Something unexpected happened Tuesday at the City of Sanford’s event naming February 9 “Historic Goldsboro Day” and unveiling a commemorative quilt made by Goldsboro community elders.
First, understand that Goldsboro is now part of Sanford, but it started life in 1891 as the second Black incorporated municipality, founded by William Clarke (his brother, Joseph Clarke, helped found Eatonville, the first Black incorporated municipality, in 1887). The town thrived until 1911 when Sanford city lawmakers took steps to dissolve the city’s charter and, with it, its independence, wealth and identity.
That history set the stage for ongoing strained relationships between the two communities.
All these years later, the commemorative quilt and its permanent place inside City Hall is the first big step of Sanford’s Race, Equality, Equity and Inclusion Committee in a project called “Pathways to Reconciliation.” Posted next to the quilt is a proclamation acknowledging “Historic Goldsboro Day,” and apologizing to Goldsboro for past wrongs.
Proclamation
Tuesday’s outdoor event outside the Sanford City Hall was packed. Every folding chair was full and a standing-room-only crowd ringed the seating area.
“I’m blown away by the attendance and the support…all over a quilt!” laughed quilter Charlotte Carter before she began her remarks. “That shows you, it’s more than just a quilt.”
“We hope that the purpose of this quilt – the thread that will bind and heal our community – goes forth, and reminds our community, our children and our grandchildren what Goldsboro once was and still is – it’s a community of pride,” Carter continued.
Descendants of Goldsboro’s founder, William Clarke, traveled to Sanford for the occasion, with Beatrice Clarke Haynes addressing the crowd.
“I stand before you with pride to be part of the legacy of Mr. William Clarke, also known as Papa Clarke, who had a vision in 1891, which was only 26 years past the abolishment of slavery,” said Clarke Haynes.
Then, Sanford Mayor Art Woodruff took the stage to read the Historic Goldsboro Day proclamation, which includes a formal apology and acknowledgement of wrongs — and the audience learned something new:
Mayor Woodruff is the great-grandson of a man named D.L. Thrasher, who was Sanford’s Mayor in 1911 and helped dissolve Goldsboro’s charter.
Descendant to descendant
And so it was that the descendants of Goldsboro’s founder were present on Tuesday, February 9, 2026, Historic Goldsboro Day, to receive an apology from the descendant of the mayor who helped dissolve it.
REEI Co-Chair Barbara Coleman-Foster’s voice caught as she emphasized that circumstance to the crowd.
“I don’t know if you all really understand the significance of having Mayor Woodruff, whose [great-]grandfather was instrumental in revoking the charter of Goldsboro, present with the descendants of Mr. William Clarke, here to recognize the commemorative Goldsboro quilt. I just don’t know if you recognize how important and meaningful that is. There is no way we could have orchestrated for this to happen. It was meant to be,” Coleman-Foster said, noting that this event had originally been planned for a different day.
Personal connection
When I spoke to Mayor Woodruff, he emphasized the quilt unveiling and the work of unifying the community. He was uncomfortable making it about himself, he said, preferring to center the people of Goldsboro.
“My family's been in Sanford for a very long time,” said Woodruff. “They arrived in 1844 and I knew that my great-grandfather, Frank Woodruff, had been the mayor of the city of Sanford for a number of terms… This past summer, when we were talking about doing the quilt and we were working on the proclamation, and I started doing some research. I discovered that another great-grandfather of mine, D.L. Thrasher, had also been mayor of Sanford, and I discovered that he was the mayor of Sanford in 1911 when the city passed the resolution asking the state to revoke the charter of Goldsboro.”
“That was quite a surprise to me,” he added. “It made the whole thing a little more personal.”
Woodruff notified the city government, the quilters, and everyone else involved of his personal connection. He didn’t want any of the stakeholders to be surprised by this information. “I didn't feel like I could do that proclamation without sharing what I knew,” he said, adding that the responses he received were supportive and generally pointed to how his family’s past connected him more directly to the moment.
Woodruff found meeting William Clarke’s descendants very meaningful. “I did not know they were going to be there until, I think, a day or two ahead of time,” he said.
“I thought, what are the odds that descendants of the founder of the city and the descendant of one of the people who work to get the charter revoked are going to be at the same place at the same time, 100 years later?” Woodruff added. “The realization of the connection, and that I'm in the position to do something about it now, I think was meaningful to me - that this was something that one of my ancestors did, and I'm trying to right that.”
Woodruff said he looks forward to the continuing work of the “Pathways to Reconciliation” project and continuing to build bridges within the community.
“I hope we continue to get past some of the hurt and the anger,” he said. “I mean, I have been able to feel that and see that, and over the years, speaking with people in Goldsboro. I hope this helps us move past that. There are a lot of good things going on in Goldsboro right now, and I think that'll continue. I think the fact that we have made this statement sort of commits us to continuing to do things, not just in Goldsboro, but that we're going to do things for the entire city.”
The Goldsboro quilt and the proclamation are on permanent display inside Sanford City Hall.
