DANBURY, N.C. (AP) - Growing up in New York, Princess Hairston always looked forward to visiting her father’s family in Henry County, Virginia.
Riding in a car through the area, she’d note all the businesses that shared her surname, one that is fairly uncommon in New York.
“I was always amazed at how many Hairstons there were in the phone book” in Virginia, Hairston added.
A veteran of the film industry, Hairston has acted on that childhood interest in her family’s history and has written, directed and produced, “Tracing the Hairstons,” a three-part documentary that examines the legacy of one of the country’s largest slave-holding families.
Black, white and biracial Hairstons are spread throughout the country, with large concentrations remaining in southwest Virginia and northwest North Carolina, the horrors of slavery touching each branch of the family.
Earlier this month, the Hairston family’s rich and complex history was celebrated at the Arts Place of Stokes County in Danbury, close to Walnut Cove, one of many Hairston hotbeds in North Carolina because of its proximity to several Hairston plantations.
Princess Hairston showed a 10-minute preview of her film, which she hopes to finish this year. That was followed by a screening of “Amen: The Life and Music of Jester Hairston,” a 2013 documentary based on perhaps the most famous Hairston of them all.
The Jester Hairston documentary was so joyful and affirming that by the end of the two-hour celebration, more than 75 people - and not all of them Hairstons, by the way - were on their feet singing and clapping along to “Amen,” a song that Jester Hairston wrote for “Lilies of the Field,” the film that made Sidney Poitier a star. (That’s Hairston’s voice singing “Amen” in the film, dubbed over Poitier’s.)
Jester Hairston, who died in 2000 at the age of 98, was born the grandson of slaves in Stokes County. Though most biographies say he was born in the community of Belews Creek, many of the Hairstons at the event, including a few who knew Jester Hairston, were quick to point out that he was actually born in the mostly black community of Little Egypt, which was flooded to create Belews Lake in the 1940s.
He lived there for only a year before his family headed to the steel mills of Pittsburgh, Pa., for a better way of life. Hairston showed an early gift for music and, after college, sang in choirs in Harlem before moving to Los Angeles in 1935, where he caught the eye of Academy Award-winning composer Dimitri Tiomkin. Hairston conducted choirs on Tiomkin’s scores for such movies as “She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,” ’’Red River” and “Land of the Pharaohs.”
Hairston was especially interested in collecting and arranging traditional black spirituals, taking choirs to such places as China and Russia to introduce them to a style of music that he learned at the knee of his Stokes County-born grandmother.
For all his musical work, Hairston had to supplement his income by playing character roles, such as the witch doctor in the Tarzan movie, “Hidden Jungle,” as well as an assortment of bellhops and butlers.
Hairston visited the area off and on over the years and took particular pride in being part of the sprawling Hairston clan, creating friendships with black and white family members, including Judge Peter Hairston, a white descendant who lived on the Cooleemee plantation.
Celebrating the life of Jester Hairston and his Stokes County ties are one focus of a new project called The Lilies Project, which received grant money to use public art and programming to address coal ash in the area. Caroline Armijo, a Germanton native, is in charge of the project.
Like thousands of other Hairstons, Jester’s roots lead to Scotsman Peter Hairston, who arrived in southwest Virginia in 1729. The Hairston family became wealthy farmers and landowners, with about 10,000 slaves spread across more than 40 plantations in North Carolina, Virginia and as far west as Mississippi.
Historian Henry Wiencek spent years researching the family for his book, “The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White,” which led to stories on the Hairstons in The New York Times and “60 Minutes,” among other news outlets.
Wiencek is among the sources Princess Hairston interviews for her documentary. She did much of her research at UNC Chapel Hill, home to a trove of Hairston documents, while making a few trips to Walnut Cove and other areas in the Triad, interviewing local Hairstons, such as Betty Hairston Scales and Tony Hairston.
Though the documentary tells the story of both black and white Hairstons, Princess Hairston said it involves more black Hairstons than white. Descendants of slave holders, Hairston said, are often reluctant to talk about their family’s past, an indicator that the country still struggles with the aftermath of slavery.
She hopes the film will lead to more discussions about race at a time when racial relations are showing some signs of fraying.
“Last year, I saw more Confederate flags (in the South) than when I started,” said Hairston, who started researching her film in 2014. “That brings a sadness to my heart.”
The movie screenings served as a small Hairston reunion, with about 20 Hairstons, including Princess, posing for a portrait.
“We all came to support each other,” said Dana Dalton of Walnut Cove, whose mother was a Hairston. “This makes me very proud, very proud.”
To learn more about the film project, visit www.straightpathpictures.com/productions/tracing-the-hairstons.
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Information from: Winston-Salem Journal, http://www.journalnow.com
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