North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, the largest HBCU in the country, hosted its first homecoming in 1926. Now, 100 years later, an estimated 200,000-plus people are expected in Greensboro for what’s become known as the Greatest Homecoming on Earth.
The weeklong festivities kicked off with the annual coronation of homecoming royalty.
In Corbett Sports Center, hundreds cheer for this year’s Mister and Miss North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University — elected for their service and leadership.
According to University Archives and Special Collections Librarian James Stewart, Mister A&T has appeared sporadically throughout the school’s history. But Miss A&T has been a fixture since the 1930s.
“It's always a theme by time period. One of the Miss A&T’s during the Kennedy era, she had a Camelot theme. You know, the Kennedys, Camelot White House,” Stewart says. “Late 1960s, 1970s, you have what's called the Black Student Movement, so a lot of the Miss A&T coronation themes were very Afrocentric-based."
This year’s theme is royal getaway. At one event, a gospel choir sings and dances in summery clothes. Life preservers decorate the stage. And the queen, Kennedy Brown, wears a sparkly white floor-length gown, similar to one a previous Miss A&T wore. It’s displayed in the Centennial History Gallery that Stewart helped curate for homecoming.
First-year student Bailey Cherry describes the gown worn by Jordan Outing more than 10 years ago. “So this is Miss A&T from the school year of 2014 to 2015. And it's a white dress, mermaid silhouette with a silver little like waist thing around it.”
Inside F.D. Bluford Library, she checks out the gallery with two classmates. Others sit and type on computers or wait for papers to print. This GHOE attraction is calmer compared to other events — it is in a library, after all. Still, the homecoming spirit is strong as ever.
“Wait, guys, can I get a quiet Aggie pride?” Cherry asks. “Aggie Pride.”
“Aggie Pride!” Kimani Noble and Brennis Dillard respond back in a whisper.
The gallery gives students and alumni the opportunity to reflect on their history. For Kimani Noble, that goes back to her grandparents.
“Most of my family came here. My grandparents met here. My dad, he got his master's here. My uncles did undergrad here,” Noble says. ”So I was always going to apply here, but luckily they let me in.
While Noble is a first-year student, it’s far from her first Homecoming at A&T.
“My grandmother graduated here in the 70s, and so when I was old enough, she always took me to GHOE with her.”
Noble says some of her family are joining in on the celebrations this week. Cherry says she hopes to do the same and return to A&T in the future, long after she’s graduated.
Cherry and Noble agreed that in 50 years people would still be talking about the university’s marching band, way back when.
A&T’s band program started in 1918. But it didn’t become the Blue and Gold Marching Machine until the late 1970s to early 80s. Since then, it’s grown to represent the university. Just recently, the band led hundreds of students through Greensboro to vote.
Kellye Worth Hall was chosen as the band’s first-ever female drum major in 1998. She says that at the time, she had no idea she was making history. Now, her baton is on display in the gallery.
“Being a junior in college, you don't realize the magnitude of what that actually means, and I still didn't realize it until after I graduated,” Hall says. “And I just kind of saw how we were the minority in HBCU marching bands, like females were not really a thing.”
On Saturday, Hall will march with the alumni band. It’s been 26 years since she graduated, but she says it’s like riding a bike.
“You don't forget your foundations and what you learned in that old Aggie spirit.”
Of course, some things have changed. Hall remembers a time when homecoming was mostly on campus. Now, they need more space, especially for new events like this year’s first-ever drone show at Truist Stadium. But Stewart, the university archivist, says he hopes some of the events that have disappeared over the years will make a return.
“There used to be a comedy show. I don't know why that went away. Would love to see that come back,” he says. “So there's just been so many different things that have lasted a long time, and some things that have disappeared and come back under a different name.”
While many universities have homecoming celebrations, Stewart says A&T’s stands out. He himself is also an alum.
“Being the institution of North Carolina with the most alumni enthusiasm, that makes homecoming all the more special,” he says. “We here have to fill it and build it and live up to it, have real Aggie pride and real Aggie spirit. And that means making the most of each homecoming by really celebrating whether we win the game or not.”
This year’s homecoming football game against Elon University kicks off Saturday at 1 p.m.