Black History Month Celebration

Location: R.A. Fountain

Town of Fountain’s annual Black History Month celebration featured gospel recording artists the Vines Sisters and Roland Suggs and local favorites Woody Bynum and his band, James Mitchell, Pam Edwards, Odelphis Davis, and Sophia Mix.

The Vines Sisters, from Farmville, are one of the best known of East Carolina’s many excellent gospel groups. They have released five LPs since organizing in the early 1980s as the Heavenly Ten, later known as the Glorifying Vines Sisters. The four Vines sisters–Dorothy, Alice, Mattie, and Audrey–are joined in the band by Johnny Ray Daniels on lead guitar; Curtis Harper on drums; and guitarists Frank Smith and Carl Matthews.

Roland Suggs grew up on a Greene County farm and began singing when he was 12 years old as one of the Suggs Brothers. They were featured regularly on Sunday morning radio shows broadcast on WVOT in Wilson and WFAG in Farmville, and they opened for such legendary gospel groups as the Soul Stirrers and Clarence Fountain and the FIve Blind Boys of Alabama. After graduating from South Greene County High School, Suggs attended Lenoir Community College and NY University before enlisting in the Air Force. He began writing gospel songs in 2006 and released his first CD of original songs, Jesus is Patiently Waiting, in 2008. He lives in Greenville.

This free celebration was organized and hosted by Fountain Mayor Shirley Mitchell.
 

Tags: gospel, History, Motown