North Carolina

Meet the New Jersey woman who was pivotal to North Carolina sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement

Published

2 years ago

March 18, 2024

Meet the New Jersey woman who was pivotal to North Carolina sit-ins during the Civil Rights Movement

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — The sit-ins of the South became a pivotal part of civil rights history, and in 1960, a North Carolina college student from the Philadelphia area took a stand by being one of the first to sit down at a whites-only lunch counter.

Nancy Kirby’s story begins in Haddonfield, New Jersey, where she grew up and graduated from high school at age 16. She was planning to stay local for college by attending the University of Pennsylvania or Temple University – two schools Kirby said offered her full scholarships. Her mother, however, insisted she go away and attend an HBCU.

“She wanted me to have an experience where I was not in the minority,” Kirby said.

Kirby decided on Bennett College, a historically Black college for women in Greensboro, North Carolina. It was her first time in the segregated South, and when she arrived there in the late 1950s, the Civil Rights Movement was starting to catch on.

Nancy Kirby's student identification card from Bennett College — CBS News Philadelphia

Kirby said her mother warned her against participating in the movement, fearing it would jeopardize her ability to graduate.

A statue of four men, the Greensboro Four, outside at North Carolina A&T State University. — A statue of the “Greensboro Four,” led a sit-in in 1960, on display at North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Ted Richardson/For The Washington Post via Getty Images
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The sit-in demonstrations were a turning point in the Civil Rights Movement when Black people sat down at whites-only lunch counters. The first to do it are known as the “Greensboro Four,” four North Carolina Agriculture and Technical State University students who took a stand by sitting down at the Woolworth lunch counter. They sparked an evolution, and their story has been told by many over the last 60 years. There’s even a statue of the four men on North Carolina A&T’s campus, but it turns out there’s more to the story.

Decades after the sit-ins, Linda Beatrice Brown wrote a book titled “Belles of Liberty” to set the record straight.

“They didn’t come up with this idea by themselves at all, and I got tired of hearing that story be told the wrong way. The Bennett women deserve a whole lot more credit than they get,” said Brown, a Bennett alum who knows firsthand about the planning and organizing that happened before that first sit-in on Feb. 1, 1960.

“This was not just true of Greensboro, but true of the whole Civil Rights Movement: Women didn’t get the credit they should have in terms of being the movers and shakers of this movement,” Brown said.

At 20 years old and 450 miles from home, Kirby was one of those movers and shakers.

“My mother called again and said ‘do not get involved in that.’ By this time, I had already been arrested,” Kirby said.

Despite her participation in the sit-ins, Kirby graduated from Bennett College in 1960. With the exception of those four years in college, Nancy Kirby has lived in the Philadelphia area her whole life. She spent the majority of her career working at Bryn Mawr College.

Only in recent years have she and other women been recognized for their role in the movement that changed the course of history.

Liz Crawford

Liz Crawford, a Jersey native, is thrilled to join CBS News Philadelphia, returning to her roots to share community stories and hold the powerful accountable. Liz brings a passion for storytelling and a deep connection to the communities she serves.

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North Carolina

Fatalities reported in private jet crash in North Carolina | CNN

Published

8 hours ago

December 18, 2025

Press Room

Fatalities reported in private jet crash in North Carolina | CNN

Several people are dead after a small private jet crashed shortly after takeoff in Statesville, North Carolina, according to a local sheriff’s office official.

The crash happened shortly after 10:15 a.m., Iredell County Chief Deputy Bill Hamby told CNN. The exact number of fatalities is not known at this point, he added.

“A Cessna C550 crashed while landing at Statesville Regional Airport in North Carolina around 10:20 a.m. local time on Thursday, Dec. 18. The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board will investigate. The NTSB will lead the investigation and provide any updates,” the Federal Aviation Administration told CNN.

CNN has reached out to the National Transportation Safety Board.

Statesville Regional Airport, about 45 miles north of Charlotte, is an uncontrolled airport with no control tower. Pilots are required to self-report their position on and near the airport using a common radio frequency.

Preliminary flight tracking data shows a Cessna Citation 550 left Statesville Regional Airport around 10 a.m. from runway 10, traveled about five miles, then made a near-immediate left turn back toward the airport. The plane did not climb higher than 2,000 feet, according to FlightAware.

Low clouds, light rain, and visibility of less than three miles were reported about 80 minutes after the crash, according to an automated weather station at the airport. It is not clear if these conditions were present when the plane crashed.

“The Statesville Regional Airport provides corporate aviation facilities for Fortune 500 companies and several NASCAR teams,” according to the city website

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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North Carolina

North Carolina man extradited to Pa. for $100,000 ATM theft spree: police

Published

2 days ago

December 17, 2025

Press Room

North Carolina man extradited to Pa. for 0,000 ATM theft spree: police

A 42-year-old North Carolina man on Tuesday was extradited to Pennsylvania after state police said he stole more than $100,000 from ATMs in Snyder and Union counties.

Between Sept. 30 and Oct. 1, Antoni J. Garcia-Cordoba, of Raleigh, North Carolina, stole from four ATMs at Central Penn Bank and Trust locations, state police said.

In a five-hour span, Garcia-Cordoba took $43,000 from three separate ATMs in Snyder and Union counties, according to a police report. On Oct. 1, he stole an additional $58,000 from an ATM in Titusville, bringing the total amount stolen to $101,000.

Garcia-Cordoba is charged with two counts of corrupt organizations – employee, a first-degree felony, and two counts of theft by unlawful taking, a third-degree felony.

After being in custody at a jail in Boone County, Missouri, Garcia-Cordoba was extradited to Union County on Tuesday.

He is being held in the Union County Prison after being unable to post $100,000 bail. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Jan. 13, 2026.

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North Carolina

11 firefighters and 2 others injured after North Carolina house fire and explosion

Published

2 days ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

11 firefighters and 2 others injured after North Carolina house fire and explosion

SALISBURY, N.C. — Eleven firefighters and two other people were injured in a house fire explosion in the Piedmont region of North Carolina, officials said.

Salisbury Fire Chief Bob Parnell said firefighters did not have life-threatening injuries but were getting treated for contusions, concussions and smoke inhalation following the fire Monday evening. Two other people were taken to the hospital, but Parnell said he didn’t know their conditions and couldn’t confirm whether they were in the house at the time of the fire.

The Salisbury Fire Department responded to the single-family home around 5 p.m. and found it engulfed in flames.

Eleven of the 22 firefighters at the scene went inside the house to search for occupants and “get water on that fire,” which preceded the explosion, Panell said at a news conference.

“It was enough force that the outside walls blew out, the roof came up and went back down,” Parnell said.

An investigation of the fire and explosion is continuing.

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