Taste of History: Black History Month

In 2025, the Körner’s Folly Foundation is launching a new monthly program to be held inside the John & Bobbie Wolfe Visitors Center Community Room called “A Taste of History.”

This program is free, open to the public, and handicap-accessible in order for the organization to reach a wider audience and engage in deeper discussions on topics such as Black history, history of indigenous peoples, women’s history, historic preservation, Victorian culture, North Carolina military history, art history, and the history of Kernersville.

On Saturday, February 1, 2025, we will be celebrating Black History Month in dialogue with local author JoAnne Falls and Kernersville Alderman JR Gorham.

In celebration and honor of Black History Month, author of Kernersville Black Retrospective JoAnne Falls joins Alderman General James R. Gorham in conversation at our first Taste of History program, a new series exploring local history and connections to our collective present and future.

An alumna of NC A&T State University, the University of North Carolina – Greensboro, and NC State University, JoAnn Falls’ work documents the lives and experiences of Black residents of Kernersville since the 1800s.

Currently serving as an elected official on the Town of Kernersville Board of Aldermen, General J.R. Gorham was commissioned in 1980 through Officer Candidate School at the NC Military Academy at Fort Bragg. Growing up as the son of a sharecropper in eastern NC, Gorham received a BA in History from East Carolina University, and an MS in Strategic Studies through the US Army War College. A resident of Kernersville for over 30 years, Gorham served as Vice President with First Citizens Bank, Treasurer of the YMCA, and currently mentors students through Boys & Girls Clubs at local high schools as well as assisting homeless Veterans through the Veterans Leadership Council.

This program is free to attend and does not require registration. At the conclusion of the participants’ dialogue, there will be a Q&A session followed by light refreshments in the Community Room of the John & Bobbie Wolfe Visitors Center.

Program Admission is free and includes light refreshments. No pre-registration is required.