Acisse Jay (left) enjoys the guitar playing of Delaney McQuaig during Brett's Open Mic at the Blue Note Grill in Durham, N.C.
Stories that WUNC worked to bring to our listeners and readers in 2024 focused on a crucial election, a historic hurricane, towns and communities grappling with change, people protesting and engaging with activism, and folks experiencing both pain and triumph.
Those stories took our reporters and photographers from a small but thriving arts community in Pitt County to political rallies in Greensboro, from a barrier island near Morehead City to a National Guard mission in western North Carolina, from an iconic golf course in Pinehurst to a greenhouse in Research Triangle Park.
These are the 2024 Photos of the Year from WUNC.
Powerful Portraits
Matt Ramey
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for WUNC
Mayor Guillermo Nurse poses for a portrait in City Hall in Oxford, N.C. on Friday, Jan. 19. He is the first Latino mayor in the state. He's also the first Black mayor of Oxford, a small, majority African American town just north of the Triangle. Nurse, a native of Panama and 22-year veteran in the U.S. Navy, ran on a platform of unity.
Mitchell Northam
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WUNC
Freeman Vines, 82, still works on guitars out of a workshop in Fountain, North Carolina. He spoke with WUNC on Dec. 4, 2024, as Colin Campell profiled the town for the latest entry in the Main Street series, highlighting the impact that music and the arts can have in North Carolina’s rural communities.
Madeline Gray
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For WUNC
Mayor Gerald Jones sits in his office in Morehead City, North Carolina on May 13, 2024. Jones has been mayor of the town since 1999 and spent his childhood playing on Sugarloaf Island. The island has long acted as a barrier for the Morehead City waterfront but over time it has begun to erode due partly to increased boat traffic. Now a major restoration project is underway to help protect and rebuild the island.
Political Photos from the Purple State
Matt Ramey
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For WUNC
NC Lt. Governor and Gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson speaks to the crowd at a 'Get Out the Vote' rally for Donald Trump in Greensboro, N.C. on March 2, 2024. Robinson's tumultuous and scandal-ridden campaign for governor was a major story this year, covered exhaustively by WUNC.
Jerry Cummings, 74, is a lifelong resident of Robeson County, which seemed to be a battleground county in a battleground state leading up to the 2024 election. He's a registered Democrat, but the independent contractor said he was supporting Donald Trump. Cummings was one of the many voters WUNC's Rusty Jacobs spoke with this year.
Snapshots of Sports
Mitchell Northam
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WUNC
North Carolina's Armando Bacot battled against N.C. State's DJ Burns in the ACC Tournament title game on March 16, 2024, in Washington, D.C. The play of Burns was a big reason why N.C. State caught fire in March, winning its first ACC Tournament since 1987, and making the Final Four for the first time since 1983.
Mitchell Northam
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WUNC
Bryson DeChambeau celebrates winning the 124th U.S. Open at Pinehurst No. 2 after sinking a putt for par on the 18th hole on Sunday, June 16, 2024. The U.S. Open returned to North Carolina's Sandhills for the first time since 2014 and DeChambeau's bunker shot on the 18th hole to hold off Rory McIlroy and set-up his winning putt gave fans another memorable Pinehurst moment.
Mitchell Northam
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WUNC
UNC athletic director Bubba Cunningham (right) applauds as Bill Belichick is introduced as the Tar Heels' football coach on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, at Kenan Stadium. After the Tar Heels fired Mack Brown in November, it went all-in on football by hiring the former six-time Super Bowl-winning head coach — and handing him a contract worth $10 million annually.
Pictures of Protest
Peyton Sickles
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for WUNC
One law enforcement officer watched as others clash with demonstrators and students protesting the Israel-Hamas war on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, near Polk Place on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. The ongoing protests put a spotlight on UNC-Chapel Hill and then-interim Chancellor Lee Roberts.
Liz Schlemmer
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WUNC
Shellena Atlas, a school counselor at Riverside High, was among those protesting at the Minnie Forte-Brown Staff Development Center on Hillandale Road in Durham on Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2024. The Durham Association of Educators organized the so-called sick-out to call for a "seat at the table" to negotiate any changes the district plans to make to staff salary schedules and how the district determines years of state service.
Liz Schlemmer
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WUNC
Students on the Opportunity Scholarship waitlist attend a rally with their families outside the North Carolina General Assembly, July 31, 2024. Dozens of North Carolina parents rallied to urge Republican legislators to fund fully scholarships for children to attend private and religious schools after lawmakers failed to work out an agreement earlier this year to meet the program's soaring demand.
Scenes from Helene
Gerard Albert
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For WUNC
Jeff Nix points to where a row of apple trees used to stand on October 29,2024. Helene washed away this 10-acre parcel of land. Nix estimates there were 37 rows of apple trees planted, with each row spanning about 800 feet in length.
Jay Price
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WUNC
Chief Warrant Officer Nathaniel Ernst pilots a Black Hawk helicopter that carries the sign Guard Chopper 6279. Ernst was part of a four-person National Guard crew flying a Helene relief mission that involved distributing supplies, checking on local residents, and flying members of a FEMA search and rescue team on an aerial reconnaissance flight.
Rusty Jacobs/WUNC
Flooding from the Catawba River destroyed this house in Old Fort, N.C. Damage from Helene forced McDowell County elections officials to shut down Old Fort's early voting site at the Depot. McDowell voters who want to cast ballots in-person during early voting had to go to the county elections office, in Marion.
Impactful Images in North Carolina
Ben McKeown
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For WUNC
Bananas grow in a greenhouse at Elo Life Sciences, an RTP company who is developing a genetically modified banana that is resistant to a deadly fungus sweeping through much of the world's banana crop in Durham, N.C., Wednesday, April 3, 2024. A company in Research Triangle Park is trying to save the cavendish banana through gene editing.
Josh Sullivan
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WUNC
The sun sets over Lake Mattamuskeet on a January 2024 afternoon. Several issues plague Lake Mattamuskeet, the largest natural freshwater lake in North Carolina, including a decline in water quality that's led to harmful algal blooms. Several compounding factors are causing declining water quality, including run off pollution from nearby farms and invasive common carp, a type of fish.
Matt Ramey
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For WUNC
Ray J, grandson of activist and union member Mama Cookie, holds his hand in the air during a vigil in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on Sept. 1, 2024, honoring farmworkers who died due to poor working conditions. The recent incidents are setting off a wake-up call across North Carolina about the realities for outdoor workers with scant workplace protections and for whom heat presents a deadly threat. At least 15 workers have died from heat-related illnesses in North Carolina since 2008.
Five years after the pandemic, 101 North Carolina public school districts still have fewer students than before. Falling enrollment appears here to stay, but school choice isn’t the only reason why.
