Learning Black Durham’s History by Bus

Campus communications group visits Black Wall Street, Hayti, West End and other sites

Duke communicators visit the Pauli Murray House at 906 N. Carroll St. in Durham.
Duke communicators visit the Pauli Murray House at 906 N. Carroll St. in Durham. Photo by Jared Lazarus/Office of Marketing and Communications

On a bright, cool Friday morning, nearly 40 university communicators got on the bus for a look into Black Durham’s rich history for the Duke Diversity Action Alliance’s first city tour.

The three-hour tour was led by Whistle Stop Tours, a Durham company led by Aya Shabu that has blended performance and storytelling in its local history tours since 2011. The Duke Diversity Action Alliance was established in 2021 to advance diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging among Duke communications professionals.

At the start, attendees were invited to personally connect with history by selecting lanyards with the faces of local Black historical figures to wear, honoring the ancient land, and the indigenous tribes who occupied it before it became Durham.

The group first stopped at the Durham Bull and Durham’s Black Wall Street, where they walked down Parrish Street, visiting the former site of the N.C. Mutual Life Insurance building and learning about Durham’s deep-rooted history of black entrepreneurship and community resilience.

Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and observe compelling theatrical skits that embodied local historical figures and personified inanimate forces, such as the creation of Highway 147 that divided the city in the early ‘60s.

Throughout the morning, participants explored themes of urban renewal, black entrepreneurship, and the significance of storytelling and remembrance in downtown Durham. The bus drove through the struggling West End neighborhood and made stops at the Hayti Heritage Center, and the Pauli Murray Center.

The day concluded at the Durham Civil Rights Mural on Morris Street, with a call-and-response song highlighting the vibrant history of Black culture in Durham.

“There is a sensitivity and a set of empathy that we have to constantly bring to our communications, as we tell the history of Duke,” said Frank Tramble, Duke vice president of marketing and communications. “I appreciate the leadership [so] many of you are providing just by being here. It ensures that empathy is coming through in our storytelling and that the Duke University we all love and serve can continue building and strengthening relationships within our community.”

Learn more about the Duke Diversity Action Alliance at communicators.duke.edu/daa or contact Andrew Park (acp51@duke.edu) or Camille Jackson (camille.jackson@duke.edu).

The tour was led by Whistle Stop Tours, which blended performance and history telling.
The tour was led by Whistle Stop Tours, which blended performance and history telling. Photos by Jared Lazarus.
The tour stopped in front of the Black Wall Street plaque in downtown Durham.
The tour stopped in front of the Black Wall Street plaque in downtown Durham.