Rocky Mount is a city in Edgecombe and Nash counties in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. The city's population was 54,341 as of the 2020 census, making it the 20th-most populous city in North Carolina at the time. The city is 45 mi (72 km) east of

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

, the state capital. It is the principal city of the

Rocky Mount metropolitan area The Rocky Mount Metropolitan Statistical Area, as defined by the United States Census Bureau, is an area consisting of two counties – Edgecombe County, North Carolina, Edgecombe and Nash County, North Carolina, Nash – in Eastern North ...

, often called the "Twin Counties", which had an estimated population of 143,870 in 2020. Rocky Mount is also an anchor city of the Rocky Mount-Wilson-Roanoke Rapids Combined Statistical Area in northeast North Carolina with a total population of 288,747 as of 2020. Incorporated in 1867, the community at the falls of the

Tar River The Tar River is a river that is approximately long, in northeast North Carolina flowing generally southeast to an estuary of Pamlico Sound. The Tar River becomes the tidal Pamlico River once it underpasses the U.S. Highway 17 Bridge in Washin ...

that became the city of Rocky Mount dates from the middle of the 1700s. Historically strong in rail transportation, textiles, and agriculture, the economy of Rocky Mount has diversified into biomedical pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, and logistics. Rocky Mount has also twice received the

All-America City Award The All-America City Award is a community recognition program in the United States given by the National Civic League. The award recognizes the work of communities in using inclusive civic engagement to address critical issues and create stronge ...

from the

National Civic League The National Civic League is an American nonpartisan, non-profit organization founded in 1894 with a mission to advance civic engagement to create equitable, thriving communities. The League envisions a country where the full diversity of communi ...

in 1969 and 1999.

History

Beginnings

The region around the

was continuously inhabited by

indigenous people Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

for 12,000 years before the first

Europeans Europeans are the focus of European ethnology, the field of anthropology related to the various ethnic groups that reside in the states of Europe. Groups may be defined by common genetic ancestry, common language, or both. Pan and Pfeil (2004) ...

arrived, when it was home to the

Tuscarora people The Tuscarora (in Tuscarora ''Skarù:ręˀ'', "hemp gatherers" or "Shirt-Wearing People") are a Native American tribe and First Nations band government of the Iroquoian family, with members today in New York, USA, and Ontario, Canada. They c ...

. Europeans began settling the area after the

Tuscarora War The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from September 10, 1711 until February 11, 1715 between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamassee, and other allies on the other. This was cons ...

in the early 1700s. Like many other early settlements in colonial America, they settled along the

fall line A fall line (or fall zone) is the area where an upland region and a coastal plain meet and is typically prominent where rivers cross it, with resulting rapids or waterfalls. The uplands are relatively hard crystalline basement rock, and the coa ...

between the

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

and coastal plain, which is the point at which rivers become unnavigable sailing upstream and water flowing downstream can power a

mill Mill may refer to: Science and technology * * Mill (grinding) * Milling (machining) * Millwork * Textile mill * Steel mill, a factory for the manufacture of steel * List of types of mill * Mill, the arithmetic unit of the Analytical Engine early ...

. The Falls of the Tar River Primitive Baptist Church was established in 1757, which still meets today, although its original building has since been replaced. Much of the community attended the church so that it served as an early form of record keeping and law enforcement with citations given for crimes.

19th century

A post office was established at the falls of the Tar River on March 22, 1816. At this point, the name "Rocky Mount" officially appears in documented history, undoubtedly referring to the rocky mound at the falls of the Tar River. The second

cotton mill A cotton mill is a building that houses spinning (textiles), spinning or weaving machinery for the production of yarn or cloth from cotton, an important product during the Industrial Revolution in the development of the factory system. Althou ...

in North Carolina followed soon thereafter,

Rocky Mount Mills Rocky Mount Mills, located in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was the second cotton mill constructed in the state of North Carolina, dating back to 1816. Capitol Broadcasting Company bought the mills in the 2007 and has since redeveloped it into a ...

, in 1818. Its proprietors were two entrepreneurs and Joel Battle, grandson of an original colonial settler to the area. Joel bought out the other proprietors before turning over the enterprise to his cousin James Smith Battle. The mill's spindles were initially operated by

slaves Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

until the 1850s and then worked exclusively by white women and girls. This female working arrangement lasted for the rest of the century. The Battle family was also involved in the construction of the longest continuous railroad in the world up to that time, the

Wilmington and Weldon Railroad The Wilmington and Weldon Railroad (W&W) name began use in 1855, having been originally chartered as the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad in 1834. At the time of its completion in 1840, the line was the longest railroad in the world with of track ...

, which ran about east of the mill. It connected the area to major ports in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

to the north and the port of Wilmington to the south. The tracks first reached Rocky Mount on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas Day, the festival commemorating the birth of Jesus. Christmas Day is observed around the world, and Christmas Eve is widely observed as a full or partial holiday in anticipation ...

in 1839. In 1840, a train of cars en route to Wilmington stopped in Rocky Mount to import some "Old Nash" for special toasts at opening festivities and from there the fame of Nash County

apple brandy An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

spread. The railroad exerted a powerful influence on the development of the town so that, in 1871, the county line moved from the Tar River to its present location in the center of the tracks. The

Tarboro Tarboro is a town located in Edgecombe County, North Carolina, Edgecombe County, North Carolina, United States. It is part of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Rocky Mount Rocky Mount metropolitan area, Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of the 2020 ...

stage route also passed just below Rocky Mount (roughly where

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

and

U.S. 64 U.S. Route 64 (US 64) is an east–west United States highway that runs for 2,326 miles (3,743 km) from Nags Head in eastern North Carolina to just southwest of the Four Corners in northeast Arizona. The western terminus is at U.S. Route 1 ...

run today), and for a time was the logical debarking point for railroad travelers wishing to proceed east or west. The surrounding region was raided in 1863 during the

Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

troops under the command of Brigadier General Edward E. Potter. The mill, which supplied

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

yarn and cloth, was burned down. The mill was rebuilt after the war ended. On February 19, 1867, the village outside the mill was incorporated as a town. The latter half of the 19th century saw the

tobacco industry The tobacco industry comprises those persons and companies who are engaged in the growth, preparation for sale, shipment, advertisement, and distribution of tobacco and tobacco-related products. It is a global industry; tobacco can grow in any ...

take shape in the state. Adjacent to the sandy

coastal plain A coastal plain is flat, low-lying land adjacent to a sea coast. A fall line commonly marks the border between a coastal plain and a piedmont area. Some of the largest coastal plains are in Alaska and the southeastern United States. The Gulf Coa ...

