Abstract:
In 1995 the NC General Assembly passed a bill designating the sweet potato as the state vegetable. It was done not because the legislators admired its versatility or its tastiness, but because of the persistence of a Wilson fourth grade teacher and her students. Shaffer recounts how Celia Batchelor and her fourth grade class at Wilson's Elvie Street School began a campaign in 1993 to make the sweet potato the state vegetable. It was not without opposition from newspapers and the Legislature, but persistence won out.