The
E E K LY
‘'News from Next Door”
THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 2022
$1.50
@ SCAN ME
PAGE 5
Hartman: Ash
Wednesday and its
importance to the
Christian life
PAGE 6
Lady Pirates’
playoff run
comes to an end
in third round
PAGE 7
Throckmor
ton: Child exacts
revenge against
an arrogant,
absent father
New congressional map splits region between 2 districts
Perquimans, Pasquotank,
Chowan now in 1st District
BY PAUL NIELSEN
The Daily Advance
Perquimans, Chowan
and Pasquotank counties
will join the newly drawn
1st Congressional District
while Camden and Cur
rituck counties will remain
in the 3rd Congressional
District, according to the
new congressional map
drawn by a three-judge pan
el and released last week.
All five counties previ-
part of the
3rd Congressional District,
which is currently repre
sented by U.S. Rep. Greg
Murphy, a Republican from
Greenville. The counties
also had been redrawn as
part of Murphy’s district
in the new congressional
maps approved by the Re
publican-led House and
Senate last year.
Those maps were chal
lenged, however, by groups
claiming the state’s new leg
islative and congressional
districts were an illegal par
tisan gerrymander.
The N.G. Supreme Court
struck down the maps on
Feb. 4, saying that state
courts had authority to
throw out districts engi
neered to secure a long-term
Republican advantage in an
otherwise closely divided
state. The court directed the
GOP-controlled legislature
to redraw the districts by
Feb. 18 and provide an ex
planation of how they cal
culated the partisan fairness
of the new boundaries.
The General Assembly
approved new maps late last
month and a panel of three
state Superior Court judg
es on Feb. 23 approved the
redrawn maps for the legis
lative districts and drew its
own map for congressional
districts. Those maps put
Perquimans, Pasquotank
and Chowan in the 1st Con
gressional District and leave
Camden and Currituck in
the 3rd District.
The 1st Congressional
District is represented by
U.S. Rep. G.K. Butterfield
but he has already an
nounced his plan to retire.
Thus far, five candidates
have filed to run in the
Democratic and Republican
See MAP, A3
NCLEG.GOV IMAGE
This interim congressional map drawn by a three-judge*,
panel moves Pasquotank, Perquimans and Chowan
counties from the 3rd Congressional District into the
newly drawn 1st Congressional District. Camden and
Currituck counties remain in the 3rd District.
2 more
file for
county
boards
Ward seeking commission
seat, Felton school board seat
BY JULIAN EURE
The Daily Advance
With judicial approval
FELTON
WARD
of the new
legislative
and con
gressional
maps fi
nally com
plete, filing
for the May
17 primary
and school
board elec
tion in Per
quimans
County re
sumed Feb.
24.
Two
more can
didates
have filed
for coun ¬
ty seats,
one for the board of com
missioners and one for the
board of education.
Republican James Wil
liam Ward filed for one of
the three open county com
mission seats, while Gracie
Felton, a former Hertford
See FILING, A2
‘Freedom in NC’
Jackson convicted
of 2 charges, gets
two months in jail
IMAGE STILL FROM 'FREEDOM OF NC'
Vinetrice Reynolds portrays 14-year-old Sarah Jones in “Freedom of NC,” a
film that depicts an enslaved family’s escape from an eastern North Carolina
plantation during the 19th century.
Film details escape from slavery
Greenville native’s film
screened at PCHS Feb. 25
BY CHRIS DAY
The Daily Advance
About 25 residents
turned out for Friday’s
screening of “Freedom
of NC,” a regionally pro
duced film that addresses
slavery and the quest for
freedom during the Civil
War.
“I thought it was awe
some,” said Antonio Over
ton, following a showing
of the film in the auditori
um at Perquimans County
High School.
Overton, who attended
the movie with his chil
dren, said he appreciat
ed the movie because it
showed that people who
were enslaved all had lives
before they were captured
and brought to the Amer
icas.
“Freedom of NC” cen
ters around 14-year-old
Sarah, who lives on a plan
tation with her enslaved
mother and several broth
ers in eastern North Caro
lina Sarah dreams of free
dom and suggests running
away, but at first her fam
ily opposes her notions.