, Rocky Mount was well situated to take advantage of the rapidly rising demand for brightleaf

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

that grew best in the sandy soil. Tobacco also shaped the city's social life. Warehouses where tobacco was stored and marketed began hosting balls for the community in the 1880s that became known as "june germans" for the time of year and style of dance. June Germans eventually transformed into all-night dance parties and attracted musicians and socialites from miles around well into the 1900s. By the end of the 19th century, tobacco had surpassed

King Cotton "King Cotton" is a slogan that summarized the strategy used before the American Civil War (of 1861–1865) by secessionists in the southern states (the future Confederate States of America) to claim the feasibility of secession and to prove ther ...

as the town's primary agricultural product.

20th century

The turn of the 20th century saw Rocky Mount become the northern headquarters of the

Atlantic Coast Line Railroad The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was a United States Class I railroad formed in 1900, though predecessor railroads had used the ACL brand since 1871. In 1967 it merged with long-time rival Seaboard Air Line Railroad to form the Seaboard Coast L ...

and its major repair shops and yard facilities located to the town. With it came an influx of railroad employees. In 1900, Rocky Mount's population was around 3,000. On February 28, 1907, with a population around 7,500, Rocky Mount was officially incorporated as a city. A main railroad line, a well established cotton mill, and productive farmland for brightleaf tobacco were major contributors to the area's growth and prosperity over the next decades. A vibrant

central business district A central business district (CBD) is the commercial and business centre of a city. It contains commercial space and offices, and in larger cities will often be described as a financial district. Geographically, it often coincides with the "city ...

arose. As in the rest of the

South South is one of the cardinal directions or Points of the compass, compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Pro ...

, though,

racial segregation Racial segregation is the systematic separation of people into race (human classification), racial or other Ethnicity, ethnic groups in daily life. Racial segregation can amount to the international crime of apartheid and a crimes against hum ...

was imposed on the community leading to white suburbs largely on the west side of town, such as Villa Place and

West Haven West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

, and black neighborhoods largely on the east side of town, like Crosstown and Around the "Y" where jazz musician

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

was born. Several notable

Civil Rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life of ...

events occurred in Rocky Mount. In 1946,

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

tobacco warehouse workers voted to organize in Rocky Mount as part of a broader nationwide movement known as Operation Dixie that led to voter registration and political action against segregation. On November 27, 1962,

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

gave a speech at Booker T. Washington High School wherein he used his famous refrain "

I have a dream "I Have a Dream" is a public speech that was delivered by American civil rights activist and Baptist minister, Martin Luther King Jr., during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. In the speech, King called ...

" a year before his better known delivery at the

March on Washington The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington, was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963. The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic righ ...

. The city also had its own sanitation workers' strike in 1978 when government sanitation workers protested their black co-worker being wrongfully arrested leading to his acquittal in court and the city later apologizing. DTRockyMount 19622

After

WWII World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, the city continued to grow and the 1950s and 1960s saw the city's economy diversify into banking, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, and the headquarters of a fast food chain known as

Hardee's Hardee's Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The company has evolved through several corporate owne ...

. New educational facilities were also built including

North Carolina Wesleyan College North Carolina Wesleyan University (NCWU) is a private Methodist university in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was founded in 1956. North Carolina Wesleyan also offers evening courses at its main Rocky Mount campus, as well as satellite locations ...

in 1956 and

Nash Community College Nash Community College is a public community college in Nash County, North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. ...

and

Edgecombe Community College Edgecombe Community College is a public community college in Tarboro, North Carolina. It is part of the North Carolina Community College System. History Edgecombe Technical Institute opened as an extension unit of Wilson County Technical Insti ...

in 1968. In 1970, Rocky Mount received an

. The 1970s also saw the consolidation of the city's hospitals under Nash General Hospital and the completion of

Rocky Mount–Wilson Regional Airport Rocky Mount–Wilson Regional Airport is a public airport located seven miles (11 km) southwest of the central business district of Rocky Mount, a city located in Nash and Edgecombe Counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is al ...

. Like much of the rest of America, the 1980s onward saw

urban decay Urban decay (also known as urban rot, urban death or urban blight) is the sociological process by which a previously functioning city, or part of a city, falls into disrepair and decrepitude. There is no single process that leads to urban deca ...

of the inner city. Rocky Mount's downtown deteriorated but new neighborhoods and shopping malls were built like

Golden East Crossing Golden East Crossing is a shopping mall in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States. Opened in 1986, the mall features Belk, Books-A-Million, Conn's, Dunham's Sports, J. C. Penney, and Ross Dress for Less. It is managed by Hendon Properties. ...

, and the city's boundaries expanded. In 1996, the town of Battleboro to the north of the city was annexed.North Carolina General Assembly, Battleboro/Rocky Mount merger, House Bill 1177, 1995 Session
Retrieved Aug. 16, 2017. In 1999, the city won its second All-America City Award. The fall of 1999 saw two hurricanes make landfall in

eastern North Carolina Eastern North Carolina (sometimes abbreviated as ENC) is the region encompassing the eastern tier of North Carolina. It is known geographically as the state's Coastal Plain region. Primary subregions of Eastern North Carolina include the Sandhil ...

. Both passed over Rocky Mount:

Hurricane Dennis Hurricane Dennis was an early-forming major hurricane in the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico during the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. Dennis was the fourth named storm, second hurricane, and first major hurricane of the season. F ...

as a tropical storm in August with of rain and

Hurricane Floyd Hurricane Floyd was a very powerful Cape Verde hurricane which struck the Bahamas and the East Coast of the United States. It was the sixth named storm, fourth hurricane, and third major hurricane in the 1999 Atlantic hurricane season. Floyd tr ...

in September with nearly of rain. Floyd is especially memorable because most localized flooding happened quickly overnight and many residents were not aware of the flooding until the water came into their homes, requiring many to be rescued. As a result of the hurricane, the already saturated Tar River suffered the worst flooding in its recorded history, exceeding 500-year flood levels along its lower stretches, and many homes and businesses were destroyed.

