Jamon Glover, on the Vance County Cooperative Extension Report:
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Local minister, author, nonprofit CEO and youth leader Jayden Watkins woke up last Saturday at 4:30 a.m. to drive to the Raleigh area to pick up a generator that was rented for the festival he had organized, set to start at later that morning at 10 a.m.
Watkins, a senior at Henderson Collegiate, had organized the event, titled “Shaping the Future: A Community Empowerment Extravaganza” that included a bookbag giveaway, health screening and talent show.
Watkins arrived at the location to pick up generator, only to be told that he was too young to pick it up. Company policy apparently states that renters must be 18 or over. Watkins just turned 17.
Undeterred, Watkins said he carried on with his day, preparing for the event – sans generator.
“It was an amazing day,” he told WIZS’s Scout Hughes Thursday on The Local Skinny! “I’m grateful that everything came together so beautifully.”
The 500 bookbags were given out before the event ended, but Watkins said he’d follow up with more bookbags for those who didn’t get one on Saturday.
He estimated that about 800 people were in attendance, noting the diversity among participants. “How powerful we are if we come together,” he said.
Watkins embraces the “glass half full” philosophy and finds the good in everything.
“I still am passionate about the work God calls me to do,” he said.
The youth who took the stage beginning at noon did a great job, and there were plenty of local vendors on hand for people to shop with.
“Everyone was having fun. It was hot, but we were having fun!” he said.
As he begins his final year of high school, Watkins said no matter where he ends up in college, he’ll always support Henderson and work to make it better.
“I discovered my purpose in Henderson. I see the potential in Henderson…there are so many amazing people in Henderson, but they just need that little push to shape the future and live on purpose,” he said.
Follow Jayden Watkins on social media platforms or visit his website at www.jaydenwatkins.com to learn about ways to volunteer with or donate to his nonprofit Higher is Waiting.
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The Henderson cotton mill strike of 1958 began as a relatively peaceful protest when workers and company leaders couldn’t agree about how to settle disagreements – for years, both sides had agreed to use arbitration as a way to settle disputes about a variety of grievances, said local historian Mark Pace.
And, Pace said, it seemed to work out that, over those years, about half the judgments were found in favor of the workers, and half in favor of the company.
The strike made headlines across the country and beyond, Pace noted in Thursday’s Around Old Granville segment of TownTalk with WIZS’s Bill Harris. And in February 1959, after months of being shut down, the mill management decided to take action.
“The Coopers put out a call for strike breakers,” Pace said. “they wanted to run one shift and crank up production.” The inventory of yarns and cotton that had been stockpiled was running low, and so the mill needed to be running again.
“Until that point, the strike had been relatively peaceful,” Pace said. But when strikebreakers were brought in, that’s when things turned violent.
There were at least 16 cases of bombings between February and May 1959. Warehouses were bombed, homes were bombed, windows shot out. About 150 people were arrested, but Pace said local law enforcement was stretched beyond its limits.
The mills in North Henderson and South Henderson both were outside the city limits, so it was up to the sheriff’s office to keep things calm near the mills as best they could.
Gov. Luther Hodges, himself once a textile mill vice president, Pace explained, called the State Highway Patrol into action to help keep the peace in Henderson. Eventually, however, the National Guard got involved.
A man making a cotton delivery to one of the mills was attacked by a mob of protesters,prompting a judge to rule that a maximum of eight strikers could be at the mill gate at any one time.
“At this point the textile workers were desperate,” Pace said. “They had tried going on strike, but that had not worked.” Although the union gave them stipends, it wasn’t enough.
And the longer the strike lasted, the less money the union had available.
In May 1961, there was a call to end the strike.
By then, however, the mills were back to running three full shifts – this time with non-union workers. Pace said 90 percent of the people who went on strike never went back to work at the cotton mills.
Harriet-Henderson was Vance County’s largest employer from 1895 to 2003 and had a footprint of close to half a million square feet at the height of its success.
The strike was significant, “not just for Henderson but for the South,” Pace said. The textile workers’ strike in Henderson was the last major attempt by unions to build effective unions in the southern United States in the textile industry, which was the largest industry in the South at that time, he said.
“By and large, they failed,” he said.
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Downtown Development Coordinator Tracy Madigan brought news to the Henderson City Council Monday that the city’s Main Street status has officially been upgraded from an affiliate program to a full-fledged community program.
Madigan explained that administration of the Main Street program is one of the major roles of the position she holds, and she will be meeting with the newly established Downtown Advisory Board to develop a plan for training and coming up with a meeting schedule going forward.
Having its own board was one of the criteria the Main Street program had to satisfy, and last year, the city approved moving ahead with that plan. Madigan said, however, that the new board would continue to work in partnership with the Downtown Development Corporation for continued success in the future.
“I see a lot of potential with our downtown,” Madigan said. Whether through beautification projects or other initiatives, she said she hopes others will see past the boarded-up windows across the 20-plus square block area to what the downtown can become.
One goal of the advisory board, in addition to supporting economic development, is for the downtown to be “the cultural, dining and entertainment hub for Vance County and surrounding counties by attracting investors and businesses to downtown Henderson,” Madigan said.
The official downtown area is made up of Garnett, William and Chestnut streets from Andrews Avenue to Spring Street – it’s basically a big rectangle. A really big rectangle.
In fact, Madigan said it’s one of the larger footprints of cities and towns that participate in the Main Street program.
There are 233 commercial spaces within the area, with 29 vacant buildings and upwards of 1.9 million square feet of commercial space. Madigan keeps a downtown building inventory that she hopes to have available on the city’s website in the near future.
