Join us for a Black History Month local history program presented by local historian Earnestine Keaton, Unsung Heroes: The Life and Legacy of Reverend Richard Keaton. Explore the legacy of Rev. Richard Keaton and the Black Missionary Movement in the Middle Cape Fear Region, focusing on the economic and cultural development of several rural majority black faith-based communities in the Columbus and Pender County area of Southeastern NC.

Earnestine Keaton, local historian and writer began to research her family history in 1998. In doing so she discovered the rich and interesting history of the Cape Fear Region. Her primary focus is the cultural traditions and economic development of the communities that grew out the area’s plantations, particularly the Lloyd Plantation. Her current focus is the legacy of the “Unsung Heroes” of several rural, majority black, communities in Bladen, Columbus and Pender Counties.