21st century

The first decades of the 21st century have seen efforts to revitalize the historic downtown and projects to renovate buildings such as the

train station A train station, railway station, railroad station or depot is a railway facility where trains stop to load or unload passengers, freight or both. It generally consists of at least one platform, one track and a station building providing suc ...

and Douglas Block, or repurpose them like the Imperial Centre for Arts and Sciences. In 2007,

Capitol Broadcasting Company The Capitol Broadcasting Company, Inc. (CBC) is an American media company based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Capitol owns three television stations and nine radio stations in the Raleigh–Durham and Wilmington areas of North Carolina and the Du ...

bought Rocky Mount Mills and is in the process of turning it into a mixed-use campus of breweries, restaurants, lofts, and event space. There have also been major new community projects such as the

sports complex A sports complex is a group of sports facilities. For example, there are track and field stadiums, football stadiums, baseball stadiums, swimming pools, and Indoor arenas. This area is a sports complex, for fitness. Olympic Park is also a kind ...

and downtown event center. In 2019,

CSX CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

, the successor company of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, broke ground on a new intermodal cargo terminal that is expected to grow the local economy in the next decade.

Geography

Rocky Mount is located in northeastern North Carolina, at the

between the

Atlantic Coastal Plain The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

to the east and the

Piedmont region it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

to the west. The city is east of

, the state capital, northeast of Fayetteville, north of Wilmington, north of Wilson, south of

Roanoke Rapids Roanoke Rapids () is a city in Halifax County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 15,754 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Roanoke Rapids Micropolitan Statistical Area, and is also an anchor city of the Rocky Mo ...

, and south of

Richmond, Virginia (Thus do we reach the stars) , image_map = , mapsize = 250 px , map_caption = Location within Virginia , pushpin_map = Virginia#USA , pushpin_label = Richmond , pushpin_m ...

. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the city has a total area of , of which is land and , or 0.35%, is covered by water. The

passes through the city from west to east, crossing the fall line at Upper Falls and Little Falls and descending within the city limits. The city boundaries straddle the line between Edgecombe and Nash counties, which follows the railroad tracks through the center of the city running north to south.

Neighborhoods

Historic Rocky Mount Mills Village

Situated near the Tar River, the Rocky Mount Mills Village grew in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as a small community of tenants working for the mill. Built between 1885 and 1940, each home is recognized by the National Register of Historic Places. Changes in industrialization eventually forced the closing of the mill, and this way of life came to an end. However, when the mill closed, the property remained intact. Though the property has been a rental for its entire existence, covenants are placed on the property to assure home ownership and owner occupancy and protect the historical integrity.

Climate

Rocky Mount has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a zone of climate characterized by hot and humid summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between latitudes 25° and 40° ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Cfa'') characterized by cool, sometimes moderately cold winters, and hot, humid summers. The average high temperatures range from in the winter to around in the summer. The average low temperatures range from in the winter to around in the summer.

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 54,341 people, 22,260 households, and 14,334 families residing in the city.

2010 census

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2010, 57,477 people, 23,097 households, and 14,639 families resided in the city. The population density was 1,312.6 inhabitants per square mile (606.7/km). The city had 26,953 housing units. The

racial makeup A race is a categorization of humans based on shared physical or social qualities into groups generally viewed as distinct within a given society. The term came into common usage during the 1500s, when it was used to refer to groups of variou ...

of the city was 61.3%

, 32.4%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White on ...

, 0.6% Native American, 1.0%

Asian Asian may refer to: * Items from or related to the continent of Asia: ** Asian people, people in or descending from Asia ** Asian culture, the culture of the people from Asia ** Asian cuisine, food based on the style of food of the people from Asi ...

, and 1.6% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term ''Hispanic'' ( es, hispano) refers to people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or Hispanidad. The term commonly applies to countries with a cultural and historical link to Spain and to Vic ...

s or

Latinos Hispanic and Latino Americans ( es, Estadounidenses hispanos y latinos; pt, Estadunidenses hispânicos e latinos) are Americans of Spanish and/or Latin American ancestry. More broadly, these demographics include all Americans who identify as ...

of any race were 3.7% of the population. Of the 23,097 households, 27.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.7% were married couples living together, 22.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.6% were not families. About 31.4% of all households were made up of individuals living alone, and 26.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.42 and the average family size was 3.04. In the city, the population was distributed as 27.5% between the ages of 1 and 19, 6.4% from 20 to 24, 24% from 25 to 44, 27.9% from 45 to 64, and 14.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age is 38.7 years. 45.8% of the population are males compared to 54.2% for females. The median income for a household in the city was $37,059, and for a family was $39,929. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the city was $21,779. About 19.0% of the population is below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

Religion

Rocky Mount's population is 40.3% religiously affiliated, below the state average of 48.9%.

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

is the largest

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

, with

Baptist Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing professing Christian believers only (believer's baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul compete ...

s (13.3%) making up the largest religious group, followed by

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

s (4.5%) and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

s (3.5%).

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

s (1.5%),

Episcopalian Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the l ...

s (0.9%), and

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

s (0.8%) make up a significant amount of the Christian population as well. The remaining Christian population (15.2%) is affiliated with other churches.

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

(0.5%) is the second largest religion after Christianity.

Economy

The economy of the

, historically been dependent on textiles and agriculture, has diversified into pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. Located near the juncture of a number of highways and railway, distribution and logistics are important to local business. The area has a strong service sector and a number of financial and customer support centers are located here. Rocky Mount's is located from the state capital

and the

Research Triangle The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to ...

located there. This has helped attract new companies to Rocky Mount seeking a skilled labor and a lower costs of living and doing business. The metropolitan area was named in a 2020 study as the third-highest in the United States where manufacturing is thriving with a manufacturing output of $6.2 billion, or $42,270 per capita. Between 2014 and 2018, manufacturing grew in the Rocky Mount area by 11.8%, and there were 108% more manufacturing jobs than the national average. In 2019,

CSX Transportation CSX Transportation , known colloquially as simply CSX, is a Class I freight railroad operating in the Eastern United States and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The railroad operates approximately 21,000 route miles () of track. ...

began construction of a $200 million cargo terminal in Rocky Mount.

Largest employers

Below is a list of some of the largest employers in the metropolitan area as of 2018.

