The Black Genius Project documents the historical ways Blacks in North Carolina have resisted injustice in their communities. Most resistance stories describing how ordinary extraordinary people fought against injustice have never been told. Documenting these stories is important for any project focusing on justice and equity in the present. Telling our stories of past resistance gives us the courage to fight for the changes in our community we want to see today.

We offer a few examples of community-based efforts in partnership with resourceful institutions that reveal instances of resistance.

The Living the Word Ministry-Wilson/Churches Coming Together for Justice, an ecumenical ministry in Wilson County, promotes justice by partnering with and supporting the Gentleman’s Agreement (GA) program of the Wilson County Schools, a program to improve the achievement of young Black males. The LtW Ministry awarded the GA and Freeman Round House partnership a grant to develop the In Our Backyard: Black Genius and the Quest for Racial Equity program. In Our Backyard is a youth development and leadership program to show GA and other Wilson youth the historical leadership and accomplishments of the African American community in Wilson and the fight for racial equity.

Lisa Henderson, Esq., author of Black Wide-Awake, a blog about historical Black Wilson, designed three 1-hour workshops (for students at Beddingfield, Fike & Hunt High Schools) using her blog and many of the exhibits, documents, and artifacts of the Freeman Round House and African-American Museum to illustrate the fight for racial equity in Wilson.
The workshop topics are Black Genius Values Education, Black Genius Values Voting, and Black Genius Values Entrepreneurship.

Black Genius Workshop- 8/14/2018
Black Genius Values Education

– Warrenton, NC- Liberating Futures: Erasures, Reckonings, and Transformations