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Meet NC’s Mayors — Bettie J. Parker Of Elizabeth City

Steven R Shook

She did not expect to be the only person of color in a classroom, and certainly not as the teacher.  Before she was elected mayor of Elizabeth City, Bettie J. Parker taught math for 33 years at the local high school.
 

 

Credit Courtesy of Bettie J. Parker
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Courtesy of Bettie J. Parker
Elizabeth City Mayor Bettie J. Parker.

In 2017, she was elected leader of the majority-African American small city in the northeast corner of the state, making her the first woman to hold the position.

Sitting on the Pasquotank River, “The Harbor of Hospitality” is home to a U.S. Coast Guard base and the historically black college Elizabeth City State University.

Mayor Parker joins host Frank Stasio to discuss how her usual open-door policy and other aspects of her job have changed during the coronavirus pandemic.

Credit Seth Ilys / Wikimedia Commons
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Wikimedia Commons
Elizabeth City is located in Pasquotank County

 

Grant Holub-Moorman coordinates events and North Carolina outreach for WUNC, including a monthly trivia night. He is a founding member of Embodied and a former producer for The State of Things.
Longtime NPR correspondent Frank Stasio was named permanent host of The State of Things in June 2006. A native of Buffalo, Frank has been in radio since the age of 19. He began his public radio career at WOI in Ames, Iowa, where he was a magazine show anchor and the station's News Director.
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