Shopping

Rocky Mount is a regional shopping destination with many big-box retailers and specialty shops located in the city. Rocky Mount's shopping centers are generally congregated along and around

US 301 U.S. Route 301 (US 301) is a spur of U.S. Route 1 running through the South Atlantic States. It runs from Biddles Corner, Delaware at Delaware Route 1 to Sarasota, Florida at U.S. Route 41. It passes through the states of Delaware, Mar ...

(Wesleyan Boulevard). Two examples are

and Englewood Square. In the downtown, the Douglas Block is a commercial area that was a former African American business district. Station Square is a shopping area located next to city hall and the train station.

Arts and culture

The city is home to multiple venues for the performing arts. The Imperial Centre for the Arts and Sciences hosts the Maria V. Howard Arts Center, a Children's Museum and Science Center, and a community theater. The Dunn Center for the Performing Arts at Wesleyan College regularly has college arts performances and touring acts, and is also the home of the Tar River Orchestra and Chorus. Most recently, the Rocky Mount Event Center opened in downtown with space to hold up to 5,000 seats for entertainment and sporting events.

is a craft brewery incubator, the first of its kind on North Carolina, that is now home to many up-and-coming breweries and restaurants. In addition, the mill hosts summer music festivals and other events throughout the year. It has been in the process of redevelopment since 2014 by Capitol Broadcasting Company, which also owns the popular American Tobacco campus in downtown

Durham, North Carolina Durham ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Durham County, North Carolina, Durham County. Small portions of the city limits extend into Orange County, North Carolina, Orange County and Wake County, North Carol ...

. Nearby are dozens of historical homes for rent in the Rocky Mount Mills Village. The next phase of development is Goat Island on the Tar River, which will offer public access to hiking trails, sandy beaches, and rafting/canoeing. A Rocky Mount Railroad

Museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

has been in the planning stages for a number of years given the cultural significance of the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

on the city—in the early to mid-1900s the Emerson Shops alone of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad employed over 2,000 people—but is currently without a facility. It has been proposed to be located inside the train station.

National Register of Historic Places

The Bellamy-Philips House, Bellemonte,

Benvenue Benvenue is a historic plantation house located near Rocky Mount, Nash County, North Carolina. Originally built in 1844, the house was expanded and extensively remodeled to its present Second Empire form in 1889. It is a large -story, three ba ...

, Edgemont Historic District, Falls Road Historic District, Lincoln Park Historic District, Machaven, The Meadows, Rocky Mount Central City Historic District, Rocky Mount Electric Power Plant,

Rocky Mount Mills Village Historic District Rocky Mount Mills Village Historic District is a national historic district located at Rocky Mount, Nash County, North Carolina. It encompasses 101 contributing buildings and 2 contributing structures in a historic mill village located at Rock ...

, Stonewall, Villa Place Historic District, and West Haven Historic District are listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

Parks and recreation

Rocky Mount is a major center for youth traveling sports as a midpoint between

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

along

. The Rocky Mount Sports Complex, maintained by the Parks and Recreation department, includes seven outdoor baseball fields, four softball fields, eight soccer fields, a professional disc golf course, basketball courts, and volleyball courts. The complex sees many statewide and interstate baseball and soccer tournaments. It also has a football stadium home to the NCWC Battling Bishops football team and

Elizabeth City State University Elizabeth City State University (ECSU) is a public historically black university in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. It enrolls nearly 2,500 students in 28 undergraduate programs and 4 graduate programs and is a member-school of the Thurgood Mars ...

's annual Down East Viking Classic. The Rocky Mount Event Center administered by the city has added eight indoor basketball courts, sixteen volleyball courts, a ropes course, a climbing wall, and a family entertainment center, with plans to host indoor basketball, volleyball, and gymnastics competitions. Tar River Trail is a greenway running east to west along the namesake river that connects with multiple parks, city landmarks, and the sports complex, with designated boat ramps for recreational paddling trips on the river. Notable among the connected parks is City Lake Park, built in 1937 during the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

by the

Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; renamed in 1939 as the Work Projects Administration) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to carry out public works projects, i ...

, and the

biodiverse Biodiversity or biological diversity is the variety and variability of life on Earth. Biodiversity is a measure of variation at the genetic ('' genetic variability''), species ('' species diversity''), and ecosystem ('' ecosystem diversity'') ...

Battle Park centered on the falls of the Tar River. The trail also includes a long clear-span wooden

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

believed to be the longest such wooden bridge in the United States.

Government

The city of Rocky Mount has a council-manager form of government. The city is divided into seven

wards Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

with a total of seven council members elected to the

city council A municipal council is the legislative body of a municipality or local government area. Depending on the location and classification of the municipality it may be known as a city council, town council, town board, community council, rural counc ...

, one from each ward. Members of the city council serve four-year terms with

staggered elections Staggered elections are elections where only some of the places in an elected body are up for election at the same time. For example, United States senators have a six-year term, but they are not all elected at the same time. Rather, elections a ...

every two years, while the

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

is elected at-large by citizens and serves a four-year term. The mayor is ''ex officio'' chair of the city council and only votes in case of a tie. The council appoints a

city manager A city manager is an official appointed as the administrative manager of a city, in a "Mayor–council government" council–manager form of city government. Local officials serving in this position are sometimes referred to as the chief execu ...

to serve as chief administrative officer of day-to-day affairs of government. As of 2022, the current city manager is Peter Varney. Since the city straddles the Nash County-Edgecombe County border, the commissions of both counties are also involved in governance of the city.

City council

* Sandy Roberson (

Mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well a ...

) * Andre Knight (Ward 1) * Reuben C. Blackwell, IV (Ward 2) * Richard Joyner (Ward 3) * T. J. Walker (Ward 4) * Lige Daughtridge (Ward 5) * Tom Harris (Ward 6) * Jabaris Walker (Ward 7)

Education

North Carolina Wesleyan University is a four-year private

liberal arts Liberal arts education (from Latin "free" and "art or principled practice") is the traditional academic course in Western higher education. ''Liberal arts'' takes the term ''art'' in the sense of a learned skill rather than specifically the ...

college located in Rocky Mount and home to the Eastern North Carolina Center for Business and Entrepreneurship. The center's programs are free, open to the public, and focusing on business development, entrepreneurship, and community engagement. The city is also served by

, which has a brewing, distillation, and fermentation program in partnership with the

Mills Mills is the plural form of mill, but may also refer to: As a name * Mills (surname), a common family name of English or Gaelic origin * Mills (given name) *Mills, a fictional British secret agent in a trilogy by writer Manning O'Brine Places Uni ...

