The D.G. Martin Opinion Column
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Two years ago a Durham restaurant, Backyard Barbecue, gained national attention for being featured in “Black Smoke: African Americans and the United States of Barbecue” by Adrian Miller. Miller believes that the story of…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – “We’re not Really Interested in Character” is the title of a chapter in a 1987 book about the corruptive nature of political fundraising. The recent attacks on the character of Georgia’s U.S. Senate…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – North Carolina is blessed with more than its share of great writers. And I am looking over some of my favorites from my 20-plus years hosting PBS-NC’s North Carolina Bookwatch. One of the…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Who is the best-known living North Carolinian today? Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski? Legendary basketball star Michael Jordan? Gov. Roy Cooper? Activist Rev. William Barber? Senators Thom Tillis or Richard Burr? Anybody else?…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – The man who made me briefly famous died last week. Tom Clark was 93. Dr. Clark taught me Old Testament at Davidson College in 1958-59. It was his first year teaching at…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, and I explained in a column many years ago. One reason is that it is one of the very few days we have saved just for families and…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – When Julian Pleasants died September 7 North Carolina lost one of its most important academic and popular historians. Pleasants grew up in Southern Pines, graduated from Davidson College, and earned masters and doctoral…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Tenure at UNC-Chapel Hill and changing rules about the Davidson College president’s religion pulled both schools into the headlines last week. These topics remind how hard it is for some of us to…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – What really makes for a good barbecue restaurant? Barbecue expert John Shelton Reed and I have different ideas. I spoke with him about the recent death of Wilber Shirley, the legendary founder of…
By D.G. Martin Chapel Hill, NC – Who is responsible for last month’s jam up in the Suez Canal? Could it be a North Carolinian? The damages to the quarter-mile long container ship, Ever Given, which ran aground in the…