Amid Jim Crow, an African American resort rose in the Northern Outer Banks

By Brian Tress | Outer Banks Voice

A recently posted video by the Town of Duck that generated significant excitement opens with a question: “Have you ever heard of the Hargraves Beach Resort?” Judging from the views, comments and reactions to the short film — Against the Tide — many people who hadn’t known of Hargraves Beach are now intrigued.

The story reads like the plot of a major historical drama. In 1929, Henry Hargraves, a Black businessman from Elizabeth City, partnered with John Henry Bias, president of the Elizabeth City State Colored Normal School — a segregated Black university, now Elizabeth City State University — and Charles Jenkins, a licensed government engineer also employed at the school. To

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