, and

, which has a downtown campus specializing in biotechnology and medical simulation.

Shaw University Shaw University is a private Baptist historically black university in Raleigh, North Carolina. It is affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA. Founded on December 1, 1865, Shaw University is the oldest HBCU to begin offering courses in ...

's College of Adult and Professional Education, or C.A.P.E., program also has a satellite campus in the Mills Village. The city of Rocky Mount is primarily served by the Nash-Rocky Mount Public School System, which as a whole has 15,000 students in 28 schools. Parts of the city in

Edgecombe County Edgecombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,900. Its county seat is Tarboro. Edgecombe County is part of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area ...

are also served by the

Edgecombe County Public Schools Edgecombe County Public Schools (previously called Edgecombe County Schools) is a PK– 12 graded school district serving Edgecombe County, North Carolina. It was formed in 1993 from the merger of the old Edgecombe County Schools and Tarboro City ...

system. Public high schools include

Nash Central High School Nash Central High School is a Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools, Nash-Rocky Mount public high school located on the western edge of Rocky Mount, North Carolina and a member of the Eastern Plains 2-Athletic Conference. As of 2009–2010, Nash ...

Northern Nash High School Northern Nash High School is a high school located in Nash County, west of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina city limits. History Northern Nash High School opened in 1966, consolidating the former Nashville High School, Red Oak High School, Benve ...

Rocky Mount High School Rocky Mount High School is a public high school in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Established in 1927, the school is in Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools. History Public education in Rocky Mount began in 1901. High school programs were established ...

, Southwest Edgecombe High School and

Southern Nash High School Southern Nash High School is a public high school in Bailey, North Carolina. It is one of four high schools in Nash-Rocky Mount Public Schools and has the second-largest enrollment of the four. History Southern Nash High School was created by t ...

. The three nontraditional public schools are Tar River Academy,The Center for Industry Technology and Innovation and its sister school the Nash Rocky Mount Early College. The one local charter school is Rocky Mount Preparatory School. There are also a number of private schools in the area. Braswell Memorial Library serves the community as its major

public library A public library is a library that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil service, civil servants. There are ...

with affiliated libraries throughout the Twin Counties. It recently became part of the

State Library A national library is established by the government of a nation to serve as the pre-eminent repository of information for that country. Unlike public libraries, they rarely allow citizens to borrow books. Often, they include numerous rare, valuab ...

's NC Cardinal consortium of public libraries that share an integrated system allowing books and other materials to be checked out from other libraries across the state.

Media

Rocky Mount is considered part of the

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

- Fayetteville television and radio

media market A media market, broadcast market, media region, designated market area (DMA), television market area, or simply market is a region where the population can receive the same (or similar) television and radio station offerings, and may also incl ...

, the 25th largest in the United States. However, multiple broadcast stations in the Greenville-

New Bern New Bern, formerly called Newbern, is a city in Craven County, North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census it had a population of 29,524, which had risen to an estimated 29,994 as of 2019. It is the county seat of Craven County and t ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

market also cover the city. Locally, WHIG-TV, founded in 1997 and currently hosted out of Wesleyan College, and

WNCR-LD WNCR-LD, virtual channel 41 (UHF digital channel 21), is a low-powered YTA TV- affiliated television station licensed to Tarboro, North Carolina, United States. The station is owned by On the Map, a for-profit North Carolina multimedia corporatio ...

, founded in 2002 and located in downtown, are Rocky Mount's community television stations.

WRQM WRQM (90.9 FM) is a radio station broadcasting National Public Radio (NPR) programming. Licensed to Rocky Mount, North Carolina and owned by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it serves the Rocky Mount area as a full-time satellite ...

90.9 FM is the repeater station of public radio station WUNC, the local

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

affiliate. In the 1990s, it was known as "

Down East "Down East", also "Downeast", is a term for parts of eastern coastal New England and Canada, particularly the U.S. state of Maine and Canada's Maritime Provinces, an area that closely corresponds to the historical French territory of Acadia. Th ...

Radio" and also hosted out of Wesleyan College. The ''

Rocky Mount Telegram The ''Rocky Mount Telegram'' is an American, English language daily newspaper based in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. History Adams Publishing Group, a family-owned company led by CEO, Mark Adams, bought the ''Telegram'' in 2018 from Cooke Communica ...

'' serves as the main daily newspaper for the city of Rocky Mount and surrounding areas.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Roads and highways

The city is served by three major highways: * to its west. * (Future

I-87 Interstate 87 may refer to either of two unconnected Interstate Highways in the United States: * Interstate 87 (New York), a highway running from New York City north to the Canadian border in Champlain, New York. * Interstate 87 (North Carolina) ...

) as its main east–west corridor. * (Wesleyan Boulevard) as its main north–south corridor. In the downtown area, both US 64 Bus. (Sunset Avenue / Thomas Street) and US 301 Bus. (Church Street) serve as major thoroughfares. State highways NC 4, NC 43, NC 48 and NC 97 serve the city by connecting to nearby towns.

Airports

The

serves the general aviation needs of the surrounding counties. It is on NC 97, southwest of downtown Rocky Mount. The closest airport with scheduled commercial service is

Pitt–Greenville Airport Pitt–Greenville Airport is a public airport An airport is an aerodrome with extended facilities, mostly for commercial air transport. Airports usually consists of a landing area, which comprises an aerially accessible open space ...

(PGV), to the southeast. Cargo and charter flights in the area also use the

Kinston Regional Jetport Kinston Regional Jetport , also known as Stallings Field, is a public airport located three miles (5 km) northwest of the central business district of Kinston, a city in Lenoir County, North Carolina. The airport has a single runway that is ...

(ISO), to the south.

Raleigh-Durham International Airport The Research Triangle, or simply The Triangle, are both common nicknames for a metropolitan area in the Piedmont region of North Carolina in the United States, anchored by the cities of Raleigh and Durham and the town of Chapel Hill, home to th ...

(RDU), is to the west.

