Black History Month: Celebrating Matthew T. Lewis

The Special Collections at East Carolina University recognizes the importance of acknowledging and highlighting the contributions of African Americans throughout the year. In celebration of Black History Month, we will be doing a special series of blog posts focusing on African American-related materials found in our collections.

Celebrating Matthew T. Lewis

Matthew T. Lewis, a native of Ahoskie, N.C., was born on November 2, 1910. He was a graduate of Elizabeth City State University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Indiana University. Mr. Lewis was a teacher and a principal at Nichols, Clemons, and Post Oaks Schools. He then became a teacher at Stokes Elementary School and later, the school’s principal in 1952; a position he stayed in until his retirement in 1977. During the majority of Lewis’s career as an educator, the Pitt County school system operated as a segregated system under the laws of the Jim Crow South. Later, he was very active with the Board of Elections and served as Chief Judge of a precinct. The Parks Department of the City of Greenville renamed West Meadowbrook, a neighborhood park, to Matthew Lewis Park in 1998, in his honor. Matthew Lewis died on February 14, 2009, at the age of 98.

Sources: Banquet Program, 1994. Matthew T. Lewis Papers (Manuscript Collection #766)

Matthew T. Lewis Obituary, Greenville Daily Reflector, February 18, 2009.