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Operant conditioning

Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, is a learning process where voluntary behaviors are modified by association with the addition (or removal) of reward or aversive stimuli. The frequency or duration of the behavior may increase through reinforcement or decrease through punishment or extinction.

Operant conditioning originated in the work of Edward Thorndike, whose law of effect theorised that behaviors arise as a result of whether their consequences are satisfying or discomforting. In the 20th century, operant conditioning was studied by behavioral psychologists, who believed that much, if not all, of mind and behaviour can be explained as a result of environmental conditioning. Reinforcements are environmental stimuli that increase behaviors, whereas punishments are stimuli that decrease behaviors. Both kinds of stimuli can be further categorised into positive and negative stimuli, which respectively involve the addition or removal of environmental stimuli.

Operant conditioning differs from classical conditioning, which is a process where stimuli are paired with biologically significant events to produce involuntary and reflexive behaviors. In contrast, operant conditioning is voluntary and depends on the consequences of a behavior.

The study of animal learning in the 20th century was dominated by the analysis of these two sorts of learning, and they are still at the core of behavior analysis. They have also been applied to the study of social psychology, helping to clarify certain phenomena such as the false consensus effect.

Thorndike's law of effect
Operant conditioning, sometimes called instrumental learning, was first extensively studied by Edward L. Thorndike (1874–1949), who observed the behavior of cats trying to escape from home-made puzzle boxes. A cat could escape from the box by a simple response such as pulling a cord or pushing a pole, but when first constrained, the cats took a long time to get out. With repeated trials ineffective responses occurred less frequently and successful responses occurred more frequently, so the cats escaped more and more quickly. Thorndike generalized this finding in his law of effect, which states that behaviors followed by satisfying consequences tend to be repeated and those that produce unpleasant consequences are less likely to be repeated. In short, some consequences strengthen behavior and some consequences weaken behavior. By plotting escape time against trial number Thorndike produced the first known animal learning curves through this procedure.

Humans appear to learn many simple behaviors through the sort of process studied by Thorndike, now called operant conditioning. That is, responses are retained when they lead to a successful outcome and discarded when they do not, or when they produce aversive effects. This usually happens without being planned by any "teacher", but operant conditioning has been used by parents in teaching their children for thousands of years.

B. F. Skinner
B.F. Skinner (1904–1990) is referred to as the Father of operant conditioning, and his work is frequently cited in connection with this topic. His 1938 book "The Behavior of Organisms: An Experimental Analysis", initiated his lifelong study of operant conditioning and its application to human and animal behavior. Following the ideas of Ernst Mach, Skinner rejected Thorndike's reference to unobservable mental states such as satisfaction, building his analysis on observable behavior and its equally observable consequences.

Skinner believed that classical conditioning was too simplistic to be used to describe something as complex as human behavior. Operant conditioning, in his opinion, better described human behavior as it examined causes and effects of intentional behavior.

To implement his empirical approach, Skinner invented the operant conditioning chamber, or "Skinner Box", in which subjects such as pigeons and rats were isolated and could be exposed to carefully controlled stimuli. Unlike Thorndike's puzzle box, this arrangement allowed the subject to make one or two simple, repeatable responses, and the rate of such responses became Skinner's primary behavioral measure. Another invention, the cumulative recorder, produced a graphical record from which these response rates could be estimated. These records were the primary data that Skinner and his colleagues used to explore the effects on response rate of various reinforcement schedules. A reinforcement schedule may be defined as "any procedure that delivers reinforcement to an organism according to some well-defined rule". The effects of schedules became, in turn, the basic findings from which Skinner developed his account of operant conditioning. He also drew on many less formal observations of human and animal behavior.

Many of Skinner's writings are devoted to the application of operant conditioning to human behavior. In 1948 he published Walden Two, a fictional account of a peaceful, happy, productive community organized around his conditioning principles. In 1957, Skinner published Verbal Behavior, which extended the principles of operant conditioning to language, a form of human behavior that had previously been analyzed quite differently by linguists and others. Skinner defined new functional relationships such as "mands" and "tacts" to capture some essentials of language, but he introduced no new principles, treating verbal behavior like any other behavior controlled by its consequences, which included the reactions of the speaker's audience.

Origins of operant behavior: operant variability
Operant behavior is said to be "emitted"; that is, initially it is not elicited by any particular stimulus. Thus one may ask why it happens in the first place. The answer to this question is like Darwin's answer to the question of the origin of a "new" bodily structure, namely, variation and selection. Similarly, the behavior of an individual varies from moment to moment, in such aspects as the specific motions involved, the amount of force applied, or the timing of the response. Variations that lead to reinforcement are strengthened, and if reinforcement is consistent, the behavior tends to remain stable. However, behavioral variability can itself be altered through the manipulation of certain variables.

Modifying operant behavior: reinforcement and punishment
Reinforcement and punishment are the core tools through which operant behavior is modified. These terms are defined by their effect on behavior. Either may be positive or negative. Another procedure is called "extinction". There are a total of five consequences.
 * Positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement increase the probability of a behavior that they follow, while positive punishment and negative punishment reduce the probability of behavior that they follow.
 * Extinction occurs when a previously reinforced behavior is no longer reinforced with either positive or negative reinforcement. During extinction the behavior becomes less probable. Occasional reinforcement can lead to an even longer delay before behavior extinction due to the learning factor of repeated instances becoming necessary to get reinforcement, when compared with reinforcement being given at each opportunity before extinction.
 * 1) Positive reinforcement occurs when a behavior (response) is rewarding or the behavior is followed by another stimulus that is rewarding, increasing the frequency of that behavior. For example, if a rat in a Skinner box gets food when it presses a lever, its rate of pressing will go up.  This procedure is usually called simply reinforcement.
 * 2) Negative reinforcement (a.k.a. escape) occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of an aversive stimulus, thereby increasing the original behavior's frequency. In the Skinner Box experiment, the aversive stimulus might be a loud noise continuously inside the box; negative reinforcement would happen when the rat presses a lever to turn off the noise.
 * 3) Positive punishment (also referred to as "punishment by contingent stimulation") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by an aversive stimulus. Example: pain from a spanking, which would often result in a decrease in that behavior. Positive punishment is a confusing term, so the procedure is usually referred to as "punishment".
 * 4) Negative punishment (penalty) (also called "punishment by contingent withdrawal") occurs when a behavior (response) is followed by the removal of a stimulus. Example: taking away a child's toy following an undesired behavior by him/her, which would result in a decrease in the undesirable behavior.
 * 5) Extinction occurs when a behavior (response) that had previously been reinforced is no longer effective. Example: a rat is first given food many times for pressing a lever, until the experimenter no longer gives out food as a reward. The rat would typically press the lever less often and then stop. The lever pressing would then be said to be "extinguished."

Actors (e.g. a rat) are not spoken of as being reinforced, punished, or extinguished; it is the actions that are reinforced, punished, or extinguished. Reinforcement, punishment, and extinction are not terms whose use is restricted to the laboratory. Naturally-occurring consequences can also reinforce, punish, or extinguish behavior and are not always planned or delivered on purpose.

Schedules of reinforcement
Schedules of reinforcement are rules that control the delivery of reinforcement. The rules specify either the time that reinforcement is to be made available, or the number of responses to be made, or both. Many rules are possible, but the following are the most basic and commonly used

 * Fixed interval schedule: Reinforcement occurs following the first response after a fixed time has elapsed after the previous reinforcement. This schedule yields a "break-run" pattern of response; that is, after training on this schedule, the organism typically pauses after reinforcement, and then begins to respond rapidly as the time for the next reinforcement approaches.
 * Variable interval schedule: Reinforcement occurs following the first response after a variable time has elapsed from the previous reinforcement. This schedule typically yields a relatively steady rate of response that varies with the average time between reinforcements.
 * Fixed ratio schedule: Reinforcement occurs after a fixed number of responses have been emitted since the previous reinforcement. An organism trained on this schedule typically pauses for a while after a reinforcement and then responds at a high rate. If the response requirement is low there may be no pause; if the response requirement is high the organism may quit responding altogether.
 * Variable ratio schedule: Reinforcement occurs after a variable number of responses have been emitted since the previous reinforcement. This schedule typically yields a very high, persistent rate of response.
 * Continuous reinforcement: Reinforcement occurs after each response. Organisms typically respond as rapidly as they can, given the time taken to obtain and consume reinforcement, until they are satiated.

Factors that alter the effectiveness of reinforcement and punishment
The effectiveness of reinforcement and punishment can be changed.
 * 1) Satiation/Deprivation: The effectiveness of a positive or "appetitive" stimulus will be reduced if the individual has received enough of that stimulus to satisfy his/her appetite. The opposite effect will occur if the individual becomes deprived of that stimulus: the effectiveness of a consequence will then increase. A subject with a full stomach wouldn't feel as motivated as a hungry one.
 * 2) Immediacy: An immediate consequence is more effective than a delayed one. If one gives a dog a treat for sitting within five seconds, the dog will learn faster than if the treat is given after thirty seconds.
 * 3) Contingency: To be most effective, reinforcement should occur consistently after responses and not at other times. Learning may be slower if reinforcement is intermittent, that is, following only some instances of the same response. Responses reinforced intermittently are usually slower to extinguish than are responses that have always been reinforced.
 * 4) Size: The size, or amount, of a stimulus often affects its potency as a reinforcer. Humans and animals engage in cost-benefit analysis. If a lever press brings ten food pellets, lever pressing may be learned more rapidly than if a press brings only one pellet.   A pile of quarters from a slot machine may keep a gambler pulling the lever longer than a single quarter.

