35.973971903177, -78.905106760634
From the National Register Historic District description:
Replacement one-light windows, painted brick, and a modern ribbed metal roof give this one- story Ranch house a rather stark appearance. The hip-roofed house is eight bays wide and double-pile with the left (east) four bays projecting slightly under a hipped roof. It has deep eaves and an interior brick chimney. Vinyl slider windows are located throughout and wrap around the front right (northwest) and rear right (southeast) corners of the building. A replacement door, located near the center of the façade in an inset bay, has glass block sidelights and transom and is sheltered by a shallow shed roof. There is a glass-block window near the right (west) end of the façade and a projecting bay window near the left end. An inset screened porch at the left end of the façade is sheltered by square posts and the site slopes to the rear to reveal a basement-level garage on the left elevation. County tax records date the house to 1949 and the earliest known occupants are William A. Clement, assistant agency director at NC Mutual Life Insurance Company, and his wife, Josephine Clement, member of the school board, in 1950.
Josephine Dobbs Clement was the fourth of six daughters born to John Wesley Dobbs and Irene Ophelia Thompson, lifelong activists and advocates for civil rights and quality education in Atlanta, GA. In 1949, not long after arriving in Durham, Josephine and Wiliam Clement initiated a lawsuit against Durham City Schools citing separate but not equal education, well before the 1954 Brown vs Board of Education decision. In 1959, they were successful in securing entry into all white schools in Durham for 8 black students. Josephine Clements served for years on the Durham School Board, including during the rapid integration in 1975. Among Josephine Dobbs Clement's sisters were Irene Dobbs Jackson - a professor of French at Spellman and North Carolina Central University and mother of Maynard Jackson (mayor of Atlanta for three terms, 1974-82 and 1990-94) - and Mattiwilda Dobbs.
Mr. and Mrs. Clement were the parents to six children. All of their children received undergraduate and/or graduate degrees from various colleges. One of their sons, Arthur John, was the first African American to graduate from the North Carolina State University School of Design in Architecture. Mr. Clement was the first African American President of United Way.
The Josephine Dobbs Clement Early College, located on the campus of NCCU, is named in honor of Mrs. Clement.
According to county deed records, W.A. Clement and Josephine D. Clement transferred title to Helen G. Clement, Mr. Clement's sister on March 7, 1953. Ms. Helen G. Clement transferred the property back to W.A. Clement and Josephine D. Clement on March 17, 1953.
On February 17, 1998, W.A. Clement and Josephine D. Clement sold the property to Larry and Peggy Bell. Larry D Bell quit claimed the houseto Peggy Bell on January 6, 2006. Peggy Bell sold part interest of the property to RHP Properties LLC on August 1, 2020. Larry Bell, Peggy Bell, and Sha-Mel Riggins and Natasha Minor entere into a lease and option to purchase agreement on September 22, 2020.
Josephine Dobbs Clement
Wikipedia.org
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