North Carolina in the 1950s
The Decade in Motion
By Philip Gerard
Available 3/7/2023
Notable events of the 1950s in North Carolina, the second book in this North Carolina history series.
This book is the second in a series of small, richly illustrated books about North Carolina history through the decades. Originally published as hugely popular serialized articles for Our State magazine, this book chronicles events in North Carolina in the 1950s—a decade which began with a postwar boom in transportation, travel, and progress while some North Carolinians also began to speak out for their rightful piece of prosperity and freedom. The volume is not a textbook overview of the state’s history. Rather, each chapter focuses on a lively and illuminating set of events in the era such as the fight for recognition by the Lumbee Tribe, the opening of an art museum with a collection owned by the people of North Carolina, the formation of Research Triangle Park, and the birth of the civil rights era at a small lunch counter.
The book contains color vintage photographs and illustrations. The author—writer, professor, and musician, Philip Gerard—has published widely, including an iconic novel about the Wilmington coup of 1898, Cape Fear Rising, and is beloved in North Carolina, especially among Our State readers.
Hardcover ISBN: 9781949467925
Philip Gerard was the author of five novels, eight works of nonfiction, and numerous essays on history, music, and writing craft, including an iconic novel about the Wilmington coup of 1898, Cape Fear Rising, and The Last Battleground: The Civil War Comes to North Carolina. Until his untimely passing in 2022, he taught in the BFA and MFA Programs of the Department of Creative Writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, where he won a number of awards for teaching excellence. He was coeditor with his wife, Jill Gerard, of Chautauqua, the literary journal of the Chautauqua Institution and was a frequent and popular contributor to Our State magazine. Gerard was an avid musician and songwriter, a teacher and mentor, and a beloved member of the North Carolina writing community.
