BY MILES LAYTON

People have begun asking the Albemarle Observer to expand our coverage area to include our neighbor, Bertie County. On that note, here is our latest story about the county’s budget, which includes raises for the Sheriff’s Office.

If you folks from Windsor have any news tips, send them this way to mileslayton1969@gmail.com

Much like Paul Harvey’s “Now for the rest of the story”, I’m going to try to write this column about a young man growing up in Bertie County who didn’t have a place where he could learn to swim – swimming pools were not available to Black folks in the 50s, 60s, and to be honest, probably a bit longer. 

If you don’t already know, Bertie Beach is a nice place to go swimming, especially if you don’t want to drive the family to Nags Head. 

Bertie Beach is located maybe 15 minutes away from Edenton, cross the bridge and take that first left – Bal Gra Road – after passing the gas station. I think I remember seeing signs pointing to the dirt road that leads to the beach, but if not, just GPS it.  

Water is not that deep – no weird drop-offs like the one, if you’re not careful, at Springers Point at Ocracoke. No riptide to worry about either. Most times, the beach is not loaded down with tourists like it is by Jeanette’s Pier, so if you pick the time right, you may have the beach to yourself in the morning, maybe around sunset too. 

Anyway, because of segregation, the boy’s mother had to drive a long way from Bertie County to a bi-racial swimming pool in Rocky Mount so that her son could learn how to swim. She realized then, and the same can be said now, that being able to swim is an important skill to have, especially in a county within a region where big water is common. 

“If you’ve never been in the water, other than a bathtub, you’re not sure what’s going to happen to you,” the boy, now a man, was quoted as saying in 2021 in pulitzercenter.org

After learning to swim, that boy would go onto overcome great odds and become a great man. He earned a bachelor’s degree from UNC Chapel Hill in 1972, and even pursued graduate studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. After he retired as Senior Vice President and Global Leader, The Dun & Bradstreet Corporation, after 32 years of service, the man moved back home to Eastern NC – Bertie County – where he served as county commissioner for 12 years, elected three terms. Here is just a small list of his accomplishments before he retired from the commission in 2024.   

• Board of Directors – North Carolina Association of County Commissioners 2022-2023
• 2016-2017 Chairman – Tax & Finance Committee – N.C. Assoc. of County Commissioners
• 2019-2020 Chairman – General Gov. Committee – N.C. Assoc. of County Commissioners
• 2020-Present – President/Exec. Director – Partners for Bertie County Public Schools (Inc.)
• 2016-Present – Co-Founder/Exec. Director of Youth Bertie, Inc. (Backpack Program)
• Trustee Martin Community College – Governor’s Appointee – 2019
• Vice Chair – Mid East Commission
• Prior Chairman – Bertie County Chamber of Commerce
• Windsor Rotary Club
• Bertie-Hertford Community Foundation
• Patient & Family Care Advisory Board – Vidant Bertie
• Executive Director – Nellie Ward Wesson Scholarship Foundation
• Director of Internal Affairs – Pleasant Oak Missionary Baptist Church

Back to swimming – For decades, the shoreline south of Windsor, near the Bal Gra community, was mostly inaccessible to the public. Although Bertie County hugs miles of the Albemarle Sound and its tributaries, there was virtually no designated space where residents could gather for recreation, swim safely, or enjoy the natural beauty of the coast.

The idea for a public beach began to take shape in the 2010s. County officials, including the Bertie County Commissioners and local advocates, saw an opportunity to reclaim and reimagine public access to the water.

The man remembered that there was no place for – everyone – to swim, so he pursued a dream to the county’s first-ever public swimming access. 

Funding was a challenge from the start. But thanks to a mix of county investment, private donations, and grant funding — particularly from environmental organizations and the North Carolina Land and Water Fund — momentum began to build.

The beach officially opened to the public in 2019, becoming the first public beach in Bertie County history.

And now for the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say — the man who learned to swim during segregation, and pursued this vision of building a beach, was Ron Wesson.

Yes, many other people, including former Edenton Town Councilman Steve Biggs, who served as Bertie County’s director of economic development before retiring, as well as past and present county commissioners, were involved in transforming this stretch of shoreline into a beach enjoyed by all.

However, let’s give Wesson his due since, when serving as a county commissioner, he signed the deed for Bertie Beach, which is the county’s first-ever public swimming access.  

County officials hope to expand the beach with more infrastructure and envision it as part of a larger eco-tourism push that includes hiking, paddling, and wildlife education across the Roanoke-Albemarle region. But even in its current form, Bertie Beach represents a major milestone for this rural county.

It’s not where you’re born or where you go to high school that matters — it’s what you do with the gifts you’ve got that matters most.

Though the mainstream won’t write about racial progress in the South because that’s not part of their chosen narrative, Wesson’s life story is compelling, one that inspires hope and spurs progress that leads to change.

Anyway, if you have news tips, send them this way to milelayton1969@mileslayton

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