"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
-George Santayana

The United States of America is 249 years old, a baby nation amongst those who have been around since 301 CE. In its short time, the country has amassed a long, complicated and brutal history, one that includes slavery, indentured servitude, “Indian” Schools and Japanese internment camps.
This country was built on the backs and blood, sweat, tears and bodies of African Americans and the Indigenous Tribes of this land. Its history deserves to be told, remembered and improved upon.
The NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction is holding their annual Hari Jones Memorial Lecture on Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church, 1217 Murchison Road. The lecture is free to the public.
The past six speakers have been comprised of professional historians from the Smithsonian, history professors and civil rights activists. These lecturers were chosen for their ability to teach, “so that all of us may learn, and so that all of us may work together toward a more perfect union,” according to the NC History Center website.
This year’s lecture will be presented by Khadija McNair, entitled “Echoes of Emancipation: Juneteenth and North Carolina.” McNair is a Durham native and public historian who manages Freedom Park in downtown Raleigh, a speaker with the NC African American Heritage Commission and a teacher.
After receiving her Bachelor of Arts Degree from the distinguished North Carolina Central University, she continued her education and in 2020, she received her Master of Arts degree in History with a concentration in Public History.
In her presentation, McNair explores the significance of Juneteenth and the broader history of emancipation in North Carolina. She highlights the ongoing legacy of enslaved people's resistance and the many ways freedom was sought and claimed long before and after the Civil War.
Through powerful stories of individuals like Caroline Barnes, Harriet Jacobs, Mary Walker, and others, McNair illustrates how African Americans in North Carolina shaped their liberation and legacy. She also emphasizes the importance of sites like NC Freedom Park in preserving and reflecting on these histories, encouraging continued commemoration and education around emancipation across the state.
“The public will take away the connections between Juneteenth and the fight for liberation in North Carolina. It's important to understand that the history of emancipation is complex, and many of these stories can be found in our own families and neighborhoods.”
Before she started her work at Freedom Park, McNair spent her time at other historic sites, educating the public and curating projects, such as the Orange County NC Slave Deed database and the Durham Black Burial Grounds Collaboratory.
“I find myself consistently inspired by the African American women who have made significant contributions to our state and our nation. Women like Ella Baker, Anna Julia Cooper, and Harriet Jacobs are a few individuals I’m currently learning about. Their words and experiences are truly empowering to me,” said McNair.
The Hari Jones Memorial Lectures have been a community staple for over six years. The lectures are named after a prominent African American Historian who helped the center in its beginning stages.
Jones was the assistant director and curator for the African American Civil War Freedom Foundation and Museum in Washington, DC. He suddenly passed in 2018, after giving a lecture on Juneteenth here in Fayetteville. The NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction decided the best way to honor his legacy and his commitment to ensuring the historical truth was told would be to start a free lecture series for the community during Juneteenth.
This series has been titled the Hari Jones Lecture Series in his honor.
“I am truly honored and grateful to have been chosen as the speaker for the 2025 Hari Jones Memorial Lecture. As a public historian, I recognize that I stand on the shoulders of ancestors like Hari Jones. I do not take lightly the opportunity to continue amplifying African American history in the same spirit as those who have come before me,” McNair said.
While the construction of the center is still in progress at Arsenal Park, the center is committed to the mission of educating the public on the history of African Americans in this country, from slavery to innovation to the influence on culture, politics and economics.
“Unlike other history museums, the facility in Fayetteville will be a ‘teaching' museum and not a ‘collecting' museum. It will use existing scholarships from universities, coupled with first-hand accounts of North Carolina families, to examine, for the first time, what an entire state faced as the result of the Civil War,” said Marc Barnes, public relations with the NC History Center. “It will examine the times before, during and after the Civil War, from antebellum North Carolina to the Jim Crow era. It will communicate that knowledge both in person and online so that schoolchildren – and all of us – may learn from it.”

(Photo: Khadija McNair is the speaker for the sixth annual Hari Jones Memorial Lecture, to be held June 16 at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville. Photo courtesy of Marc Barnes)