Pembroke, North Carolina Facts for Kids

Pembroke is a town in Robeson County, North Carolina, United States. It is about 90 miles inland and northwest from the Atlantic Coast. The population was 2,973, at the 2010 census. The town is the seat of the state-recognized Lumbee tribe of North Carolina, as well as the home of The University of North Carolina at Pembroke.

Geography
Demographics
- 2020 census
History
Today
Notable people
See also

Geography

Pembroke is located at 34°40′55″N 79°11′45″W / 34.68194°N 79.19583°W / 34.68194; -79.19583 (34.681949, -79.195765).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 2.3 square miles (6.0 km²), all land.

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1910	258	—
1920	829	221.3%
1930	524	−36.8%
1940	783	49.4%
1950	1,212	54.8%
1960	1,372	13.2%
1970	1,982	44.5%
1980	2,698	36.1%
1990	2,241	−16.9%
2000	2,399	7.1%
2010	2,973	23.9%
2019 (est.)	2,951	−0.7%
U.S. Decennial Census

2020 census

Pembroke racial composition
Race	Num.	Perc.
White (non-Hispanic)	377	13.35%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	313	11.09%
Native American	1,830	64.82%
Asian	16	0.57%
Pacific Islander	1	0.04%
Other/Mixed	177	6.27%
Hispanic or Latino	109	3.86%

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 2,823 people, 879 households, and 529 families residing in the town.

History

Pembroke was previously known as Raleigh. Archaeological excavations now being performed throughout Robeson County reveal a long and rich history of widespread and consistent occupation, especially near the Lumber River (formerly known by colonists as Drowning Creek), since the end of the last Ice Age. Indigenous settlements took place along the Lumber River. Artifacts found there have been dated to the early Woodland period. The artifacts include a variety of goods that suggest that Native American settlements along the river were part of an extensive trade network with other regions of what is now the Southeast of the United States.

After colonial contact, European-made items, such as kaolin tobacco pipes, were traded by the Spanish, French, and the English to Native American peoples of the coast. Such items have been revealed among archeological artifacts, attesting to the trade.

Swamps, streams, and artesian wells provided an excellent supply of water for Native peoples. Fish was plentiful, and the regio'ns lush vegetation included numerous food crops. "Carolina bays", creeks, swamps, pocosins, and longleaf pines continue to mark the distinctive wetland landscape of Pembroke.

In 1725, colonial English surveyors for the Wineau factory mapped a village of Waccamaw on what is now known as the Lumber River, a few miles west of present-day Pembroke. In 1754, North Carolina Governor Arthur Dobbs received a report from his agent, Col. Rutherford, the head of a Bladen County militia, that 50 families were living along Drowning Creek (now known as the Lumber River); they were northern Irish and highland Scots immigrants. The communication also reported the shooting of a surveyor who entered the area "to view vacant lands." They reported no Indians in Robeson County area.

In the later 18th century, a variety of European-American colonists settled in the area as well as Lumbee ancestors who migrated from their Indian settlement along the Roanoke River in Halifax and Edgecombe counties in North Carolina. Like most Indian tribes during the dark and dispear days of white encroachment and settlement, the Lumbees' ancestors banded together and took in Indians from several different tribes to form new alliances and a new blended but unified tribal identity. Their urge to persist, to remain as Indian people with their unique way of life and values, unified various families together. Then intermarry strengthen those family and tribal bonds beyond measure. These families were a composite mixture of Tuscarora, Saponi, Cheraw, Waccamaw, and even Algonquin speaking Powhatan remnants all intermarried to create a new tribal identity. Now after 300 year of intermarry there are no separate family groups. Instead, they are truly one tribe, one people.

The Lowry War of 1861 to 1874, considered significant in Lumbee history, took place in and around Pembroke. The insurgency was led by Henry Berry Lowry, a 17-year-old Lumbee whose father and brother were murdered at the hands of the Confederate Home Guard. This outlaw band of Native Americans, African Americans and whites waged a seven-year guerrilla war against the homeguard and county elite in the areas near Robeson and Pembroke. During the fighting, Lowry and many others escaped into the surrounding swamps, a tactic that they used repeatedly, helping them evade capture.

As the American Civil War dragged on, food became scarce in the area, as more outliers (including escaped slaves, Confederate deserters and Union prison escapees) fled to this sanctuary. The outlaws decided to live off the wealthy class of people instead of the poor. The band raided plantations and distributed food to the poor in Pembroke, which was known then as "Scuffletown" or "The Settlement". Toward century's end, the town was renamed for railroad official Pembroke Jones.

In the late 19th century, families who had been free people of color before the Civil War petitioned the state to have their own Indian schools. State representative Harold McMillan supported this and suggested they should be called the Croatan Indians. The state authorized them to have schools separate from those serving freedmen's children. Under the racially segregated system, they were excluded from schools for whites.

The Old Main, The University of North Carolina at Pembroke and Pembroke High School, Former are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Today

Pembroke is the tribal seat of the Lumbee Indian Tribe of North Carolina, the largest state-recognized Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. It is the largest state-recognized tribe that does not have a reservation. The origin of the Lumbee has been disputed historically, as the people are multi-racial. At one time, the group was described as a tri-racial isolate. In the 1950s, those who identified as Native American chose the name Lumbee, after what is now known as the Lumbee River.

Pembroke is home of UNC Pembroke, a master's level degree-granting university and one of the 17 schools that comprise the University of North Carolina system. It was incorporated within the University of North Carolina system in 1972 and officially became the University of North Carolina at Pembroke in 1996. The total enrollment within the university is 6,944 as of 2010. With a 16:1 student to faculty ratio, the average class size is 21. Pembroke is the safest campus among the UNC schools according to the U.S. News and World Report and is among the nation's most diverse. According to their motto, it's "Where learning gets personal."

Notable people

Nate Andrews, former MLB pitcher and 1944 All-Star selection
Chris Chavis, professional wrestler better known as "Tatanka" in the WWE
Lee McRae, NCAA national champion sprinter and 1987 World champion in the 4x100 meter relay
Mike McRae, long jumper who represented the United States at the 1984 Summer Olympics
Ruth Revels, American Indian Activist and educator
Kelvin Sampson, college basketball head coach
Harold Collins, former World's Strongest Native American.

Pembroke, North Carolina facts for kids

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