Chapel Hill professor to explore history of the Lumbee tribe

The sweeping story of the Lumbee tribe of North Carolina sheds new light on America’s defining moments through the complex lens of Southern identity—juxtaposing American history as taught in public schools with how it is taught at the dinner tables of the Lumbee people.

The Lumbees have maintained their original homelands as well as their distinct identity as Indians in a biracial South, according to historian Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee and author of “The Lumbee Indians: An American Struggle.” An associate professor of history, Lowery also is director of the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC Chapel Hill.

As the Lumbees continue to fight for full, federal acknowledgement, their struggle for justice and self-determination echoes and enriches the view of the American experience.

On Tuesday, Dec. 4, Lowery will talk about the Lumbees’ journey and struggles as a people in the first of UNC Charlotte’s Center for the Study of the New South’s series, “Place Matters: The Old North State in the New South.” Events in the series will explore contemporary North Carolina.

This public lecture, which begins at 4 p.m. in the Atkins Library Halton Reading Room, is co-sponsored by the library and the Center for the Study of the New South. Reservations are requested as space is limited.

Photo courtesy of photographer Joi Henslee.