By John Luke Farah
The Greensboro bus with the Black Patriots wrap on display at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park. Photo by Bernetiae Reed.
“Can it be done by July 4?” B. Bernitiae Reed said to Mayor Pro Tem Yvonne Johnson.
“It’ll be tight,” Johnson said.
After the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, there was a nationwide call for racial equality, police reform, and recognition of Black history. Part of this new movement included the destruction of Confederate monuments across the country. Joanna Winston Foley, a long-time member of the BCC community, saw this trend and did some ancestral digging.
Foley is related to Joseph Winston, a military officer during the Revolutionary War and also the namesake of the city of Winston-Salem. He was also an enslaver, and a monument in his name stands at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park.
“Should it come down?” Foley said.
On her path to discovering her lineage, Foley met Sage Chioma, another member of the community that is related to Ishmael Titus. He was a slave that served in the same military unit as Winston.
“We call each other land sisters,” Foley said.
Foley decided to start a new project that would highlight the Greensboro Black patriots of the Revolutionary War. The project included many active members to make its goal achievable, including Foley and Chioma, as well as Reed, Johnson, Greensboro Transit Agency marketing and communications specialist Kevin Elwood, Carolina Peacemaker newspaper reporter Ivan Cutler, Superintendent Aaron LaRocca and Rodney Dawson of NC Heritage Commission. The mission was to find “who should be depicted that isn’t,” said Foley.
June 30, 2023, was the day everyone was waiting for. The project team put on bright yellow hazard vests. They entered an industrial facility roaring with machine noises, and there, next to some scaffolding, was the culmination of their work.
A bus wrap designed to celebrate Black patriots from the Revolutionary War can be seen on a bus in Greensboro, North Carolina. Reed and Foley are long-time associates of the Beloved Community Center, and they are regular attendees at our Wednesday Community Table Meetings. In collaboration with Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, they proposed the “Black Patriots of the Revolution” project to the Greensboro City Council, and it was approved and presented just in time for the July 4 holiday.
“It was really a special day,” Reed said.
It was Reed’s idea to propose the commemorative bus wrap to Greensboro City Council, and with her connection to Mayor Pro Tem Johnson, the “Black Patriots of the Revolution” project became a reality.
The wrap features 33 names of Black soldiers that fought at the Battle for Guilford Courthouse of 1781. According to a Greensboro City News post, the wrap also displays the Guilford Courthouse Flag, a sketch called “The Cavalry Charge” and a petition for the freedom of Black soldier Ned Griffin signed by men he served with.