R-CCC Marvin Jones Visits Campus

October 6, 2022

AHOSKIE – Marvin Tupper Jones, historian, author, photographer, and documentary producer, spoke to students, faculty, staff, and community members at R-CCC to celebrate Indigenous People Day on October 4th. Jones recounted the history of the Chowanokes, the first people of the Chowan. Jones, from Cofield, is the executive director of the Chowan Discovery Group, a nonprofit volunteer preservation and research organization. In his presentation, Jones traces his heritage to the late 17th century and describes the Winton Triangle home to the Chowanoke (Choanaoc) Native Americans who lived along the banks of the Chowan River named for them. He described a thriving and influential Winton Triangle (Winton-Cofield-Ahoskie) area made up of land-owning people of color and shared the stories of his family members (Robbins) who served in the Civil War and later became influential farmers, legislators and business leaders. Jones challenged students to discover and tell their own family stories. Duvonya Chavis also presented a display and information about the Chowanoke indigenous people and a percussion performance followed. For more information about the history and legacy of the Chowanokes, visit https://www.chowandiscovery.org/ or contact Jones at marvin@chowandiscovery.org