Rail

Rocky Mount Amtrak-ACL Station; Trackside Canopies

Amtrak The National Railroad Passenger Corporation, Trade name, doing business as Amtrak () , is the national Passenger train, passenger railroad company of the United States. It operates inter-city rail service in 46 of the 48 contiguous United Stat ...

provides three north and three southbound trains per day at the

Rocky Mount station Rocky Mount station, officially the Helen P. Gay Rocky Mount Historic Train Station, is an intermodal transit station in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, United States. Its main building serves as an Amtrak train station, while an adjacent building s ...

located in downtown. Service is to

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

and

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. Freight service is provided by

. Trains travel to destinations in eastern North Carolina and also to points west and south of the city.

Public transit

Tar River Transit Tar River Transit is the primary provider of mass transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems availab ...

provides

public transportation Public transport (also known as public transportation, public transit, mass transit, or simply transit) is a system of transport for passengers by group travel systems available for use by the general public unlike private transport, typical ...

in and around the city of Rocky Mount, and operates 10 fixed bus routes throughout the city.

Health care

Nash UNC Health Care is a nonprofit hospital affiliated with

UNC Health Care UNC Health is a not-for-profit medical system owned by the State of North Carolina and based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. It provides services throughout the Research Triangle and North Carolin ...

, which it joined in 2014. It has 345 beds at four different locations. Its flagship facility is Nash General Hospital. When Nash General opened in 1971, it consolidated four different hospitals in the Rocky Mount area, and was the first all-private-room hospital in North Carolina. Other hospitals operated are Nash Day Hospital, Bryant T. Aldridge Rehabilitation Center, and Coastal Plain Hospital. Nash UNC has added more facilities in recent years: a Surgery Pavilion in 2004, a renovated Emergency Department and Nash Heart Center in 2014, and Nash Women's Center in 2016. In 2018, the

Danny Talbott Joseph Daniel Talbott (November 1, 1944 – January 19, 2020) was an American professional football and baseball player. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, he was a quarterback for two seasons with the North Carolina Tar Heels ...

Cancer Center facility opened, named in honor of a Rocky Mount athletic legend and cancer survivor.

Notable people

* Andrew B. Anderson Jr. –

U.S. Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...

lieutenant general and chief of staff born in Rocky Mount. *

Thurbert Baker Thurbert Earl Baker (born December 16, 1952) was the first African American Attorney General of the U.S. state of Georgia. He was appointed to the position in 1997 by Governor Zell Miller and served until January 10, 2011. Governor Zell Miller ...

– the first African-American Attorney General in the State of Georgia born in Rocky Mount. *Dr. Lloyd W. Bailey -

faithless elector In the United States Electoral College, a faithless elector is an elector who does not vote for the candidates for U.S. President and U.S. Vice President for whom the elector had pledged to vote, and instead votes for another person for one or ...

in the 1968 Presidential election *

F. C. Barnes Reverend Fair Cloth ("F. C.", or "Faircloth") Barnes (June 22, 1929July 11, 2011) was an American gospel musician, and the founding pastor of Red Budd Holy Church, Rocky Mount, North Carolina. His recorded music career began in 1983, with the al ...

–

Gospel music Gospel music is a traditional genre of Christian music, and a cornerstone of Christian media. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of gospel music varies according to culture and social context. Gospel music is com ...

ian born in Rocky Mount. * Luther Barnes – Gospel music producer born in Rocky Mount. * Gardner Bishop – barber and civil rights activist born in Rocky Mount. *

Herman Boone Herman Ike Boone (October 28, 1935 – December 18, 2019) was an American high school football coach who coached the 1971 T. C. Williams High School football team to a 13–0 season, state championship, and national runner-up. That season was ...

– coach depicted by

Denzel Washington Denzel Hayes Washington Jr. (born December 28, 1954) is an American actor and filmmaker. He has been described as an actor who reconfigured "the concept of classic movie stardom". Throughout his career spanning over four decades, Washington ha ...

Remember the Titans ''Remember the Titans'' is a 2000 American biographical sports film produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Boaz Yakin. The screenplay, written by Gregory Allen Howard, is based on the true story of coach Herman Boone, portrayed by Denzel W ...

born in Rocky Mount. * Benjamin Bunn – former

U.S. congressman The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...

and first mayor of Rocky Mount who lived in historic

. *

Jim Clack James Thomas Clack (October 26, 1947 – April 7, 2006) was an American football center and guard in the National Football League. He played for 11 seasons between 1971 and 1981. He died of heart failure in 2006 after suffering from ca ...

– NFL football player who won two

Super Bowl The Super Bowl is the annual final playoff game of the National Football League (NFL) to determine the league champion. It has served as the final game of every NFL season since 1966, replacing the NFL Championship Game. Since 2022, the game ...

championships with the

Pittsburgh Steelers The Pittsburgh Steelers are a professional American football team based in Pittsburgh. The Steelers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference (AFC) North division. Founded in , the Steel ...

born in Rocky Mount. *

Roy Cooper Roy Asberry Cooper III (born June 13, 1957) is an American attorney and politician, serving as the 75th governor of North Carolina since 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 49th attorney general of North Carolina from 20 ...

–

Governor of North Carolina The governor of North Carolina is the head of government of the U.S. state of North Carolina. The governor directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander in chief of the military forces of the state. The current governor, ...

. * Jeff Collins – member of the

North Carolina General Assembly The North Carolina General Assembly is the Bicameralism, bicameral legislature of the Government of North Carolina, State government of North Carolina. The legislature consists of two chambers: the North Carolina Senate, Senate and the North Ca ...

. * Elijah L. Daughtridge – 12th Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina born in Rocky Mount. * Harold Denton –

nuclear physicist Nuclear physics is the field of physics that studies atomic nuclei and their constituents and interactions, in addition to the study of other forms of nuclear matter. Nuclear physics should not be confused with atomic physics, which studies the ...

born in Rocky Mount who advised the President during the

Three Mile Island accident The Three Mile Island accident was a partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island, Unit 2 (TMI-2) reactor in Pennsylvania, United States. It began at 4 a.m. on March 28, 1979. It is the most significant accident in U.S. commercial nuclea ...

. * Harold Bascom Durham Jr. – recipient of the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest military decoration and is awarded to recognize American soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen, guardians and coast guardsmen who have distinguished themselves by acts of valor. ...

for his actions in the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

. *

Mike Easley Michael Francis Easley (born March 23, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the 72nd governor of North Carolina from 2001 to 2009. He is the first governor of North Carolina to have been convicted of a felony. A member of ...

