Editing Dobbins Heights, North Carolina (section)

== History ==
Dobbins Heights was originally known as North Yard. It began as a largely black community in an unincorporated part of Richmond County near the city of [[Hamlet, North Carolina|Hamlet]], with fewer than 1,000 residents.{{sfn|Simon|2020|pp=23–24, 191}} A black school, the Pee Dee Institute, was built in North Yard in 1908.{{sfn|Simmons-Henry|1990|p=228}} Through the 1960s, many of the homes in the community were rented, and existed in poor condition with outdoor plumbing.{{sfn|Simon|2020|pp=23–24}} Many streets remained unpaved through the 1980s. Due to its unincorporated status, North Yard's residents received fewer government services than other municipal residents and lacked direct political representation. They usually paid taxes directly to Richmond County government, though occasionally levies were paid to Hamlet.{{sfn|Simon|2020|p=191}} There was little cohesive community identity in the area; collective social life, such as it existed, was centered around several churches.{{sfn|Noland|1972|p=25}}

[[File:Dobbins Heights, 1972.jpg|thumb|left|A home in Dobbins Heights, 1972]]
In the mid-1960s, a local minister founded the North Yard Improvement Association, which raised money to install streetlights along some of the main roads in the community.{{sfn|Simon|2020|p=191}} From 1971 to 1972 [[United States Army]] [[United States Army Corps of Engineers|engineers]] built a recreational area in the community.<ref>{{cite news| title = Domestic Action Program Dates Back to Pioneer Days| newspaper = Commanders Digest| publisher = United States Department of Defense| pages = 6–7| volume = 13| issue = 10| date = January 11, 1973| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=9u720N0Ioy4C&pg=PA7}}</ref> Lack of adequate coverage from neighboring fire departments led the community to create a volunteer fire department in 1974.{{sfn|Simon|2020|pp=191–192}}<ref name= arrington>{{cite news| last = Arrington| first = Fran| title = Dobbins Heights, Hamlet worlds apart| newspaper = The News & Observer| page = 9A| date = December 9, 1991}}</ref> Two years later residents appealed for the city of Hamlet to annex the community, but the municipal government rejected the proposal, citing the economically depressed nature of the area.<ref name= arrington/> Some locals suspected their lack of success was due to racism. Following the failure of the annexation request, residents began pushing for North Yard to be incorporated in its own right, and began calling the community Dobbins Heights in homage to Jim Dobbins, a minister who had owned a significant amount of the area's land in the 1930s.{{sfn|Simon|2020|p=192}} In 1983 Representative Hugh Lee of [[Rockingham, North Carolina|Rockingham]] introduced a bill in the [[North Carolina General Assembly]] to authorize a local referendum to decide on incorporation.{{sfn|Simmons-Henry|1990|p=228}} On May 8, 1984, the referendum was held which concluded narrowly in favor of incorporation, leading to the creation of the town of Dobbins Heights. A black mayor and all-black city council were elected, and the officials successfully secured state and federal grants to improve local infrastructure, including the rehabilitation of streets and parks and equipment acquisitions for the fire department.{{sfn|Simon|2020|p=192}}