Paul Green
Chatham County, Chatham County, North Carolina
Marker Inscription
Paul Green 1894 1981. Playwright, teacher, & humanitarian. Awarded Pulitzer Prize, 1927. His 16 outdoor dramas included The Lost Colony (1937). Lived 1 mile E.
Erected by North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
The Story
Playwright, teacher, and humanitarian Paul Green won the Pulitzer Prize in 1927 and went on to pioneer the American outdoor drama. His sixteen such works included The Lost Colony (1937), the pageant staged on North Carolina's coast that helped invent a whole genre of historical theater. From his home a mile east, Green shaped how Americans dramatize their own past.
Why it matters
Green's outdoor dramas turned local history into living public art, creating an enduring form of American theater that still draws audiences to the places where history happened.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Paul Green
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC
Chartered in 1789 under the mandate of North Carolina's 1776 constitution, the University of North Carolina opened its doors in 1795 — the first state university in the nation to admit students. Its founding gave concrete form to the revolutionary generation's belief that a republic required public higher education.
Astronaut Training at Morehead Planetarium
Chapel Hill, NC
During the height of the Space Race, the Morehead Planetarium in Chapel Hill served a surprising national mission: from 1960 to 1975 it trained NASA astronauts in celestial navigation. Under its dome, the crews of Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Skylab learned to find their way by the stars in case their instruments failed. The planetarium became an unlikely classroom for the journey to the Moon.
James E. Shepard
Durham, NC
James E. Shepard was a leading Black educational and religious figure in early-twentieth-century North Carolina. In 1910 he founded the Durham college that became North Carolina Central University, guiding it as president until 1947 through the hardest decades of segregated education.
Rose Butler Browne (1897–1986)
Durham, NC
Rose Butler Browne was an educator and civil rights activist who devoted her life to opening the doors of learning. From 1948 to 1963 she chaired the Education Department at the North Carolina College for Negroes in Durham, shaping generations of Black teachers. Her scholarship and advocacy joined the classroom to the broader fight for equality.