Black History Month is the perfect time to travel along Fayetteville’s African American Heritage Trail. Here are 15 notable stops. 

As North Carolina’s sixth most populous city, Fayetteville holds a unique distinction amongst African Americans: A 2022 LendingTree survey revealed it had the highest percentage of Black-owned businesses in the United States. Though it has since been surpassed by Atlanta for the top spot, Fayetteville remains one of the only two cities in the country with a percentage of Black-owned businesses exceeding 10%. 

That strong entrepreneurial spirit is built on a foundation of resistance, perseverance, and faith. Compiled by DistiNCtly Fayetteville, the city’s African American Heritage Trail highlights that rich history with nearly two dozen tour stops ranging from historical markers and monuments to churches and museums. 

This Black History Month, we’ve picked out 14 stops along the tour that make for the best experience if you’re spending a day in The All-American City. 

1. The Fifer’s Grave

North Cool Spring Street

Here lies Isaac Hammond, the first fifer in the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry, where he served 30 years. Before that, during the Revolutionary War, he served in the 10th NC Regiment Continental Line. Back in Fayetteville, he worked as a barber and was active in politics despite not having the right to vote due to his race.

Placed in 1962, the gravestone rests on a grassy plot facing North Cool Spring Street to the south of the monument that marks the 200th anniversary of the Fayetteville Independent Light Infantry, the oldest existing volunteer militia company in the South. The unit was active from the Colonial Era through World War I but now serves a largely ceremonial role.

2. Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church

301 North Cool Spring St.

Located just yards away from the Fifer’s Grave, Evans Metropolitan AME Zion Church was founded by a free Black cobbler named Harry Evans around 1780. After passing away in 1810, Evans became known as the “Father of Methodism” in Fayetteville.

Another famed Fayetteville resident was heavily involved in the church. Charles Chesnutt, thought by some to be the first important Black American novelist, served as organist, choirmaster, and Sunday School superintendent at Evans Metropolitan. 

3. St. Ann Catholic Church/Brookside

357 N. Cool Spring St.

Black parishioners opened St. Ann Catholic Church in 1934 after being forced to worship in a section of the white Catholic church under a sign that read, “Colored Catholics Sit Here.” Historically, St. Ann’s served Black residents, but the St. Ann Catholic School was the first school in North Carolina to be integrated from its inception. Be sure to check out the beautiful collection of stained glass windows depicting the church’s history.

Across the street, the Brookside section of Cross Creek Cemetery was dedicated to burials for African Americans after the Civil War and contains the graves of notable Black Fayetteville residents, including members of the aforementioned Chesnutt family. 

4. St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church

509 Ramsey St. 

St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church was founded in 1873 by black parishioners of St. John’s Episcopal Church, making it the second oldest Episcopal congregation in Fayetteville. Built in 1893, the building hosts five Resurrection windows from Tiffany & Co. in New York. The pipe organ, which was built in 1857, is one of the oldest still in use in America and has been powered by hand, water, gas, and now electricity.

The congregation placed a particular emphasis on their new school, which they got up and running immediately. St. Joseph’s Parochial School was likely the only source of education accessible to the majority of young Black parishioners. W.E.B. Dubois held NAACP meetings at St. Joseph’s when he visited Fayetteville, and the organization continued to hold regional meetings at the church through the turbulent 1960s.

5. Orange Street School

600 Orange St.

Black contractor James Waddell built this school in 1915, and it is believed to be the oldest building associated with education still standing in Fayetteville today. For nearly 50 years before its construction, Black students attended classes in a small, one-room schoolhouse. The school functioned as an educational facility for 38 years. 

The home of Edward Evans, the original principal of Orange Street School, is located across the street. The upstairs of the building has long served as a museum where visitors could view the tophat and Bible that belonged to Bishop James Walker Hood, an early pastor of Evans Metropolitan A.M.E. Zion. Today, the facility houses Greater Life of Fayetteville, a nonprofit that educates and inspires at-risk and behavioral youth

6. Fayetteville State University

1200 Murchison Road

Fayetteville State University is the second oldest public university in North Carolina that is part of the UNC System. Originally named the Howard School for African-Americans, the college was founded in 1867 and named after General O.O. Howard, director of the Freedman’s Bureau. Seven Black had men purchased the land for $136. 

In 1877, the Howard School was designated as the first State Colored Normal School to educate African-American teachers. In 1939, it became a four-year college, and in 1972, it became part of the UNC System. 

Charles Chesnutt was named assistant principal (1877–80) and then principal (1880–83) of the State Colored Normal School. Today, the archives room of the Chesnutt Library holds historical artifacts such as the sword of E.E. Smith, an educator, soldier, statesman, and businessman who served as the principal and later president of the school for an impressive 50 years at the turn of the century.

7. E.E. Smith Monument

Martin Luther King Drive

E.E. Smith didn’t just lead the State Colored Normal School for half a century; he gave some of his own land to build some of the first buildings on what is now Fayetteville State University’s campus. He also served as an ambassador to Liberia and the adjutant of the 3rd NC Regiment during the Spanish-American War. 