Most of these factors serve biological functions. For example, the process of satiation helps the organism maintain a stable internal environment (homeostasis). When an organism has been deprived of sugar, for example, the taste of sugar is an effective reinforcer. When the organism's blood sugar reaches or exceeds an optimum level the taste of sugar becomes less effective or even aversive.

Shaping
Shaping is a conditioning method often used in animal training and in teaching nonverbal humans. It depends on operant variability and reinforcement, as described above. The trainer starts by identifying the desired final (or "target") behavior. Next, the trainer chooses a behavior that the animal or person already emits with some probability. The form of this behavior is then gradually changed across successive trials by reinforcing behaviors that approximate the target behavior more and more closely. When the target behavior is finally emitted, it may be strengthened and maintained by the use of a schedule of reinforcement.

Noncontingent reinforcement
Noncontingent reinforcement is the delivery of reinforcing stimuli regardless of the organism's behavior. Noncontingent reinforcement may be used in an attempt to reduce an undesired target behavior by reinforcing multiple alternative responses while extinguishing the target response. As no measured behavior is identified as being strengthened, there is controversy surrounding the use of the term noncontingent "reinforcement".

Stimulus control of operant behavior
Though initially operant behavior is emitted without an identified reference to a particular stimulus, during operant conditioning operants come under the control of stimuli that are present when behavior is reinforced. Such stimuli are called "discriminative stimuli." A so-called "three-term contingency" is the result. That is, discriminative stimuli set the occasion for responses that produce reward or punishment. Example: a rat may be trained to press a lever only when a light comes on; a dog rushes to the kitchen when it hears the rattle of his/her food bag; a child reaches for candy when s/he sees it on a table.

Discrimination, generalization & context
Most behavior is under stimulus control. Several aspects of this may be distinguished:
 * Discrimination typically occurs when a response is reinforced only in the presence of a specific stimulus. For example, a pigeon might be fed for pecking at a red light and not at a green light; in consequence, it pecks at red and stops pecking at green. Many complex combinations of stimuli and other conditions have been studied; for example an organism might be reinforced on an interval schedule in the presence of one stimulus and on a ratio schedule in the presence of another.
 * Generalization is the tendency to respond to stimuli that are similar to a previously trained discriminative stimulus. For example, having been trained to peck at "red" a pigeon might also peck at "pink", though usually less strongly.
 * Context refers to stimuli that are continuously present in a situation, like the walls, tables, chairs, etc. in a room, or the interior of an operant conditioning chamber. Context stimuli may come to control behavior as do discriminative stimuli, though usually more weakly. Behaviors learned in one context may be absent, or altered, in another.  This may cause difficulties for behavioral therapy, because behaviors learned in the therapeutic setting may fail to occur in other situations.

Behavioral sequences: conditioned reinforcement and chaining
Most behavior cannot easily be described in terms of individual responses reinforced one by one. The scope of operant analysis is expanded through the idea of behavioral chains, which are sequences of responses bound together by the three-term contingencies defined above. Chaining is based on the fact, experimentally demonstrated, that a discriminative stimulus not only sets the occasion for subsequent behavior, but it can also reinforce a behavior that precedes it. That is, a discriminative stimulus is also a "conditioned reinforcer". For example, the light that sets the occasion for lever pressing may be used to reinforce "turning around" in the presence of a noise. This results in the sequence "noise – turn-around – light – press lever – food". Much longer chains can be built by adding more stimuli and responses.

Escape and avoidance
In escape learning, a behavior terminates an (aversive) stimulus. For example, shielding one's eyes from sunlight terminates the (aversive) stimulation of bright light in one's eyes. (This is an example of negative reinforcement, defined above.) Behavior that is maintained by preventing a stimulus is called "avoidance," as, for example, putting on sun glasses before going outdoors. Avoidance behavior raises the so-called "avoidance paradox", for, it may be asked, how can the non-occurrence of a stimulus serve as a reinforcer? This question is addressed by several theories of avoidance (see below).

Two kinds of experimental settings are commonly used: discriminated and free-operant avoidance learning.

Discriminated avoidance learning
A discriminated avoidance experiment involves a series of trials in which a neutral stimulus such as a light is followed by an aversive stimulus such as a shock. After the neutral stimulus appears an operant response such as a lever press prevents or terminate the aversive stimulus. In early trials, the subject does not make the response until the aversive stimulus has come on, so these early trials are called "escape" trials. As learning progresses, the subject begins to respond during the neutral stimulus and thus prevents the aversive stimulus from occurring. Such trials are called "avoidance trials." This experiment is said to involve classical conditioning because a neutral CS (conditioned stimulus) is paired with the aversive US (unconditioned stimulus); this idea underlies the two-factor theory of avoidance learning described below.

Free-operant avoidance learning
In free-operant avoidance a subject periodically receives an aversive stimulus (often an electric shock) unless an operant response is made; the response delays the onset of the shock. In this situation, unlike discriminated avoidance, no prior stimulus signals the shock. Two crucial time intervals determine the rate of avoidance learning. This first is the S-S (shock-shock) interval. This is time between successive shocks in the absence of a response. The second interval is the R-S (response-shock) interval. This specifies the time by which an operant response delays the onset of the next shock. Each time the subject performs the operant response, the R-S interval without shock begins anew.

Two-process theory of avoidance
This theory was originally proposed in order to explain discriminated avoidance learning, in which an organism learns to avoid an aversive stimulus by escaping from a signal for that stimulus. Two processes are involved: classical conditioning of the signal followed by operant conditioning of the escape response:

a) Classical conditioning of fear. Initially the organism experiences the pairing of a CS with an aversive US. The theory assumes that this pairing creates an association between the CS and the US through classical conditioning and, because of the aversive nature of the US, the CS comes to elicit a conditioned emotional reaction (CER) – "fear." b) Reinforcement of the operant response by fear-reduction. As a result of the first process, the CS now signals fear; this unpleasant emotional reaction serves to motivate operant responses, and responses that terminate the CS are reinforced by fear termination. The theory does not say that the organism "avoids" the US in the sense of anticipating it, but rather that the organism "escapes" an aversive internal state that is caused by the CS. Several experimental findings seem to run counter to two-factor theory. For example, avoidance behavior often extinguishes very slowly even when the initial CS-US pairing never occurs again, so the fear response might be expected to extinguish (see Classical conditioning). Further, animals that have learned to avoid often show little evidence of fear, suggesting that escape from fear is not necessary to maintain avoidance behavior.

Operant or "one-factor" theory
Some theorists suggest that avoidance behavior may simply be a special case of operant behavior maintained by its consequences. In this view the idea of "consequences" is expanded to include sensitivity to a pattern of events. Thus, in avoidance, the consequence of a response is a reduction in the rate of aversive stimulation. Indeed, experimental evidence suggests that a "missed shock" is detected as a stimulus, and can act as a reinforcer. Cognitive theories of avoidance take this idea a step farther. For example, a rat comes to "expect" shock if it fails to press a lever and to "expect no shock" if it presses it, and avoidance behavior is strengthened if these expectancies are confirmed.

Operant hoarding
Operant hoarding refers to the observation that rats reinforced in a certain way may allow food pellets to accumulate in a food tray instead of retrieving those pellets. In this procedure, retrieval of the pellets always instituted a one-minute period of extinction during which no additional food pellets were available but those that had been accumulated earlier could be consumed. This finding appears to contradict the usual finding that rats behave impulsively in situations in which there is a choice between a smaller food object right away and a larger food object after some delay. See schedules of reinforcement.

Neurobiological correlates
The first scientific studies identifying neurons that responded in ways that suggested they encode for conditioned stimuli came from work by Mahlon deLong and by R.T. Richardson. They showed that nucleus basalis neurons, which release acetylcholine broadly throughout the cerebral cortex, are activated shortly after a conditioned stimulus, or after a primary reward if no conditioned stimulus exists. These neurons are equally active for positive and negative reinforcers, and have been shown to be related to neuroplasticity in many cortical regions. Evidence also exists that dopamine is activated at similar times. There is considerable evidence that dopamine participates in both reinforcement and aversive learning. Dopamine pathways project much more densely onto frontal cortex regions. Cholinergic projections, in contrast, are dense even in the posterior cortical regions like the primary visual cortex. A study of patients with Parkinson's disease, a condition attributed to the insufficient action of dopamine, further illustrates the role of dopamine in positive reinforcement. It showed that while off their medication, patients learned more readily with aversive consequences than with positive reinforcement. Patients who were on their medication showed the opposite to be the case, positive reinforcement proving to be the more effective form of learning when dopamine activity is high.

A neurochemical process involving dopamine has been suggested to underlie reinforcement. When an organism experiences a reinforcing stimulus, dopamine pathways in the brain are activated. This network of pathways "releases a short pulse of dopamine onto many dendrites, thus broadcasting a global reinforcement signal to postsynaptic neurons." This allows recently activated synapses to increase their sensitivity to efferent (conducting outward) signals, thus increasing the probability of occurrence for the recent responses that preceded the reinforcement. These responses are, statistically, the most likely to have been the behavior responsible for successfully achieving reinforcement. But when the application of reinforcement is either less immediate or less contingent (less consistent), the ability of dopamine to act upon the appropriate synapses is reduced.

Questions about the law of effect
A number of observations seem to show that operant behavior can be established without reinforcement in the sense defined above. Most cited is the phenomenon of autoshaping (sometimes called "sign tracking"), in which a stimulus is repeatedly followed by reinforcement, and in consequence the animal begins to respond to the stimulus. For example, a response key is lighted and then food is presented. When this is repeated a few times a pigeon subject begins to peck the key even though food comes whether the bird pecks or not. Similarly, rats begin to handle small objects, such as a lever, when food is presented nearby. Strikingly, pigeons and rats persist in this behavior even when pecking the key or pressing the lever leads to less food (omission training). Another apparent operant behavior that appears without reinforcement is contrafreeloading.

