N.C. A&T Alumni Times

When one visits the Archives at the F. D. Bluford Library, any research question given to the archives librarian and the archives specialist may lead to the rediscovery of lost facts about North Carolina A&T State University history. These lost facts can be very stunning and reshape how our history is taught in the future.

In September, a homecoming history display was in the final stages. Bluford Library had a trial usage on a database of historically black newspapers in which there was incredibly rare news stories and images about early N.C. A&T homecomings. While searching in the Pittsburgh Courier, there was story of a young lady, "Miss Sammie Sellers", who was named Miss A&T at a spring banquet for the 1934-35 academic year.

All of the current sources, including the “Miss A&T Collection” in archives, list the earliest known Miss A&T as Kathryn Tynes who reigned from 1935-1936. However, was she the first Miss A&T? It was acknowledged in Mens Et Manus: A Pictorial History of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, that no one was sure when or who the very first Miss A. & T. was, and that the tradition had most likely started sometime after 1928 when women were readmitted to the university. So was Sammie Sellars really one of the early forgotten queens of A&T?

To learn more about Miss Sellers more digging into the special collections was needed. Only 13 issues of the A&T Register from 1929 to 1934 are known to exist and copies are sporadic throughout the rest of the 1930s. Fortunately, many of these issues did mention a “Sammie Etta Sellars” of Darlington, S.C. She was a very popular and was voted the female student with the "Most Pleasing Personality" in 1935, 1936, and 1937. Miss Sellars ‘37 (sometimes spelled Sellers) was also very active in numerous student organizations like the girls’ basketball team, Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the student council and the choral society. Also among these additions was page 3 of the July 06, 1934 issue which has a picture of Sammie Sellars, under the title "Miss A. and T., 1934-1935." The last mention of Sammie in the Register is in a 1938 edition with an update about her as a proprietress in a restaurant. After finding these pages, archive specialists began wondering what became of her.

Newspaper databases and genealogy resources were searched with little results. One resource that was overlooked was the copies of A History of the National Alumni Association of the North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, 1891-1984, Greensboro, North Carolina by Evelyn M. Butler. While searching for an unrelated person in this book, there was an entry on a “Sammie Etta Sellers McDuffie”. After searching online for that name, and discovering a “vertical file” in archives with that name, the story began to come together.

It turns out that while she was at A&T, Sammie met Frank McDuffie of Laurinburg, N.C., the "Most Versatile" man in 1936. The two would later marry. Frank was the son of Emmanuel McDuffie who was the founder of the historic Laurinburg Institute, which today is one of the very few still operating historical black preparatory schools from the 1900s in the country. He served as the principal of Laurinburg Institute for many years. She and Frank are still remembered as great educators and humanitarians who transformed the school and changed many lives for generations. The school is still open today under the direction of their son Frank H. "Bishop" McDuffie. Sammie McDuffie passed away in 1995 at the age of 80.

For now it is unknown if Sammie Sellars McDuffie was the very first Miss A&T, but it is clear that she was one of the greatest.