This month’s community town hall, a recurring event series sponsored by the Voices of Warren, drew local residents to the John Graham Gym on Tuesday evening (6/24) to hear from experts and community leaders about solar farms, planning and zoning, the NAACP, Soul City, and more.

PHOTO GALLERY: Warrenist
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Artist Max Dowdle will begin installation of the new mural on the Magnolia Ernest Recreation center pool building in Soul City on June 2nd. He is inviting community members of all ages to join him in the painting process. Individuals or families can participate for a one-hour shift between 3:00pm – 5:00pm on June 2nd through June 4th.

The new mural is part of the Legacy NC Mural Project by Dowdle, NC Main Street, and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners. The project aims to create a mural in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties that highlight the unique history and legacy of each county while creating a unifying thread that ties all of North Carolina’s counties together through art.

Dowdle worked with a committee of Soul City residents, community leaders, and members of the Warren County arts community to create proposed designs. These designs were then presented to the community and voted on. The winning design can be seen below (this design is still subject to minor changes from Dowdle).

Contact Hannah Jones at hannahjones@warrencountync.gov or (252) 257-3115 to sign up. To accommodate space, each shift will have no more than 10 people. No experience is necessary!

The Magnolia Ernest Recreation Park is located at 252 Duke Drive, Norlina, NC off Soul City Boulevard.

Learn more about Max Dowdle and to view his work, visit NCPublicArt.com.

For more information about the Legacy NC Mural Project, visit https://www.ncmainstreetandplanning.com/blog/categories/legacy-nc-100-murals-100-counties.

RELATED: Warren County Residents to Vote on New Mural Design for Soul City

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Warren County Government is inviting residents to help shape a new public art piece by voting for their favorite mural design.

The poll opens this Friday, April 4, during the Statewide Star Party and will determine the artwork that will adorn the Magnolia Ernest Recreation Center pool building. The mural will celebrate the history and legacy of Soul City, a pioneering planned community founded in the 1970s with a vision of Black empowerment and economic opportunity.

Residents can cast their votes online via the Warren County Government Facebook page or website, as well as in person at the Statewide Star Party on April 4 or at the Warren County Memorial Library. Voting will close on April 14, with the winning design announced via Facebook Live on April 17.

The mural is part of artist Max Dowdle’s Legacy NC project, an initiative aiming to create public murals in all 100 North Carolina counties. Each mural highlights local history and unsung heroes, weaving a visual narrative that connects communities across the state. The two designs up for consideration were developed through collaboration between Dowdle, a committee of Soul City residents and community leaders, and members of the Warren County arts community.

Beyond selecting the design, residents will have the unique opportunity to contribute to the mural’s creation. Community members are invited to take part in the painting process, further embedding local pride and participation into the project.

The Warren County Facebook page and website will soon have details on how to sign up for the painting experience.

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Community members celebrated the first annual Soul City Homecoming with a parade around the Green Duke village, followed by live music and food at the “Entertainment Tent” on Sept. 21.

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It was all about fun, games, and safety at the 2nd annual Norlina Community Day!

Several members of law enforcement, the fire department, and Warren County departments came out early Saturday morning (Sept. 14) to both entertainment and inform local residents. Attendees had the opportunity to sign up for upcoming Parks and Recreation activities, sit in the driver’s seat of a fire truck, fitted and gifted a bike helmet, register to win a bicycle, and sing and dance along to music curated by local radio personality and DJ Willie C.

Photos: Crystal Myrick (Warrenist)
[See image gallery at warrenist.com]

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Mark your calendars for a day filled with celebration, community spirit, and family fun at the First Annual Soul City Homecoming on Saturday, September 21, 2024.

The festivities will kick off at 10:00am with a parade in the “Heart of Soul City,” in the Green Duke Village at what is now known as The McKissick Soul City Civil Rights Center.

Scheduled parade highlights include the Warren County High School Pep Band, a car show, and the Soul City Fire Department. The parade will conclude near the corner of Liberation Road and Soul City Boulevard.

The show will begin at 11:00am at the “Entertainment Tent” with Baba Felix and the Jimbe Drummers. Local poets and musicians including Jasme’ Kelly, and also a DJ will perform throughout the festivities.

Along with entertainment, attendees can enjoy free food, door prizes, and games for both kids and adults. Several community and civic organizations will also be present to connect with festival goers.

This event will also serve as a time to reflect on the history and legacy of Soul City.

Neighboring communities such as Manson and Ridgeway are invited to come together to commemorate the founders and members of Soul City, to honor their contributions, and to keep their memories alive.

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Phase one renovations of the Magnolia Ernest Recreation Park in the Soul City community are complete and to celebrate, Warren County is hosting a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Friday, July 1st at 10am.

In 2020, Warren County received a grant award from North Carolina Parks and Recreation Trust Fund to assist with renovations at Magnolia Ernest Recreation Park.

Phase one included renovations to the basketball and tennis courts, upgrades to the pump house electrical, and adding an additional paved walking area.

The day’s festivities will include free activities following the ribbon cutting until 11:30 am such as:

Tie-dye T-shirts: participants can make their own (while supplies last)

Tennis courts: racquets and balls available to use, as well as door prizes

Basketball court: basketballs available, as well as youth shooting station for prizes

Free ice-cream (while supplies last)

The Magnolia Ernest Recreation Park is located at 252 Duke Dr., Norlina, NC.