– former governor of North Carolina and state attorney general born in Rocky Mount. * Phil Ford – UNC and

NBA The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United St ...

basketball player born in Rocky Mount. *

Jim Gardner James or Jim Gardner may refer to: * James Gardner (surveyor), British engineer * James Gardner (designer) (1907–1995), British industrial designer * James Gardner (musician) (born 1962), British musician and composer * James A. Gardner (1943� ...

– former U.S. congressman and

lieutenant governor A lieutenant governor, lieutenant-governor, or vice governor is a high officer of state, whose precise role and rank vary by jurisdiction. Often a lieutenant governor is the deputy, or lieutenant, to or ranked under a governor — a "second-in-comm ...

who cofounded

in the city. *

Maureen Garrett Maureen Garrett (born Maureen Mason Garrett; 1948 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina) is an American actress. Garrett played the role of Holly Norris on '' Guiding Light'', a role she inherited from Lynn Deerfield in 1976. For many years, the ...

–

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

actress born in Rocky Mount. * Alberta Gay – mother of

Marvin Gaye Marvin Pentz Gay Jr., who also spelled his surname as Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), was an American singer and songwriter. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo ar ...

born in Rocky Mount. *

Kaye Gibbons Kaye Gibbons (born May 5, 1960) is an American novelist. Her first novel, ''Ellen Foster'' (1987), received the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, a Special Citation from the Ernest H ...

– novelist who attended Rocky Mount Senior High School and wrote ''

Ellen Foster ''Ellen Foster'' is a 1987 novel by American novelist Kaye Gibbons. It was a selection of Oprah's Book Club in October 1997. Plot introduction The novel follows the story of Ellen, the first person narrator, a young white American girl living un ...

''. *

Brian Goodwin Brian Carey Goodwin (25 March 1931 – 15 July 2009) (St Anne de Bellevue, Quebec, Canada - Torbay, Devon, UK) was a Canadian mathematician and biologist, a Professor Emeritus at the Open University and a founder of theoretical biology and bio ...

–

MLB Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

baseball player for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. *

Billy Godwin Billy Godwin (born November 19, 1964) is an American college baseball coach and former pitcher. He is the head baseball coach at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Godwin played college baseball at Atlantic Christian College in 1986. ...

– former head baseball coach for

East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...

born in Rocky Mount. *

Allan Gurganus Allan may refer to: People * Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker * Allan (footballer, born 1989) ( ...

– author who wrote ''

Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All ''Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All'' is a 1989 first novel by Allan GurganusReed, Susan and Hutchings, Davi"He's 42, She's 99—Together They Make the South Rise Again"''People Magazine'', September 18, 1989 which was on the New York Tim ...

'' born in Rocky Mount. * Bill Harrison – former CEO and chairman of

JPMorgan Chase JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an American multinational investment bank and financial services holding company headquartered in New York City and incorporated in Delaware. As of 2022, JPMorgan Chase is the largest bank in the United States, the ...

born in Rocky Mount. *

Chuck Hinton Charles Edward Hinton Jr. (May 3, 1934 – January 27, 2013) was an American professional baseball player. An outfielder, Hinton played in Major League Baseball for the Washington Senators (1961–64), Cleveland Indians (1965–67, 1969–71) an ...

– MLB baseball player born in Rocky Mount. *

Matt Hill Matthew Hill (born January 19, 1968) is a Canadian voice actor working for Ocean Productions. Career His roles include List of Ed, Edd n Eddy characters#Ed, Ed in ''Ed, Edd n Eddy'', Kevin Keene, Kevin Keene/Captain N in ''Captain N: The Game Ma ...

–

Electric blues Electric blues refers to any type of blues music distinguished by the use of electric amplifier, amplification for musical instruments. The guitar was the first instrument to be popularly amplified and used by early pioneers T-Bone Walker in the ...

musician born in Rocky Mount. *

Earle Hyman Earle Hyman (born George Earle Plummer; October 11, 1926 – November 17, 2017) was an American stage, television, and film actor. Hyman is known for his role on '' ThunderCats'' as the voice of Panthro and various other characters. He also ap ...

– actor born in Rocky Mount who portrayed Cliff's father on

The Cosby Show ''The Cosby Show'' is an American television sitcom co-created by and starring Bill Cosby, which aired Thursday nights for eight seasons on NBC between September 20, 1984, until April 30, 1992. The show focuses on an upper middle-class African- ...

. *

Terrence J Terrence Jenkins (born April 21, 1982) is an American actor, television presenter, model and entertainment reporter best known as the host of BET's popular music video countdown show '' 106 & Park'' from 2006 until 2012.MacCash, Doug. "Back in t ...

– actor and co-anchor of

E! News ''E! News'', previously known as ''E! News Daily'' and ''E! News Live'', is the entertainment news operation for the cable network E! in the United States. Its former on-air weekday newscast debuted on September 1, 1991, and primarily reports ...

lived in Rocky Mount and attended nearby

. *

Jack Kerouac Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Of French-Canadian a ...

– father of the

Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-war era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by Silent Generatio ...

who resided with family off and on and referred to city as "Testament, Va." in ''

On the Road ''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagonis ...

''. *

Kay Kyser James Kern Kyser (June 18, 1905 – July 23, 1985), known as Kay Kyser, was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s. Early years James Kern Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Emil ...

–

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s an ...

musician, radio and film personality born in Rocky Mount. *

Buck Leonard Walter Fenner "Buck" Leonard (September 8, 1907 – November 27, 1997) was an American first baseman in Negro league baseball and in the Mexican League. After growing up in North Carolina, he played for the Homestead Grays between 1934 and 1950, ...

–

Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans and, to a lesser extent, Latin Americans. The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside the leagues and it may be ...

player; member of the

National Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

. * Westray Battle Long – second director of

Women's Army Corps The Women's Army Corps (WAC) was the women's branch of the United States Army. It was created as an Auxiliaries, auxiliary unit, the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) on 15 May 1942 and converted to an active duty status in the Army of the U ...

under

Dwight D. Eisenhower Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (born David Dwight Eisenhower; ; October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969) was an American military officer and statesman who served as the 34th president of the United States from 1953 to 1961. During World War II, ...

during World War II born in Rocky Mount. *

Mae Mercer Mae Mercer (June 12, 1932 – October 29, 2008) was an American blues singer and actress. She was born in the Temperance Hall community of Edgecombe County. Mercer lived in North Carolina through age 15. She spent eight years in the 1960s ...