These observations and others appear to contradict the law of effect, and they have prompted some researchers to propose new conceptualizations of operant reinforcement (e.g.   )  A more general view is that autoshaping is an instance of classical conditioning; the autoshaping procedure has, in fact, become one of the most common ways to measure classical conditioning. In this view, many behaviors can be influenced by both classical contingencies (stimulus-response) and operant contingencies (response-reinforcement), and the experimenter's task is to work out how these interact.

Applications
Reinforcement and punishment are ubiquitous in human social interactions, and a great many applications of operant principles have been suggested and implemented. The following are some examples.

Addiction and dependence
Positive and negative reinforcement play central roles in the development and maintenance of addiction and drug dependence. An addictive drug is intrinsically rewarding; that is, it functions as a primary positive reinforcer of drug use. The brain's reward system assigns it incentive salience (i.e., it is "wanted" or "desired"), so as an addiction develops, deprivation of the drug leads to craving. In addition, stimuli associated with drug use – e.g., the sight of a syringe, and the location of use – become associated with the intense reinforcement induced by the drug. These previously neutral stimuli acquire several properties: their appearance can induce craving, and they can become conditioned positive reinforcers of continued use. Thus, if an addicted individual encounters one of these drug cues, a craving for the associated drug may reappear. For example, anti-drug agencies previously used posters with images of drug paraphernalia as an attempt to show the dangers of drug use. However, such posters are no longer used because of the effects of incentive salience in causing relapse upon sight of the stimuli illustrated in the posters.

In drug dependent individuals, negative reinforcement occurs when a drug is self-administered in order to alleviate or "escape" the symptoms of physical dependence (e.g., tremors and sweating) and/or psychological dependence (e.g., anhedonia, restlessness, irritability, and anxiety) that arise during the state of drug withdrawal.

Animal training
Animal trainers and pet owners were applying the principles and practices of operant conditioning long before these ideas were named and studied, and animal training still provides one of the clearest and most convincing examples of operant control. Of the concepts and procedures described in this article, a few of the most salient are the following: (a) availability of primary reinforcement (e.g. a bag of dog yummies); (b) the use of secondary reinforcement, (e.g. sounding a clicker immediately after a desired response, then giving yummy); (c) contingency, assuring that reinforcement (e.g. the clicker) follows the desired behavior and not something else; (d) shaping, as in gradually getting a dog to jump higher and higher; (e) intermittent reinforcement, as in gradually reducing the frequency of reinforcement to induce persistent behavior without satiation; (f) chaining, where a complex behavior is gradually constructed from smaller units.

Applied behavior analysis
Applied behavior analysis is the discipline initiated by B. F. Skinner that applies the principles of conditioning to the modification of socially significant human behavior. It uses the basic concepts of conditioning theory, including conditioned stimulus (SC), discriminative stimulus (Sd), response (R), and reinforcing stimulus (Srein or Sr for reinforcers, sometimes Save for aversive stimuli).

Practitioners of applied behavior analysis (ABA) bring these procedures, and many variations and developments of them, to bear on a variety of socially significant behaviors and issues. In many cases, practitioners use operant techniques to develop constructive, socially acceptable behaviors to replace aberrant behaviors. The techniques of ABA have been effectively applied in to such things as early intensive behavioral interventions for children with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) research on the principles influencing criminal behavior, HIV prevention, conservation of natural resources, education, gerontology, health and exercise, industrial safety, language acquisition, littering, medical procedures, parenting, psychotherapy, seatbelt use, severe mental disorders, sports, substance abuse, phobias, pediatric feeding disorders, and zoo management and care of animals. Some of these applications are among those described below.

Child behavior – parent management training
Providing positive reinforcement for appropriate child behaviors is a major focus of parent management training. Typically, parents learn to reward appropriate behavior through social rewards (such as praise, smiles, and hugs) as well as concrete rewards (such as stickers or points towards a larger reward as part of an incentive system created collaboratively with the child). In addition, parents learn to select simple behaviors as an initial focus and reward each of the small steps that their child achieves towards reaching a larger goal (this concept is called "successive approximations").

Economics
Both psychologists and economists have become interested in applying operant concepts and findings to the behavior of humans in the marketplace. An example is the analysis of consumer demand, as indexed by the amount of a commodity that is purchased. In economics, the degree to which price influences consumption is called "the price elasticity of demand." Certain commodities are more elastic than others; for example, a change in price of certain foods may have a large effect on the amount bought, while gasoline and other everyday consumables may be less affected by price changes. In terms of operant analysis, such effects may be interpreted in terms of motivations of consumers and the relative value of the commodities as reinforcers.

Gambling – variable ratio scheduling
As stated earlier in this article, a variable ratio schedule yields reinforcement after the emission of an unpredictable number of responses. This schedule typically generates rapid, persistent responding. Slot machines pay off on a variable ratio schedule, and they produce just this sort of persistent lever-pulling behavior in gamblers. The variable ratio payoff from slot machines and other forms of gambling has often been cited as a factor underlying gambling addiction.

Military psychology
Human beings have an innate resistance to killing and are reluctant to act in a direct, aggressive way towards members of their own species, even to save life. This resistance to killing has caused infantry to be remarkably inefficient throughout the history of military warfare.

This phenomenon was not understood until S.L.A. Marshall (Brigadier General and military historian) undertook interview studies of WWII infantry immediately following combat engagement. Marshall's well-known and controversial book, Men Against Fire, revealed that only 15% of soldiers fired their rifles with the purpose of killing in combat. Following acceptance of Marshall's research by the US Army in 1946, the Human Resources Research Office of the US Army began implementing new training protocols which resemble operant conditioning methods. Subsequent applications of such methods increased the percentage of soldiers able to kill to around 50% in Korea and over 90% in Vietnam. Revolutions in training included replacing traditional pop-up firing ranges with three-dimensional, man-shaped, pop-up targets which collapsed when hit. This provided immediate feedback and acted as positive reinforcement for a soldier's behavior. Other improvements to military training methods have included the timed firing course; more realistic training; high repetitions; praise from superiors; marksmanship rewards; and group recognition. Negative reinforcement includes peer accountability or the requirement to retake courses. Modern military training conditions mid-brain response to combat pressure by closely simulating actual combat, using mainly Pavlovian classical conditioning and Skinnerian operant conditioning (both forms of behaviorism). "Modern marksmanship training is such an excellent example of behaviorism that it has been used for years in the introductory psychology course taught to all cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point as a classic example of operant conditioning. In the 1980s, during a visit to West Point, B.F. Skinner identified modern military marksmanship training as a near-perfect application of operant conditioning."Lt. Col. Dave Grossman states about operant conditioning and US Military training that:"It is entirely possible that no one intentionally sat down to use operant conditioning or behavior modification techniques to train soldiers in this area…But from the standpoint of a psychologist who is also a historian and a career soldier, it has become increasingly obvious to me that this is exactly what has been achieved."

Nudge theory
Nudge theory (or nudge) is a concept in behavioural science, political theory and economics which argues that indirect suggestions to try to achieve non-forced compliance can influence the motives, incentives and decision making of groups and individuals, at least as effectively – if not more effectively – than direct instruction, legislation, or enforcement.

Praise
The concept of praise as a means of behavioral reinforcement is rooted in B.F. Skinner's model of operant conditioning. Through this lens, praise has been viewed as a means of positive reinforcement, wherein an observed behavior is made more likely to occur by contingently praising said behavior. Hundreds of studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of praise in promoting positive behaviors, notably in the study of teacher and parent use of praise on child in promoting improved behavior and academic performance, but also in the study of work performance. Praise has also been demonstrated to reinforce positive behaviors in non-praised adjacent individuals (such as a classmate of the praise recipient) through vicarious reinforcement. Praise may be more or less effective in changing behavior depending on its form, content and delivery. In order for praise to effect positive behavior change, it must be contingent on the positive behavior (i.e., only administered after the targeted behavior is enacted), must specify the particulars of the behavior that is to be reinforced, and must be delivered sincerely and credibly.

Acknowledging the effect of praise as a positive reinforcement strategy, numerous behavioral and cognitive behavioral interventions have incorporated the use of praise in their protocols. The strategic use of praise is recognized as an evidence-based practice in both classroom management and parenting training interventions, though praise is often subsumed in intervention research into a larger category of positive reinforcement, which includes strategies such as strategic attention and behavioral rewards.

Several studies have been done on the effect cognitive-behavioral therapy and operant-behavioral therapy have on different medical conditions. When patients developed cognitive and behavioral techniques that changed their behaviors, attitudes, and emotions; their pain severity decreased. The results of these studies showed an influence of cognitions on pain perception and impact presented explained the general efficacy of Cognitive-Behavioral therapy (CBT) and Operant-Behavioral therapy (OBT).

Video games
The majority of video games are designed around a compulsion loop, adding a type of positive reinforcement through a variable rate schedule to keep the player playing. This can lead to the pathology of video game addiction.

As part of a trend in the monetization of video games during the 2010s, some games offered loot boxes as rewards or as items purchasable by real world funds. Boxes contains a random selection of in-game items. The practice has been tied to the same methods that slot machines and other gambling devices dole out rewards, as it follows a variable rate schedule. While the general perception that loot boxes are a form of gambling, the practice is only classified as such in a few countries. However, methods to use those items as virtual currency for online gambling or trading for real world money has created a skin gambling market that is under legal evaluation.