After Sarah discovers a
doll that contains clues to
achieving their freedom,
her family decides to join
her in escaping.
Overton’s son Kingston
said he liked how Sarah
and her family stuck to
gether once they fled the
plantation and continued
to resist efforts to capture
them.
“I liked that they stood
up for themselves,” said
Kingston, 8.
Kingston’s sister also
eryoyed the bond Sarah
and her family shared.
“I liked how they
weren’t afraid to be them-,
selves and they stayed
See FREEDOM, A3
Ex-official guilty of violating
probation, trespassing
BY JULIAN EURE
The Daily Advance
HERTFORD — Quentin
Jackson, the former Hertford
councilor who’s currently a
candidate for Perquimans
County commissioner, will
serve the next two months
in jail after being found guilty
of two charges in Superior
Court last week.
Superior Court Judge Jer
ry Tillett found Jackson guilty
of second-degree trespassing
and of violating probation on
Lennon resigns,
withdraws from race
Former Perquimans official
leaving county for III. job
BY JULIAN EURE
The Daily Advance
HERTFORD — The
first-ever Libertarian elect
ed to the Perquimans Coun
ty Board of Commissioners
has resigned from the board
and withdrawn his candida
cy for re-election in the May
17 primary.
Alan Lennon, who was
first elected in 2018, re
signed from the commission
Thursday,
according
to an offi
cial with
the Perqui
mans Clerk
of Court’s
Office.
Tillett re
JACKSON voked Jack-
son’s pro
bation and sentenced him to
45 days on the violating pro
bation charge. Jackson was
sentenced to 20 days in jail
on the trespassing charge but
Tillett credited him for four
days he had already served
See JACKSON, A3
LENNON
board M
o n d a y,
Feb. 21, b
e c a u s e
he’s leaving
the coun
ty to take
a new job
in south
ern Illinois
for The
Maschhoffs, an internation
al pork producer.
Lennon, who current
ly works for Goldsboro
Milling, starts his new job
See LENNON, A3
Libertarian sought for vacancy
Pirates get their rings
Next commissioner must be member
of Lennon’s party when he was elected
BY JULIAN EURE
The Daily Advance
Are you a Libertarian Party voter
and registered in Perquimans County?
If so, Perquimans County com
missioners may have a job for you.
The comity board has 60 days to
fill a vacancy on its five-member
board following the resignation of
Alan Lennon on Monday, Feb. 21,
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Vol. 87, No. 9
WWW.PerquimansWeekly.com
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All Rights Reserved
and under a unique
state law, has to
find his replace
ment from among
the ranks of regis
tered Libertarian
voters who live in
Perquimans.
Although Lennon
HEATH was a registered
Republican when
he resigned, he won the seat in 2018
running as a registered Libertarian.
Because of that, the person who re
places him also has to be a registered
Libertarian, County Manager Frank
Heath said last week.
“We consulted with attorneys
with the state and the board of elec
tions ... and were told (Lennon’s
replacement) has to be from the
party when he was elected, not his
current party,” Heath said.
When he was elected in 2018,
Lennon was the first registered Lib
ertarian to ever win county office in
Perquimans. A former Republican,
Lennon said he decided to switch
his registration back to Republican
because he “liked how we were
progressing as a country” when
President Trump was in office.
Knowing he planned to seek
re-election in 2022, Lennon said he
made the switch last year in plenty
of time to run as a Republican in this
year’s general election. What he didn’t
know at the time was a good job op
portunity with The Maschhoffs, an in
ternational pork producer, would be
come available or that he would get it.
Lennon said he “hates” that he’s
not able to complete his four-year
tenn as a Perquimans commission
er. But the new job as senior produc
tion manager in The Maschhoffs’
See LIBERTARIAN, A3
THE DAILY ADVANCE
The Perquimans County High School baseball team poses
with their NCHSAA Class LA State Championship plaque in
June 2021. The Pirates will receive their state championship
rings during a ceremony at Catfish Hunter Park in Hertford
Friday at 5:30 p.m. prior to their home game against
J.H. Rose High School in Greenville, last year’s 3A state
championship baseball team.