ELM CITY, N.C. — The day is hot, but not humid, tobacco and soybean fields stretching for miles all around. Toward the Tar River, just past Albert Road, there is an unmarked turnoff that leads to a big shade tree and a small family cemetery. The tombstone belonging to the road’s namesake, Albert Battle, sits to the right. His wife, Hixie, sits to the left.
Born 200 years ago into slavery, they worked the land where they now rest. Not much is known about their parents, nor how they won their freedom. As the family story goes, Albert was freed at a young age and eventually got an opportunity to buy some of the land he worked when he was enslaved. One of a handful of Black landowners at that time, Battle decreed in his will in 1901 that the land be divided up and passed down to his children and their heirs.
Four hours to the north and west, his great-great-great grandson embarks on a new chapter in his life, as the new head coach at Virginia Tech. James Franklin has the history memorized. A booklet his aunt put together tracing their genealogy sits in a box in his new Blacksburg home, still packed after the move from Penn State…