Most people were white or black, most people had grown up in the area, and many people worked on farms or in furniture and textile mills. Now, with a booming economy, those industries have drawn workers from all over the world. And unlike the wave of immigration early in this century, mostly with Europeans coming to the United States, Latinos and Asians dominated the wave of immigration in the past decade. That has changed local culture, said Bennett Judkins, vice president for academic affairs at Lenoir-Rhyne College, who spearheaded a communitywide celebration of diversity last year. We now have restaurants that reflect food from all over the world, musical groups, theater, new ideas.
Many schools send home information in English, Spanish and Hmong, a language of Laotian immigrants.
Churches developed Hmong or Hispanic ministries. Companies offer English classes for their workers. By last year, several thousand Hispanics and Asians lived here. Our growth in the last 10 or 20 years, urbanization, increase in population, all of that is a challenge to any traditional culture. A band for the ages In Lenoir, parade-goers get more than high school kids marching to the beat of their music.