Operant Conditioning and Defensive Medicine
One of the many reasons proposed for the dramatic costs associated with healthcare is the practice of defensive medicine. Prabhu reviews the article by Cole and discusses how the responses of two groups of neurosurgeons are classic operant behavior. One group practice in a state with restrictions on medical lawsuits and the other group with no restrictions. The group of neurosurgeons were queried anonymously on their practice patterns. The physicians changed their practice in response to a negative feedback (fear from lawsuit) in the group that practiced in a state with no restrictions on medical lawsuits.

title: Operant conditioning


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Talk:Masjid

Mosquito? I don't think so - it's from masgid, a dialectal variant of masjid. There is a Spanish or Portuguese version of the word that sounds like mosquito, but it's unrelated. "Mosquito" is a diminutive derived from Latin musca, fly, and has nothing to do with masgid.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Talk:Masjid


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Samson and Delilah (opera)

Samson and Delilah (Samson et Dalila), Op. 47, is a grand opera in three acts and four scenes by Camille Saint-Saëns to a French libretto by Ferdinand Lemaire. It was first performed in Weimar at the Grossherzogliches (Grand Ducal) Theater (now the Staatskapelle Weimar) on 2 December 1877 in a German translation.

The opera is based on the Biblical tale of Samson and Delilah found in Chapter 16 of the Book of Judges in the Old Testament. It is the only opera by Saint-Saëns that is regularly performed. The second act love scene in Delilah's tent is one of the set pieces that define French opera. Two of Delilah's arias are particularly well known: "Printemps qui commence" ("Spring begins") and "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix" ("My heart opens itself to your voice", also known as "Softly awakes my heart"), the latter of which is one of the most popular recital pieces in the mezzo-soprano/contralto repertoire.

Composition history
In the middle of the 19th century, a revival of interest in choral music swept France, and Saint-Saëns, an admirer of the oratorios of Handel and Mendelssohn, made plans to compose an oratorio on the subject of Samson and Delilah as suggested by Voltaire's libretto Samson for Rameau. The composer began work on the theme in 1867, just two years after completing his first (and as then yet unperformed) opera, Le timbre d'argent. Saint-Saëns had approached Ferdinand Lemaire, the husband of one of his wife's cousins, about writing a libretto for the oratorio but Lemaire convinced the composer that the story was better suited to an opera.

Saint-Saëns later wrote: "A young relative of mine had married a charming young man who wrote verse on the side. I realized that he was gifted and had in fact real talent. I asked him to work with me on an oratorio on a biblical subject. 'An oratorio!', he said, 'no, let's make it an opera!', and he began to dig through the Bible while I outlined the plan of the work, even sketching scenes, and leaving him only the versification to do. For some reason I began the music with act 2, and I played it at home to a select audience who could make nothing of it at all."

After Lemaire finished the libretto, Saint-Saëns began actively composing act 2 of the opera, producing an aria for Dalila, a duet for Samson and Dalila, and some musical pieces for the chorus (some of which were later assigned to act 1) during 1867–1869. From the very beginning, the work was conceived as a grand duet between Samson and Dalila set off against the approaching tempest. Although the orchestration was not yet complete, act 2 was presented in a private performance in 1870 just prior to the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War with Saint-Saëns playing the orchestral parts, which were largely improvised, on the piano. Composer Augusta Holmès (Dalila), painter Henri Regnault (Samson), and Romain Bussine (High Priest) rendered their roles from part books. In spite of many precedents, the French public reacted negatively to Saint-Saëns's intention of putting a Biblical subject on the stage. The alarm on the part of the public caused him to abandon working further on the opera for the next two years.

In the summer of 1872, not too long after the premiere of Saint-Saëns's second opera La princesse jaune, the composer went to Weimar to see the first revival of Wagner's Das Rheingold under the baton of Franz Liszt, the former musical director of the Weimar court orchestra and opera. Liszt was highly interested in producing new works by talented composers and persuaded Saint-Saëns to finish Samson and Delilah, even offering to produce the completed work at the grand-ducal opera house in Weimar. Encouraged, Saint-Saëns began composing act 1 in late 1872 and worked on it sporadically for the next few years. He wrote a large amount of act 1 and completed it during a trip to Algiers in 1874. Upon returning to France in 1875, Saint-Saëns presented act 1 in Paris at the Théâtre du Châtelet in a similar format as the 1870 performance of act 2. The work was harshly received by music critics and failed to gain the public's interest. That year acclaimed mezzo-soprano Pauline Viardot, for whom Saint-Saëns wrote the role of Dalila, organized and performed in a private performance of act 2 at a friend's home in Croissy, with the composer at the piano. Viardot was a great admirer of the work and she hoped that this private performance would encourage Halanzier, the director of the Paris Opéra who was in attendance, to mount a full production. Although Saint-Saëns completed the score in 1876, no opera houses in France displayed any desire to stage Samson et Dalila. Liszt's sustained support however led to the work being mounted in Weimar in 1877.

Premiere in Weimar

Although Liszt was no longer the musical director in Weimar, he still exerted a powerful influence at the Weimar court. Eduard Lassen, the director who followed Liszt at Weimar, owed much of his success to his celebrated predecessor, and Liszt used his influence to arrange the premiere of Samson et Dalila with Lassen on the podium during the 1877/1878 season. The libretto was duly translated into German for the production and the opera's first performance was given on 2 December 1877 at the Grossherzogliches Theatre (Grand Ducal Theater). Viardot was too old to sing Delilah so the role was entrusted to Auguste von Müller, a resident performer at the Weimar opera house. Although a resounding success with the Weimar critics and audience, the opera was not immediately revived in other opera houses.

Beginning of international popularity in the 1890s
After the numerous setbacks it suffered in its early years, Samson et Dalila finally began to attract the attention of the world's great opera houses during the 1890s. Although the next new production of Samson et Dalila was in Germany at the Hamburg State Opera in 1882, afterwards the opera was not seen again until it was performed for the first time in France at the Théâtre des Arts in Rouen on 3 March 1890 with Carlotta Bossi as Dalila and Jean-Alexandre Talazac as Samson. The opera received its Paris premiere at the Éden-Théâtre on 31 October 1890 with Rosine Bloch as Dalila and Talazac singing Samson once again, this time with a much warmer reception by Paris audiences. Over the next two years, performances were given in Bordeaux, Geneva, Toulouse, Nantes, Dijon, and Montpellier. The Paris Opéra finally staged the opera on 23 November 1892 in a performance under the supervision of Saint-Saëns conducted by Édouard Colonne with Blanche Deschamps-Jéhin as Dalila and Edmond Vergnet as Samson. Directed by Lapissida, the staging had costumes by Charles Bianchini and sets by Amable and Eugène Gardy (acts 1 and 2), and Eugène Carpezat (act 3). The performance was lauded by critics and spectators alike.

Samson et Dalila also earned a great deal of popularity outside France during the 1890s. The opera debuted successfully in Monaco at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 15 March 1892. This was followed by the opera's United States premiere at Carnegie Hall in a concert version on 24 March 1892 by the Oratorio Society of New York, conducted by Walter Damrosch. The first staged performance of the opera in the U.S. was held at the French Opera House, New Orleans on 4 January 1893. The first of many productions at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City was held on 2 February 1895, with Eugenia Mantelli as Dalila, Francesco Tamagno as Samson, and Pol Plançon portraying both Abimélech and the Old Hebrew. There is some evidence that the sets for the Met's production had been taken from some of their other operas, and at the second performance that season the work was given in concert, with the ballet sequences omitted; in this form the work traveled to Boston, where it was performed on 3 March 1895.

The opera made its premiere in Italy at the Teatro Pagliano (Teatro Verdi (Florence)) on 26 March 1892. The opera was given in Venice at the Teatro La Fenice on 8 March 1893 with Elisa Persini as Dalila and Augusto Brogi as Samson. The work was first given at La Scala on 17 January 1895 with Renée Vidal as Dalila and Emanuele Lafarge as Samson. This was followed by its first performance at the Teatro Regio di Torino on 6 January 1897 with Alice Cucini and Irma De Spagni alternating as Dalila and Hector Dupeyron as Samson. The work was first performed at the Teatro Regio di Parma that same year and was mounted at the Teatro Comunale di Bologna in 1899.

In England, the opera was first performed on 25 September 1893 at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Although the company planned on performing the work in a fully staged production, the Lord Chamberlain objected to a Biblical work being mounted and the company was forced to present the opera in a concert version. It was not staged in London until 1909 when the ban was finally lifted. Louise Kirkby Lunn portrayed Dalila and Charles Fontaine portrayed Samson in the 1909 production. Subsequently, Paul Franz replaced Fontaine in the protagonist's role, earning the composer's praise for both the quality of his voice and his interpretation.

20th and 21st century performance history
By 1906, Samson et Dalila had received more than 200 performances internationally. The opera has continued to remain moderately popular since and, while not being among the most frequently performed operas, the work has become a part of the standard opera performance repertory at most major opera houses. The opera has been revived numerous times not only in Europe and North America, but also in South America, Australia, and Asia. While none of Saint-Saëns's later operas suffered the tribulations endured by Samson et Dalila during its early years, none of his other works have achieved the same enduring success either.

In North America, French contralto Jeanne Gerville-Réache is largely credited for popularizing the work in the United States and Canada during the early twentieth century. Réache first performed the role of Delilah with the Manhattan Opera Company in New York City in 1908 and went on to sing the role several more times over the next seven years, including performances in Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, and Montreal (for the Canadian premiere in 1915).

