Under the Kudzu

Under the Kudzu archive: Mission Statement

Under the Kudzu is also the name of a larger effort to archive oral histories, papers and photographs related to all school history in Pender County .  Portions of this historical material will be made available online on this website, and related papers and photographs will be kept at the Burgaw Library (courtesy of Mike Taylor).  We are actively seeking stories, papers, yearbooks, photographs, diplomas, or any other material related to Pender County school history from education’s beginnings here to the year 1975.  People who possess any such material do NOT need to give up the originals, if they would like to share scans or copies and retain the originals that can easily be arranged.  Please contact claudia@underthekudzu.org to donate material for the archive.

Under the Kudzu archive: Vision Statement

That the film project and archival efforts will preserve documents and photographs related to Pender educational history that would otherwise be lost to public memory.  That high school students in Pender County will become actively involved in collecting archival material and oral histories, thus promoting an intergenerational conversation about this very rich and complex history.

Sketch of the Mooretown school, black school built by the Mooretown community during Reconstruction.  Sketch by the Rev. Alexander Moore, who attended the school.  In an interview shortly before his death, Rev. Moore said that the building was torn down and the materials used to make a shop building at the Pender County Training School.  Other records confirm this story; the Mooretown shool was consolidated with PCTS in 1929, and the materials form the Mooretown school were used, along with support from the Rosenwald Fund, to build a new shop building at PCTS in 1931.