Charles Norfleet Hunter

Charles Norfleet Hunter (January 9, ca. 1852 – September 4, 1931) was an American educator, journalist, and historian.^[1] Hunter actively engaged in several late nineteenth-century reform movements. In the 1870s, he participated in the Temperance movement.^[2] Beginning in his twenties, Hunter played a significant role as a teacher or principal at the "Colored Graded Schools" in Durham, Goldsboro, and Raleigh as well as at rural schools in Robeson, Chatham, Cumberland, and Johnston Counties.^[3] Hunter also helped lead an initiative to build the Berry O'Kelly Training School (previously known as the Method School) in Method, North Carolina.^[4]

A prolific writer, Hunter authored numerous letters to the editor, and he frequently corresponded with local and national political figures and family members.^[4] He was a pioneering publisher of newspapers for Black North Carolinians.^[5] In the late 1870s, he created the North Carolina Industrial Association with his brother Osborne Hunter, Jr. and together they produced the Journal of Industry.^[1] Later, he edited the Progressive Educator for the N.C. State Teachers' Association, an organization that supported Black educators. When he moved to Goldsboro, he edited The Appeal for African American readers.^[6] Additionally, he wrote letters to the editor for The New National Era (Washington, D.C.) and authored content for the Gazette (Raleigh) and Independent (Raleigh), two papers targeted towards a Black audience. Throughout his life, Hunter used his journalistic voice to illuminate the challenges emancipated Blacks experienced during Reconstruction and in the early-twentieth century with regard to voting rights, lynching, economic progress, and education.^[1]