Other notable accomplishments of Smith’s include founding North Carolina’s first Black newspaper and serving as a Baptist minister for the Black First Baptist Church.

8. Martin Luther King Jr. Park

700 Blue St. 

The Fayetteville-Cumberland County Martin Luther King Memorial Park was envisioned as “a quiet and receptive space, yet at the same time, powerful and emotionally evocative, reflecting the spirit of the message Dr. King delivered and the role he and others like him play in our society,” according to the website. 

The 13-acre park is centered on a statue of MLK erected in 2007. The statue stands on a 2-foot-high platform made of brick and black granite with quotations from King’s speeches incised into the granite. The platform rests on a large oval patio of brick and concrete. “His arm reaching over and beyond the barrier symbolizes that equality can be possible,” the website reads. “The balustrade’s simple design represents the times he was jailed for his beliefs and the sacrifices he made for the freedom of others.” 

9. Bethel AME Zion

6967 Amarillo Drive

The Bethel AME Zion Church was originally founded in 1873 as a mission known as the “Little Ark” when Jack Murchison built a brush shelter to preach to two neighboring plantations. Soon thereafter, a Presbyterian minister established Little Ark as a Presbyterian church, but then a Methodist minister from Fayetteville arrived and converted the congregation to Methodism, later becoming a part of the AME Zion Church movement. It now operates as the New Bethel AME Zion Church. 

10. Simon Temple AME Zion

5760 Yadkin Road

According to a deed dated November 18, 1873, Henry McDonald sold a piece of land to the Trustees of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church of America, on which the church built the Beaver Creek Chapel. 

In 1937, under Rev. J. Z. Siler, a building fund drive was launched and a brick church was built., which continued to house the antique church bell bought by Rev. M. N. Levy in 1887. The name was changed from Beaver Creek AME Zion Church to Simon Temple AME Zion Church on Nov. 9, 1976, in recognition of Simon the Cyrene, who helped Jesus carry his cross. The bell remains in the courtyard of the church today. 

11. Museum of the Cape Fear

801 Arsenal Ave. 

Artifacts inside the Museum of the Cape Fear help provide insight into local Black history. Examples include a winnowing basket used by enslaved people for harvesting rice, slave shackles, and reproduction gourd instruments. The 1897 Poe House is part of the historical complex, offering tours that explore the roles of Black women working as domestic servants at the turn of the 20th century.

Walk the remains of a site where African Americans, both free and enslaved, labored to help construct a federal arsenal prior to the Civil War. Now known as Arsenal Park, the facility manufactured weapons and other ordinance goods for the Confederacy. In March 1865, Union troops fulfilled an order by General William Sherman to “batter, blast and burn” the arsenal. Ruins of the building foundations and a modern steel semblance known as the Ghost Tower keep vigil for the lives associated with this historic site.

12. Airborne & Special Ops Museum

100 Bragg Blvd.

The Airborne and Special Operations Museum preserves the extraordinary feats performed by parachute and glider-borne troops and their brothers in arms, the special operations forces. Exploring the artifact displays, life-size dioramas, audio and visual displays, and a motion simulator gives any visitor a deeper respect and pride for these soldiers. 

Black History Month calls for a visit to the Triple Nickles exhibit, which highlights the 555th Battalion, a historically all-Black airborne unit who were the first military smokejumpers from the US. 

“The history of the Triple Nickles is an untold chapter in black social history,” said Lt. Col. Bradley Biggs, who served with the battalion. “The high professional standards of the men of the 555th, their skill in airborne operations, fearlessness in testing new concepts, and effectiveness in training other service personnel marked them as Black pioneers.”

13. Fayetteville History Museum

325 Franklin St. 

The Fayetteville History Museum is a hub of history in Downtown Fayetteville. The main museum is housed in a beautifully restored 1890s railroad depot, with an annex next door that also features exhibits filled with unique artifacts, engaging images, and countless stories of those who left their mark on the community.

Part of the Cumberland County Civil War Historic Trail, the museum tells the rich history of the area from pre-history through the early 20th century. 

14. Market House

Gillespie Street

Previously known as the State House, it was here that North Carolina ratified the U.S. Constitution in 1789 and chartered the University of North Carolina. In 1831, a fire destroyed downtown Fayetteville, including the State House, and the Market House was rebuilt on its site. 

As a marketplace, various peddlers sold cotton and other agricultural products at the market. In fact, one of the first meat merchants to sell their goods under the Market House in 1832 was a free-born African American. 

Though not built as a slave market, enslaved people were sold in and around the market through slavery’s abolition in 1865. Historical debate also circles around the possibility that the structure was built by a local free black man, Thomas Grimes, one of the best brick masons in the area at the time.

Visit DistiNCtly Fayetteville’s African American Heritage Trail page for an interactive map that gives directions from one stop to the next.