–

Blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer, actress and producer born in annexed former town of Battleboro. *

–

Jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

pianist born in Rocky Mount. * William Murray – former football player and head coach at

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

born in Rocky Mount. *

Vann R. Newkirk II Vann R. Newkirk II (born December 27, 1988) is an American journalist and staff writer for ''The Atlantic'' who writes on politics, the environment, Race (human categorization), race, and healthcare policy. Early life Vann Newkirk grew up in Rock ...

– journalist and staff writer for

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

born in Rocky Mount. * Thomas J. Pearsall - attorney, politician, and philanthropist. He was the main instigator of the

Pearsall Plan The Pearsall Plan to Save Our Schools, known colloquially as the Pearsall Plan, was North Carolina's 1956 attempt at a delayed approach to integrate their public schools after racial segregation of schools was ruled unconstitutional by the United ...

and was a co-founder of

. * Charles Pittman – NBA basketball player born in Rocky Mount. *

Chuck Robbins Charles H. Robbins (born 1965/1966) is an American businessman, and the chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of Cisco Systems. Early life Robbins was born in Grayson, Georgia, and educated at Rocky Mount High School in Rocky Mount, North C ...

– CEO of

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

who attended Rocky Mount High School. *

Etaf Rum Etaf Rum is a Palestinian American novelist. Her debut novel is ''A Woman is No Man'' (2019). Early life and education Etaf Rum was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York City to Palestinian people, Palestinian parents. Her parents grew up in ref ...

– New York Times best-selling author of ''A Woman is No Man'' who lives in Rocky Mount. * Susie Sharp – first female

North Carolina Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the State of North Carolina is the state of North Carolina's highest appellate court. Until the creation of the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1960s, it was the state's only appellate court. The Supreme Court consists ...

justice born in Rocky Mount. * Don Stallings - NFL football player who played for the

Washington Redskins The Washington Commanders are a professional American football team based in the Washington metropolitan area. The Commanders compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) N ...

and for the

University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the multi-campus public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the NC School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referred to as the UNC Sy ...

in college. *The Swift –

Christian Christians () are people who follow or adhere to Christianity, a monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. The words ''Christ'' and ''Christian'' derive from the Koine Greek title ''Christós'' (Χρι ...

pop band formed in Rocky Mount in the late 1990s. *

– UNC and NFL

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

who led Rocky Mount High School to state championships in football, basketball, and baseball. *

Ken Thompson Kenneth Lane Thompson (born February 4, 1943) is an American pioneer of computer science. Thompson worked at Bell Labs for most of his career where he designed and implemented the original Unix operating system. He also invented the B programmi ...

– former CEO and chairman of

Wachovia Wachovia was a diversified financial services company based in Charlotte, North Carolina. Before its acquisition by Wells Fargo and Company in 2008, Wachovia was the fourth-largest bank holding company in the United States, based on total asse ...

born in Rocky Mount. *

Jim Thorpe James Francis Thorpe ( Sac and Fox (Sauk): ''Wa-Tho-Huk'', translated as "Bright Path"; May 22 or 28, 1887March 28, 1953) was an American athlete and Olympic gold medalist. A member of the Sac and Fox Nation, Thorpe was the first Native ...

–

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

gold medalist who played minor league baseball for the Rocky Mount Railroaders. *

Mike Tyson Michael Gerard Tyson (born June 30, 1966) is an American former professional boxer who competed from 1985 to 2005. Nicknamed "Iron Mike" and "Kid Dynamite" in his early career, and later known as "The Baddest Man on the Planet", Tyson is cons ...

– MLB baseball player born in Rocky Mount. *

Phil Valentine Philip Carr Valentine (September 9, 1959 – August 21, 2021) was an American conservative talk radio host, author and actor. He broadcast daily on WWTN, a Cumulus Media station in Nashville, Tennessee, and hosted ''The Phil Valentine Show'', sy ...

–

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

radio host was born in Rocky Mount but grew up in nearby Nashville. *

Tim Valentine Itimous Thaddeus "Tim" Valentine Jr. (March 15, 1926 – November 10, 2015) was a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina from 1983 to 1995. Early life Valentine was born on March 15, 1926, in Ro ...

– former U.S. congressman born in Rocky Mount. *

Harold Vick Harold Vick (April 3, 1936 – November 13, 1987) was an American jazz saxophonist and flutist. Biography Harold Vick was born on April 3, 1936 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. At the age of 13 he was given a clarinet by his uncle, Prince Robin ...

–

musician known for his work in the film

School Daze ''School Daze'' is a 1988 American musical comedy-drama film, written and directed by Spike Lee, and starring Laurence Fishburne (credited as Larry Fishburne), Giancarlo Esposito, and Tisha Campbell. Based in part on Spike Lee's experiences a ...

(1988) born in Rocky Mount. *

Buck Williams Charles Linwood "Buck" Williams (born March 8, 1960) is an American former professional basketball player and former assistant coach for the Portland Trail Blazers. He was well known for his rebounding ability and trademark goggles. Williams, ...

– NBA basketball player born in Rocky Mount. *

Mary Elizabeth Winstead Mary Elizabeth Winstead (born November 28, 1984) is an American actress and singer. Her first significant role was that of Jessica Bennett (Passions), Jessica Bennett on the NBC soap opera ''Passions'' (1999–2000). She went on to appear in se ...

–

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...

winning actress born in Rocky Mount. *

Adrian H. Wood Adrian Thorpe Harrold Wood is an American writer and educator. Wood worked as a community college curriculum specialist and a researcher for special needs-inclusive prekindergarten programs prior to writing her blog, ''Tales of an Educated Debutan ...

– educator and blogger who was born and raised in Rocky Mount.

References

External links

* {{authority control Populated places established in 1816 Cities in North Carolina Cities in Nash County, North Carolina Cities in Edgecombe County, North Carolina 1816 establishments in North Carolina

History

Beginnings

19th century

20th century

21st century

Geography

Neighborhoods

Historic Rocky Mount Mills Village

Climate

Demographics

2020 census

2010 census

Religion

Economy

Largest employers

Shopping

Arts and culture

National Register of Historic Places

Parks and recreation

Government

City council

Education

Media

Infrastructure

Transportation

Roads and highways

Airports

Rail

Public transit

Health care

Notable people

See also

References

External links