The Metropolitan Opera revived the opera in its 1915/1916 season with Margaret Matzenauer as Delilah, Enrico Caruso as Samson, and Pasquale Amato as the High Priest. Since then the company has staged productions of the opera at least once every decade giving more than 200 performances of the work. Plácido Domingo performed as Samson in the 1981 San Francisco Opera production co-starring Shirley Verrett, under Julius Rudel and at the Metropolitan Opera's 1998 production with Olga Borodina. More recent productions of the opera by the Metropolitan have been in 2006, with Marina Domashenko and Olga Borodina alternating as Delilah, and in 2018 with Elīna Garanča and Roberto Alagna. The Lyric Opera of Chicago gave their first performance of the opera in November 1962 with Rita Gorr as Delilah and Hans Kaart as Samson. The company has revived the work numerous times since then, most recently in their 2003/2004 season with Olga Borodina as Dalila and José Cura as Samson. Likewise, the San Francisco Opera has staged the opera 10 times during its history giving its first performance in 1925, with Marguerite d'Alvarez and Fernand Ansseau in the principal roles, and its most recent performance in 2008, with Borodina and Clifton Forbis.

Samson et Dalila became a consistent presence in the opera houses of Europe. By 1920, the Paris Opéra alone had given more than five hundred performances of the opera. In the decades after World War II, it was less often heard by European audiences; but since the 1980s it has regained much of its former Continental popularity. Recent European productions include performances at La Scala, Milan, in 2002 (Domingo and Borodina); the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in 2004 (Denyce Graves and José Cura) and again in 2022; the Royal Swedish Opera in 2008 (Anna Larsson and Lars Cleveman).

Throughout its history, Samson et Dalila has served as a star vehicle for many singers. The role of Delilah is considered to be one of the great opera roles for the mezzo-soprano.

Libretto
Although the libretto of Samson et Dalila is taken from Chapter 16 of the Book of Judges, the opera does not include the accounts of Samson's heroic deeds which earned him both fame and leadership among the Hebrews. The accounts of Samson's slaying of a lion and his triumph over 1000 Philistines while wielding only the jawbone of an ass are omitted. Saint-Saëns and his librettist most likely made this choice so the story would concentrate on Dalila. Samson, therefore, is presented as an inspiring leader rather than the almost supernatural hero of the Bible. It is his vulnerable, tender heart and his susceptibility to the protestations of love from a dissembling woman that is the focus of the plot. Delilah is portrayed as a manipulative, conniving, ruthless woman bent on revenge. Samson's numerous attempts to conceal the secret of his strength in the Biblical account are only referenced by Dalila in her duet with the High Priest in the opera, and the revelation that his strength resides in his hair occurs offstage. The opera includes some material not found in the Bible such as the death of Abimélech in act 1.

Synopsis

 * Place: Gaza
 * Time: c. 1150 BC

Act 1
A square in Gaza at night

In a square outside the temple of Dagon, a group of Hebrews beg Jehovah for relief from their bondage to the Philistines in a melancholy chorus ("Dieu d'Israël – God of Israel"), which leads into a fugue ("Nous avons vu nos cités renversées – We have seen our cities overturned"). Samson tries to revive the Israelites' morale and faith in God ("Arrêtez, ô mes frères – Stop, O my brothers") in a rousing aria set against the chorus's continuous prayer. Abimelech, the Philistine governor, appears and taunts the Israelites, saying that they are helpless because their god has abandoned them. He further states that his god, Dagon, is far superior ("Ce Dieu que votre voix implore – This God that your voice implores"). The Hebrews cower in fear before Abimelech until Samson incites them into defiant action. Enraged, Abimelech attacks an unarmed Samson with his sword. Samson manages to wrest the sword from Abimelech and kills him.

Afraid of what might now happen, the Hebrews flee, abandoning Samson. The High Priest of Dagon comes from the Philistine temple and curses the Hebrews and Samson's prodigious strength. A messenger arrives and informs the High Priest that the Hebrews are destroying the harvest. He responds with a further curse that alludes to his plot to utilize Dalila's beauty to outwit Samson's strength ("Qu'enfin une compagne infâme trahisse son amour! – Finally an infamous companion betrays his love!").

As dawn breaks the Hebrews lift up a humble prayer to God in a style reminiscent of plainchant. Out of the temple emerges Dalila along with several priestesses of Dagon. As they walk down the temple steps, they sing of the pleasures of spring. Dalila engages seductively with Samson proclaiming that he has won her heart and bids him to come with her to her home in the valley of Sorek. As she tries to charm him, a trio forms as an old Hebrew warns of the danger this woman presents and Samson prays for God's protection from Dalila's charms. In an attempt to seduce Samson away from his leadership of the Israelite uprising, Dalila and the priestesses begin a sexually charged dance for him accompanied by a tambourine. After the dance, Dalila sings how spring is blossoming all around her yet, in her heart, she feels like it is still winter ("Printemps qui commence – Spring begins"). As Samson struggles with his desire for Dalila, the old Hebrew repeats his cautionary plea. His warning, however, is made in vain and the curtain closes as Samson meets Dalila's gaze with every intention of going to her nearby dwelling.

Act 2
Delilah's retreat in the Valley of Sorek

Dalila knows that Samson is entranced with her and will come to her instead of leading the revolution against the Philistines. Sitting on a rock outside the entrance to her retreat, she sings triumphantly about her power to ensnare Samson. She says that all of his strength is hopeless to withstand love's onslaught ("Amour! viens aider ma faiblesse – Love! come help my weakness").

Distant lightning is seen as the High Priest arrives to report that Samson and the Hebrews have conquered the Philistines. He attempts to achieve Samson's capture by offering Dalila gold, but she refuses saying she cares not for money but only for revenge. Her desire to hurt Samson is motivated solely by her loyalty to her gods and her hatred for the Hebrews. Dalila and the High Priest sing a duet expressing their mutual abhorrence for Samson and the Hebrews. Dalila vows to discover the secret of Samson's strength.

Now alone, Dalila contemplates her chances of success. Samson, intent on taking his place as the leader of the Hebrew revolt, emerges to say his last farewell as distant lightning is once again seen. In an attempt to close the trap which she has set for Samson, Dalila tells Samson seductively that she is completely his if he wants her. She begs him to respond to her caresses, hoping that he will finally let go of all other things and concentrate completely on her. His admission Je t'aime! introduces her main aria "Mon cœur s'ouvre à ta voix – My heart opens to your voice", which becomes a duet on the second verse when Samson joins her in song. Now that Dalila has him in her power, she feigns disbelief in his constancy and demands that he show his love by confiding in her the secret of his strength. Samson hears rolling thunder again which now seems like a warning from God and refuses. Dalila weeps and scorns Samson and runs into her dwelling. Samson is momentarily torn but then follows Dalila inside. Not long afterward, having finally learned that the secret of Samson's strength is his long hair, she calls to hidden Philistine soldiers, who rush in to capture and blind Samson.

Act 3
The city of Gaza

Scene 1: In a dungeon at Gaza

His hair shorn and now blind and shackled, Samson is turning a mill-wheel and praying for his people, who will suffer for his sin. He hears their voices, echoing the Hebrews' lament from act 1. Overcome with remorse, Samson offers his life in sacrifice, while the Hebrews are heard in the distance lamenting his fate.

Scene 2: In the Temple of Dagon

A musical interlude is played as the scene changes to the temple of Dagon, where the Philistines are preparing a sacrifice to commemorate their victory. The priests and priestesses of Dagon sing softly, reprising the song to spring from act 1. The music turns savage as the priests dance a wild Bacchanale. Following the dance, Samson enters led by a boy. He is ridiculed by the High Priest and the crowd. Dalila taunts Samson further by recounting to him the details of her devious plot in a variant of her love song. When the priests try to force him to kneel before Dagon, he asks the boy to lead him to the two main pillars of the temple, then telling the child to flee. Samson prays to God to restore his strength, and pushes down the pillars and the temple with them, crushing himself and his enemies. The curtain falls.

Recordings

 * Note: "Cat:" is short for the label's catalogue number where available.

title: Samson and Delilah (opera)


text:
Jamesville, North Carolina

Jamesville is a town in Martin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 491 at the 2010 census.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.3 sqmi, all land.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 502 people, 199 households, and 140 families residing in the town. The population density was 375.1 /mi2. There were 233 housing units at an average density of 174.1 /mi2. The racial makeup of the town was 64.94% of White, 33.86% African American, 1.00% from other races, and 0.20% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.20% of the population.

There were 199 households, out of which 32.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 46.2% were married couples living together, 18.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 29.6% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household Aaron size was 2.52 and the average family size was 3.04.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 28.1% under the age of 18, 6.2% from 18 to 24, 25.1% from 25 to 44, 22.1% from 45 to 64, and 18.5% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 38 years. For every 100 females, there were 92.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.4 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $28,438, and the median income for a family was $32,813. Males had a median income of $32,045 versus $20,208 for females. The per capita income for the town was $16,682. About 21.5% of families and 19.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 31.7% of those under age 18 and 13.4% of those age 65 or over.

Education

 * Jamesville Elementary School
 * Northeast Regional School Of Biotechnology & Agriscience

In literature and fiction
The town of Jamesville is featured in Don Brown's historical fiction novel Destiny, the prequel to Brown's Navy Justice Series.

Notable person
Jimmy Brown - Major League Baseball infielder with the St. Louis Cardinals

title: Jamesville, North Carolina


text:
Oak City, North Carolina

Oak City, formerly known as Goose Nest, is a town in Martin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 266 at the 2020 census.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 0.5 sqmi, all land.

2020 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 339 people, 144 households, and 91 families residing in the town. The population density was 709.7 /mi2. There were 162 housing units at an average density of 339.2 /mi2. The racial makeup of the town was 52.51% White, 45.72% African American, 0.29% Asian, 1.18% from other races, and 0.29% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.18% of the population.

