Decades Series
The 1950s: The Shape of Things to Come
Three universities, dozens of movers and shakers, one singular vision: Research Triangle Park charts a new course for North Carolina, proving that a simple idea can become a grand reality.
Philip Gerard
Decades Series
The 1950s: Photographer Hugh Morton & Grandfather Mountain
One of our state’s most magnificent treasures was in danger of being overdeveloped. Instead, with a photographer’s passion for natural beauty, Grandfather Mountain’s new owner opens it to all.
Decades Series
The 1950s: Long Live the Lumbee
The Native Americans of Robeson County are strong and proud, but their history is marked by the struggle to overcome bias. In the 1950s, a watershed moment brings national attention to the Lumbee Tribe.
Decades Series
The 1950s: UNC On The Air
The state’s first educational TV station delivers wisdom over the airwaves, from the classroom to viewers’ living rooms.
Decades Series
The 1950s: Justice in Black & White
As the racism of the Jim Crow era comes to a head, the push for equality gains momentum. In North Carolina and across the South, the seeds of the civil rights movement take root.
Decades Series
The 1950s: Elegy For an Iron Horse
Amid the rise of autos and airplanes, a Wilmington-based railroad company struggles to hold on, supported by passionate advocates until the last passenger train leaves the station.
Decades Series
The 1950s: Piedmont Airlines Takes Flight
As commercial aviation captures the public’s imagination, conditions are just right for a North Carolina airline — born and bred in Winston-Salem — to take off.
Decades Series
The 1950s: At The Drive-In
After the war, North Carolinians hit the road on gasoline that’s newly cheap and plentiful. Sleek cars in a kaleidoscope of colors carry families to drive-in theaters and restaurants, where they watch and dine under the stars.
History
The 1950s: A Shared Rhythm
The sound of change is in the air along the North Carolina Coast: The lively music coming out of a black resort community called Seabreeze attracts white audiences eager for something new.