Durham Library to screen newly restored version of 1948 film ‘Negro Durham Marches On’
Only two copies of the 1948 film “Negro Durham Marches On” existed in the Durham Public Library’s North Carolina Collection — or at all, to anyone’s knowledge — until 2015.
That’s when filmmaker Tom Whiteside discovered an original print in a collection of artifacts donated to the library by local historian R. Kelly Bryant, who died in December of that year.
The film is by Don Parrisher, a white filmmaker then known for documenting towns and cities across the country. It was commissioned by the Durham Business and Professional Chain, the city’s oldest Black business advocacy group.
“Negro Durham” takes viewers back to a long-gone, bustling business district known as Black Wall Street, that was largely wiped out by urban renewal and the development of the Durham Freeway in the late 1950s. It also shows glimpses of everyday life in Hayti, Durham’s historic Black business and residential neighborhood just south of the downtown.
In 2021, North Carolina Collection Manager Lauren Panny, Whiteside and other library staff applied for a grant from the National Film Preservation Foundation for laboratory preservation work on the film and were awarded $7,270.
For Black History Month, the library will, “at long last” according to Panny, host a screening of the newly restored film.
EVENT DETAILS
The event, “Negro Durham Marches On - An Examination of the Past, Present and Future of Hayti in Durham,” will include a panel discussion after the screening, featuring Whiteside; Anita Scott Neville, director of Hayti Reborn: and Angela Lee, executive director of the Hayti Heritage Center.
Date: Saturday. Feb. 22
Location: Durham Public Main Library Auditorium, 300 N. Roxboro St.
Time: 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Registration is required. Sign up at durhamcountylibrary.libcal.com/event/14031620
This story was originally published February 17, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