There were 144 households, out of which 22.2% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.1% were married couples living together, 15.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 36.8% were non-families. 36.1% of all households were made up of individuals, and 22.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.35 and the average family size was 3.07.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 23.3% under the age of 18, 7.1% from 18 to 24, 20.1% from 25 to 44, 22.4% from 45 to 64, and 27.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 45 years. For every 100 females, there were 81.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 73.3 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $26,458, and the median income for a family was $33,500. Males had a median income of $23,750 versus $15,781 for females. The per capita income for the town was $15,302. About 18.2% of families and 26.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 37.3% of those under age 18 and 32.7% of those age 65 or over.

title: Oak City, North Carolina


text:
Parmele, North Carolina

Parmele is a town in Martin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 278 at the 2010 census.

History
The town was settled in 1890 when the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad was built through the area to provide transportation from nearby lumber mills. It was named for local lumber mill owner E. A. Parmele. Following the construction of the Albemarle and Raleigh Railroad, the population rapidly grew and it was incorporated as a town in 1893 by the North Carolina General Assembly. A fire that burned through much of the town on April 1, 1904, destroying many businesses and led to the decline of nearby lumber mills. In 1909, William C. Chance founded the Higgs Industrial School for African Americans (also known as the Parmele Industrial Institute) which at its peak occupied a six-building campus and merged with the town's public school. The school was closed following a fire at its main building in 1954.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, it has a total area of 1.2 sqmi, all of it land.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 290 people, 114 households, and 73 families residing. The population density was 244.7 /mi2. There were 133 housing units at an average density of 112.2 /mi2. The racial makeup was 10.69% White, 85.86% African American, 0.34% Native American, 0.34% Asian, and 2.76% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 0.69% of the population.

There were 114 households, out of which 26.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 33.3% were married couples living together, 25.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 34.2% of all households were made up of individuals, and 21.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and the average family size was 3.27.

The population was spread out, with 25.5% under the age of 18, 8.6% from 18 to 24, 20.3% from 25 to 44, 27.9% from 45 to 64, and 17.6% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 77.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.5 males.

The median income for a household was $20,179, and the median income for a family was $21,528. Males had a median income of $22,344 versus $16,964 for females. The per capita income was $16,976. About 28.0% of families and 29.1% of the population were below the poverty line, including 32.0% of those under the age of eighteen and 28.0% of those 65 or over.

Notable people
Country music group, Parmalee best known for their single "Carolina" is from Parmele.

Author Eloise Greenfield. Greenfield wrote children's books, poetry and a biography of her family.

title: Parmele, North Carolina


text:
Robersonville, North Carolina

Robersonville, incorporated in 1872, is a town located in Martin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 1,269 at the 2020 census. Robersonville is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. It is home to the East Carolina Motor Speedway.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 1.2 sqmi, all land.

2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,269 people, 668 households, and 452 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,398.5 /mi2. There were 742 housing units at an average density of 637.0 /mi2. Out of 666 households, 23.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.8% were married couples living together, 22.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.1% were non-families. 33.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 20.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.40 and the average family size was 3.07.

23.7% of the population was under the age of 18, 6.7% were from 18 to 24, 23.4% were from 25 to 44, 24.1% were from 45 to 64, and 22.1% were 65 or older. The median age was 42. For every 100 females, there were 75.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 69.6 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $43,384, and the median income for a family was $68,565. Males had a median income of $41,250 versus $29,375 for females. The per capita income for the town was $34,431. About 6.2% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 4.2% of those under age 18 and 14.4% of those age 65 or over.

History
The earliest known citizens of the Robersonville area were the Tuscarora and Morotock Native Americans. However, according to various deeds, family bibles, wills, and church records, settlers arrived many years before the Revolutionary War. One of the earliest known churches of the area was Flat Swamp Primitive Baptist Church, founded in 1776. Among the early settlers of this area was the family of Henry Robason, who is said to have been born in 1710 in England. Eventually the family name became "Roberson" and the family tree grew throughout the region. Before the Civil War, George O. Roberson and his father, William, owned a store originally located on the northwest corner of what is now known as Railroad and Roberson Streets. The local militia trained at this store during the Civil War. After returning from the war, George built a store across the street from the original one.

When the town was incorporated February 16, 1872, it became the first town in Martin County not located on the Roanoke River; thus, it wasn't dependent on the river for communication with other settlements. Instead, the railroad was the main artery of communication and trade. The town was named after Henry, William, and George Roberson. Of the 3 brothers, Henry D. Roberson is considered to the "Father of Robersonville." He served as director, stockholder, and one of the foremost promoters of the railroad that ran from Williamston to Tarboro. It was first known as the Williamston and Tarboro R.R., but, the name was soon changed to Seaboard and Raleigh R.R., then the Albemarle and Raleigh R.R., and is now part of the Atlantic Coast Line system. Although the Seaboard and Raleigh Railway Company would not be incorporated until late 1873, town founders envisioned it as a prominent trading center and market for western Martin County. Growing slowly during its first decade, after the railroad's completion in October 1882, the town had eleven general stores, two physicians, and a number of industries by 1884. The population was then 400 residents, with an influx of farm families and ambitious young men moving here because of various entrepreneurial, educational, and social opportunities. The first mayor was William W. Roberson. The original town commissioners were Henry D. Roberson, Staton Everett, and Eli Askew. Vance L. Roberson served the longest tenure of public service of any Robersonville citizen. Henry Staton Everett served longer than any other mayor.

In the late 1800s, the Jewish Agricultural Society, helped many Jewish families relocate from Russia to the United States. While most of these families settled in the Northeast, a few were relocated to eastern North Carolina due to its agrarian-based economy and abundance of affordable land. Most notably the Margolis, Smith (Schmidt), and Bernstein families came to the Robersonville area in the early 1900s and took to farming in addition to owning department stores and shops. In 1902, Adath Shalom (Congregation of Peace) was established. The first synagogue was built in 1907 and existed until it caught fire in the late 1940s. Afterward, most families attended religious services in nearby Rocky Mount. The handful of Jewish families, which resided in Robersonville and nearby Williamston, either died or relocated to larger cities with the Margolis family being one of the last to leave in the 1990s.

Postal Service began on July 10, 1874, with Wilson T. Outterbridge as the first postmaster. Mrs. Geneva Weaver served the longest term of any Robersonville postmaster. The first electric plant was built around 1914 and was privately owned and operated. Around 1940, the town contracted to buy current from Greenville. After World War II, a contract was negotiated with Virginia Electric & Power. Later, Carolina Power & Light was used. At one time, J.S. (Jim) Simpson supervised the distribution and maintenance of electricity, under the direction of Town Manager James E. Gray and Clerk Alice Briley. Today, the town has a contract with Electricities, Inc. The water and sewage disposal system was installed in 1924.

The Robersonville Primitive Baptist Church was founded in 1883. The land was given for the sole purpose of building a house of public worship and school. The original church was dismantled in 1883 and the present sanctuary completed the same year. The building was later restored in the 1990s by Dr. Everette James and is now home to the St. James Place Museum, one of the oldest buildings in town. This restored historical landmark serves as a fascinating museum of southern folk art. The late, clapboard Gothic-revival architecture church building now houses original furnishings, folk art, and antique duck decoys. More than 100 North Carolina quilts, including 42 African-American examples, and hundreds of pieces of North Carolina pottery are exhibited. This museum located on the corner of old U.S. 64 and Outerbridge St., is open year-round daily by appointment. Visitors should schedule free tours through the Robersonville Town Library.

As site of the county's first tobacco market on August 7, 1900, Robersonville embarked on a second, more expansive era of prosperity, civic progress, and development with a population that surged up to 1,200 during the early 20th century. The town was becoming a rural trading center and market for agricultural commodities. The tobacco market was once reported to be the largest in the world with a single set of buyers. Mr. J.C. Andrews was chosen as "soliciting agent" to seek subscriptions to buy the land necessary for the market. In 1903, he and Mr. J.W. Ferrell purchased the Carolina and Southern Warehouses. Taylor Warehouse opened that same year and was run by W.H. Adkins, J.H. Taylor, and R.A. Bailey. These warehouses changed hands and names many times. In 1930, the New Red Front Warehouse was built and operated by Jimmie Taylor and Jim Gray. In the same year, Haywood Everett and J.R. Morris were the managers of Central Warehouse. The Adkins and Bailey Warehouse, which used to be Taylor Warehouse was now under management of W.H. Adkins and R.A. Bailey. In 1947, the Planters Warehouse was built on the opposite side of town from the other three. Mr. E.G. Anderson and Mr. H.T. Highsmith were the proprietors of the warehouse. In the spring of 1968, the Adkins and Bailey Warehouse burned down. Mr. James E. Gray financed the rebuilding of a new warehouse on the same spot. The new Gray's Warehouse was opened in the 1968 season. In 1971, Planters Warehouse was purchased by Mr. Norman Hardee and Mr. Edwin Lee. They renamed it Hardee's Warehouse. Also that year, Gray's, Red front, and Central Warehouses were under the ownership of James E. Gray, Jim Gray, R.K. Adkins, and Jack Sharp, taking the place of his late father-in-law, Mr. Charlie Gray. In 1973, Mr. James E. Gray died and his son, Harry Gray, took over his position. The tobacco market in Martin County did very well until 2001 when the larger companies began to contract directly with the grower.

Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, Eddie Vanderford and Harry Gray (Gray's Red Front and Central Whse), and Kenneth Roberson (Hardee's Whse.) were running the auction sales in Robersonville. In 2001, Harry Gray leased Gray's Warehouse to Philip Morris as a tobacco receiving station and Mr. Gray contracted tobacco through Lester Warren, station operator and agent for Philip Morris. In 2008, Harry Gray retired from the tobacco business and Alliance One International took over the receiving station with Mr. Warren still the operator. In fact, Robersonville still has a tobacco market receiving station, the only one in the area and Mr. Gray is still leasing the warehouse to Alliance One. There is more tobacco grown in the Robersonville area today then in many years due to increased demand and having the local tobacco receiving station. Robersonville has had a tobacco market since 1900. Central Warehouse and the Red Front Warehouses have been razed. Hardee's Warehouse is now owned by the Roberson's "Scattered Acres Farms." Gray's Warehouse is still receiving tobacco and tobacco is still King. Cotton is also one of the biggest cash crops. The growth of new industries brought new residential areas which opened to provide homes for the town's increased population – most notably New Town, a residential neighborhood that would become one of eastern North Carolina's most cohesive and civic-minded early 20th-century African-American communities.

The newly acquired prosperity, improved educational opportunities, and modern municipal services fostered a lively cultural and social life in town, where entertaining diversions and several cultural, civic, and social groups flourished. Even during the Great Depression, economic expansion slowed drastically in Robersonville, but the municipality benefited from state and federal relief programs. Inexpensive sports and popular social pastimes, such as Little League Baseball and bridge, also eased the hardships for many during those rough years.

Robersonville soon developed into a leader of the industrial revolution, which has characterized the economy of Martin County in the last half-century. In 1910, the Robersonville Hosiery and Manufacturing Co. was incorporated. In 1912, the firm was reorganized as Robersonville-Tar River Hosiery Mill, Inc. The ruins of this brick building still stand on the corner of N. Railroad and Mill Streets. Most of the industry – a large cotton ginning plant, lumber mills, and grist mills – in the early part of the 20th century focused on the handling of agricultural or lumber products. Southeastern Tobacco Co. operated a large tobacco re-drying and stemming plant for many years. John Henry Roberson, Jr., a direct descendant of the founders of Robersonville, owned his own farm south of Robersonville, and was involved in many civic affairs with his brothers David Roberson and Grover H. Roberson. Grover H. Roberson left the Robersonville area in early 1940 to join the U.S. Navy. Grover saw action at the Battle of Anzio. After the Battle of Anzio, Grover was in the company of a group of other naval officers and had a special audience with Pope Pius XII at the Vatican in Rome, Italy.

Some of the early industries were not directly related to agriculture. The D.B. Parker Buggy Co. began in 1903 and operated until its product was replaced by the automobile. Established in 1905, the Carolina Brick Co. made ornamental bricks with a capacity of 30,000 daily. Since the late 1950s, a wider range of industry has appeared. In 1958, a poultry processing company was opened by Austin Farms. This plant was later purchased by Central Soya of Athens, Inc. and then later owned by Perdue. Also in 1958, Robersonville Manufacturing Co. was chartered as a maker of children's clothes. John Henry Roberson, Jr. lived on Broad Street and worked in the local tobacco market for many years. It expanded and was acquired by Blue Gem, which had its origins as the Hamilton Pants Manufacturing Company. Later it was changed to Southern Apparel. Robersonville Products Co. opened in 1970. As a division of Hallmark, it produced display fixtures for retail stores. After closing in 1993, the building was used by Empire Brush Company. Also in 1970, Blue Ridge Shoe Co. opened and began making children's shoes. Later the building was bought by Sandra Manufacturing Co., a sewing plant later known as Generation II, and then later as Ithaca Inc. and recently Caraustar. Microcell Corp., a hydrogen fuel company is moving into the old Caraustar building. Carolina Peanuts was started by locals as a small company but later grew after being acquired by Anheuser-Busch. Eagle Snacks later changed to Guy Snacks and for years was known as Ann's House of Nuts. Today, it is owned by Flagstone Foods based out of Minneapolis, MN.

Today the town's biggest entertainment venue is East Carolina Motor Speedway, a racetrack. East Carolina Motor Speedway opened its first season in 1989 with the thoughts of having a much needed attraction for racing fans throughout Eastern North Carolina. This D-shaped, 3/8 mile track has 24 degree banking in its turns as well as 10 degree banking on its straight-a-ways. The track is 40 feet wide, allowing cars to run three-wide for added excitement to its spectators. The grandstand can seat 3,000 fans and VIP booths located in turn four provide a first-class view of the entire track and pit area.

The Filling Station Restaurant has an interesting historical artifact. In the 1940s, Bill Bemis worked at Jim Johnson's store in nearby Gold Point, North Carolina and painted pictures for a hobby. Using enamel paints, he created a mural on the inside walls of the store. The mural depicts then store owner Jim Johnson and his daughters Mable and Peggy and their dog, in a fox hunt scene. This store was later called the Grant Vandiford store until it was moved to Robersonville to be part of the dining room of the Filling Station Restaurant. After the move, Bill Bemis retouched his work, so, the fox hunt mural is as bright and colorful today as it was 60 years ago.

The volunteer fire department was first organized in 1924 with William Gray as the first fire chief and police chief. The rescue squad was organized in 1959 and was the first one in Martin County. It was sponsored by the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jay Cee's) under the leadership of John L. House and Robert E. Lee. A municipal building houses the police, fire, and rescue departments as well as the public library.

Although the railroad has been replaced by the new US 64 Bypass as the town's main link to the outside world, Robersonville continues to thrive, providing needed services, industry and entertainment to local and out-of-town residents alike.

Nationally Registered Historic Places

 * First Christian Church (registered April 28, 2005)
 * W.J. Little House (September 19, 1985)
 * Robersonville Primitive Baptist Church (April 20, 2005)

Education
Martin County Schools operates public schools.

BHM Regional Library operates the Robersonville Library.

Martin Community College is the county's community college system.

History of education

 * Robersonville Graded School (1902–1923)
 * Outterbridge Grammar School (1923–1974) also known as Robersonville Elementary (whites)
 * East End High School (blacks)
 * Robersonville High School(1929–1975, later Robersonville Jr. High School grades 6–8 1976–2000)
 * Roanoke High School (1975–2010)
 * East End Elementary School (1974–2018) K-5
 * Roanoke Middle School (2001–Present) 6–8
 * South Creek High School (2010–Present)

The first classes were held in 1881 at the Stonewall Masonic Hall on Main Street. Built in 1871, this is one of the oldest building still standing in Robersonville. Mr. Stephen W. Outterbridge (Born January 23, 1825-Died January 28, 1915) taught at the masonic hall from 1885 until 1896 and at his private school located beside his home on Outerbridge Street until 1900. Commencement for the Robersonville school was conducted in the Masonic Hall in the late 19th century and later had to be held in the upstairs of what is now the Smith building when attendance grew. Later, students would take a special train that was run from Oak City via Parmele and Robersonville to graduation services in Williamston and back for the all-day occasion. Later, Robersonville began to hold its own commencement again. Students received music lessons on the pipe organ located in the Disciples of Christ Church located next door to the masonic hall. Stephen Outterbridge could be called the Father of Education in Robersonville. Both he and his wife Susan were admired greatly by the citizens of Robersonville. Although they never had biological children of their own, they molded the characters of many local youth. They helped to open Robersonville Graded School.

The tobacco market caused an economic boom and encouraged the town to file a special deed in the Register of Deeds office May 6, 1902. In 1902, Mr. C. H. McLaurin became the first principal of Robersonville Graded School and served three years. Students came in from surrounding areas to board in local rooms and go to school. Mr. John Dawson Everett, Robersonville native and a graduate of Peabody College, came from Bethel in 1905 to become principal and remained through 1909. He and Miss Lelia Thornton and Miss Dora Mae Krider taught the first high school subjects. Miss Ethel Peele was the first female graduate in 1908, while Mr. C. Abram Roberson was the first male graduate. The 10th grade was added in 1912, and the eleventh grade added in 1917. Mr. William Gray, Mr. Thomas House and Mr. C. Abram Roberson, senior students, helped to plant cedar trees in front of the academy, in honor of Prof. and Mrs. Outterbridge at the time of their retirement. Two trees were planted. One was named Stephen and one Susan. The town had a rural librarian until a library room was added to the wood frame graded school in 1918.

When Parmele, Everetts, and Gold Point Schools consolidated with Robersonville, more space was needed. In January 1924, Robersonville's first brick building was opened for the white students on the same lot as the previous wood-framed structure, which was sold in two sections, one of which became a new colored school. The new white building, built at a cost of $62,406, had six grammar school and four high school teachers on the staff, including the principal, Mr. G. W. Rhodes. Improved facilities not enjoyed before included electric lights, running water, inside toilets, and janitor service. Telephone service was installed in 1926. Also in that year, the Robersonville Graded School district surrendered its private charter and became part of the Martin County System of Public Schools. The Betterment Association raised money for auditorium curtains and planted shrubbery in front of the building. In the summer of 1949, the county renovated by painting the inside of the building; adding new desks, new furniture in the library, a new foundation, and a new roof; and updating the electrical system. Outterbridge Grammar School was the first accredited grammar school in Martin County.

A few blocks away on Academy Street, another brick school was built and occupied in September 1929. The first commencement exercises in the new Robersonville High School auditorium were held in April 1930. Public school music began in 1930. The school consists of sixteen rooms including; an auditorium and gymnasium, a suite of rooms set aside for home economics, a music room, principal's office, a library, and classrooms.

In 1936 a brick school was built on Cochran Street for black students in the southeastern section of Robersonville called New Town. The building consisted of eight classrooms, an auditorium, library, storage room, and an office. One of the classrooms was used for a lunchroom. The staff consisted of six teachers and Principal Armistead. At that time it was called Robersonville Colored Graded School. After Mr. Armistead died, Mr. N.W. Slade became principal in 1940.