Phase two renovations will include picnic shelter and bathhouse renovations.

: Renovated tennis and basketball courts at Magnolia Ernest Recreation Park / provided by Warren County NC Government

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Warren County Parks and Recreation announced yesterday that the pool at Magnolia Earnest Recreation Complex will officially open for the season on Friday, June 17th.

Also known as the Soul City pool, it will be open for 2-hour sessions: 10am-12pm, 12:30-2:30pm and 3pm-5pm.

Due to limited number of lifeguards, we will only be able to take 25 citizens for each 2-hour session. The fee is $1 for a 2-hour session. Concessions will be available for sale.

Starting Wednesday June 22nd, the pool will be open Wednesday through Sunday. The 2-hour sessions will be:
Wednesday/Thursday: 1pm-3pm, 3:30-5:30pm
Friday/Saturday: 10am-12pm, 12:30pm-2:30pm, 3pm-5pm
Sunday: 1:30pm-3:30pm, 4pm-6pm

Please note hours of operation and entrance numbers are subject to change based on weather and lifeguard availability.

The county department is currently recruiting certified lifeguards.

If you are interested, please contact Warren County Parks and Recreation at (252) 257-2272.

The pool is located at 252 Duke Drive, Norlina, NC.

Source: Warren County Parks and Recreation Facebook page

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When strangers travel the rural roadways of Warren County, few would imagine that this land was once the site of a remarkable experiment in city-building.

In the late 1960s, Soul City—a visionary project spearheaded by the Civil Rights activist Floyd McKissick—began to emerge from the farmlands of an old antebellum plantation. McKissick and his partners marshaled federal and private funds to begin building a new town from the ground up, believing that the best way to realize the potential of communities whose futures had been consistently denied by racist systems was to give those communities a chance to collaborate, create, and thrive. And so Soul City was born.

The dream blossomed with the early building of infrastructure, homes, businesses, a health clinic, and more, laying the foundation for a vibrant new community, and drawing many who shared McKissick’s vision to Warren County. The ambitious project, though, eventually fell victim to the very forces that Soul City’s planners had so hoped to avoid. White supremacy claimed another victory in Warren County. But only over the actual construction. The dream of progressive possibility—of self-realization and community empowerment—stayed very much alive.

Warren County has long served as a home for such dreams among its Black communities. Tales told from the days of enslavement recount the stories of Black women and men who challenged their status and claimed (by force when necessary) their personhood and their futures. The post-Emancipation years witnessed an explosion of school building and commercial creativity, charting a legacy of progressive community building that stretched well into the 20th century. It should come as no surprise that the state’s first Black representative to the United States Congress came from Warren County, or that that one of the region’s most widely applauded teacher-training schools for African Americans began in Warrenton. Civil Rights pioneer Ella Baker—who is widely credited as a key founder of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee—hailed from Warren County, as did Eva Clayton, who in 1992 became the first Black congressional representative from North Carolina since 1901. The dream has deep roots here.

The desegregation struggles of the 1960s, the founding of the community radio station WVSP, the birth of the environmental justice movement with the PCB protests—Warren County has long been a site of progressive political thinking and pointedly anti-racist community action. The “Black Progressive Thought” panel addresses this legacy, bringing together a group of activists, community developers, educators and policy analysts to reflect on the past and imagine a new future, demonstrating the vibrant connections between today’s Black Lives Matter struggles and a proud local history that’s often been underappreciated, in large part because it’s been so carefully erased.

Panel Moderator:
Crystal Myrick – Founder, publisher, and editor of The Warrenist

Panelists:
Eva Clayton – 5-term Congresswoman representing N.C.’s 1st District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and head of the consulting firm, Eva Clayton Associates International
Jennie Ann Johnson Franklin – Community historian, and longtime public school educator
Valeria Lee – Former president of the Golden Leaf Foundation, former Program Officer of the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation, and General Manager and Co-founder of the public radio station WVSP
Lew Myers – Former Senior Executive of the Soul City Company, and Former Partner and Director of Business Development for the Freelon Group

The “Black Progressive Thought” discussion takes place on Saturday, May 28, 2022 at 11am at the Warren County Memorial Library (119 S. Front Street, Warrenton, NC).

The “Liberating Futures” series is a collaborative project of The 1921 Project, the Warren County Branch of the NAACP, the Warren County African American Historical Collective, UNC’s Descendants Project, and UNC’s Humanities for the Public Good Initiative.

This event is free and open to the public.

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Five years ago on this day, Warrenist was born in front of an audience that filled the Warren County Memorial Library community room to its capacity.

Organized as a company “introduction,” The Women of Soul City was a program that included a documentary showing of Soul City followed by an all-female discussion panel that featured the influential voices of Jane Ball-Groom, Wilhelmina Kearney, Magnolia Jackson, and Ihsan Abdin, and moderated by Dr. Charmaine McKissick-Melton, the daughter of Soul City founder, Floyd McKissick’s.

The Women of Soul City (l-r): Wilhelmina Kearney, Jane Ball-Groom, Ihsan Abdin, Dr. Charmaine McKissick Melton, Magnolia Jackson, and Congresswoman Eva Clayton ( Crystal Myrick/The Warrenist)

Congresswoman Eva Clayton graciously closed the program with her own remarks about McKissick and the development and vision of Soul City.

Watch The Women of Soul City below:

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