State Library of North Carolina

Find information about the library and its many services and resources. Conduct genealogical research, investigate higher education institutions, find NC statistics, and more. Contains a digital project featuring African-American schools in the post-Civil War era.

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• The African American experience in NC after Reconstruction: The documents included in this lesson come from The North Carolina Experience collection of Documenting the American South and specifically focus on African Americans and race relations in the early 20th century. The lesson juxtaposes accounts that relate to both the positive improvements of black society and arguments against advancement. Combined, these primary sources and the accompanying lesson plan could be used as a Document Based Question (DBQ) in an AP US history or African American history course.
• Outfitting a World War I soldier: Teaching US history with primary sources: What do soldiers wear? Students will say a uniform and mention boots. However, many of the necessities of soldiers are often overlooked by civilians whether the items be standard issue or personal.This lesson gives students the opportunity to not only look at William B. Umstead's artifacts from World War I, but gain insight into how and why each item was used.
• Lunsford Lane: A slave in North Carolina who buys his freedom: In this lesson plan, students read a primary source document to learn about the life of Lunsford Lane, a slave who worked in the city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Students answer questions about Lane based on his memoir to help them understand the details of his life.

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• Learn more about African American history, Book Awards, Book Lists & Reviews, Mini-Grant Application and Guidelines, NC Authors and Illustrators, North Carolina, Powerful Partners Collaborative Grants, Public Library Quiz Bowl Competition, Raleigh NC, Wake County, World War I, eugenics, influenza, malaria, reference resources, social studies, state government, and summer reading program.

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“The State Library of North Carolina’s World Wide Web resources reflect the library’s commitment to use the power of information to enrich the lives of the people of North Carolina. Our World Wide Web resources focus on services the library is uniquely able to provide to support the state’s libraries, our state government agencies, the business community, genealogists and the blind and physically handicapped.”

At their website you can find information about the library and its service; learn about conducting genealogical research; investigate NC’s community colleges, colleges, and universities; get the latest NC demographic and statistical data; access online databases (with a library card and an NC Live password); and more.

Also be sure to check out the Library’s digitized collections including An Era of Progress and Promise, 1863-1910 that “highlights the many North Carolina schools for African-Americans that sprang up in the decades following the Civil War. Also included are statistical portraits furnished by the church organizations that sponsored the majority of the schools, as well as short biographies of more than 60 African-Americans, some of them with North Carolina ties, who were affiliated either with a church or with the Negro Business League.” Other selections include the Influenza epidemic of 1918-1919, eugenics in North Carolina, the early history of Raleigh, to name just a few.

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