In 1931, Mrs. Betty Gray used the old home economics room of the grammar school building to start the School Lunchroom Program, mainly to supplement the diet of needy children. Without a market for their produce, many farmers were glad to exchange chickens, eggs, ham, milk, etc., for meals for their children. Under the guidance of the Woman's Club, with Mrs. Vernon Ward, Mrs. Haywood Wilson, and Mrs. Betty Gray, summer garden and canning projects served to stock the lunchroom. In 1939–40 more than 110 lunches were furnished daily, about 95 of which were free. Mrs. Betty Gray worked as a volunteer in the lunchroom for five years. Mr. Marvin Everett, Building Principal of the Outterbridge Grammar School, assumed the business management of the lunchroom in 1938–48. A ruling was passed in 1944 requesting pupils of the grammar school to bring lunch and eat in the lunchroom. An important by-product of the lunchroom was the group feeling that was created by all eating together.

A high school lunchroom was maintained for two years, 1944–46, under the management of Mr. A. L. Hendron, principal. When vocational agriculture was resumed in the teaching program following the War in 1947–48, the agriculture building being used at the time as a lunchroom, had to be vacated. The high school students now bought tickets in advance and ate in the grammar school lunchroom. A new graded school lunchroom, built in 1948, continued to be used for both schools until the high school gained its own new lunchroom in 1954.

From 1936 until 1942, Mr. J. E. Aiken served as band leader. When he served in World War II, his wife took over for him. The key to the success of the band was in the material cooperation given by the patrons and parents. The patrons aided through the Robersonville Chamber of Commerce. It needed the band's participation in town festivals and parades in the surrounding area in support of the local tobacco market. After the gym, physical education room, and band room were built, the band was organized in December 1952 with Mr. E. C. Black as director. Mr. Joseph Secrest later replaced Mr. Black as band director.

After the construction in 1939 of a vocational agriculture building, the third vocational course was added to the curriculum. Also in 1939, the twelfth grade was added.

A community building, also called the teacherage, was constructed across from the grammar school in 1942 at a cost of $14,000. Before that time, teachers had boarded and roomed in private homes, the Wilson Hotel, and in the Paul D. Roberson apartment house.

In 1947, a gymnasium was built. In 1949, an outdoor athletic field was developed near the old Perdue plant, which benefited both the high school and the town of Robersonville. In 1952, an all-purpose home making department was built along with a foyer for the RHS gymnasium. This allowed the library to expand in the main building of the high school. Special Education was also added that year.

When the Parmele colored high school burned down in 1953, Martin County spent $210,000 to build East End High School on land adjoining the existing elementary school for blacks. Mr. Slade was principal with N. B. Jones as assistant principal.

The hazardous and dangerous situation then still existing at each end of Outterbridge Grammar School was corrected in 1954. In her book, Thelma Smith does not detail what that problem was. Need for two additional classrooms in this school was cited in 1954. The Johnson heirs property adjoining the school was purchased for $6,000 in 1959 and old home on that lot was razed for playground space. The playground survives today although the school burned in 1974.

In 1954 at the high school, heat was piped to the agriculture building from the gymnasium. An intercommunication system for the RHS was installed in January 1954.

After Thelma Smith published her history of Robersonville schools in 1959, Outterbridge Grammar School, located on Academy Street in the block between N. Outerbridge Street and Roberson Street, was renamed Robersonville Elementary School.

In 1970–71, the East End School was integrated with Robersonville High School. East End School, consisting of grades 4–8, became East End Middle School with N.W. Slade, principal, and Norman Moore, assistant principal. In 1971–72, Charles Coward was principal and B.S. Courtney was assistant principal.

When Robersonville Elementary School burned down in 1974, two new hallways with 10 classrooms and a library were added to East End to house grades K-3. After the burned school was demolished, the town built a little league baseball park, tennis court, and playground on the property between N. Outerbridge Street and Roberson Street. When Roanoke High School opened in 1975, Robersonville High School became the Junior High for grades 6–8. Later the school was known as Robersonville Middle School until it closed in December 2000. Roanoke Middle School opened in January 2001. The old RHS gymnasium is now being used for flea market type activities.

The black community has preserved the old East End School as a historical landmark and now calls it the W.C. Chance Alumni Cultural Center. The national W. C. Chance-East End Alumni Association was formed in 1985. The organization also has an after-school program, summer camp, and scholarship fund. The outreach program has placed the W. C. Chance-East End Alumni / Cultural Center as the cornerstone of the New Town Community and is committed to developing educational programs. It also hosts several events throughout the year, such as a Kwanzaa celebration, community meetings, art exhibits, church events, wedding receptions and family reunions.

Churches

 * Robersonville First Baptist Church – Railroad & Outerbridge Streets
 * First Christian Church (Robersonville, North Carolina) - N. Main Street
 * Lloyd's Chapel Church Of God In Christ – Lee House Road
 * Grace Family Fellowship – S. Main Street
 * Providence Missionary Baptist Church – Purvis & Mae Streets
 * Roberson Missionary Baptist Church – Third & Cochran Streets
 * Robersonville United Methodist Church – W. Second Street
 * Robersonville Primitive Baptist Church (now St. James Place Museum) – N. Outerbridge Street

Notable people

 * William Drew Robeson, minister of Witherspoon Street Presbyterian Church in Princeton, New Jersey and father of Paul Robeson; enslaved on the Roberson plantation until escaping north via the Underground Railroad in 1860
 * Marcus Crandell, quarterback for East Carolina and several teams in the Canadian Football League, NFL Europe, and the XFL; MVP of the 89th Grey Cup

title: Robersonville, North Carolina


text:
Williamston, North Carolina

Williamston is a town and the county seat of Martin County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 5,248 at the 2020 census. It is located in North Carolina's Inner Banks region. The closest major city is Greenville, approximately 28 mi to the southwest.

History
Williamston was founded in 1779, and named after William Williams, a local military commander during the American Revolution.

Williamston was the focus of activity in the Civil Rights Movement. Beginning in June 1963, civil rights activists protested at City Hall for 29 consecutive days led by Golden Frinks. The Ku Klux Klan was very active in this part of the state during this time, including a well-documented rally in Williamston on October 5, 1963, attended by mostly local residents but with several carloads of attendees traveling over 150 miles to attend.

On August 3, 2023, Martin General Hospital in Williamston announced that it would suspend operations due to Quorum Health, which operated the hospital, filing for bankruptcy. The hospital said that it faced challenges due to a declining population and residents opting to go to other hospitals. The next day, former hospital employees organized a protest after its closure. They said the goal was to get the attention of an elected official in hopes they would rethink the decision of the hospital being shut down. On August 14–15, Governor Roy Cooper visited Williamston to hold roundtable discussions about the lack of access of medical care in rural areas. He used the recent closure of the hospital as an example of why he supported expanding Medicaid across rural areas of North Carolina. On October 5, four clinics in Williamston also closed, further adding to the current healthcare crisis in the town.

Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 3.7 sqmi, all land. Williamston is on the Roanoke River.

Major highways include US 13, US 17 and US 64.

2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 5,248 people, 2,274 households, and 1,388 families residing in the town.

2000 census
As of the census of 2000, there were 5,844 people, 2,350 households, and 1,536 families residing in the town. The population density was 1,581.3 /mi2. There were 2,506 housing units at an average density of 678.2 /mi2. The racial makeup of the town was 57.50% African American, 40.41% White, 0.29% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.09% Pacific Islander, 0.50% from other races, and 0.75% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.49% of the population.

There were 2,350 households, out of which 31.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.4% were married couples living together, 26.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.6% were non-families. 31.9% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.38 and the average family size was 3.00.

In the town, the population was spread out, with 26.8% under the age of 18, 7.7% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 21.7% from 45 to 64, and 20.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 39 years. For every 100 females, there were 72.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 65.7 males.

The median income for a household in the town was $22,925, and the median income for a family was $32,984. Males had a median income of $28,661 versus $20,337 for females. The per capita income for the town was $14,125. 29.0% of the population and 22.8% of families were below the poverty line. 40.5% of those under the age of 18 and 28.6% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.

Arts and culture
Williamston has long been a town centered around equine activity. Its logo showcases a horse and the town houses one of the largest agricultural centers in Eastern North Carolina - The Senator Bob Martin Agricultural Center. Many events including horse shoes, rodeos, tractor pulls, and monster truck shows take place in the Agricultural Center. Williamston also draws thousands of people to its annual "Carolina Country Stampede" each year in September which is a two-day festival showcasing local food, vendors, business owners and bands typically with a well known headlining band to end the Festival such as Emerson Drive in 2017.

Education
Williamston is one of the communities that is covered by Martin County Schools, a public school district that covers the entire county. The schools in the Williamston area include: Williamston is also home to Martin Community College, a public community college which is unique among other community colleges for having its own equine health program.
 * Williamston Primary School, a school serving grades PK-2.
 * E.J Hayes Elementary School, a school serving grades 3-5.
 * Riverside Middle School, a school serving grades 6-8.
 * Riverside High School, a school serving grades 9-12.

Emergency services
The Williamston Fire Rescue EMS responds to approximately 2,500 fire, rescue, EMS or hazardous materials calls per year, and covers a 122 sqmi area. It has 19 full-time members, and approximately 37 volunteers.

Notable people

 * Asa Biggs, U.S. congressman from North Carolina and United States federal judge
 * Tillie Ehringhaus, First Lady of North Carolina
 * William E. Ingram, Jr., former director of the Army National Guard
 * Gaylord Perry, Major League Baseball pitcher and member of the Baseball Hall of Fame
 * Jim Perry, Major League Baseball pitcher
 * Sarah J. C. Whittlesey (1824–1896), author, poet, hymn writer

title: Williamston, North Carolina