She acknowledges that this is a “fluid” document, with information changing as buildings are bought and sold, occupied and vacated.
Madigan said she attended the recent N.C. Main Street directors’ conference and expects to get guidance from that group, as well as the N.C. Department of Commerce as the program moves forward.
The DDC has the downtown domain for web addresses, so Madigan said the Main Street program information and the Downtown Development will have a presence within the City of Henderson website. Stay up to date on current information at https://henderson.nc.gov/
The hope is to develop a vacant building policy, Madigan said, and indicated that she and city staff are discussing and reviewing existing policies in other municipalities as the local policy is developed.
With regard to the city initiative of affordable housing, Madigan said there are 72 apartment units located within the footprint of the downtown area – 30+ at the former Senior Center property at the corner of Garnett and Breckenridge streets and others at the former Maria Parham Hospital on Chestnut Street.
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Since 1991, Ballet Arts has provided instruction to thousands of young people to learn about different genres of dance and experience the beauty of an art form that teaches life lessons in addition to dance moves.
In Wednesday’s Business Spotlight, Phil LaKernick said registration is now underway for the upcoming season of dance, which includes everything from traditional ballet and pointe to tap, hiphop, floor gymnastics and more.
Ballet Arts more or less follows the school year, offering in excess of 100 classes each week to children as young as 2 1/2, LaKernick said.
“Right now is crunch time,” LaKernick said, referring to registration in advance of a Sept. 2 start date.
Find details about class schedules, pricing and more at https://www.balletartsnc.com/.
LaKernick said that students learn so much more than just dance steps when they take classes – they also learn about dedication, precision, friendship and the responsibility of being part of a team.
Another component of Ballet Arts involves competitions – The Ballet Arts “All Stars” Company is a group of dancers between the ages of 7 and 18 who audition for a spot in the coveted group.
In more than 30 years of offering dance classes, LaKernick said Ballet Arts now has children and grandchildren of those original students back in the early 1990’s.
“It’s really good, because the people that have come to us have stuck with us,” he said.
“I wish more people would come out and do it,” he added. “It’s a learning experience…the dedication and camaraderie that is part of the whole package.”
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W. Ellis Boyle has taken the oath of office to become the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. The oath was administered by his father, U.S. District Judge Terrence W. Boyle at the Terry Sanford Courthouse in Raleigh. Attorney General Pamela Bondi appointed Boyle as the interim U.S. attorney on Aug. 7, 2025.
According to a press release issued Monday, Aug. 11, Boyle becomes the lead federal law enforcement official in the Eastern District of North Carolina, which includes the 44 easternmost counties of North Carolina.
He oversees a staff of 119 employees, including 58 attorneys and 61 non-attorney support personnel. The office is responsible for prosecuting federal crimes across the district, including crimes related to immigration, gang violence, National Security, drug trafficking and violent crime. The office also defends the United States in civil cases and collects debts owed to the United States.
Before becoming the U.S. attorney, Boyle practiced law at Ward and Smith, P.A., where he practiced litigation, representing businesses, government entities, and individuals in complex matters. He also served as general counsel and deputy secretary at the N.C. Department of Public Safety, which employs over 27,000 people. The department oversees the state’s prison and probation/parole systems, the State Highway Patrol, Emergency Management, the National Guard and the juvenile justice system.
Prior to his role at DPS, Boyle was an assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of North Carolina for two years. During his time in the Civil Division, he tried many cases in federal court. He gained extensive experience representing the United States in cases involving negligence and medical malpractice claims for personal injuries under the Federal Tort Claims Act, as well as in bankruptcy cases.
Before serving as an AUSA, Boyle was an associate in the business litigation practice group of Womble, Carlyle, Sandridge & Rice in Winston-Salem, where he primarily represented companies in matters related to business disputes and dissolution.
Born and raised in Edenton, Boyle earned a degree in history from Davidson College. After graduating, he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the U.S. Army where he served as an infantry officer for four years, eventually rising to the rank of captain. Following his time in the Army, Ellis earned a law degree from Wake Forest University Law School. After graduating, he spent a year as a law clerk for the Hon. Claude Hilton, a U.S. District Court Judge in the Eastern District of Virginia.
The Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce invites Chamber members to turn out on Tuesday, Aug. 19 to help welcome back teachers and staff at the Vance County Schools Convocation Kick-Off at McGregor Hall Performing Arts Center.
Chamber President Sandra Wilkerson says to be in place by 8 a.m. with pompoms, company signs and your business mascot to “show loud hometown spirit” in support of educators as they embark on another school year.
Buses will begin dropping off teachers between 8:15 a.m. and 8:50 a.m. It’d be great to have them walk through a cheer line of local business leaders and other community-minded citizens as they enter McGregor Hall to begin the convocation!
Henderson City Manager/City Attorney Hassan T. Kingsberry tendered his resignation Monday.
Kingsberry has held the dual roles of city manager and city attorney for less than a year.
About 10 minutes into Monday’s regular monthly City Council meeting, Kingsberry distributed sheets of paper to members of the Council and to Mayor Melissa Elliott.
Kingsberry shared the contents of the letter to WIZS Monday night.
Following is the text Kingsberry sent:
August 11th, 2025
This letter is written to inform you of my resignation from the positions for City Manager and City Attorney. One contract requires 30 days notice and the other requires a month. For the sake of peace for myself and my family and for the City, this is the best decision. I’ve shared with you my issues with the Mayor and you’ve seen them unfold publicly so I encourage you to protect staff and abide by the Charter. I will remain available for any investigation on my actions for I have not done anything wrong. Thank you for this opportunity. God bless the City of Henderson.
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