This book is an examination of how my family's history is interwoven with that of the history of the United States, in general, and that of North Carolina in particular. Three major 20^thCentury players and historical events are highlighted. These players are my late father, Rev. Dr. Whalen Samuel Jones, as a young participant of the Great Migration; Sergeant Louis Franklin and the Second World War in Europe and Gastonia Mayor Thebaud Jeffers and the Modern Civil Rights Movement. The 19^thCentury predecessors laid the groundwork and their roles will be examined in detail.

Sources used for this project include census records, official documents, land deeds, WPA interviews with former slaves, newspaper articles, personal interviews, histories of North Carolina and much acclaimed works by noted historians and Pulitzer Prize winners like Doris Kearns Goodwin, James MacPherson, W.E.B. DuBois, Carter G. Woodson, Ira Berlin, John Hope Franklin and Isabel Wilkerson.