FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. (WTVD) -- History buffs in Fayetteville are celebrating Black History Month by touring spots around the city that recognize those stories of the past.
Community members say the Fayetteville Park honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is one of their favorite monuments celebrating Black history in the city. They say it's important to have spaces like it to celebrate the lives and achievements of their Black forefathers, like Dr. King.
"It's a highlight, I think, for a lot of people when they come to know that people still remember the work that he did and still value, you know, all of his accomplishments," said Stella Young Stephenson.
"We give preference to Dr. Martin Luther King, which we should. But there are so many other unspoken heroes that we need to learn about and know more about in the history of our country," Ann Chavis, a retired professor from Fayetteville State University. "It's not Black history. It's American history."
Stephenson is the president of the Sandhills chapter of the North Carolina Afro-American Historical and Genealogical Society. The group organized a tour on Sunday to kick off Black History Month. Stops included the home of Dr. E.E. Smith--the renowned educator who once ran Fayetteville State and was a U.S. Ambassador to Liberia. The tour also stopped at a lot that's now home to an event space that was the original site of Fayetteville State University.
"It has been so eye-opening and so revealing, especially things that I never knew about the African American community, areas that I've gone through since I've been a child and did not know the history around it," said Eugene Manual of Fayetteville.
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The tour also stopped by the Market House, several churches including First Presbyterian and Evans AME and Brookside Cemetery, an area where many of Fayetteville's Black historical figures are buried.
"We didn't just come out of nowhere, that the people who exist here in Fayetteville today are here because of our ancestors who came before us, and we want to celebrate their lives and learn a little bit about them," Stephenson said.
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"Not only do we need it--it is mandatory that we learn and keep it going," Chavis said. "Black History is not just in February as we celebrate it. Black history is every day."