The Fayetteville community is invited to join the NC History Center on the Civil War, Emancipation & Reconstruction on Monday, June 16 at 7 p.m. at Mt. Sinai Missionary Baptist Church located at 1217 Murchison Road in Fayetteville, directly across the street from Fayetteville State University.

Khadija McNair, a public historian who is manager of Freedom Park in downtown Raleigh and a speaker with the N.C. African American Heritage Commission, will give the Sixth Annual Hari Jones Memorial Lecture, which commemorates Juneteenth. Her speech is titled “Echoes of Emancipation: Juneteenth and North Carolina.”

The lecture is free and open to the public.

McNair is a native of Durham and has a strong background in historical research and interpretation and community engagement. She has served as the Freedom Park Manager since January 2024. The park is a one-acre park in downtown Raleigh between the Governor's Mansion and the Legislative Building, and is the first state monument to the African American experience in North Carolina.

McNair earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in History from North Carolina Central University in 2017 and went on to complete her Master of Arts degree in History with a concentration in Public History in 2020. 

Prior to joining Freedom Park, McNair worked within the state’s historic sites, including sites at Historic Stagville, Duke Homestead and Charlotte Hawkins Brown. Additionally, Khadija has lent her expertise to various public history projects, such as the Orange County NC Slave Deed database and the Durham Black Burial Grounds Collaboratory. 

McNair is – first and last – a teacher. She is deeply committed to sharing the rich history of African Americans with individuals of all ages. She recognizes the tremendous value in preserving and illuminating historical narratives that are often overlooked, particularly for younger generations.

By conveying the richness and depth of African American history, McNair aims to foster a greater appreciation and understanding of the contributions and experiences of those who have improved the spaces we call home. 

Juneteenth and the Hari Jones Memorial Lecture Series

The event marks the Center’s seventh commemoration of Juneteenth, a federal holiday observing the emancipation of the enslaved during the Civil War, and the sixth in memory of the late Hari Jones.

Jones was a prominent African American historian, who was the assistant director and curator at the African American Civil War Freedom Foundation and Museum in Washington, DC. His area of expertise centered on the contribution of Blacks during the Civil War. He was first heard by organizers of the Center as they researched museums in Washington, DC; and later became a close advisor to the Center, speaking on several times in Fayetteville.

In June 2018, Jones last spoke in Fayetteville about Juneteenth. Several days later, Jones died of a sudden heart attack in Washington. The Center decided to honor his memory and his contribution to our understanding of the African American community during the Civil War and afterward, through Reconstruction and the Jim Crow era, by sponsoring the Hari Jones Memorial Lecture Series..

McNair’s appearance is the second time the Center has partnered with the N.C. African American Heritage Commission. The Commission was created by the NC General Assembly in 2008. It works across the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources to achieve the mission of preserving, protecting and promoting North Carolina’s African American history, art and culture, for all people.