Charles Chesnutt (1858-1932) has permanently written Fayetteville into literary history.
He is considered the first Black novelist to gain nationwide acclaim. His best-known writings were post-Civil War and Reconstruction stories of the color line, some of them set in the fictional town of “Patesville” a thinly disguised Fayetteville.
Chesnutt was born in Cleveland to free Black parents from Fayetteville. When he was 9, the family moved back to Fayetteville after the Civil War.
Later, as a married man in his twenties, he returned to Cleveland, finding better opportunities up north to support his family. There, he would pass the bar and start a successful legal court reporting business.
The man charged with going into a Fayetteville State University student's off-campus apartment last week said he just wanted to steal some of her underwear, according to police.
A man officials say was caught by a student as she slept in her campus bedroom last week was arrested Sunday.
Court and jail records indicate Derick Naquan Smith, 39, is charged with one count of second-degree burglary and two counts each of first-degree burglary, larceny after breaking and entering and secret peeping.
Fayetteville State University said in a news release Sunday that the incident happened Friday at the University Place Apartments. When the student woke to find a stranger in her bedroom, the man ran out. There were no signs of forced entry into the apartment, and no items were reported stolen, according to the release.