Clara Körner’s Story: Home, Burial, and Defying Segregation

I returned to Körner’s Folly in Kernersville, North Carolina, for a deeper follow-up into the life of Clara “Aunt Dealy” Körner, a woman who was once formerly enslaved and became deeply connected to the Körner family. In this episode, we explore the home purchased for Clara after emancipation and visit her burial place, located on land purchased by Jules Körner. At a time when segregation shaped where Black people could live, worship, and even be buried, Jules made sure the woman he knew as a mother was honored in a way that defied the social norms of the time. This story is about memory, contradiction, and the complicated history that still lives inside these old places. Watch the full episode and make sure to subscribe to History Before Us for more stories that deserve to be remembered.