Abstract: Bedford Brown was a state legislator and United States senator from Caswell County, N.C. The collection includes scattered papers of the family of Bedford Brown and of his son, Livingston Brown, whose wife was a daughter of John Bullock Clark (1802-1885), United States and Confederate congressman of Fayette, Mo. Papers include Brown and Clark family letters, beginning in 1836; political correspondence of Bedford Brown only in 1860, and of Livingston Brown, 1866-1876; and Caswell County deeds and miscellaneous papers.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Folder 3 contains a 12 May 1860 letter from an enslaved man in Arkansas (name unknown) to his Uncle Ned on another plantation. There is also a bill of sale dated 31 August 1863 for an enslaved woman named Lucy.

Abstract: Chang and Eng Bunker, the original Siamese twins, married sisters Sarah and Adelaide Yates in 1843 and established homes and families in Wilkes County and later Surry County, N.C. The collection includes correspondence, bills, and receipts, including slave bills of sale, of Siamese twins Chang and Eng Bunker relating to their North Carolina property, planting interests, family matters, and arrangements for exhibition tours. Also included are an account book, 1833-1839, showing income from public appearances and itinerary; clippings; photographs; articles about the twins by Worth B. Daniels and Jonathan Daniels and related material; and Joined at Birth, a 1998 videotape about the twins that was made by Advanced Medical Productions of Chapel Hill, N.C., for the Discovery Channel. The Addition of November 2011 is a ledger with entries presumably penned by Chang and Eng’s business manager Charles Harris detailing the business-related and personal expenses of Chang and Eng during exhibition tours of Cuba, Europe, and the United States and for a period after they settled in North Carolina in 1839.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection highlights: Portions of this collection has been digitized and is part of the online exhibition “Eng & Chang Bunker: The Siamese Twins”. Click here to link to the exhibit and to access the digitized material.

Folder 2 contains bills of sale for enslaved persons for the Bunkers property in North Carolina. There is also a photograph of a formerly enslaved woman who belonged to the Bunker Family.

Abstract: Howell Begle is an entertainment and media lawyer and long-time activist on behalf of early rhythm and blues recording artists. In 1982, Begle met Ruth Brown, recording artist with the Atlantic Recording Corporation in the 1940s and 1950s, who had had difficulty securing royalty payments. He agreed to represent her pro bono against the recording company. Over time, his list of pro bono clients grew to more than 30 artists who had recorded for Atlantic. Begle was also a major figure in the Rhythm & Blues Foundation, founded in 1988 in Washington, D.C., with $1.5 million in initial funding from Atlantic in partial fulfillment of a legal settlement with Brown and others represented by Begle. The collection includes detailed royalty statements from the Atlantic Recording Corporation that document payments to Ruth Brown, 1955-1964. There are also copies of contracts and correspondence related to royalty payments owed to other artists who recorded for Atlantic and other labels during the 1950s and 1960s, among them Nellie Lutcher, Jimmy Scott, Joe Turner, Harry Van Walls, the Clovers, the Coasters, and the Drifters. Also included are legal documents, articles of incorporation, correspondence, news articles, and other materials relating to the formation and administration of the Rhythm & Blues Foundation; scattered correspondence between Begle and Atlantic executives, including Ahmet Ertegun, Jerry Wexler, Michael Resnick, and Sheldon Vogle, documenting negotiations leading to the royalty settlement of 1988; correspondence with musicians involved in the Foundation, particularly board member Bonnie Raitt; letters relating to Begle’s dissatification with and 1998 resignation from the Rhythm & Blues Foundation; photocopied news and periodical articles relating to Foundation; and calendars and promotional materials for the Foundation, some relating to the Foundation’s annual award ceremony. Other items include Billboard chart research documents, 1950s-1960s; a chronology documenting efforts to reform royalty payment accounting at Atlantic Records, 1983-1993; programs from Ruth Brown’s memorial service in 2006; correspondence with activists including Jesse Jackson, politicians including Congressmen John Conyers Jr. and Dennis J. Kucinich, and members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA); and 45rpm, 78rpm, and LP record albums collected by Begle.

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Series 1 contains correspondence, contracts, and news clippings related to Begle’s work with the Rhythm and Blues Foundation, which included a number of African American musicians such as Ruth Brown and the Drifters.

Folders 7-10 also contain correspondence with political activists such as Jesse Jackson as well as Democratic representative John Conyers.

Series 2 (Audio Recordings) also contain Begle’s personal collection of albums, which include records by Bessie Smith and B.B. King.

Abstract: Harvey E. Beech was born in Kinston, N.C., in 1923. He was a lawyer, philanthropist, and advocate of civil rights. While studying law in the early 1950s, Beech was asked to join a case against the University of North Carolina School of Law. In 1951, after a lengthy court battle, Beech and four other students became the first African Americans admitted to the UNC law school. He graduated in June 1952 and went on to practice law for more than 35 years. Harvey Beech died in August 2005. The collection includes letters and an student notebook from an English class. The notebook, with some pages dated 1939, includes a variety of coursework activities and exercises. Letters include a few addressed to Harvey Beech, 1980-1981, expressing gratitude for Beech’s campaign support for President Jimmy Carter and North Carolina Governor Jim Hunt; a few offering congratulations on Beech’s being chosen as “Citizen of the Year” in Kinston-Lenoir County; a 2002 letter thanking Beech and his wife for their contributions to the Free Press Newspaper in Education Literacy Program; and a 2004 letter thanking them for contributions to Bennett College.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Related collections on education and desegregation at UNC Chapel Hill include the J Kenneth Lee papers (4782), Karen Parker Papers (5275-z), Leroy Frasier Papers (4375-z), and the Floyd McKissick Papers (4930)

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Included are an interview and 32 Ohio River songs, sacred songs, and camp meeting songs sung by “Uncle” Jim Drain, African American singer from Paducah, Ky. [2 sounds recordings, FT 861-862]

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Commercial recordings of Slim Bryant and his Wildcats, playing traditional fiddle tunes, polkas, and hillbilly standards at KDKA in Pittsburgh in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. There are also commercial recordings of the Golden Gate Quartet performing a dozen gospel songs. [3 sound recordings, FT2651- 2653]

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Repository: Southern Folklife Collection

Collection Highlights: Interview, conversation and narrative in Gullah dialect by African Americans Jim and Christina Milligan and Nettie Whaley, recorded by Herman Bell on Edisto Island, South Carolina in 1967. Topics include the Civil War, houses, food, fishing, school, local people, and some animal tales. [1 reel, FT1200]

Abstract: Records of several generations of the Anderson family, physicians and planters near Stateburg, S.C., chiefly their account books containing records of physicians’ fees, planting, advances to freedmen, estates, and lumber. Also included are a diary, 1853-1857, of John Benjamin Anderson at Stateburg; Stateburg tavern accounts, 1834-1838; plantation records of Samuel Porcher Gaillard, 1863-1868; minutes of the Stateburg Democratic Club, 1890-1910; and a letterbook of Col. Thomas Childs (1796-1853) of Massachusetts as U.S. military governor of Puebla, Mexico, 1848.

Repository: Southern Historical Collection

Collection Highlights: Included are a slave book and notes (1830); a contract for labor with free blacks (1865); and store accounts and advances made to free blacks (1866-1868). Microfilm available.