exciting is that student is growing and you see them finding the gaps and now they have to tools and resources to do that. >> as we continue our coverage of wilmington, join us as we

take you on a literary walking tour of the city. i wanted to put together the literary tour to not only shine a light on what is happening now but what our history includes. i think there is also -- there is still n assocition in -- association that the south is not a place of intellectual talent but having lived here i am i know that is not the case. they are stunned when they visit

the area that i can read or write. there are many writers who can't are read and write from north carolina. i really want to share our rich heritage with people. the first top is the dixie grill. wilmington has played host to many famous writer and author miller is one of the most notable -- arthur. his most famous play is probably the crucible. we know arthur miller came to wilmington twice. the first time would know was during the 1930s. he and tennessee williams first went to the university of michigan playwriting program and got jobs working for the federal arts administration during the depression.

tennessee decided to head off on his bicycle on adventure but arthur miller said i signed up for it and i am doing it and went up and down the east coast collecting folklore. in the 1930s, there were people in the united states that were collecting first person accounts of the sadder chapters of american history. later on, john blare's publishers started putting out books on a state by state basis. there is one specific north carolina, one specific alabama, mississippi and so on. the second time we know arthur

miller came to wilmington was in the early '90s. all my sons and death of a salesman ended his career with that. the next stop on the tour is first presbyterian church. we are on 3rd street which is one of the major thorough fairs in wilmington. you are probably wonder why with are we stopping at first presbyterian church on a literary walking history tour. well, the answer is preacher skin. you are probably surprised by that answer. 1874-1882, first presbyterian church minister had a son named

woodrow wilson who went on to become the 28th president of the united states. most of the time his father was minister he was away at school. first at davidson college, got sick, with drew from school and came home to live with the family while recouperating and reenrolled at john hopkins university and met another man man from north carolina named thomas dixon. thomas dixon dit a -- did a lot of things and one of them is wrote senational love stories. you don't remember them from the books but because those two books became birth of a nation and the first film screened at the white house. thomas called woodrow and said i made a movie and he said come

over and show it to me and that is how that happened. i think a lot of people are amazed at how much material we cover. i don't really think they are prepared for it all. we are stressing to get it in under two hours. so the next stop is the historic hall. a beautiful antebellum house built to be theater and our municipal building. we don't have a lot of lecture series in the 20th century. ted talks is probably the closest but it was expected in the past you would go hear experts speak on a topic for 45 minutes to two hours. among the many people who came

to lecture at the hall was oscar wild, the importance of being earnest. fredrick douglas and booker t washington spoke here. something else we like to talk about at this point in the tour t is one of my favorite playrights. william richardson was born in wilmington in the 1800s is his family left suddenly in the fall of 1828 moving to washington d.c. we went on to be the first african-american to have a hit show on broadway called the chip woman's fortune opening in may 1923. he also put together this book. the plays and pageants in the life of a negro. it was a textbook in segregated schools for theater students and

begins with age-approach plays for kindergarten and goes through high school. mr. richardson lived until the late 1970s and during his lifetime in wilmington, a theater company was founded in hes honor. they are predominantly african-american theater company performing his work and the work och other minority playwrights and put on two shows a year. we are grateful they keep his legacy a live. what is sad is we did not have the entirety of his lifetime here with his work. the next stop is the 1898 memorial. there are several books that have been written about 1898. i think you met the author of cape fear rising, there is a moment in the sun, we have taken

the city by leon, and day of blood as well. i think the mayoral of tradition is one of the more hysti more h ones. the author's relationship was a quiet most of life but he published the mayor of tradition, the story of what happened in wilmington written within two years by a person of color. he had to change everyone's name for his own safety and changed the name of the city so it was wellington not wilmington. in addition to the tradition, he had two short stories that were

made into films by a silent filmmaker in 1926. the house behind the cedar was made into the the millionaire. chestnut did a lot of work with the naacp and succeeded in getting prohibition against th public screening of birth of a nation in the state of ohio. he died on november 16, 1932 at the age of 74. wilmington is also the burial place of several famous authors including thomas godfry, the first playwright in america, and a lady named bing fletcher. in the '40s, '50s, and '60s she was hot stuff on "the new york times" best seller list.

she was born after the civil war in the midwest and had the life of an aristrocrats daughter. she was moved to california in a place that was a two-day ride from others. she persevered and wrote short stories to entertain themselves. she became one of the early screenwriters for the silent era. as they moved around with her husband's job, she continued doing writing and did a couple big game hunting books in africa and came to north carolina to connect with her ancestors and fell in love. that is when she started writing the books that made her came, the carolina chronicle stori.

you might remember mitchner who wrote big, epic films about hawaii, and alaska. english did the most beautifully well researched history of north carolina. but because she was a woman, even though writing at the same time, they marketed her books as romances instead of serious fiction. but there is just as much valid, historical evidence and good quality work as mitchner's. i hope the tour will first help people discover writers they had never encountered before that broaden and deepen our understanding of the human and southern experience which i think is far more complex than many realize. that is one of the most important things literature can do. it can show you something you

think you know from a different perspective. >> i am standing in the north carolina room of the new hanover county library where the libr librarian has pulled out pieces that help tell the story of north carolina's history. >> we are unique as a special collection because special collections are hard to access like if you went to a university or to a historical society. but because we are in a public library, we are open to everyone. if anyone wants to use our materials, they just come in. we ask them to read ever the rules and fill out a registration card and they can use the materials. the north carolina room is a room in the new hanover public county library where we focus on materials that have to do with north carolina. there are