall is the first Carolina building named after a slave.
The dorm, at Manning and Bowles drives, was formerly named Hinton James North and opened in 2002.
“It is well past time for this university to honor our native son, and to help ensure that, at least within the Carolina family, he is a known and honored hero,” UNC Board of Trustees chairman Nelson Schwab said at the ceremony at the dorm.
Horton’s poetry is still taught today, and his collection “The Hope of Liberty,” was the first book published by a black person in the South.
UNC Chancellor James Moeser named Horton alongside Thomas Wolfe, Russell Banks and Jill McCorkle as one of the most distinguished authors with ties to the university and state.
The complete story is here.
I first read the Autobiography of Malcolm X, as told to Alex Haley, while in high school. At that time, what stood out were his experiences as a young man putting lye on his hair to straighten it out (which, he points out, is the kind of self-inflicted pain some blacks put on themselves to conform to white notions of beauty), his reading habit picked up in prison and details like his statement that he always wore a watch because he knew his time was limited and that, in restaurants, he always sat facing the door so he could see who was coming in. Of course, knowing that he feared for his life and that he was killed only added to the sense of urgency of the book.
One of the most powerful books I have ever read, and re-read, is Frederick Douglass’s autobiography from 1845. The passages that still stand out to me include his learning to read and his yearning for freedom, looking at the ships on Chesapeake Bay. This book should be required reading not just for Americans, but for all.